Chapter 589

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Chapter 589: Quagmire (6)

That day, Yeongwoo saw something for the very first time.

He saw Lemu make a human facial expression.

That peculiar look unique to humans when they witness the inexplicable—

It was fear.

A fear born from witnessing an irrational decision that no machine could ever comprehend.

All because Yeongwoo, in the midst of the chaos, said.

“Are you seriously trying to take the money at a time like this?”

And as Lemu stared blankly, Yeongwoo scooped up armfuls of coins and spoke a line so transcendent it struck Lemu like divine revelation.

“If you think about it, I almost died because of this money, right? So that means it’s worth risking my life for.”

—…?

While Lemu sat there stunned, Yeongwoo pointed behind him and shouted:

“Hey—don’t let go, it’s coming at the very end…!”

—Oh dear.

When Lemu turned around, he saw someone considered one of the strongest among all machines with full ego: a machine swinging its sword at him.

—Mohir…!

Calling the enemy’s name, Lemu raised his own sword.

And immediately—

A bizarre sword emitting a horrible metallic shriek came crashing down.

KWA-A-A-AANG!

—Lemu. What on earth are you doing?

The one called Mohir wore an expression of equal confusion.

He had never imagined that the Master of the Machine Tower—known as the wisest among the thinking machines—would stand in his way.

And the being that Tower Master was protecting…

was busy doing nothing more than—

“Hurry up! I don’t think President is going to hold out much longer!”

—stuffing money into a bag in the most shameful posture imaginable.

—So you’ve developed an “error” as well, have you.

Mohir’s orange-tinged pupils began turning red again, and Lemu gripped his sword in both hands and snarled.

—This is not an error. This is enlightenment.

—To think you’d block my blade for the sake of a biological being… yes, perhaps it is.

KAAAANG!

As the two machines exchanged incomprehensible words and clashed swords, Yeongwoo barked at the frozen Amana:

“Hey! What are you doing? Pick up the money!”

Amana looked at Yeongwoo, then at the two machines fighting beyond him, disbelief in her eyes.

—I… even I know that machines like that do NOT exert themselves for living beings.

“What are you talking about?”

—The contempt for biological life… It’s the fundamental value among higher machines.

But look—he’s fighting his own kind for your sake.

“…And?”

—And yet you’re using that precious opportunity to pick up money?

Yeongwoo grabbed Amana by the collar, outraged.

FWOOSH!

“Money? You think money is trivial?”

—…What?

“If I had more of this stuff, none of this would’ve happened in the first place, genius.”

—T-That…

Amana fell silent.

Because in this universe, money was power—and Yeongwoo’s logic wasn’t wrong.

“I’m not picking up coins. I’m picking up a future way better than this mess. Meanwhile you—why aren’t you investing this precious opportunity into your future?”

As if arguing was a waste of time, Yeongwoo bent back down and shoveled more coins.

“This is a once-in-hundreds-of-millions-of-years opportunity! A chance to close a deal with a monster like that!”

Everyone did pause to wonder—

Did he really mean “hundreds of millions of years,” or was that just Yeongwoo’s way of saying “a few days”?

But they quickly stopped thinking and joined in, frantically scooping the coins into the Golden Goblin’s wide-open dimensional pouch.

And soon—

—My goodness…

Even the sacred guardian of the planet Sutral, Amana, spread her feathers wide and began sweeping in coins.

The worst-case scenario had already arrived; grabbing money on the way out was simply the second-worst choice.

Then Jeonggu spoke up, voicing a sudden thought.

“Hey, Yeongwoo.”

“What? Make it quick.”

“Is it… okay to take the ingots too? Wouldn’t that basically mean the deal isn’t happening?”

“Yes. Correct. Which means—deal massively successful.”

With that, Yeongwoo proudly dug out more ingots buried nearby.

“…I see. So you’ve decided not to worry about consequences.”

“President, we were supposed to die today. Consequences don’t matter. This is payment for my life.”

But unfortunately, Yeongwoo did not get to take all of his “life payment.”

—Y-Yeongwoo…!

Lemu, who had been holding off Mohir, let out a strained cry—it was clear he was truly at his limit.

“Ah. Yeah, that sounded real.”

Hearing Lemu’s groan, Yeongwoo sprang to his feet.

There were still coins rolling on the floor, but by rough estimation, he had already made back the cost.

After all, he’d managed to grab at least four ingots.

“Everyone up. Time to leave if we want to live.”

Kicking aside piles of coins, Yeongwoo sprinted toward the exit.

Jeonggu, Kejen, Amana, and the Golden Goblin dropped everything and followed.

Tak tak!

Seeing them flee, Mohir roared in fury.

—Lemu! Do you not see that? Is that truly enlightenment?

Still locked in a sword clash, Lemu turned his head toward the retreating warship master.

—……

There was Yeongwoo, clutching armfuls of Katangdal ingots and scrambling away.

—…On second thought, perhaps not yet.

He gave a bitter smile.

And that’s when Lemu’s pupils turned blood-red.

—…!

Mohir seemed to sense what was coming and hastily raised his guard—

Almost simultaneously, Lemu’s body erupted with blazing blue light.

