Haroon v6c6

《Deals》

It was right after the end of that night’s show when PD Yuhan from Houl Vision read the email Ares sent.

“That dinner you promised today better be good!” said Norra.

Norra was the host of the two shows Yuhan was directing.

“I know, I know. Just let me check my email first.”

Yuhan was feeling great for his show recorded 45th most viewers among its competitors that are aired at the same time. There were over 120 TV shows aired worldwide. It was all thanks to Norra’s popularity and his planning for having rankers as the guests. If he still had one wish, it was to beat Virtual Broadcast hosted by the top beauty.

His inbox was overflowing with unread emails. It was common to have an assistant sort email for PDs, but he insisted to check every single email he received by himself. There were over 100 freelancing journalists that send articles or videos to him, and still, he managed all of them by himself. The amount of effort he puts into his work, such as that, was one of the reasons for his success in his career.

He, as is his wont, checked for the articles that were marked with five stars for now; five stars meant it was a scoop. These rantings were done by the journalists themselves. He never trusted the journalists that overused the stars on their own articles and sent them to the Trash box without giving a second thought. The journalists knew this, so they were responsible for their own reviews of their articles. He left the rest for his future self after work. There was one email marked with five stars he received that day.

“Hey, this one is from Ares.”

He remembered that name because of the vigor he saw in her eyes on the first meeting, despite the fact she was barely an adult. She never sent a scoop before, but her articles were useful and rarely needed an edit. He opened the email.

“’Ancient Dungeon Found’?!”

Yuhan shouted the title of the article without knowing it. Norra promptly took a chair nearby and sat next to him. She also was a ranker of Beyond and she instinctively knew the meaning an ancient dungeon could bring.

“Come on, open it and let’s see what it says.”

“Yeah.”

Yuhan instinctively knew he was about to see something spectacular and it was just one click away. His instinct was making his fingers tremble.

《The explorers found an ancient dungeon.

Have you heard about Lah, the empire of the lost ancient civilization of Beyond? Lah was known to worship the Sun God, the empire that unified the continent with the otherworldly magic, lived in splendor for over 3,000 years, and most importantly have an advanced culture with extreme magical science. Lah had flourished based on the highly efficient sorcery that had a different system to the current system; an ancient dungeon, that was known to have its lost relics, is finally discovered.

The dungeon is known to have a ‘Knowledge Fragment’ with unknown content and four magic tomes.

Considering that the current magic system is derived and developed from an ancient civilization only based on its few basic spell tomes (as the rumors from Magic Towers suggest), you might see the value this dungeon holds. The tomes that the Lah empire left to us will bring the evolution of the magic system, and not only the Empire but the world of Beyond will face its outrageous revolution.》

“What? This is too shocking to be true!”

Norra exclaimed, and Yuhan clicked on the demo video attached to the email. The demo video contained the clips of the ancient dungeon that Ares and her two friends excluded the crucial hints, but it was enough to prove that the ancient dungeon exists and somebody has found it. Norra couldn’t comment on what she just witnessed. She could see the value and the importance that this email had. This was a scoop she’s never faced in her show business career.

“You know what, Norra, dinner must wait. I need to see the senior team manager. Actually, I need to see the general director himself.”

Yuhan realized this wasn’t something he can handle by himself. This was something to be handled at the executive level.

“Good, god! Whoever this Ares is, they sure hit the jackpot. About Beyond, though, first, it was Huk’ran’s gemstone mine, and now, it is an ancient dungeon. This is going to flip everything upside down.”

She didn’t know what was coming, but she knew the impact this information could bring. At least it was easy to tell that this information was a kick to a hive’s nest.

“I’ll see you later, then. Actually, you are coming with me.”

Yuhan grabbed Norra’s arm.

“What? No, I don’t want to! It’s disgusting to breathe the same air in the same room with those old pigs.”

She tried to step back and shook his hands off. But PD Yuhan did not lose the grip.

“You are coming with me! This information needs top-level security. You are never going to take not even a single step away from me.”

She violently resisted but she ended up companying Yuhan and being dragged to the senior team manager’s office and the director’s office.

---

“It’s here!”

Miryo had her eyes fixed on the monitor no matter what the others said, and when she saw that she got the reply from Yuhan she exclaimed. They got a reply from him within 30 minutes which was very rare.

“I knew I made the right choice!”

PD Yuhan was great at knowing what will make the show. It was as if she could see what kind of reaction he might have had when he got the email. This was the scoop of the scoops. Jangryo and Miryo quit whatever they were doing and came to Miryo at once.

