《Heading outside of the Barrier》
There was a small area in the large square dedicated to users. Haroon fell into thought in front of the safe zone where countless users were logging in and out. To Haroon who’d been carefully making decisions while playing Beyond, the two weeks that he'd suddenly been forced to spare became a concern. He had nothing special planned, so he needed to kill some time playing with Bell or doing something else.
"Right!"
He had an idea.
There were outers who helped his foster father which allowed him to play such a beautiful game. He’d earned enough money compared to his life back then, so he thought he could repay their kindness. Whatever they needed, he would be able to buy with cash and the items he had.
He went to the bank first. There were banks installed for users at castles that reached a certain scale. But there weren't many users in the Bank as it was getting late.
Haroon exchanged five thousand gold. He found it funny how the tellers jaws dropped seeing so much money. He still had ten thousands gold more to spend.
"The exchange rate for today is $30.15 per Gold, and we’ve just transferred the money to your bank account. We really appreciate your visit today."
The teller was a merchant player, and she could get experience points in her Trading skill just by carrying out banking services. Haroon’s visit was a fortune to her, as the experience points she got depended on the amount of money traded, so she couldn't be more accommodating.
Haroon couldn’t hide his pride upon seeing the trading window and the amount of money he just received: Just over $150,000. He never imagined even in his wildest dreams he would be able to earn so much money. He tried to remain calm but he couldn't erase the smile on his face. Overjoyed, he logged out at the safe zone.
"Hey! Aren’t you back often nowadays?"
Bell made a cute smile greeting Haroon.
"Well, I wanted to see the cutie Bell," he said jokingly.
Coming out of the capsule, Haroon hugged Bell who now had a physical body. It made him happy to have her in his arms, as that wasn't something he could feel previously in his house.
"That's a sweet lie."
"No, I really wanted to see you."
Haroon hugged her tight and rubbed his cheek into hers.
"It stings! Oppa, stop!"
Although she said that, she didn't dislike it and hugged him back. He could feel her warm breath. He didn't want to let go of her warm body that he could feel through her hologram clothes. Unlike the cold, no-texture body she had, he could feel warm, human-like skin as if she had blood circulating inside her.
Haroon sat on sofa still hugging her.
"So, what's up?"
"Nothing much, Oppa."
"Nah. Something did change."
"Something what?"
Bell made a cute face with big round eyes.
"It seems like you’ve actually become a human. No?"
Bell smiled with her eyes as she finally understood what Haroon meant.
"Not completely. But I'm working on it, so it won’t take long until I'm born as a human."
"I hope you do, so we can game together and go out together."
"Me too," Bell nodded. "But Oppa, seriously, what made you log out?"
"Nothing, really. I just wanted to see you."
"Really?"
It seemed she was really happy to hear that, seeing how she was blushing. Haroon was glad to see her like that. It made him feel warm inside to see that he could make someone else happy as an orphan.
"Of course," Haroon reassured.
This time, Bell rubbed her cheek against his and hugged his neck. They could feel their warm affection towards each other through gently pressed chests. They sat there like that for a while, then Bell suddenly whispered into Haroon's ear.
"Oppa, I want to become a human as quickly as possible."
And as she whispered, she drew her body closer to Haroon.
Haroon gasped at what he just realized. There were things that he hadn't notice. Her soft, elastic breasts were softly pressing against his firm chest, drawing out weird sensation he’d never felt before. This lead him to notice her hips were directly on his lap. Come to think of it, Haroon was almost naked and Bell’s clothes were just holographic projections, so basically naked. The feeling of his skin touching hers sharply poked his brain like the blade of a throwing knife.
Haroon's face went red, perplexed by his first contact with a woman which was basically an unknown world to him.
"Bell!"
Haroon tried to push her away with the weird feeling he was getting, but Bell hugged him even tighter. He sighed, and closed his eyes. It was embarrassing, but at the same time he tightly hugged Bell's small body before he realized. He drew in his breath sharply, surprised by what he was doing. He felt Bell's subtle sweet smell tingling his nose.
'When did she became a lady?'
