Haroon v6c7

《The Scoop》

Houl Vision aired a scoop.

《An ancient dungeon that contains valuable relics and spells tomes is discovered in the Silent Land!》

This news brought a storm to the Beyond users. Soon Houl Vision followed the news with a featured show with a panel of Norra and other high-rankers to cover more detailed information on the ancient dungeon.

La, the ancient empire that suddenly collapsed about ten thousand years ago, is known to have mysterious and convenient daily magical tools that even the current scientific civilization cannot match, and spells with impacts equivalent to nuclear weapons, as described in the ancient books kept at the royal library.

This news was spread at an excellent time. Currently, there was a great number of casualties of users and NPCs that arrived at Huk’ran Mountains due to the Jewelry Rush. The video game broadcasting stations spread the news that the information of the gemstone mine Huk’ran Mountain was not new, and only impractical due to Huk’ran Mountains having rough terrain, monsters with superior strengths, and many devil orcs that who knows how many. Many people who still haven’t abandoned their greed over the gemstone mines challenged Huk’ran Mountains, but except for Ko-M Guild that first reached the gemstone mine and a few other guilds, nobody lasted even a week.

As time goes, developing the gemstone mine was found practically impossible by many broadcasting journalists who covered the gemstone mine in depth. In fact, 10 NPC knight orders who had much stronger fighting power than the users were completely destroyed in Huk'ran Mountains. Poisonous insects, beasts, and monsters that got their region invaded by the users and NPCs who traveled in large groups never let them pass in one piece. And nobody figured out the identity of the monsters that live by the gemstone mine. This meant not many people made it even halfway to the gemstone mine. The beasts and monsters of the Huk'ran Mountains were getting more aggressive as more people entered the mountains. NPCs and the users approaching the gemstone mine in various directions irritated the whole region. The reported number of users and NPCs that got annihilated by the devil orcs and monsters on their way to the gemstone mine of the Huk’ran Mountains was already over four hundred thousand. Some users quit playing the game after consecutive deaths at Huk'ran Mountains, and four factions lost their elite knight orders that were raised for the Golden Battle.

Dozens of people were still entering Huk'ran Mountains each day for their greed over the gemstone mine, but as they were repeatedly destroyed without an exception, the overall hype raised for the mine being discovered was slowly dying away.

The users and NPCs gathered at Thaust Castle on the Jewelry Rush couldn’t feel more devastated. Unless they have a guide who is bright with the terrain and regions of the monsters, like the mercenary guild that guided Ko-M guild to the gemstone mine, they couldn't get to the gemstone mine.

In such a situation, the news of the ancient dungeon spread by Houl Vision brought chaos to the empire like a kick to a hornet’s nest. On top of that, some magic towers that do not have enough force to dispatch an expedition put a 1 Million Gold bounty on each tome, adding more gasoline to the flame.

People gathered at Thaust Castle now headed north where the Silent Land was. There were over 3 million users whose job was combat-related. Also, the competitors of the Golden Battle had their eyes on the dungeon.

Overnight, the remote northern territory of the empire was overcrowded with people. But the way to the Silent Land, a plateau at an elevation of two thousand meters, wasn’t so kind to the travelers. From the Castle of Jorlen County, they had to go across two vast deserts, and three rivers, and climb over steep peaks over five thousand meters.

Although the northern territory was part of the empire, it was such a remote area that it was the land of the natives and the monsters except for a few plain areas. Nobody knew what risks awaited the travelers. Even with the assumption that there were no threats, the journey from the castle of Jorlen County to the Silent Land was one and a half or a couple of months-long by horse. But humans’ greed knew no end. The users headed to the Silent Land without any hesitation. The number of users that embarked on the journey was over a million.

Meanwhile, there was a rumor spreading quietly under the surface. It was first spread from Houl Vision. The rumor described that the informant of the scoop was related to the Gusts of Wind, the one who guided a guild to the Huk’ran Gemstone mine. Guilds who handled information or had force paid attention to this rumor. The journey to the Silent Land was full of horrifying monsters and pathways just like Huk’ran, they thought the Gusts of Wind would safely get them there so they hurriedly searched for the Gusts of Wind. Mobius was one of them.