Miryo opened the email.

“Well, what does it say?”

Jangryo hurriedly asked.

“They want to see us. And they are coming here right now. The pay for the article will be in the top range. Lastly, they want to hear from us if we have sent the same emails to other companies!”

“YAY!”

All three shouted with joy. They were a bit nervous about the rating they put on the article. It was common for the news that the journalists considered scoops weren’t so great from the broadcasting services’ point of view.

“Well, tell them we didn’t!. And…… are you never going to clean up the house? What is this mess?!”

Ares looked around the house only to knit her eyes. It was a total chaos

“Let’s clean this up. If they take the broadcasting stations-only road, it won’t take them 5 minutes to get here.

Among the hundreds of magnetic field roads built in the air of Union, there were a few roads that were dedicated to those with authority, such as nobles, senates, or broadcasting companies. Unlike the busy roads the commoners use, dedicated roads had almost no traffic and they took them places in a matter of minutes.

The trio hurriedly cleaned the house. The word ‘house’ was kind of an exaggeration for the space with one room and a dining room connected to the kitchen; With five computers and three capsules occupying the space, there wasn't even enough room for them to sit on the floor. The three first threw the laundry inside an empty capsule, cleaned the floor, and ran the ventilation machine at its full speed. That is when the people from the broadcasting station made it to their house. They were remarkably fast. This let them realize how impactful the intel they had was. There were three visitors: Yuhan the PD, Norra a famous ranker and the show host, and a middle-aged gentleman in a fancy uniform.

“Long time no see, Yuhan. Thank you for the trouble of coming here; you could have invited us to the station.”

“Nice to see you again, too. It’s been three months, right? So these fellas must be your teammates you mentioned.”

Yuhan kindly offered a handshake.

“Yes, this is Miryo and Jangryo. They mainly collect and analyze the sources and set the newsgathering direction.”

Ares introduced her friends to them, and they all exchanged greetings.

“This is Norra, the treasure of the company. And this gentleman here is the senior producer; he is also the vice president.”

“Nice to see you. I’m Gwanyoung Ham and I’m in charge of the programs in general.”

“It’s an honor to have you in this humble house.”

After exchanging the greetings, they sat on the capsules instead of chairs in the dining room. Ares and her friends were embarrassed about the state of the house, but the visitors were not interested in that at all.

“Miryo, get some tea.”

“N-No, we are not thirsty. Let’s get straight to the point. How solid is this information?”

Ares laughed inwards seeing Yuhan wanting to get to the point. Their attitude gave enough hints about how valuable the intel was.

“Very solid. Allow me to show you the original clip.”

“Please.”

Ares ran the player with the chip mounted, and the player displayed the hologram of the original clip that gave. All six people in the room watched what the hologram had to say, even being careful about breathing so it wouldn’t interrupt the others. As the 5 minutes and 10 seconds long clip faded out, Ares saws them - the faces of surprise and shock from PD Gwanyoung Ham, PD Yuhan, and Norra.

“What’s the class of the video?”

He was asking about the distribution range.

“God-class, for now. But I must tell you that the same video has been delivered to GMs sent by Necomwall. They only took them to make a report and will not disclose the dungeon, so it is safe to say this is a God-class.”

God-class meant never disclosed. What Ares just mentioned gave a slight change to the expression on PD Gwanyoung Ham’s face.

“’GM’s? So you guys know about GMs?”

PD Ham couldn’t not be surprised to hear her mentioning GMs, since nobody was sure if GMs actually existed as the moderation of the game was known to be nonexistent, unlike the other video games.

“Well, I suppose we do. We agreed to maintain a cooperation relationship if this business works out well. By the way, I must warn you that I cannot trade any information on them. They are indeed our precious information source, but also they are not the information subjects that are disclosable at all. As far as I know, Necomwall has already notified the broadcasting stations about it.”

The producers nodded. Of course, Norra had a lot of questions because she has never heard anything about GMs, but she didn’t dare to ask them about the producers.

“Fifty grand – that’s what we can offer.”

PD Yuhan brought up the offer to the table. The earlier the deal was sealed, the safer it was for him to air the news on his show.

“Is that the best?”

Ares asked, disappointed. PD Yuhan looked at PD Ham once and then confirmed the offer.

“Fifty grand is the highest pay we have ever offered for an article. That can buy you a big enough house for you three to comfortably work on your job."

Yuhan's subtle wording made Ares plainly disappointed. Miryo and Jangryo seemed displeased as well.