The appearance was no more than a growing teenager, but she was becoming a lady already. Her height and body size was still a girl, but her figure was more like a ladies, and her body started to make the smell of a lady.'
A long silence lasted for a while.
They felt each other through their skin and chests. Though it couldn’t be seen, some kind of strong connection was being established between them.
"Bell?"
"Hmm?"
Bell's previously cute voice now had the coquettish tone of a lady.
"Isn't it good to stay together like this?"
"Yeah, Oppa. I could stay like this forever."
Saying that, Bell snuggled into Haroon's chest. At the strange feeling he couldn’t tell Bell, Haroon quickly changed the subject.
"So, Bell. You know the outers who helped my step-father, right? Do you know where they live?"
"Yeah. It's Science Village."
"Can you lookup the location?"
"Sure. It's right there."
Bell float a holographic display in front of Haroon's eyes.
"Right outside of District F 3-4. That's not too far from the black market."
It was to the west of Union. The number given behind the district code meant the direction of the area. For example, 1 represented the east, 2 for north, 3 for west and 4 for south. Then that bearing is divided into 15 degree segments and marked with numbers, and that was how the Unions assigned addresses.
District F 3-4 was quite close to District F 4-1, the one Haroon lived in.
Outside District F 3-4, there was an abandoned power plant. The power plant was built in the Age of Doom, a kind of nuclear reactor that’d been active until WW3. As it was built with the newest technology using concrete that was found during the Age of Doom, it seemed that it was still solid enough for the outers to live in. Many buildings that were built in the Age of Doom still lasted, even after several hundred years.
The distance between the village and the barrier was about a two day walk, but Haroon estimated that it wouldn’t even take a day for him using Messenger Walking.
"Could they still be living in there?"
Haroon mumbled. He wasn’t asking Bell for an answer, but Bell explained.
"Probably, Oppa. According to what I’ve found, that power plant has two small nuclear reactor that still work. Not only does that support their living but the defence system that can protect them from the mutated beasts including harks, so it's the safest place outside of the Unions."
"Can you find out what's happening inside the power plant?"
"Well……."
It seemed that she didn’t know that much.
"Given more time, I’ll be able to access the satellites that the humans launched during the Age of Doom. Then I'll be able to observe the Earth in detail down to the nano-meters, but again I’ll need more time," said Bell, so quiet that it was barely audible, as if she'd done something wrong.
"Don’t mind it. I just wanted to know if you could, since I don’t know about them. You know, I’m already appreciating what you’re capable of."
Bell was now an adorable sister to him. He didn’t think of Bell as an evolved form of an A.I. mounted computer.
"But……."
"It’s alright. We’ll find out once we get there."
"I’ll be able to help you fully once I grow. I want to grow faster."
Haroon didn’t fully understand what she meant by 'grow', but he hugged her to comfort her.
"Yeah. Try your best. But I think you’re adorable as you are now."
Smiling warmly at his words, Bell threw her arms around his neck.
"Thanks, Oppa. I’m happy that I’m your sister. I hope I can live like this forever."
"Me too."
Haroon rubbed his face against hers as she tightly hugged him. Her soft, warm cheek filled his mind with happiness. He found it fortunate to get less stimulation from hugging her as he now had his clothes on.
They enjoyed their warm family time for a while, then Bell spoke to him while still hugging him.
"So, oppa! There are some things I need."
"What are they?"
"They’re a bit too many to just list out. I have so many machines and contraptions I want to make, like nanobots. But what really concerns me is that we don’t have enough space to build them. I hope that you can earn a lot more money so we can move to another house."
"You want to move?"
"Yup. I need a house with a large space. Of course, we need to buy some materials as well."
Haroon wrinkled his brows for a moment.
The lands in a Union were for the most part already claimed by businessmen, scientists and soldiers whom were now referred to as 'nobles.' Hence the price of land or houses were very high, and why most of the residents would rent their houses with monthly payments. The rent price differed every year, but it was usually 30% to 50% of a households income, so it worked as stable income for nobles, and a shackle to common residents. The situation got better a few decades ago when the Union governments, represented by the Senate, started actively managing all the buildings to prevent nobles from raising the rent fee as they wanted.
