Haroon

《Bell, the A.I mounted capsule》

After listening to Cheong-il’s message, Jungmin came out of the capsule and noticed there was a slight change to the outside of it. A hole with a diameter of about 5cm came into his eyes. He was sure that it wasn’t there before.

“So this is the slot,” said Jungmin.

As his foster father said, the capsule seemed extraordinary. Even though Jungmin was suffering from a perplex feeling, his curiosity toward the capsule made him do exactly as the audio said. Most of the materials were fine powders that you could not see particles with bare eyes, some were liquid sealed in gla.s.s jars. It took quite long time pouring them into the slot because of the number of sacks he had.

“Perhaps it has more s.p.a.ce than it looks.” said he.

It is quite remarkable how all those materials could possibly go into such tiny s.p.a.ce, but that wasn’t something he could think of. Strong pa.s.sion toward VR game Beyond pushed every question down. When the work was done, he lied down in the capsule. The capsule closed automatically and darkened the inside. There was a voice in his ear.

– "Booting initiated. Please relax by breathing deeply and as slow as possible."

It was robotic, but soft and high voice like a child’s voice he thought, and it even had some sweet tone as well. It was very likable. It was the voice that will guide him to the world of Beyond, so Jungmin tried his best to calm down his excitement. While he closed eyes and focused on breathing, capsule slowly became active. Jungmin couldn’t sense any changes around him in the darkness. Not only because he couldn’t see, but the capsule had deafening silence.
First of all, Interior of the capsule began expanding. There were no changes to the outlooks, but the inside got big as much as a quite large living room would be. The capsule stopped expanding inside at that point. The change of volume of the interior is bigger than the exterior denying the law of physics was hidden in the darkness, not letting Jungmin knew about it.
There was another change going on the capsule at the same time. Micro-sized holes on the capsule surface started absorbing the air of both inside and outside and moisture of it. Changes in the interior were continued as well, without making any sound.
Countless many electromagnetic waves continuously beamed hit Jungmin on the head, arms, legs, and entire body, connecting Jungmin to the capsule, just like connecting the cables. With quite vibrating sound, his body floats slowly and softly, to the center of expanded s.p.a.ce of the capsule. It was very similar to floating in no-gravity s.p.a.ce, but the body was very stable, his mind as well, so he didn’t notice he was in mid-air.

– "Initial boot successfully completed. Awakening Bell. Scanning Captain’s body. Confirming ident.i.ty DNA information. 3……2……1……! Confirmed."

Jungmin was perplexed. Who’s Bell, and who’s Captain? Moreover, What he was hearing was transferred directly into his head, not to his ears. The voice had precise rhythm, and also was whisper like, that he thought it is very warm and friendly, also very s.e.xy that he really couldn’t put in the words. If the voice had an appearance, it would be a beautiful lady.

“Wha….What? Who’s Bell?” Jungmin asked.
– "Bell refers to the hyperconscious bio-metallic capsule that you are on board, Captain."
“So you, Bell are this capsule?”
– “Yes”

Jungmin couldn’t say anything for a moment. He presumed from the words of his father that the voice was Bell’s, but he couldn’t believe when he actually met Bell. Jungmin’s hobby was reading and surfing the internet. Not usually a hobby for a Borderer like him, but his weak body didn’t let him do other things. From internet and books he heard of a few A.I computers that maintain the barrier and infrastructure of the Unions, but not this small, A.I mounted capsules. Home Coms that controls indoor works is already commercialized. With a few setup, the AI judges when it should do housework like cooking, cleaning, laundering. This useful computer is installed in nearly every houses in District C and above.
But he never heard of ‘hyperconscious’ computer. Not even bio-metal. That suggests that this metal have both life and its own conscious, but that didn’t make any sense to him. It was not a thing, and it is believed to be imaginary. After a long silence, Jungmin opened his mouth first.

“So… Bell, you are saying you are an hyperconscious bio-metallic creature that is capsule shaped, and I am your Captain, right?
– "Every bit of it, Yes, Captain."
“And my foster father sent you to me?”
– “I believe that was told to you via hologram. All the instruction given to me was to a.s.sist your development and be together with you in the future, and that is the absolute command to me.”
“The absolute command? Who ordered you that?”

An ‘absolute command’ is a command planted on the entire system on cyborgs to prevent the abuse. It is a command to prevent the cyborgs from betraying their owners. But, now?

– “Mr. Cheong-il did,” Bell answered

It was his father just as he thought. But can a capsule tech engineer make this enormous thing, alone? He thought. That made no sense to him.

“Who made you? Is that Cheong-il as well?” Jungmin asked
– “No, it was mother ‘Gaia’ who gave me life. Mr. Cheong-il made a body for me.”

