Chapter 323
Chapter 323
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 323
Chapter Title: 72. Special Grade Planet (5)
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“What the hell is this?”
Self-Destruct Bomb.
This absurdly named structure was literally something that blew up the entire city.
And if the city’s rank reached planetary capital level, it could even self-destruct the planet...
‘Aliens only have one life too, don’t they? How is something like this built into the city system?’
Young-woo, who had been wearing an incredulous expression, soon calmed his face and scratched his chin.
‘No. It’s precisely because aliens only have one life that this function is effective.’
If you used this tooltip exactly as described—only in the final moments—you’d be clueless about the universe, Young-woo thought.
You had to be able to read between the lines, after all.
|Plants a bomb in the designated area, triggering a powerful explosion at the desired moment. Though you’ll lose the city, you can take the lives of the enemies invading it.
‘At the desired moment, a powerful explosion... And though it requires sacrificing the city, it can also take the enemy’s lives.’
In other words, at the very least, the city’s owner would gain a self-destruct switch, and the explosion triggered by pressing it would be tremendously powerful.
‘No, no matter how I think about it, this is clearly for offense?’
So why was it given alongside acquiring ‘defense rights’?
Now, if you had the courage to face death, you had a way to threaten anyone who came knocking.
Even if they were...
‘Guests coming from across the entire universe.’
At the thought he’d let slip unconsciously, Young-woo felt a chill run down his spine.
From Chairman Dogo to the King of Ten Thousand Demons Mara, and even the bribe-gobbling examiners—he might be able to take them all hostage and score a massive win.
‘Of course, for that to work, I’d need to build the image that I’d actually press the self-destruct button...’
Would it even work?
“......”
Young-woo pondered for a moment before realizing it was still too early.
Anyone else maybe, but he couldn’t fool even the chairman.
However.
‘Once our Metal Seoul becomes a planetary capital, things might change a bit.’
Planetary self-destruct.
What if it wasn’t some Earthling hovering a finger over the self-destruct button making threats, but an entire planet announcing its impending self-destruction as it charged from outer space?
‘...That’d be game over. If it were me, I’d pay up just to calm things down.’
As Young-woo gazed at the sky, imagining a blazing red Earth, Ji-seon—who had been staring at him—prodded him lightly with her greatsword.
Stab.
―What crazy idea are you scheming now?
“I was pondering our future.”
―Our future? What about it?
“It’s going to be explosive.”
Young-woo beamed at his mother.
His mother, merely a dragon, still couldn’t grasp such grand plans.
So instead of spilling his own scheme, Young-woo tackled the task at hand first.
◇ Enhanced functions are in deactivated state. Please complete Guardian Dragon and Extermination Mode settings.
It was because the system alerts had been flashing nonstop.
[Guardian Dragon]
|Designates a Guardian Dragon to protect the city, granting the ability to emergency-return to the city at any time.
|The Guardian Dragon receives combat power corrections based on city level, and if the being already possesses #Dragon Clan attributes, the correction effect increases by 25%.
‘This is insane. You can even designate non-dragons as Guardian Dragons.’
But to get that 25% extra correction effect, you had to choose a dragon clan member, so cities with the Guardian Dragon function absolutely needed to secure a dragon.
In short, dragon clan members were far rarer than expected.
And conveniently, Young-woo had a very powerful dragon right there.
“Mother.”
―What now?
“An opportunity has arisen to elevate your cosmic status.”
―What? Suddenly?
“Yes. Please become the Guardian Dragon of Dogo Special City Metal Seoul.”
―What city?
The moment Ji-seon tried to question the strange phrasing, her eyes spun as her deranged son suddenly thrust out his arm.
Whoosh!
―What the—?
Sensing something ominous in an instant, Ji-seon hastily tried to pull back, but her son’s demonic hand had already touched her forearm.
―Huh!
A bizarre glow emanated from the palm of her son’s hand, which gripped her forearm tightly.
Then, phrases from the city system began appearing in her vision too.
「Ice Dragon Song Ji-seon has become the Guardian Dragon of Dogo Special City Metal Seoul.」
Immediately after, alerts tinged with yellow vitality surged across her entire body one after another.
[Combat power correction effect based on city level has been applied.]
[Dragon Clan attribute stacking increases correction effect by 25%.]
[All stats increased by 20% due to Steel Core’s ‘Guardian Dragon’ function.]
―Wh-what the hell is all this? What’s happening to me right now...
Before Ji-seon could finish saying her body felt strange, azure flames erupted across her entire form.
―Raaargh!
It was because the enhanced combat power correction had transformed Ji-seon into a far more powerful being than before.
An uncontrollable surge of energy and aggression boiled in her veins, overflowing outward, and this momentum soon directed itself at Young-woo—her biggest grievance.
―Fuck, why do I suddenly want to beat the shit out of you so bad?
Song Ji-seon, who somehow seemed even bulkier than before, glared down at her son as she spoke, and Young-woo instinctively sensed his mother had changed drastically, carefully drawing Saseong-a.
Shing.
“Please calm down, Mother. Your testosterone levels seem way too high right now. Looks like the Guardian Dragon doping effect.”
―What the hell did you do to me?
“I helped you become greater than before. Now you finally feel like my mother.”
Before, he’d been confident he could suppress her anytime, but not anymore.
He wouldn’t know her true power until they properly crossed swords again.