Haroon didn’t know the market price for rent but he was sure he could now afford a somewhat moderate house, maybe a single-floor house with basements in District D or even District C. These districts were located between the inner and outer districts of the Union and had excessive energy accumulations or interference so it wasn’t suitable for long-term living. Residents usually lived in the third or forth basements. Although penthouses of the same size had similar prices, He was planning to move into a place for Bell to have space for her crafts and experiments, so he couldn't rent a place with a meddling landlord.
He learned about this from one of his high school friends.
'I suppose Bell would be capable enough to deal with the fluctuations of energy,' he thought.
Haroon explained to Bell about the places he thought of.
"That’s exactly the place I want."
A house with a small garden and multiple basements would have more than enough space for them.
"Alright. Why not look it up while we’re at it? Open Uninet!"
Uninet was the subnetwork of Globalnet, the internet that connected the whole world. Haroon entered the Uninet that was administered by the Ko-1 Union. Just as he thought, there were many houses looking for residents to move in, paid monthly. It was because of the energy fluctuations as expected, seeing how the complaining reviews were flooding out even with the governments' control.
And of course, there were many houses for sale as well. He chose one of them, and the price was $200,000. It was nothing considering the size of the house and its basements.
Bell looked up the blueprint and compared it to photos taken to check the structure, then smiled finding it satisfactory. Even excluding the forth basement that was built for the purpose of living, she could use anywhere between the ground floor and three basements.
'I think I can buy this one. Selling items I got in the Huk’ran mountains and the $150,000 I've just exchanged should be enough,' he thought and said
"This sounds like the one. It’s been up for sale for a while so I suppose we don’t need to rush it. Also, it wouldn't be worth moving if we don't have any of your materials, so let’s talk about it after visiting Science Village."
"Hehehe! Thank you, oppa!"
Haroon felt good seeing Bell liking it. It was a fairly good feeling to be able to grant the wish of someone he cared about.
"And I guess we need to buy those materials from the black market, right?"
"Yup. I think we’ll be in trouble if Union finds out."
"Then we should ask Varan for help. Okay! We can’t just go visit Science Village empty handed, so I’ll go to the black market to buy your stuff and gifts. Bell, get me the list of materials you need."
"You’re the best!"
Bell jumped into Haroon’s embrace, with her arms wide open to hug him.
'This is quite addicting.'
The sensation of hugging a soft and yet volumed body was rather comforting and left him with no desire to let go. He could stay hugging her forever if it didn’t make him feel perverted.
"Nah. I should do what I can," he replied. "We will need a lot of money though, so we should auction some stuff off."
He could use his savings in the bank, but he thought he shouldn’t make any suspicious payments. He couldn’t trust the Union Government who’ve been brainwashing people by hiding or altering the truth. He thought of a few useful items he'd collected in the Huk’ran mountains. Haroon looked up items from Dark Jewelry, the black market website for video game items that Bell had already opened up for him, checked the normal price for them, and then started his auctions.
Ruby staff
Class: Uncommon+
A magic rod with a ruby mansphere. Compared to magic staffs of the same level, it has 32% faster mana conductivity and 124% mana amplification. Easily handles 4-circle magic, and can cast Magic Missile once per day.
Starting price: 70 Gold
Angel’s Bracelet
Class: Rare
A bracelet that contains the mighty power of Medinia, the god of healing. Decorated with opals and crystals, it allows the wearer to cast Care a 2-circle magic three times per day, and Cure a 3-circle magic once per day.
Starting price: 150 Gold
The Battle Spirit
Class: Uncommon+
A battle axe used by Orc Warriors or Orc Raid Chiefs.
Attack Damage 150
Strength +10
Endurance +3
Requirement: 40 Strength
Starting price: 100 Gold
Haroon set one hour as the auction time for all three of them. He had a higher chance of earning more money if more time was given, but he needed some cash right away. If he needed, he would withdraw some money from the bank but at most $10,000.
The Gold exchange rate has dropped a lot since the last auction he had, and more items were now being sold on the auction site, so he couldn’t estimate the prices. But now that there were more users, he thought it would be similar to the last time.