“You know what, I liked working with Houl Vision and you, Yuhan, as a freelance journalist and that's why I contacted you first; I am very disappointed that I did. We never had this conversation. I'm sorry for your trouble coming all the way to this humble place.”

Ares stood up. It was an obvious sign to turn them away and refuse the offer.

“You have the wrong idea, pal! Don't you know how great that money is? How else do you think you can earn that money at that age? Alright, you do you. We're leaving.”

PD Ham roared, jumping up from his seat as if he found Ares ridiculous. Yuhan and Nora awkwardly followed him to stand up, but their eyes were scanning the trio. The trio, however, seemed totally fine with their choices.

“Hahaha, we are not kids, and we work by selling information; of course, we do know how great that money is. But you underestimated us for our age. We know very well that we can easily earn ten times what you offered by selling it to massive guilds or the information guilds. We chose to make a deal with a broadcasting station because we wished to become regular journalists with stable incomes rather than staying as a freelancer with unstable incomes, and we chose Houl Vision because of PD Yuhab who had our respect. Goodbye, and you will never hear from us again. We were foolish to contact you for the sake of the relationship we already had when there are other massive corporations out there,” said Ares, aggressively as if she felt betrayed. That made PD Ham take a sit again who was pretending to leave at any second.

“Now that you have brought up your friendship with PD Yuhan, we can't end this deal as unpleasantly as now. Alright, so how much do you want? We can't accept anything excessive, by the way.”

His sly attitude made Norra disgusted. He was the perfect representation of two-faced people, whom she hated the most. People with this kind of personality were great at playing hard to get. She also had the experience of falling into one of those tricks and signing the contract with the lowest pay among the hosts.

“Nothing. No deal. We are too young for the negotiations. We are much more familiar with auction-like deals just like how they do in video games. That said, we won’t be making any deal with you. Now, please leave.”

Her words gave a little shake to the expression on the PD Ham’s face. He pulled down the edge of Yuhan’s clothes who was still awkwardly standing up, giving a nudge to his side. He was signaling Yuhan to say something.

“Ares. Calm down. This is how you make the deal in real life. This senior producer over here-- he doesn’t have any hard feelings for you; he is just used to negotiating in this way and he didn’t mean to offend you. Please have a seat and talk this through,” Yuhan persuaded

Ares, with a hard face, exchanged eye contact with the other two. The three were anxious seeing them organizing their thoughts.

Miryo checked on the monitor for a moment, then whispered to Ares.

“We have made our decision. No deal with Houl Vision. We have asked Future, the biggest broadcasting station about the price for the information equivalent to the Huk’ran Gemstone mine, and they guaranteed ten grand as the lowest pay. I’m sure we will be paid several times more than that since an ancient dungeon that holds relics of the ancient civilization is simply on another level compared to the gemstone mine. Only then it will be enough for us to pay back the NPC group for the information. Let me be honest with you - this information was only a part of the deal, and we were planning to company them and film their exploration of the dungeon which we were going to deliver to you; any earning we get for the information itself belongs to them. For that and other reasons, I don’t think we can agree on a deal with Houl Vision. Haggling is totally fine, but not the attempts to steal with that starting price. Houl Vision is out of our options for the sake of the future deals.”

PD Gwanyoung Ham’s face turned pale as ashes. He simply only considered the price for the information about the dungeon and never thought they will manage to film the exploration of the dungeon.

‘This is THE jackpot.’

This event alone was enough to raise the rating to a few tens of percent. If they could film the dungeon exploration which will definitely attract the interest of the users, it was guaranteed to get the sustainable views

“Wait! You are saying you can explore the dungeon with the NPCs you got the information from?”

“That is none of your business. If we didn’t have enough relationship and trust between them and us, or if they weren’t capable enough, we wouldn’t have got this information. They are a group of NPCs strong enough to hunt wyverns alone. Even if the elves or other guilds try to stop them, they will try to conquer the dungeon. What would matter if they fail? We’ll be able to film the battle of the elves and the other guilds for the dungeon and that’ll be good enough for us.”

Ares was right. The success wasn’t important. They didn’t care who takes the relics. What the broadcasting station wants is filming the vivid battle, and if possible, to film the exploration of the dungeon. Beyond was popular in about a dozen Unions located in northeastern Asia and its popularity was expanding throughout the world; considering the number of users and their interests, this was guaranteed to rank first in the viewership.

“Ares, let’s talk about this again.”

