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HEL SCANS
[Translator – Night]
[Proofreader – Gun]
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Chapter 246: The Great Migration (1)
The Butterfly Effect
The term “butterfly effect” describes a phenomenon where a small incident, like a butterfly’s flutter, can eventually lead to an enormous result, akin to a typhoon.
This is akin to how Jeonggu’s “one-night stand” resulted in “Jeong Yeongwoo 07.”
Of course, it was predictable that an unprotected one-night stand could result in an unplanned child.
But who could have foreseen it?
Could anyone have predicted that a child, born from such a negligent act, would survive until the worst event in human history, the “Reset,” and would eventually become the Strongest in Joseon?
Perhaps if there were a god in this universe, he might have known, but Jeonggu certainly didn’t.
He was unaware of his son’s existence until the Reset, and he certainly didn’t know that his son would soon grow up to become Joseon’s Strongest Sword and come after him with a sword.
So.
‘It’s unfair. So unfair!’
Jeonggu felt it was unjust.
He was confident that he hadn’t lived a life bad enough to deserve such a severe punishment.
Thus, the Reset that wiped out everyone’s fate didn’t apply to him.
He was living a life where the karma he unknowingly accumulated was returning as a terrifying retribution every day.
His life after the Reset was the butterfly effect itself.
And now, in front of his eyes, one of the consequences of his past karma lay clad in black armor.
“Brother! Are you okay?”
As Jeonggu ran towards the huge black knight, internally chanting, “Please be dead!” his son, who looked more like a corpse than a living person, greeted him.
“That guy is already dead. Didn’t you see the notification earlier?”
“Oh, really?”
Jeonggu awkwardly lifted his knees off the ground and looked down at his biggest problem—his biological son.
『Joseon’s Strongest Sword』
The title burning brightly above his son’s head explained a lot.
Why the dragon died again, but his son survived, and why he ended up back near this kid once more.
Jeonggu thought of his son as a black hole.
「Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!」
And soon enough, the sixth-day mutant of Dobong-gu, who had been fiercely chasing Jeonggu and Negwig, was breathing heavily in their ears.
The mutant had gotten very close.
“What is that?”
As Yeongwoo, lying on the ground, lifted his head to look up, he saw a huge jackal charging at them aggressively.
[Businessman – Lee Jinyoung]
The sixth-day mutant of Dobong-gu, businessman Lee Jinyoung.
Yeongwoo had never seen this name before, which meant that he probably caused an incident in the area or was a criminal who briefly made headlines when Yeongwoo wasn’t paying attention.
“Do you know this person? This Lee Jinyoung?”
“What? Oh, of course not.”
As Jeonggu nodded in response to Yeongwoo’s question, Golden Trail sliced through the air.
Whoosh!
It was to counter the mutant who had lowered its stance to snatch Yeongwoo from the ground, like a bat hitting an incoming baseball.
However, the opponent was a sixth-day mutant.
Although it looked like just a large beast, its strength and agility were beyond imagination.
「A strange trick.」
Lee Jinyoung, swiftly rolling to the side to dodge the attack, successfully grabbed Yeongwoo from the ground with its jaws.
「Ha!」
It was like a wild dog snatching meat from the street.
Lee Jinyoung, with Yeongwoo in its mouth, mocked Jeonggu, who was just standing there staring.
「What? Is this all you’ve got after running so far?」
Then suddenly,
「What the…?」
Lee Jinyoung wrinkled its nose and opened its mouth wide.
Naturally, Yeongwoo, who was in its mouth, rolled to the ground, and soon smoke began to rise.
Sizzle!
The inside of Lee Jinyoung’s mouth started corroding.
Lee Jinyoung, panicking with its eyes wide open, was startled.
“He’s like a pufferfish. You’d better not even sniff him.”
Meanwhile, Lee Jinyoung, with a large hole in its jaw, was writhing on the ground, almost crawling.
「Please, spare me!」
【Corrosive Blood】
| The blood has mutated to have corrosive properties.
This was due to the corrosive blood effect, one of the effects of the dragon’s heart, and the pain-inducing effect of the Golden Punishment.
From now on, unless it was an exceptionally strong mutant, any attempt to injure Yeongwoo would be akin to a suicide attempt.
“I have a lot to do today. Dealing with both Chinese and Japanese,”
Yeongwoo muttered as he struggled to get up, but Lee Jinyoung, who was rolling on the ground, couldn’t hear him properly.
「Ugh…」
“Oh, my bad. It hurts a lot, doesn’t it?”
Leaving someone like this, whether intentional or not, is a form of torture.
Feeling like he was accumulating bad karma in real-time, Yeongwoo quickly reached for the hilt of his sword.
Thunk.
Then,
Slash!
In one swift motion, he drew his sword and beheaded Lee Jinyoung.
Snick!
A very clean decapitation.
「Grrk…」
Lee Jinyoung, whose head was severed by the sword, let out a short groan and collapsed, his head and body soon separating, and blood pouring out.
“There aren’t any mutants from other regions coming over today. Are they all being handled well on their own?”
Yeongwoo said, looking around the now empty area, to which Jeonggu responded.
“There can be days like that. After two consecutive days of dragon appearances, maybe only weak ones are appearing in other regions.”
“Well… if that’s the case, it’s a relief.”
Yeongwoo hoped for nothing more than that the mutants allocated to each region were being dealt with right there.
Because of the ever-expanding borders due to Pangaea, there wasn’t much time left to handle the issues within Seoul.
‘If there’s any additional trouble from Japan, Yechan will take care of it. So today, I’ll head back to China.’
