[Translator – Night]
[Proofreader – Gun]
Chapter 238: The Twin Evils of Joseon (1)
[TL/N: The title actually says ‘Twin Peaks’ but i took the creative liberty to name it ‘Twin Evils’ so don’t hate me hehe.]
The price of a life.
How can anyone dare to put a price on a human life? But in this world, it was entirely possible.
‘If you’re really about to die, you’d pay anything to stay alive…’
For Yechan, this was a valuable lesson and experience.
‘Other people must feel the same way. If you’ve saved someone’s life, you deserve some compensation.’
And the person who taught him this was:
“How much of your 170,000 karma are you willing to give me for your life?”
Jeong Yeongwoo07.
The first adult Yechan met in this reset world, and the man who first demanded a life price from him.
In hindsight, it wasn’t normal for Jeong Yeongwoo to be extorting money from a high school student on the first day of the reset.
But when it mattered most, he made a remarkably magnanimous choice.
He chose the “30,000 karma supply,” an option no one had selected before, over the mutation eradication reward.
‘Giving up 3 million karma on the first day of the reset… Could I have done that?’
Yechan had only spent a day with Jeong Yeongwoo, the Strongest Sword of Gumi.
A day is far too short to truly know someone.
Yet, Yechan considered Jeong Yeongwoo his teacher because of the Golden Ratio incident.
Whether intentional or not, Jeong Yeongwoo always succeeded in achieving good results.
‘I want to be like him. He seems weak but isn’t actually weak, and though he appears impulsive, he sees farther ahead than anyone.’
Maybe he was idolizing him too much.
But it didn’t matter.
To Yechan, Jeong Yeongwoo was now an ideal figure.
A textbook on how to survive in this world, the epitome of a survivor.
“……”
Thinking of the now distant figure of Jeong Yeongwoo, Yechan stabbed his spear into the back of the Japanese swordsman crawling on the ground.
Thud!
The man let out a groan and collapsed, his face buried in the dirt.
‘My first kill is a Japanese. It feels somewhat significant.’
Yechan looked around at the now quiet surroundings, having just finished off the last of his enemies.
A battle against thirty opponents.
Normally, it would be an impossible feat, but not for Yechan.
He had monopolized the mutants in most of North Gyeongsang and parts of Chungcheongbuk-do and Chungcheongnam-do, making his overall stats immense.
And the number of merchants he had encountered was incomparable to other Strongest Swords.
‘Just five days of intense training made such a difference? There don’t seem to be many strong people around.’
He had been facing ten mutants a day, almost never encountering another person.
So he had an unrealistic view of other Strongest Swords, but today, that illusion shattered.
Slash, stab!
Yechan silently went around stabbing the corpses of the Japanese with his spear, causing Kim Chaena, who had been watching in a daze, to ask cautiously.
“What… what are you doing?”
“Confirming they’re dead. What are we going to do with these bodies? We can’t bury them on our land, so we should burn them or something, right?”
“What…?”
Chaena was taken aback by the unexpected suggestion.
“We can’t just leave the invaders’ bodies here.”
It was unthinkable to bury the invaders’ bodies in their precious land, so Yechan suggested burning them or disposing of them in the sea.
“Well, that’s true, but…”
“Burning all these bodies?”
The Strongest Swords of the Southern Alliance looked troubled.
Wham!
Suddenly, a loud noise came from the sky.
“What is it now?”
“Could it be reinforcements?”
“The sound is coming from the sky.”
As someone pointed out, the mysterious noise was indeed coming from the sky.
Given the current situation, it couldn’t be an airplane, so logically, it was either a mutant appearance or something extraterrestrial.
‘But it’s not time for mutants to appear, and it’s even less likely for a merchant to show up now.’
Even Yechan, now self-proclaimed the Strongest Spear in North Gyeongsang, looked up at the sky with a tense expression.
He could handle any enemy on the ground, but an unknown presence descending from the sky was unpredictable.
‘What’s coming? Did Japan have something more?’
Given the circumstances, he could only assume it was a follow-up unit from Japan.
So Yechan,
Thud!
He gripped his spear firmly and took a throwing stance, ready to intercept whatever it was.
And shortly after,
Boom!
A massive cloud in the sky burst open, and from within,
Wham!
A clunky machine, resembling a mine elevator, fell.
“Wha—?”
“What, what is that?”
