“Signal received. Shipment information matches. Scan results also show no abnormalities.”
“Good. Connect.”
When site supervisor Koo Junghyuk’s approval fell, the anchor of the container ship that had been sailing the sea was lowered.
A trade ship stopped in the middle of the sea.
How much time passed like that?
Vrrrrooom—!
Piercing through the thick water fog of the middle of the night, one cargo ship of similar size appeared.
Two ships facing each other at a distance close enough to touch.
After exchanging laser signals several times, they connected the passages on the sides of the hulls.
“Don’t dawdle! Move quickly!”
Through the connected passage, laborers wearing exoskeleton assistance devices and forklifts began coming and going.
The appearance of removing labels from cargo entering from Japan, then replacing them with prepared Joseon labels.
While watching the busily moving laborers, Koo Junghyuk standing on the bridge gripped his chin.
“So this is how smuggled goods from Japan or the Central Plains enter… this method is used.”
“Ships entering Joseon from foreign countries must undergo cargo inspection at the port. Thanks to that, we’re suffering at this ungodly hour.”
Having to wake up at dawn to work makes me want to die.
The man who’d muttered that, Kim Changwoon, sipped coffee in a paper cup while rubbing his eyes heavy with fatigue.
“This ship we’re on is a cargo vessel belonging to Pungyang Trading, and we’ve already received docking permission. So cargo transferred at sea can be brought into the port without any inspection.”
“Then bribing the Inspection Bureau officials was?”
“When a huge container ship like this transfers cargo in the middle of coastal waters in the middle of the night, it’s unsettling if there are watching eyes, right?”
They had to temporarily remove other ships entering during this time, ‘inspect’ surveillance equipment at appropriate times.
And Inspection Bureau employees monitoring the sea for ‘certain reasons’ had to go on vacation.
And as you can see, the officials who’d taken Changwoon’s money handled that work excellently.
“The ship loaded with smuggled goods never entered a Joseon port, and no one saw the Pungyang Trading cargo ship depart for coastal waters.”
“So nothing happened at this port today.”
The logic that even though an entire container ship’s worth of smuggled goods was entering Joseon, since no one saw it, this wasn’t smuggling.
As if finding it laughable even to himself, Koo Junghyuk who chuckled put a cigarette in his mouth.
Two ships floating in the middle of the quiet night sea.
Under yellow night lighting, numerous smuggled goods were being loaded onto the Pungyang Jo clan’s ship.
The moment the most important item, the Pungyang Jo clan’s cargo, was loaded among them.
“Wh-what?! You bastard, where did you come from…!”
Splash.
One guard who’d been monitoring the stern area became a corpse and entered the sea.
“Infiltration successful.”
Along with a brief phrase, what appeared from the darkness was Mooyoung wearing a wetsuit.
Having untied the backpack he was carrying, he pulled out a crudely made mechanical device from inside.
“This really works?”
Tilting his head as if disbelieving, Mooyoung connected wires one by one while looking at the wiring diagram drawn inside the bag.
Connect the red wire to port 3, and the input code is 3523.
Afterward, when he pressed the switch located at the device’s center, red light flashed and short buzzer sounds were heard several times.
And then next.
Boom—!
Like a giant balloon bursting, an explosion sound and shockwave struck the two ships conducting loading work.
“Whoa!”
“What’s this? A shock?”
“They said there wouldn’t be waves today though…?”
As if surprised by the suddenly echoing impact, the laborers standing on the warship muttered respectively.
Waves? Or did a whale swimming in coastal waters collide?
The moment the laborers who’d thought that tilted their heads.
Click—!
The cargo ship’s lighting illuminating the deck instantly went out.
“Uh, huh?!”
“What! What suddenly happened?!”
“Ah geez, we’re busy so why is there another fuss…!”
When the bright deck was instantly engulfed in darkness, the laborers who’d been working shouted as if flustered.
Laborers trying to turn on flashlights to activate emergency power.
But that was brief.
Soon they had no choice but to widen their eyes as if unable to believe it.
“Wait, the flashlights won’t turn on either…!”
“Aaaagh?! Crazy, artificial bodies aren’t working either!?”
It wasn’t only artificial bodies.
Heavy equipment and visual interfaces that had been moving cargo.
Navigation devices attached to the ship and even the main computer located on the bridge.
All electronic devices inside the ship had gone dead.
