Chapter 452

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

Chapter 452: Lord Jeong Yeongwoo07 (5)

Ship Management Bureau.

Yeongwoo had heard a similar name before — the Planet Management Bureau.

It was the affiliation of the inspectors who had visited Earth for its advancement screening.

So if this Lizardman was really from the Ship Management Bureau...

"You’re saying you’re from the Ship Management Bureau? Are you telling me you’re government officials?"

Yeongwoo’s eyes turned to the second Lizardman, whose body had been split in two.

If these guys were government officials, then… he had just murdered a civil servant.

Wouldn’t that be grounds to be thrown in jail?

‘No, come on. Do people go to jail like that? If I had embezzled a fortune or something, I wouldn’t even feel wronged.’

But then his thoughts shifted.

“…Wait a second.’

Now there were only two people left in the room — the Lizardman and himself.

‘No witnesses… means no crime, right?’

As Yeongwoo's golden eyes gleamed with murderous intent, the Lizardman stared at him in shock, mouth wide open.

—H-Hey…? What are you thinking right now?

But Yeongwoo was already glancing around the dark room, his glowing eyes scanning the surroundings.

He was looking for a recording device, just in case.

"You know it too — this was self-defense. There were three of you, and anyone could see you were about to ambush me."

At least he confirmed that there were no physical cameras in the room.

But Yeongwoo knew that in this universe, invisible cameras existed too.

So reluctantly, he asked:

"Is this place being recorded by any chance?"

The Lizardman looked up into the air, panic written all over his face.

—O-Of course it is!

"Liar."

Smelling fear, Yeongwoo slowly raised Bastard, prompting the Lizardman to cry out in a voice close to a scream.

—I-If you kill me too, the Bureau will come looking for us! You’ll be in serious trouble too!

"What’s more troublesome — them finding a random Lizardman corpse with no known cause of death, or letting a living witness go who saw what I did?"

Better to be a suspect than a confirmed criminal.

"I’ve got nothing personal against you. If the cops come around tomorrow, I’ll make something up. Farewell, Lizardman from space."

As Yeongwoo finally gave his farewell, the Lizardman frantically raised his badge and shouted.

—S-Shipmaster Jeong Yeongwoo07 is required to register his biometric data and submit a navigation plan to the Ship Management Bureau!

“…What?”

—All Ship Management Bureau agents are currently on field duty, so we’ve sent an acting representative! A reply is necessary, so please return the representative if possible—!

The Lizardman spewed the rehearsed lines like a machine gun, then stood there panting and drooling.

And Yeongwoo, upon hearing that, muttered:

“…Wait. So they really were government officials?”

He slowly lowered the Bastard and looked again at the bisected corpse on the floor.

“…If you’d said that earlier, I might’ve spared one of them.”

The Lizardman responded with a look of frustration.

—I didn’t think you’d draw your sword out of nowhere!

"What are you talking about? You were hiding all over the place ready to pounce from the start!"

With that logic, these guys would have died sooner or later anyway.

How could they approach a Shipmaster like that just to request biometric registration?

That was basically a suicide mission.

Of course, the Lizardmen had their reasons too.

—You’re an evil-aligned Shipmaster.

“…What?”

—The intel we received said you had a severely evil alignment.

That’s why they hadn’t expected cooperation even after showing official credentials — they were ready to use force if necessary.

"Use force? With that level of skill, you couldn’t beat anyone…"

Yeongwoo stopped mid-sentence.

He had just remembered that only a few hours ago, he’d been beating down Pluto.

It wasn’t that these Lizardmen were weak — he had become far too strong.

"And what about you guys? You don’t exactly look like pure-hearted civil servants either. I wouldn’t peg you as acting officials."

As Yeongwoo gestured toward the corpses with the tip of his sword, the Lizardman, half-hidden in the darkness, spoke quietly.

—I’m Piane, captain of Unit 6 of the assassin group White Night.”

“…What, assassin group?”

Yeongwoo barely held back a laugh.

But Piane remained completely serious.

—The one you killed without even making eye contact was our second brother, Kisane. And the one who died in the back was our third brother, Joane.”

“…Ah.”

So these guys were brothers, all with names ending in ‘-ne’.

“My… my bad. I didn’t know you were siblings.”

—It was inevitable. That’s the fate of an assassin.”

“…”

—But I can’t die too. Someone needs to report back if we’re to receive our pay.”

“…So this is you begging for your life.”

—Don’t let my brothers’ deaths be in vain. Let me go. And while you’re at it, please register your biometric data and navigation plan.”

“Is it just because you’re close to death, or have you always been this shameless?”

Still, Yeongwoo no longer felt like killing Piane.

After all, if these guys weren’t actually government agents, then he hadn’t really committed a crime, and wouldn’t be sent to prison.

‘Well… people kill and get killed all the time in space, right? You don’t get jailed just for arguing with a government proxy.’

But there was one thing that stuck in his mind — the line Piane had shouted earlier:

‘A reply is necessary, so please return the representative if possible—!’

This was the stance of the Ship Management Bureau that had sent the Lizardman brothers as acting agents.

‘If possible, return the representative.’

Interpreted differently, it also meant:

‘If the representative doesn’t make it back, it can’t be helped.’

In other words, the Bureau had considered the entire Unit 6 of White Night to be expendable from the start.

And the fact that they labeled Yeongwoo as “severely evil-aligned” in their intel… meant they were well aware this mission could be deadly.

“…Hmph.”

Yeongwoo re-sheathed Bastard at his waist.

Shhhhk—click!

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

Piane, who had been shriveled up in fear, blinked and cautiously raised his torso.

—W-What? Did you change your mind?

