Harun

《The world outside the Barrier》

 After trading the items, he brought the cash to Varan’s blacksmith workshop were he meet Haeran who was waiting for him .

 “Follow me!”

  Not bothering to explain anything, she brought Haroon to two shops . They were both some kind of wholesale store, only selling large amount of products at a time .

 The shop owners were close friends with Haeran and as they were selling a lot to them, they gave some discounts on the products so Haroon was able to spend more money on hiring laborers and escorts .

 “There are a LOT of loads . ”

 The size of the medical supplies load wasn’t that big, whereas there were 10 loads full of food . Varan said he would take charge of escorting them as his sisters were accompanying as well, and yet they still needed six more workers .

 Varan also said that he’d somehow contacted and agreed to meet with the warriors of Yeongheung Village tomorrow on the way . Thanks to Varan and Haeran, they were able to finish preparing for the journey in just a few hours .

 “It’s time for us to choose our weapons!”

 Seran guided Haroon to her family’s armory .

 Punching the wall of the office in some pattern revealed a pa.s.sage to a hidden armory . By the way the shops were laid out, it seemed that almost every workshops had such a hidden place . There were gunpowder weapons, some older weapons like swords and blades, and the newest ones like beam guns or beam swords displayed . It looked fantastic .

 “Gunpowder weapons are the most effective in the barrier as they have explosive power, but that’s not the case outside . Those mutated creatures have specially structured leather that doesn’t get significantly damaged by them . Somewhat effective conventional weapons are flamethrowers, beamswords… and I guess that’s pretty much it . Of course, the plasma laser guns that the Union defense troops have are the best, but it costs too much for its effect . We’re already running low on power anyways . ”

 Haroon was busy looking at weapons while listening to Seran’s explanation .

 “Here, you might like this sword,” said she, picking a sword .

 The unique pattern of the blade told him that it was made with damascus steel . He liked how the blade was well polished . The weight was well distributed, but what he liked the most about it was that the size and shape of it was pretty similar to the bone sword he currently use in Beyond .

 “This is the best sword my grandfather made when he was still alive . This is an invaluable sword, and Varan said he knows no one who can use it except you, so we’re selling you this one for the item Haeran wants . ”

 Seran said it as if she was being generous, but Haroon didn’t trust her . A cat would laugh if it heard the sword was over $30000 .

 ‘I like it!’

 He couldn’t tell if he was being deceived or Seran was right about him being lucky . But he was certain that he liked the sword . He felt the sword slightly vibrating, and that made him forget about the price . He was now into the sword he was holding . Seeing that, Seran smiled, she knew how Haroon felt about the sword .

 “I know how you feel . It felt like i was meeting a life-long friend when I got my first real sword . And of course, I still feel that way . ”

 Seran was right . He didn’t really have a trustworthy friend, except Bell who he thought of as a real sister . But something attracted his mind to the sword when he grabbed it . The subtle vibration of the sword was telling him that he’d met a destined, everlasting friend .

 After a while of walking in the nonoperational subway pa.s.sage, Haeran pointed at the concrete wall with graffiti .

 “This is the way to the secret pa.s.sage . ”

 By the looks of it, it seemed nothing like a door, but as she turns small b.u.mps on the wall, a door full of light appeared like magic . It was so small that a man could barely pa.s.s through crouching .

 She didn’t hesitate to enter the light . Haroon followed, then Seran, Varan, and the other hired workers carrying a load each on their backs .

 The pa.s.sage was larger than he thought . The small iron door they just pa.s.sed through made it look like a small storage room for emergency repair tools when the subway was still operational . Once they were through the door, even the moderately tall Haroon was able to stand straight up, and the pa.s.sage was wide enough for two people to walk side-by-side .

 ‘Well, it’s true that harks sneaked through this pa.s.sage…… . ’ Haroon thought .

 Though the hark he killed last time was not fully grown, it was three meters tall and about 300 kilograms . Harks have a keen sense of smell like dogs, and they’re the most ferocious, vengeful creatures of all mutated species . The one that Haroon killed was the one that lost two claws to Nain’s group, and chased them to take revenge .

