I'm a Young God, so Please Raise Me - Chapter 16

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 16
Je Hyeon-o wasn’t my first registration. I had previously registered Park Sung-gyeon as a sample.
But this time was entirely different.
A sizzling, roiling heat tore through my entire body.
It was undoubtedly excruciating pain. Yet simultaneously, a peculiar sensation washed over me, leaving me strangely altered.
Liberation? Relief? Satisfaction…?
The sensation—one I couldn’t quite name—crushed the agony and burrowed deep into my mind.
My lips curved upward of their own accord as euphoria surged through me.
Registration complete!
I already knew what I had to do.
It was as natural as a newborn lamb seeking its mother’s colostrum.
‘Seal. Message.’
I seal Je Hyeon-o.
You compose a message to send to Je Hyeon-o.
My nose throbbed. A burning sensation descended from my eyes.
I sent the message, tasting copper on my tongue. A message window materialized before Je Hyeon-o.
“Captain, don’t attack!”
Gwak Han-muk, who had been preparing a strike, hesitated.
“Just do it!”
If Je Hyeon-o counterattacked, both of us would be torn to shreds.
But there was no time to deliberate.
“Captain Gwak!!”
At my call, Gwak Han-muk erupted into mad laughter.
Yeom-ju bound me and Gwak Han-muk together in an instant, ensuring we couldn’t separate no matter what happened.
“Damn it, Major! Accepting the new recruit!”
Gwak Han-muk’s wild cackle mingled with the motorcycle’s roaring engine. The bike surged forward.
Je Hyeon-o, immobilized by the seal, filled my vision.
As did the system window hovering before him.
Stay still.
His gaze shifted from the system window toward me.
My reflection appeared on the smooth surface, devoid of LED light.
Yet the face beyond the goggles remained hidden.
Just before the motorcycle collided.
Yeom-ju completely enveloped us. I and Gwak Han-muk were sheltered within the cocoon Yeom-ju had formed.
Crash!
The deafening roar of impact against an iron wall. The violent shock reverberated through my organs.
Yeom-ju dispersed, and Gwak Han-muk and I tumbled across the ground in disarray.
“Ugh…!”
Gwak Han-muk coughed up blood. Yeom-ju had absorbed much of the impact but couldn’t block it entirely.
The alien metallic substance comprising Je Hyeon-o had poor compatibility with metal to begin with, making it fundamentally incompatible with Yeom-ju’s wooden-natured structure.
Despite the pool of blood spreading across the floor beneath him, Gwak Han-muk checked on Je Hyeon-o before assessing his own condition.
A brief silence fell. Then a somewhat flustered voice slipped hesitantly from him.
“…Colonel Je Hyeon-o?”
Je Hyeon-o lay at the far end of a long streak left on the ground.
Docile as a puppet with its strings cut.
Gwak Han-muk spoke with a note of hope in his voice.
“Is he dead?”
Of course, even he knew that was unlikely.
I staggered to my feet and approached Gwak Han-muk.
“We should move quickly… now.”
I couldn’t afford to waste this opportunity while Je Hyeon-o was incapacitated.
But then Gwak Han-muk suddenly seized my face with both hands.
He studied me intently.
With my cheeks compressed in his grip, I protested quietly.
“It hurts….”
Gwak Han-muk didn’t acknowledge my complaint. After staring at me for a long moment, he murmured.
“You’re back.”
“Back? Back from what?”
“Never mind. You okay?”
“I’m fine. How about you, Captain Gwak?”
“I’m damn well intact.”
…he answered, blood trickling from the corners of his grinning mouth.
My condition wasn’t much better. I used my sleeve to wipe away the blood from beneath my nose and around my chin.
“We need to move.”
“Yeah, let’s go.”
He rummaged through the backpack and duffel bag scattered in the distance.
He discarded the burst triangle kimbap, dented cans, plastic bottles, and damaged firearms, repacking only the salvageable food, an axe, and a knife into a new bundle.