'That should be enough to buy some supplies for the outers as a gift. I have more money in the bank if needed.'
He had more magician items, but he was going to trade them with Haeran. She would know about the price better than him. Considering that he had helped her the last time, she wouldn’t cheat him with the price.
'I gotta sort items someday.'
There were still a lot of items in his inventory and in Brat's subspace that he hadn't checked. He didn’t bother to check them, or when he wanted to check them he didn’t have the time. It wasn’t like he was running out of space, so he thought it was better selling items as he needed, and knowing that he still had a lot of items, he didn’t feel the need to sort them. What's more, he didn’t use much money, as he didn’t know what kind of entertainment money could buy.
"Bell, what kind of things do outers need?"
"I'm not sure about that. The intelligence information about outside the barrier is classified, so I couldn’t access it. My security clearance level is still low, so I'm very limited with what I can access."
Haroon tried to guess from what he knew.
According to Haeran and the merchants he visited in the Black Market, the conditions outside of the Barrier were very poor. They also mentioned that the vegetation around the mountains and oceans were flourishing more now than during the Age of Doom, whereas almost all plains were deserted.
"Hmm, I guess we'd be better buying some food for them. But the amount that I can carry wouldn’t be any help to them. The more the better, but transportation is the problem. I wish we had one of those enchanted bags in the real world."
If it was Beyond, where magic existed, he could simply carry a few enchanted bags to transport enough food to feed a village.
Seeing Haroon, Bell carefully spoke.
"Oppa, I’ll make you one of those later. But we don’t need an enchanted bag to transport the supplies."
"So you mean there’s a way to transport them?"
"Yeah. There’s no such thing as an enchanted bag, but if you’re certain that the outers visit the black market too, can’t you just hire them? I’m pretty sure there are inners who make a living out of transporting stuff outside the barrier."
"That would also make things easier for finding the path and contacting the village, that's a nice idea."
Smiling, Haroon stroked Bell's hair.
"Right, they’ll need some medication as well. There’s no way they would have such technology nor factories," she added.
"Alright. But for that we need to find out what kind of medicines they need."
Haroon fell in thought for a second.
"Right! Couldn't we just ask Haeran in the first place!"
Haroon recalled that Haeran once referred to herself as a intelligence trader. Haroon looked out of a window and saw two moons blurred by dusty wind and the barrier.
'I don’t think Haeran would be using one of those premium capsules.'
Average people could play Beyond at most fourteen hours a day. It was the time limit the experts set to minimize the physical and mental damage due to long-term connection. It was normal for people to play the game for six hours a day, which was a bit shorter than a day in Beyond. Unless they were dark gamers who make a living out of selling game items, or knew some kind of trick or were lucky enough to continuously obtain good items, they had to make a living out of their jobs to keep playing the game.
This limit was applied to high-end gaming capsules as well, but there were also some exceptions.
The premium capsules that support physiological actions, such as a nutrition feed and excretion systems, etc., allowed users to play games 24/7. Even so, the users were expected to logout at least once in two days as there were risks of damaging their body due to muscle loss. But most premium capsule owners didn’t really play games that much. Those who could afford premium capsules were usually nobles, and they were interested more in the real world where they could wield power with the money they have.
"Call this number."
They made a video call to the number Varan gave him a long time ago, and fortunately enough Haeran received the call.
It seemed that she'd just came out of the capsule, and was getting her gaming suit off, she even knew Haroon was watching her. Haroon was rather amazed by her confident attitude.
"Huh? What’s wrong with that girl?"
Even Bell was embarrassed and looked away, but Haroon interestingly looked at her actions. When the suit was completely off, Haeran’s glamorous figure was exposed with only her underwears on. She was rather fit unlike the stereotype people have about magician players.
"Oh, you had a sister," Haeran exclaimed.
"This is Bell."
Haeran winked at Bell, and looked back at Haroon.
"Hmm. I thought I had a rather good-looking body shape, but your face is saying no."
"Why do you say that?"