 “These secret pa.s.sages were made in the early ages of the Union . They dug tens of these pa.s.sages during the fight for power so they could escape the Union whenever they needed to . But as time pa.s.sed, these pa.s.sages were forgotten, and now some of them have been found by outers trying to sneak into the Union, us meisters who need outworld resources, and those merchants trying to gather wealth by trading with the outers . ”

 Listening to Haeran’s explanation, Haroon inspected light emitting rods installed on the ceiling of the pa.s.sage . They were a legacy of the Age of Doom, and they emitted light every three second alternatively, illuminating surroundings .

 “This pa.s.sage is mainly used by smiths and outers of Yeongheung Village . Other merchants use the other pa.s.sages,” she added .

 “I don’t think Unions would’ve just let you use these pa.s.sages,” Haroon asked

 According to Haeran, even blackmarket merchants pay a good amount of “tax” to the Union Government . Of course, it was more often referred as a “protection fee . ” But once in a while, there were outers who snuck into the barrier and committed heinous crimes such as rapes or murders . That’s why Haroon asked; he was sure that the Union would have done something to prevent those outers from sneaking in .

 “Well, some pa.s.sages were found and closed by the defense troops . But we have other methods as well . ”

 And she said no more about it .

 Soon, once they’d walked about a kilometer, Haroon spotted another door of light in front of Haeran . She was waiting for the others instead of exiting through the door .

 “Check your clothes before going out, and don’t forget to put on the protective goggles . ”

 People put down their loads and closely checked their long, thick fabric clothes . They made sure that no skin had direct contact with the air, and put on their protective gla.s.ses .

 “Outers can expose their skin to the sunlight for a moment as their race adapted to the environment for several hundred years, but us inners can never ever expose our skin to the air or direct sunlights, as it would cause acute cancer . That applies to breathings as well . The air is still polluted and contains radioactive matter, so don’t take off your mask that filters out fine dust . ”

 Haeran warned Haroon as it was his first time going out of the barrier .

 “Got it . ”

 Haroon put on wide, thick clothes over his hard-leather armor like a mummy . It was a piece of cake for him as he had experience from dusting off the streets as a public worker .

 “Pulling them that tight might restrain your movement and make you feel uncomfortable, so make them rather loose but just make sure they won’t untie themselves . ”

 Haroon untied the clothes and rerolled as Haeran adviced, then put on the mask and protective goggles .

 “Then, let’s go . ”

 Haeran left the barrier through the door . Excited to see the outer world, Haroon followed her .

 “Oh, wow!”

 Seeing the sun from outside the barrier for the first time was totally different . It was so intense that he was initially blinded . It was so vivid, and strong that it put the sunlight filtered by the barrier to shame .

 The first bit of scenery he saw outside the barrier was endless stretches of sand . A desert of sand, wide gla.s.s fields and chunks of gla.s.s of various sizes were shining under the rising sun .

 These chunks or bits of gla.s.s were called tect.i.te gla.s.s, and they were formed by heat over 5000 degrees celsius caused by the nuclear explosions . These gla.s.s filings and chunks were firstly found in some deserts in the Age of Doom, and it was proof that their previous civilizations were developed enough to hold nuclear wars .

 Haroon’s heart beat rapidly seeing the desert that seemed like a field of jewels . Haeran smiled seeing Haroon’s expression through the goggles .

 “Beautiful, isn’t it? I too, was, impressed by the view of the sun and the sea of sand twinkling in the sun . ”

 “It’s really beautiful . ”

 Though it was shame that none of his body was actually exposed to the world, it was still very moving to experience the unknown world . To his back, there was a high wall of concrete, covered by a energy field dome, the Barrier . It was subtly vibrating, and was continued high up into the sky .

 ‘If there was no Beyond, and if there was no Bell, I would have lived a miserable life and died in that thing . ”

 That made him feel like his previous life was meaningless .

 “There’s no time for dilly dallying around, let’s get going . The mutated species like harks or orcs become active in the early evening to late at night when the sunlight weakens and the temperature drops, so we have to move now even if it’s hard . The heat will numb your mind, but resting in the middle under the sunlight is a suicidal act so we’re not resting until we reach the meeting point . It will take about five hours, so keep a good pace and focus on nothing but the footsteps,” said Varan, leading the group .

 Like he said, there was no time for him to admire the view . People unfurled umbrellas installed on their bags . It was some sort of sunshade that inners travelling outside of the barrier usually used .

 Everyone started following Varan, Haroon took his first step on the land full of sand .

 ‘This is hot!’