‘This is bad. As the city grows, Mother turns into an even stronger monster.’
Of course, having such a monster as Seoul’s Guardian Dragon was reassuring, but it also meant his control over her would weaken accordingly.
“There’s one thing you need to know first. You’re Seoul’s Guardian Dragon, and I’m Seoul’s mayor.”
―So?
“That means there’s no need for us to fight anymore. And technically, this counts as a coup too.”
As he said this, Young-woo hurriedly rolled his eyes to install the ‘Self-Destruct Bomb.’
He planned to plant it right under their feet for now and threaten his mother first.
However.
「Self-Destruct Bomb construction impossible. Extermination Mode must be set first.」
“What?”
The prerequisite for Self-Destruct Bomb construction was Extermination Mode, and the enhanced mother saw the alert too.
―You little shit.
His mother dropped a loaded line.
Young-woo reflexively thrust out Saseong-a to raise his guard.
Whoosh!
Then, his mother’s ice greatsword swung like a flash of light, striking Saseong-a, and a stabbing pain shot through Young-woo’s grip.
“...Ah!”
Her strength was so overwhelming that Young-woo’s hand lost its hold on Saseong-a.
And then came the unbelievable message.
「Sense stat temporarily increased from existing 33,500 to 95,840.」
“What?”
This meant his mother’s base sense stat exceeded 120,000.
“Mom...!”
Realizing he was finally in a position to get beaten by his mother, Young-woo desperately dodged.
Without even time to grab Saseong-a, he hurled himself backward.
Just then, an azure trajectory slashed through where he’d been standing a moment ago.
“Qu-quick, Extermination Mode!”
As Young-woo cried out in panic, the construction interface appeared immediately.
[Extermination Mode]
|When the city is in peril, activates emergency facilities to resolve the issue.
|Can only be activated once per day.
◇ 2 suitable sites discovered for constructing emergency facilities for Extermination Mode.
[Four Great Gates]
|Number of Annihilators increased to ‘4’. Improved biological suppression performance.
<Namsan>
|Number of Annihilators decreased to ‘1’. Improved ship interception performance.
“Fuck! Choices again!”
Even as the azure greatsword swung right in his face, this was too important to pick randomly.
So Young-woo...
“Mom!”
Decided to use the pinnacle of swordsmanship: the Mind Sword.
“Mom, help me...!”
If he couldn’t win physically, he’d have to try psychologically.
“Mooom! Mooother!”
Young-woo wailed “Mom” without even holding his sword, but the furious Song Ji-seon charged without slowing a bit.
Kwaaa!
So in the end, Young-woo...
“We can turn the Four Great Gates into robots now!”
He threw out a line that would’ve stopped even himself mid-fight.
If his temperament truly came from his mother, then the types of bait that hooked them should match too, he figured.
And this judgment...
Kwang!
―What did you say?
Was spot on.
The Ice Dragon Song Ji-seon, who had been charging while scattering frost, halted in place like she’d slammed on the brakes.
―What about the Four Great Gates?
“We can turn either the Four Great Gates or Namsan into robots, apparently. Calm down and take a look.”
At Young-woo’s words, Ji-seon finally snapped to her senses and read the messages that had been cluttering her vision.
―What the fuck is this bullshit...
“Seems like we can only pick one. What do you think?”
As he said this, Young-woo sidelong-glanced at Saseong-a, lying far away.
His plan: remotely retrieve Saseong-a first, then chop off an arm to stack bleeding and limb-loss effects, maybe making it a fair strength fight.
Meanwhile, Ji-seon was already hooked on the unexpected Seoul robot issue.
―This even a question? The Four Great Gates rising up would be way cooler.
“But Namsan seems like it’d be bigger. Plus, it improves ship interception more.”
―It says ‘improved’. The Four Great Gates can intercept ships too—just not as good as Namsan’s version.
“Hmm.”
True, even back with Metal Fortress, those four corner towers had risen together and fired laser beams.
And now Metal Seoul’s level had skyrocketed.
So the Four Great Gates’ power would be immense—unknowable until seen firsthand.
‘Then Namsan’s even stronger than that... Too bad we can’t have both.’
Decision time.
While his mother was calm, he needed to set Extermination Mode quick for insurance.
“Anyway, we got anti-air guns when we hit level 3 city... Better to prioritize smashing bioforms that’ve already landed on the planet over ship interception.”
And this ‘bioform’ would include his mother too.
Eyeing her carefully, Young-woo swiftly designated the Four Great Gates as the emergency facility.
―Dogo Special Mayor Jeong Young-woo07 has designated key point ‘Four Great Gates’ as [Extermination Mode] emergency facility.
“Seoul’s finally turning into a proper city, huh.”
Now all that was left was planting the Self-Destruct Bomb under his parents’ wedding hall and waiting for the three factions’ base locations to be revealed soon.
‘Seoul’s plenty safe now, so bring on the war.’
As Young-woo’s eyes gleamed and he retrieved Saseong-a, a clock inside his Besedel armor pocket flashed right on cue.
Flash!
Finally, exactly on time—4:00 PM.
Then, a system announcement output across the entire planet.
「In 3 hours, the base locations of companies participating in the planetary development rights competition will be revealed.」
「Non-peaceful negotiations are anticipated, so planetary residents are advised to evacuate to safe areas.」