KWA-A-A-A-A-AANG!

“W-Wait, L–Lemu!”

Startled by the sudden self-destruction, Jeonggu froze.

Yeongwoo rushed back, grabbed his father by the collar, and yanked him forward.

“Guy’s got multiple bodies and tons of money! We’re not at the stage where we worry about rich people!”

Then he unleashed his 175-Sword Mountain technique on a minion guarding the exit.

“HYAAAAH!”

The skies of the trading hall split open—

and countless blades, manifestations of Yeongwoo’s past battles, poured down like a waterfall.

—Wh—

Unlike the gorilla from before, this one was weak.

It didn’t even react before being swallowed by the storm of blades.

“When President Lemu flinched like that earlier, I knew he couldn’t win this one. So move!”

Even though Lemu had self-detonated, Yeongwoo knew full well it wouldn’t have finished the enemy.

And in fact—

CRASH!

A mangled Lemu corpse flew through the air and hit the ground.

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—Pathetic.

Just as Yeongwoo expected, Mohir had survived.

He had lost one shoulder, shredded by the blast—

but even with one arm, he was strong enough to butcher everyone present.

Yeongwoo knew that better than anyone.

“That crazy bastard. I just know we’re going to meet again someday.”

Already cutting open the plate blocking the exit, Yeongwoo glanced back one last time.

“Next time we fight for real! I’ll come back stronger using the money you gave me!”

And before Mohir could respond, he jumped through the exit.

* * *

FWOOSH!

The ash-gray portal spat Yeongwoo’s group out at Kejen’s hideout—the original trading location.

THUD!

Everyone but Yeongwoo face-planted immediately, having jumped through in a rush.

“Ugh!”

—Ack!

Yeongwoo alone kept his balance and immediately began counting the ingots scattered on the floor.

“Four… six, seven.”

Then he turned to the Golden Goblin.

“How many inside the dimensional pouch?”

The goblin stuck his head inside, rummaged around, then flashed six fingers.

“Six? Then thirteen total.”

At black-zone prices, that meant 19.5 billion.

Yeongwoo then moved on to the most important part—cash settlement.

“All right, cash? I trust everyone literally risked their lives picking that up.”

He dumped the the possessions onto the ground.

The goblin pulled his head from the pouch and projected a hologram above it.

PAAAT!

[27,436,429,000]

Roughly 2.74 billion.

“So, how much total?”

As Yeongwoo asked, Kejen twitched his beard.

—46.9 billion.

“Wait, then we profited, didn’t we?”

Originally, they were supposed to receive 42.5 billion, meaning they came out 4.4 billion ahead.

“What an unbelievable deal.”

Even Jeonggu muttered in disbelief.

And since they had staked their lives, it didn’t even feel like wrongful gain.

Of course, Mohir—the rightful owner—was probably grinding his teeth somewhere.

“So what happens now?”

Jeonggu asked. Yeongwoo folded his arms.

“I promised Koatu ten ingots for conversion. So we need to set aside 15 billion.”

Even though he sold them at 1.7× price, he only paid Koatu 1.5×.

Everyone knew this, but no one pointed it out.

“Subtract Koatu’s share… leaves us with about 12.4? It’s so damn hard to make money.”

“But… we still have thirteen ingots left.”

“Yeah, but that’s all dirty money. We’re going to lose a lot converting it.”

“You’re basically not paying taxes and still complaining you want more free money…?”

“With monsters like that popping up without warning, of course I need more money.”

At least they hadn’t traded the royal seal yet.

“Anyway—thank god we didn’t die today.”

Yeongwoo rubbed his neck, recalling what Lemu had said.

—Your progression is faster than even the Machine Tower predicted. That is why the moment of your annihilation also arrived early.

That was undoubtedly true.

If Lemu hadn’t planted traps after foreseeing the future via the records, Yeongwoo would’ve been slaughtered by the machine swordsman.

‘What the hell was that machine? Isn’t President Lemu supposed to be near the top among machines?’

Still, the fact that Lemu could at least contest against him at all meant—

He was catching up.

Little by little, but he was nearing the level of 4th-class beings like Lemu.

“That Mohir guy… you don’t know who he is either, right?”

As expected, Kejen shook his head.

—I've heard of Lemu, but Mohir? No. I’m not too familiar with machine society.

Jeonggu offered a plausible guess.

“Lemu is famous because he runs a huge business, but Mohir didn’t act like a businessman. So maybe only certain circles know of him.”

But this was someone so powerful that Lemu—top-tier among machines—rushed over the instant he sensed the presence and even self-detonated.

“How strong do you have to be to sleep comfortably in this universe…?”

Yeongwoo felt his mind go blank and slumped to the floor.

Then—

BRRRRT!

The entry ticket in his pocket vibrated.

“Huh?”

It had to be a trade request.

He tapped it—and indeed, a trade request appeared regarding the royal seal.

[Kardal Royal Seal]

| Buyers: 2

“Two buyers?”

Yeongwoo widened his eyes.

Kejen fidgeted his fingers.

—One of them is certainly the Kardal royal family.

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