 The land heated up the soles of his feet . Haeran told him to wear walker boots with thick, bottom and heels, but Haroon stubbornly chose breathable, thin leather shoes and regretted it . He didn’t expect them to heat up so fast .

 It was comfortably warm at first, but soon heated up and made him feel like he was walking on a heated iron sheet . Not only that but his body was sweating from the heat of the sun .

 Haeran came closer to Haroon .

 “Yeah, it’s hot . It goes as high as 55 degrees these days . Even with umbrellas, it’s not easy walking through the desert . The first time I went outside the barrier it was in the middle of the winter and still it was so hot I felt like I was being cooked alive . You’ll sweat a lot, but you’ll have to deal with it . Pulling off the clothes will kill you faster . I know how hard it is, but all I can say is just focus on your footsteps and think about nothing else . ”

 Haroon nodded, frowning at the sweat stinging his eyes . He regretted he’d ignored the others after seeing how they put some kind of bandage on their foreheads .

 ‘d.a.m.n!’

 He couldn’t help but curse .

 Hard leathers in the real world had the worst quality compared to hard leather armors in Beyond, and they started to stick to his body as they absorbs sweat . It made him feel so uncomfortable as they kept sticking to his body .

 “Are you crazy?”

 That’s how Haeran and Seran reacted when Haroon told them he was going to wear hard leather armor . The outside of the barrier was already too hot even with specially made clothes crafted with especially breathable, sweat-absorbing fabrics .

 “The YeongHeung village warriors will protect us . Leather armor is overkill . ”

 Even Varan tried to change his mind, but Haroon insisted at the thought he should be prepared for hark encounters, and he was comfortable wearing leather armor as he spent so much time with it in Beyond . They eventually gave up persuading Haroon, but their eyes were still full of worry .

 They hadn’t even been walking for thirty minutes, and Haroon felt desperate to take all his clothes off, not to mention the load on his back . His body felt as heavy as a chunk of steel, and was getting as hot as fire .

 Haroon respected how Varan, his sisters and the workers were keeping their pace . He thought he was well trained through Beyond, but he realized now how naive he was . Before he knew it, he was at the tail end of the line .

 Haroon was huffing and puffing just to keep up with the line . His all sense was exceeding their limits . As if the others were equally tired, they were only focusing on moving another step every step .

 ‘Is this all you can do?’ Haroon thought to himself .

 He thought he’d gotten somewhat strong . He was overconfident from killing a hark . He wasn’t a ranker in Beyond, but he thought he was one of the strongest in the real world .

 ‘I was being naive, once again . ’

 Haroon bit his lower lip .

 His vision was becoming blurry, and it came with great pain as the sweat entering his eyes felt like needles poking his eyes . Even if he could bear the heat, what irritated him even more was that he couldn’t open his eyes . At this rate, he would be exhausted and fall to the ground before the group reaches the meeting point .

 ‘Well! I’m dying anyways!’

 Haroon cast Messenger Walking .

 “Hugh!” Haroon let out a violent breath .

 The energy entering through his feet was so unimaginably hot that he couldn’t feel the mana at all . The heat rocketed up to the top of the head and disoriented him, making him stagger for a moment .

 He could taste pungent blood bleeding out from his lower lip, which stimulated his tongue helping him to bring back his senses . Violent heat traveled to every part of his body as if his whole body was on fire and it couldn’t be described with just the word pain .

 Bones were burnt and flesh melted . As if a candle melts, the cells melted, and as they did the neurons burnt away as well, causing the pain to subside . And while enduring that much pain, his will and instincts forced him to continuously moved his feet, connecting the precise movements of Messenger Walking .

 He was walking instinctively, but he’d more or less fainted as the endless heat entering through his feet numbed his mind . But as the others were fighting with the heat of the desert, they didn’t notice something strange was going on with Haroon behind them .

 In the end, a stream of flames continuously fired up from his feet . This stream of flames rose to his head, and changed its direction back to the center of body finding any way to make it through, but it wasn’t the same path it’d came from .

 It felt like all his blood evaporated and his veins were burnt . The heat coming up from Haroon’s feet cycled through his whole body once and united with the newly absorbed energy under his navel . It circulated to the genitals, cycled back to the tailbone and rose up to the neck via the spine and rested at the top of his head for a moment . Soon it came back down past the forehead, between his nose and lips, down to the center of the chest, then back to the point in his lower gut .

