Haroon

《Brother¹ Jinsoo》

After disconnecting with the server, Haroon opened his eyes in the capsule. Unlike the first impression he had with the capsule, it felt so comfortable and warm that the capsule was like an old home he lived for a long time. Maybe it felt more like it because there was a family, Bell, waiting for him.

 “Bell, how is Beyond?”
– “It is great. More users are newly registering as the time goes. As the average level of user rises, more item is being registered on the trading site, so the exchange and auction sites are being active. Also, there are many users who claim they have received a quest. Seeing these, the only reason the beyond wasn’t game like, is that their level was too low.”

 Even though Haroon’s question was very vague, Bell knew what he wanted, and answered exact points that he wished to know.

  “Bell, please tell me things you searched about the cla.s.s advancement.”

 Thanks to Bell, he didn’t need to read everything. She will be able to tell him summarized information anyway.

 – “Oh, you reached level 10 too? when?”
“I don’t know. I’ve been focusing on training only with UI sounds of. When I checked, I was already level 10.”

 Even though the players of Beyond needs to travel to the point towns or cities in order to get a cla.s.s, it has been 3 months in game time already, so there must be many players who got their first job.

 – “Unlike the other game, Soul Points(S.P.) are the most important stat you need to gather to get a cla.s.s. In the world of Beyond, S.P. can be earned by contributing to the world in somewhat way. Killing one Orc gives you about 1 point, but you cannot earn it in the normal hunting ground for users.”

 Haroon, at least, knew that much.

 – “The fastest way of earning S.P. is killing boss monsters or granting the t.i.tles. Even though some cla.s.ses can be earned by being a student or apprentice of an NPC, it cannot be done if you are going to get cla.s.ses related with swords unless you have enough S.P.”

 That’s fair. In Haroon’s case, he hadn’t started a journey yet, but he acquired 30 S.P. by slaying the Catrats. If the journey is safe, he will be able to acquire enough S.P.

 ‘I don’t need to hurry. I’m late anyway. If I can make a mercenary guild and receive a quest, I will. And by doing so, I will be able to reach the point city and get a cla.s.s.’

 Haroon asked Bell to show him the map and chose 3 cities for his destination. It was the closest one from the Metropolis. Either way, a new life will be waiting for him.

– “But Oppa, there is one problem you got to settle first.
“Hmm? What is it?”

 Bell hesitated to say. But she opened her mouth a moment later.

– “It’s about the nutritional materials provided to you when you are playing the game. Most of them are running out. If you don’t fill them up soon, you won’t be able to play the game continuously, or improve your physical ability, not as fast like before.
“Oh, is that so……..”

 Haroon didn’t see it coming. He remembered how much materials he poured into the capsule, and realized how big trouble he was in.

 “How much would it cost?”
– “I haven’t checked that far. I’m searching the need of amount and cost of the general materials, but herbal medicines cannot be found online. In your case, there are too many rare herbs being poured into your body, and obtaining it is yet another problem.
“Yes, that will be a problem too. There were many things that cannot be obtained in the Barrier. But I shall focus on getting a cla.s.s first.”
– “Oh, there you go. This is the list of materials you will need in one month.

 Bell displayed a giant list on the hologram. The amount of food he ate last month was unimaginably much.

 “Are you kidding me? I really ate this much?”
– “Yes. Though, note that I have included 10 extra days in the calculation. I estimated that you will take up to 10 days, based on the other’s review. The calculation shows that if you buy these in the mall, it will cost a little bit more than a $1,000. Of course, this doesn’t include medical materials.”
“Darn! It’s like I poured them down to my stomach.”
– “And that explains how your body improved a lot: your body’s metabolism was active, several times more than the others.”

 Well, she got the point. The problem was on that he can’t estimate how much more money he will need playing the game. He had no income, but now he has to expect a regular outcome and more uncounted.

 “Nothing is free, huh?” saying, Haroon deeply sighed.

 Bell smiled back. She seemed to try to relax his nerves.

 “Well, the cla.s.s advancement is the first. Earning the money comes after that. I know they will be my flesh and blood, so even if I will need to do hard labors, I will. “

 Haroon clenched his teeth, determining he will earn that much money regularly, no matter what it takes.

“And Bell, can you gather data about prices in Beyond?”

 He will need to prepare lots of things for the journey. And as the game has been running for quite some time now, it won’t be hard for Bell to collect data about the prices, and it will help him out from getting ripped off.

– “Yes, it won’t take long.”

 So Bell collected the data for him, and he spent an hour reading it.

When he was about to head out to the mall, he stopped by Jinsoo’s house.

‘Would he be at home at this hour?” Haroon asked.

 But he knew the answer already. He wouldn’t be at this hour, on the business day.

‘He must be walking at the farm right now.’

