Haroon

  Even though there was no one to celebrate him being an adult, Jungmin couldn’t be in the better mood on the way back to his house.

  $5000 was huge money that Jungmin has never seen before. He used to earn a little more than $500 per month by welfare from the Union and his job. His monthly expense on housing, lowest quality foods, and various taxes were over $400. That still left him $100 extra to spare but it soon ran out buying some proper stuff like a cloth or a small electronic gadget. He did try to save up some money, but $520 was all the savings he had.

  Jungmin came back to his house through the dusty winds that were getting stronger as it reaches the noon. He was happy for the big money he got, but there was no one around he could share his feeling with.

  The neighbors of the place he lived for a couple of years were always busy surviving another day or they lost their reason for life so they only lived because they couldn’t die. There was no place in their mind for the others, and no one expected for some. Jungmin liked how people doesn’t give any attention to him when he settled at this place, with help from Union Welfare service, but soon he missed the warm hearts and people, and that mind grew as the time goes by. He even thought of going back to his adoptive parents laying his pride aside.

    “Well, I got used to it anyway.” Said Jungmin.

Jungmin is too bashful to approach the others and he didn’t even dare to do it, so he partially gave up other’s attention and love. He only could live on doing that way. It might be better to be eaten by Harks than getting depression AND having the bad living environment. Living with that mindset slowly made him have neither dream nor hope, and he became heartless and lethargic.

  Even though it was noon, inside of the building was so dark. It has been so long since the last day when they painted the wall. The building itself was so old that you could see the wall frames in places. It is still a place to den out of the wind so what a relief.
Criminals and those homeless who sold their own house lived on the streets. There were uncountable cases of how these people went missing unnoticed, usually eaten by Harks or being involved in crimes. So you should be thankful to have a house, even when it is an awful one.

  On the 18th floor of this old poor building, there was a total of 10 houses including Jungmin’s one. Those for small, singled room houses and six of them were occupied by families unlike how Jungmin lived alone. They were unwelcome neighbors as all they did were to make noises all they long.

  It if was Jungmin, he wouldn’t dare to have a child as it will only inherit him father’s social status, but he thought those people who formed a family will be happier than those lone wolves. There was a sudden feeling of something that he thought he forgot over time. It was loneliness.

    ‘Would Jins...o...b.. at home right now? No, not at this time.’ Jungmin answered to his own question.

  Jinsoo lives in the next door, and he is one of the neighbors that Jungmin actually communicates with. Jins...o...b..came a borderer because of similar reason to Jungmin. They often had dinner together at street restaurant. Jinsoo is 26, and nowadays, he works at Union farms.

    ‘What should I do, alone?’ Thought Jungmin.

  Being incompetent and running away from home cla.s.sified Jungmin as a Dropout, and made Jungmin settle down in District F. After the settlement, Jungmin did any public job that he could take; from the part-time job at the crematorium to cleaning the street filled with dust and sands. His health wasn’t good enough to even attempt to do higher salary jobs such as construction site worker, building cleaner or waiter. Jungmin had no idea how to live on as he became an adult. Jungmin lost his job as a public worker that didn’t require much physical ability. It was because he became an adult today.

  Jungmin took off the piece of cloth that he used as a turban and tapped on his coat. Sands mixed with dust dropped to the doorway. He used to clean the house, but he learned how to give things up. He headed to the bathroom to take a shower. As the dust and sands contain radioactive materials that were released by thousands of nuclear weapons launched centuries ago, you had to wash them off when you get indoor. Jungmin took off his pants, shirts, and underwear that were provided periodically by Union as child welfare. Bony, rather skeleton like the body, was reflected in the mirror.

    “What should I do to live on now?” Jungmin feebly said.

  He imagined what if he was born in District F in the first place. Maybe at least he could have learned how to survive in this place from the school and his neighbors. Schools here do vocational educations at least. If he didn’t adrift in his young ages, he could have gotten the education about preparing the future even he was cla.s.sified as incompetent. But he missed that chance as well.
He was really hoping for someone who could give advice on his future or his life, but there was no one around who could help him. He blamed his bashfulness but all he could do was shaking off his frustration by letting out a sigh.

