Level 4 Human in a Ruined World

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Chapter 288: Metal Forbidden City (1)

Boom!

A laser shot straight from the Forbidden City hit its mark.

The attack came so quickly that Yeongwoo had no time to defend himself with his Bastard, causing him to be blasted backward once again.

"Are you crazy, Im Dupyeong...!"

Despite his exasperation, he quickly tried to anchor his sword into the surface of the tower.

Whizz!

However, the distance from the tower had already grown too far, and his attempt to halt his momentum ended in vain.

"Damn it!"

Yeongwoo began to fall rapidly, pulled by gravity.

While his Vesedel armor was incredibly durable, leaving him without external or internal injuries, there was no guarantee that he would survive crashing into the ground from hundreds of meters high.

His golden flying sword, which usually stayed by his side, would also plummet under these circumstances.

"Damn it...!"

Thus, Yeongwoo had two choices at this point.

The first was to read the coordinates of the Forbidden City in his sight. Doing so would allow him to retaliate and exact some revenge by returning the laser barrage.

However, there was no guarantee that Im Dupyeong was still inside.

‘In that case...’

The second option was to call for help from a friend.

「Amber Whistle」 - Legendary Necklace

【Call a friend.】

|Yeongtae, Taejoon, Younghyeom, Geumhwa|

Among his four friends, Geumhwa was a flying mutant.

If he summoned her quickly enough, he could request her rescue.

And now was that "quick enough" moment.

Tch!

Yeongwoo immediately gripped the whistle and blew into it with all his might.

Peeeeeeep!

The clear sound echoed through the skies over Beijing, and the colors in the area seemed to fade.

Flash!

Sensing that something was happening on the Forbidden City's side, another laser beam was fired.

Zap!

"What the hell, how many times can these bastards fire those lasers?!"

As Yeongwoo muttered this, another red laser shot toward him.

This time, however, he wasn’t just going to take it.

Slash!

Despite his unstable position, Yeongwoo accurately swung Bastard and split the laser in two.

"Huh? How did that work?"

Yeongwoo widened his eyes in disbelief as he realised his sword could cut through lasers.

This defied Earth’s laws of physics.

And then, suddenly.

「Yaaaaaah!」

A cheer rang out, starting with his first friend, Hong Yeongtae, followed by Taejoon, Younghyeom, and Geumhwa, who appeared one after another.

Since the summoner was hundreds of meters up in the air, they materialized at an even higher altitude than usual.

「Huh? What the...?」

「Why are we so high up?」

Representative Kim Taejoon and General Kim Younghyeom gaped in shock as they realized they had been summoned much higher than normal.

Meanwhile, Geumhwa, who had regained her harpy form, was more concerned with Yeongwoo’s situation below.

"Geumhwa! Over here! Hurry!”

At Yeongwoo’s urgent request, she immediately dove toward him in a high-speed descent.

「What... what is all this? Are you okay?」

Despite her terrifying appearance, Geumhwa's voice was surprisingly gentle.

“No, I’m not okay. I was ambushed.”

「Ambushed? You, Yeongwoo, got ambushed?」

Geumhwa had seen Yeongwoo's past rampages on television, so she couldn’t easily believe it.

The idea that someone had managed to ambush one of the most feared beings on Earth successfully was hard to swallow.

“Yes. If I had been just a bit more underhanded, I could have anticipated this ambush.”

「...?」

Geumhwa tilted her head in confusion at his oddly twisted logic.

She began to wonder if saving this man was the right decision.

However, there was no time for deep contemplation, as they were already quite close to the ground.

So, in the end.

Tap!

Like a parachute, Geumhwa caught hold of Yeongwoo’s billowing cloak with both feet.

「Where should I drop you off?」

She asked while gliding, and Yeongwoo’s sword pointed forward.

He indicated the place from which the earlier laser beam had been fired—the Metal Forbidden City.

"Let’s take care of that first."