Anxious, PD Ham stood up and grabbed Ares’s hands, but Ares was still hard-faced.

“Not happening. You and we wasted a lot of time that we could have used for a million other things, so please leave.”

“Good, golly! Don’t be so inflexible; you are still so young! I had to play jokes, yes, test you to examine the genuineness of the information. I just had to see how such young people like you got such a hot tip and if you know the true value of it. Come on, think about what PD Yuhan has to go through if you act like this. If we miss this deal, that’s the end of him! The company won’t be happy for him who once got the treasure in his hands only to get snatched away by the competitor!”

Ares couldn’t believe his words. He was the one who ruined the deal, and now he was threatening her using Yuhan’s position as the hostage. Ares felt the urge to crack open his head and see what was inside his brain. Yuhan was just someone whom she met for the business; she couldn’t care less about his destiny. Seeing her unshaken determination, PD Ham felt even more anxious.

“My uncle is in the Senates. He is a member of the lower house. You might have heard his name, Manhui Ham.”

He was now being so cheap. Now that things weren’t working out for him, he was mentioning his noble relative. One of the lowest kinds of people she met in her life was this kind of person. She’s seen enough people like this in the school, those who take advantage of their relatives’ names rather than their own capability or effort. To make a living in the broadcasting field, it was dangerous to play hard to get any longer. Ares finally relieve her hard face. She had to act flexibly to survive.

“Alright.”

PD Ham’s face brightened up when Ares finally decided to negotiate again. Yuhan, too, felt relieved since he almost lost his job.

“I’m sure that you’d know that I’m negotiating not because of what you’ve just said. Someone related to Future surely would easily outrank Mr. Ham.”

That upset PD Ham.

She was right about it.

The CEO of Future, the biggest broadcasting station in the Union, was one of the only 12 members of the upper house of the Union. As they inherit their social position through generations, they have accumulated enough capital, authority, and power to manage the strong connections that spread throughout the administration like a spiderweb, wielding absolute power.

People with enough money, technology, or social status could become a senate in the lower house; in the point of view of the senates in the higher house, they were marginally better than commoners

“Discuss it with your boss and let us know your highest pay. There is a price range we have in mind. We were already offered ten grand when the only thing we said was ‘information equivalent to Huk’ran Gemstone Mine.’ We will deliver perfect proof and upcoming exploration videos. If your next offer is not satisfactory, we will be talking with Future. I’m sure they’ll support us a lot with the exploration as well.”

“Understood.”

PD Ham stood up. This was outside the scope of his authority. He realized he couldn’t get the lead back with his negotiation methods.

‘These journalist bastards are really the pain in the ass!’

People with information were so different from people like Norra, PD Ham thought. This conversation was one of those examples. These journalists were barely adults, but they already became mind-readers just by being freelance journalists for a few months. They were quite bright with the customs and dynamics of the broadcasting stations.

---

Meanwhile, Magrum and Chornn were in a secret meeting with the GM Team Manager. They were summoned to his office while they were heading to the Castle of Jorlen County.

“The research team has confirmed that the information of the chip was true. The branch manager is very satisfied with your findings. You really have brought something, didn’t you? Great job, you two.”

“Thank you.”

The GMs have been waiting for this moment.

“So, is there anything you need?”

“We do. We’ll be meeting the Gusts of Wind at the Castle of Jorlen County pretty soon. But we need a considerable amount of money to company them and continuously buy information from them.”

The team manager made a satisfactory smile.

“Good. The headquarter actually gave us a positive review on that issue you have described in your report. For this very one, you have secured the evidence as well so they want us to support you with 10,000 Gold as the information fee. And they have decided to provide you with the appropriate information fee for the additional information you get from them.”

“I appreciate it. I believe they’ll allow us to accompany them with that much money.”

“They probably will. And you will get 500 Golds each as compensation for finding such special information. On top of that, the branch manager has personally decided to reward you with another 500 Golds each. Get them from the accounting department.”

Magrum and Chornn looked at each other and smiled. They weren’t expecting personal bonuses.

“You should expect better news soon. This is the most valuable information any GM has ever discovered, you know? You two have made such a great contribution to let the headquarters know how capable we Ko-1 Branch Office is.”

“Thank you.”

The team manager has never seemed so excited. He was infamous for being cold-blooded, and even Chornn, who worked longer than Magrum, had never seen him like this before. The bonus was one thing, but the compliment and encouragement of the boss made them smell the sweetness of the promotion.