Jungmin couldn’t understand. So, Gaia created Bell, but the owner is Cheong-il? Can a man, who embezzled a large sum of national welfares, own a thing like this? He wanted to hear the story behind it. Suddenly a question came into his mind.

‘Gaia? Could it be?’ Jungmin thought.

He knows one thing named ‘Gaia’. Also known as Ancient Mother Computer Gaia (AMCG). It is one of the three greats who made meaningful contributions to the scientific development of new humans. By them, they could create the barrier, and build a new civilization, whereas it had many losses on the other parts than the machinery.
‘Gaia’ is located on WGC Headquarters. After long years of suffering, only 10 percent of its capability remained, but that still made it be in top 30 of all supercoms.

– “Beyond will be publically launched exactly an hour later. Would you like to search information about it?” Said Bell, Waking Jungmin up from the loss of thoughts.
“Oh, right, Beyond”

Jungmin shook off the questions that won’t be answered and gave his all the attention to Beyond.

– “By the way, There is a total number of 400,332 posts on the internet about Beyond.”

He never expected that many posts would have been made for the game that has not been even launched yet.

“Then please do the search. But how should I access them?”

Band or ring-shaped, it needs a hard disk and a monitor to access the internet. No matter how Bell had G.o.dlike A.I, It will need a medium to show the contents.

– “Think the word ‘Beyond’ in your mind, and look forward in order to see the screen. Captain and I are connected with unique brainwave channel. All you need to do is to command me.”

So access the internet by using brainwave without using any medium. It is considered to be impossible, even to spiritual people. Moreover, Jungmin was cla.s.sified as "incompetents", which simply means there is no chance for him to do that. Jungmin, however, couldn"t even think about doubting it as so many things considered impossible actually happened in front of him.

"Search Beyond," Jungmin shouted in his mind. Soon the information about Beyond appeared in front of his eyes.

ID TaoistMeoteol: There is no info announced publically. Only that it is an ARPG/MMORPG
ID Cubone: experts say u"ll need to find a secret cla.s.s. but they say this game doesn"t really have a specific cla.s.s.
ID Wanhark: But they say sync rate is da best of all time so one"s character would move exactly as one"s thought. Reality HYPE!
ID Edel: There was a leak saying this game is "real type". No one knows what it means tho. But they say using premium whole-body capsule will allow you to use abilities that you obtained in the game later in rl.
ID Vanguar: ^ That"s what I heard. Necomwall created another reality, and they hope Users will experience new life in their world. That kinda means there is no active skills tho.
ID episode : They don"t even have active skills? Hype gone. Not even trying this one out.
……

He"s been scrolling down hoping for more information, but he couldn"t find anything like a walkthrough or tips & tricks for a specific species. Most of the post authors seemed young, and information seemed useless. Unfortunately, Jungmin was focusing on every and each information thinking it might help as he didn"t really experience VR games that much. All he could make sure was that seeing how they say "real type" and "ARPG", skills and abilities won"t automatically activate by itself by simply shouting the name of it.

– "Captain"s primary goal is to develop your physical ability."

It was Bell. Jungmin nodded without thinking.

"Is that so? By the way, it feels like you are a ghost as all I can do is hearing your voice. Do you have a human form as well?" Jungmin asked. As he was in Bell"s inside, he might not be able to see it properly, but he wanted to see on display at least. Maybe he wanted to check if Bell is a female.
– "Sure, Captain. Do you want me to display my human form?
"Yes."

Bell displayed its human form. He gasped an embarra.s.sment.

“What on Union!”
– "I am sorry?"

Jungmin has been expecting for more, but the one in front of his eyes were a little girl, that only looked like 10 years old. She had a really cute face, twintail, and was wearing bright color one piece dress. Jungmin burst out his laugh. He couldn"t believe what he was expecting from Bell, who literally just finished first booting she ever made, and that made him laugh non-stop. Bell had victory over him. Of course, Bell was so perplexed as she didn"t know what was going on.

– "Why are you laughing, Captain?"

There was something in her voice. He thought she might be angry at the situation, but he couldn"t erase the smile from his face. He did quite naturally imagine a mature, beautiful lady and it gave him refreshing shock seeing Bell"s human form. Maybe because of it, Bell"s expression on her face and shift in tone was so human like. He noticed there was a change in her voice; it had a higher pitch and the way she talks.

"Haha!, It"s just your looks. You are so cute and beautiful. It is just that, don"t get me wrong." Jungmin answered.
– "Huh, I don"t think so. There is something else going on" Said Bell, staring at him with arms akimbo as she was showing that she was really angry, but for Jungmin it was just adorable.