A sudden, yet all too familiar sensation.
Having widened his eyes, Koo Junghyuk wore an expression of disbelief.
‘This isn’t a simple power outage or mechanical failure. These phenomena are…’
EMP explosion.
Though Koo Junghyuk’s thoughts reached there, he simultaneously couldn’t understand.
An attack?
On a ship owned by the Pungyang Jo clan of all places?
Who on earth?
How did they know this transaction location?
No, more than that…
“Why attack us…?”
“Branch Manager! Th-there!”
And at that moment, one employee looking at the window urgently shouted.
Light was appearing in the vast sea engulfed in darkness.
One, two, four, ten, twenty.
Light that had swelled to dozens was approaching toward the cargo ship they were riding.
The identity of the lights was jet skis approaching the cargo ship at high speed.
And on those jet skis stood suspicious people covered in combat artificial bodies, wearing razor-sharp smiles.
Wako.
They were pirates who plundered trade ships traveling between the Japanese archipelago and Joseon.
“Damn it…!”
Only then realizing the situation, Koo Junghyuk urgently shouted.
“Wako! The wako bastards are coming in!”
“Wako, you say?”
“Don’t you see them approaching from over there?! All guards prepare for combat! Quickly—!”
The sentries who’d heard Koo Junghyuk’s shout belatedly shot the weapons they were holding, but at the point where they’d allowed approach this far, it was useless.
Even if ungraded low-quality artificial bodies, combat types were combat types.
The pistols or submachine guns the guards held couldn’t even scratch them.
“Bring machine guns from the armory! We have to shoot before they board…! Keurk?!”
A hole was drilled in the head of the employee commanding the guards, and one wako who’d leaped from a jet ski drove down onto the deck.
Thud—!
What drove down with a heavy metallic sound was a giant easily exceeding 3 meters.
When they met the red light of optical sensors installed instead of eyes, the faces of the guards holding pistols colored with fear.
“Since it was an aristocratic family’s ship, I had expectations just in case, but they’re all just pushovers.”
This is boring.
The moment those words ended, the giant man wrapped in shadows swung what he held in his arm.
Splat—!
The next moment, the upper bodies of the guards who’d been aiming pistols disappeared.
Chunks of blood scattering on the deck making splattering sounds.
“The boss boarded the deck!” (+) [1]
“Stick to him! Any bastards who fall behind will all die by my hand!”
Soon dozens of wako began boarding the ship one by one behind him who’d raised his massive greatsword.
“All units line up! Don’t let them advance a single step past this point!”
“To think we’re getting hit by wako bastards, I don’t know what to report to the main house.”
“Let’s catch and kill them first, then think.”
And as if confronting them, a group of people gathering from all over the ship.
Not the ordinary employees who’d been responding with pistols just moments ago, but the Pungyang Jo clan’s professional security team dispatched from the main house.
Artificial bodies revealed between neat suits and various weapons mounted on them.
Seeing them fine even from the EMP explosion, they must be properly made items from military factories.
“Right, at least this much needs to come out for it to be worth working.”
Along with a chilling laugh, the two groups facing each other growled at each other.
The neatly armed power clan family guards and wako covered all over with all sorts of dangerous illegal weapons.
Soon, the moment the two groups dripping with killing intent collided toward each other.
“Right, you need to fight hard like that.”
Changwoon who’d watched that appearance from the bridge threw down the paper cup he’d finished drinking with a pleased smile.
He was here commanding the smuggling plan, luring Koo Junghyuk and the guards this way.
Mooyoung had commissioned the wako, drawing dozens of wako here.
What remained was just sitting here and watching them kill and be killed.
Beeeeeep—
The explosion that burst at close range mercilessly tore through Koo Junghyuk’s mind.
The panic room located on the floor below the bridge.
It was a space to protect VIPs in emergency situations like now, but before the monster before his eyes, everything was utterly futile.
“Keu, keuugh…!”
A body bleeding with lower body and both arms completely smashed.
What looked like scrap metal abandoned in a junkyard was the team leader of the professional security team dispatched from the main house together with him.
“Power clan private soldiers are always like that. The equipment and technology they have is excellent beyond compare, but the heads using them are rotten through.”
Thump—!
The security team leader whose breath had stopped, dumped in a corner.
Seeing that, Koo Junghyuk began struggling having lost his reason.
