Max-Level Son of a Chaebol Family - Chapter 2

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

I instinctively realized this was an opportunity that would never come again.

‘I’m going to become the luckiest person in all of history?’

A light excitement washed over me.

“Does that luck mean winning the lottery first prize every time I buy a ticket, getting perfect scores just by guessing on tests, getting hit by money falling from the sky while walking down the street as if it’s nothing, things like that?”

[Hahaha, living life, you might occasionally get such windfalls. But you can’t live always hoping for such things. Life in the Mortal World is not like that.]

That’s exactly why I’m asking.

[When you were cursed with divine punishment, everything you did was constantly thwarted, wasn’t it? But this time, it will be the opposite.]

Oh!

[Good relationships will gather, opportunities both big and small will arise from them, and when luck follows at just the right time, life will become quite worth living. That is what great fortune truly is.]

King Yama smiled broadly.

[So please form relationships carefully. Fortune in the Mortal World originally stems from relationships.]

“I will keep that in mind.”

I bowed at the waist.

Those were words to be carved into my bones.

I really had damn terrible luck with people.

[How do you want to live your next life?]

I want to enjoy what I couldn’t enjoy in my past life.

A life on the Sunny Side where I can live proudly with my name held high before others.

A healthy body that doesn’t receive blatant contempt and disgust because of visible scars.

A harmonious family where I receive plenty of parental love from childhood and live lovingly with a wife and children when grown.

It would be even better if I were born with a Golden Spoon in my mouth.

[What kind of blessing do you desire?]

King Yama spoke with confidence.

[Wealth and honor, fame and glory, outstanding talent, handsome looks, beautiful women, precious children, health and longevity. Go ahead and choose.]

“Thank you.”

I expressed my gratitude with my whole body.

I decided not to mention the unjust divine punishment I had received and the hardships I had to endure because of it.

‘For someone weak like me to argue about right and wrong would be nothing but bravado. You only make demands when you have the ability to handle the opponent, not when you have justification. Right now, I’m in a position where I need to hope for leniency.’

King Yama was the absolute authority who unilaterally decided my fate.

“Please choose whatever King Yama deems suitable. I will trust and follow your decision.”

[Hmm, when it comes to blessings for the next life, everyone usually goes crazy and rushes for them. Are you really fine with me choosing?]

“Of course. I’m sure you’ll choose well for me.”

[Hahaha, wise. Good. Very good!]

King Yama struck the table with a bang and declared cheerfully.

[I promised to take responsibility in my name. I shall grant you all the blessings I mentioned earlier! All of them at the highest grade, of course.]

It was literally an unexpected windfall.

If I had chosen myself, I would have had to give up several, but now I was getting all five blessings.

“Thank you.”

[Hmm, but why do you look like that? What’s troubling you?]

I hesitated for a moment before speaking.

“Forgive my presumption, but I have lingering attachments to my past life.”

[Attachments. Is it about your adopted son or your parents?]

“Both.”

They say there are three deep connections that even heaven cannot sever.

People called them the bonds of heaven.

The bonds with parents, spouse, and children.

Since I had no bond with a spouse, I could only have attachments to the remaining two bonds.

“Could I meet my deceased parents? If not in the Underworld, there would be no other way to meet them.”

Mother passed away when I was seven years old, and as for Father, I only knew he had the surname Cha, but I never met him even once in my lifetime.

Thus, my parents became my lifelong longing and regret.

[Hmm.]

But for some reason, King Yama was making a troubled expression.

“I humbly request this of you.”

Thud.

I fell to my knees.

“Please show generous mercy for this pitiful soul. I beg for your compassion.”

If this wasn’t enough, I was prepared to prostrate myself completely.

I didn’t want to lose the chance to meet precious people by clinging to useless pride.

That’s something only a pathetic man would do.

If I could just meet my parents again, for my son’s happiness, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do.

“If I must pay a price, I’ll pay it. Is it still impossible?”

Snap.

King Yama snapped his fingers.

Then the dead soul’s time stopped.

* * *

King Yama spoke to the Grim Reaper who had brought Cha Jeong-hyeok.

[Death Messenger.]

[Yes, Your Majesty.]

[That fellow looks to me like a supreme gem that would be hard to find again in the Mortal World.]

The Grim Reaper’s head shot up.

‘His Majesty is praising a mere human soul so highly!’

It was the first time in thirty thousand years of being a Death Messenger.

The Grim Reaper looked at Cha Jeong-hyeok again with widened eyes.

[Your Majesty, are you serious?]

[Of course.]

King Yama said.

[You know about the divine punishment given to traitors.]

[Yes, they must endure one of the most terrible punishments in the Underworld while in the Mortal World.]

[All kinds of disabilities and diseases, betrayal and fraud, baseless criticism and humiliation. Plus poverty and misfortune.]

Literally having to endure a living hell.