“Believe me, there"s nothing else, it"s just your looks!”

Bell didn"t take it as he was telling truth. With a short beep sound, she disappeared. Jungmin was still laughing anyway. He never laughed that much ever before. He wasn"t good at expressing his emotions as he didn"t get much love from his families. That made him bad at making a relationship with others, at last, he avoided meeting others. He started calling Bell.

"Bell" Jungmin called.

There was no answer.

"Bell?"
– "What is it, Captain?", said Bell, still showing her anger
"Don"t be so angry, Bell! It wasn"t like you were strange or something. It was me I laughed at, to whom he imagined wrong what Bell would look like. So don"t get upset."
– "……Bell is not angry. What"s the matter though?"
"Well, I will take it."

Bell appeared her human form again as she was not angry anymore, though her face was cold unlike the last time as she was still upset a bit.

"That"s really interesting, so she can express all sort of emotions just like humans?", he thought.

"How do I develop my ability?"
– "I don"t know that too. It"s secret to everyone before Beyond gets officially launched.
"But you are an A.I computer."
– "That is true, but that doesn"t mean I have the ability to extract information out of nothing."

Bell was answering and at the same time, she was trying not to, as she was still a bit angry. That was an adorable act that you could see from little girls. If it had a physical form, he wouldn"t be able to resist hugging her. Thinking of it, he realized Bell"s way of talking is getting closer to little girls rather than how robots do. He"s been thinking that lack of a family didn"t really make him sad, but it would be good if he had a little sister like Bell.

"Well, if that"s so. Then it"s not like I have advantages over other users or something." Jungmin whined.
– "No, not really. Depending on your capacity, Captain"s sync rate to your character can go up to 99.99%, whereas others have a limitation of 40%. Higher the sync rate gets, more ability and training transferred to your real body. It can be adjusted to some level to prevent physical damage when your character dies, though, you might get some psychological damage. There"s big difference."
"99.99%?"
– "Yes, of course, that value cannot be reached for now. It will start from 30% like other users, then it would gradually increase depending on your physical capacity. Also, because of deep sleep system and nutrient supply system of the capsule, Captain will be able to game non-stop without logging out," Bell stuck out her chest with arms folded as if she was boasting.

"That"s just amazing." Jungmin thought and said, “Hmmm, is that so?”

If that"s true, He would get a huge advantage on the others. He doesn’t know about the details, but at least he knew that 99.99% is not the value that one can achieve. No matter if they are using an entry-level capsule or a premium whole-body capsule, they mainly use brainwave and a medium called ‘character’, so theoretically nor practically, sync rate cannot achieve that level. Furthermore, having high sync rate means your physical body will get equivalent damage as you get damage from the VR world. Because of this, no VR games had provided sync rate over 60%, or damage from a VR world could lead to actual death.
It was his foster father"s last conscience that earned him a capsule. Jungmin"s primary goal is to improve his physical ability. It was a thing that he really sought for, and it will be a thing that he will need most to live a cruel world all alone.

"Hm, I presume everyone"s goal is leveling up? No, Dark Gamers will be hunting valuables. Well, they will still need a high level to do that, so ultimately leveling up will be the goal." Jungmin thought.

But his goal was different. It would be good to be a Ranker, but rationally thinking, that was not possible. There are talented gamers, and they have know-hows built up by playing so many different games. Jungmin was a complete beginner compared to them. He doesn"t have any know-hows, nor good physical ability.
That means he doesn"t have to care about leveling up. He should rather focus on building his body up, studying in various field, and learn pa.s.sive skills that he could use in real life as well, and as much as possible.

"How should I do physical training?" Jungmin asked.
– "I don"t know either. That"s something captain should do on your own. How is a little girl like me supposed to know that?
"d.a.m.n it", Jungmin murmured. "she must be still angry".

It must be a mistake on Jungmin"s wording since he isn"t really good at dealing with people. Bell would not hide any information that could help Jungmin. It has not been a long time to get to know each other, but Jungmin believed in Bell.

"So for now, there is nothing I can do else than joining the game?" he asked.
– "That"s right, Captain. I cannot give you any advice since there is no data at all. Once the game service begins, I will be able to collect information.
"Then will it be better to join later?"

Maybe that could be better. Jungmin heard that one cannot go blind without any plan since that might lead to the situation where one will have to delete a character and start over, or might take loads of time for leveling up.

"Well, I am logging in. Maybe I should just look around what"s out there until you gather some data, Bell."
– "That"s not bad."
"Then purchase a one-month subscription."
– "Got it, Captain."

