Ranker Who Lives Twice

Chapter 783 - Brotherhood (2)

“Aaaack! So annoying, arrrgh!” Cha Jeong-woo rubbed his black eye as he complained. “So much for coming to help you! You just get straight to the punching if you’re mad. Damn it!”

Jeong-woo felt wronged. He was in this state although he had come to help Yeon-woo. He was even starting to wonder if Yeon-woo was really related to him because there was no way someone with his blood could be so narrow-minded.

However, Yeon-woo just lifted his fist again. “So? You have problems?”

Jeong-woo burst up as if he couldn’t take it anymore and began to shout. “Seriously! If only I was born just five minutes faster!”

“And if you were born faster? Would you have beat me up as the older brother?”

“…I would have still served you as the older brother!” Cha Jeong-woo drew back after seeing Yeon-woo’s fist in the air again. He felt wronged, but he’d be punched before ever being able to do something about it.

Yeon-woo looked at his fickle younger brother with disdain, but he decided to ignore him and turned to look at the door where those who passed the ninety-ninth floor would appear. He didn’t care about the others, but he hoped his father and mother would come out without a scratch.

“Haaa… Poor me!” Cha Jeong-woo’s shoulders sagged, feeling pity for himself. He not only had to walk on eggshells on Yeon-woo, but he had to do it in a depressed state. So what if he reached a high position others couldn’t touch? He had become the leader of ‘Day (Eros)’ that even great divine beings looked up to, but he still had a mortal enemy of a brother. When would he be able to escape this frustrating bridle of being brothers?

Just as his stress grew, Jeong-woo felt someone pat him on the shoulder. He turned around to see Shanon. Shanon’s face was covered by his helm, but Cha Jeong-woo felt Shanon understood him. “I knew it… You get me!”

Nod nod.「We’re all victims」

The two had become the best of friends. They had agreed to make a club among themselves one day. It would be called “Victims of King Temper,” or VKT for short.

「During the decades I’ve followed Master… Many victims arose due to his temper and backstabbing, and no days were without their crying and screaming. This needs to be regulated somehow.」

Cha Jeong-woo nodded in agreement. He took on a determined face. “Then what should we do?” He had a hopeful face, thinking Shanon had a solution.

But Shanon just shook his head.「There’s nothing like that.」

“What?”

「Do you think anyone in the palm of King Temper’s hand can be free?」

“…” Cha Jeong-woo drooped like a dog wet from the rain again. He continued to complain about Yeon-woo, who was intently looking at the stage’s exit door. “Geez! But seriously, how did he know what I said on the ninety-ninth floor? Wasn’t that the Heavenly Demon’s territory?”

「I told you. There’s nothing King Temper can’t do.」

“Damn it.” Cha Jeong-woo thought Yeon-woo must’ve used an unthinkable method again. However…he wasn’t really as frustrated as he said. He’d just been joking in his conversation with Shanon. To be honest, he was relieved he had met Yeon-woo here.

‘At least…he doesn’t run away anymore.’ The fact that Yeon-woo was waiting for them here meant they had the opportunity to talk. Jeong-woo realized that something in Yeon-woo’s thinking had changed. ‘He’s probably waiting for our parents… Wait.’

Cha Jeong-woo burst up again. “I got it!”

「Hm?」

“The only person who can stop King Temper!”

「…What! There’s such great person in existence?」Shanon had an overly excited face, and at that moment, a woman stepped out of a portal that appeared at the door. It was the person Cha Jeong-woo had been waiting for.

“Moooooooom!” Cha Jeong-woo jumped in Rhea’s arms, who was feeling a bit bittersweet about clearing the ninety-ninth floor.

Rhea wondered why Jeong-woo was acting like this, but she had a concerned expression. “Yes, my son! What? What happened? Is something wrong?”

“Hyung beat me up!”

“What?”

Yeon-woo had been walking over to them, but he froze in his tracks. Rhea was glowering at him.

『Hey! You bastard…!』

“He’s threatening me saying he’ll kill me when he catches me later!”

『Hey! When did I…!』

“Hyung’s cursing at me right now! He’s using Open Speaking so you can’t hear him!”

“Cha Yeon-woo! I said to get along with your brother, didn’t I? Why are you two still fighting at your ages, hm?” As Rhea’s onslaught of nagging began, Yeon-woo’s shoulders sagged.

「Whoa! The mom card…! Even I didn’t think of that!」Shanon was astonished. Yeon-woo talked back to his father, Kronos, all the time, but he wasn’t able to say a peep in front of his mother. At that moment, Shanon knew where he had to stand.「Ma’am! Subordinate Shanon greets you!」

Rhea stopped nagging and took a warm smile as she saw Shanon greeting her politely. “You must be Shanon. I heard you helped our sons out a lot. Thank you so much.”

「No, ma’am. I was just doing what needed to be done.」Shanon was able to quickly get on Rhea’s good side with his unique bubbly personality.

As he watched them, Yeon-woo face-palmed. He was being excluded here. This wasn’t what he wanted… This was chaos.

* * *

[The Heavenly Demon smirks, saying he knows why monkeys' butts are red now.]

