Level 4 Human in a Ruined World

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

Chapter 310: Noble Family (2)

"What... what the hell, man? What are you going to do?"

When Jeonggu gaped, Yeongwoo raised a finger to his lips, signaling him to be quiet.

"Shhh! She’ll hear everything from over there. Keep it down."

"What the hell, you lunatic! We're facing her anyway, so what difference does it make if she hears us?"

Jeonggu shouted, completely baffled.

Well, whether it was a political marriage or not, the ones involved were Song Jiseon and Kim Jeonggu after all.

"Ah, that's true."

As Yeongwoo nodded in agreement, Song Jiseon, who had been exuding a cold aura from a distance, slammed her massive sword into the ground and spoke.

Thud!

— I heard everything from the beginning, you idiots.

"Ji... Jiseon!"

As Song Jiseon joined the conversation, Jeonggu instinctively hunched over in fear, like a shrimp.

Seeing his father like this, Yeongwoo looked puzzled.

'How did this guy...'

What on earth had happened that night?

Yeongwoo couldn't even begin to imagine.

Of course, it had been over 30 years, so their dynamics and characters might have been entirely different back then.

In any case, Yeongwoo had to reunite the two to revive their family's roots.

Even if they didn't want to.

'But why is the title of the achievement called "Noble Family"? Does it mean if I complete this series of achievements, it will automatically become a noble family?'

[Noble Family: Restoration of the Roots]

The name seemed puzzling, especially since the family didn't even exist yet.

'Well, I’ll probably figure out the reason once I deal with the current issue.'

Moreover, today was the day the locations of Mara and Lemu's businesses were revealed, and the planet upgrade assessment was starting.

He couldn't waste too much time on this matter.

"Since you both are mature adults, I won’t waste time explaining everything."

Yeongwoo pointed his sword at his mother and father in turn, causing both of them to flinch.

"W-what is it?"

— What nonsense is it now?

In response, Yeongwoo showed them his left ring finger and said,

"I don't care if it's just a marriage of convenience. Either way, you two are getting formally married. Like it or not, the three of us here are now a 'family.' Got it?"

"You... you want us actually to get married?"

Jeonggu stammered as he glanced sideways at his 'partner,' feeling her gaze.

Song Jiseon pulled her giant sword from the ground.

Thud!

— And if I refuse? Why should I marry someone like him now?

Yeongwoo had anticipated such resistance, so he pointed to the sky.

Swoosh.

"If you don't marry my father, I won’t be able to help you. You’ll lose the chance to see what’s up there in the sky."

— ......!

At Yeongwoo's words, Song Jiseon's helmet tilted upward toward the sky.

The sky.

To be precise, the world outside this planet, where the source of this disaster resided in space.

What kind of place was it?

What monstrous entities lurked there?

Although Song Jiseon had returned seeking revenge against those responsible for all of this, beneath her declaration lay an unquenchable curiosity.

Like Yeongwoo, or perhaps more accurately, Yeongwoo’s insatiable curiosity had come from her.

"Aren't you curious? About who turned you into a dragon and who made our planet like this?"

Clench.

Yeongwoo clenched his right hand, which was wrapped in the Vesedel armor.

"And why did they give us a chance after doing this to us? I'm dying to find out."

— A chance? What do you mean?"

"A chance to venture into space and challenge those who were once above us. Honestly, they could have just wiped us out. But instead, in that time, I’ve grown to be able to kill a lower-level official from space."

— ......?

And that, in just one week.

Sure, there had been some fortunate encounters and surprising achievements, but it had all happened because space had allowed it.

In other words, the existence of Jeong Yeongwoo07 was the universe's inadvertent creation.

"Since we were given a chance, we have to seize it. I’m going beyond that sky. So, Mother, make your choice. Will you join me in a bigger world, or will you get beaten up by your son and end up in a coffin?"

However, to join this son who was preparing to integrate Earth into the cosmos, she had to become a married woman...

— You're seriously insane.

After listening to her son's speech, Song Jiseon gave a brief assessment, and Yeongwoo held up his birth certificate.

"As I said, this situation is all because of my..."

— Alright, fine! I get it, dammit! Stop talking! Why are you acting like being an orphan is some kind of badge of honor? What kind of person even does that?

Whoosh!

Song Jiseon cut him off by swinging her ice sword and then looked at Jeonggu through her helmet.

— So, all I have to do is be married to him in name only, right?

"Yes, for now. I’ll figure out the formalities."

— The formalities?

"Yes, there must be some cosmic certification process. That's how I confirmed my paternity."

He could ask Kubu, the mediator and tax officer, for that.

"Alright, then it's settled? You two are getting married?"

As Yeongwoo’s pupils glowed gold again, both of his parents remained silent.

"Alright, good."

Yeongwoo sorted out the situation on his own.

Then, he looked toward the outskirts of Gwangjin-gu, where his mother’s icy aura had been raging until recently.

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

"Did you kill something over there earlier?"

— What? I don’t remember.

When Song Jiseon responded as if she truly didn’t know, Yeongwoo summoned Negwig.

