Chapter 484 - Level 4 Human in a Ruined World

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Chapter 484: Balance (1)

Doatel.

The planet belonging to Prince Aldo’s royal house, Shelbir—also known as the sanctuary of the galaxy.

Though the universe was overflowing with fake philanthropists, Doatel was a genuine charitable organization.

This fact was guaranteed by none other than Yeongwoo, the rookie of the villain world.

Even without his endorsement…

—Those guys must’ve done a hell of a lot of good deeds. Look at how many refugee ships are swarming here.

Jiseon was amazed at the sight of hundreds of millions of refugee ships, essentially a stamp of approval for Doatel’s charity.

Yeongwoo added a remark.

“There aren’t that many real charity organizations. The fact that so many refugees are gathering around a single planet? That alone is abnormal.”

—Yeah, that makes sense.

Then Jeonggu brought up a more human question:

“But… why are there so many refugees? Does that mean all these people lost their planets?”

If there were hundreds of millions of ships, the actual refugee headcount was likely many times that.

Having experienced the “galaxy” firsthand, Yeongwoo had a rough idea of why.

“There are lunatics like Mara who take over planets for fun… and some planets fail galaxy-wide tests like ‘Reset.’ That’s probably why.”

Besides, one didn’t have to lose a planet to become a refugee.

Some may have fled internal conflicts, others escaped various threats.

By definition, “refugee” referred to those who leave their homeland due to persecution.

“Even accounting for that, having this many ships at one sanctuary is still abnormal. There just aren’t enough sanctuaries out there.”

At this point, Yeongwoo started to understand Prince Aldo a bit.

Why he was so obsessed with balance and virtue in the universe.

‘If you have to see this mess every day, it's only natural to think there's not enough good in the universe.’

And in truth, the universe did seem more evil than good.

What Yeongwoo had seen so far was mostly full of those who worshipped power or raw violence.

“So… how do we approach that thing? If we just barge in, we’ll be turned into Swiss cheese by ten million cannons.”

Yeongwoo pointed at the distant Doatel and asked, while Earth scratched its cheek and frowned.

『This is a first for me too… But I can get you inside the planet. Even without a separate ship.』

Of course, Earth added, they’d first have to fire their cannons and blow a hole in Doatel’s shield.

“What the hell? We’re not here to start a war.”

『That’s just how it’d go under normal circumstances. We can’t do that this time. Even if we’re a planetary ship, we’re not strong enough yet to fight hundreds of millions of ships simultaneously.』

“…‘Yet’? Are you saying one day we could be?”

『…Depends. One of the planetary ship’s strengths is its absurd number of expansion slots.』

Meaning they could deck it out with enough sub-cannons to rival main weapons, or even install stronger main cannons.

With enough money and connections, they could even equip unimaginable battle facilities.

『In any case, we can’t fight here. If those really are refugees, then killing them would earn you massive evil karma.』

Starting a massacre here would lead to Yeongwoo accumulating a terrifying amount of evil karma.

Knowing this, Yeongwoo asked again:

“Then how do we get past all those refugee ships?”

Just then, the space behind them split open as Administrator Kubu appeared, opening his eyes.

Fwoosh.

—We’ll likely have to make Doatel send a ship to greet us.

“Huh? That’s possible? We can communicate with them from this distance?”

『We can open a communication channel first. But if any ships are nearby, they’ll be able to pinpoint our current coordinates.』

“What?”

Hearing that, Yeongwoo looked again at the “debris” surrounding Doatel.

“No way—those aren’t just debris. Those are all ships. So they’ll definitely be able to find our location?”

『Exactly. They won’t attack unless we get closer, but…』

They could report their location to someone else.

Then Administrator Kubu offered another idea.

—There’s no need to make this difficult. We now have a cannon that can even take down a planet.

「Planet Hunter」 - Legendary cannon

【Output: 4100】

【Max charge: 4】

【Firing time: 3 seconds】

【Energy Requirement: 1700】

【Manufacturer: Toma】

The “Planet Hunter,” a legendary cannon.

It was clearly one of Yeongwoo’s prized possessions.

But—

“What does our cannon have to do with communicating?”

—If we aim our cannon at Doatel while it’s loaded, they’ll likely open a channel first.

“Oh. So you’re saying… point the gun first?”

It was an effective method.

They could establish contact with Doatel without revealing their own coordinates.

But the whole reason the Renaissance came to Doatel today was to ask for cooperation.

They were here to propose money laundering—no, balanced philanthropic projects.

Yeongwoo didn’t want to start things off with a threat.

Especially not with Prince Aldo.

“I mean, even if it’s just a warning shot… that thing’s a planet-killer cannon. Doesn’t feel right to do that, does it?”

Yeongwoo said, gazing at Doatel in the distance—and everyone around him looked shocked.

Words like “doing the right thing” didn’t really fit Yeongwoo.

