Chapter 325

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

Chapter 325: Special Planet (7)

While Tomiko in Japan discovered a bare-bodied Sword Emperor, Yeongwoo's preparations for war were progressing smoothly.

They’d already started test-firing the anti-aircraft cannons.

“Fire!”

At Yeongwoo’s command, a scarlet shell fired from the anti-aircraft guns installed in each of the eight districts of Metal Seoul.

Bang! Bang!

Jiseon, watching alongside, muttered as she stroked her chin.

—How powerful is that?

“Well, you could try getting hit if you really want to know.”

Yeongwoo thought there must be a reason the anti-aircraft cannons fired shells rather than lasers, unlike other large weapons they’d seen before.

‘Are shells simply more powerful?’

The tooltip for the anti-aircraft cannon didn’t specify what kind of opponent it could bring down.

[Anti-Aircraft Cannon]

| The sky must remain clear.

| Eight anti-aircraft cannons are installed in key areas of the city to eliminate unnecessary flying objects.

In other words, they wouldn’t know the cannon’s exact power until it was actually used in combat.

“Since we’re talking about it, do you actually want to try getting hit? I’m curious.”

—You little brat, you really lost it, huh? Wanna go another round?

Whoosh!

As Song Jiseon summoned a massive sword in her grasp again, Yeongwoo waved his hands and took a step back as if joking.

Even he knew that his current strength wouldn’t easily overpower his mother.

“Well, anyway… the four gates have anti-aircraft abilities too, so in emergencies, that’s a total of twelve cannons.”

It wasn’t enough to cover the entire sky above Seoul, but it was still more than capable of battering down a giant battleship.

“And there’s Mother as well.”

The official guardian dragon of Metal Seoul, Song Jiseon.

Thinking about it, Seoul’s defense capabilities were quite impressive.

There were eight cannons on standby, twelve in emergencies, plus four annihilation robots that could be activated, not to mention a monstrous guardian dragon who could even pressure Yeongwoo, the master of this world.

Plus, there was the self-destruct bomb that could blow up both the city and the invaders.

‘Now we just need the enemy to show up.’

As Yeongwoo checked his watch anxiously, Jiseon asked,

—So, what’s next on the agenda?

For the first time, Yeongwoo admitted there wasn’t a next step.

“Nothing.”

—What?

“I don’t have anything else to do right now.”

—Really?

Yeongwoo’s face dropped.

He was so used to spending every day at full speed that he couldn’t handle even a little downtime.

—Having nothing to do should be a good thing, shouldn’t it? Why the long face?

“I’m alive right now because I’ve never had nothing to do. Getting too idle isn’t really a good thing.”

The current time was 4:34 PM.

There were about two and a half hours until the address would be revealed.

—How long until the next task?

“About two hours.”

—You’re nuts. That’s what you call free time?

Jiseon finally realized her son’s sanity might not be intact.

How had he been living here if even a two-hour gap felt too long?

—What comes after the war?

“I have to pay taxes at 10 PM.”

—And after that?

“From 11 PM, it’s the real ‘night.’”

—Real night?

“Oh, that’s right. You just got here today.”

Yeongwoo put his hand on his forehead.

He’d momentarily forgotten that his mother was a newcomer in this world.

“After 11 PM, extreme weather starts. Generally, it’s not safe to roam outside.”

Yeongwoo briefly explained the extreme weather conditions, climate-resistant equipment, and dungeons, and Jiseon tilted her head.

—So, you’re saying you wander around outside even at night? Without sleeping?

“Yeah… oh?”

As he nodded to his mother’s words, Yeongwoo suddenly shuddered.

“Right? I do wander around at night.”

—What are you rambling about all of a sudden?

“War. I can fight at night too. And my allies can withstand extreme weather to some extent.”

—…?

Still not understanding the world fully, Jiseon couldn’t quite grasp her son’s excitement.

—So, what does that mean?

“It means we can carry out night air raids. Of course, I’d have to finish the dungeon quickly and return.”

Yeongwoo’s face lit up with excitement.

He stashed away a knife he’d taken out at some point and said,

“I think I know what to do with the remaining time. Before the war starts, I should get some sleep.”

* * *

Yeongwoo07, the Mayor of Metal Seoul, devoted to public service to the point of sacrificing sleep.

When he entered a private suite at the Parnas Hotel with his parents, Seok, sitting with the children in the living room, was taken aback.

“Whoa! Y-Yeongwoo?”

Of course, it wasn’t Yeongwoo that startled her, but the towering white-haired giant with a full set of armor who followed him in.

“A m-monster… behind you…!”

“Oh, the two of you haven’t met, right? This is my mother.”

“……!”

“And this is Kim Seok, the director of the Moi Cultural Foundation.”

When Yeongwoo forced the two to introduce themselves, Jiseon extended her hand to Seok with a smile.

—I’m Song Jiseon of Jinhyeon. Nice to meet you.

“Jinhyeon… Song Jiseon?”

Seok repeated the name to herself in disbelief, then her eyes widened as she realized who Jiseon was.

“Are you really Song Jiseon?”

—Yes, haha.

Jiseon’s voice held genuine laughter; it was her first time meeting someone who truly recognized her.

—So, what brings the director here…?

Now, it was Jiseon’s turn to ask about the other’s situation.

In response, Seok pointed to Yeongwoo with a forced smile.

