Chapter 601

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Chapter 601: Common Sense (3)

Kejen could no longer keep his mouth shut as he watched Yeongwoo now behaving exactly like a true villain.

And to think—wasn’t this guy a complete rookie who had set foot in the Black Zone for the first time just today?

Yet overnight he had turned into such a vicious robber… Was he really growing by a hundred million years every single day?

—Ah… no matter what, isn’t this going too far? You can’t do this to me, can you? We’re still on the same side, aren’t we?

They had even gone through thick and thin together.

This wasn’t the kind of relationship where you suddenly stabbed each other in the back.

But Yeongwoo saw it very differently.

“I never said I’d kill you here, did I? I’m just taking the ship.”

—But without this ship, we can’t…

They wouldn’t be able to reach their respective destinations.

That was when Yeongwoo, as if he’d been waiting for this, pointed beyond the cockpit.

“There’s something out there far sturdier and faster than this little ship, isn’t there?”

—Don’t tell me you mean a planetship…?

“You didn’t come from hundreds of galaxies away anyway, did you? I’ll keep this ship, and I’ll personally take you home on the Earth Ship.”

In other words, he was offering them a first-class taxi ride.

In exchange, Yeongwoo would keep this small ship rich in Katangdal.

—You bastard… You really never let yourself take a loss.

“A businessman chasing profit is only natural, isn’t it? When a pile of money is rolling around in front of you, how can you just sit still?”

Then Yeongwoo casually pointed at the pilot’s seat.

“Let’s stop wasting time. Set the destination to the Earth Ship.”

Just then, the sound of other villains pounding on the hull began echoing from outside, so Kejen sat down in the pilot’s seat as if he had no other choice.

—So we’re really heading to that damned planetship after all.

“Do you take the wonders of the universe lightly?”

—This is the first time I’ve ever heard the word ‘wonder’ sound so flippant.

With that, Kejen set the course.

The metal plating in front of the cockpit slid downward, revealing a transparent glass window.

Projected onto the glass was a yellow emblem of two crossed blades.

Pshaaat!

It was clearly the insignia of the ship’s owner.

“What’s that? That’s the owner’s crest, right?”

Kejen rubbed his forehead lightly and muttered,

—Damn it. Salzeo. I wondered why there was no emblem on the hull.

“Salzeo? What’s that?”

—One of the great noble houses of space.

“Figures. No random nobody would be flying something this expensive.”

—But Salzeo… they’re notoriously persistent.

“In what way?”

—They’re famous for never forgetting a grudge. Even if their enemy is the owner of a planetship, they’ll chase them to the end.

“Then wouldn’t it have been better to display their family crest in the first place? This whole problem could’ve been avoided.”

Of course, even if he’d known their background in advance, Yeongwoo wouldn’t have given up the ship.

—Not displaying their emblem is actually a Salzeo trait. A kind of confidence.

“Sounds a bit perverse. Anyway, I get the idea of what kind of people they are.”

At that moment, the one-eyed goblins who had been blankly listening to the conversation cautiously raised their hands.

Swoosh.

“What is it? Speak.”

—I-Is everything you just said true?

“What part?”

—That you’re… the owner of a planetship, and that this ship belongs to Salzeo?

“Yeah. This ship is definitely heading to a planetship, and as for Salzeo… judging by what he says, it’s probably true.”

When Yeongwoo shrugged and said that, the goblins swallowed hard.

—Then we’d like to get off here.

“What? Get off now? We haven’t even launched yet. I said I’d take you right to your doorstep.”

But the goblins were already shaking their heads violently.

—N-No thanks. We’ll find our own way. Just let us off here.

They knew full well that getting tangled with a planetship—the so-called wonder of the universe—and a noble house that never forgot its grudges would bring nothing but trouble.

In a way, they were the smartest ones present.

But Yeongwoo, who now held all the power here, didn’t allow it.

“You want me to open that door again now?”

Even without Yeongwoo pointing, villains were already pounding on the door from outside.

“No one’s leaving now. If we open that door, it’ll just cause another mess.”

Before Yeongwoo even finished speaking, Kejen pulled the launch lever.

Clank!

—I agree with that. Because not only Katardal, but Salzeo’s people are probably already running toward this hangar too.

Action, and reaction.

Every action has consequences, and especially evil deeds like robbery tend to bring equally evil results.

Like stealing a ship and earning the pursuit of Salzeo.

“Getting tangled up with a space noble house again… I guess this is karma too.”

As Yeongwoo muttered while looking out the window, Salzeo’s small ships finally began lifting into the air.

Kwaaaah!

—You grow a hundred million years every day, and you also make a hundred million years’ worth of enemies every day. Unless you’re a great bandit like me, having a noble house as an enemy is something that happens maybe once in a lifetime.

Kejen said this while gripping the controls, and Yeongwoo rubbed his nose.

“Our Renaissance is a noble house itself. So our enemies and friends are bound to be noble houses too.”

—Salzeo wouldn’t have come here with just small ships.

“What do you mean?”

—It means their main force is nearby, or at the very least, there’s a warship docked somewhere around here.

“Oh, really?”

Hearing that, Yeongwoo rolled his eyes.

“Then we’d better run. We don’t have enough firepower to face a fleet yet.”

