Haroon v6c1p1

<Trade>

Ares pushed the lid of her capsule aside and came out of it, restored her sense of reality and rotated her neck, and shook her limbs to stretch.

“Hey! You’re back so early,” said Miryo, noticing Ares while searching uninet for news materials.

“Yeah. Did you die or something?” asked Jangryo. He was writing an article with some food in his mouth, again, before he turned his chair towards Ares and dragged his way near.

“I’ve got big news! Gather up!”

The room was too small for all three of them, so Ares set on her capsule.

“What is it?”

“Your face tells me you are on to something.”

They were non-identical twins; they had different sex and their body size were different. They sat on their capsules and looked curiously at Ares. Miryo, the older twin, was tall, slender, and had a cute appearance; though she never had a proper education, she had deep knowledge and skill in IT. When this trio became a team, she took the role of finding the information from uninet and globalnet. The younger twin, Jangryo, was tall and his frame was huge. His thick eyebrows and sharp eyes gave him a great warrior look, but his character was so weak he felt sorry to kill an ant. Despite his size, his weak personality and poor movement displayed very poor performance in VR games, but his strength was in writing - his main job was to write news. Ares was tempted to make this curious twin anxious to make her talk, but she went straight to the fact that she didn’t have much time.

“You know I entered Huk'ran mountains today, right?”

“Yeah.”

“What about it? Are you dead? That is not cool. You know what we went through to get you to that level.”

Jangryo frowned. Ares was the action guy of the team, so to make her a high ranker, this twin even hacked to dig information on experience farms and dungeons.

“It's nothing like that. Guess who I met in Huk'ran.”

“Who?”

“Huhuhu! I met the Gusts of Wind.”

“Gusts of Wind? You mean the Gusts of Wind that gave escort to Huk'ran gemstone mine?”

“Bingo!”

This moved the twins. They had a great interest in the Gusts of Wind. Not only that they knew the exact location of the gemstone mine, but they knew a safe way to get to the mines - the Gusts of the Wind was the celebrity the users wanted to meet the most at the time. Getting to meet them meant they had a certified check to get to the mine, and safely.

“So you asked him to take you to the mine?”

“I don’t think it's that easy…….”

As Jangryo said, it was not good for trade ethics. Especially mercenaries risk their lives with their contracts, so telling the location of the gemstone mine none other than the original contractor wasn’t the right thing to do.

“Gemstone mine is nothing. They found an ancient dungeon!”

“Ancient dungeon? What do you mean? Ancient Dungeon?”

Jangryo and Miryo’s eyes widened as big as twice the original size for a moment.

“They found an ancient dungeon that has relics of the ancient civilization. They say it has an unknown artifact and a magic tome.”

“Yeah? Well, I guess that’s good.”

Ares was excited, but Jangryo’s reaction was rather lukewarm. It sure was news, but it didn’t sound that beneficial compared to the gemstone mine of Huk'ran. Miryo showed the same response as well.

“Damn it! Okay, you have no idea how great news this is since you are not mages. According to what I learned as I advanced as a mage, the current magic system of Beyond is way behind compared to the ancient civilization. For example, the 4-circle spell Levitation was a 2-circle spell in ancient civilization.”

“And……?”

Miryo’s eyebrows raised.

“Yeah. According to the history of Beyond, the time before the establishment of the Terron Empire is defined as the Knight Era. A lot of spells were lost in this era, and there weren’t many mages. Fast forward, a thousand years ago, around the time the empire was established, the Pioneer Magic Tower (which is the royal magic tower now) found two lost low-ranking magic tomes by chance, and that’s how this system is newly defined. Apparently, the tomes had up to 3-circle spells. And they aren’t properly deciphered, so countless many mages researched over hundreds of years to create and develop spells for the new system.”

“And that means……?”

Miryo didn’t finish her sentence.

“Once this news is spread, the magic towers of the whole continent will be crazy about it. Even those conservative magic towers will aggressively take action. They say the dungeon has FOUR magic tomes, so they may be able to conduct a comparative analysis to discover more spells. Maybe they will be able to completely translate them.”