“Don’t come! Don’t come closer!”
Bang—! Bang—!
Though Koo Junghyuk shot the pistol at his waist, it was futile struggle.
What could one pistol do against armor plates that blocked even military helicopter large-caliber machine guns without issue?
‘Even though we brought elite chosen and chosen from the main house, to annihilate them without a scratch…!’
Now that the security team was annihilated, it would take over 10 minutes for the patrolling naval forces to arrive.
Ten minutes.
In that time, wouldn’t that monster-like bastard have time left over after killing all of us!
“S-stand back immediately! A lowly wako bastard, daring to know where this is, keurk?!”
Though Koo Junghyuk shouted as if struggling, his voice didn’t last long.
“Guys working for aristocratic houses all spout that sound without exception.”
Mizutani slowly lifting him while gripping his neck.
Toward him choking unable to breathe, Mizutani’s cold voice flowed in.
“Working under power clans, they act as if they’ve become aristocrats themselves. In the end, even with a blade at their necks, they measure status, going on about being lowly or whatnot.”
“Wh-what…!”
“If a dog being raised acts as if it’s the master, from the master’s position, how laughable must that sight be? Right?”
Along with sharp mockery, the greatsword held in Mizutani’s hand emitted a razor-sharp light.
The blade gradually approaching closer.
Even the mechanical sound of a monomolecular cutter approaching with spine-chilling vibration.
At the fear of death that had approached right before him, Koo Junghyuk’s face turned pale.
“W-wait…! Please spare me, spa—!”
Just as the greatsword Mizutani held was about to split Koo Junghyuk’s body in half.
Clang—!
One arrow that suddenly flew in blew away one of Mizutani’s shoulders.
“?!”
Koo Junghyuk who’d escaped from Mizutani’s grip fainted right there.
But Mizutani’s gaze after being hit by the arrow was no longer there.
“Hooh.”
Having let out a brief exclamation, Mizutani looked toward where the arrow had come from.
The panic room entrance he’d entered.
There, a boy wearing a blue overcoat was aiming a bow toward him.
The two people looking at each other silently.
The moment Mizutani who’d briefly gauged the distance was about to charge at the boy.
“You’re right.”
Looking at Mizutani who’d taken combat stance, Changwoon opened his mouth without delay.
“A commoner who can’t even get near aristocrats going on about being an executive or whatnot—listening to it makes hollow laughter come out naturally, you know?”
What was held in Changwoon’s hand speaking like that was an identity tag emitting jade light.
Seeing it, Mizutani’s voice output growled.
“Things became troublesome.”
When told he’d attack a noble’s ship, Mizutani didn’t particularly agonize.
Even if the owner was a noble, it was the same ship.
If he quickly finished the raid and returned, there would be no catching his tail.
But a member of the nobles directly appearing was unexpected.
‘If I carelessly kill him, the royal guard will rush in and cut my neck, and if I let him live and release him, my face will become known to the Royal Investigative Bureau.’
Either way dying was the same, so it was completely checkmate.
I shouldn’t have accepted work for an aristocratic family.
Having inwardly sighed, Mizutani asked Changwoon without lowering his sword.
“An esteemed noble, what business brings you here? Are you thinking of taking this thief’s head to use as drinking conversation?”
“How violent. Rather the opposite.”
But unlike Mizutani who was on full alert, Changwoon standing opposite lowered the bow he was holding in a leisurely voice.
A chance to escape.
Just as Mizutani who’d thought that tried to move his feet.
“You processed the work as instructed, and thanks to that my plan is also proceeding smoothly. I’m thinking of rewarding you generously.”
“…What?”
At Changwoon’s words heard following that, his head didn’t work for a moment.
Instructed work? Plan? Reward?
What are you saying right now?
To Mizutani who was puzzled like that, communication from Mooyoung who’d finished his work came in.
-Withdraw with your subordinates, Mizutani. The mission is over. Compensation will be paid through the account I told you about before.
“Withdraw? Don’t make me laugh. A member of a power clan family saw my face, so I can’t just let this go…!”
-You don’t need to worry.
A firm phrase.
And at Mooyoung’s words that followed, Mizutani couldn’t continue speaking.
-The person you’re facing right now is the very one who commissioned this raid to you.
- 1. TLN: Here, they use the word “oyabun.” It’s just Japanese way for calling “boss.” Just in case if you’re curious.
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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