Level 4 Human in a Ruined World
Author: Overcoat
Chapter 515
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
Chapter 515: Racetrack (5)
∴ This punk… treating me like some servant? You think I have to do whatever you tell me?
For the first time in a while, Song Jeongho’s voice thundered loudly from inside the coffin.
But Yeongwoo didn’t even blink.
“Of course.”
∴ …What?
“Are you just going to sit there and watch me lose this race? If I lose here, it becomes Uncle’s fault, you know.”
∴ How the hell is that my fault?
“Ever heard of aiding and abetting? Besides, you’re family. You’re really going to stand by and let me lose? Whose side are you on here?”
∴ You…!
Family.
In this world shattered by the reset, that word was almost unbeatable.
In truth, for Song Jeongho, the only people he had left to cling to were Yeongwoo and Jiseon.
∴ …Dammit.
Finally letting out a groan, his tone softening, Song Jeongho watched as Yeongwoo pointed into the air ahead.
“I’m not asking for much. Just overtake that guy and get us past this aerial zone.”
On the ground, Negwig was much faster anyway.
So Yeongwoo only planned to rely on his uncle’s help here, in the air.
∴ Just overtake him?
“Yeah. And if you can knock him down on the way, even better.”
As Yeongwoo made his request and unlocked Aratubank’s seal, Song Jeongho crawled out of the coffin on his own.
Kwaaaah!
With blazing red sealing material dissipating, his massive body—stretching hundreds of meters—unfurled.
∴ Hraaaaagh!
Letting out a long roar at his return to the world, he spread his wings wide.
The Black Knight in the distance sensed this presence and turned to look back.
—…What the? A… dragon…?
And a massive one at that.
The sleek dragon the Black Knight was riding was, at best, twenty meters long.
∴ Hold on tight. I’ll show you how fast I am!
When Song Jeongho bared his jaws and gave this warning, Negwig willingly parted with Wing-Ant.
—-Squeeeak!
He kicked the ant mount’s back, pushing it away, and leapt onto Song Jeongho’s massive back.
Finally free, the ant sprinted full-speed in the opposite direction of the racetrack.
Meanwhile, with their transfer to the thunder dragon complete, Negwig and Yeongwoo heard—
Kudududuk!
—the sound of Song Jeongho curling his back and wing joints in preparation for a glide.
His blue scales spread wide, producing a kind of rupturing sound.
And then, at last—
∴ Hiiiyaaaah!
Song Jeongho straightened his body in one fluid motion and began gliding forward.
Hwaaaaaash!
As his fully extended wings cut through the air at high speed, an intense gust slammed into Yeongwoo and Negwig, and an even more overwhelming aura crashed down upon the Black Knight ahead.
—What is this…?
Before the shadow of the enormous black figure could fully loom over them, a fierce wind buffeted the Black Knight and his dragon.
—Keeeeagh!
The medium-sized dragon staggered, momentarily losing balance, and Song Jeongho seized the moment to unleash his breath.
Kwahjijijijit!
With a sound like rolling thunder, a barrage of blue lightning tore through the Black Knight’s body, perhaps even reaching the very bottom of the aerial zone.
‘Whoa, damn. Was Uncle always this strong?’
While Yeongwoo was still reeling from this unexpected show of force, the Black Knight twisted his upper body and raised the spear in his hand.
‘Oh, this guy.’
As expected from a top-tier racer—he wasn’t the type to be knocked out by a thunder dragon’s breath.
The problem was—
—Kkiiiiek…!
—the medium dragon he was riding.
The Black Knight himself was unharmed, but his mount had taken massive damage.
—Kkiek!
Clearly in bad shape, the dragon soon lost control and began plummeting.
Hwaaaash!
—Tch.
The startled Black Knight quickly leapt off his dragon and grabbed hold of a nearby aerial tile.
Kwaak!
The instant he did, the entire tile turned orange, and a system message appeared above the racetrack.
Beeeep!
「03-2, Disqualified for self-propelled movement.」
‘Ah, so if you touch the track with your own hands or feet, you’re immediately disqualified.’
Thanks to this, Yeongwoo had just picked up a valuable piece of intel.
Meanwhile, during the Black Knight’s disqualification by lightning strike, Yeongwoo had almost cleared the aerial zone.
∴ How’s that? Pretty good, huh?
“Better than I expected. Considering you’ve only been a dragon for a few days, how do you fight like a real one?”
When Yeongwoo said this with genuine curiosity, Song Jeongho grinned, showing all his teeth.
∴ Guess you could call it the instinct engraved in the blood of the strong.
But Yeongwoo’s eyes were already fixed on the next target.
The aerial zone had ended, and the ground track had appeared again.
“Our turn again.”
As Yeongwoo looked toward the ground track, Negwig shook his head once and boldly leapt off Song Jeongho’s back.
