Haroon

This was mainly due to the $5000 that he received; it was a huge sum that he would only be able to acc.u.mulate after tens of years of saving.

Normally, his monthly income was only $500, and that included welfare subsidy from the Union (that ended today because he became an adult) and salary from the public works. However, his absolute necessary monthly expenses were over $400, or 80% of his income. This included the monthly rent of his home, the lowest quality food, taxes and utilities. 

So, Jung Min had about $100 of extra funds every month but he also had to use this for other occasions such as buying clothing, small electronic gadgets, or for leisure. Therefore, he was practically broke at the end of the month. 

Thus, though he lived a very frugal life in F sector and tried to save up money for his future, his account"s grand total amounted to a mere $520. 

Nonetheless, although he was happy that he earned a lot of money, there was n.o.body around him whom he can share the happy news with. 

The residents of the building that he lived for the past 2 years were either too busy surviving or lost the purpose of living and aimlessly wondered around. Thus, they almost never gave attention to other people. 

At first, this impa.s.siveness of the residents was an attraction to Jung Min. However, as time pa.s.sed by, he became increasingly longing for human affection and interaction. And once in a while, he even thought of begging his way back into his foster family. 

"Well, I got used to it now," Jung Min ruefully thought. 

Jung Min was quite bashful and had almost no idea how to approach or interact with people. Thus, as time went by, he gave up other people"s attraction and love to some extent so that he can survive on. The combination of bad conditions and depression would be suicidal in F sector.

As he continued to live that way, he slowly became a lethargic person who lacks dreams, hopes, and love. 

While in his thoughts, Jung Min traversed through the continuously gusty winds and arrived at the building where his residence was located.

Though it was midday, the building was dark and gloomy as usual. Moreover, quite a long time has pa.s.sed since the last repair work; this could be seen though the sporadically revealed building frames. 

But the residents of this building were happy that they had their own residence, albeit a bit old. At least the building protected them from the gust and dust and many more. The unfortunate residents who were homeless for various reasons were often subjected to many horrible things such as criminal activities and were even occasionally slaughtered by Haraks.

Even in this old and shabby building, there were ten rooms in the 18th floor that Jung Min resided.  The rooms were all small bedsits; however, surprisingly, there were 6 rooms where the entire family resided. But the families were all unpleasant neighbors who always made loud noises. 

Jung Min thought if he were them, he wouldn"t marry and have children in the F-4 sector since it"s a very strict caste society. Here, poverty and status inherits and thus their children would also have virtually no future ahead of them. Nonetheless, he also thought that families were happier together than singles like him and consequently felt lonely thinking about it. 

Jung Min tried to redirect his attention to avoid more depressive thoughts.

Is Jin Soo hyung in his house? No, probably not at this time. Jung Min suddenly thought. 

Jin Soo and Jung Min were next-door neighbors. Jin Soo, twenty six, was one of the only neighbors in the entire building that Jung Min talked with. Normally, Jin Soo worked at Union owned farms during the day. Also, he became a borderer for a similar reason like Jung Min. Thus, they felt a sense of kinship and sometimes ate dinner together at a bistro.

What should I do for a living now, Jung Min also thought, his heart sinking. 

Before Jung Min became an adult, he worked at public works such as part-time crematory works and street cleaning works. He had weak const.i.tution, so it was near impossible for him to work in relatively high wage, but physically demanding, jobs such as construction works or cleaning building exteriors. 

He was even fired yesterday from his public works because he became an adult. Thus, though he received $5000, he now didn"t have any source of income. So, Jung Min was quite lost on how to survive from now on.  

After Jung Min ended his personal thoughts, he realized he was already in front of the door of his residence. 

As dust and sand in the Harun universe contained minute amount of radiation from the nuclear bombs detonated few hundred years ago, it was necessary to clean it off before coming indoors. Thus, Jung Min thoroughly beat the dust and sand off his clothes, took off his dusty shoes, opened the door, and went into his bedsit.

Also, he immediately put all his clothes inside the washing machine and went right into his bathroom. The mirror in the bathroom reflected Jung Min"s skeleton-esque body that revealed his ribs and many other bones of his body. 

How should I live on, Jung Min depressingly thought once more. 

He continuously regretted his past. He now fully knew that if he hadn"t strayed when he was determined apt.i.tude-less and continued studying, he would"ve had some skills useful for today. However, as there was no one who could advise him and lead him to the right way, he missed that opportunity. Now, he realized he was just a useless person without any skills, talents, or apt.i.tudes. 

Thus, whether it was due to thoughts about the unknown gift or his gloomy future as an adult, Jung Min"s only hobby -- Virtual Reality Games -- didn"t attract his attention. So, Jung Min killed some time by gazing at the dusty winds that was yellowing the F sector through the stained window. 

The unknown gift was delivered a few hours after noon. 

Looking at the gift, Jung Min sank into stormy contemplation, clueless of the sender of the gift. He thought that the only thing that remotely resembled the gift was caskets that S-sector n.o.bles use. 

Hmm, it shouldn"t be my casket though. I don"t have any enemies. Moreover, I certainly don"t have an important ident.i.ty to be buried in the soil so no one would kindly make and send a casket to me ... Bemused, Jung Min started to touch the gift with his hands. 

The gift"s dimension was quite large (1.5 * 1.5 * 3 m) and the material that const.i.tuted the exterior was very foreign. It seemed like a metal that he had never heard or seen before. But it definitely wasn"t something ordinary like metal or aluminium.

While scrutinizing, Jung Min"s eyes suddenly brightened; he noticed a small b.u.t.ton concealed at the side of the gift. 

"Wheeing." After he clicked the b.u.t.ton, the lid of the box opened with a noise. 

Jung Min then noticed myriad of sacks of various sizes.

"What is it? Should I open it up? He asked himself. 

Jung Min began to take out the sacks one by one, but lost count after one hundred as there were so many. 

However, what stimulated his curiosity wasn"t the amount of the sacks, but the description of the sacks. 

"Wheat flour, rice flour, arrowroot"s root, Chinese liquor, licorice"s root, red sea cuc.u.mber, abalone, seaweed, wilfordi"s root, epimedium koreanum, mel, white stone ... What are all these?" 

There were endless names. Some he knew, but most he never heard before. Even among the names he knew, many were things that can only be seen in history books. 

Among them were names of different fruits, including rare herbs, marine life and seaweeds, as well as rare minerals, which are no longer available due to the nuclear wars.

I can"t understand.  Who would send these to me... Jung Min wondered. 

One can easily deduce that someone didn"t deliberately send the gift to ridicule him by the value of the contents. 

Among them, there was a name people only thought that existed in legends.

"Ginseng!" Ginseng was a rare plant that was invaluable even before the start of Human Year.

Jung Min could see the inside of the box only after taking out all the large and small sacks that ama.s.sed closed to 2000. Then he noticed the luminescent inner wall of the box. 

"Platum!" Jung Min exclaimed.

He couldn"t believe his eyes so he touched it to see if it"s real. It was indisputably Platum. Its periodic blue-violet luminescence was very evident. 

Platum was an invaluable material known for its self-restoration, shock absorption, and insusceptibility. It was created by the cutting-edge technology of humans and most certainly wasn"t a substance that could be bought with money. The reactants to create Platum were hard to obtain and creating the ideal condition to make it was very tricky. In addition, it can only be produced after a number of complicated processes with many variables. Thus, the success rate to make Platum was very low, so no Union could ma.s.s produce it.

However, the inner walls of the gift was coated with this material. This showed how expensive the gift is.

"Absolute, Absolutely not normal!" An even stronger look of curiosity gleamed in Jung Min"s eyes.