Chapter 642

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

Chapter 642: Golden Nebula (2)

Activate the sphere and summon the Golden Nebula.

For Yeongwoo, who had been summoning the Golden Rain since the very first day of the reset, there was no need for any additional instructions.

Because he already knew that all he had to do was place his hand on the sphere.

On the other hand—

—Th-this… what is this?

The frogs gathered there, including Duke Dalqui, were staring at the floating sphere with rather frightened expressions.

Lady Kanaph in particular, who knew very well the kind of things Yeongwoo usually got up to, looked even more terrified.

—W-what in the world is that? Don’t tell me the reason you’re telling us to leave the planet is…!

Mistaking it for Yeongwoo trying to do something terrible to Tehen, Lady Kanaph shouted almost like a scream.

So Yeongwoo pulled out Bastard and pointed beyond the sky.

“No, regardless of what I’m doing here, the main Salzeo force will arrive before long, okay? I can’t stop them either.”

At that, Duke Dalqui took a step forward, then stopped and spoke from where he stood.

—So… what exactly is that?

A phenomenon that had never once occurred on Tehen before.

Even the sky itself now carried a strange hue, with a golden ring wrapped around the atmosphere.

“Ah, this.”

As Yeongwoo finally stepped right in front of the golden sphere, the frogs’ round eyes widened even further.

“This is a gift from me to all of you who are being forced to leave your homeland. You could call it a kind of settlement support fund.”

—…A gift?

“You’ll understand faster if you see it yourself.”

With that, Yeongwoo placed his hand on the sphere, and at last the golden sphere began spinning rapidly in place.

Wiiiiiiiing…!

The frogs surrounding Yeongwoo and the sphere hurriedly stepped back, and at that moment the golden sphere shot upward into the sky.

Paaang!

Leaving behind a long golden tail.

—W-what the…?

Duke Dalqui stood there with his mouth wide open, unable to finish his sentence.

Meanwhile, the golden sphere had already reached the far edge of Tehen’s sky, and soon after—

Puuuuung!

With a huge explosion, it scattered golden waves across the entire sky above Tehen.

—Uh…?

—Huh!

—Th-that…!

The frogs flinched and lowered their bodies one by one.

But perhaps because of the gentle feeling unique to the golden light, not many ran away in panic.

Most simply crouched while looking up at the sky, their pupils gradually turning gold.

And then, finally—

Swaaaaat!

The golden lights filling the sky began to fall toward the ground.

Becoming countless streams of rain.

—……!

At that moment, every frog in the area opened their mouths slightly in a dazed expression.

—Rain…?

Even Duke Dalqui, who normally wore a solemn expression, now looked almost intoxicated.

‘What the hell? Don’t tell me they like rain because they’re frogs…?’

Even the most aggressive frogs who had constantly pointed fingers at Yeongwoo were now too distracted watching the rain pouring down from the sky.

And soon after—

Pat! Papapat!

The golden raindrops began striking the frogs on their foreheads.

Then someone among the crowd suddenly cried out convulsively.

—…Ribbit!

And immediately after, the rest of the frogs began letting out loud croaks all at once.

As if trying to receive the rain with their entire bodies, they raised both arms high into the air.

—Ribbit!

—Ribboooool…!

—Ribaaak!

“Crazy.”

At the ear-splitting chorus of frog cries, Yeongwoo frowned deeply and tried to say something to Duke Dalqui.

But by then, Duke Dalqui and Lady Kanaph were also standing with their mouths wide open toward the falling rain, repeating “ribbit, ribbit.”

There was no escaping racial instinct.

‘Well… they seem to like it, so I guess it’s not a bad thing.’

Amid the endless frog croaking, Yeongwoo lifted his head and looked beyond the golden rain.

And there, far off on one side of the sky, a bright golden star was shining brilliantly.

Like the sun itself.

‘What’s that? Well, this place should have a star too, but… that’s way too bright.’

It wasn’t just shining—it was blazing.

He could even see golden masses clinging to the edges of the star from here.

‘What in the world is that…?’

Even someone completely ignorant about space could tell it wasn’t normal.

As Yeongwoo tilted his head in confusion, Earth stirred within his consciousness.

○ That’s Earth.

‘What?’

○ What you’re looking at right now… it’s probably Earth.

‘What are you talking about? Why does Earth look like that?’

○ Because the Golden Nebula you summoned is surrounding us right now.

‘What.’

Hearing that, Yeongwoo looked up again at the celestial body beyond the rain.

Now that he looked closely, those golden masses were the Golden Nebula itself.

‘Wait… the owner of the nebula is here, but the summon happened over there?’

○ Well… the Golden Nebula is what causes the Golden Rain across Earth.

‘What? Then don’t tell me right now—’

○ Yeah. Golden Rain is falling everywhere on Earth right now. It’s absolute chaos.

In effect, Yeongwoo had just missed what might be the greatest spectacle in Earth’s history.

—Ribbiiiit!

—Ribbit, ribbit…!

Of course, the sight of the frogs happily soaking in the Golden Rain was pretty spectacular too.

‘Good grief.’

About a minute later, the rain gradually began to subside, and a notification appeared in everyone’s vision.

Piiing!