“It hasn’t been long since your last vacation, Magrum, so I need you to keep playing the game. Chornn, do you need a vacation?”

“No, thank you. I need to keep company with the man that gave us the information.”

“Good. I respect that sense of responsibility. Request your vacation whenever you want it and I’ll approve it without asking a question.”

Chornn has never seen the team manager acting like this. For the last three years, he has never seen him acting like this nor heard of it.

“I appreciate it.”

The team manager followed them out of the room, patting their backs as encouragement.

“Wow!”

Magrum let out a long sigh.

“Haha! That was sick, bro. We thought it’d be critical information but I never knew the team manager would love this that much.”

“Hmm, yeah. OR, the branch manager may have sold the information.”

Chornn seemed to know something.

“What do you mean ‘sold’?”

“It’s just a guess. I had just never seen or heard the branch manager had spent his personal money on such a thing, not while I worked as a GM. He’s always low on money as he spends them on bribery and whatnot as a preparation to be a member of the lower house, so the fact that he’s given us a special bonus is circumstantial evidence that he’s earned some extra money.”

“Surely not.”

Magrum couldn’t understand but Chornn was certain about it.

“I’m certain somebody bought the information we found at a fortune. Nothing else explains it.”

Chornn worked as a GM for several more years than Megrum, so he just had to believe it.

“Anyways, he’s done no harm to us, so I guess that’s fine. Let’s just move on.”

Chornn had the point. There was nothing they could do even if that was true.

“Alright, Chornn. By the way, this proves one thing true.”

“This proves what?”

“That Necomwall cannot control Beyond.”

Chornn agreed.

“Yeah. If the company had control, they won’t treat us this much. Just like the rumor says, Necomwall is merely a subsidiary operating company of ‘Beyond.’

“Interesting, eh?”

“I know right? That’s why the branch manager can personally sell the information and stuff. And this is what makes this game interesting. Whoever developed it, based on what we’ve found so far, nobody can artificially intervene or control the game. It is all about the Beyond locals and users creating a new world.”

“Yeah. Nobody has to follow the predetermined story, and nobody will be able to make a game that allows such a free intervention by GMs. it’s really amazing what Mothercoms can do.”

“Mmhm. Anyways, we just gotta play the game. Let’s get it going, then. We want to get that mercenary captain’s attention. I wonder how much that journalist would have brought. It can’t be more than what we have, right?”

“Who knows. 10K is a lot, A LOT, but I’m not too sure if that’s enough for him. He seemed like a huge figure who only takes huge deals.”

“I think he’s a great figure, yeah. He’s been involved in every historical event so far, so he’s an important NPC. As long as we follow him, we’ll be in the center of the history.”

They head to the accounting department and transferred 12K gold to their Beyond bank account. They have sold some loots and items before, but all that combined were still less than 1000 Golds they got that day. They felt great. By contractual terms, what they earned in Beyond belonged to them. They each had about 1,500 Golds in their accounts. Since the company paid the money for the equipment, which was the largest expense, they were able to accumulate the money. It was equivalent to over $40K in real life. It was happy to just think about where to use that money. They imagined where they could use it as they walk back to their game room. They hurried their way because there was a lot of work to do.

---

The Castle of Jorlen County was located by the river that flew through the field. The moat was formed by altering the way of the flow, surrounding the endless rampart built with baked bricks. The height of the castle was similar to other castles, but its length was over 10km. It was due to the county covering such a large region and huge population.

Unlike the other jurisdictions, Jorlen County was the largest grain belt on the continent; when other counties had a population of about 300 to 500 thousand, Jorlen Castle had a population of over one million. This number didn’t count serfs.

The castle gate was wide open. The Third Empire Corps was stationed at the outskirts of the Jorlen Plain, guarding the largest grain belt, the county under the direct control of the empire stopped the monsters from invading so the atmosphere of the county was very lively.

Haroon and Avan’s group got to an inn as soon as they entered the castle.

The castle had the house of Count Jorlen, his office, the Third Empire Corps HQ, three advanced academies, and six temples; due to having high traffic of merchants, military figures, and academy students, the commercial district was well developed.

The Castle of Jorlen County had eight gates and they all had roads connecting to the central square which were huge enough for four carriages to go side by side. The sides of the roads were packed with countless shops and inns with restaurants.

“Captain, where are you heading to?”

“Do you have a place in mind?”

Avan and his daughter asked, which reminded Haroon of a name of a place that Teeno once mentioned. He remembered Teeno mentioning it was a place with kind staff and a separate quiet building.

