Rummmble…
The shabby church chapel about to collapse.
When the floor in one corner of the hall was lifted, stairs leading underground revealed themselves.
At first, the priest pretended not to know, saying ‘Th-the basement? No, how could we have such a…’ but.
‘What can he do? We have Taewoong.’
In the end, at my single phrase that we came knowing everything, he had no choice but to guide me to the underground storage.
“This is…”
The basement illuminated by fluorescent lights.
Seeing the interior, Taewoong couldn’t help but click his tongue.
“Are you saying all of this is merchandise distributed in the black market?”
“How about it? Hard to believe even seeing it?”
Second-grade artificial body parts used for combat and first-grade parts distributed only for military use.
At the sight of even neural memory, the core component of artificial bodies, being displayed, Taewoong couldn’t hide his bewildered expression.
“This pistol even has the Training Command’s official seal stamped on it. It’s a new model distributed less than a month ago—where on earth did you get this…?”
“Where else? Mister.”
While he was being surprised, a voice came from one corner of the basement.
A voice thoroughly worn by the world’s hardships.
A cocky tone.
A woman who appeared through acrid cigarette smoke raised her finger and pointed to the sky.
“Distinguished people who urgently need money are doing charity for us lowlifes.”
“…”
He’d known military supply corruption was severe, but had he not known it was this bad?
As if conscious of Taewoong’s bewildered expression, Father Jeong Suhan opened his mouth with a smiling face.
“This is my daughter Yurim. She’s in charge of, uh… side work in the basement.”
“Ah.”
I’d wondered what money this priest used to operate the church, and it was that after all.
While saying that, the woman called Yurim stood up from her seat and slowly approached me.
Alcohol smell, cigarette smell.
As if there was no need to hide it at all, Yurim reached her hand toward me.
“I’m Jeong Yurim. Age 26.”
“I’m Kim Changwoon.”
I had no particular intention of asking her age.
By the way, she’s pretty old for a daughter?
When I glanced at the priest while shaking hands, the priest who noticed my gaze scratched his cheek.
“She’s my adopted daughter. Most of the children living in this church are the same.”
“Huh?”
Setting aside Yurim being an underground weapons dealer, the church kids too?
“If you register that many children on the family register… there would be many losses here and there.”
“Haha, losses you say.”
The priest who smiled slightly told me.
“In this harsh environment, they’re growing up so brightly—how could that be a loss?”
“Ah, yes…”
Not knowing how to react, I just awkwardly went along.
Those eyes that didn’t feel even a speck of greed.
Even facing my second life, I still couldn’t understand that way of thinking from these Catholic bastards.
Why pointlessly spend money on charity work that brings no profit?
“26 years old?”
But thinking that was brief.
Taewoong, who’d finished checking her identity with his interface, tilted his head while looking at the woman named Jeong Yurim.
“The database says 29 though.”
“…”
“…”
“…”
Heavy silence pressed down on the gathering.
Father Jeong Suhan with empty eyes turned to the side and Jeong Yurim frozen with her smiling face.
“…?”
And Taewoong who still didn’t know what he’d done wrong.
“Taewoong.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
“Even if she’s a commoner, she’s still a woman—isn’t it wrong to say that kind of thing to her face?”
“…Ah.”
‘Ah’ my ass.
Look how awkward the atmosphere got. What are we going to do about this?
This won’t work. Here I need to step up personally and lighten the mood.
“That…!”
Yurim’s thoroughly sullen face turned toward me.
“Next time we meet, only lie by one year! If it’s that much, maybe you could bullshit saying it’s a data error…”
“Wanna die?”
Yep, mood-lightening failed.
Hearing the murderous voice, the priest poked Yurim’s waist as if feeling a bit guilty.
“Yurim. Even so, this is a noble’s child—what kind of language is that?”
“A noble? Why are people who live in the sky at our house? Did they catch you, Dad, doing church stuff?”
“No. Our kids stole this person’s identity tag.”
“That’s more serious.”
I didn’t particularly think it was rude.
We were the ones who were impolite first.
Watching the two people bantering like that, I spoke with a faint sigh.
“You were watching the whole time anyway, weren’t you?”
“Oh, the kid’s got good instincts. How did you know?”
“There were surveillance cameras upstairs. Yeah.”
When I said that while glancing at Taewoong, Yurim’s gaze changed.
But that was brief.
Seeing Taewoong’s body made entirely of artificial body, her eyes widened.
“Wow, the latest first-grade artificial body like that…! A human weapon if there ever was one. Are you going to war or something?”
“Yurim. Your language!”
“Agh, let go!”
‘When else will I see such a sight in my life!’
Shouting like that, Yurim began examining every part of Taewoong’s body with sparkling eyes.
Perhaps the piercing stare was inwardly uncomfortable?
“Ahem.”
“Oh! Look at me.”
When he cleared his throat once, the startled Yurim returned to her original expression.
“So… what business does this noble who lacks nothing have in this garbage dump?”
She raised her speech since she knew my status, but her attitude remained impure as before.
It was an appearance clearly revealing the emotions these bottom-level citizens held toward nobles.
“You didn’t come to catch Catholics who disturb Joseon’s law. And if it’s not to interrogate the audacious thief who stole your identity tag… there’s no reason for an esteemed person to be here, no?”
“I came to look at merchandise. As you heard.”
“That’s why I’m asking—why would a noble of all people seek our merchandise?”
If you just inquired at the Five Military Commands, they’d give you better goods via direct delivery from the source. Wouldn’t they?