"I didn’t see your eyes shaking. I looked forward to your reaction but this is disappointing."
"Didn’t I? Well, you don’t need to be disappointed. That was a feast for my eyes."
Haeran let out a chuckle, getting changed. There was another capsule beside Haeran's, which was presumably Seran's. Sitting on it, Haeran spoke up.
"Varan told me you visited us somewhen. You could have called me before."
"Well I was kind of in a hurry."
"And what made Mr.aloof-man-who-doesn’t-get-tempted-by-sexy-girls call me?"
She asked, asking with a sarcastic comments as if her pride was hurt.
"Well I wanted to know how the outers live."
"Outers? Are you going to meet Nain?"
Haeran jumped to her feet, making a rather complicated expression.
"Nah. I’ve got a business on the outside. I thought it’d be good to know about the outers beforehand."
"Oh, I see. I don’t know what I thought."
Haroon found it weird how Haeran was finding it a relief, but that wasn't important.
"Alright. I’m not sure what exactly you want to know but I’ll tell you what I know about the world outside."
After drinking a cup of water, Haeran started talking about the world outside of the barrier. Next to Haroon, there was Bell carefully listening to Haeran with twinkling eyes.
According to her, there were many changes to the world outside of the barrier during the War of Doom and the Dark Ages.¹
Basically, as the most of the big cities were on plain areas, most of them were desertified due to nuclear weapons with almost no exceptions. The unions were built on top of these ruins. Even with high radiation in the air and earth, the wonders of life were still breathing. Most of the lands were desolate, but some area had plants growing, and streams of water slowly made their way along healing the lands.
Most of the plant species that survived the radiation were newly mutated ones. But there were species, such as bluets, that survived such a huge change in the environment. These species were not edible, however, as they had strong poison.
They were slowly purifying the world by absorbing polluted materials and reducing radiation. But experts expected that it would take thousands of years to reach a state similar to the time before the War of Doom, which was still very polluted.
The story was a lot different on the mountains.
The War of Doom killed a lot of plants, but as the density of polluted materials was gradually reducing on the mountains, the plants that were thought to have gone extinct began flourishing on the mountains as time passed by.
Though the reasons were still not found, huge evolutionary changes happened to both plants and animals. This meant that the evolution that would have taken thousands and thousands of years happened in just a few hundred years. The power of evolution was great. Though the appearance of the plants were very similar, they had much better survivability. In addition, the medical herbs had amplified effects compared to the original species.
Many outers had their villages deep in these mountains where the environment was much better pollution-wise,living in secret bunkers built in the Age of Doom, or basements of the ruins of buildings built with special concrete developed near the end of the Age of Doom. In the beginning the outers in these villages ate anything to survive, even grasses and tree barks. Now they had a evolved species of potatoes they called watatoes and giant corn as their staple food.
Those outers who settled near the barriers learned or even invented their own martial arts, fighting with mutated species for generations. They usually became warriors to hunt, or obtain things that cannot be found inside the barriers to sell and buy things they needed, like what Nain and her friends do.
There were more than twenty villages near the Ko-1 Union that could be reached within 3 days by walking. As outers were much tougher than inners, their population was growing and growing.
"So what do they need the most?" Haroon asked.
"Of course, food supplies. Grains like rice or wheat, vegetables, bean-protein and artificial meats aren’t something they can get by themselves."
Haroon could almost picture the situation after Haeran’s explanation.
"And what’s the second?"
"Hmm… Medical supplies, clothes, and some vintage machines like generators. Although they have more technology from the Age of Doom than Unions, they can’t build them themselves because they're always in danger from the threat of mutated creatures."
"Hmm. I see."
Haroon now had a list of items he would buy to gift to the outers.
"Where are you going though?"
"I need to visit the village located at the power plant outside District F3."
Haeran almost shouted hearing Haroon's words.
"You mean Science Village?"
"Do you know the place?"
"Of course. We've been trading with them regularly. The residents there are the ones who learned the science technologies of the Age of Doom."
Haroon nodded. That explained how his foster father could study and create the A.I. mounted premium capsule Bell. He wouldn’t have been able to make it otherwise.