“Yeah. If you guys aren’t government officials, then I don’t really have to add more sins to my record, do I?”

—…!

At Yeongwoo’s words, Piane’s expression visibly brightened.

“By the way, have you ever met shipowners before? Why’d you even take on this risky job?”

As Yeongwoo glanced between the two dead lizards—who wouldn’t have died had he not come—he asked, and Piane rubbed his jaw.

—That’s why we only meet first-time shipowners. That group is the safest and easiest to subdue.

“First-time shipowners?”

By that standard, Yeongwoo did fit the group that Piane described as "safe and easy to subdue."

This was, after all, his first ship.

The only issue was—

“It is my first ship. But it’s a planet-class ship. Did you know that before coming?”

At that, Piane’s eyes widened as he stuck out his tongue in shock.

—W-What? What kind of ship?

“You came all the way across the galaxy, risking your lives, and didn’t even know what kind of ship I was launching?”

—I mean… a ship is a ship…

To be fair, this wasn’t Piane’s fault.

How many planet-class ships could there even be in this universe?

So it was natural to assume that a "shipowner" referred to the owner of a standard ship.

Moreover, the lizard brothers had come to register a newly minted, first-time shipowner.

Thus, from the standpoint of the Piane brothers, who were just doing initial registration, it was impossible for them to predict that the shipowner they’d meet was the owner of a planet-class ship.

‘These bastards really got played.’

Yeongwoo touched his forehead as he took in Piane’s dumbfounded expression.

By now, the situation was becoming clear.

Even if Piane didn’t know, the Ship Administration Bureau must have known that "Jeong Yeongwoo07" was launching a planet-class ship.

‘A planet-class shipowner… and one with a high karmic crime ratio at that. I guess they couldn’t risk sending a precious government official.’

That had to be it.

It seemed like the Bureau had basically thrown the lizardmen in as bait for the new planet-class shipowner.

If they were lucky and one came back alive, great. If all died, it was no loss to the Bureau.

‘The Administration Bureau really is full of bastards.’

Thinking that far, Yeongwoo turned his gaze back to Piane.

“Bad day for you guys too, huh? I really am sorry about your brothers.”

Scratching his chin, Yeongwoo added:

“Um… not sure if this is appropriate, but can I ask how much you were paid for this job?”

Piane surprisingly held up one finger.

Flick!

—One hundred million.

“One hundred million?”

—Yeah. We were to be paid 100 million karma.

“That's quite an expensive job.”

And that money became the price of his brothers’ lives.

“…”

After a moment of silence, Yeongwoo made an offer to Piane.

“I’ll spare your life. And I’ll pay the 100 million for this job in your place.”

—…Really?

Piane’s eyes sparkled.

Yeongwoo nodded, repeating himself.

“On one condition.”

—What is it? Say anything.

“The moment you leave here, go back to the Ship Administration Bureau. Empty-handed.”

—What?

“And tell them this: if they don’t send a proper government official next time, not only will they fail to register the ship data, they’ll never find us in the galaxy again.”

Tomorrow, the Earth-class ship would gain power and leave orbit.

After that, their location would no longer be traceable with current coordinates.

“Oh, and tell them to bring a gift. I missed today’s regular dungeon because of this. If the gift sucks, there’ll be no data registration.”

—I-Is that okay? That’s basically insubordination. And the Ship Administration Bureau is…

Piane began to worry for Yeongwoo instead.

But Yeongwoo was already extending his right hand to initiate the transfer.

Swish.

“Insubordination? That’s for standard ships to worry about. We’re a planet-class ship. Didn’t they send you in the first place because they were too scared?”

Then Yeongwoo waved his right hand in the air.

“Take my hand. At least get paid.”

The truth was, Yeongwoo was trying to do some good to offset the bad karma from killing the lizard brothers.

Because of the “Burning Ice” achievement, his karmic crime score couldn’t exceed double his virtue score.

—Th-Thank you.

Eventually, Piane approached and took Yeongwoo’s hand.

Clasp!

100 million transferred.

His personal fortune dropped from 8.3 billion to 8.2 billion, but Yeongwoo strangely felt a bit relieved.

‘This… isn’t so bad.’

Having forked out 100 million for a single slash and block, Yeongwoo pointed toward the sky.

“Now get out of here. And don’t come back to Earth—though, next time, you wouldn’t be able to even if you tried.”

Piane looked up at the sky, following Yeongwoo’s gaze.

Then, for the first time, he smiled brightly.

—Thanks. I failed the job, but still got paid in full.

“But your brothers are dea—…”

Just as Yeongwoo began to offer condolences, he saw the body of the second lizard, Kisane, twitch.

“What… the hell?”

Then a faint movement came from the third one too—Joane, whose skull had been crushed, twitched his toes.

“Wait, no way. What the fuck?”

Lizards had rapid regeneration.

And Yeongwoo himself had similar abilities.

‘Did they trick me? But one of them had a crushed skull—how is that even…’

As Yeongwoo stood stunned, realizing he’d just been scammed out of a hundred million, Piane took a step back and beamed.

—Shipowner Jeong Yeongwoo07! I won’t forget your generosity. I’ll deliver your message to the Bureau!

“You damn lizards! Give me my money back!”

Yeongwoo had only ever extorted money before.

This was the first time he had been extorted.

Panicking, he instinctively reached for the hilt of Bastard on his waist.

Seeing that, Piane clapped his hands together in alarm.

Clap!

—Let’s end this impressive meeting right here! Farewell, Jeong Yeongwoo07!

They were probably about to close the dungeon.

“W-Wait! At least take this with you!”

Just as Yeongwoo swung Bastard forward in desperation—

His vision turned completely black.

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]