“Memories of Black Locust should be able to give us a good place to rest.”

“Let’s head there, then.”

Haroon knew where it was, so he moved out of the crowded main road and headed to the back alley. The alleys just one block away from the main road were also full of shops, but just like Thaust, only locals and outsiders who knew the castle well visited this place so it was rather quiet. He was planning to stay here for some time. He had to deal with moving out and helping the warriors of Yeongheung Village. He also wanted to watch the TV show about the ancient dungeon, and get paid for giving the news source to buy the items he asked Haeran. And that wasn’t the end. This was the place he was going to meet Ares and two GMs.

Myo came near and asked Haroon, seeing how Haroon fell in thoughts.

“Captain Haroon, how long are you planning to stay?”

“I have a few businesses to do and I need to make detailed research for the journey so I was thinking about a week. Why do you ask?”

“No, nothing.”

Myo seemed perplexed by his answer, and he found this very strange. Myo wasn’t easily perplexed.

They soon arrived at the building located next to a seemingly very aged tree. The inn had a very standard layout, having a two-story restaurant, a garden, and a building for the rooms. After living his stuff in his room, he decided to log off the game. He was curious to see the result of the businesses he asked Bell and Haeran.

“I have a place to visit to collect the information. It will take about three days but it can take longer based on how things turn out. Even if I’m late, or I don’t come back by the night, don’t worry about me and get your preparations done for the journey.”

“Understood. We have our own businesses as well.”

Avan didn’t specify, but he was smirking for getting free time.

“I will be heading out, then.”

“See you.”

He had everything important in the subspace, and he always could store his supplies and valuables in a magic bag and put it in it as well so he didn’t need to worry about his items. The only thing left for him was to pay a visit to the mercenary guild and leave a note of where he is staying for the people looking for him, get to a safe place, and log off.

---

Haroon logged off and found Bell waiting for him inside the capsule.

- Welcome back, Oppa!

He felt warm seeing Bell gladly welcoming him back. He looked around and realized how large the inside of the capsule is being expanded when he was playing the game. He was connected to the countless electromagnetic waves shot from the capsule from different directions which made him float in the air.

“Why are these still on?”

-Huh? You aren’t going back? I thought you came out because you got my call

‘A call?’ He had no idea what she was thinking about

“You called? Well, I came out for other businesses.”

-Okay. One moment.

As Bell moves her fingers, the electromagnetic waves faded away from the walls, and Haroon’s body fell down to the floor by gravity. It was barely 3 meters, so Haroon easily landed with his flexible movements.

“The inside is very huge.”

-Hehe! That’s how I can replicate what you do in the game back in real life.

Haroon has seen this before, but it was really interesting to see it. The expanded capsule was even bigger than the house itself, which made it even more mysterious. Bell explained what was happening, but Haroon couldn’t understand it. The best he could think of it was it was similar to Brat’s subspace.

It was amazing to be able to play video games in the air with the electromagnetic waves tightly connected to the nervous system. Because the movements in the game are replicated in the real game, he could use the passive skills he learned in the games without additional training.

- Lie down right there, Oppa. I’ll contract the capsule.

“Okay!”

As soon as Haroon lie down on the ground, the surroundings closed in. Seeing the expanded space getting close down to him made him feel a bit nervous. He feared being pressured to death, but he kept his eyes open and watched the process. When the space came back to its normal size, only then he was able to breathe easily. He trusted Bell but he couldn’t help feeling nervous.

Haroon opened the lid and came out of the capsule and the first thing he did was take a shower. If he took a bath in the inn in Beyond, he wouldn’t have needed to do it but he was in a hurry he couldn’t think of doing it. When he was out of the bathroom, he saw Bell smiling and he had clean clothes ready.

“So what’s up?”

Haroon asked, remembering what Bell said right after he came back.

“A human named Nain from Yeongheung Village contacted you.”

“Nain?”

“Yeah, she said it’s urgent so I’ve been giving you the signal.”

“I wonder what it is.”

He couldn’t really think of a reason for her to call him. She hinted she’ll be contacting him the last time they parted, but she always could deliver the message via Haeran.

“Call her.”

“Okay.”

She answered fairly soon. The video was shown on the display. After exchanging simple greetings, Haroon asked Nain.

“So, you have something to talk about?”

Nain hesitated but soon began to speak.

“I heard something strange from Haeran.”

“Like what?”

“I heard if you play a video game called Beyond with premium capsules long enough, you get to use the skills they learned in the games in the real-life as well.”