Fwaaash!
Still gliding, Song Jeongho looked surprised.
∴ Huh? Then what am I supposed to do now?
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
“Tag along and enjoy the breeze. If you get bored, throw in some fire support.”
Just as Yeongwoo said this and urged Negwig forward—
Beeeep!
Another system message popped up in the air.
「03-10, Disqualified due to mount inoperable.」
“…What?”
Something was clearly happening up ahead—among the top-ranked racers.
"These bastards… don't tell me they're competing for first place without me?"
And hadn't the very front line started the race with only three participants?
That would mean their speed in clearing the course was that much faster.
"We’d better hurry. At this rate, the match will be over before I even see their faces."
As Yeongwoo gripped the reins tightly, Negwig instantly surged forward at high speed.
—Kkiiieeeek!
Swaeaeaeaeat!
Negwig’s ground speed was fast enough to impress even Song Jeongho, whose own body length stretched hundreds of meters—and the same went for the spectators.
—What the…?
—Why is it so fast?
—If this keeps up…
From the stands, which had a view of the entire racetrack map, the audience could clearly see racer 03-7—starting from the very rear—closing the gap on the leaders.
And now Yeongwoo himself, galloping down the course, began to hear that sound.
Baaaaaaang…!
‘Huh? This is…’
As his eyebrows twitched, Negwig also perked its ears at the raucous noise.
It was none other than the exhaust note of an Audi engine.
Since the course had just shifted into a canyon section, the exhaust echoed off the walls, making it sound even louder despite the source not yet being in sight.
"Why the hell did they set the route through a canyon?"
As Yeongwoo looked back and forth at the towering, tightly curved cliff walls that made the sky look narrow, a violent disturbance erupted ahead.
Kwa-ja-ja-jak!
"…!"
It was a white Audi and a black-armored wolf racing side by side.
Gwoaaaaang!
The problem was that a massive black sword had just jutted out from the Audi’s side to stab at the wolf.
"What… the fuck is that?"
Yeongwoo finally realized how an Audi could even be here in this alien racetrack.
This was no longer the Audi he knew, but some heavily modified monstrosity.
Trung, trung…!
The car made an aggressive rattling noise, then its roof split open in a semicircle, firing something into the air.
Tu-tu-tu-tu-tu-tung!
"…?"
They were small rockets.
"What the hell did these guys do to our car?"
And they seemed to be quite effective.
As soon as the rockets launched, the prince of Diorn atop the wolf raised a golden shield—but dozens of rockets avoided the shield entirely, homing in on his torso.
Puh-puh-puhng!
—Kraaagh!
Even with his guard up, the prince took every hit and screamed in pain.
Hearing it gave Yeongwoo a strangely satisfying feeling.
‘Dogo’s subsidiaries really do beat the crap out of a national prince, huh.’
It was hard not to feel company pride at that moment.
Unfortunately, that crazy Audi wasn’t just the prince’s opponent—it was also Yeongwoo’s.
『Dooooogoooooo!』
When Yeongwoo shouted "Dogo" in the transcendent tongue, the Audi, which had been speeding straight ahead, suddenly swerved side to side.
Kkiiiik!
Then, one of the three-eyed beings in uniform—whom Yeongwoo had met in the waiting room earlier—stuck his head out of the window.
—What do you think you’re doing? How dare you directly invoke "Dogo"?
Yeongwoo fixed his gaze on the middle of the creature’s three eyes and replied,
"This mount was a gift from Dogo’s largest shareholder, and this sword—was personally bestowed upon me by the chairman himself."
At that moment, the Dogo emblem on the upper arm of Yeongwoo’s Vesedel armor flashed brightly.
Paaat!
The "blank space" tattoo advertisement activated right on cue.
The three-eyed being blinked each eye in turn, then answered curtly,
—So what? What’s your point?
"So step aside! I don’t want to fight a fellow member!"
With golden light in his eyes, Yeongwoo shouted, but the three-eyed man snorted.
—If you’re truly part of "Dogo," you should know this already.
"…?"
—We at "Dogo" value nothing but skill and results. If I were to make way for you here, that would be an insult to the chairman.
Then all three eyes snapped wide open.
—So prove it, rookie! Prove that you are "Dogo" through strength!
Even a mere subsidiary employee was speaking the transcendent language.
Clearly, Yeongwoo wasn’t the only one here with absurd company loyalty.
—Behold! This is Dogo’s technological prowess!
With that, the three-eyed man ducked back inside, and the Audi began firing lasers from all sides.
Piaaaaaaaat!
The beams sliced through the canyon walls like sheets of paper, and Yeongwoo hurriedly raised Aratubank and leapt into the air with Negwig.
Taaat!
Seeing all this, the Diorn prince hastily reined in his wolf and shouted toward the sky,
—I… I refuse to race alongside these lunatics!
