Chapter 324
Chapter 324
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 324
Chapter Title: 72. Special Grade Planet (6)
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“What’s this, you’re dead set on fighting the other companies no matter what?”
Seeing the warning message, Ji-seon asked this, and Young-woo scratched his chin.
“If it can be resolved through talk, I’ve got no reason to refuse. It’d be easier on the body and mind.”
But the opponents were none other than Mara and Remu.
Mara had a massive grudge against his brothers, and Remu had bad blood with Dogo, their sponsor.
“For now, war with Mara seems unavoidable.”
—Why?
“Because he has to avenge his brothers. Think of it as fulfilling a contract.”
—Then there’s no helping it.
At the mention of fulfilling a contract, Ji-seon asked no more and nodded in agreement.
No matter how reckless or impossible it seemed, if it was something he’d agreed to at the time of the contract, it had to be upheld without fail.
That was businesswoman Song Ji-seon’s ironclad rule.
—Your brothers... that’s the guy over there, right?
Song Ji-seon subtly lifted her greatsword, pointing at Bang Dae-hyeop in front of the Victory Memorial.
Young-woo nodded.
“Yeah. They’re the brothers I’ll be sticking with from here on out. Even that leg of mine—they built it for me...”
—You used the promise of definite revenge to work him that hard?
“Yeah.”
—...This bastard’s racked up some insane karma. You shouldn’t do business with ‘hatred’ as the ingredient. Revenge is the same.
“Why? Revenge is ultimately about using your strength for the victims, isn’t it?”
—But the process and outcome are both steeped in hatred, aren’t they? Hatred is an unpredictable emotion. Just a slight nudge, and its form, nature, even direction can all change completely.
Song Ji-seon wasn’t talking about how revenge breeds more revenge.
What she meant was business stability.
—Who do you think can take responsibility for an emotion like hatred? Happy expectations might turn to disappointment when dashed, but when hatred meets frustration, it only births even greater hatred.
“If the revenge fails, you’re saying I’ll end up bearing my brothers’ hatred?”
—It could be worse than that. Depending on the case, you might even earn their hatred after succeeding.
With that, Ji-seon made her ice greatsword vanish.
Shwaa!
—The key point is, don’t do business with hatred. You won’t last long that way.
Ji-seon advised in a gravely serious tone, but Young-woo, whose expression had turned sly in the meantime, tilted his head.
“And yet just now, Mom was going all out trying to kill me. You seemed like the incarnation of hatred itself.”
—You son of a bitch, that’s why I’m trying to calm down right now!
“That’s exactly why—I’m asking you to match your words with your actions.”
Young-woo wore a sneer-filled face, but in truth, he engraved his mother’s words into his mind.
Because they made perfect sense.
‘So violent business is okay, huh? This one uses trust and fear as ingredients, not hatred.’
With his thoughts reaching that point, Young-woo naturally shifted his gaze eastward.
“Time to move spots now.”
—Where to?
“Mom’s wedding hall.”
* * *
4:14 PM.
Upon arriving in Gwangjin-gu, Metal Seoul’s dedicated dueling ground, Young-woo immediately began installing the ‘Self-Destruct Bomb.’
[Self-Destruct Bomb]
|Cities that have proven their worth qualify to choose a grand finale.
|Plants a bomb in the designated area, triggering a massive explosion at the desired moment. Though the city will be lost, it can take the lives of the invaders as well.
*When the city’s status reaches ‘Planetary Capital,’ planetary self-destruction becomes possible.
A massive, violent seed that would one day grow into a planetary self-destruct device.
And the installation range for this self-destruct bomb covered an entire district.
In other words.
“Uh, no way—is this the size of the self-destruct bomb?”
Young-woo, who had entered construction mode, muttered while staring at the red hologram enveloping all of Gwangjin-gu. Ji-seon asked,
—How big is it?
“The whole Gwangjin-gu. If this thing goes off, there won’t even be time to run.”
—I can just fly away.
“Won’t be that easy.”
Young-woo gazed anew at the areas beyond Gwangjin-gu.
Burying a giant bomb underground in Gwangjin-gu made him feel unexpectedly sorry for the main residents... no, the voters.
“But someday, this will become our most powerful weapon.”
Considering possible recordings, Young-woo voiced the line in his head. Song Ji-seon took a step back.
—Wait, are you seeing some kind of welcome ceremony or something?
And right then.
Fwaaash!
The ground across all of Gwangjin-gu was enveloped in crimson light as the self-destruct bomb was installed.
「A self-destruct bomb has been installed in Gwangjin-gu, Metal Seoul, Dogo Special City.」
「This fact has been relayed only to the mayor.」
“These guys are sneakier than I thought.”
Young-woo narrowed his eyes at the mayor-exclusive notification. Ji-seon strode forward.
—What? Did they only tell you? You just installed a bomb, right?
“Now Mom knows too.”
Then Young-woo pointed to his father, standing quietly in the corner.
“Dad knows as well. Our first family secret.”
The Young-woo family’s explosive secret.
Ye-chan wasn’t there, busy distributing wedding invitations across Earth, and Bang Dae-hyeop, having finished his work, had returned to Australia before the bomb installation.
“But everyone knows the self-destruct bomb exists. They just don’t know where it’s installed or if it really was.”
—Feels kinda iffy, doesn’t it.
