novelraw Chapter 640
Chapter 640
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Chapter 640: Tehen (5)
Mopping up the routed troops.
If it had been the usual Mantero, he might have let a few routed enemies go.
After all, cruelty was not in his nature.
But this time was different.
If even a single one of the enemies left on the battlefield returned alive, wouldn’t the next clash with Salzeo take on a completely different shape?
—In this battle, we inflicted truly enormous damage. So Salzeo won’t simply withdraw like this.
“Even so… considering how much money they lost today, won’t they reorganize for a while?”
When Yeongwoo asked this, Mantero shook his head.
—There’s a reason Salzeo is famous for always getting revenge. They possess a fleet of tremendous scale and have wiped out countless families so far.
“Wiped out…? Salzeo is that strong?”
—We won this battle only because we’re a Planet Ship. If it had been an ordinary family, not only would their fleet have been annihilated, their planet would’ve been reduced to ruins as well.
“It was that bad…?”
—The reason we were able to win this battle with just a single vessel… is purely because we are a Planet Ship.
The end of Mantero’s sentence trembled thinly once again.
The shock from the recent engagement had not yet faded from him.
Even so, he did not forget to fire the cannons toward the two large vessels fleeing in the distance.
Piaaaaaaat!
Once again, the Raider’s red laser cut across the pitch-black space.
This time, even though they did not use Nemua for a smokescreen, the enemy failed to deploy their shield in time and exploded in a burst of blue light.
“What? Why couldn’t they block that?”
—They were probably in a panic. It’s not easy to fend off artillery fire while you’re in an extremely tense state.
“Yeah, being chased by a planet that spits out hundreds of shells… that’d definitely put you in a panic.”
Yeongwoo nodded as if he understood, but in reality it was far worse than that.
From the perspective of the ships over there, their entire rear field of vision was Earth.
It was like the moment just before being swallowed by a deep blue tidal wave.
On top of that, they had just watched their main ship get shot down right beside them.
So it might have been only natural that their bodies were so stiff they couldn’t react quickly.
“Now there’s only one left.”
When Yeongwoo pointed at the last large vessel, Mantero said something frightening again.
—They’ll soon turn on their relay and attempt to enter the tunnel. Once that happens, it’ll become much harder to react to our bombardment, so that will be the moment to strike. We also need to load our ammunition.
The moment Mantero finished speaking like that, a series of dull impact sounds came from the rear of the helm.
Thudududung!
—It seems the vanguard that began the pursuit earlier has arrived.
A vanguard fleet now consisting only of several semi-medium and medium ships, having lost their flagship.
Even though they were facing a Planet Ship they could never defeat, they charged in to save a single large vessel.
They were essentially people who had rushed in knowing they would die, and Yeongwoo did not feel very good about it.
“Where do they even find such brave guys?”
—There’s a reason Salzeo’s notoriety is so high. This is my first time engaging Salzeo as well, but truly… the word comes out on its own.
Of course, in the face of overwhelming power, bravery and legitimacy and the like all become meaningless.
When Mantero pressed a few buttons on the captain’s seat, the ships of the vanguard that had rushed in prepared for death burst like fireworks.
There must have been quite a number of crew members inside them, yet they vanished without even seeing the enemy’s face.
And around that time, the large Salzeo vessel racing on the opposite side began to be dyed in five colors.
—As expected, they’re not missing this opportunity. They’re opening a relay tunnel.
“This is our last chance too, right? If they take that tunnel, they’ll just disappear.”
—That’s correct.
Mantero was already gripping the targeting lever, aiming at Salzeo’s final hope.
And then, at last.
Wiiiiiiing……!
At the same time the firing preparation sound of the Planet Hunter echoed, the Raider—twice as fast in firing—shot two rounds first.
—They’re probably displaying the concentration of their lifetime as well. So we’ll use the Raider for the smokescreen, and the Planet Hunter will land the effective hit.
While Mantero was saying this, the Raider’s red projectiles rushed right up to the enemy’s nose.
Fpat!
In that instant, the five-colored light that had been wrapping around the Salzeo vessel vanished, and a blue afterimage filled its place.
—…It’s over.
Mantero squeezed his eyes shut.
The opponent had used an evasive shield to avoid the two Raider shots.
And miraculously, they even succeeded in dodging both shots.
But.
Kwaaaaaaaaang!
They could not evade the monstrous energy of the Planet Hunter that came flying in afterward.
At the tail end of the heavy energy beam that cut across space, a blue explosion bloomed.
“Ah……”
Even though they were enemies, for some reason Yeongwoo felt a mournful mood and briefly closed his eyes.
“How should I put it… fleet battles feel strange. Maybe because we’re not crossing blades directly. The guys exploding and dying in space feel kind of pitiful.”
—Just the number of families those pitiful ones have wiped out easily reaches into the hundreds.
“Oh, so they were the kind that needed to die quickly.”
The battlefield that had just been swept by a burst of highly concentrated energy was now quiet as if nothing had happened, and only the wreckage of the Salzeo fleet floated in the void.