Like his usual break, Jungmin was killing time, watching how dusty winds dyes the sky with yellow, through the small dirty window. His only hobby was playing video games, but even that didn’t draw his attention for some reason. Maybe it was because of the gift, or maybe it was because he was facing uncertain future.

  The gift was delivered after few hours past lunch time. Jungmin fall in thoughts looking reflective box as if it was bewitching him. By the looks of the box, He only could think of the coffins that S-cla.s.s n.o.bles use. He wondered who would ever want to git him. As always, imagination didn’t answer the question.

    “Well, It is not gonna be a coffin of mine. It isn’t like I made some enemy nor my social cla.s.s is that great to be buried under the actual dirt so there is no way one will send me a coffin…” Said Junmin, knowing none of them actually make any sense.

  Jungmin began touching the box. Jungmin couldn’t figure out which material this 1.5 meters wide, 3 meters long box is made out of. It was metallic but it wasn’t something he has seen nor heard. It was certain that it wasn’t made out of metals like aluminum nor steel. It did take some time carefully searching the box until Jungmin’s eyes found something.There was a b.u.t.ton on the side of the box that is unnoticeable unless you look for it really carefully.
The box opened making small motor noises. Jungmin couldn’t take his eyes off the inside of the box. tons of sacks and bags filled his eyesight They came with different sizes, and they were so many that those were uncountable.

    “What on earth are these? I guess I will find it out soon” said Jungmin with excitement.

  Jungmin dragged the sacks out one by one. He lost the count after counting a hundred of them. What really triggered his curiosity was not the number of bags, but it was what sacks contained, and what sacks were made out of. He didn’t know what sacks were made out of, but it was the labels really caught his eyes.

    “Wheat flour, Rice flour, Arrowroot, Licorice, Red Sea Cuc.u.mber, Abalone, Miyoek, Ginseng, Spicebush, Knotweed, Eplimediums Koreanum, Honey… What on earth are these?”

  Those were endless, Some are familiar but Jungmin never heard most of them before. Even those that Jungmin finds it familiar only could be seen in the history books. Unlike the days before Human Calendar, there were not many types of crops that hundred stories high Union farms can ma.s.s produce. Sack of crops was heavy and big, the rest of them were small. Some had labels of various fruits. Some were labeled with the names of rare herbs, sea creatures, seaweeds, there were even minerals. You could not obtain these anymore because of the barrier.

    “I simply can’t understand. Gifted to me? by whom?” Jungmin wondered.

  It was certain that it was not someone just messing around Jungmin. He began to thought that the box may have more value than he originally thought as there were so many things with names he never heard of. When he reached to that point, a serious curiosity rose up to the surface.
He thought most of these materials might be very hard to obtain, in or out of the barrier. He could tell because of one of the sacks he was holding, with the name he thought it only exists in the legend.

Wild Ginseng!

  As he grows up, Jungmin heard about how valuable wild ginseng is, even in the past, before the earth had two moons. Especially elixirs like Ginsengs and Wild ginsengs is considered as the best medical item in VR games that effectively increases the stats of your characters. As VR games are the most trending type of video game, everyone heard about the name of it.
Jungmin was able to see the inside of box well after dragging out approximately 2000 sacks.

    “Plathium!” Jungmin failed to hide his surprise.

  Jungmin reached out his hand, he couldn’t believe what he saw.
By periodically illuminating blue-violet light, he could ensure that it was plathium.
Plathium is invaluable material that was created with Human’s technology. It had properties of shock absorption, self-maintaining homeostasis, and resilience. Usage of it was not well known to the people.

  It was not a substance that you could buy with money. The conditions for a production are too strict, the required materials are very rare. Also, it requires multiple steps of the procedure to be produced, but there were too many variables that the process could go wrong very easily. No Unions could even dream of ma.s.s producing it.
Contrasted with the dull appearance of the box, the blue-violet illuminating surface of inside told Jungmin how valuable the box was. It couldn’t be all made out of plathium so it is should be either coated or plated with, but still, the value of it was unimaginable.

    ‘This can’t be just an ordinary box’ he thought.