Then he peeled the slime core off his father’s forearm and hopped onto Negwig’s back.

Leap!

"My mother isn't a mutant from Gwangjin-gu. Someone else was supposed to show up."

— What? Someone else was supposed to be here?"

"Yes, but you already killed them."

— What are you talking about? I was just breathing."

"Exactly. You killed them with your breath."

Yeongwoo shook his head in disbelief.

Nonetheless, he steered Negwig toward the outskirts of Gwangjin-gu.

* * *

Crash, crash!

There it was, just as Negwig had transported him to the northern outskirts of Gwangjin-gu.

The golden orb left behind by the death of a mutant.

'It really is here! I wasn’t imagining things earlier.'

Earlier, as he crossed swords with his mother, he thought he saw a flash of blue light far off in his peripheral vision.

It turned out it wasn’t just his imagination.

While the cold reunion between mother and son was happening in Gwangjin-gu, a mutant assigned to the area had descended.

And upon arrival, they were instantly swept away by a freezing current, strangling their last breath...

‘They probably froze to death before they even managed to get out of the danger zone.’

Standing in front of the unknown mutant's remains, Yeongwoo couldn't help but feel a sense of guilt.

They were destined to die anyway, but this was someone who had waited in the dark for so long, only to return here.

And yet, as a mutant, they died without even voicing their aspirations, meeting a lonely end.

‘Let's take it.’

When Yeongwoo pointed to the golden orb floating in midair, the Golden Goblin gathered the orb as if it were carefully collecting remains.

Screeech!

With that, the Gwangjin-gu problem for the day was solved.

The dragon assigned to Seoul was dealt with, and the orb of the Gwangjin-gu mutant had been retrieved.

Now, all that was left...

—What? So you're nothing more than a corpse cleaner now?

As she approached, Song Jiseon’s massive shadow loomed over the spot where the orb once was.

"......"

Yeongwoo was suddenly gripped by the urge to unsheathe the Aratubank, but barely managed to restrain himself.

'I have to keep her alive at least until the Root Restoration is complete. And I need to pit her against Uncle.'

Only two conditions remained for Yeongwoo to complete his golden-blooded achievement, Golden Tempest.

-On the North American continent.

-While two individuals, both with the attributes of chaebol and dragonkin, were engaged in combat.

The condition that required two chaebol dragonkin to be fighting during the golden rain was something Yeongwoo couldn't achieve on his own.

"You should be grateful that I didn’t have to clean up your corpse today, considering."

Yeongwoo retorted as he stood up, and Song Jiseon shrugged her shoulders.

—I’m just stating the obvious. So when do I get to see this ‘universe’ you keep talking about?

The very reason for Song Jiseon’s existence was still to face the higher beings who had taken away the life of a chaebol head.

—Everything I built up over the years vanished in an instant. Does that make any sense? Who the hell did this?

"Nothing’s been destroyed. It's just been exchanged."

As Yeongwoo glanced at his mother's towering body, Jiseon spat out her line, dissatisfied.

—Exchanged? Compared to what I had, this is nothing.

"Maybe the exchange rate wasn't in your favor. If you had seen the state of other mutants, you wouldn't be saying that."

Yeongwoo spoke in a calm tone.

In truth, neither the other mutants nor even the other chaebols came close to matching Song Jiseon’s prowess.

Though he hadn’t yet met all the chaebols, it was clear that Jiseon had returned with a level of power far beyond most.

If anything, it was akin to a form of "executive privilege."

"If I hadn’t been here to protect this place, you could have easily taken Seoul... or even the whole Korean Peninsula. Although, I doubt that land would have meant much to you."

—What?

At Yeongwoo's words, Jiseon turned her head and gazed out over the other districts beyond Gwangjin-gu.

—So, you're saying that if I take you out, I’d have no real rivals in Korea?

"......"

Yeongwoo shook his head at his mother’s oversimplified interpretation but acknowledged her words.

"In other words, you're both lucky and unlucky. You're lucky because you gained a son you never had, but unlucky because that son stopped you from becoming the top dog."

—Who the hell is lucky?

"Well, the second place isn't so bad. After all, Jinhyeon Group was second in the business world, wasn’t it?"

—You little...!

Just as Jiseon was about to fly into a rage again, an unsettling rumble came from beyond Gwangjin-gu.

The Strongest Swords from across Seoul were racing toward Gwangjin-gu with the mutant in tow.

Ruuummble...!

"Huh, guess they had a tougher time today."

Yeongwoo muttered knowingly as he glanced toward the source of the noise.

Jiseon, lifting her massive sword, asked,

—What's this now?

Yeongwoo stabbed Bastard into the ground as he answered,

"Go say hello. They're your old colleagues, after all."

—...My colleagues?

"Yes. But don’t use your freezing current. The ones they're chasing are valuable benefactors who will fund our journey. They must survive."

When Yeongwoo mentioned ‘funding,’ Jiseon tilted her head in confusion.

"Yes, the funds. For our trip to the universe. In fact, we're going with their money."

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]