—Did you just say “right thing”…? What the hell’s gotten into you?

Jiseon gawked, and Yeongwoo held up both hands, forming finger quotes.

“We’re here to negotiate the donation laundering rate. And Aldo’s the guy with all those refugees.”

—…That’s true.

[Translator - Night]

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“Aldo might be a fool, but when it comes to doing good, he’s dead serious. So this negotiation won’t be easy.”

Aldo would probably try to allocate as much of the money as possible to actual charity.

So if they started the first meeting by pointing a cannon, Yeongwoo would lose all leverage over the most important part: the laundering percentage.

—You’re just as serious about the negotiation as he is about charity, huh?

Jiseon then looked at the pale white planet, Doatel.

—So you’re not going to point a gun, and you’re not going to force your way through the shield…

“We’ll just have to open a communication channel first and approach them.”

In business, some risk was inevitable at the start.

“And this is the upper galaxy—so even if someone reports our location, it’s not like anything will happen immediately.”

The only real threat before their propulsion system upgrade was Shirach.

However, Shirach was from a lower galactic house, so they wouldn’t dare cross the galactic boundary recklessly.

At least, not within a few hours.

That left the upper galactic houses as the remaining possibility...

“We haven’t had any encounters with the upper galactic houses yet, have we?”

Yeongwoo followed up by gazing into the vastness of space.

“But the same goes for them. So even if they find out where we are, they won’t be so quick to launch an attack. According to the logic of power, it’s unwise to make an enemy of a planetary ship.”

For this reason, Yeongwoo gave a direct order to Earth and Administrator Kubu, who were still hesitant to support the plan.

“We’ll reach out to Doatel first. Open a communications channel.”

As this was a command from the head of the house, the owner, and the captain, no one present had the authority or justification to object.

『Understood. If that’s the will of the Owner, then it can’t be helped.』

Earth nodded, then clapped in the air, generating a circular hologram.

From the center of the circle, a white ripple began to spread out.

This meant the communication channel had been opened so Doatel could detect the signal.

『Now every ship you see out there knows our coordinates. If they wanted to, they could fire on us and crack our shield.』

To make matters worse, their propulsion was currently undergoing reinforcement, meaning they wouldn’t be able to make any emergency evasive maneuvers for the next couple of hours.

They’d have to rely entirely on the ship’s durability and shielding to withstand any external impact.

But Yeongwoo remained unfazed.

“What kind of refugee would want to fire at a planetary ship they’ve never seen before? Half of them probably don’t even have the shells for their cannons.”

『That... does make sense.』

Just as Yeongwoo said, normal ships — not planetary ones — needed either shells or refined, high-density energy to fire their cannons.

A planetary ship could draw energy from the star it accompanied, but most ships couldn’t.

“Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if a few ten-million-ton-class cannons popped up…”

As Yeongwoo stroked his chin and scanned the ships surrounding Doatel, the circular hologram suddenly expanded.

Fwoosh!

『Oh, Doatel just picked up our channel.』

They had accepted the signal sent from this side.

The inside of the hologram began to glow brightly, and soon a caramel-colored figure appeared, looking exactly like Prince Aldo.

Pop!

The caramel figure holding up two engraved stone tablets appeared on the screen.

Slide.

[Asylum Request]

[Refugee Registration]

Amazingly, the moment the texts were read, their meaning was conveyed telepathically, like some kind of transcendent universal language.

“Uh… Is Prince Aldo there? Tell him Jeong Yeongwoo07 from Earth is here.”

The caramel figure tilted its head slightly.

Apparently, they thought someone was fraudulently using the prince’s name.

Still, as if they had a protocol for those who were neither asylum seekers nor refugees, another stone tablet was quickly brought out.

Slide.

[Donation Payment]

[Invited Guest Verification]

“…These guys seriously want to play twenty questions?”

As Yeongwoo’s expression began to show irritation, Kubu explained:

—If you’re a guest of the royal family, it’s customary to receive a VIP emblem in advance. However, we...

Kubu simply blinked his large eyes instead of finishing his sentence.

They were looking for a prince and didn’t even have a guest pass — it was no wonder the other side thought this was a joke.

“Don’t these idiots have eyes? Can’t they see what we’re riding in?”

At this, Earth raised a hand and pointed toward the refugees’ ships.

『Doatel’s radar likely doesn’t have planetary ship data preloaded. But they’ll soon realize something’s off.』

Of course, the one to realize it wouldn’t be the low-level staff member currently dealing with the “Renaissance,” but the department responsible for Doatel’s security.

“These clueless caramel bastards… how have they not been wiped out by now?”

Finally, Yeongwoo’s patience ran out.

He drew his sword and pointed it past the bridge, toward Doatel.

Whoosh!

“Just target them. It’ll be quicker to let them know the ‘Planet Hunter’ is here.”

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