“Your son’s holding my husband hostage, so I don’t really have a choice…”

—What?

Jiseon, who had been smiling pleasantly from behind her helmet, instantly froze and glared at Yeongwoo.

—What crazy things have you been up to?

“Well, she didn’t exactly lie, but it’s not entirely the truth either…”

Yeongwoo thought about blowing a whistle to demonstrate, but decided against it.

He still needed to use his "friends" in the upcoming war.

“I’ll show you directly later. It’s a bit of a complicated situation.”

Though he had explained a lot to his mother over time, he didn’t feel confident explaining about the friends locked up and laboring in the returnees' room.

—All you’ve done so far is kidnap, assault, and extort people. What have you even been doing?

“Oh, come on, stop nagging.”

Yeongwoo moved into the bedroom to escape from his mother.

He was about to turn on the television, but realized it wasn’t the right time for room service and lay down on the bed instead.

“At least the bedding hasn’t turned into stone.”

It might not be a safe zone, but he doubted his mother would try to cut his throat with a greatsword while he was asleep.

That made this place the safest spot in Seoul, didn’t it?

“Please wake me up around 6:30. I still need to be up by 6 at the latest.”

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

Lying in bed, Yeongwoo said this, and Jiseon, standing by the bedroom door, looked at her son.

—And what am I supposed to do until then?

"......"

But her son didn’t answer. Soon, a red eye icon appeared over his left eyelid.

Yeongwoo’s mutated cornea, the "One-Eyed Sentinel," had activated.

—This kid sleeps with one eye open, even when he’s resting.

Jiseon muttered, feeling pity for her son.

How rough must his life have been if he couldn’t let his guard down, even in sleep?

He would have had to exceed his natural limits to survive as a rootless outcast and push aside the top players.

—What is this all about? I come home, and there’s a war with aliens waiting.

Click.

Jiseon, feeling mentally exhausted, slumped down, blocking the doorway like a barrier.

Then Jeonggu, who was glancing over from the living room, cautiously spoke.

"Uh… you should get some rest."

—...What?

Unconsciously, Jiseon raised her head.

There stood her fiancé, with a sword at his waist.

—Rest? With a war coming up, someone has to stay awake.

“I can stay awake. I was the one who watched over Yeongwoo before, wasn’t I?”

Jiseon snorted instantly.

—You? Don’t be ridiculous. You’d probably be blown out of the galaxy by a mere breath.

“I… I’m a Strongest Sword too, you know.”

Jeonggu, looking somewhat aggrieved, had a title above his head that indeed read "Strongest Sword."

『Strongest Sword of Dobong』

But it wasn’t impressive enough to leave an impact on Jiseon.

Yeongwoo was already the elected Strongest Sword of the Korean Peninsula, and Jiseon herself had returned as a dragon, thanks to her record as a conglomerate head.

She wasn’t sure what combination of traits had produced a son like this, but it was clear Jeonggu was the one with the lowest standing among the three.

—Spare me and go to sleep. There isn’t much time left anyway.

Jiseon, who usually gave in to the weaker party.

Just then, her son’s crazy voice rang out from behind.

"Mother, would you please be quiet and go to sleep as well?"

—...?

When Jiseon turned around, she found Yeongwoo sitting up.

She thought he’d been in a deep sleep, but he had woken up again.

—Why can’t you just stay down for once?

“It’s too noisy.”

—What?

But the "noise" Yeongwoo mentioned wasn’t just his parents' conversation.

The real reason he had woken up was due to a system message.

「The addresses of competing companies will soon be disclosed!」

「Register a representative profile, and choose the first company to invite to the negotiation table.」

Since it was nearly time for address disclosure, prompts kept appearing, asking him to register something.

‘What do they keep wanting me to do? Register a representative profile?’

As Yeongwoo struggled to open both eyes fully, he saw a fist-sized round hologram floating in front of him.

Soon, another system message popped up over it.

「Authorize data access. Keywords representing your profile will be automatically input for the competitor.」

‘Authorization?’

When Yeongwoo approved the data access, a long horizontal line stretched from left to right.

It was a loading indicator.

「Extracting keywords from user Jeong Yeongwoo07’s data.」

Two large rectangles then appeared below.

Pop!

「While the extraction is ongoing, review the profile of the competing representative.」

‘So now I can see the competitor’s profile?’

Blinking, Yeongwoo waited for the next steps, and soon, a string of text began to fill the large rectangle.

『Mara』

| Representative Type: Human

| Mara’s representative is of the [Predator] type, highly [rational], with a strong [armed] presence and a [challenging] demeanor, making them an extremely [dangerous] competitor.

‘Ah, so this is what they mean by keywords.’

Yeongwoo nodded.

It was a method where a few attributes were extracted from each representative’s data, creating an introductory profile based on that.

‘So next is the Lemu profile?’

When Yeongwoo’s gaze moved to the final profile, he saw a rather odd phrase.

『Lemu』

| Representative Type: Human

| Lemu’s representative is a [blindly devoted] follower. Driven by immense [greed] and a clear [sense of purpose], with a strong [sacrificial spirit], they await their competitor [in the nude].

With clear purpose and strong sacrificial spirit, they await their competitor in the nude…

Yeongwoo was left with only one comment.

“What the hell… what exactly is waiting for me?”

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]