Miryo and Jangryo finally seemed to have understood the value of the information Ares brought. Their eyes went unfocused with their jaws dropped.

“The locals already knew that the gemstone mine is somewhere in Huk'ran. Those users who joined the information guild discovered that several massive-scale searches were held, but the terrain and the monsters were too rough they eventually gave up. There is a history of expeditions almost getting annihilated, even when they were way more capable than the current average of the users. Therefore, the gemstone mine of Huk'ran is most likely to be a pie in the sky for the users.”

“That is true. Almost three thousand users, two-thousand knights and soldiers were annihilated at Huk'ran Mountains not so long ago.”

added Miryo, in charge of information. Ares clenched her fists.

“Exactly. But the Ancient Dungeon is a big scoop that was never known to anyone. And the relics hidden in the dungeon are magic tomes that the magicians crave for, asleep or awake. Spreading this news to the Terron Empire is equivalent to kicking a wasp hive. You know how this will be like for the users”

“Yeah! This is going to be awesome!”

“But who gave you the tip? Is this even from a reliable source?”

Jangryo’s eyes glazed over. ‘At least you are worried about the source, you’re the reliable person,’ Ares thought.

“The source is the leader of the Gusts of the Wind, who saved us from the death’s door three wyverns brought.”

“‘Us’?”

Miryo’s eyes became round.

“Oh, right! There were two more people who entered Huk'ran before me. I butt in to save them only to learn how weak I am and how suicidal that was.”

“Hmm. So this leader is a mercenary capable enough to deal with the wyverns? And you met the guy in Huk'ran. That does guarantee the mercenary you met is indeed the Gusts of the Wind to some extent.”

Miryo collected her thoughts, said out loud.

“I'm certain. He said he had proof. I wouldn't even bring it up if there was none. And he is way more capable than what the media says. I have seen him hunting down a wyvern and harvesting leathers and byproducts from the body with my own eyes. There were two more of them, but they didn’t even dare to come down to the ground because he was so good with his throwing knives.”

Ares explained what happened to the two. Miryo’s eyes sparkled hearing the story.

“If the blades were glowing blue, he is definitely at an expert-level that can use mana. And if he can throw dozens of glowing throwing knives almost simultaneously, that means he’s over intermediate-expert, and considering his rare ability to boss elemental spirits, it wouldn’t be a stretch to consider him an advanced-expert. Well, actually, if we consider the power of the elemental spirits, knife throwing skills, and his hidden swords art, he might be more than that. That’d be more than enough to roam around Huk'ran, the Devil’s Land like his own house.”

It was indeed Miryo’s role to analyze the information and to make the conclusion. Listening to her words, Jangryo and Ares could reestablish their view on Haroon’s capability again.

“An advanced-expert level puts him on the top level. He wouldn’t fall behind the grandmasters of the prominent orders of knights of the empire. As far as we users know, the number of swordmasters the Terron Empire has is 20, give or take. For more than half of them, we don’t even know who they are nor how good they are, because the Royal Family manages that information. This top-level mercenary would surely have a great network. If your words are true about him having to take a 100K worth quest, it is safe to assume that he’s got a powerful personnel infrastructure in the empire. Then the information you brought us today is almost 100% true. That kind of person wouldn’t lie about it. Telling it to perfect strangers, especially when they are outlanders– that is the red flag for me.”

Miryo finished her briefing with the information.

“Hahaha! I knew this was the big scoop. So I offered an exchange. I told him what we do, and made an offer.”

“Why did you even bother to explain it to a mere NPC?”

Jangryo shook his head, but Miryo found it interesting, thanks to Ares’ confident attitude.

“Well, he understood it. Not only did he understand it, he knew very well how he could earn money with the information. He mentioned disclosing the information, and even streaming or reporting the dungeon exploration for more money.”

Jangryo and Miryo were surprised to hear this.

“WHAT? But how?! Beyond is a video game! Okay, I get that he's a notable person, but he’s still an NPC and you’re telling me he understands our business? This person has to be a user.”