With the duffel bag slung over his shoulder, Gwak Han-muk positioned me behind him and approached Je Hyeon-o.
Je Hyeon-o remained lying there docilely.
Gwak Han-muk gestured, and I limped forward.
Just as I was passing beside Je Hyeon-o, the goggles lit up.
X X
Now I understood why he was called a madman….
Seeing Je Hyeon-o’s goggles, Gwak Han-muk immediately cursed. But he didn’t waste another moment.
Gwak Han-muk and I left Je Hyeon-o behind and entered the Yellow Zone.
Despite the late hour, the Yellow Zone was eerily quiet—not a single zombie in sight.
It was because all the nearby zombies had been herded toward the Great Bridge and subsequently drowned together in the water.
Finding an old jeep, Gwak Han-muk pried open the key box and hotwired it with a screwdriver.
“Can you drive a manual?”
“I have a license, but I’ve only tried manual transmission in games.”
Gwak Han-muk chuckled at my response and gripped the steering wheel.
“Should we head to the base first?”
“Yes. That’s a good idea.”
Before searching for Mo Hae-in, I needed to regroup and resupply. In my current state, I couldn’t even take down a single zombie, let alone conduct a proper search.
While Gwak Han-muk drove, I buried myself in the passenger seat like a lump of dough and decided to check Je Hyeon-o’s status window.
‘Je Hyeon-o status window.’
– Je Hyeon-o (Hyeon-hyeon)
– Soldier
– Acquired Items: None.
– Possessed Items: Raven Hoodie Jacket (1), Raven Combat Suit (1), Raven Goggles (1), Raven Mask (1), Raven Gloves (1), Raven Boots (1).
> Proclamation
> Prohibition
> Execution
There were entries that hadn’t existed during Park Sung-gyeon’s time. I examined each one carefully.
Hyeon-hyeon appeared to be the name Je Hyeon-o had been given upon entering the trial.
The occupation was listed simply as Soldier without any rank, likely because DeZomDeal lacked specific occupational settings for players.
The items were divided into two categories: Acquired and Possessed.
‘Acquired must be items obtained in the current trial, and Possessed… items he already owned beforehand, like Mo Hae-in’s Dark Moon Blade?’
I waited a moment.
Since no contradictory system window appeared, my hypothesis seemed correct.
The possessed items list was essentially a complete raven ensemble.
Je Hyeon-o always wore his equipment during trials, but I hadn’t realized it was all from the same set.
‘And Prohibition.’
It was the ability I’d used on Je Hyeon-o earlier.
Prohibition temporarily restricted a registered person from performing any action.
But the duration was quite short. At most, it felt like three seconds?
It seemed to be the current limit of my abilities.
The reason Je Hyeon-o hadn’t moved even after those three seconds had passed was because of the message I’d sent through Proclamation, telling him to stay still.
From Je Hyeon-o’s perspective, something incomprehensible had occurred, so he’d simply followed what the system window commanded.
‘He doesn’t know I sent it.’
It seemed I could use it on Je Hyeon-o a few more times.
The problem was that this was merely a temporary measure.
With my current abilities, I couldn’t completely control Je Hyeon-o.
Continuous use of Prohibition was impossible.
Considering the pain I’d experienced when using the ability, it was clear that it placed considerable strain on my body.
I might actually die trying to subdue Je Hyeon-o.
‘Are there no offensive skills?’
You feel a great sense of accomplishment at your improved self.
You consider this first registration truly successful and resolve to make further efforts for continued growth.
Along with rapid development, you think it would be best to fill all three character registration slots to acquire new abilities.
The system window seemed to be in a good mood.
Normally, it would have sent back a single word like “insufficient,” but this response was surprisingly thoughtful.
It appeared to be because I had registered Je Hyeon-o.
However, I wanted to avoid registration whenever possible.