Today, he would likely meet the so-called collection group from Beijing.
Squish!
As Yeongwoo stepped on Lee Jinyoung’s head on the ground, his body melted into the air, leaving a golden orb.
And seeing this, Yeongwoo finally realized.
“Oh?”
“What? Why?”
“It’s from Gwangjin-gu! A mutant from Gwangjin-gu.”
“…What?”
“Where did this guy go?”
* * *
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HEL SCANS
[Translator – Night]
[Proofreader – Gun]
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At the same time that the Joseon’s Strongest Sword realized the existence of a fugitive, the mutant from Gwangjin-gu in question was flying hurriedly west along the Han River.
「This is insane, impossible.」
Heo Geumhwa, 41 years old, a Korean-Chinese woman.
She was still flapping her wings cautiously, with a bewildered look on her face.
Flash!
She had been staring blankly at the ruins of Gwangjin-gu when she suddenly fled from a fight between someone called the Joseon’s Strongest Sword and a dragon made entirely of steel.
[Internet Broadcaster – Heo Geumhwa (Friendly Geumhwa)]
Also known as “Friendly Geumhwa,” she was a Korean-Chinese YouTuber with a staggering 2 million subscribers.
Her main content included daily vlogs and interviews with Korean-Chinese people living in Korea.
But earlier this year, a problem arose.
One of the many Korean-Chinese she had interviewed was arrested as a suspect in a stabbing incident in a certain region of the country.
Due to this incident, Geumhwa’s YouTube channel instantly became a target, and the slogan she had always advocated, “Integration into Korean society,” shattered.
Then, on June 10th, during the Reset, she received enough votes to be placed on the annihilation list.
「…….」
During the real-time destruction of her channel, Geumhwa was extremely angry.
She was frustrated with this absurd situation and couldn’t understand why the arrows of criticism were directed more at her than at the actual suspect.
Of course, it was inevitable that the attention would be focused on her, whose face and name were well-known, and who made a huge profit from her 2 million subscribers, rather than on the suspect whose face and name were not even properly known.
But Geumhwa was essentially an “individual” and had no way of predicting that a guest on her channel would commit such a crime, so she felt a burning sense of injustice.
About two weeks after the stabbing incident, she posted a letter of protest in the form of an apology on her channel.
As a prominent Korean-Chinese channel, it was right to make a moral apology, but she questioned if she was really at fault.
And that choice played a decisive role in driving Geumhwa to her current situation. Regardless of her involvement in the incident, she had earned the public’s hatred.
As soon as she posted the apology, various media outlets began to twist her public image with sensational headlines and edits, and internet trolls blew the issue out of proportion with entirely false stories.
Thus ended Geumhwa’s life before the Reset.
Maybe even this was written in her fate record?
It was such an uncanny coincidence that it must have been.
But she, now a mutant, did not yet know of the fate record’s existence.
So she continued to fly west, simply to survive.
「At least I can fly, so that’s fortunate.」
Whoosh!
With another mighty sweep of her large wings, she swiftly shifted her body mid-flight, catching an air current to propel herself even faster.
As a sixth-day mutant from Gwangjin-gu, she had transformed into a harpy.
This mythical creature, with the body of a raptor and the head of a woman, allowed Geumhwa to experience the exhilarating ability of high-altitude flight firsthand.
The only reason she had evaded capture by the Strongest Swords of other regions was thanks to her flight capabilities.
Swoosh!
Finally, Wonhyo Bridge and Yeouido came into view.
「Ah…!」
It was at this moment that Geumhwa’s head started to tilt southwest, towards Yeongdeungpo and Guro-gu.
The reason she had been continuously moving west to avoid Joseon’s Strongest Sword and Kangryong was to seek refuge in the densely populated Joseonjok areas.
Two of Seoul’s three major Joseonjok districts, Garibong-dong and Daerim-dong, were located in Yeongdeungpo and Guro.
Whoosh!
As she half-folded her wings and rapidly descended, the southern landscape of Yeongdeungpo greeted her.
But since Daerim-dong was at the southernmost tip of Yeongdeungpo, she still had a bit further to go.
With no more river beneath her, she could be attacked at any moment.
Growing anxious, she turned her body southward and sped up.
Swoosh!
The fierce wind pressed tightly against her feathers, bringing Daerim-dong and beyond, Garibong-dong, closer into view.
「Help me!」
As she neared Daerim-dong from the sky, she desperately called for assistance.
Seeing her approach, the people of Daerim-dong rushed out of their buildings.
「Oh, everyone survived!」
To her relief, Daerim-dong was still full of Joseonjok people.
Then, suddenly.
Shluk!
A particularly tall man among them looked up towards the sky, towards the direction Geumhwa was flying in.
He was none other than the,
『Strongest Sword of Guro』
Being a mutant, Geumhwa had no idea why the Strongest Sword of Guro was all the way in southern Yeongdeungpo.
「I’m one of you! Please, help me…」
As she lowered her altitude to about 20 meters and prepared to land in the middle of Daerim-dong, something unexpected flew at her from Daerim-dong.
「…!」
It was a slew of sharp axes being hurled at her.
The Joseonjok occupying Daerim-dong were collectively throwing axes at her, likely aiming to shoot down the mutant Geumhwa.
「Wait, wait! Let me tell you who I am!」
As Geumhwa tried to explain her identity in a panic, a strange cry, unlike anything she had ever heard, echoed from somewhere in the north.
Squeeeak!
Following a faint hint of movement, a volley of purple arrows came flying towards her.
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HEL SCANS
[Translator – Night]
[Proofreader – Gun]
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