Haroon started to grasp the idea.

“Of course, it’s possible. There are different skills in virtual reality games. Except for some active skills you use by casting spells, the passive skills you train by using your body in-game (your character, that is) can be used in real-life to some extent. But it’s only your brain that remembers those skills. You will have to do some separate training to use those skills in real life as well.”

“That’s enough. Including my father, the previous generation of warriors died from the accident so the current generation was not trained with even common senses.”

This was something he’s heard before.

“At this pace, these inexperienced, untrained warriors will get killed by the harks and other mutants soon. The villagers will not survive, so the tradition and honor of our village as merchants will fade away.”

It seemed the situation was worse than how he thought. Nain continued.

“The warriors are usually short-lived because they wander around in the contaminated world for over 10 months each year. So the successors accompany the merchants to get experiences. Rosu happened to not join that journey. But on that accident, they all……..”

She didn’t finish her sentence. Come to think of it, the warriors, except Rosu, didn’t have the physique to be warriors. If they were trained to be warriors, they wouldn’t show such weaknesses.

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Haeran also told me you are looking for a lot of items. They were mostly machines, various mineral ores, and alloys.”

Nain’s eyes brighten up.

“Yeah. For personal uses.”

“About that, I might have the information you’d be interested in which I have heard from my father. I don’t know when it was built, but I have been there myself when I was a kid, but there were machines and ores that you are looking for. It might not have everything but we will make sure to get you what’s missing.”

This interested him.

“Where is it?”

“It’s about one and a quarter day journey from the Union in the southwestern direction.”

The location sounded fine. For his training, not to mention Bell, the outside of the barrier was so much better than the inside.

“I’m interested. What’s the catch?”

She wouldn’t be telling him this for nothing.

“I need those premium capsules. I heard lower level capsules aren’t enough for the warriors to build the knowledge and strength.”

She was right about that. To escort or embark on the journey, they needed concentrated short-term training.

“How many?”

“Apparently special premium capsules are quite expensive, $30,000 each. I think ten capsules are enough for the warriors to use and take turns.”

Nain worriedly replied. She was basically asking $300K for the information. But this was something Haroon could afford. On top of that, Yeongheung Village people will get him what he needs, so there was no reason for him to refuse it.

“Fair enough. I will be getting a huge fund soon. I will tell Haeran about it, so get them from Haeran.”

“Thank you.”

Nain smiled. He’s met her before, but he’s never seen her smiling; her smile was deadly charismatic. It was as if a flower was blooming, just by smiling.

“Then I will tell you where it is. It is under the side of the huge lake right in the middle of the wasteland. I will give you the detailed coordination later. For now, see this footage my father filmed before. I’m sending you the video right now. See it for yourself and resume the call.”

“Sounds good.”

Bell played the video right away. It was hard to tell the details because the footage was a bit shaky, but seeing how Bell is repeatedly nodding and clapping her hands, it seemed the structure was equipped fairly enough with what she needed. Jumping with joy, she threw herself and hugged Haroon’s neck. Bell’s joyful voice was light as wind.

“Oppa! It’s amazing! It has almost everything!”

“Yeah? So the video was enough to confirm it. Also, is there a space enough for us to live?”

If Bell was going there, he had to get there too. That meant they were moving out to the place.

“The video was too old to see that. What could be seen from the video was that it has a huge workshop. The video only showed only a floor, but it seemed there are more stories below. I think you have to go there and see what’s there by yourself.”

“If you say so.”

Haroon resumed the call.

“What do you think?”

“Once I get the money, I’ll visit there and see if the video is true and I’ll carry my part of the deal after.”

“Then call me back after you do that. The warriors and I are preparing to play the game called Beyond at a secret place Haeran prepared for us. You can contact me via Haeran, or by this messenger. I’d love to hear from you ASAP.”

“Got it.”

The news about the ancient dungeon will be aired soon. He’ll get a huge fortune after that. Even if things don’t go as he wanted, he still had enough in-game currency in the worst-case scenario. He first had to see how things go.

---

“Fucking bastards!”

Mobius gnashed his teeth. How dare they treat him the way they did? He didn’t care what other guild members think of him, but at least the leading members that assigned him for the task should have told the others about their opinions and the results to resolve the misunderstandings.

“But you still had fun, didn’t you?”

“Of course, he did. Have you ever seen that freak refusing a woman? They sure did fucked. That bitch Biryu got some bad temper but you gotta give her a point for the body. And everyone knows she’s a slut.”