Bell agreed to Jungmin"s idea. Experiencing what the world is like is better than sitting and doing nothing. Jungmin logged into Beyond, leaving banking issues to Bell. Jungmin didn"t worry about the process of payment as Bell was an A.I. At that moment, he was in the middle of the room with the walls which seemed to be of clouds, or maybe it was made out of foam. There was a voice in his head.

  – "Welcome to the world of Beyond. This virtual world is dreamlike and full of wonders. Beyond is the world where your real life is ahead on the earth of fantasy. Allow us to confirm your payment."

Jungmin told his bank account to the voice. Payments were already made by Bell.

– "Transaction confirmed. Registering an ID for you. Please tell us an ID you would like to use. "
""laugh"", Jungmin replied.

Jungmin had timid and an introverted personality, so he always wanted to laugh out loud. He used to use "laugh" as his id. So he did here too.

– "ID successfully created. Please tell us a Pa.s.sword you would like to use."

Jungmin told his usual pa.s.sword.

– Next, is creating a character. You may alter the appearance of the character up to 10% of the current state. We have provided you a mirror. Please tell us the part you would like to adjust.

A full-length mirror appeared in front of Jungmin. He didn"t want to change his appearance for no real reason, but he heard of some cases of those who lose control of anger related to games and commit crimes in real life, usually revenging crimes. To prevent that from happening, so he altered just a bit.

– "Appearance setting submitted. Are you sure you would like to continue with this appearance?
"Yes," Jungmin confirmed.
– "This will be your appearance until you delete and create a new character. Natural changes such as length of hair will still be made, and this may be maintained by a user."

Jungmin was surprised. As far as he knows, that is new to VR games.

– "Please select a name for your character."

 Jungmin thought about it, nothing suitable came up in his mind. Others might have time preparing for one, some might not even have to think about it, but that was not the case for Jungmin as he joined so suddenly.

 There was a name came up to his mind.

 It was not the name that had special meaning, nor it wasn"t the one he thought over and over, but as he spoke it out, there was a strong attraction to his mind, more than Jungmin, the one that he was called for his entire life.

"Haroon."
– "Mr. Haroon, Allow us to explain vital information you have to know before you join to the actual game. Beyond has enhanced the real mode, unlike other games. Mr. Haroon, on beyond, you……."

 The guide explained in details about the game. Although there was only few information went through his years.
First of all, real life and game have 1 to 3 ratio of time. This is similar to other games as well. Secondly, NPCs have high integrated thinking abilities just as humans, and they think players as outlanders who traveled to hunt the monsters down. Thirdly, what differentiates Beyond from other game is that players and NPCs are indistinguishable. Fourthly, there is a stat called "Soul Point", which was new to VR games. SPs can be earned by killing monsters or having some achievement in the world of Beyond, and you can learn skills or get into certain cla.s.ses only when SP reaches the specific point.
SPs cannot be earned by killing those monsters resp.a.w.ns indefinitely, like monsters in common field or monsters in dungeons. This makes players travel far from the starting point to gain SPs by killing the variety of monsters and completing quests in order to convert to a cla.s.s.
For fifth, it was the relationship between NPCs and players. Players and NPCs can exist in same s.p.a.cetime but there were a few limitations. Two bold one is that s.e.xual interaction is impossible at all, and scientific knowledge that can harm the basis of Beyond Civilization is prohibited in the world of Beyond.
Sixthly, secret cla.s.ses don’t exist, but new personal cla.s.ses can be created from base cla.s.ses without any limitations. Of course, details of it depends and responsibility is on user"s capabilities though.
While Haroon was a.n.a.lyzing those in his head, the Guide was on its last words.

  – "There are 1,200 starting points. Select the one you would like to start from. Starting points are diverse from the small village to the capital city of the empire."

 This became another problem to him. Jungmin carefully skimmed over the big map that has appeared in front of his eyes.
For this kind of game, it was almost like a cliché to start from a little countryside village and move to bigger towns and cities as they level up. But Beyond had the capital city of the Empire as a starting point too. Haroon couldn"t find out why because he thought there was not many things to do for a level 1 newbie.
Experienced Gamers might already have guessed where they should start, but Haroon had no idea where to choose.

    – "If you don"t have any place in mind, or 5 minute pa.s.ses without any decision, the starting point would be set randomly. Restarting or changing a starting point might lead to the penalty of stat decrement, increased subscription fee and more. If you still would like to restart or change a start point, Please visit our official site and consult with our GMs.
"I……will start from a capital city of the Empire.

For instance, Haroon asked Bell to collect data and information about the game. He thought it would be better to look out what kind of world Beyond has to provide. You would need to go to a capital city to see what the world looks like.

   – "Mr. Haroon, your starting point is set to a capital city of Teronn Empire. We hope you have a pleasant journey in the world of Beyond."