  Jungmin’s eyes were full of excitement. This was not something that ever could belong or gifted to Jungmin, not to whom is a borderer without a good relationship with society. Not even a fraction of a chance.
He couldn’t find any type of letter anywhere. He even checked the inside of every single sack very carefully, but there wasn’t even something that looks like a message. His face went red wondering about thousands of sacks and a box with unknown use in his room.

    “Wait a sec. It looks like you can connect something in this hole.” Said he.

  And he was right! There was definitely a hole on the sideway that you can connect a power line of some sort. He flicked himself off the ground and remembered that there was a weird looking cable between the sacks. He has been thinking it is too random to be there.

    “So is this supposed to go here?” Said he connecting the cable.

  He could hear the vibration from the box as he connected the cable. It wasn’t even connected to outlet yet.

    ‘Does it have dedicated generator as well? If it is, This IS something’ he thought.

  The box started to vibrate very quietly with low-frequency sound wave. He could tell something started running but still couldn’t figure out what the function was. He couldn’t see any change inwardly nor outwardly.

Suddenly, there was knock at the door.

—

  Door knocks surprised and woke Jungmin up as he was lost in thoughts about the box. He noticed how dark the room got. Darkness was setting in.

    “Huh? When did it get so dark?” said he.

  He couldn’t see how fast the time was going as plathium reflected the light all over the room. He hurried to the door and opened it up. There was Jinsoo who already walked to the front of his house when Jungmin picked out to see who knocked the door. Jungmin saw Jinsoo in his dusty cloth and his sunburnt face. His face bore the tiresome of his work.

    “Jinsoo!” Jungmin called him out.
“Hey, you were in.”
“Sorry, I didn’t hear you. I was thinking about something.”
“I dropped by to celebrate your coming-of-age day. Congratz on being an adult. I know it is tough despite how it sounds.”

Jinsoo had typical in-barrier youth appearance, who was just as bashful as much as Jungmin was. It was common to see low-cla.s.s youth like him to live a real life without any hope, but with their dreams and live vicariously through VR games.

    “Let’s have dinner together, Jinsoo”
“Nah, sorry but I’ve got things to do. Oh, don’t you play VR games tho? Necomwall is officially releasing a new VR game called ‘Beyond’ tonight.”
“‘Beyond’?”
“Ya, they say they’ve implemented extreme reality that cannot be… Where I should rather say it refused to be compared with any VR games came out so far.”

  Jungmin also heard about Necomwall as well. It is one of Top 3 VR game company in the world, Also one of Top 10 business company in the world. They had more financial and political power than a single Union had. Beyond also was not any news to him as well. It was one of the most talked about VR games of late, through internet or through rumors.
8 years ago, thousands of Supercoms were found underground of Mojave Desert. They are believed to be built in the Ages of Doom. Even though there were not much communication between the Unions, Scientists of almost every Union joined together and conducted global scale research on these supercoms.
Necomwall has won the rights to use an enormous number of those Supercoms, and Unions co-invested to develop a new VR game. And they made Beyond.

    “Of course, I want to play too, but I’m little short on…”
“Yeah, It’s always the money. It’s pretty expensive I know. They charge $300 for a one-month subscription and entry-level capsules cost $3000. I know.” Jinsoo sighed

  Jinsoo’s eyes were bright when he was talking about video games. His tiresome was nowhere to be found. It showed how important the video games are in his life.

    “I’m sorry but I gotta go gather up some infos. Nothing was revealed except that it is almost same as real life, but you will gonna need even it is very minor info. Let’s meet up on this weekend instead.” He continued.

  Jungmin knew It will not be easy to meet him. It was Jinsoo and many youth’s dreams to earn some fortune through the game or to be the top players, so they strived for gaming on their free time. He was a bit sad but he smiled back. He could understand Jungsoo. Jungmin knew he will do the same once he regains his health and get a good job.

    “Yeah, alright,” Jungmin replied.

  Jinsoo waived back with an apologetic look and went into his house. His back looked particularly bent today. His heart was overwhelmed with sudden sadness, not only because he could see the burden of life from Jinsoo’s look, but he could see himself in a few years from it. They are too young to accept the lethalgic reality that you won’t be recognized by society as low-cla.s.s unless you are in the game. That must be the reason why people buy that expensive VR capsules using their few year savings.