Yurim’s gaze who spoke like that deepened further.
“I smell danger. The kind of dangerous smell we ignorant folk should absolutely never get involved with.”
“…”
Oh ho, look at this?
Maybe because she’s lived a long back-alley life, her instincts are better than expected.
“Huh, what?”
While thinking that, the priest shuddered as if he hadn’t thought of that at all.
“Yurim. What are you saying? Didn’t this young master just forgive us because he has a good personality?”
“…Dad, are you… stupid?”
It was unfilial speech, but I agreed a hundred times.
Fitting for a bleeding-heart Catholic, his head was a complete flower garden.
Yurim who shook her head asked me as if interrogating.
“Let me hear the reason. Why does an esteemed noble young master need this illegal artificial body?”
“Obviously to use it for dangerous and insolent work. If I say this, you won’t sell the merchandise?”
You can’t though.
When I added that, Yurim with a reluctant expression closed her mouth.
‘You’re pretending to be nice, but I’m the one holding the knife here anyway.’
Obediently provide the merchandise I demanded.
Or become Catholics and their gang who stole an identity tag and get hauled to the Royal Investigative Bureau.
From the moment I came to this place, these people only had these two choices.
Soon Yurim showed both hands as if surrendering.
“…If you’re going to die anyway, you should at least know where your grave is. That’s all.”
Quick-witted too.
Setting the priest aside, this woman seems quite useful.
Having finished my thoughts, I approached her and quietly whispered a phrase.
“…Wow, crazy.”
Jeong Yurim who heard my ‘plan’ looked at me with an incredulous expression.
“Young Master, you’re way more insane than I thought?”
The transaction proceeded smoothly without incident.
After obtaining the first-grade artificial body, removing security devices, and then customization and disguising suited to special situations.
Yurim who received the order form was reluctant, but I pushed through with the original order without an inch of compromise. In the end, Yurim accepted my order details as they were.
It was too much money to refuse.
“I can somehow obtain the merchandise… but considering the modification work, it’ll take some time.”
“What’s the deadline?”
“Even quickly, I’d need to allow two weeks.”
“That’s sufficient.”
After stating the detailed order specifications, just as I was about to finish the transaction—
“Hm?”
My gaze while looking around the basement caught on one spot.
A single bow hanging among the rows of artificial bodies.
“What’s that?”
“Ah, the one hanging on that shelf?”
Yurim who received my question chuckled and spoke.
“As you can see, it’s a handmade bow. A toy I made as a hobby.”
“A toy?”
“Yes. A toy.”
Yurim who spoke like that held up the bow I mentioned and said.
“A bowstring made by twisting specially crafted titanium alloy fibers, with a high-strength special alloy body. Added a muscle assistance device to that, then added an electromagnetic accelerator to the firing section. If you use dedicated arrows, it’s something that just punches through armored vehicle armor.”
“A bow has that kind of power? But why is it a toy?”
“…Why, you ask?”
Speaking like that, Yurim who giggled drew the bowstring, then shot at the target installed at the entrance.
Thwoooom—!
With a roar that shouldn’t come from a bow, the upper ceiling at the entrance burst out entirely.
Through the hole pierced in the ceiling appeared Father Jeong Suhan’s face in the middle of worship.
Looking at his expression, his life flashing before his eyes seemed to have passed a hundred times.
“…Yurim?”
“Geez, what. Dad, why are you there?”
I caused an accident. I knew this would happen so I shot at minimum power.
Muttering like that, Yurim put down the bow and began checking if anyone was hurt.
“That’s why I called it a toy.”
Having observed the series of processes, I could immediately understand why Yurim called this bow a toy.
An arrow aimed at the target veering upward.
Even a toy bow for kids wouldn’t go that wild.
The bonus being the stray arrow almost killed her own father.
“Focusing only on power alone, the arrow’s trajectory is erratic every time I shoot. Since the bow itself is in this state, even precision scopes or ballistic correction devices are useless.”
“Oho.”
Literally a failure.
Hearing those words, I picked up the bow she’d leaned against something, then drew the string with an arrow nocked.
“…Wait, what are you doing?”
The muscle assistance device operating in sync with my motion held the bowstring, and a faint current arose from the arrow tip.
“Wait, I said don’t shoot…!”
The moment Yurim tried to say something, I released the bowstring and shot the arrow.
Claaang—!
A spine-chilling sound of metal tearing filled the basement.
“What, what. You hit it? Right in the center? I’ve never hit that even once…!”
The arrow she’d said would absolutely never hit was stuck in the dead center of the target prepared in one corner of the basement.
“The bow’s not bad.”
After spitting out that brief impression, I nocked the next arrow and shot.
Clang—! Claaang—!
One shot, then two shots.
The more the metallic sounds repeated, the wider Yurim’s eyes looking at me became.
Claaaang—!
When I shot the fifth arrow, Yurim couldn’t close her gaping mouth.
Four arrows stuck in a diamond shape in the target’s center.
And the last fifth arrow was perfectly wedged in the very center of that diamond.
“Since I spent big money anyway, I’ll take this as a complimentary gift.”
I’d only planned to get Mooyoung an arm, but I obtained an unexpected harvest.
“I needed something like this just in time.”
Hello! If you any questions and if you found any errors on my translations, please do @ me on our discord server (@_dawn24) since I might miss your comment here. FYI, you can periodically check my Patreon page where I usually uploaded the completed version of the novels that I translated (including regular and advanced chapters), they come with a discounted price too!
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