More precisely, they lacked the number of cannons.

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They had enough power to snipe individual ships, but without secondary guns, they couldn’t properly fight multiple enemies.

—Right. No matter who we’re avoiding, running is the right call.

Salzeo, and Katardal.

From Kejen’s point of view, he wanted to avoid both.

Yet now they were being chased by both at the same time.

“With the money we made this time, we should buy some secondary guns.”

—And while you’re at it, do something about that Selulite. It’s too valuable to just let it rot.

Around then, their ship began breaking through the Black Zone’s atmosphere.

They were finally heading back into space.

“There’s a mountain of things to do once we’re back. Is this the weight of being a head of house…?”

As Yeongwoo spoke while gazing at the ever-approaching stars, Jeonggu tilted his head.

“What’s left to do now…?”

“First, we drop these guys off. Then we buy secondary guns.”

And as Kejen said, they’d also need to figure out how to use the Selulite.

Of course, that was something to discuss with Acting Captain Mantero first.

“And we have to launder the money we made in the Black Zone.”

From their ‘transactions’ in the Black Zone, they’d earned 25.4 billion in cash and thirteen Katangdal ingots.

That was after excluding the weapons dealer Koatu’s share—an enormous profit.

“Even after laundering, there won’t be that much left. At least we managed to bring back the ingots.”

Hearing Yeongwoo say that to Jeonggu, Kejen added,

—When buying secondary guns, you can use Katangdal ingots instead of cash. Cannon dealers always need ingots.

“Oh? Then there’s no need to convert and launder them. We’ll buy the guns with ingots, then label it as expenses for charitable projects.”

Wasn’t that why they’d bribed corrupt tax officials in the first place?

Everything was falling neatly into place.

Only now did Yeongwoo feel like he was truly on the road to success.

‘It feels like just yesterday I was face-down on the ground getting beaten by vermin… and now I’ve come this far.’

Meanwhile, the ship carrying Yeongwoo completely exited the Black Zone’s jurisdiction and sailed through the vastness of space.

Before long, a bright point of light appeared in the distance.

It was the sun Moro, orbiting near the Earth Ship—Yeongwoo’s mother-in-law.

“Mother-in-law! I made a ton of money…!”

As Yeongwoo spread his arms wide and shouted inside the cockpit, Earth, now reconnected to him, stirred within his consciousness.

○ You lunatic, what the hell are you riding over here on?

…Huh? How do you know I’m riding something problematic?

○ Your captain can’t stop staring in shock.

‘Why? Did he already figure out what this ship is?’

Yeongwoo was about to think, as expected of a former royal navigator, but the truth was a bit different.

○ There’s an enormous signal wave coming from that ship.

What?

Yeongwoo flinched, and Kejen looked up from the controls.

—What is it? Is there a problem?

“They say this ship is emitting a signal wave. Isn’t that basically advertising everywhere that it’s stolen?”

—Hah, figures. Looks like it’s transmitting its location to its home family.

“To Salzeo? Then can’t we just remove the tracker?”

—Do you really think it’s that simple? We can’t exactly dismantle the ship mid-flight. And it’s not like there’s a technician on a planetship either.

“That’s true.”

Mantero was a chief navigator, not a ship engineer.

“Then how do we block the signal?”

—We’d have to find a technician bold enough to mess with a Salzeo ship. There might be someone like that in the Black Zone, but we can’t go back now…

As Kejen sighed, unable to find an answer, Yeongwoo rolled his eyes again.

“Oh, I do know one force that can completely ignore Salzeo.”

—What? Who?

“Dogo.”

—…Huh?

“「Dogo」…!”

As Yeongwoo shouted the first of the transcendent words he could use—Dogo—Kejen squeezed his eyes shut.

—Even if it’s Dogo, do you really think that’ll work? We’re inside a flying ship right now!

But Yeongwoo ignored him, looked up at the ceiling, and shouted,

“Chairman! Please send a technician! We just need to buy some time to get out of this!”

—That crazy bastard…

Kejen shook his head and gripped the controls tighter.

He just wanted to reach the Earth Ship as soon as possible.

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But then—

Chzzzt!

Not long after Yeongwoo’s nonsense ended, a powerful signal was detected on the radar.

—They’re already here.

Thinking it was Salzeo’s main force issuing a warning, Kejen grit his teeth and expanded the radar range.

He was trying to confirm the position of the pursuing Salzeo fleet.

But what he actually saw was—

—…Huh? What is that?

Energy was flying toward the ship at tremendous speed.

—D-Don’t tell me that’s a cannon…?

There was no time to evade. Kejen’s mouth fell open—

PAAANG!

In an instant, the ship’s interior flashed brightly, and a shining wedge-shaped emblem was projected onto every reflective surface, including the windows.

The emblem of the pan-universal warfare brand, Dogo.

“C-Chairman!”

Seeing the emblem, Yeongwoo immediately flattened himself on the floor, while Kejen checked the radar with an awkward expression.

—N-No… It’s just the emblem. Salzeo’s signal is still coming through.

This time, Yeongwoo shook his head.

“You insignificant creature. Do you still not understand?”

—…What?

“This means the chairman’s emblem alone is sufficient.”