"And we need to hire some men."
"For what, exactly?"
"To transport the food and medical supplies, and their escorts."
"That’s no hard work. We can hire the workers ourselves, and hiring the escorts are no problem as well. The warriors of the village Nain lives in do that kind of work."
It seemed like things were going well thanks to Haeran. Though she’s a bit calculating, he thought it was good to know her.
And while talking, an alert sounded from the auction site that alerted the end of the auctions.
"Huh? Was that the auction site?"
"Yeah."
"What did you sell?"
Haeran asked with curious eyes.
"Let’s see! The uncommon+ class magic staff was sold at 320 Gold, a rare class Angel’s bracelet was sold at 551 Gold, and the uncommon+ battle axe named the Battle Spirit of Warriors was sold at 410 Gold."
"Hold on. Did you just say Angel’s bracelet? You could have sold that to me. That was easy six hundo Gold for you. I need healing-type gear as I’ve been hunting without hiring a pontiff."
But she was too late to place her bid. Her eyes were asking where he’d got those items, but Haroon had no intention of fulfill her curiosity.
"That reminds me I’ve saved a magic item that you might like. Check them out and pay me well," said Haroon.
He showed her a hologram with the items info, and she jumped.
"What! A rare staff?! Additional mana regeneration and 140% mana amplification? How did you get such an item?"
It was the best of the items he'd luckily goten in the Huk’ran mountains. It seemed a ranker was using it, and unfortunately dropped on death. He originally thought of giving it to Hall as she was a magician too, but decided to sell it to Haeran as a bribe on behalf of the information she gave him.
"So how much are you paying?"
"Hmm, at market price would be a thousand Gold. But I don’t think my friend Haroon would make me pay that much money……. How much do you want?"
Haroon secretly thought 'she sure is a merchant.'
"Pay me with gear and weapons. I’ll need them to go outside the barrier. I suppose you’ll give me at least a thirty percent discount?"
Haroon knew that in real life or Beyond, the general wage of craftsman was similar and only material costs varied. So he knew that she wouldn’t be taking a loss. And just as Haroon thought, Haeran took the deal.
"Deal!"
"Alright. I’ll visit your shop later."
"Okay. I’ll get things ready. How many things are you going to buy?"
Haeran knew what Haroon was thinking, and was going to buy things for him prior to his arrival.
"I’m spending all the Gold I earned today."
He thought it was a bit excessive, but considering the value of Bell, he thought he needed to do at least that much.
"Okay, so that’d be about twenty five hundo just for the supplies. I’ll get everything ready so leave it to me."
Saying that, Haeran knocked on Seran’s capsule. It seemed she was going to get her help as well.
Haroon ended the video call and prepared to go out. He was going to meet the auction winners near the black market. He disliked the idea of meeting them face to face, but he needed cash so he didn’t have much choice.
"I already miss playing Beyond."
He wanted to return to Beyond as soon as possible but he had to make trades and pay back Science Villages kindness, and he felt lazy and annoyed. But there were things he couldn’t postpone much longer.
Translator: Channy
Editor: Kmatt
Footnotes:
¹ FYI, The War of Doom = WW3 as long as the lore follows. Also, the Dark Ages are the time after the war to HC 15. This was defined in v1c2…. Which is being retranslated….
In short, it goes
The Age of Doom (late 21st century) → WW3(The War of Doom) → Dark Ages/start of HC somewhere in the middle → end of Dark Ages at Human Calendar year 15.
2 수감 in raw, and it is a made up name. I need to know chinese letters the author used to translate the exact meaning, but it wasn't given and "water水 potato甘(甘藷)" was my best guess.
Comments:
Channy: I…. I don’t remember reading this part and I started to consider how much of the original text I should translate…. This chapter was very tough on choosing right words.
Also, I drew a basic illustration to give you better idea of how Ko-1 Union is layed out: https://imgur.com/gallery/1RlO3Da
I forgot to add District S though.
Kmatt: School holidays are over so my time to edit should go back to normal now, sorry the last couple weeks was slow.
Also Vevetalice can we count this one as the romance your waiting for?