《The owner of the Golden Nebula, ‘Jeong Yeongwoo,’ has gifted 30,000 Karma to all residents of Tehen.》

Owner of the Golden Nebula, Jeong Yeongwoo.

“Huh…?”

Seeing this, Yeongwoo’s eyes widened.

Unlike when the Golden Rain had fallen on Earth, this time his name had no identification number attached to it.

‘What? It used to say Jeong Yeongwoo07.’

While he was still surprised, a follow-up message appeared before everyone.

《30,000 Karma will soon be presented in commemorative coin form. Please prepare.》

Even now, the frogs were still busy enjoying the rain—but once golden coins began materializing in midair, that quickly changed.

Chwarrrrk!

With a sound like coins rolling and clattering, real golden coins fell right before their eyes, and they couldn’t help but reach out.

—Uh?

—What’s this?

—…Money?

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

Their caution already lowered by the Golden Rain, the frogs tried to pick up the coins without much suspicion.

Most of them lacked high martial ability, so they had to scramble to pick up coins from the ground, which made Yeongwoo quickly add an explanation.

“Three coins each! Don’t take more, and don’t take fewer!”

—Three…?

—Is that why it’s 30,000 Karma?

Following Yeongwoo’s instructions, each frog picked up exactly three coins scattered around them—and soon noticed something.

Yeongwoo’s face was clearly engraved on the golden commemorative coins.

—Oh.

—This is…?

—There are coins like this?

Having received commemorative coins for the first time in their lives, the frogs looked back and forth between the portrait and the real Yeongwoo with confused expressions.

Then Duke Dalqui held out a coin and asked—

—Wh-what exactly is this?

“What do you mean? It’s money. I said it already—I’m giving you settlement support funds for Earth.”

—You did say that, but… this is really money? But just now…

Duke Dalqui wore a deeply conflicted expression.

After all, he had just watched money being created right in front of his eyes.

“This isn’t counterfeit or anything. It’s real money. Don’t worry.”

After saying that, Yeongwoo quickly turned his attention back to Earth, which he had almost forgotten.

‘Did coins fall over there too? What’s the situation?’

○ It’s a mess.

‘What?’

○ Obviously. Money suddenly started falling out of thin air without warning.

‘But everyone got coins, right?’

If that was the case, tonight’s tax revenue would be enormous.

He had finally found a way to generate wealth without relying on the reset system.

And Earth’s approval rating would inevitably skyrocket as well.

‘At last… I’ve gained real legitimacy as a planetary representative.’

Blinking rapidly at the optimistic outlook, Yeongwoo quickly checked another important matter.

‘What about Guro?’

○ Hm?

‘Guro’s brothers. Did coins generate for them too?’

This was extremely important.

It would reveal whether the Golden Nebula considered “alien tenants” as planetary residents.

After a brief silence, Earth returned with the answer.

○ Oh my god.

‘What happened?’

○ Coins were generated for the Red Foot tribe too.

‘Then the brothers officially count as Earthlings. Same for any future tenants.’

Exactly as expected.

Yeongwoo nodded and gazed fondly at the frogs before him—the future taxpayers.

Or rather, he was already thinking ahead to future refugees that would appear.

Earth’s population had drastically decreased due to the reset, after all.

So no matter how much Golden Rain fell across the planet, Karma generation would inevitably hit a limit.

But if they accepted alien tenants like this, they could generate additional Karma proportional to their numbers.

‘And that means more taxes too. This is basically printing money… no, literally minting money.’

While Yeongwoo stared into space, lost in thoughts of the distant future, Duke Dalqui spoke again.

—So… is it finally time for us to leave our homeland?

“Yes. You’ve gathered all the supplies Earth requested, right?”

At Yeongwoo’s question, Duke Dalqui pointed somewhere beyond the sea of frogs.

—We’ve gathered as much work equipment as possible. And our circulation system as well.

“Circulation system?”

—We need to be rained on periodically to survive. So we possess an environmental control system for emergencies.

“For a planet you said was broke from repairing a planetary ship, you seem to have a lot of stuff.”

—There was a time when we were greatly prosperous. If not for you people, we would still be living in peace and wealth.

By “you people,” Duke Dalqui meant Yeongwoo and Phaemong, the owners of planetary ships.

“But thanks to me, you got your younger sibling back and found a new home, didn’t you? Earth is a land of opportunity. I hope you can thrive there again.”

After saying that, Yeongwoo looked up at the sky.

“Once I give the command, the Earth-ship will take you to the land of opportunity.”

Duke Dalqui looked around and spoke bitterly.

—We… are ready. Let us depart before Salzeo arrives.

But Yeongwoo raised one hand slightly, signaling that it wasn’t time yet.

“Ready? Not quite.”

—…What?

“We’re finished preparing on our side. We already cleared out the area where you’ll be living.”

—Then shouldn’t we go there immediately? Let us leave at once.

“No. Before that, I need to collect the lease payment.”

—…What?

Duke Dalqui’s mouth dropped open.

Meanwhile, Yeongwoo had already raised a single index finger.

“I don’t want to charge first-month rent to people who just lost their homeland. So just give me one of the three coins you just received. I’ll let you live in northern Australia on a lease.”

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]