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Chapter 316: Cosmic Lobbying (1)

Lobbying, a prison, and space.

These disjointed keywords floated in Yeongwoo\'s mind, but there was no time to dwell on them any longer.

Rumble, rumble…!

Already, high above Seoul’s sky, something like the eye of a typhoon had started forming in the distance.

— What? Are the examiners heading straight here?

At the bizarre phenomenon of the swirling sky, Song Jiseon gripped her greatsword threateningly, while Yeongwoo, after a brief moment of thought, turned his gaze to the west.

“No, they’re probably headed for where the Shrine of the Four Deities is. Right in front of the Victory Monument.”

After all, that\'s where they submitted the promotion evaluation request by accumulating enough glory points, so that was most likely where the examiners would land.

Then, Yeongwoo pointed far off toward Jeonggu and the orc lord, Bantubangtong.

“Mother, can you give my companions a ride?”

— What?

“I\'ll take Yechan with me, so please give the others a ride.”

— You want me to play chauffeur?

“If you\'re not going to attack Seoul, there’s no other use for your dragon form now.”

As Yeongwoo gestured for Yechan to get on Negwig, Yechan shook his head.

“No, thanks. I’d rather run like before…”

Since Negwig wasn’t any faster than he was, there didn’t seem to be any need to ride together.

But Yeongwoo never intended to take him all the way to Jongno in the first place.

“What are you talking about? There\'s no way you’ll make it to Jongno on time by running now.”

“Then what?”

Yechan tilted his head in confusion, prompting Yeongwoo to point at the "tower" in Gwangjin-gu.

“We’ll take that today. It’s the only way to get to Jongno in less than a minute.”

* * *

Screech!

As Yeongwoo and Yechan approached the tower on the Negwig, the tower’s tightly shut outer walls split open to reveal a path.

“What the—? What is that?”

Yechan, who had never used this transportation method before, was in utter shock, and Yeongwoo pointed to the top of the tower as if to emphasise its importance.

“Think of it as your future workplace. This tower lets you move at near the speed of light to the next tower.”

“Near the speed of light…?”

“Each tower functions as a station. Towers like these have already been built across China. You’ll use them to collect money from now on.”

Yechan asked a perfectly reasonable question.

“Wait, did the Chinese just leave these towers alone? I bet they tried to destroy them as soon as they saw them.”

“Of course they did. But they failed.”

“...?”

“If you try to destroy it yourself, you’ll see why. This tower isn’t easily broken.”

“So who can destroy it?”

“Me.”

“...?”

“Even my mother would find it difficult to destroy this tower. So…”

Whoosh!

As the Negwig carrying the two of them shot up toward the top of the tower, Yeongwoo finished his thought.

“If you ever see someone managing to damage the tower, don’t even think about fighting them. Run away and call me as fast as you can.”

“The durability of this tower is that high?”

“It’s built with souls, after all.”

Just as Yeongwoo said, they reached the top of the tower in the blink of an eye.

Then a system message, seemingly embedded in the transportation system, appeared as a notification.

「A new user has been detected. Would you like to register as a regular user?」

Without hesitation, Yeongwoo placed his hand on the control device in the center of the tower’s summit and authorized Yechan’s user registration.

Flash!

「Kang Yechan306 has been registered as a regular user.」

The message displayed after the process was already complete, and Yechan, seeing the same message in his vision, widened his eyes.

“What? Did something just happen?”

“Congratulations on your new job.”

Yeongwoo, saying this, was already looking out beyond the tower’s open outer walls.

Even in broad daylight, a path of light was glowing brilliantly.

“There are only 30 seconds left. We need to hurry.”

“Thirty seconds? Then it’s already too late, isn’t it?”

“Do you even know what ‘near the speed of light’ means?”

“Well, it\'s not exactly the speed of light…”

Just as Yechan was about to retort, his surroundings turned blindingly white.

Shooo!

In an instant, their location shifted to Seongdong-gu.

“...Huh?”

Then again.

Flash!

“Wait, hold on!”

Before Yechan could say anything, a strange sensation washed over him as they transitioned again.

Boom!

