Chapter 21

Chapter 21. Galactic Martial God Chronicle - Amusement Park Kidnapping Incident (4)

Si-woo bought an electrolyte drink and headed toward the bench where Cheon Ji-woo should have been resting.

It had taken quite a while just to buy a drink.

The place where Cheon Ji-woo had been resting was far from the kiosk, but on top of that, for some reason, there had been repair signs placed at several points along the way, and a fire hydrant malfunctioned, forcing her to take a detour.

Si-woo returned with the drink and found a man and woman who looked like a married couple examining the area near the bench where Cheon Ji-woo had been resting with grave expressions.

It did not matter that the man and woman who looked like a married couple were moving busily around the bench.

The problem was that Cheon Ji-woo, who should have been resting quietly on the bench, was nowhere to be seen.

“This is strange. Young master is not someone who would move without saying anything.”

Cheon Ji-woo was not the type to run off somewhere alone.

Rather, he was someone who found moving around troublesome, to the point that it was impressive he managed to follow along with training, and he liked reading books or learning things.

Although he was only three years old, his intellectual ability could already be considered adult-level, so if he had moved somewhere, he was the sort of person who would have at least called first.

Sensing something strange, Si-woo immediately called Cheon Ji-woo.

However, only the ringing tone sounded, and he did not answer.

Sensing that the situation was abnormal, Si-woo tracked the location of Cheon Ji-woo’s phone.

“A system error?”

The GPS location was detected, but the map app would not zoom in, so she could not confirm the exact location of the signal.

Although she could not know the GPS’s exact location, it was certain that it was still inside the amusement park.

Si-woo narrowed her brows and called Cheon Ji-woo’s phone again, then tracked the call signal.

As an android, she had a function for searching nearby electronic devices, so as long as they were not too far away, she could detect the special signals of registered electronic devices.

When she tracked that signal, she detected a reception signal from the bushes beneath the statue behind the bench.

Si-woo passed by the anxious couple pacing beside her and searched through the bushes, where she found a broken brooch and two band-type phones.

She did not know who one of them belonged to, but the other belonged to Cheon Ji-woo.

“Th-That’s! That’s our daughter’s phone!”

The anxious couple shouted when they saw the phone in Si-woo’s hand.

Looking closely, the name “Cheon So-yeon” was written in a corner of the phone.

“Our young master’s phone is broken together with your daughter’s phone. Do you have any idea what this might be about?”

At Si-woo’s question, the husband among the couple searching for their daughter looked at Si-woo warily.

“You....”

“Ah! There was a child who taught our daughter how to use her phone! We had not yet managed to teach her how to use it, and we had only been using it as a GPS signal device in case she got lost....”

Si-woo spoke coldly to the rambling wife.

“Please calm down and speak slowly.”

“W-We came to the amusement park to play for our daughter, but our daughter suddenly disappeared.”

Her hands were trembling, but she did her best to hold herself together.

“W-We were looking for our daughter, worried that she might have been kidnapped, just in case, and then our daughter suddenly called. Over the phone, I heard a child’s voice telling my daughter the location here and telling her to come, and then, and then... our daughter, who didn’t know how to hang up, kept talking with that child. We were coming here while listening to that conversation, but suddenly we heard something breaking....”

The couple’s gazes turned toward the broken phones.

The phones were so sturdy that they were not completely destroyed, but their call functions seemed to have been lost.

Si-woo sensed something strange in the wife’s words and asked,

“Why were you worried that your daughter had been kidnapped, rather than that she had become a lost child?”

At those words, the couple closed their mouths and looked at each other.

Watching the couple gauge each other’s reactions, Si-woo narrowed her brows.

“It is highly likely that our young master has been swept up in your daughter’s kidnapping. If this is a kidnapping, dawdling vaguely will make us miss the Golden Time. Before the criminals leave the amusement park, we must seal off the amusement park. Therefore, I need to know at least a minimal reason to forcibly seal it off.”

It was overstepping authority, but Si-woo intended to borrow and use the authority of Cheon Ji-woo’s grandfather, Cheon Gyeong-ho.

It would not be easy to avoid responsibility later, but compared to losing her precious young master, it was infinitely light.