    “Beyond, huh?…”

  A desire to play Beyond at once simulated Jungmin. Human age does not have a civilization that was built on their own technology. This civilization was built based on the legacy of last human species, which was electronic and computer technologies. At the end, the civilization formed the world where only electronic devices and computers were developed. At the time when World War III was imminent, the wireless technology that connects computer worldwide was developed. AI computers were kept away to a safe place to avoid damage from the war. With these AI computer’s a.s.sist, the humanity was able to reconstruct the civilization, unstably.
The times of late AD 21st century. The times of when before World War III broke out. People call those years as “The Ages of Doom”. VR games are well known to be developed for medical treatment and military purposes in the Ages of Doom. Due to the war, VR game had a long blank in its history – also known as Dark Days -, then in HC Year 15, VR games were published and began their first service, and now VR games have over 100 years of history.

  VR games provided equal opportunity to everyone as they all start in the same line. This characteristic made VR games to be the role of exit point where people could escape through from harsh reality where traveling and change in social cla.s.s are very limited.
As the cla.s.s society solidified as the time goes, people who couldn’t adjust themselves to society began relieving stress by playing VR games. For that reasons, Unions encouraged the VR games, and now almost everyone was enjoying it.
Humanity now lives for the lifetime in the barrier due to the polluted environment. Government’s closed policy and threats from wild creatures chocked humanity’s desire for freedom, so it was common to satisfy one’s base desires, such as; combativeness, desire for power, honor, achievements, etc.
Additionally, if you become one of the Ranker, you will get treated in special ways by people. Union’s most popular TV channels were all game related. That made Rankers now to be equivalent to Celebrities in the Ages of Doom. They could earn huge amount of money in short time, enough to move their resident from anywhere in the barrier to District A, or even S.
Another positive function of VR games is that it provide an opportunity to people to find what their talent is. Unions’ direct, standardized frame of education system were easy to miss how talented the kids were. As they could experience so much in VR games, it was easier for users to find out what kind of talent they have.
For this reason, Unions has been encouraging VR world and people are so pa.s.sionate about it.

“Dang those guys!” said Jungmin.

  It was because thinking about VR games always reminds him two faces he really hates. They were his 4th adoptive parents. Jungmin was adopted for 5 times. Jungmin was in middle school when he met them. His foster father was a researcher for a global company that produced VR game consoles. He had genius creativity and engineering skills that made him a senior researcher in considerably young age. He was a promising young man.
With his confidence about his ideas with his skills as back up, his limit was at the sky. However, failing heavily funded research projects few times in a row made him be forced to resign. Fail streak record chased him and made unable to get a job, eventually putting him in a danger of getting kicked out of his district. He chose to adopt a child from Union as financial support.
Jungmin lived about 3 years with him, whereas a number of times they met could be counted on the fingers. He always has been busy with his research and experiments, so he didn’t get out of his bas.e.m.e.nt very often. A while later, Jungmin found out about the foster’s embezzlement to support his research, not only from the money that Union sponsored for Jungmin but also most of all kind of subsidy the Union paid for.
His relationship with his partner was pretty bad too. Jungmin’s foster mother relieved her stress by abusing Jungmin. That included not giving proper meals, both physical and verbal violence. Every day was like h.e.l.l for Jungmin living in that family.
Fortunately, Welfare Division officer noticed the child abuse and sent Jungmin to a different family, but it was after it left him the unforgettable memory of those days and a great scar in his mind. The scar remained for a long time, establishing ident.i.ty crisis about his birth, mistrust in the adoptive family, hatred between him and the fosters. These were not something a youngster on his p.u.b.erty could handle. It didn’t take long time to make Jungmin run away from his last family.

  Thinking about VR games and capsules, an idea flashed through his mind. The inside of the box, was enough for a person to lie down similar to how latest full-body capsules are designed.

    “No way…” said he.

