by Yoo Seong
Even an undead can have a heart……
An undead having depression and other symptoms……There was nothing more to say.
“Ah, Ark-nim?”
“N-not yet! There is still one more left! Genie, the Eastern Nation’s castle!”
Ark flew towards the Eastern Nation’s castle in Seutandal.
“Omo? Ark-nim?”
He heard a surprised voice once he arrived at the castle. It came from a beautiful woman with glistening black hair and pale skin. She was Isabel who was the head of the assassination group Dark Brother before they were renamed the Eastern Nation. In addition, Isabel was an NPC with an unusual history. She was married to Shambala, a user who was Ark’s rival, friend and one of the 7 heroes. No, the unusual thing was that an NPC was married to a user. Unlike Curio and Purital, Ark’s last summons had no residence so he left him with Isabel.
“It’s been a long time. How have you been?”
“That…..Shambala?”
“He went out for a while. Did you come to meet Shambala-nim?”
“Of course not.”
Ark glanced at Fufu and Camel behind him and said.
“Today I came to see Burning Soul. Where is he?”
“I have him with me. Burning Soul!”
A green snake lifted from her waist after hearing Isabel’s words. This snake was the last of Ark’s summons, Burning Soul! Unlike his other summons, this snake was the one that Ark cherished the most. At first he thought it was a snake but Burning Soul was later revealed to be a Netherworld creature called the Alamone. Once he grew, he managed to transform into a dragon species called Pendragon. Burning Soul regarded Ark as his parent and had never disappointed Ark!……At least that’s what he thought…..
Swaek swaek? Swaek swaek? Swaek swaek swaek! Swaek swaek swaek!
Burning Soul buried his head in Isabel’s chest as she carried him. He was already disappointed by Curio and Purital so he felt uneasy after seeing Burning Soul’s reaction. But as expected, Burning Soul was different from his other summons.
“Geez, why are you doing this? Take a look. That’s your dad. The dad you’ve been waiting for.”
Burning Soul raised his head again at Isabel’s words. He started at Ark for a while before jumping towards him with tears streaming down. Ark and Fufu sighed with relief and Fufu clamoured.
“Ah, what a poignant scene! If you saw glance at it, this snake seems like something that can eat someone. But this snake is actually Ark’s summon called Burning Soul! It is clear that there is a relationship closer than Master and pet between them!”
“That’s right.”
Ark felt his burden fell thanks to Burning Soul and replied. Now was the same to save a little face. Ark felt better and started opening up.
“It has been shown on public broadcast many times but after his last evolution, Burning Soul can transform into the legendary Pendragon. Genie’s spatial movement isn’t bad but it is nothing compared to flying on Burning Soul.”
“Ohh! Is it possible to see it once?”
“Of course.”
“Ah! Ark-nim, wait a minute. Burning Soul…..”
Isabel stuttered with a startled expression.
“Burning Soul, transform into Pendragon!”
But Ark had already placed Burning Soul down and shouted powerfully. And…..Burning Heart transformed…..but….he was swollen like a big balloon……
“He is too cute so I feed him every time I see him……”
Isabel blushed and muttered.
“Ah, Ark-nim. That is Pendragon? Is it different from what we’ve heard.”
“No! It is right! This is Pendragon! Right! Burning Soul, fly!”
Ark got on Pendragon and screamed angrily. He indicated towards the sky and gave a command.
Ting-! Ting-! Ting-!
Burning Soul started running but couldn’t get up in the air to fly. It was already too late to turn around.
‘Don’t turn around! Run! Run until we’re out of sight of the camera!’
Burning Soul ran across the garden but was soon caught by the garden walls.
“Hohoho, how is it? Isn’t he cute?”
Isabel laughed and asked Fufu and Camel. Then she clapped her hands and laughed.
“Ah! Honey!”
Sprit flashed back in Fufu and Camel’s eyes and they raised their head.
“Among the 7 heroes, there is one who caused a big topic by marrying the NPC Isabel. Shambala! Camel, aim your camera! Let’s get an interview with Shambala!”
Fufu turned around with a happy expression. She ran up to the masked Shambala and said.
“Hello Shambhala-nim. We are Fufu and Camel from African TV. Can you do an interview for a while?”
“Ark?”
Shambala stopped and looked at Burning Soul who was stuck at the wall. He looked back at Fufu and Camel before saying.
“Get lost.”
Space 9
After a Long Quest……
“Ark……”
The young man spoke in a low voice.
Ting-! Ting-! Ting-!
He gazed at the monitor where a man was running around on a snake shaped like a balloon. It was Ark riding on Burning Soul. The reunion between Ark and his three summons was being broadcasted on the internet and TV in real time. And the young man was watching the broadcast in hospital while undergoing rehabilitation.
“What the, that is?”
“He is the legendary gamer…..”
