Chapter 475

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

Chapter 475: Beyond the Orbit (1)

Reorganization of the Solar System initiated.

It was an utterly absurd slogan.

But even more absurd was how it was happening.

『Haaaah…!』

The Sun, her entire body turned a brilliant white, soared even higher into the air and stretched out her arms—

and just like that, the Earth, which was also levitating, began to orbit around her.

Shiaaaa!

Watching all of this in a daze, Jeonggu turned to Yeongwoo with a terrified expression.

“Wh-what’s wrong with those people?”

“They’re not people. And what you’re seeing now…”

The Earth revolving around the Sun.

Of course, he hadn’t expected such a bizarre visual representation of orbital motion,

but regardless, it was unmistakable.

“…what you’re seeing is one of our celestial bodies.”

“What?”

“The Solar System.”

No sooner had Yeongwoo said this than dots of various colors began to appear all over the sky above Gwangjin-gu.

Pop! Pop! Pop!

“Uh? What are those now?”

Jeonggu asked again, face pale with fear—but this time, even Yeongwoo couldn’t answer.

“…What is that?”

“What, you don’t know either?”

As father and son exchanged mutual confusion, one of the glowing dots in the sky finally changed.

Shhh!

A strange symbol appeared over the dot.

Then suddenly, a massive planet cloaked in rippling waves—a being known as Jupiter, Voltu—was summoned.

“Huh…?”

And as soon as Yeongwoo saw it, he finally realized:

It wasn’t just the crazily spinning Sun and Earth up there—

every planet in the Solar System was being summoned here.

『Huh? This place...?』

Even Jupiter looked bewildered, as if it hadn’t come by choice.

The moment it felt Earth’s atmosphere, it showed clear confusion.

Then—

『Ugh…!』

—it began to orbit.

Specifically, around the Sun, still the central axis of the solar system for now.

Kwaaaaaah!

Jupiter began tracing a dark arc around the Sun,

and one by one, the major planets—Saturn, Mars, and others—were summoned in turn.

『Huh?』

『What the—?』

『Wait, you guys are…?』

Surprised to see each other again, the planets were quickly pulled into irresistible gravitational force and forced to begin orbiting.

Shuaaah!

As the eight major planets and five dwarf planets of the solar system began their high-speed orbits in the sky above Gwangjin-gu,

the Sun—eyes glowing with radiant white light—shouted:

『Today! The Solar System is reborn!』

The planets, understanding exactly what she meant, all wore tense expressions.

For planets that had lived their entire lives as background characters,

a life as main characters brought not only excitement but anxiety.

A life no longer predictable.

That meant others couldn’t predict them—

but also that they couldn’t foresee their own future either.

Ruuuumble…!

As the Sun began to compress her body and gather power, the planetary system’s onboard system issued a warning:

「The center of the planetary system will soon be shifted.」

「A mass transfer between the Sun and Earth is about to occur. Temporary orbital collapse may take place.」

The planets, each revolving around the Sun in their designated orbits, all turned pale with fear.

『Or… orbital collapse?』

『What exactly does that mean?』

An orbit was something each planet had maintained for a lifetime—like breathing for a person.

In other words, the phrase "orbital collapse" struck them with the same dread as respiratory collapse might strike a human.

So it was only natural that they felt instinctual fear.

But the Sun, now entirely focused on preparing the mass transfer, had no energy left to console the planets—

and so Yeongwoo shouted in her stead:

“Don’t be scared! Once the planetary ship sets sail, those orbits would’ve disappeared anyway!”

Of course, it wasn’t that the concept of orbit would vanish entirely from the planets.

What would disappear with the launch of the planetary vessel was their predictable orbit.

That old orbit, which had fixed coordinates for past, present, and even future.

In contrast, the new coordinates they would gain aboard the planetary vessel wouldn’t be recorded anywhere,

nor could their future coordinates be calculated in advance.

Even though all planets would continue to orbit around the center of the system,

the orbit of that center itself would become completely unpredictable.

“Keep your head clear! You don’t want to get flung out!”

Just as this warning flashed across Yeongwoo’s mind and he cried out,

the Sun—Moro—raised one of her arms overhead and extended it toward the Earth.

Whoosh!

Then, the distance between the planets, which had all maintained their own orbits, visibly increased.

The orbits were still there, but the planets were now much farther apart.

“Huh?”

This meant the Sun’s gravitational pull on them had weakened.

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

Which, in turn, meant—

Crackle!

—that the gravitational force was now concentrated in the arm reaching toward Earth.

『Hurry! This is… harder than I thought.』

Moro, in a tone unusually tense for her, urged the Earth to act quickly.