「That thing...?」

Following the direction of Yeongwoo's sword, Geumhwa shuddered as she finally noticed the Metal Forbidden City for the first time.

Although she had occasionally watched Yeongwoo's battles on the television in the returnee’s room, she had been too busy assembling statues that morning to catch any broadcasts.

"What? You didn’t know?"

「How would anyone know about that thing?」

As the two conversed, the three friends who had been free-falling finally landed—or rather, crashed—into Beijing below.

Boom!

With a tremendous crash, dust clouds billowed around the area, but fortunately, it seemed the friends' bodies had not been crushed.

Soon, large silhouettes began to rise from within the dust cloud.

‘Oh, so friends are invincible right after being summoned?’

It made sense.

Since they were always summoned in mid-air, it would be problematic if they broke their legs upon landing.

"Drop me off in front of that."

Yeongwoo pointed to a massive gate in the distance.

It was Tiananmen, the southern gate of the Forbidden City.

「You want me to drop you there? But there’s already someone there….」

Geumhwa double-checked as she spotted a group of black statues resembling soldiers gathered in the square before Tiananmen.

Their large stature was apparent from tens of meters up in the air, and it was clear these weren’t ordinary statues.

"The person who turned the old men into demons is behind this. He probably has other tricks up his sleeve too."

As Yeongwoo spoke, the statues guarding the Tiananmen Square began to turn their heads toward him individually.

As expected, this was an army prepared by Im Dupyeong.

'Moving Terracotta Warriors, huh?'

It might be said that this is typical of China.

In any case, on the surface, the 'Metal Forbidden City' and those iron Terracotta Warriors seemed to be made of the same material, so Yeongwoo speculated that this too was a power provided by Im Dupyeong's sponsor.

"Who on earth is behind Im Dupyeong? It's too crude to be Lemu, and it's not Mara either..."

Yeongwoo was someone who had indirectly encountered both factions.

However, in this bizarre city of Beijing, he could not sense the presence of any particular faction.

A fortress reinforced with steel and living Terracotta Warriors.

On top of that, firepower support using laser cannons.

What kind of power was sponsoring something like this...?

‘...Huh?’

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

At the moment when Yeongwoo's eyes widened as he finally realized something, a distinctive energy-emission sound came from the Metal Forbidden City, which had been quiet for a while. Then—

「Whoa!」

A laser beam was fired toward the person holding Yeongwoo, Geumhwa.

Yeongwoo blocked the laser with Bastard, just as he had done earlier, but he couldn't prevent Geumhwa from being shocked, as she lacked combat experience.

「Gasp!」

Startled, she inadvertently let go of Yeongwoo, and seeing this, the Terracotta Warriors began to rush toward the spot where they anticipated Yeongwoo would land.

Boom!

The ground shook as if an earthquake had struck.

The height of the Terracotta Warriors ranged from at least 7 meters to as much as 10 meters.

Im Dupyeong had literally prepared giant soldiers.

‘Was he planning to conquer all of China? When did he build these...?’

As Yeongwoo was thrown to the ground, he saw a large shadow approaching him and gripped Bastard.

Of course, to someone like Yeongwoo, who had been in and out of dungeons on alien planets, Terracotta Warriors made of metal were not much of a threat.

However, what gave him an ominous feeling was—

‘If the sponsor behind Im Dupyeong isn't Lemu or Mara, isn't that an even bigger problem?’

This would mean that, even if it wasn't a formal development company, they could still significantly influence Earth's civil war.

While they might not be able to reshape planets like with road construction, they could alter the power dynamics by sponsoring specific factions.

‘Damn cockroach-like bastards, when am I going to kill them all?’

There was so much to do to take over this planet.

Swoosh!

Yeongwoo rose, extending Bastard to a length of 6.6 meters, but the approaching Terracotta Warriors showed no hesitation as they swung their massive weapons at him.

Whoosh!

With the sound of air being compressed, a dark trail cut through the air as if someone had swung an ink brush, and at the same time, Yeongwoo's Bastard sliced through the air twice in rapid succession.