A blinding light filled Yechan’s vision, and when he opened his eyes again...

“...?”

The view from the top of the tower looked just the same, but they had arrived in a completely different area.

“We’re here. This is Jongno.”

As Yeongwoo slammed his palm down on the round control device, they rapidly descended.

Whoosh!

“When did you even build something like this?”

Yechan asked in awe, marveling at Seoul’s incredible development.

Yeongwoo replied calmly.

“We’re on our way to meet the planetary examiners. Is this really that impressive to you?”

“Well, yeah, but still…”

Yechan had adapted fairly quickly to this world, but what was happening in Seoul was beyond imagination.

For one, the fact that Yeongwoo had taken the position of mayor was surprising, and then there was Metal Seoul, not to mention how orcs were now building bridges.

“Aren’t you afraid?”

“Of what?”

“Of everything that’s happening. You’re the one who caused all of this, right? So doesn’t that mean you’ll be responsible for everything?”

“That’s right.”

Yeongwoo answered briefly, then after a moment of thought, spoke with a serious tone.

“That’s why I can’t afford to fail. I’ll do whatever it takes to succeed.”

Surviving in the vast universe as a small planet—Yeongwoo was learning how to do just that, step by step, starting from the bottom.

Clang!

Negwig’s iron hooves clattered as they sped toward the Shrine of the Four Deities and the Victory Monument in the distance.

At the same time, from above, the ice dragon Song Jiseon descended, holding Jeonggu and Bantubangtong in each hand.

Though there had been some bumps along the way, everyone had finally gathered.

The founding members of the "noble family" that Yeongwoo had dreamed of.

“Is that orc part of your retinue too?”

As the Negwig galloped, Yechan pointed at the orc lord, Bantubangtong.

Yeongwoo shook his head.

“Retinue? No, Master Bang is my brother. He’s more than just a retainer.”

Yeongwoo’s family wasn’t just multicultural—it was multi-species.

“...That’s definitely cosmic.”

Yechan, now appearing more composed, glanced up at the sky, just in time to see a massive lightning strike.

“Huh? Sir!”

As the sky flickered blue, Yeongwoo looked up, but what he saw wasn’t lightning.

“Oh, what?”

What Yechan had mistaken for lightning was actually the blue light emitted intermittently by a colossal ship.

It had just shone through the clouds, making it look like lightning from below.

“They really arrived right on time.”

Yeongwoo’s guest timer had also just hit zero.

And then, from the sky—

Rrrrrrooooaaaar!

A tremendous noise, like a machine growling, reverberated wide and deep.

This bizarre sound came from the ship that carried the examiners.

“How big is that thing? I can’t even tell what it looks like.”

Yechan muttered as he gazed up at the ships of the inspectors, which filled the sky.

Next to him, Yeongwoo, with a frustrated expression, spat out,

"Damn it... Why don\'t we have something like that?"

He was genuinely upset.

They were forced to admire ships like that, which were given even to mere planetary inspectors.

It was in this moment that the vastness of the universe truly hit him.

And as expected.

Boom, boom!

Song Jiseon, in the form of a giant dragon, approached with heavy footsteps.

She set down Jeonggu and Bantubangtong with an extremely displeased look on her face.

― You don\'t have anything like that? We really are small fry.

At this point, she realized just how massive the "universe" her son wanted to enter truly was.

"Which is why we need to be the ones bribing them, not the ones getting bribed."

With these words, Yeongwoo pulled out a commemorative coin from his pocket, and Song Jiseon bared her teeth.

― But those guys don\'t seem like your average civil servants, do they? You can just tell by looking at them. Even if the bribe works, it\'s going to cost us a lot.

"......"

Yeongwoo couldn’t help but agree with his mother\'s words.

The only civil servant he’d ever met in person was the registrar of the temporary district office of the National Tax Service, Jiazol, and even he didn’t have a ship like that—just a simple portal for transportation.

Sure, portals were more convenient in terms of practicality, but...

‘That’s a whole different level of protocol. They haven’t even shown themselves yet, but they’re already intimidating.’

At this point, a question occurred to Yeongwoo.

‘Then... could the Chairman beat them?’