I had always felt uneasy about it, but registering Je Hyeon-o made me realize it even more clearly.
It was burdensome to have complete control over another human being, but the decisive issue was….
I was becoming strange.
The emotions and thought patterns I experienced the moment I registered Je Hyeon-o were abnormal.
I seemed to have had some bizarre thoughts, but only a vague impression remained, and I couldn’t remember it properly.
It was as if I had fallen into a trance and then awakened.
True to my name, I had always pursued a quiet life.
Simply becoming Earth’s system was already overwhelming.
Adding elements that could negatively affect my mind was burdensome.
Would it be difficult to upgrade system abilities with only trial clearances?
I would find out once I cleared DeZomDeal with the true ending this time.
‘I should try to handle things on my own as much as possible.’
As for Je Hyeon-o, well, he’s already registered, so there’s nothing I can do about it.
After organizing my thoughts, I observed Gwak Han-muk.
He was a supporter who enabled me to move actively right now.
Even when there were questionable aspects, he trusted and followed me completely.
Earlier, it was only possible because Gwak Han-muk threw Je Hyeon-o at the problem my way.
Of course, he might have just listened to me because doing crazy things was fun.
“What?”
Perhaps because I had been staring for a while, Gwak Han-muk glanced at me. Since things had come to this, I formed a question.
“Captain Gwak, may I ask what name you received from the trial?”
I was curious about his information, which I couldn’t have known from the game. Gwak Han-muk answered readily.
“Cheongrae.”
….
“You’re thinking right now—your hair is red, so why Cheongrae?”
“…How did you know?”
“Ha ha!”
Gwak Han-muk burst into hearty laughter.
I envied him while nursing my wounded pride.
I should have given myself a cooler name when I was playing the game. The price of choosing carelessly stung.
‘Can’t I change this name?’
If there was something like a name change ticket, I would have wanted to buy it.
While feeling dejected, I was curious why Gwak Han-muk had been given the name Cheongrae. His eyes were gray, after all.
Unable to bring myself to pry further despite my curiosity, Gwak Han-muk held the steering wheel with one hand and handed me something.
An exclamation escaped me before I could help it.
“Wow….”
It was a portable cassette tape player with wired headphones attached.
“It was in the glove box. You’ve never seen one before, have you?”
“I’ve seen them in archival footage and things like that.”
Gwak Han-muk muttered something about archival footage. There was definitely a generational gap between us.
I examined the cassette player with fascination.
It was an item I’d never encountered in the game before. That was because the vehicle’s glove box didn’t open in the game.
The item description was simple.
Portable music device: Contains a cassette tape with six upbeat songs.
“Don’t listen to the music.”
I was about to put on the headphones when I stopped myself and lowered my hand.
It was a Sidaecheong rule not to carelessly use items from the trials.
We had to be cautious—who knew what kind of contamination might occur.
‘I really want to listen to it though.’
That would have to wait. I stowed the cassette player in my duffel bag.
Now that I thought about it, the convenience store’s triangle kimbap and spicy chicken-flavored instant noodles were cutting-edge, but the firearms, the jeep, the cassette player—those were all outdated.
It felt like the time periods were jumbled together haphazardly.
When I’d wandered through DeZomDeal in the game, I hadn’t noticed this inconsistency, but facing it in reality created a profound sense of dissonance.
It was hard to dismiss this as merely part of the trial.
Assuming the trials were based on the Creator’s game.
I knew the Creator wasn’t the type to botch details like this.
Meticulous worldbuilding was one of the reasons I’d loved his game.
If the mixed timeline was the original setting and the game had simply hidden it….
“Ugh!”
Screeeech—!
Gwak Han-muk suddenly shouted and slammed on the brakes.
My body lurched forward violently, saved only by the seatbelt catching me.
I stared ahead in alarm, barely avoiding smashing my forehead into the windshield.
“Captain Mo…?”
Mo Hae-in, now a zombie, was hitchhiking.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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