 With a bittersweet smile, Haroon continued his way. He needed to go to the mall. On the way back, maybe he could catch up Jinsoo going back to his house from the work.

Then suddenly, there was a noise. It was the noise made by the elevator. The person coming out from the elevator was Jinsoo. He was wearing an old coat that covers the entire body and a turban that covers his face, only exposing his eyes. Turban was covered with a thick dust, and his eyes were covered with a thick cloud of tiredness.

 “Hey, Jinsoo!”
“Oh… Have we met before?”

 Surprisingly,  Jinsoo couldn’t recognize Haroon. Even Haroon wasn’t wearing a coat nor the turban as he wasn’t going out of the building yet.

 “It’s me, Haroon! I mean, Jungmin.”
“Huh? Jungmin?”

 Jinsoo’s eyes widened. He took quite a time looking up and down at Jungmin, but he couldn’t easily erase surprise in his face.

 “Is that really you?”
“Haha.”

 As Haroon didn’t answer but laugh, Jinsoo rubbed his eyes and took another look at him. It wasn’t Haroon that he knew. The voice was same, but the well-balanced body and narrowed face confused him.

 “Are you really Jungmin?”
“Have I changed that much? I’m not quite sure.”

 Haroon couldn’t laugh anymore as Jinsoo’s reaction was too intense, so he took a look at his own body. Of course, he has changed that much. He, indeed, gain some weight, and his face got rounder, but he didn’t think Jinsoo wouldn’t recognize him.  After some moment, Jinsoo found a star-shaped scar on Jungmin’s forehead and said.

 “You are! You ARE Jungmin!”

 It was the scar that he got on his first day on District F. On that day, he got robbed on the street, and got attacked by a mob. Jinsoo was the one who saved him from them, so Jinsoo was able to remember that scar.

 “What happened to you?”
“I exercised as if I was going to kill myself from the day we’ve last met.”
“Wow! You really have changed so much. I almost couldn’t recognize you.”

 Jinsoo took a closer look at his muscles, checking how hard his muscles are.

 “I can’t believe how you’ve got this much muscle just in a month, no matter how much you’ve exercised. That’s a really fascinating change you’ve made.”

 Haroon smiled back. It felt great to be credited for that, especially from who he was close with.

 “But why are you coming back so early? I thought you were at work at this hour.”
“Well, it’s a long story.”

 Jinsoo’s face suddenly got dark. Haroon felt sorry for asking a sensitive question, and he was worried about him.

 “Jinsoo, if you have time, won’t you go to the mall with me? I was worried that I might need to buy quite much anyway. Let’s go together and get a lunch. We’ve got a lot to catch up.”
“Shall we? Let’s go then. I went out for a walk as I needed to clear my mind, but it got even more cloudy as there was no one to meet.”

 Jinsoo gladly accompanied Haroon.

The malls were located at the border of District F and D. Even though it was quite a distance for a walk, it didn’t feel so far for the two. They really had a lot to catch up so the time flew by.

 “Why are you buying so much?”

 Jinsoo was surprised how Haroon was filling the shopping cart.

“Well, I do need them all.”

 Haroon felt uneasy to tell that he’s got a premium capsule that automatically feeds him the nutrients, and he needed to buy all of this to fill the tank. He knew how hard Jinsoo tried to get a distributed product, and he was feeling so grateful to have one. There was no need to hurt him like that.

Jinsoo wondered why everything Haroon buys were a liquid or powdered product, but soon he didn’t care much of it. Even Jinsoo was with Haroon shopping together, his face changed and went silent occasionally as if he remembered something bad.

Just as Bell said, all the product he bought cost a little bit more than a $1000. Haroon drew a deep sight paying the bill using the in-body mechanical chip connected to his bank account. He needed four largest plastic bags to carry everything, but that was light enough for him compared to training he usually did. “Light-handed”, they head to the ground floor, where the restaurants are located.

It was little early for the meal, but spending time drinking tea and chatting was a luxurious thing, at least for the residents of District F. As they both grew up in District F, they both thought it is worth to spend money on something that can fill up one’s stomach.

They both ordered a meat noodle. Haroon hasn’t eaten it for a long time, and it was just as good as usual. Enjoying the noodle, the table was silent for some time.

 “Jinsoo, what happened to your work?”

 Haroon asked, slowly drinking the soup. He was looking for a chance to ask it.

 “It’s a long story. By the way, do you intend to play Beyond?”
“Huh? Beyond?”
“Right.”

 Haroon was confused by him mentioning Beyond so randomly.

 “There are some creeping b.a.s.t.a.r.ds I want to give a lesson, but there aren’t much of friends that could help me.”
“You mean, in the game?”

 Haroon was even more confused to hear Jinsoo furiously letting out those words. He never showed that much anger before. It was very odd to find him like that, as he thought Jinsoo was the gentlest person he ever met.