At the words that she would seal off the amusement park, the wife said,

“O-Our daughter has the Heavenly Martial Body!”

“You!”

The husband called out to his wife in shock.

The Heavenly Martial Body was a treasure-like constitution with a high risk of kidnapping if word ever leaked out.

“Sealing off the amusement park is more urgent than keeping So-yeon’s constitution from being known! You can seal it off, right?”

At that desperate question, Si-woo nodded.

“Emergency protocol activation! Activation code blue! Activating group, Martial God Cheon House! Amusement park ‘Mally World’ system, respond!”

At Si-woo’s shout, the amusement park’s lights all changed to red at once, and a hologram appeared in front of Si-woo.

-I am Mally Cap, the system supervisor AI of Mally World. Responding to the emergency protocol of activating group Martial God Cheon House. What is the matter?

“In the name of the command authority holder, Outer Hall Head Cheon Gyeong-ho of Martial God Cheon House, I order the closure of all entrances and exits of the amusement park as of this moment. Command code ‘Car Parade 001.’”

-Command code confirmed. Command authority holder, Outer Hall Head Cheon Gyeong-ho of Martial God Cheon House, confirmed. In accordance with emergency protocol, all entrances and exits of Mally World will be sealed off as of this moment.

“In addition, transmit to me all information from the surveillance system in this area, including CCTV.”

-In accordance with emergency protocol, transmitting information from Mally World’s surveillance system to the authorized person as of this moment.

After obtaining the CCTV footage, Si-woo confirmed that, about five minutes earlier, someone had kidnapped two young children who appeared to be Cheon Ji-woo and Cheon So-yeon.

When Si-woo showed them the footage, Cheon So-yeon’s parents were shocked.

“Oh, So-yeon!”

“No wonder things have been strange ever since we entered the amusement park! They were deliberately targeting So-yeon!”

Watching the couple, Si-woo inwardly thought it was fortunate.

If it was certain that the one kidnapped had the Heavenly Martial Body, this overstepping of authority would be quietly smoothed over.

Rather, considering the importance of the Heavenly Martial Body, this much could not even be considered overstepping authority.

Even if there were thought to be several thousand people with qualities on the level of the Heavenly Martial Body throughout the entire universe, that was merely an estimate.

Among a population of over 3.2 trillion, the probability of a constitution that might number only a few thousand being discovered through a precise examination immediately upon birth was one in “the probability of being born multiplied by several hundred.”

Even if someone was born with such qualities, it was more likely that they would not manifest due to their environment.

Since ancient times, there had been a gap between rich and poor, and even in righteous sect territory, there were quite a few lawless zones like unorthodox faction territory.

Most importantly, the probability of the Heavenly Martial Body being born as a direct descendant of the Cheon Family was truly one in 3.2 trillion.

Given the seriousness of the matter, even if punishment came down, it would probably be no more than having the command code confiscated.

In the first place, the command code had been something Cheon Gyeong-ho provided as a political gesture of “pity toward his grandson who lost both parents early,” meant for her to contact him directly if an emergency occurred. It was not meant for her to wield authority directly like this.

However, Si-woo did not regret overstepping authority in the slightest.

Even if she contacted Cheon Gyeong-ho and had him respond, given the situation, the probability of missing the Golden Time was overwhelmingly high.

In truth, if it had not been for Cheon So-yeon, the daughter of the couple before her, Cheon Ji-woo would not have been lumped in and kidnapped.

It merely meant that she had wasted a precious emergency code.

Now that the emergency measure was finished, Si-woo used the emergency code according to its original purpose.

“Mally Cap.”

-Yes, did you call?

“Emergency protocol, command code ‘Car Parade 001.’ Sender: Si-woo. Recipient: Outer Hall Head Cheon Gyeong-ho. Message: ‘I report that family direct descendant Cheon So-yeon, who possesses the Heavenly Martial Body, and Cheon Gyeong-ho’s grandson Cheon Ji-woo have been kidnapped by unknown abductors at amusement park Mally World, and that the amusement park area has been sealed off. This is urgent, so please dispatch a support unit.’ Transmit the message.”

-Command code confirmed. Transmitting message in accordance with emergency protocol.