[The fate of those who receive divine punishment is usually similar. They not only torment themselves and those around them, but also use their destiny as an excuse to commit all sorts of sins. In short, they’re beyond salvation.]

[That’s correct.]

[But that one is different. They say it’s harder for a rich man to go to Heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. Yet that one overcame even divine punishment and earned his own ticket to Heaven.]

Life is originally a matter of reaping what you sow.

[The only wealth permitted to him was dirty money, and every relationship he formed would have been nothing but bad karma. That fellow’s skill is truly admirable.]

King Yama clasped his hands together and rested his chin on them.

His gaze toward Cha Jeong-hyeok was intense.

[It would be too wasteful to erase all his memories like this. Wouldn’t he just become a raw stone again?]

[Your Majesty, the memories of reincarnating humans must be erased. That is the law of the Underworld!]

The Grim Reaper cried out in horror.

[It cannot be done! Would you commit a grave sin out of mere curiosity!]

[A grave sin? You must be referring to your mistake of wrongly classifying and processing a national hero as a traitor.]

[Ugh······.]

[Shouldn’t you take responsibility and properly fix this?]

The Grim Reaper shut his mouth tightly and bowed his head deeply.

[As it happens, there’s a good way to resolve this matter.]

King Yama snapped his fingers.

Snap.

Once again, time began to flow for the deceased.

* * *

King Yama nodded his head.

[Good. I shall grant your wish. I will let you meet your parents.]

“Really?”

[I will also continue your bond with your adopted son. This time as your biological son.]

“Thank you!”

My heart felt like it would burst with joy.

To be able to see my Mother who passed away 45 years ago!

To be able to meet my father whom I had only imagined!

To be able to see my son again!

I was simply overwhelmed with emotion.

Snap.

King Yama snapped his fingers.

Then a golden radiance burst forth from my body.

[There, in the name of I, Yama, I gift you Special Eyes. I hope you use them well.]

Special Eyes?

[One more thing. You didn’t seem to know, but you were actually a third-generation chaebol heir. You just couldn’t enjoy it because of divine punishment.]

“What?”

[Ask your mother directly. Who your father is.]

Wait a minute!

[This time, visit your maternal family too.]

Wait a minute!

[Well then, live happily in your second life, and let’s meet again in a hundred years.]

Whoooosh!

When King Yama waved his sleeve, a fierce wind swirled.

I was helplessly swept up in the whirlwind.

The Grim Reaper who had brought me also screamed as he was sucked in, spinning round and round.

[That one is your Guardian Spirit. A bonus.]

That was my last memory of the Underworld.

* * *

“Gasp!”

My blocked breath burst free.

I bolted upright.

Cold sweat was pouring down.

My body shivered in the cold air outside the blanket.

“Ugh! My head!”

I clutched my head from the terrible headache.

The 52 years’ worth of memories I had seen as a panorama when I died came flooding in like a waterfall.

It felt like every flyer, newspaper, TV show, and book text I had casually glanced at in my life was being forcibly engraved into my mind.

The incoming information was so vast that my vision became dizzy, and I felt like my stomach was turning inside out.

“Huff, huff, huff…!”

Everything was excessively vivid.

My mind was also in complete chaos.

After King Yama’s words, the terrible headache ended.

‘I thought I had lost my parents early and had no relatives, but I’m actually a third-generation chaebol? And I even had maternal relatives? Why did Mother never tell me any of this even once…’

A bitter laugh escaped me.

‘I guess there were adult circumstances.’

Anyway, the fact was that no one came looking for me after Mother passed away.

I couldn’t even get into the Orphanage and went through all kinds of hardships.

A life in the Back Alleys began that was lonelier and more brutal than I could have imagined.

‘When I meet Mother, I’ll have to ask her. What was all this about? Where is she?’

I looked around searching for Mother.

The room glowed pale blue in the dim moonlight shining through the window.

Floral Wallpaper and Aluminum Window Frame, yellowed cheap linoleum and colorful Tiger Blanket, Vinyl Wardrobe and Folding Metal Dining Table.

Even the light switch hanging from the fluorescent light cord.

“Huh…?”

When I realized where this was, goosebumps ran down my spine.

‘This is the Guro-dong Shanty House where I lived with Mother when I was young, isn’t it?’

It was exactly as I remembered.

However, this place should have been forcibly demolished and gone long ago, right after Mother passed away.

When my gaze reached the Daily Calendar hanging on the wall, I froze for a moment.

“······!”

A day I could never forget in my entire life.

I lost my mother on this day when I was seven years old.

‘Could it be that this second life isn’t reincarnation but regression? Then am I meeting Mother not in the Underworld but in the Mortal World right now······.’

I immediately lifted the blanket.

“Mom!”

Mother was sleeping curled up like a shrimp, snoring softly.

I could feel her warm body temperature along with Mother’s longed-for scent.

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