He could hear people who were watching on the monitor burst out laughing. Ark was called the legendary gamer. It was impossible to get that impression when watching the broadcasted scene. But the youth knew.
‘That is Ark!’
At first the young man had felt the same as other people. Ark looked simple with a few screws loose. However, Ark had risen to a seat that he couldn’t reach. He wasn’t simple. He might be hiding behind that simple appearance but he wasn’t. That’s why the young man wanted to meet Ark. He couldn’t surpass Ark. Why? He was superior in everything so why couldn’t he surpass the simple Ark? In the meantime he had stood on top of a large number of people so why couldn’t he overcome Ark?
‘Why? What am I lacking?’
He asked himself that question hundreds and thousands of times when he lay in a hospital room and couldn’t even lift a finger. But he couldn’t determine the answer. If the game character’s abilities could be quantified in numbers then Ark’s would be a lot higher than the youth’s. Therefore he wanted the chance to ask. If he requested it of his father then it wouldn’t be difficult to meet Ark. However he didn’t want to show his current appearance to Ark. A man also had his own pride. If he was going to meet Ark in reality then he wanted to be standing on his own two feet. Even if he meet Ark in that state in reality, he wouldn’t be able to get the answer he desired. Ark’s talent shone in a virtual reality game. This was the reason why the youth started playing Galaxian.
‘But……’
There was an unforeseen difficulty. He committed a crime in order to personally meet Ark on a disputed planet! However he was sent to Hanan and encountered someone he couldn’t face. It was a Rama user called the Red Slaughter.
‘Today was the 5th time……’
That was the number of times he encountered the Red Slaughter on Hanan. And the result was a total failure. He encountered him 5 times and experienced 5 defeats. Several factors affected the outcome of a battle in the game. Apart from level and equipment, Galaxian also had the battle suits. Before meeting the Red Slaughterer, he had experienced death many times.
‘The Red Slaughterer is different from other users.’
The Red Slaughterer never once used his battle suit when facing the youth. He didn’t use anything except for the most basic skills. Yet the youth still wasn’t a match for the Red Slaughterer. It wasn’t a mere level difference. He was an experienced gamer so he could distinguish it with the first battle.
‘Strong! This guy is strong!
This is the power of the person, not the character!’
However, there was a separate reason the youth was interested in the Red Slaughter. After being killed by the Red Slaughter in combat a few times, he finally heard his words through the federation’s interpreter.
–Until when do I have to face these trivial guys? Is Ark ready yet?
Since then the youth’s target was the Red Slaughterer. He didn’t know who he was. Or why he wanted to fight against Ark. But here was another user eager to meet Ark. It was like saying the youth had no right to meet Ark. At that moment, the youth felt like he had to defeat the Red Slaughterer first before meeting Ark. And that was the reality. If he couldn’t defeat the Red Slaughterer then Hanan had no chance. He wouldn’t be able to return to Istana to meet Ark.
‘I need to knock him down with my own hands. And I’m going to meet Ark!’
“Pant pant pant, I’m going to do this!”
The young man gnashed his teeth and raised his body again. He had already been going through rehabilitation for an hour but there was no time to take a break. He needed to be strong. His abilities needed to be strong, not just his character. While the youth was undergoing his rehabilitation…..
“Your son is really motivated today.”
“I was worried when he asked to play the virtual reality game but it seems I didn’t need to.”
His father and doctor were waiting outside.
——————————————————
“……Damn.”
Ark said with a sigh. He was watching his appearance on the TV. He wasn’t an entertainer so he wasn’t entirely comfortable with it but he liked to catch his appearance on TV. Yet when he watched it he saw his pet bat harassing women, his skeleton being depressed and his snake was so fat that it had trouble flying……
Therefore Ark had been humiliated in front of the whole nation. But Ha Myung-woo’s reaction was different.
“That’s it, that’s good. It was what I wanted. In fact, aren’t there a lot of game broadcasts these days? They just show skills and hunting monsters. Therefore the public lost interest in those type of scenes. And isn’t gag the trend these days? Look at how many people are watching it! It is a jackpot. It has only been a few hours and it has already crossed 3 million views. Those 3 million people are probably grabbing their stomachs while rolling with laughter. Congratulations. Until now there had been a lot of stories about bad encounters with you on the internet. After the broadcast, your image has changed to a funny kid. Isn’t that image a lot better? Fortunately the number of connections also increased.”
……Of course he wasn’t happy at all.
‘I wanted to look good!’
But who would believe him if he said that now? The appearance of the genie in Selebrid evoked admiration from the crowd but if he appeared again then they would probably start laughing.
‘This is the first time I feel more comfortable inside Galaxian than New World.’