  To think of it as full-body capsules, there were a lot of questions that needed to be answered. First of all, there was nowhere you could connect anything inside of the box. Secondarily, there was no headgear part of the capsule that establishes a connection between your brain and the capsule. Lastly, It doesn’t seem to have features that one could lie down on.
Latest full-body capsules had ergonomically designed bed with headgear that connects to your brain electronically. He heard there are top-cla.s.s suit-like capsules to increase sync rate. but those are the best of the best that cost over tens of thousands of dollars.
But the shape and the size was too perfect not to be a capsule. It was just empty inside.

    “But who knows? I am trying it out,” said he with some expectations.

  He doesn’t know what it does anyway. It cannot be too bad for just checking. He stepped into the box and lied down straight. At the same moment, the cover automatically got closed with a motor sound that you could barely hear. He was frightened for a second but the warmth of plathium plating on his back get him feel much better. Something warm, and comfortable calmed Jungmin’s unstable emotions.

  The cover was fully closed, the darkness overwhelmed the inside of the box. All he could feel was small noises that he couldn’t tell what it was from.

    ‘At least it is not just a box’ he thought.

  Curiosity got stronger than the fear now. He didn’t know when, one day, he began to not fear death. Of course he didn’t want to have horrible death by being eaten by Harks though. Even if something went wrong and he suddenly dies, there were no regrets to him. It was obvious that his future will be just copying how his neighbors lived their lives.

Then there was a flash.

    ‘Oh, this is too bright’ he thought, crinkling his eyes.

  Bright light chases away the darkness. What appeared in front of his eyes was some kind of light glares. Particles of light were forming an image.

    ‘Is this a hologram?’ he gasped.

  He reached out his hand only to find out he couldn’t feel it. As the hand went through the image, he certain that it was 3D video program, also known as the hologram.

    ‘But who?…….’

  He focused on the image. It had a face he couldn’t recognize, but he found him quite familiar.
It was a man of 50s with dried gray hair, bony face, and impressively deep bright eyes.
The image lingered in the air for a while, with the looks of an awkward smile at him. It seemed to begin the talk, but it didn’t. It was just making an odd expression toward Jungmin.
Pity, sympathy, or apologetic
He was staring at Jungmin with mixed expression in his eyes. Soon, the hologram image that was both familiar and uncomfortable soon disappeared, leaving only feeble voice behind.

    “You have grown up already! It might sound like an excuse, but I am sorry for how I have been. You are the one I need to apologize for the most. I really hated myself using you as financial support for my research, instead of caring and loving you to just as you were my child. But please, let me tell you that I was blinded by my twisted pa.s.sion towards the research I have been dreaming the whole time.” said the voice.

  “Father?”

  He realized who’s voice it was. It was his 4th foster father’s voice. The name was Cheng-il. It was hard to believe the hologram was the image of most hated one. The voice was continued.

    “Continuing my research from the money that Union sponsored by your name, I was divorced and my property was attached by the reason of insincerity. What’s more is that I was caught hiding plathium from the lab illegally, and I was kicked to the outside of the barrier. But that didn’t stop my research. I still had every material I need, so I could continue my research on the bas.e.m.e.nt of one of the buildings.”

  Jungmin thought it is amazing to see someone who still can continue researching in the bas.e.m.e.nt, after getting divorced and being kicked out of barrier for researching in the bas.e.m.e.nt and never getting out.

    “From there, with some a.s.sist from the Outers I had acquaintance with, I was able to develop most advanced game capsule. But as I finish my life-long project, I found out I didn’t have much time to live. This is probably all karma from what I have done to you and my ex. I wanted to let you two know I am sorry. I left my house for my ex, so that’s done. But you, I don’t really have many things for you. Only if I could live a few days longer, I could have earned money with this capsule production technology.

  His sad voice made Jungmin shut his eyes tightly. Even though Jungmin isn’t that warm-hearted, witnessing one’s death touched his heart.

    “The only thing I can give you is this. I’m leaving you this capsule, the fruit of my entire life.”
“At least I can see you had some bit of conscience left.” Jungmin murmured.

  This was not something he would cry for, he thought. But he was touched by Cheong-il’s action and tears caught in his eyes. Maybe because he was more mature than last time he met him. Lonely death of someone who never took a turn in his life came to Jungmin in somewhat different feeling.