Slash, crash!

The first strike severed the weapons of the Terracotta Warriors, and the second strike cleaved the bodies of the Terracotta Warriors in half.

Thud!

"Is this how you greet guests? Im Dupyeong! Come face me directly!"

As Yeongwoo swiftly dealt with a whole squad of Terracotta Warriors and charged fiercely toward the tightly closed Tiananmen, to his surprise, his name was pronounced from within the gate.

—Master Jeong.

"What...?"

An alien-sounding voice, characteristic of a machine.

However, Yeongwoo immediately recognized it.

The owner of this voice was none other than Im Dupyeong, President of China and First Standing Committee Member, the great evil of Beijing.

—It seems you've achieved quite an accomplishment. I underestimated you.

Then, the lock on the tightly closed Tiananmen gate was released, and the thick iron doors began to open sideways.

Clang!

Im Dupyeong was opening the path to the Forbidden City.

"What are you trying to do?"

Not knowing where to look while speaking, Yeongwoo directed his question toward the roof of Tiananmen.

The strange voice responded from within the now-open Tiananmen.

—My body is somewhat incapacitated, so I apologize for not being able to greet you in person.

"Incapacitated...?"

As Yeongwoo frowned, he saw another gate in the distance inside Tiananmen slowly opening.

It was none other than the main gate of the Forbidden City, the Meridian Gate.

Im Dupyeong was indeed opening the way into the Forbidden City.

"..."

Was this another trap, or was Im Dupyeong truly too incapacitated to come out and greet him?

Yeongwoo scanned the suspicious exterior of the "Metal Forbidden City" and then asked Im Dupyeong again.

"Is your sponsor Mara?"

If Mara built this fortress, he needed to call his brothers immediately.

He could not break their promise.

But—

—No, it is not.

"...Not Mara?"

According to Im Dupyeong, the power behind Beijing was not Mara.

"......"

Because of this, Yeongwoo felt the blood vessels in his neck swell.

If the power behind China was not Mara, where should his brothers go?

Or, what should he tell them?

He could almost see Bantubangtong's disappointed face.

"Then who remodeled the Forbidden City like this?"

As Yeongwoo said this, he turned around.

He saw the desolate Tiananmen Square.

Geumhwa and the other three friends had already returned, as their summon time had expired.

"It can't be Lemu, right? They're not into this kind of style."

At this moment, Yeongwoo was already pulling up the coordinates of the Forbidden City.

Based on his deductions, the one backing Im Dupyeong was likely—

"Earth, 084! 360! 6251! 061! Fire now!"

As Yeongwoo quickly recited the coordinates of the spot directly above the main gate of the Forbidden City, 'Meridian Gate,' Im Dupyeong's mechanical voice seemed startled.

—What are you doing...?

And simultaneously—

Boom!

A massive laser beam pierced through the clouds and descended.

Then, as soon as it touched the roof of the 'Meridian Gate,'—

Zap!

The large beam disappeared without a trace.

"Damn bastards, I knew it!"

Only after this did a system message appear before Yeongwoo's eyes.

「Physical conflict between our products is not permitted.」

The intergalactic arms dealer Toma.

The master of firepower, who had turned his attention to China after losing the main sponsor spot to Dogo, Yeongwoo's primary sponsor.

‘Seriously, is there so much to gain on this planet? Why is everyone making a fuss?’

As Yeongwoo lowered Bastard to the ground, intending to deal with them personally, a new advertisement request from Dogo arrived just in time.

[Dogo] "Heavenly Capital"

[Mission] Secure the remodeling core of the Forbidden City and establish the new capital of Earth.

[Special] In this mission, you must disclose the support from Dogo.

[Reward] 30 million Karma

‘Huh? What is this? A new capital? Deciding Earth's capital?’

As Yeongwoo read the mission details with a bewildered expression, he soon realized something.

"Um... is it possible? A Metal Seoul...?"

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]