Jangryo couldn’t understand. To his knowledge, it was hard to think that NPCs have a cognitive ability good enough to understand the world of the users.

“That’s what I thought in the beginning. But as I play the game and interact with the NPCs of Beyond, I realized I was wrong. I don’t know how refined their design is, but the ways and levels of thinking and the way they behave were not far from how we do. The participants of the Golden Battle are already reaching out to join hands with the users. This is a known fact, and there were numerous reports about it.”

Jangryo kept shaking his head. He wasn’t buying it.

“It doesn’t matter if the locals of Beyond are NPC with AI or not. What matters is, how much money this information can bring to us. Who cares if they are AI or not? If we can join his dungeon expedition as he said, that's a jackpot on top of another one. This is the golden ticket that we freelance reporters can never miss!”

Miryo was right about it. Jangryo and Ares, too, knew very well how valuable the information was, regardless of understanding NPCs.

“But on what condition?”

Miryo was indeed quick with wits.

“I talked with him to get it down to a 50:50 split, and us joining his guild.”

Miryo nodded and fell in thoughts.

“The split is not bad for us. Actually, it’s great in our favor. But I don’t like that we have to join the guild. There will be a lot of restrictions once we are in.”

“I know. That’s why I excused myself to talk with you two. It wouldn’t be as extreme as a life-or-death authority, but there must be something. It wouldn’t be easy to quit, either.”

This was their issue. What Ares, Miryo, and Jangryo had to go over was to join the Gusts of Wind. If his intention was ill, they might need to accept a lot of damage as his members.

“So what? Why would such a huge mercenary guild do something bad against us outlanders? I want you to just accept the condition. Miryo wouldn’t have to put effort to get the information, and you too won’t need to go through everything else, Ares. We’re getting a reliable background, so we gotta bear some discomfort.”

Jangryo agreed with the condition. Ares thought the same, but she waited for Miryo’s decision. She was the wisest among the three, and she was weighing her options.

“You have a point, Jangryo. But we are outlanders. No matter how realistic the game is, this world is the place we live in. We cannot get too deeply involved with a game.”

This was a very meaningful comment for Jangryo and Ares. Since Beyond was released, it has provided bread and butter for them, and even some spare money to donate to the orphanage they were raised in - the game has been a part of their life. Their heart was always at Beyond although their physical body was in reality; it was a fact they cannot deny. But like Miryo said, a video game was a video game. The reality was that they were stuck in the barrier. No matter how fun a game is, when time passes and the game is exhausted, the users will leave the game, and the people who have a job that is based on the game, don’t have a reason to play the game anymore. Dark gamers commonly say that the time you would be able to earn money from a game would be 3 years at max, but it can be as short as a year. Beyond sure has some difficulty to level up and although its presentation on realism is unmatched compared to other games, it was still a video game made for the users, and it meant it will not last forever.

“I think we better get the signup condition out of the deal even if it would cost us our cut. If it really is for confidential concerns, it sounds better to consider another option.”

Ares was on the same side as Miryo at this point.

“Sounds good. I think you are right about this. Then I’ll go and talk with him again.”

Ares stood up right away but Miryo stopped her halfway up.

“Wait. We’re not done yet. Let’s try to figure out a way for us to put a condition on this deal. We need to take the initiative on this deal and it will work better for us later on.”

“Yeah. I can’t stand not having control.”

Jangryo added. Ares took her hand off the capsule lid.

“Well, it’s night over there so I suppose it wouldn’t be the right time for a talk. I'll go back when it’s morning there.”

It was time for some more discussions.

---

1. Let me know whether you would like the releases to be in bulks like how I posted v5c12 or in sections like this v6c1p1. If people would like release to be in sections, I will make cuts where it is appropriate - like on scene transitions.

2. Let me know if you would like me to use Wordpress. I hate Worldpress because they removed 'justify' and that's not justified for me. Wix was what I found as an alternative, but it isn't easy to get a dark theme.

3. I sometimes stream when I work - Twitch.