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
[Proofreader - Gun]
Chapter 515: Racetrack (5)
∴ This punk… treating me like some servant? You think I have to do whatever you tell me?
For the first time in a while, Song Jeongho’s voice thundered loudly from inside the coffin.
But Yeongwoo didn’t even blink.
“Of course.”
∴ …What?
“Are you just going to sit there and watch me lose this race? If I lose here, it becomes Uncle’s fault, you know.”
∴ How the hell is that my fault?
“Ever heard of aiding and abetting? Besides, you’re family. You’re really going to stand by and let me lose? Whose side are you on here?”
∴ You…!
Family.
In this world shattered by the reset, that word was almost unbeatable.
In truth, for Song Jeongho, the only people he had left to cling to were Yeongwoo and Jiseon.
∴ …Dammit.
Finally letting out a groan, his tone softening, Song Jeongho watched as Yeongwoo pointed into the air ahead.
“I’m not asking for much. Just overtake that guy and get us past this aerial zone.”
On the ground, Negwig was much faster anyway.
So Yeongwoo only planned to rely on his uncle’s help here, in the air.
∴ Just overtake him?
“Yeah. And if you can knock him down on the way, even better.”
As Yeongwoo made his request and unlocked Aratubank’s seal, Song Jeongho crawled out of the coffin on his own.
Kwaaaah!
With blazing red sealing material dissipating, his massive body—stretching hundreds of meters—unfurled.
∴ Hraaaaagh!
Letting out a long roar at his return to the world, he spread his wings wide.
The Black Knight in the distance sensed this presence and turned to look back.
—…What the? A… dragon…?
And a massive one at that.
The sleek dragon the Black Knight was riding was, at best, twenty meters long.
∴ Hold on tight. I’ll show you how fast I am!
When Song Jeongho bared his jaws and gave this warning, Negwig willingly parted with Wing-Ant.
—-Squeeeak!
He kicked the ant mount’s back, pushing it away, and leapt onto Song Jeongho’s massive back.
Finally free, the ant sprinted full-speed in the opposite direction of the racetrack.
Meanwhile, with their transfer to the thunder dragon complete, Negwig and Yeongwoo heard—
Kudududuk!
—the sound of Song Jeongho curling his back and wing joints in preparation for a glide.
His blue scales spread wide, producing a kind of rupturing sound.
And then, at last—
∴ Hiiiyaaaah!
Song Jeongho straightened his body in one fluid motion and began gliding forward.
Hwaaaaaash!
As his fully extended wings cut through the air at high speed, an intense gust slammed into Yeongwoo and Negwig, and an even more overwhelming aura crashed down upon the Black Knight ahead.
—What is this…?
Before the shadow of the enormous black figure could fully loom over them, a fierce wind buffeted the Black Knight and his dragon.
—Keeeeagh!
The medium-sized dragon staggered, momentarily losing balance, and Song Jeongho seized the moment to unleash his breath.
Kwahjijijijit!
With a sound like rolling thunder, a barrage of blue lightning tore through the Black Knight’s body, perhaps even reaching the very bottom of the aerial zone.
‘Whoa, damn. Was Uncle always this strong?’
While Yeongwoo was still reeling from this unexpected show of force, the Black Knight twisted his upper body and raised the spear in his hand.
‘Oh, this guy.’
As expected from a top-tier racer—he wasn’t the type to be knocked out by a thunder dragon’s breath.
The problem was—
—Kkiiiiek…!
—the medium dragon he was riding.
The Black Knight himself was unharmed, but his mount had taken massive damage.
—Kkiek!
Clearly in bad shape, the dragon soon lost control and began plummeting.
Hwaaaash!
—Tch.
The startled Black Knight quickly leapt off his dragon and grabbed hold of a nearby aerial tile.
Kwaak!
The instant he did, the entire tile turned orange, and a system message appeared above the racetrack.
Beeeep!
「03-2, Disqualified for self-propelled movement.」
‘Ah, so if you touch the track with your own hands or feet, you’re immediately disqualified.’
Thanks to this, Yeongwoo had just picked up a valuable piece of intel.
Meanwhile, during the Black Knight’s disqualification by lightning strike, Yeongwoo had almost cleared the aerial zone.
∴ How’s that? Pretty good, huh?
“Better than I expected. Considering you’ve only been a dragon for a few days, how do you fight like a real one?”
When Yeongwoo said this with genuine curiosity, Song Jeongho grinned, showing all his teeth.
∴ Guess you could call it the instinct engraved in the blood of the strong.
But Yeongwoo’s eyes were already fixed on the next target.
The aerial zone had ended, and the ground track had appeared again.
“Our turn again.”
As Yeongwoo looked toward the ground track, Negwig shook his head once and boldly leapt off Song Jeongho’s back.
Fwaaash!