Jinsoo gnashed his teeth instead of an answer. Seeing how his eyes were getting intense, Haroon could figure out he was really angry at those users.

 “I am going to kill those, freaking, f.u.c.kers.”

 Haroon looked at Jinsoo without a word. Who could ever make a gentleman like Jinsoo this much angry? Haroon wondered.

 “You know, when I was living in a district B as an adopted child, there were some b.a.s.t.a.r.ds I used to get along with. I think I told you once before. Have I ever told you about a man named Minseok?”
“Yes, I remember that name.”

 Of course, he could. He used to curse that name for quite some time before, and it was the only moment gentle Jinsoo gets angry at.

 “Like I said, he and his friends used to bully me, constantly, in the school I attend until I was rated ‘incompetent’ and sent to here. That was the worst-fated relationship possible.”

 Unlike Haroon, who was artificially created,  Jinsoo was once living in the orphanage and was adopted to a family. They did abandon him when he graduated the high school. It was when he was rated ‘incompetent.”

 “Like you know, schools in B district has the students of District S, A, and B. That f.u.c.king b.a.s.t.a.r.d had a so-called ‘master’, a b.i.t.c.h n.o.ble named Hyeli Kang. This crazy b.i.t.c.h’s hobby was bullying shy, or coward students, like me.  Minseok was the stooge of her.”

 Haroon nodded. He, too, had a similar memory. n.o.ble students living in District S created a clique, being a leader themselves, and having members of students from District A and B. This relationship usually consisted even when they became adults.

It would have been better if it was stopped there. This gang-like relationship was inherited from parents to children, and the children naturally try to hold power in the school, fighting each other, and bullying students who were not a member of any, so-called ‘family’.

Bullying was so persistent, and cruel that it would never finish before they become a member, or transfer to another school. Using their physical and social power, that even suppresses teachers or even the princ.i.p.al, they bullied weak students, and this was quite common no matter which Union the students were in.

 “Unluckily, I and those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds started in the same starting point. I didn’t know at first, but I get to meet them at the public training center. Then, when I was looking for a party to get to the point city to get a cla.s.s, I met them again.”

 That was really unfortunate. Meeting the people he hated again in the game.

 “Surprisingly, those f.u.c.kers acted friendly to me. At first, I thought they forgot me as it has been years after we graduated. After all, it is known fact that only victims remember the crime vividly, and a.s.sailants forget it easily. Coincidentally, there weren’t many users who had reached level 10 yet, which is the minimum requirement getting a cla.s.s, so I couldn’t help but join their party.”

 Jinsoo seemed immersed in the game quite much.

 “As if they’ve fixed their personalities, they were so warm. Can you believe if I told you they even shared their items with me? I’m not quite sure if it was because they were n.o.bles, but they did have lots of spare items to share. They were not that bad at the games too, so small pod of Orcs were not any problem to us on the journey.”

 Then, he cringed his face, and his gaze got intense.

 “You know I’ve been gaming lot in my life, right? And I’ve been a Ranger, or a treasure hunter in the game so it wasn’t hard for me to find a Dungeon, which wasn’t far from the point city.”

 Level 10, finding a Dungeon! That actually was remarkable. Of course, Haroon found a dungeon too, but that was purely coincidental.

 “Then did they steal the dungeon?”
“Heh, it would have been much better if they ended there. It was Cla.s.s-D Dungeon so the requirement of entering that dungeon was being in a same party of the first finder. So they didn’t kill me when we entered, but it could have been much better if I was killed there.”

  Jungmin shut his mouth and eyes. Seeing how his eyelids were twitching violently, Haroon already knew it wasn’t an easy matter.

 “As soon as they all got in, that b.i.t.c.h, Hyeli Kang finally has revealed her true color. She gave a sign, and they tied me up and threw me in the snake tunnel. They were SO kind that they even fed me an antidote so I won’t die! Thanks to them, I was able to experience what h.e.l.l is, by constantly getting snake bites, until the game forced me out for developing a mental disorder. They came out from the dungeon with valuable gears and humiliated me. You won’t believe what I am going to say next: they even urinated on me.”

 Haroon was so surprised that he couldn’t close his mouth. Yes, they are n.o.bles, who aren’t afraid of anything, but how could they do such a thing to someone who was once their cla.s.smate, or someone who found them a dungeon? They were so ignorant, perverted s.a.d.i.s.ts.

 “As I lost a life like that, I received a penalty of 3-day suspension, and I wasn’t able to work properly because of the trauma. Repeating being in a daze, and getting back to furious, and back to daze. I was fired, and the farm officer reported my state, so I was forced to undergo psychotherapy.”
“I am sorry to hear that. How on earth are you going to make your living?”

