Chapter 432

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

Chapter 432: Fate (4)

A simulation, assuming Earth had become a planetary ship.

But from Yeongwoo's perspective, Earth was steadily disappearing from sight.

It had started off roughly the size of a person, but had now shrunk to smaller than a grain of rice.

“What the—? You said it was a simulation, right? Why is Earth getting so tiny?”

As Yeongwoo furrowed his brow, trying to find the holographic Earth, ‘Earth’ pointed a finger toward a dark spot in the sky.

『Over there. Can’t you see it?』

“Where exactly…?”

He really couldn’t see it.

Instead, a small yellow dot rotating along the dark outskirts of the sky came into view.

“What’s that?”

『Venus. Looks like it's showing the planets closest to Earth first.』

And then, Venus vanished from his view as well.

“Huh? What now?”

『The screen just zoomed out more. Now Mars and Mercury are appearing.』

“……”

At this point, Yeongwoo was beginning to feel like Earth was just messing with him.

All he could see now was the black sky.

But then—

『Oh.』

Along with Earth’s short exclamation, something appeared on the edge of the sky.

“……!”

A massive, blazing mass of red energy.

The Sun—Moro.

“That—that’s the Sun…?”

『Yeah. That’s the Sun as seen from Earth’s current position in the solar system.』

“Holy shit, the Sun…”

To Yeongwoo’s eyes, the Sun now looked about the size of a tomato.

Meanwhile, Earth, Venus, Mars, and Mercury were nowhere to be seen.

But it didn’t stop there.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, the sky seemed to stretch out endlessly, and the Sun shrank to the size of a tennis ball, moving closer toward the center.

“What the—shrinking again?”

『The whole solar system hasn’t appeared yet.』

That’s when a small, light brown dot began circling the outer edge of the sky.

“…What’s that?”

『Jupiter. Compared to the Sun, it’s the only planet you can see with the naked eye.』

Jupiter.

The fifth planet from the Sun, and the largest of the solar system’s eight planets.

In terms of mass, it’s about one one-thousandth of the Sun’s.

『But even the Sun and Jupiter will shrink further. To fit the entire solar system in one view, the scale needs to be insanely reduced.』

“Wait, you’re telling me it’s going to shrink even more? I can’t even see Earth anymore…”

『That’s how small we are in the solar system… or even in the universe.』

As Earth said this, the sky stretched again, Jupiter vanished, and the Sun shrank to the size of a ping-pong ball.

“What now?”

『Now we’re looking at Saturn’s orbital zone.』

“Don’t give me that. All I see is the Sun.”

Yeongwoo gave a hollow laugh, and Earth let out a quiet sigh.

『That’s the solar system for you.』

“Don’t tell me there’s more.”

Yeongwoo, now starting to grasp the sheer scale of it all, asked with a worried expression.

Almost as if it had been waiting, the Sun shrank again—this time to the size of a thumbnail.

Fwoosh!

『Just now, the orbits of Uranus and Neptune appeared one after the other. I guess even the simulation realized it’s pointless to show the planets one by one now.』

“Really? So, is this finally it?”

『I think there are a few more left, but looks like the simulation’s not showing them.』

Earth’s gaze remained fixed on the pitch-black edge of the sky.

There were, in fact, still a few solar system members unaccounted for.

Like Pluto and the other dwarf planets.

Too far from the Sun, with average temperatures dropping below –200°C, these were the cold sentinels at the edge of the solar system.

“That’s it then. It’s not zooming out anymore.”

Yeongwoo sighed in relief, wiping his face with his hands, and Earth pointed at the Sun.

『This is a simulation centered on Earth, showing the Sun’s orbit. If you can’t see the Sun, it defeats the purpose—so this must be the limit.』

“But the main subject, Earth, disappeared a while ago.”

It made sense.

The Sun’s diameter is about 109 times greater than Earth’s.

Its volume?

1.44 million times.

Its mass?

330,000 times greater.

So, in a simulation scaled to make the Sun that small, Earth couldn’t possibly be visible.

『Exactly. At that scale, Earth’s invisible. So how are we supposed to orbit the Sun?』

“……”

At this point, Yeongwoo had nothing to say in response.

『If Earth is a bean, the Sun is a watermelon. Tie the two together with a string and try orbiting the watermelon—what do you think would happen?』

“…The bean wouldn’t stay in place. It’d get dragged around by the watermelon.”

『Exactly. And right now, we don’t even have the initial force to start that rotation.』

That’s when Yeongwoo voiced a question he’d been keeping to himself.

“Then what’s the point of this simulation? If it’s impossible from the start, why even show it?”

『Well…』

Truthfully, Earth didn’t really know either.

Maybe it was just to visually demonstrate that the idea of turning Earth into a ship was fundamentally impossible?

Beep!

Just then, as if the planetary layout was complete, the Sun shrank even further.

Suddenly, eight planets, five dwarf planets, and a variety of moons—including Earth’s—appeared as colored dots, previously hidden in darkness.

“…What’s this?”

『They’re showing… positions.』

Now even Earth started to feel something was off.

To maintain its current ecosystem, Earth only needed its moon and the Sun.

Yet the simulation had gone out of its way to display not only the planets, but the dwarf planets and other moons as well…

『No way.』

“What is it?”