The Dogo Chairman was known for beating up civil servants, but Yeongwoo wasn’t sure about his limits.

And he had no idea whether the "commissioner" the Chairman had supposedly killed outranked these inspectors.

The civil servant he’d met from the National Tax Service, Jiazol, was ranked an impressive 86th grade.

So, just how many kinds of civil servants were out there in the universe?

‘The one who took issue with the transfer of mythic weapons probably wasn’t low-ranking either... But judging from these ships, the inspectors don’t seem to be lower-level either.’

While Yeongwoo’s face contorted with confusion, a bright light turned on from the sky and shone in a circle near the Sajik altar.

Thoom!

For the first time, the inspectors spoke.

〔Step forward, the one who has requested the promotion review.〕

“Ugh.”

"......!"

As the inspectors called for the applicant, Yechan and Jeonggu instinctively shrank back, covering their ears.

The voice seemed to be broadcasted through the ship, a modified version of the mechanical cry they had heard earlier, forming into words.

The pressure from the voice was immense, but there were at least three people in the area who stood tall.

Those three were Jeong Yeongwoo, the mayor of Metal Seoul, Song Jiseon, the ice dragon, and Bantubangtong, the red-footed orc lord.

Each had their own reasons for refusing to bend in front of such overwhelmingly superior beings.

And among them, especially Yeongwoo.

‘I’ll beat you all down someday...!’

Fueled by sheer willpower, he withstood the pressure from the inspectors.

Click!

Yeongwoo, clad in the Vesedel armor, stepped forward into the spot designated by the inspectors, and the light that spotted him flickered, almost as if blinking.

Then suddenly:

〔Who the hell is that guy?〕

An unintentional broadcasted voice rang out through the ship’s loudspeakers.

Then came the sound of someone calling another person urgently.

〔Take a look at this.〕

〔...What is it?〕

〔It’s Vesedel.〕

〔What?〕

There seemed to be several inspectors, as multiple voices with different tones overlapped.

Song Jiseon, who was quietly listening to the commotion, turned to her son and asked.

― What’s Vesedel?

"It’s my backer. The royal family of the universe."

― Ah.

But the royal family had long since fallen.

What Yeongwoo was wearing was closer to a relic of past glory.

Perhaps that’s why.

〔Ha, when was the last time we heard about Vesedel?〕

One of the inspectors scoffed audibly, and Yeongwoo’s brow furrowed.

‘This could get complicated.’

It meant that the inspectors knew enough about the universe to recognize the name "Vesedel," yet still had the nerve to scoff at it.

Being "named" could be a great advantage against those who respected it, but it could backfire just as easily against those who didn’t.

It seemed like this was the latter case.

Next, one of the inspectors shot a question as if interrogating a criminal.

〔Are you some sort of lackey of Vesedel? Reveal your identity properly.〕

Yeongwoo’s brow furrowed deeply, and sensing her son\'s anger rising, Song Jiseon quickly intervened.

― You idiot, don’t do anything reckless! It’s a strategy to bend temporarily when the storm hits.

But Yeongwoo’s hand was already on his sword, Bastard.

"Do you really want to know who I am?"

As Yeongwoo boldly lifted his head, Song Jiseon sighed, realizing they were doomed.

― No! It’s not the time yet!

However, what came out of Yeongwoo’s mouth next was something no one had expected.

"If you really want to know, it’s an honor! Inspector sir...!"

― What...?

"But this little thing here will explain who I am."

Shhh.

Yeongwoo raised the small piece of metal he had been holding in his palm.

It was none other than a commemorative coin with his own face engraved on it—a "karma" type of object, known throughout the universe.

In other words, money.

As if waiting for this moment:

〔Oh.〕

The voice inside the ship let out a sound of interest.

〔So the rumors were true.〕

The light that had been shining on Yeongwoo flickered rapidly.

〔Isn’t Vesedel supposed to be the most skilled in etiquette in the entire universe!〕

‘…Damn it.’

Yeongwoo flashed a bright smile toward the ship, holding up the coin.

Then he whispered to his mother through clenched teeth.

“These bastards are taking bribes. You were right this time, Mother."