 At this point, Haroon wasn’t feeling pain anymore . It felt like he’d became another person absorbing the flow of heat into his body . The heat whirled up and became denser, concentrating to become as small as a millet, then expanded like a cloud to absorb the energy coming in from his feet .

 Strangely enough, he didn’t feel hot anymore .

 His senses started returning and he could feel his bones, flesh and nerves again . As if rain filling a dried lake, he felt alive once again .

 ‘What was that?’

 Something that was totally unintentional happened . He observed the flame that was growing in size in his body . And it wasn’t a stream of flames anymore . He couldn’t tell how it’d changed it’s form, but it seemed more like a chunk of lava . It was dense and gooey, but he couldn’t tell if it was liquid or gas . He lost track of time observing such exciting things happening in his body .

 “Here we are . ”

 It was Varan’s tired, cracked voice coming through the earphones . As if a person entered his house, Haroon came back to his senses .

 “Woah!”

 He took a deep breath without knowing, but he realized something had happened to him . He wasn’t sweating anymore, and he wasn’t feeling hot . Like the morning after a good sleep, he was feeling refreshed, and his body couldn’t be more alive .

 He took a deep breath without knowing, but he realized something had happened to him . He wasn’t sweating anymore, and he wasn’t feeling hot . Like the morning after a good sleep, he was feeling refreshed, and his body couldn’t be more alive .

 They arrived at a point with a giant dead tree where half of it was buried in a sand dune . It was shivered up like a mummy, but it was big enough to shade the entire group . They each fell to the ground after entering the shade .

 “Huff! Huff! Five hours, of walking, is, literally, killing me,” said Seran .

 Only she and Varan were moving their arms to find their water bottles . Everyone else refused to move even an inch . Haroon could see layers of salt had formed on their clothes . It was formed from the process of heat evaporating absorbed sweat that had continued for several hours .

 ‘We walked for five hours?’

 He couldn’t feel the flow of time after they’d been moving for thirty minutes . Haroon slowly put down his bag and wiped the goggles with his arms .

 “You are really something . I can’t believe this is your first time coming out to the desert and your still able to keep up the pace with us veterans . ”

 “That’s not everything . Outfits and cloth on top is hot enough, and he’s wearing flipping hard leather armor, and look at him! He’s not even breathing that hard! Even we’re one step away from death and we’ve done this over ten times!”

 Haeran and Seran exclaimed . Haroon smiled back and said nothing, as even he still couldn’t figure out what had happened to his body .

 Walking in a circle around the tree, Haroon scanned the surroundings .

 The land was different with the border being right on the dead tree .

 If one would call the land between the barrier that’s shining with the sunlight and the dead tree a sandy desert, the other side was more like a wasteland with red dirt . The land was dead too, just not as sandy . Still, he felt better seeing that he was out of the desert .

 Fascinated by the exotic sceneries, he stood there for a while and looked around then came back to the shade . Varan and Seran were sitting under the temporary tent set up against the tree, with their goggles and masks off .

 Their faces were visibly pale . They had dark circles under their eyes, and their faces seemed more white because of the dried sweat . Haroon could tell how mentally tired they’d became in the past few hours .

 “You can take off your goggles in the shade for a while . And the level of radioactivity drops dramatically from this point, so you can take off your mask as well . But it’s still dangerous to take it off for more than thirty minutes . Keep that in mind,” said Varan, handing Haroon his water bottle .

 “Got it . ”

 Taking the bottle from his hands, Haroon sat down and took off his goggles and mask . Haroon breathed in deeply, and hot air came in through his nose . It was dry, but it couldn’t feel more refreshing without the mask .

 Haroon spoke no more words, and closed his eyes to focus on what was happening inside of his body . Varan saw him closing his eyes .

 “From the north or east of the Union, you can reach wastelands within an hour, but from the point we started we have to walk over five hours, which is really tough . Who am I to blame, though? It’s our fault for settling there,” he said as if he was feeling bad for himself .

 Listening to his words, Haroon focused on the inside of his body .

 ‘So this is mana, or ki in real world . ’

 It was his first time actually feeling it . He focused on the small chunk of Ki residing deep within his body . It was pumping out some heat like a chunk of lava .

 He tried to move that chunk . He was sure it was alive like a living creature, but it didn’t move at all . He tried several times but it wouldn’t follow his intention . Haroon tried every method he could think of to move it, but it didn’t move, as if it wasn’t a part of his body . At last, he gave up .