The Earth reached both arms toward Moro.

Fwaah!

Then, slicing between the orbits of Venus and Mercury, the Earth began to approach the Sun.

To put it plainly—

—Are they docking?

Jiseon, who had been standing with her jaws wide open, transformed back into human form and landed on the ground.

The enormous energy flowing from above made it too taxing to stay in her dragon form.

And just then—

Tap.

The Earth and the Sun’s hands met, unleashing a wave of brilliant white light.

Fwaaaaah!

“Ugh.”

In that moment, everyone’s feet briefly lifted off the ground before returning—clear evidence that the gravitational balance of celestial bodies had shifted.

“The Sun… is really transferring its mass to Earth. How is that even possible?”

Yeongwoo stared in disbelief at the bizarre astronomical model before him.

Soon after, the planetary ship system issued another alert.

「Mass transfer is occurring.」

Suddenly, the sky turned pitch black.

Whoosh!

As if all the lights in the universe had been switched off.

“What?”

“Huh? What the hell?”

—Th-the sky...

—Is this what mass transfer looks like?

Everyone present in the venue—including the Renaissance family, the lords of the galactic lower domains, and even the stellar Centauri brothers—looked up in shock.

None of them had ever witnessed the process of a central star transferring its mass to a planetary ship.

Fortunately, the blackout didn’t last long.

BOOOOOM!

A thunderous roar echoed from the sky as the Sun's white beams burst in all directions, restoring the heavens.

Only now, one thing had changed.

『W-what?』

『W-wait!』

『We can’t control the orbits!』

The planets, which had until then been revolving around the Sun, suddenly veered off in all directions.

Like insects freed from a trap.

Seeing this, Moro bent her arm and yanked Earth in close, then kicked it hard, sending it flying into its own former position.

WHAM!

『Get it together, you bastard! You wanna lose all the planets?!』

『Huh?』

『You’re the new central body now. You have to hold them together!』

With that, Moro departed from Earth’s side and began flying in a massive arc—

—tracing out an enormous semicircle.

That was...

‘The Sun’s new orbit.’

As soon as Yeongwoo’s jaw dropped, the scattered planets began curving inward.

Though still hurtling outward, their paths now had curvature, and from a distance, they began to form a circle—or rather, a spiral.

But it wasn’t enough.

『Hurry! The gaps between planets are too wide! The small ones will get flung away!』

Moro shouted while swimming through the sky, giving Earth a crash course in planetary system dynamics.

『What... What exactly am I supposed to do?』

Then, taking over from the former Sun, the planetary ship system began providing guidance.

「Adjust your rotational speed to manage the gravitational field.」

「You can use gravity-field weakening to reset all orbits, but this will create instability.」

『Oh! Y-Yes!』

Earth kicked into the air and began rotating, following the direction of Moro’s orbit.

This caused the outer planets' trajectories to bend more inward.

On the other hand—

『Huh? Agh!』

『C-careful...!』

The planets still lingering in the new system’s inner region had to endure rapid orbital shifts.

At this rate, there was a real risk of planetary collisions.

「You are currently viewing a scaled astronomical model. Adjust spacing to prevent gravitational zones from colliding.」

In simpler terms, be careful not to let the flying planets crash into one another.

『This… isn’t easy.』

As Earth sweated bullets, Moro pointed to Neptune and Pluto far off in the sky.

『You’ll need to crank your rotational axis harder to pull them in. Look—they’re drifting even further.』

『…Ah!』

Earth looked up, spotting Neptune and Pluto already faint and distant.

They had always been cold planets, but now—having drifted even farther from the Sun—they were frozen solid, icy blue.

And more importantly, they were on course to spiral completely out of the new system.

『But the inner orbits are already on the verge of colliding—what do I do?』

『Shit… You’re right.』

Moro sighed in frustration.

As Earth had said, pulling the outer planets inward any further by spinning faster would put Mercury through Mars in danger.

『Moro! They’re still drifting!』

Pluto, already way out in the distance, now looked even fainter.

Just as the Sun opened her mouth to speak, the planetary system offered a solution.

「Change the orbital arrangement of primary star Sun to outside the fourth array.」

The idea was to send the Sun—with its immense gravity—to the outer edge to rein in the drifting outer planets.

『Huh? Change the array? How?』

Then the system made a ridiculous suggestion.

「Weaken the gravitational field.」

『What?! That resets all the orbits! Isn’t that gonna mess everything up?!』

Sure enough, Moro—the one who’d be affected—snapped in disbelief, but the system gave a cryptic, unscientific reply.

「Leave the outcome to the will of the typesetter.」

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]