“…Shut up.”

[The Heavenly Demon quietly lets out a pfft sound.]

“Argh, hey! You! Just you wait!” Sun Wukong left the ninety-ninth floor’s stage, aggravated. He felt this every time he passed through here, but this really wasn’t something that should be forced on people.

All of Sun Wukong’s legends were foolish monkeys who enjoyed causing trouble, so completing the mission through a conversation like Cha Jeong-woo had was absolutely impossible. Near the end, he had let down his guard and his butt was kicked by the legend of ‘Fighting Buddha,’ and the Heavenly Demon was still teasing him about it.

But…the moment Sun Wukong opened the exit door, Yeon-woo looked over at him with a faint smirk. It was ominous.

“…Did you see?”

“I learned why monkeys’ butts are red.”

“Damn it!”

“I saw only your left cheek was kicked, can I kick your right cheek to even it up?”

“You wanna die?”

“I think I’ll win.”

“Arrgh! Seriously! I want to stick you all in a bottle or something…!” Sun Wukong let out a frustrated shout. The two most fundamental principles were light and darkness, but one of them was the Heavenly Demon and the bastard in front of him was darkness. Was this world really going to be okay without being reset?

Sun Wukong scratched his head, but it dawned on him that Yeon-woo was taking out his anger on him. He quickly asked Cha Jeong-woo for the reason.『It feels like that bastard is letting out his anger on me.』

『He is. He’s sulking.』

『…Why?』

Sun Wukong snorted after hearing the situation from Cha Jeong-woo. ‘And he pretends to be so cold-blooded. I guess he’s different in front of family.’ He was amused because it felt like he’d seen a peek at Yeon-woo’s humanity.

Soon, the others who entered the tomb with them appeared one by one.

“…” Nocturne had such a stiff face that it was difficult to ask him what happened.

『Shit! Who made this stupid stage?』Lastly, Kronos appeared, fuming. His body was riddled with injuries big and small. It seemed he had gone through an intense battle like Sun Wukong.

“Are you hurt?”

When Rhea quickly took his side and asked with concern, Kronos shook his head.『Huh? Y-Yeah! I’m fine. This is nothing. Nothing, really. Hahaha!』

Kronos didn’t want to show his weak side to his dear wife, so he acted strong. However, Rhea could see how much he had struggled because of the mission and sighed.

All of Kronos’ legends were scumbags, and he had more legends than others. His life as the king of gods aside, he had the heroes’ lives from Earth that were a result of repeatedly reincarnating, so it had probably been quite difficult to make them all one again. Fortunately, he didn’t seem to be too different from his normal self. It meant he’d had a certainty of his identity.

Now that all the family was gathered, Yeon-woo bowed to Kronos and Rhea. “I apologize for making you worried, Father. Mother.”

Kronos and Rhea looked at their son with sorrow.

“I…won’t do anything like this without speaking to you about it ever again.”

They understood why Yeon-woo had decided to do such a thing, so they weren’t able to speak for a moment. Still, Kronos was about to rebuke Yeon-woo at this opportunity.

But Rhea approached Yeon-woo first and pulled him into her arms. Then, she stroked his hair. “It was hard all this time, wasn’t it?

“…”

“Parents should raise their children to live in comfort, but we only made you sorry. You’ve gone through so much for meeting bad parents.”

“Don’t…say that. To me, you two are…!”

“I know. You don’t have to say anymore.”

“…” Yeon-woo buried his face in Rhea’s arms and cried.

Kronos and Cha Jeong-woo couldn’t bring themselves to watch, so they looked away. It had been years since Yeon-woo was able to act childish in front of his mom.

* * *

“Well, I know one thing for sure now.” Sun Wukong carefully approached Yeon-woo, whose eyes were red.

“…What?”

“The eyes of the Giant Demonic Divine Dragon are going to be red from now on.”

“…” Remembering how he teased Sun Wukong, Yeon-woo just wordlessly got up. He felt like he’d enter an endless pit if he talked back here. “I’ll open the door to the one-hundredth floor now.”

“Hey. ‘Fess up. You cried, didn’t you?”

“…” Yeon-woo stepped atop the stairs that led up to the sky.

『You’re going to storm in right away?』

“Yes, I will.”

Kronos’ had a composed expression.『I don’t know about Yvlke, but Tongtian Jiaozhu and the Bull Demon King aren’t easy opponents. They survived until the end even when I used to rule.』

Yeon-woo nodded. “It won’t be easy.”

Yeon-woo had shared his new plan with his family about how he’d capture Yvlke and become the main ego of the Black King after all the stages were cleared.

Kronos and Rhea didn’t object to his plans despite expressing some concern. It was surprising enough that Yeon-woo had changed his mind this much. They were just worried about how much their son would have to suffer again in the process. But as parents, they wanted to encourage Yeon-woo, who was trying to faithfully walk his path.

“Still, I’m going to do it.”

Kronos and Rhea nodded at Yeon-woo’s determination.

Creeaak! Yeon-woo began to take one by one the steps that led to the hundredth floor.