“Fuck! That bastard took it away from me, again!”

Mobius was planning to earn money using the confidential information he got from Chungong; he resented and cursed all night long. He wished Haroon was standing right before him so he could kill him by tearing his body apart.

“Why do you always block my way, WHY?”

Mobius lost his mind for a while. A few hours passed before he could resort back to reason.

“I’m going to get my revenge, one day! No matter what!”

Mobius burnt his anger for his determination.

“Still, revenge is revenge, and a business is a business. That mercenary bastard knows what he is doing when he is pathfinding, so I must follow the way he takes. That will get me to the Ancient Dungeon.”

From what he overheard from Chungong so far, the journey to the ancient dungeon in the Silent Land was just as hard as Huk’ran. Considering how the massive guilds and dark elves would be controlling the region, a guide with good combat skills was mandatory.

Haroon and he met in an ill-fated relationship, but Mobius still acknowledged his skill. He could always abandon his ill will for the benefits. And of course, by abandoning he meant engraving deeply in his heart.

He intended to become the best noble by using a video game. Strangely enough, nobles were not seen as often as Beyond in other games. It was clear that something was up with Beyond. He had to contribute to the bigger stem rather than random branches. From what he observed, Haroon was a mysterious figure who was in the middle of all events, someone who destiny follows.

‘I need to find that man. He is one of the causes that turned me into this shithole, but if I can use his ability, I can get to the ancient dungeon safely and fast. My revenge can wait for that.’

Mobius was intending to take the relics of the ancient dungeon for himself if that was possible. If that is not possible, he planned to sell the information to other massive guilds. He lived as a dark gamer long enough to have a lot of useful connections. He tracked Haroon using the information guild, but he never appeared in any region where the information guild could reach. But compared to the others who knew only the name of the mercenary guild, he also knew the name of the captain of the guild so he ended up finding where Haroon was at. He was at the Castle of Jorlen County.

“God damn it! I’ll have to spend 300 Golds for the long-range teleport service. Damn it! I hope he doesn’t leave the castle before I get there.”

As the number of mage users reach three hundred thousand, there was a huge change to the world of mages of the Empire. Mages were elites since no one could even be a one-circle mage without natural gifts, but this was not the case for the outlanders.

Outlanders could easily learn spells, and they had amazing abilities to master up to 3-circle spells within a few months. Of course, the mages still had to invest a great deal of effort and get enlightenment to reach the beyond, but that still increased the number of mages significantly.

This allowed various kinds of life quality spells that were once thought impractical due to having a low number of mages. As the outlanders hunt for, discover, and conquer the dungeons, the supply of magic items flooded in including the mana stones, and the number of long-range teleport magic circles increased from merely ten in the entire empire to over fourty.

Despite the one-way fee being over 300 Golds for the service favored by nobles or mages, the demand was still growing. Many of the outlanders valued fast travel over the money.

---

“We hit the jackpot!”

“HAHAHA! This is the best day of my life!”

An explosion of joy broke out in Houl Vision, Ko-1 Union.

Norra & Friends, hosted by Norra, hit its peak ratings of 22.4%; when the producers, authors, and staff saw this they all cheered. The average viewer rating was recorded to be 20.7%, so this was easily the jackpot among the jackpots.

There were over 500 global channels. 104 of them were about video games. The six Am-Unions with the most population, territory and advanced technology dominated the global channels and Ko-1 Union had only three broadcasting stations. One of them was Houl Vision. Unlike the two other massive broadcasting stations owned by a high member of the Senates, Houl Vision had only two shows that recorded over 10% viewer rating in the history.

And their show just hit 20%. This was the top viewer rating at the time among not just gaming broadcasting stations but all 500 broadcasting stations. For broadcasting stations whose 5% viewer rating was considered a huge success, so 20% was a historical record. This kind of number was sometimes recorded by news from WGC (Whole Globe Corporation, the globally joint broadcasting corporation), but it was the first for a gaming broadcasting station.

The senior PD was summoned at the emergency meeting held at the president’s office for the great compliment by the executive members. The number of advertisement requests increased significantly, and the advertising price per second increased by over 10 times, so it wasn’t a far stretch for the executive members to be this happy.