    “Bell is the fruit of my lifelong work. It is AI mounted, and it has one big difference between Bell and other capsules. Instead of connecting only the brainwave, it floats your entire body in the magnetic field and will connect the entire body using electromagnetic wave. This will allow the capsule to move your body copying the actions you took in a virtual world. This means some portion of the skills, abilities, and gains you earned in a virtual world can be transferred to your body.

  Jungmin’s eyes opened wide at hearing that. He couldn’t believe the existence of that kind of capsule. No matter how improved one’s VR characters are, brainwave couldn’t affect one’s body. But if you stimulate entire nerve system and muscles instead of just brainwave, the movements you make in a virtual world can be applied to your body as well. The word revolution is hardly too big a word for this capsule.

    “To leave Bell to you, I asked one of my friends to find you. It took some time indeed. When I found you, you were already cla.s.sified as ‘incompetent’, and you were one step further away from getting kicked out. On the top of that, can you imagine how much I suffered hearing your physical condition was severe because I didn’t feed you on your growing stage? I hope you can get back what you lost because of me.That’s why I am giving Bell to you. You know, I WAS once one of he best capsule researcher in the Ko-1 Union. Bell is so much better than what I originally thought. I’ve prepared a dedicated generator for a power crisis, automatic air circulation system for the optimum environment. If you eat in the game, There is a system that will supply the nutrients to your body. The capsule will adjust your brain wave to beta wave in minimum time if you sleep during the game.

  Jungmin couldn’t shut his mouth, nor to let the voice out because he was too surprised. According to his words, a gamer doesn’t have to get out of the capsule at all. They could literally play for 24/7.

    “There is a new game called ‘Beyond’, developed and published by Necomewall. Unlike other VR games, it uses two best AI computers as the Main server and thousands of computers as their Sub. That is the place where reality is presented at its maximum level. It will make you stronger, who was c.r.a.pped out by us, your parents. The foods, herbs I collected and Bell will help you on your journey.”

  Tears were streaming down Jungmin’s cheeks. Despite how much Junmin has been hating him, his foster father has gifted him such invaluable thing.

    “I am adding few more words as I’m concerned. Don’t let anyone know about this capsule unless you gain enough, no, superior strength over others. You are still naive, and that will get you in trouble if you ever try to take any profit out of this capsule from Necomwall or other big companies. You can get a.s.sa.s.sinated by them, very quietly and unnoticed. You must bear in mind that treasure belonged by Weaks are not a treasure anymore, but a weapon that could kill them. That’s why I designed the outlook unattractive.”

  His father was worried about him too. Jungmin was washing his hatred toward his father away with his tears, softening his mind, forgiving one of the people who made his life miserable. The audio continued and spoke out his father’s last words.

    “And will you do me a favor? Once you gain enough strength, please bring those Outers into the barrier, who provided me a place to live. I want to do them to right their favor somehow, but I’m out of strength, out of time. Please take care of them, and along the way, please visit my resting place. I want to meet you and see your face before I die, but there is no strength left for me. I am so sorry for what I have done to you. It has been a long time, but I would like to tell you….. I love you, my son!”

  The voice, it was dying, it got strong at the end, but it faded away like a flame blown off. Jungmin felt mixed feelings. He was feeling the few years long hatred melting away in a short time. Even though he was crying, he didn’t know what he was feeling. He felt dumb by mixture of feelings, and it lasted for a few moments.
For sure the previous families would have done wrong to Jungmin as well. He was not certain what they did but why else would he get re-adopted if they have not? But he met Cheong-il on his most sensitive time, so maybe that’s why he hated him over the others.
It took some time for Jungmin to calm down. His mind was not still clear, but he knew one thing for sure. The biggest reason for his mistrust of the others has been washed away that he suffered from for a long time. He never knew his father was caring him so much. Mainly because he met his father not so many times. He wasn’t sure if they have ever talked to each other. No wonder why Jungmin couldn’t even imagine of his father’s mind toward him.
Cracking his fingers, he opened the cover of the box, no, the capsule.

    “Well, I am not forgiving you just yet, thinking how much time you let me suffer. If you were lying about the capsule, You will have to feel the hatred of mine for my lifetime. If I could change this weak body through Beyond, that will be when you are forgiven.” Jungmin murmured, wiping his tears away.