Still gliding, Song Jeongho looked surprised.
∴ Huh? Then what am I supposed to do now?
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
“Tag along and enjoy the breeze. If you get bored, throw in some fire support.”
Just as Yeongwoo said this and urged Negwig forward—
Beeeep!
Another system message popped up in the air.
「03-10, Disqualified due to mount inoperable.」
“…What?”
Something was clearly happening up ahead—among the top-ranked racers.
"These bastards… don't tell me they're competing for first place without me?"
And hadn't the very front line started the race with only three participants?
That would mean their speed in clearing the course was that much faster.
"We’d better hurry. At this rate, the match will be over before I even see their faces."
As Yeongwoo gripped the reins tightly, Negwig instantly surged forward at high speed.
—Kkiiieeeek!
Swaeaeaeaeat!
Negwig’s ground speed was fast enough to impress even Song Jeongho, whose own body length stretched hundreds of meters—and the same went for the spectators.
—What the…?
—Why is it so fast?
—If this keeps up…
From the stands, which had a view of the entire racetrack map, the audience could clearly see racer 03-7—starting from the very rear—closing the gap on the leaders.
And now Yeongwoo himself, galloping down the course, began to hear that sound.
Baaaaaaang…!
‘Huh? This is…’
As his eyebrows twitched, Negwig also perked its ears at the raucous noise.
It was none other than the exhaust note of an Audi engine.
Since the course had just shifted into a canyon section, the exhaust echoed off the walls, making it sound even louder despite the source not yet being in sight.
"Why the hell did they set the route through a canyon?"
As Yeongwoo looked back and forth at the towering, tightly curved cliff walls that made the sky look narrow, a violent disturbance erupted ahead.
Kwa-ja-ja-jak!
"…!"
It was a white Audi and a black-armored wolf racing side by side.
Gwoaaaaang!
The problem was that a massive black sword had just jutted out from the Audi’s side to stab at the wolf.
"What… the fuck is that?"
Yeongwoo finally realized how an Audi could even be here in this alien racetrack.
This was no longer the Audi he knew, but some heavily modified monstrosity.
Trung, trung…!
The car made an aggressive rattling noise, then its roof split open in a semicircle, firing something into the air.
Tu-tu-tu-tu-tu-tung!
"…?"
They were small rockets.
"What the hell did these guys do to our car?"
And they seemed to be quite effective.
As soon as the rockets launched, the prince of Diorn atop the wolf raised a golden shield—but dozens of rockets avoided the shield entirely, homing in on his torso.
Puh-puh-puhng!
—Kraaagh!
Even with his guard up, the prince took every hit and screamed in pain.
Hearing it gave Yeongwoo a strangely satisfying feeling.
‘Dogo’s subsidiaries really do beat the crap out of a national prince, huh.’
It was hard not to feel company pride at that moment.
Unfortunately, that crazy Audi wasn’t just the prince’s opponent—it was also Yeongwoo’s.
『Dooooogoooooo!』
When Yeongwoo shouted "Dogo" in the transcendent tongue, the Audi, which had been speeding straight ahead, suddenly swerved side to side.
Kkiiiik!
Then, one of the three-eyed beings in uniform—whom Yeongwoo had met in the waiting room earlier—stuck his head out of the window.
—What do you think you’re doing? How dare you directly invoke "Dogo"?
Yeongwoo fixed his gaze on the middle of the creature’s three eyes and replied,
"This mount was a gift from Dogo’s largest shareholder, and this sword—was personally bestowed upon me by the chairman himself."
At that moment, the Dogo emblem on the upper arm of Yeongwoo’s Vesedel armor flashed brightly.
Paaat!
The "blank space" tattoo advertisement activated right on cue.
The three-eyed being blinked each eye in turn, then answered curtly,
—So what? What’s your point?
"So step aside! I don’t want to fight a fellow member!"
With golden light in his eyes, Yeongwoo shouted, but the three-eyed man snorted.
—If you’re truly part of "Dogo," you should know this already.
"…?"
—We at "Dogo" value nothing but skill and results. If I were to make way for you here, that would be an insult to the chairman.
Then all three eyes snapped wide open.
—So prove it, rookie! Prove that you are "Dogo" through strength!
Even a mere subsidiary employee was speaking the transcendent language.
Clearly, Yeongwoo wasn’t the only one here with absurd company loyalty.
—Behold! This is Dogo’s technological prowess!
With that, the three-eyed man ducked back inside, and the Audi began firing lasers from all sides.
Piaaaaaaaat!
The beams sliced through the canyon walls like sheets of paper, and Yeongwoo hurriedly raised Aratubank and leapt into the air with Negwig.
Taaat!
Seeing all this, the Diorn prince hastily reined in his wolf and shouted toward the sky,
—I… I refuse to race alongside these lunatics!
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]