“Japan! Isn’t it the Japanese military?”
Although they still didn’t know exactly what it was, everyone could see that the elevator was filled with something, so naturally, all eyes turned to Yechan.
He was the one who had decided to collect a price for their lives.
Now was the time for him to earn that money.
“Quickly, do something!”
“Hurry up! The Strongest Spear of Gyeongbuk!”
The people of the Southern Alliance urged Yechan, calling out a title that didn’t even exist.
At this moment, Yechan:
“Hoo.”
He held his breath and aimed the tip of his spear at the problematic elevator.
And finally,
Whoosh!
He swung his right arm strongly, sending the spear flying.
Swoosh!
The red spear flew with a sound like a fighter jet taking off.
Having seen Yechan single-handedly slaughter thirty Japanese soldiers, no one in the Southern Alliance doubted the power of the spear.
Even Yechan didn’t think his attack would fail.
However,
Swoosh…!
Yechan’s spear, which made a fierce sound as it pierced the air, suddenly vanished as soon as it touched the inside of the elevator.
It neither pierced through the elevator nor bounced off.
“…?”
“What? Where did the spear go?”
While everyone was looking around for the suddenly disappeared spear, Yechan alone broke out in a cold sweat.
‘…No way. This can’t be happening.’
People thought the spear had disappeared, but it only looked that way because the elevator was falling rapidly.
In reality…
‘Did someone actually catch my spear? From inside?’
As Yechan stared in disbelief, the mysterious elevator crashed into the middle of Cheongsapo.
Boom!
And from inside, enormous aliens with reddish skin began to pour out.
Rumble…
The sight of them rolling out like boulders made the Strongest Swords of the Southern Alliance instinctively step back, including Yechan.
“……!”
He had to struggle to keep his right foot, which was unconsciously trying to retreat, planted in place.
But still, his primary weapon, the spear, was inside that elevator.
‘I’m confident I can fight better than anyone without a weapon…’
But that was only against other humans.
Especially since inside that elevator was an expert who had easily caught the spear he threw.
Was it just luck?
No. It couldn’t be.
‘Damn it.’
Just as Yechan was about to ask Kim Chaena, the Strongest Swordswoman of Ulsan, to lend him her spear,
Step!
He heard a different kind of footstep from inside the elevator.
A sound like someone walking barefoot on the floor.
“Uh…?”
Yechan, sensing a familiar sound, turned his head back toward the elevator, and soon an unexpected voice came from within.
“Is this the only weapon you have?”
A human voice.
No, it was a voice that couldn’t be described simply as human.
“…Huh? Huh?”
[Translator – Night]
[Proofreader – Gun]
As Yechan, almost in a daze, took one hesitant step after another toward the elevator, the figure inside finally emerged.
Holding the red spear that Yechan had thrown in his left hand.
Step!
A man, half-naked except for the pants he was wearing.
However, the title above his head overwhelmed everyone present.
『Strongest Sword of Joseon』
“Joseon…?”
“What kind of title is that?”
The Strongest Swords of the Southern Alliance widened their eyes.
Some of them were already cautiously putting away their drawn weapons.
Having confirmed that the Strongest Sword of Joseon was holding the weapon thrown by the self-proclaimed Strongest Spear of Gyeongbuk, Kang Yechan, they quickly realized that someone far more skilled had appeared.
Even bringing along aliens who were clearly not ordinary beings.
Meanwhile, Yechan:
“Ah, Uncle? Is it really you?”
Still in disbelief, he continued to approach the elevator.
And then,
-Kwaah!
The reddish aliens, the Mon-O Warriors, who had previously jumped out of the elevator, blocked his way.
“…?”
Yechan glared at them momentarily, but the Mon-O Warriors responded with unyielding, rock-like gazes.
They really felt like literal rocks, or more accurately, immense walls.
It felt like not only would he not be able to defeat these guys in a fight, but he wouldn’t even be able to scratch them with his spear.
‘Are these guys the uncle’s bodyguards?’
If so, what kind of being had “uncle” become to command such monsters?
“Let him through. He’s a very close colleague of mine.”
When Yeongwoo, standing in front of the elevator, said this, the Mon-O Warriors, who had exuded a paralyzing sense of intimidation just moments before, stepped back and made way.
Rumble.
At this moment, Yechan realized.