『If we really become a planetary ship… maybe we’ll be carrying the entire solar system with us.』

Which meant this simulation wasn’t illustrating a structural collapse caused by the gravitational differences between Earth and the Sun—but a successful planetary ship model.

Ping!

A small blue dot—presumably Earth—flashed, and from it, a thin line extended.

Toward the distant Sun.

『Guh…!』

Earth’s jaw dropped, its eyes wide.

Yeongwoo, meanwhile, had no idea why Earth looked so shocked.

“What? What is it?”

『They’re… actually connecting the string.』

The “string” from Earth’s earlier metaphor—between the bean and the watermelon.

“To test if your example works… they would have to connect the string.”

Yeongwoo spoke casually, but to Earth—the very planet in question—it was a completely different story.

『You idiot!』

“What?”

『The fact that they’d simulate something so ridiculous means…』

Possibility.

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

You don’t simulate the impossible.

You simulate something because there’s a chance it might work.

“Then what’s that line? They’re not seriously connecting planets with strings, are they? Is it gravity?”

『I-I don’t know. Maybe it’s just a visual representation of data comparison between the two sides…』

And then, above the small dot representing Earth, a holographic text appeared.

Pop!

「|l||I-Earth」 = 32

“Huh? What’s that?”

Yeongwoo asked, but Earth could only gape silently, mouth and eyes wide open.

But thanks to the equation that appeared next, Yeongwoo quickly understood.

Pop!

「Jeong Yeongwoo07」 = 38

“Uh…!”

There was only one thing that could connect Jeong Yeongwoo07 with the number 38.

[Prestige Level: 38]

|50/100

Required Karma per achievement unit: 250 million

“Prestige level?”

Just as Yeongwoo’s thoughts began to tangle, an additional equation appeared next to Earth’s.

「|l||I-Earth」 = 32

|Assumed promotion: 36

Assuming the ongoing planetary promotion is completed, it meant Earth’s prestige level would rise to 36.

“Earth, what is this? We’re running a planetary ship simulation… why are we calculating prestige levels?”

Meanwhile, on the blue dot, the prestige levels of the two entities were being combined.

「|l||I-Earth」 + 「Jeong Yeongwoo07」

The main components of the planetary ship—the crazy planet and the crazy representative—being added together.

= 43

“Wait, forty-three? So it’s not just a simple sum?”

Of course not—prestige levels increase in density with each stage.

Which explains why the combined prestige of Earth (max 36) and Yeongwoo (38) resulted in 43.

And what that number represented—

『M-Mass.』

“…Huh?”

『That seems to be the mass value we’ve secured.』

“You mean prestige level 43?”

Yeongwoo blinked rapidly.

According to Earth, prestige level—a measure of presence or weight of existence—was equivalent to mass.

In simpler terms—

“Prestige… can be converted to mass?”

『Or the other way around. Mass is prestige.』

From a planet’s point of view, that made sense.

Mass determines which celestial body becomes the center.

On the other hand, Jeong Yeongwoo07, born a mere creature, had never held significant mass—meaning, no meaningful prestige.

‘But not anymore.’

Having reached what the system called ‘the end’, Jeong Yeongwoo07 had become more than a creature—he was now a cosmic being, one with meaningful prestige.

Significant enough to add mass to Earth in its upcoming struggle for dominance against the Sun.

“…!”

Realizing this, Yeongwoo’s face twisted with a scowl.

“Wait a damn second. This bastard—you're lighter than me?!”

Yeongwoo grabbed Earth by the collar, and this time, Earth had no rebuttal.

Because by universal order, Yeongwoo’s prestige was greater.

『B-But still.』

“But what?”

『Compared to the Sun, you and I are both insignificant.』

And right on cue, the line connecting the Sun and Earth turned red.

“Looks like the result wasn’t good.”

Yeongwoo blinked at the red line, and Earth nodded.

『Of course not. The Sun’s prestige is hundreds of thousands of times mine.』

And when that’s expressed as a prestige level…

Flash!

A holographic text appeared above the red dot representing the Sun.

「l||-Moro」 = 66

“Holy crap.”

Yeongwoo covered his mouth.

Numerically, it was 43 versus 66.

Only a difference of 23 levels—but Yeongwoo knew there was an immense gap hidden within that number.

Just like the vast scale model of the solar system before his eyes.

“Level 66 is impossible to beat no matter what. You can only ignore protocol and skip formalities up to 2 levels above.”

As the cosmic rookie Jeong Yeongwoo spoke smugly, Earth shut its eyes tightly.

『You idiot. That’s what I’ve been saying to you from the very beginning. We can never beat the Su—』

Earth scrunched its forehead in anger, but before it could finish, a new line shot out from the Sun.

Fzzzt!

『Huh? What’s that now?』

The line from the Sun shot straight to Earth, and a new equation appeared above Earth.

(「|l||I-Earth」 + 「Jeong Yeongwoo07」 + 「l||-Moro」) × Planetary Ship Coefficient

“Huh…?”

『What?』

No idea what had been triggered, but somehow, the prestiges of all three entities were now combined.

And then multiplied by the planetary ship coefficient.

The result:

= 68

“Sixty-eight!”

Yeongwoo shouted the new number like a brute.

And at the same time, the solar system—no, a celestial body that had never moved in this way before—began to stir.

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]