“A slut for a slut, what a perfect couple.”

Mobius participated in the leaders' meeting of the highest rankers of the guild as a testifier and gave a briefing about the Huk’ran gemstone mine incident, and he heard the others talking behind his back. He gnashed his teeth too hard he bit on his lips so that he could taste warm, salty blood from his lower lip.

When Seryu, Ko-M Guild Leader, found his true identity, she assassinated him and tortured him whenever he logged back in. That wasn’t the end. The muscles of the Ko-M Guild somehow found his workplace to punish him in real life, and they let him go only after he compensated Seryu with all he earned from playing Beyond which was worth over $100K.

What hurt his pride the most was that he was treated like a dog, kneeling over the floor in front of Seryu and Biryu. He was tortured and threatened. Only after he shed tears, snots, and blood, he was barely forgiven. Yet he was still threatened to be never seen from their eyes again.

For everything he had gone through, all the leading members of Cheongong did for him was to tell him to thank them because if it wasn’t for them he wouldn’t have got a chance to date a noble.

“Fucking nobles! They are all the same. I was a fool to sign a contract with Chungong.”

It was his fault to fall into Cheonchul Yeo’s trick, the leader of Chungong, and signing a contract.

Mobius shut his eyes tight after leaving the guild office. He felt the stinging pain from the torn lip, but his mind was too busy that the pain didn’t bother him at all.

His playstyle for video games was being a lone wolf. But Beyond didn’t have many features designed for user convenience, so his playstyle wasn’t really helpful for his journey.

He was lucky to learn a skill from an NPC related to an information guild, where he got his job advancement without getting to the mandatory city, and he learned how information can earn him great money from his NPC teacher. His teacher retired from the Empire Information Guild so he passed on his information handling methods to him.

Mobius was able to get a job at the Empire Information Guild thanks to the personal connections of his teacher. Although it was a field job rather than an office job, his teacher was also an outstanding rogue so Mobius was able to learn a lot from him. The major task he was assigned was to provide information about the outlanders to the Empire Information Guild. He was the first outlander to become an official guild member of the Empire Information Guild. Thanks to that, he was able to handle tons of high-level information, and he was able to earn great money using that information.

It was Chuncheol Yeo who paid attention to what Mobius was doing. Based on his formidable capital as a noble, he established a guild with his gang as early as the launch of Beyond, boosting his and his members’ levels and recruiting other powerful figures to grow his force, as well as siding with the First Empire Prince as soon as the Golden Battle quest began for being the strongest competitor.

The empire Information Guild was the largest one among the four information guilds in the Empire, and they were in collusion with the First Empire Prince. For that reason, Mobius met Cheonchul Yeo, and Mobius ended up falling into Cheoncul Yeo’s honeyed words and signing a contract. It was about treatment and obligation as a leading member of Chungong, and this made Mobius a secret dark hand of Chungong.

He wasn’t the only hidden force of Chungong. They were user assassins, rogues, and merchants. They have been taking filthy or furtive tasks for Chungong, like assassinations, stealing, or con. They were all paid in real life, so Chungong had their personal information. Because Cheonchul Yeo was a noble, he had formidable power in real life, so they could never dare to betray him.

‘Hmph! I’m not spending my whole life licking your fucking bottoms. I don’t have a family anyway. I only die once in the worst-case scenario, after all.’

This incident made Mobius make up his mind, and he set a plan to give Chungong a fat middle finger.

Chungong already had the information on the ancient dungeon and they decided to use the information on the gemstone mine in the Huk’ran Mountains (which was already well-known) to turn the attention of the other users and Golden Battle competitors away.

This was what Mobius was assigned for. Meeting Seryu and Biryu at the information guild was in the script, after all. Chuncheol Yeo had strangely bitter hatred towards Seryu. That was why her Ko-M guild became his target.

‘I first need to find someone to work with.’

The ancient dungeon they found in cooperation with the other two guilds was never explored because of the hostile dark elves. He was going to betray them anyway, so keeping this information secret would be what a fool would do.

He had to sell it. But he didn’t have proof. Only if there was something like a map, just like the gemstone mine, he thought. Since he was not an official guild member of Chungong, he didn’t know the details except that the ancient dungeon was found and the exploration was showing very slow progress. Such information could never earn money. There must be evidence. Even if there is no evidence, leaking the information and getting the rumor spread will damage the three guilds’ plan. They’ll soon be seeing the users and NPCs gathered at Huk’ran heading to the silent land.