[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

Chapter 522: To the Edge of the Galaxy (5)

“Ah, Mr. Lucas in Spain. That’s an excellent question.”

Yeongwoo looked at the chat with a satisfied expression.

“You’re asking what exactly is headbutting a star? Well, of course…”

Then he clenched his right fist tight and thrust it in front of the camera.

“It’s us.”

At that, Jiseon facepalmed off-camera, and even Earth shut its eyes tight.

Meanwhile—

[Spain/Navarra]

|Lucas: Us…?

Lucas, who lived in Spain, didn’t seem to understand Yeongwoo’s words right away.

[Spain/Navarra]

|Lucas: What do you mean, us?

“I mean us. Our planet Earth is going to headbutt a star.”

[USA/Tennessee]

|Ria: What? Did you just say Earth is going to headbutt a star?

[USA/Nevada]

|Talo: That’s insane. You’re not planning to kill us all, are you?

[Germany/Bavaria]

|Wilhelm: This is madness. A single asteroid impact could wipe out humanity, and you’re talking about ramming a star?

Sure enough, fierce protests erupted, and Yeongwoo could feel his approval rating plummeting in real time.

Of course, he had expected as much.

Even the planet Earth had been horrified by this plan when first hearing it.

So instead of trying to talk his way around it, Yeongwoo chose to face the storm head-on with a long explanation.

“Trust me. We’ve already prepared defensive systems strong enough to withstand a collision with a star.”

Naturally, no one believed him.

[Germany/Bavaria]

|Wilhelm: Y-you… you’re insane.

[China/Tianjin]

|Shenghua: We’re all going to die! That lunatic is going to get us all killed!

The chat instantly turned into pandemonium, and Earth looked at Yeongwoo with a devastated expression.

『With that one statement, you just shocked the entire world. Everyone’s running outside to look up at the sky.』

Yeongwoo only shrugged.

“Good chance to get some fresh air, don’t you think?”

『What? Are you out of your mind? Do you even realize what you’ve just done?』

As Earth’s brows furrowed in anger, Yeongwoo, still calm, pointed outside the window.

“It’ll blow over in thirty minutes anyway, won’t it?”

『…What?』

“Of course they’re shocked now. But once we actually collide with the star and nothing happens to us?”

『W-well, that’s…』

“Then everyone will realize it. That this so-called ‘madman’ was actually just telling the truth.”

『…Insane bastard.』

“Once people see that we can headbutt a star and survive, won’t they pretty much believe anything I say afterward?”

『…….』

Amazingly, he wasn’t wrong.

When you start off sprinting, walking feels easy later.

In the same way, Yeongwoo had decided to deliver the strongest possible shock right at the start, instead of gradually ramping it up.

That way, no matter what outrageous things he said afterward, no one would really doubt him anymore.

“Think about it. There are countless ‘non-Earthly’ things we’ll need to explain to the residents. And every time, we’ll face their protests and disbelief.”

『…So you decided to start off with a full swing, huh?』

“Exactly. Once your knees are broken, getting slapped across the face doesn’t even register. Your knees hurt so much that you can’t feel your cheek at all.”

In other words, this “star headbutt” was a kind of shock therapy—breaking the knees right away, so to speak.

A drastic prescription to quickly make people accept all the explanations that would follow.

『But… what if, by some tiny chance, the star headbutt fails? How will you deal with the consequences then?』

When Earth asked this, Yeongwoo tilted his head as though he genuinely couldn’t understand.

“What do you mean? If the star headbutt fails, we all die. There won’t be anyone left to complain.”

The moment Yeongwoo said this, the live broadcast chat overflowed like a bursting dam.

[China/Tianjin]

|Shenghua: W-what…?

[USA/Oregon]

|Will: Did everyone just hear that? He literally admitted he’s going to kill us all!

[France/Occitanie]

|Jean: It’s the end… the end of the world!

Yeongwoo’s eyes widened slightly as he muttered,

“…Oops.”

For a moment, he had forgotten this was live.

“Damn it. That’s the kind of question you should’ve asked off-air!”

『Already forgot again? You’re the one holding the camera.』

In any case, Yeongwoo’s “we’ll all die anyway” comment instantly threw the entire world into screams and despair.

At that point, the only ones still supporting him were the citizens of Metal Seoul.

『Seoul’s surprisingly calm. Only about 30% of the population actually ran outside screaming.』

Thirty percent.

Still a high figure, but compared to other countries, it was overwhelmingly low.

“Seoul’s lived with me for a long time… it’s only natural.”

At this, Jiseon’s voice corrected her son from off-camera.

—Not natural. You should call it gratitude. At least on the broadcast, say you’re grateful.

“Ah, yes, of course. I’m grateful too.”

Yeongwoo winked at the camera.

Immediately, the already-apocalyptic chat filled with curses, and Yeongwoo quickly shut it off.

“I’ll temporarily disable the chat. Just until after the star headbutt is over.”

Then he turned to Earth with a question.

“How long until we reach Koatu’s star system? If this keeps up, I’ll be burned at the stake.”

『Pure travel time… maybe 15 minutes?』

“Pure travel time? What does that mean?”

Earth pointed out the window.

『We’re about to leave the relay zone.』

“What?”

Sure enough, the holographic relay field outside rapidly faded, revealing the dark void of space.

They had exited the relay zone.

“What’s going on? Why aren’t we moving forward?”

『Think of it like being stuck at a traffic light on a road.』

“A traffic light?”