Even the bold Song Ji-seon shook her head at that moment.
Even she wouldn’t have the guts to plant a bomb under the city she ran.
“Just one more, and war prep is complete.”
Young-woo then tapped the ground of Gwangjin-gu with the back of his hand and said this.
—One more? What’s that?
“Anti-air cannon installation. Gotta shred anything dumb enough to fly over Seoul’s skies.”
* * *
At the same time, northern Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, Japan.
Tap.
A woman appeared here, wielding only three katanas and no shield. Countless sword masters heading north turned their heads.
Then, they all widened their eyes.
“Huh? That one?”
“No way, is that her?”
“Whoa...”
Because above her head floated:
『Miyagi Sword Emperor』
The title ‘Sword Emperor.’
Moreover, this visitor wasn’t just any Sword Emperor—she was the Miyagi Sword Emperor, Huyama Tomiko01.
Everyone in eastern and western Japan knew she’d visited a house in Yamagata only to be ambushed by six sword masters.
In the end, only Miyagi Sword Emperor Tomiko walked out alive, leading to Yamagata Prefecture disintegrating after losing all its sword masters.
Thanks to that, the incident became hugely infamous, and even now, days later, masters from southern Japan recognized the Miyagi Sword Emperor as a problem child.
More precisely, as a pro-Korea Sword Emperor with overwhelming power.
“Did that woman really trash Yamagata all by herself?”
“They say she’s worth at least six sword masters.”
“Makes sense? Even if strong, six of them...”
“And it was indoors, too.”
The sword masters gossiped among themselves while keeping a safe distance from Tomiko.
Finally, the infamous label stuck to her was mentioned.
“But so what? She’s still pro-Korea.”
“That’s not just ‘pro-Korea’ level. She killed six just because she didn’t want to cross the sea.”
“It wasn’t just six. She basically torched all of Yamagata.”
Miyagi Sword Emperor Tomiko01, staunch pro-Korea faction.
That was Tomiko’s current standing in Japan.
A crazy woman who, for whatever reason, slaughtered every sword master in Yamagata because she didn’t want to invade Korea.
In truth, in post-Reset Japan, now even more brutal, this was an utterly unforgivable incident.
So challengers had come to Miyagi Prefecture to hold her accountable for Yamagata, but not one had returned alive.
And around the same time, the southern Sword Emperor and sword masters who’d aggressively gathered forces to cross into Korean territory had vanished without a trace.
As the situation unfolded this way, a massive atmosphere of fear began spreading across Japan.
They’d preemptively attacked an enemy they already disliked before the Reset, only to suffer an inexplicable crushing defeat.
So what would happen next?
Obviously, bloody revenge.
Korea invading Japan.
And now the lands were connected, weren’t they?
《Korea will soon eye Japanese soil!》
This claim was a fear any Japanese person harbored deep in their hearts, without anyone fanning the flames.
Then that morning, people sent from Tokyo arrived one by one in Japan’s major cities.
Tokyo’s errand runners, clearly riding something not of Earth, handed short notes to each region’s leaders and left.
「Come to Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building immediately. Preparations are complete—we will make Japan great again.」
It sounded grandiose now, but the signature at the bottom made every sword master and Sword Emperor move willingly.
—Tokyo Sword Emperor.
The sender was none other than the Tokyo Sword Emperor.
Japan’s pre-Reset capital, and perhaps still its symbolic capital.
Thanks to that, not only the masters preparing a second invasion in the southwest, but even Tomiko, who hadn’t stepped foot out of Miyagi for a while, headed to Tokyo.
‘Make Japan great again? Guess he saw it somewhere.’
Having already had a similar experience in Yamagata, Tomiko snorted and proceeded toward southern Shinjuku.
That was where the promised meeting place, Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, stood.
Shinjuku’s landmark: two 48-story buildings.
The structures were so tall that soon, the fork-shaped government building entered everyone’s view.
Whoooosh...!
But its appearance was a bit...
“...Huh?”
Tomiko reflexively stopped in her tracks.
Atop the 243-meter-high government building floated a massive white cube.
‘Wait, how big is that thing?’
From this distance, matching the building’s width at that height—what kind of colossal object was it?
The moment Tomiko’s thoughts reached there, a massive cheer erupted from the government building’s ground level.
No, precisely, it was the chant of some slogan.
“Waaaaah! Remu!”
“Remu!”
“Remu...!”
Then, a deep, resonant voice—presumably the Tokyo Sword Emperor—boomed out through some amplifier.
—We hereby declare that our Great Japan will officially become one of Earth’s three major powers! Remu!
“Yaaaaah!”
“Reeeemu!”
“Remu!”
The overheated atmosphere was palpable even through sound alone.
‘Something’s off. Should I turn back now?’
The sharp-intuited Tomiko subtly backpedaled.
Then the problem voice pinned her feet in place.
—However, there are two major conditions! But for greatness, we must endure any humiliation...!
“...Humiliation?”
Caught off guard by the unexpected word, Tomiko unwittingly turned her head to look at the base of the distant Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building.
There, on the podium, a tall man gripped what looked like a microphone.
‘You’re... the Tokyo Sword Emperor?’
Seeing the Sword Emperor who’d seized the nation’s capital, Tomiko’s pupils dilated to the max.
For some reason, the guy was completely naked.