Si-woo did not have a system connected to the Cheon Family.

Because of that, the command code existed in order to use a supermassive system connected to the Cheon Family for emergency contact.

She disliked having to write as if Cheon So-yeon was more important than Cheon Ji-woo merely because of the Heavenly Martial Body, but since she had overstepped authority, she had no choice but to state the reason that overstepping authority would be permitted first.

“Abductors, I will not forgive you.”

Si-woo revealed murderous intent in a cold voice.

An android capable of combat could harm even humans if it was for the protection of an important person.

---

After waking from sleep, I regained my senses, opened my ability window, and checked the time.

I roughly calculated the time that had passed since the Slot 2 clone had been created.

After calculating, I thought I had been unconscious for quite a while, but I had only been asleep for about twenty minutes.

Well, if they used a sedative incorrectly, I could die, so perhaps they had used only a tiny amount, just enough to knock me out for a short while.

“Mm, mmph mmph.”

Not only were my arms and legs bound, I had even been gagged.

Right in front of me, Cheon So-yeon was tied up in the same way.

After confirming that I had woken up, Cheon So-yeon suddenly dislocated her own arm.

CRACK!

Then, grimacing, she slipped out of the slightly loosened binding on her own and put her dislocated arm back in place.

...What is she? I don’t know. She’s scary.

More than the kidnappers, the three-year-old who casually dislocated her own arm to escape restraint was scarier.

“Shh. I’ll remove your gag, but be quiet.”

At Cheon So-yeon’s whisper, I nodded.

Cheon So-yeon removed the gag in my mouth and freed my restraints.

“I’m sorry.”

“Huh?”

When I looked up at Cheon So-yeon, who suddenly apologized, tears were welling in her eyes.

“You probably got kidnapped because of me. Because I have the Heavenly Martial Body, you were kidnapped too just because you happened to be with me. I’m really sorry.”

At Cheon So-yeon’s words, I looked around.

“Apologize later. This isn’t the trunk of a car, but have we already left the amusement park and reached the kidnappers’ hideout?”

“N-No. We still haven’t left the amusement park. I woke up about half a gak ( about 7 minutes) after being hit by the sleeping poison, and according to the kidnappers, all the entrances and exits have been sealed off.”

Sealed off? Ah! It seems Si-woo used the emergency protocol.

Still, that’s meant for contact, so sealing the place off would be serious overstepping authority, wouldn’t it?

“Hold on. You said you have the Heavenly Martial Body, right?”

“Huh? Y-Yeah.”

The Heavenly Martial Body was extremely precious.

Thank goodness. Then it’ll probably be glossed over with something like having the emergency code taken away.

Compared to having the Heavenly Martial Body kidnapped, it would be embarrassing to even call overstepping authority “overstepping authority.”

Thinking back to the situation before we were kidnapped, Cheon So-yeon’s parents had been on their way to where we were, and judging by the fact that my phone was gone, the kidnappers must have left it there so that location tracking would not work.

Then, if Si-woo had returned from the kiosk late, found my phone, met Cheon So-yeon’s parents, and grasped the situation, she would have used the emergency protocol without hesitation.

When I smiled, Cheon So-yeon looked flustered.

“Is this the time to smile?”

“Then should I cry?”

“No, that’s not what I meant.”

I took my sub-phone out of Inventory.

“Huh...! The kidnappers definitely broke it and left it there.”

I remembered it vaguely too.

Even as I fainted and my mind drifted in and out, the sound of my phone being smashed had been so clear.

“Of course I hid this one so they couldn’t find it.”

Even a Transformation Realm expert couldn’t find Inventory.

Probably even the Martial God couldn’t find it.

This phone was a sub-phone I had secretly bought without Si-woo knowing because I was bored while training martial arts in my main body. I had filled it with music, movies, dramas, and the like, then sent it over to my main body.

I had no parental enemies to avenge, so I needed to listen to music while exercising.

50th-century music was pretty listenable too.

I had also duplicated the SIM from my main phone and inserted it, just in case my main phone broke, but I never imagined my main phone would be smashed in this way.

I called Si-woo.

-Young master?

“No, this is Ddoong.”