 He gave a sigh and opened his eyes . He could see people resting, lying around as if they were dead . Varan and Seran were sleeping too, with their goggles and masks on, using their backpacks as their pillows .

 He remembered Varan’s advice, and put his goggles and mask on and tried to sleep, but his body was wide awake . So he stood up, and circled around using Messenger Walking .

 Haroon continuously circulated the hot energy of the desert .

 ‘This is getting big . ’

 The chunk of Ki that was as small as a millet seed was now as big as a bean . The path of Ki seemed to have got larger with the continuous flow of Ki .

 It was after two hours when everyone woke up from their sleep . The sun was high up, shining directly on their heads .

 “HAROON!”

 That shout drew Haroon’s senses back to the outside world . At the same time, the circulation of Ki ended and rapidly returned to the lower part of his gut .

 “Don’t tell me you were sleeping like that . ”

 Haeran was looking at him with an interesting look .

 “I guess I fell asleep while meditating . ”

 “I guess I fell asleep while meditating . ”

 “You mediated? That’s amazing . I’ve never seen anyone meditating with all their gear on like you . ”

 Seeing how she was making a strange smile, it seemed that she wasn’t believing his words at all . She was probably thinking he was a weirdo .

 ‘Whatever . ’

 Haroon didn’t bother explaining .

 “Here they are!”

 At Seran shout, everyone looked towards the horizon . There were figures of humans appearing, approaching in a line . Varan gave a signal by blowing a small horn on a necklace he was wearing, and they answered with a sharp whistle .

 They arrived at the meeting point about thirty minutes after . They were Nain’s group from Yeongheung Village .

 Their outfits weren’t that different from Haroon’s group . Wrapped in white cloth with integrated masks, they were carrying backpacks taller than their heads .

 They even had some animals with them carrying loads . There were small humps formed by their spine, their feet were wide with thick fur growing, tall as a human and twice as long as their height .

 As they entered the shade, they took of their masks and unwrapped the cloth . Like Haroon, they had leather armor on and were equipped with crescent moon shaped swords

 “Welcome, Nain . Wasn’t it tough getting here?”

 “Nah, this is our work . You must be exhausted, though . ”

 Haeran, Seran and Nain were overjoyed to see each other . The men too were exchanging greetings by shaking hands and b.u.mping shoulders . Left out alone, Haroon went to see the animals .

 The animals flared their nostrils and made strange sounds as Haroon approached, but they didn’t exit the shade . Interested, Haroon came closer and inspected them .

 ‘Are these camels?’

 He thought . They were somewhat different from the pictures or videos he saw . They both had humps, but this animal had many more but smaller humps that were as small as his fists . Also, they had fangs . Camels were herbivores, and by the shape of their teeth these were not . They had three toes that were thicker than their legs, and they were covered in fur .

 “Ranadues . That’s what we call them . ”

 It was Nain . She seemed to be tired but her eyes were bright . Looking over her shoulder, Haroon could see people resting and talking under the tent .

 “We think they’re animals mutated from camels that excited in the Age of Doom . But unlike camels, they can eat meat to survive . They can carry loads of up to 300 Kilograms, survive for a month without water, are able to find gra.s.ses in the wastelands, and can fight a hark as a group of three . ”

 “That’s amazing . ”

 The outside of the barrier was full of mutated species . If they survived in such an environment, they would have such ability .

 “No animals runs faster than ranadues on deserts or fields . They have a great stamina pool, so even harks cannot hunt them without waiting for them in ambush . ”

 It was remarkable as harks were extremely fast as well .

 “My great great grandparents started taming them, and even now we’ve barely removed their wilderness, but they still don’t let humans ride on them . They run away when we don’t feed them well, so it’s kind of hard to keep them around . ”

 “I see . ”

 Listening to Nain, Haroon stroked the head of a ranadue . Their fur was about two inches long and very soft . And strangely enough, their body temperature was rather cool .

 ‘I guess this is why they can survive under the sun . ’

 His hands came back from the head and stroked it’s spine . When Nain was looking for a chance to talk to him and was about to say something, Haeran called her .

 “Nain, come and have some food!”

 She frowned for a moment, then turned toward Haeran .

 “I’m coming!”

Translated by Channy
Edited by Kmatt