The senior PD went to the integrated in-office broadcasting room as big as a hundred meters square and held the microphone.

“This is the senior PD announcing. I’m glad to announce that Norra & Friends which we directed hit the highest viewer rating among our competitors. This is our bests achievement so far, and it will be a historical record that set the foundation for the development of the company. Everyone, please give a big hand to Norra & Friends team. They deserve it.”

The company was filled with joyful shouts and claps.

“Norra & Friends! Norra & Friends! Norra & Friends!”

Everyone clapped, cheered, and congratulated Yuhan, the director of Norra & Friends, and his staff; they thanked back with their faces turned red. Yuhan PD seemed puzzled by the whole situation. He knew this was going to be a huge hit, but he never thought it would be this great.

“In addition, there will be an afterparty today after the workhour and everyone is invited. Panels, actors, everyone. The president gave us the mithril card so come, enjoy, and celebrate as much as you can!”

People threw papers or their hats with joy for the announcement followed. Mythril cards were owned by nobles that had no limits. This was one of the ways how the high-ranking people rewarded the others, alluding that numbers won’t matter for the celebration.

The closing hour was far yet to come, but the joy never knew when to fade away.

---

“Holy fuck!”

“This is insane!”

Ares was shocked when she heard the twins cursing as she exit her capsule. She reached the Castle of Jorlen County, and she saw the teaser for the news, so she logged out at the time the show would have ended.

“What’s the matter? What’s wrong?”

Ares’s face, feeling nervous and uneasy, turned pale when she saw the twin crying. It was clear that something went horribly wrong. Jangryo was a man of emotion, but Miryo had a tolerant attitude that always remained calm no matter what happened.

“*sob*, ARES!”

Miryo hugged Ares tightly, bursting into crying.

“W-What is it? What’s wrong?”

Bewildered, Ares pushed Miryo away and asked what was the matter, but Jangryo joined and hugged them both tight.

“*Sob*! Sob*!”

She soon felt liquid near her bare chest and shoulder. Ares shut her eyes tight. She thought it was a huge scoop, and it seemed something definitely went wrong. If she knew things would turn out this way, she would have signed the contract at a fixed price. She couldn’t regret more how she confidently accepted the offer to calculate the compensation by the viewer rate. They agreed on the offer of $10K per 0.1% of peak viewer rating that exceeds 3%. This meant they won’t get paid if the viewer rating is under 3%.

‘Damn it! I ended up getting tricked by that fox senior PD.’

She felt uneasy after signing the contract. Because she was a new freelance journalist with merely 6-month experience, she was not aware of the information on viewer ratings. Later Miryo found out that the average viewer rating of Houl Vision was at a low 2%.

This was lower than the half of Future or Virtual that maintains their viewer rating of 5%. For this reason, the trio was feeling very anxious about the viewer rating. Never getting paid was still a possibility.

Ares was crying before she knew it. With her eyes shut tight, it felt like she could see Haroon before her eyes. She didn’t know what to say to him, and how to endure his anger.

“We are rich, Ares!”

“YES! WE ARE RICH!”

Ares opened her eyes wide hearing Miryo and Jangryo’s crying.

“What did you just say?”

“Have you gone deaf? WE ARE RICH! The viewer rating went over 20%! OVER 20%! Can you believe it?! I thought my eyes were playing with me so I even pinched Jangryo’s bums to see if I’m dreaming!”

Ares’s jaw dropped; she inhaled deeply and froze on the spot. She saw sacks of cash ferociously running at her in her head.

“Our mother and siblings don’t have to go hungry for us. We can move the orphanage to a better place! Not to mention for ourselves as well!”

“I’m going to get the best computer! Also the premium capsule! At least B-Class Electromagnetic Road Pass and premium MSC(Magnetic Super Car)!”

Miryo and Jangryo spelled out what they will buy with the money as they let Ares go. At the same time, Ares calculated their cut.

‘170 times $10K is 1.7 million! That’s about 0.8 million for us.’

Ares finally exhaled. The lights went off from her eyes; her legs failed and her body in underwear collapsed to the floor.