 Since Jinsoo was fired from the farm, he wouldn’t be able to go that place again. It was one of the most-paid work. Haroon still had lots of savings, but he wondered how Jinsoo was doing.

 “I’ve got enough saving for 6 months. I gotta do something with that for now. If I will be in need of money, I gotta sell the info about the dungeon. You know, I’m good at finding some. The experiences should be enough to feed me. It could be better if I find someone who can help each other.”

 It was fortunate that Jinsoo was still thinking of backup even though he was burning bright with a revengeful mind.

 “What are you going to do with them?”
“What am I going to do? For sure, I gotta take a revenge. Of course, in real life, that can’t be done as our social cla.s.s are different, but do I need to get humiliated even in games? Of course not. At least, I will make their current character not playable. ‘have received psychotherapy’ in my record made me my life unplayable. Even if it costs my life, I won’t be going alone.”
“No, you won’t be. They need to get wrecked.”

 Haroon too was greatly angry at them. Jinsoo’s story reminded his bad memories, how he was bullied for being weak and incompetent.

 “So, some of my friends agreed to help me. Only if I were more bright and communicative, I might have more friends, but you know how I am.”

 Though, that wasn’t only Jinsoo’s problem. It was same for Haroon as he has transferred from schools to schools.

 “Revenging in the real life cannot be considered, so we’ve got to a.s.sault them in the game. Are you with me?”
“I am. What should I do?”

 Jinsoo’s face became bright.

 “I need to meet my friends first. I’ll be meeting 3 friends at Count Jorlen Castle. They are victims of bullies as well, but each one of us has a special talent, so there must be some way for us. And now we have you too! It might be a little bit late for you to begin the game now, but you will be a great help for us. I will guide you how to level up fast, so join us quickly.”

 Though he never heard of Count Jorlen Castle, he probably would be able to get there as he was free to move.

 “To be honest, I’ve started playing Beyond already.”
“Really? Since when?

 So Haroon told Jungmin briefly how he got to play Beyond. Of course, he didn’t give details, just that he received a console and money to pay the subscription fee. Actually, Haroon was mainly concerned about him being a mercenary, that Jinsoo might look down on him. Jinsoo seemed surprised, but it was a pleasant one to him.

 “Huhu! I was about to get a cla.s.s. When I get one, I’ll head there. Oh right, from now on, and please call me Haroon. I just like that name.”
“Okay. I feel like I’ve got an army to have you. Details are being made by my friend Maron, so let’s discuss the plan when you join us in the game.”

Jinsoo spoke in excitement. Every help counted for him at this situation. They continued talking about the beyond for a while, then they realized waiters were giving them deathly glare for taking up a table, so they were driven out by it. On the way to their house, Haroon could learn how the users play the game, feeling differences what Bell collected and what Jinsoo told him.

 “You know, you really changed a lot.”
“How can you tell?”
“That you have no problem holding four heavy plastic bags. It seems not only your body become muscular, but you’ve got quite some strength too.”

 Jinsoo admired it. He knew how heavy it is he had to drop it not so long after he started carrying one, but Haroon made it seem so easy for that much distance. Jinsoo knew he will easily get into the Barrier Defense army if he wanted. Jinsoo once went through the admission test because he wanted to serve there.

 “Well, all thanks to herbs my stepfather sent me, and regular exercises.”

 Though Haroon told Jins...o...b..iefly about the capsule, he just didn’t know how great Haroon’s capsule is. It never went to the public so he wouldn’t believe even if he told him it exists. As Jinsoo never saw Haroon’s bare muscles, he easily accepted Haroon’s lie, that he only did regular but extreme exercises.

 “Yes, even I feel great that you’ve been redeemed like that for having a painful childhood.”

 Even though there was n.o.body who can blame Jins...o...b..ing jealous about it, he was very sincere, that he only felt happy about Haroon being lucky.

After the parting in front of their houses, Haroon poured everything into the slot placed next to Bell. It took some time, but it made him proud.

 “This should give me at least a month.”

 It felt like he’s been an animal that prepares its hibernation. All he’ll need to prepare now would be the herbal materials. It was painful to spend his savings, but he needed to. The problem was not on the money, it was actually on obtaining those herbal things. When he gets into a cla.s.s, the auction will be more active, so that’s when he can sell the items he luckily got. ‘Only if the exchange rate is like now,’ he hoped.

Footnotes:

¹ Brother Jinsoo.

Just a little context that might help you understand the t.i.tle better. The raw text was 진수 형(Jinsoo Hyung), where 형 is the suffix that males put at the end of older(up to 9 years difference usually) males’ name. When it basically means ‘older brother’, use of it shows how close they are. Maybe this could be translated into….. ‘bro’, I suppose.

TL notes:

Sorry for the delay.