“So that means it’s all cleaned up now, right? We can go back to Tehen?”
When Yeongwoo said this while looking out the window filled with ship debris, Mantero slowly stepped down from the captain’s seat.
—No. There’s still some time before Salzeo’s main force arrives, so now it’s the turn you’ll like the most, Owner.
“My favorite turn……?”
—We need to collect the wreckage you see over there. We don’t have unlimited time so we can’t gather everything, but if we just sweep the places where the large vessels were, it’ll be quite profitable.
“Huh? We can collect those and turn them into money?”
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Yeongwoo’s eyes widened.
At this, Mantero nodded.
—Even as scrap metal itself it can be sold cheaply, and since these are Salzeo ship remnants scattered here, there will be at least a bit of Katangdal content. The Katangdal ratio of large vessels will be much higher.
“Oooh… then that’s all money, right?”
—Of course, I’m not sure how good the collection efficiency will be. Usually we send out collectors to sort the wreckage……
“What’s a collector?”
—An automatic robot with a claw. It has a sensor capable of material analysis, so if you send it to a place like that, it collects items in order of highest value.
“Sounds expensive.”
—It is. And even a large vessel can’t store ship wreckage infinitely… so selection through collectors is essential.
“We can store almost infinitely though. The whole planet is a storage box. Right?”
While Yeongwoo and Mantero were talking like this, Earth, who had been staring blankly into the void since earlier, opened its mouth.
『We can collect too.』
“…What?”
『Those wreckages, we can store them as well.』
“Huh? I’ve never heard that the Earth Ship has collectors built in.”
『Of course we can’t sort them. But we can move objects within a certain range over here. Same principle as the Return Stone. We’ll use the same method when bringing Tehen’s residents too.』
And since this time the targets weren’t even living beings, it was even easier, according to Earth’s explanation.
However, the problem was.
『But where are you going to move them?』
“…Huh?”
『That’s an enormous amount of metal. No matter where you dump it on the ground, it’ll turn into a massive pile of steel. Do you think the residents will like that?』
“That’s a fair point. It’d basically become a scrap landfill.”
Saying this, Yeongwoo looked at the camera flashing around eye level.
“What do you all think? Anyone want to take a look at spaceship wreckage? Or rather, any region?”
Then, when Yeongwoo activated the viewer reaction function for the first time in a long while, region-based chats flooded in like waves.
[USA / Oregon]
| Jeremy: Earth’s representative, withdraw the alien tenant plan! Earth belongs to Earthlings!
[USA / Oregon]
| Will: I don’t want to live next door to aliens!
[USA / Oregon]
| Mason: Earth belongs to Earthlings……!
“…Those bastards, weren’t they doing this last time too?”
Yeongwoo unconsciously pressed his forehead.
Then Earth scratched its cheek and said,
『Oregon definitely seems hostile toward the new tenants.』
From the perspective of ordinary humans, it was only natural to fear the influx of aliens.
Even though each region had a Guardian, the residents themselves had no power to resist aliens.
“Hey, um… can you temporarily block those protestors?”
At Yeongwoo’s request, Earth immediately temporarily blocked the Oregon protesters’ chat.
Only then did the topic that Earth’s people were most worried about rise to the surface.
[India / Bihar]
| Rohit: Representative, how do you plan to solve the Karma depletion issue?
[USA / Tennessee]
| William: There’s no balance left anymore. There are no monsters, yet abnormal weather still comes at night… what are you going to do?
It was none other than the Karma supply issue.
Those who had accumulated Karma beforehand could still endure, but those who had originally been covering their living expenses through daily quests were already approaching their limits.
“…….”
At this, Yeongwoo waved his hand as if telling them to calm down and said,
“I will state this officially. You will be able to confirm the solution to the Karma problem within today.”
Then he added an afterword.
“So from this point on, I will not be taking any more questions about the Karma issue. Only state your opinions if your region is willing to receive the ship wreckage.”
When Yeongwoo drew Bastard at his waist and pointed toward the ship debris in the middle of space, the once noisy chat window fell silent all at once.
No one asked further about the Karma issue, but likewise, no region stepped forward to receive the ship wreckage either.
So Yeongwoo added a condition.
“Any region that stores the ship wreckage and helps with sorting it will receive 20% of the profit earned from disposing of it. How about it?”
If the profit were 10 billion, that would mean returning 2 billion Karma to the region.
From Yeongwoo’s perspective, since that fee would ultimately go back into Earth anyway, he considered it quite a large offer, but still no region stepped forward.
The words “ship wreckage” sounded extremely unfamiliar and frightening.
Moreover, weren’t the residents themselves supposed to help sort the wreckage?
“At this rate, I’ll have no choice but to do a random draw.”
Just as Yeongwoo was about to give up on public opinion and proceed forcibly, a single line of chat appeared on the screen.
[South Korea / Seoul]
| Bantubangtong: That task… can an alien do it?
The Bang family and his clan, who now lived in Guro District, Seoul.
The moment Yeongwoo saw Bantubangtong’s chat, he tilted his head.
“Who’s an alien? All I see are Earthlings.”
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