In just five days, Uncle had ascended to a level that ordinary Strongest Swords couldn’t even dream of reaching.
‘I knew he wasn’t an ordinary person…!’
Indeed, he was someone worthy of being a mentor and role model.
“Uncle!”
Finally, Yechan ran down the wide path opened by the Mon-O Warriors to his mentor in this insane world, Jeong Yeongwoo.
Tap tap!
Yeongwoo also spread his arms to welcome the boy who had been his first companion.
“Oh, yeah…!”
Clap!
With his arms wide open, Yeongwoo rolled his eyes in thought.
Exhausted from the journey, he couldn’t exactly remember the boy’s name who was approaching with such a happy face.
‘Chan? What was it? Ohchan?’
But the boy was already right in front of him, so Yeongwoo decided to go with it.
Hug!
He tightly embraced Yechan, letting half of the name drift away in the air.
“…Chan! You’re alive!”
“Uncle…!”
It was an emotional reunion between mentor and student.
“What have you been up to all this time? What is all this?”
Yechan asked, looking around at the elevator and the Mon-O Warriors, and Yeongwoo scratched his chin.
“Well… A lot of things happened.”
Then, as if he had just remembered, he handed the spear he was holding in his left hand back to Yechan.
“What about you? What have you been doing? You’ve gotten incredibly strong.”
Yeongwoo was equally surprised by Yechan’s state.
When he had caught the spear earlier, he had sensed that Yechan’s total ability level was a staggering 7,000 through his sensory deprivation technique.
Judging by the power of the flying spear, it was clear that his strength was abnormally high.
This meant Yechan’s average ability level far exceeded Yeongwoo’s.
“Well, I…”
Yechan couldn’t hide his smile after being praised by his mentor.
However, their conversation couldn’t continue.
-Kwaah!
One of the Mon-O Warriors approached Yeongwoo and tapped his shoulder with a blunt finger.
Yechan immediately furrowed his brows and glared at the Mon-O Warrior.
“What is this, rude fellow?”
Even though they were aliens unaware of Earth’s customs, how dare they touch his revered mentor’s body without permission?
“What are these guys?”
Yechan, showing his displeasure, asked his mentor, the Strongest Sword of Joseon, Jeong Yeongwoo, who covered his mouth and whispered to Yechan.
“Be quiet!”
“…What?”
“If you don’t want to get beaten up by them, stay quiet.”
“What? Aren’t they your subordinates?”
“No. I hitched a ride on credit.”
“On credit?”
Yechan, startled, inadvertently raised his voice, and Yeongwoo grabbed his shoulder tightly.
Then he glanced at the people of the Southern Alliance, who were staring at them with frightened faces.
“We need to collect some money from those people to pay for the fare.”
“Fare…?”
Yechan looked at the Mon-O Warriors and then at the elevator that had fallen from the sky.
Then he sighed deeply.
“How much is the fare?”
“13… no, 15.”
“150000 Karma? What’s the problem…?”
“Of course, it’s in the tens of millions.”
“What? So, 15 million?”
At the unimaginable fare, Yechan exclaimed loudly.
In contrast, Yeongwoo responded with a puzzled expression.
“Why? There are so many Strongest Swords here. If you collect 1.5 million per person…”
“No, that’s not it.”
Yechan scratched his chin and whispered to Yeongwoo.
“I’m supposed to collect some money too. Isn’t double-charging a bit too much?”
“What? What money are you collecting? What did you do?”
Yeongwoo jumped at the mention of money, and Yechan pointed to the corpses of the Japanese soldiers scattered around with his finger.
“Oh.”
Yeongwoo immediately understood the situation.
Then he asked in a businesslike tone.
“How much were you planning to collect?”
“Well, 3 million…?”
“30? That’s too much for a public service. Just collect 15 million today. Add my fare, and the total will be 30 million.”
Yeongwoo cautiously showed three fingers near his belly button, indicating ‘30’, and this time, Yechan furrowed his brows.
“What are you talking about? I fought 30-to-1 and came all the way here. How can I take only 15 million?”
“How much do you make a day? No, how much tax do you pay?”
“Tax?”
At the word ‘tax,’ Yechan faltered, and Yeongwoo, sensing an advantage, grinned wickedly.
“If you’re unsure, take half today. In return, I’ll show you the world of an interstellar entrepreneur.”
[Translator – Night]
[Proofreader – Gun]
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