『Exactly. Star systems aren’t evenly distributed across the universe. Sometimes there are stretches of completely empty space.』

According to Earth, these “gaps” gave both the relay zones and the ships a chance to cool off.

It was literally a red-light section.

『From here, we’ll have to navigate manually for a while. The ship has to travel on its own power until we reach the entrance to the next relay zone.』

Then Earth added,

『Of course… I’m just repeating what I read in the ship’s manual. I’ve never been on a space voyage before either. This is new to me too.』

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

At that moment, space beside Yeongwoo split open, and Administrator Kubu opened his eyes.

Srrrt.

―This area is what’s called the Yellow Zone. It’s the empty space between relay regions.

“Yellow Zone? There’s an actual name for this place?”

―It’s not an official designation. But since so many things happen here, people felt it needed a name of its own.

“So many things?”

―Since many ships have to slow down here, pirate vessels often appear.

“Ah.”

So it was essentially a vulnerable zone for space travelers.

In Earth’s road analogy, it was like a long red-light intersection where muggings often occurred.

-But we’re already pirates ourselves… doesn’t that mean it doesn’t matter for us?

As Jiseon cracked a joke, countless colorful lights appeared in the void outside.

As if an entire fleet had lit up their beacons at once.

“Uh… are those pirate ships?”

When Yeongwoo asked, Kubu shook his eyes from side to side.

―As I said, many things happen in the Yellow Zone.

Then he blinked once and continued.

―Those are peddlers who target ships moving slowly through here.

* * *

Peddlers with all sorts of lights.

At first, it looked like nothing more than exterior lighting on their ships.

But as they drew closer, it became clear that wasn’t the case.

“They’re billboards…?”

They were all a kind of advertisement display.

Some were rectangular like Earth’s billboards, others scattered glowing strings of text in midair, and others showed simple pictograms.

Of course, since most of them were small-time peddlers, they didn’t have the status to use transcendent languages.

So each billboard was filled with its own native script.

That was why Yeongwoo couldn’t read some of them.

“I can’t even read a few of these at all.”

Even though they were all alien languages, some conveyed meaning while others were completely incomprehensible.

As Yeongwoo tilted his head, Kubu explained further:

―Because they’re in minority languages not registered in the language converter.

“Minority species?”

―Yes. Of course, if a minority species has high enough cosmic status, their language is adopted into the universal tongue. But no species of that stature would be peddling out here.

In the universe, languages fell broadly into three categories:

First, transcendent languages.

Second, the universal tongue.

Third, everything else.

The universal tongue was a language anyone in the cosmos could understand without a converter.

Officials used it, and languages of ancient or prestigious houses were often supported for automatic translation at the cosmic level too.

So aside from the great houses’ tongues and the officials’ speech, all other languages fell into the “third” category.

That included Earth’s human language.

Which meant alien races had to rely on converters to communicate.

Yeongwoo was currently benefiting from one, thanks to Administrator Kubu who had filed the support request at launch.

So if Yeongwoo couldn’t read some signs, there was only one explanation:

―If a species has never once used a language converter, then even if we’re using one, we can’t read their writing.

“What? Then how do they trade?”

―The converter can still process spoken meaning. So at least basic dialogue is possible.

But written text remains indecipherable.

In other words, the billboards Yeongwoo couldn’t understand all belonged to extremely insular species.

“What the…? If they’re desperate enough to come out here to peddle, why wouldn’t they use a converter?”

―A matter of culture and values. They want their language to remain exclusive to their own kind.

“In this age of cosmic interconnection… choosing that path seems like a huge disadvantage.”

Indeed, the universe was vast.

Meanwhile, the peddlers were drawing closer, and Yeongwoo could now see their ships filling the view outside the bridge—each with a billboard mounted on its bow or hull.

[Shigak General Store]

≪Special 20% Discount!≫

∥Ship repairs offered.∥

〔Guns for sale. Repairs too.〕

Mechanical bodies & modifications

Most were straightforward.

Very few had clever slogans to attract buyers.

“They’re not very good at marketing, are they?”

―Since there are so many vendors, it’s less about catchy wording and more about standing out from your neighbor’s sign.

“Fair enough.”

After all, there were hundreds of peddler ships in sight.

From the perspective of a passing vessel en route to the next relay tunnel, it was impossible to carefully read them all.

“Anyway, let’s just keep moving.”

Just as Yeongwoo pointed ahead, a sudden laser beam shot out from among the peddlers.

Piiiaaaaat!

“Whoa?”

The moment he spotted it, the bridge flared red.

『Impact warning. Someone fired on us. It wasn’t strong enough to breach the shields, but still…』

Earth reported with a grim expression, unlike his usual tone.

“Who was it? Can you find the bastard?”

Even as Yeongwoo asked, a large screen appeared at the front of the bridge.

Of course Earth had already pinpointed the attacker.

Paaat!

The screen showed a medium-sized ship with a reddish-brown hull.

On its billboard, a message was flashing:

[Anyone need bundles of weapons for Sword Mountaining?]

“…What?”

It was blatantly targeting Yeongwoo, who used a mini Sword Mountain system.

They had deliberately attacked the planetary ship just to get his attention.

Risking life to make a sale—insane in any sense of the word.

“What kind of lunatic is this?”

As Yeongwoo stared at the billboard, unable to look away, Jiseon quipped,

-Well, one way or another, you’re going to meet them, right? At least their marketing game is strong.

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]