Ark scratched his head and looked around. It was a place with large and small buildings filled with aliens. It was no different from other cities but just yesterday this city was under an unidentified biohazard attack that changed corpses into monsters. The city’s name was Charem. And Ark was the one who settled Charem’s problem. Ark didn’t rest in order to settle Charem’s problem but the last day was the most hectic. This was because there were a lot of things to clean up. If Ark tried to sum up all the work he had to do in one day……
‘What? This atmosphere?’
When Ark exited the power facility. Charem was wrapped in a lot of tension. Marquis Martin and the Aschulat ambassador that looked like ET witnessed Ark fighting the Mumu and signed a tacit truce afterwards. Both sides penetrated Charem’s shield and took care of the remaining Sufferers. However the residents of Charem were still anxious. The atmosphere felt like the federation and Aschulat were able to start a war with Charem in the centre. Of course there was a reason for it.
“I know the situation now.”
Marquis Martin nodded. Ark had explained it after he exited the facility and joined the federation army’s camp.
“There is no doubt that it was a misunderstanding. But it isn’t possible to remove the federation army now. The inner circumstances doesn’t change the fact that Charem is an illegal city. The federation army has already burst into Charem so we can’t pretend we don’t know about it anymore. If we remove the troops then it will be like admitting that the federation endorses smuggling.”
“Is that why the Aschulat isn’t leaving?”
“I guess so.”
Marquis Martin replied in a cold voice.
“But we can’t leave even if a war starts with the Aschulat.”
‘He really is playing around. Who do you think solved Charem’s problem?’
Ark was the one who settled it yet they are fighting amongst themselves. Ark was annoyed that the federation and Aschulat troops were fighting with each other after all his efforts. But that was a separate matter. He sent the GPS information to the federation so he had completed the
‘Anyway, I have to somehow stop the war over Charem!’
“I’ll be the mediator.”
Ark thought for a while before starting to talk.
“You will be the mediator? Do you think you can solve this problem?”
“Yes, I think it can be solved simply if Marquis-nim and the Aschulat ambassador make some concessions.”
“What do I need to concede?”
“Leave Charem like it is.”
“What?”
“Of course there will be some conditions. This problem is because Charem occupies an area in the federation’s territory without permission and illegal smugglers can freely enter or leave. If the federation forcibly suppressed Charem then the Aschulat will become your enemy. There’s currently a war against the Rama so this would be a tremendous burden on the federation. Then Marquis Martin won’t be able to do anything.”
“You’re stating the obvious. I already understand the circumstances. Yet you’re still me to just withdraw?”
“Is some moral justification necessary?”
“So?”
“You can withdraw if Charem isn’t an illegal city anymore. So Charem will come into the open. The galactic federation will manage the city. Of course the Aschulat won’t just give up the rights to Charem. But couldn’t the federation call it something like a special, autonomous trading region?”
“Your words are quite cheeky for a mere pioneer.”
Marquis Martin sent Ark an unpleasant look and said.
“If that’s the case then I can certainly withdraw the troops. However, that means the federation needs to yield to the Aschulat. Did you think I would accept such a proposal?”
“If they receive a gift then shouldn’t we get something in return?”
“A gift?”
“I heard that the Aschulat removed their troops for no reason after the Rama war started. Marquis Martin can nominate a condition that they send troops into the battlefield.”
“Sending troops to the Bellin battlefields……!”
Marquis Martin murmured with a surprised expression. He was locked in thought for a moment before asking.
“Do you think the Aschulat ambassador will accept such a request?”
“He will accept.”
Ark answered like there was no need to worry about it.
“Why?”
“For the same reason that Marquis-nim will accept my request.”
“Hah, don’t make me laugh. Why do I need to accept your request?”
&nb
sp; “Because of this.”
Ark grinned and lifted a small bag. When he received the
-#$!@#!$#!#$!#$$!#!##$##%%%!#$!
The information was part of an unknown program remaining in the circuit. Sometimes the Nymphe’s memory from someone who suddenly died would become mixed in with the circuit. Of course, most times that information was worthless. Sometimes it contained information about a city or home finances. But sometimes GPS information about new dungeons would be mixed in with that information. The problem was the master of the Nymphe.
-Kara…..recognition code (T-3012)…..member of Marquis Martin’s intelligence squad…..
Marquis Martin’s intelligence agent Kara! To his surprise, the memory of Kara’s Nymphe was mixed in with the hacked circuit. The memory contained several pages of Kara’s notepad. Ark thought that he might find a clue for the password of the locked bag. And…..bingo!
-Java Work Lv10
Item Type: Destructive Hacking Program
A destructive hacking program used by the galactic federation’s special intelligence bureau. If you connect this program to the terminal of a specific system then the Java Work will force the terminal to transmit information to the device. Usually high level security systems attached to the terminal will prevent hacking but Java Work uses physical methods to extract data from most machines. But if Java Work is used, the system will suffer irreparable damage.
This was the identity of the bag! Ark sensed something after seeing the contents of the bag.