Volume 1 Chapter 2 (1/2)

<gifted>>

Even though there was no one to celebrate himin couldn’t be in the better mood on the way back to his house

5000 was huge min has never seen before He used to earn a little more than 500 per month by welfare fro, lowest quality foods, and various taxes were over 400 That still left hi soet He did try to save up sos he had

Jungetting stronger as it reaches the noon He was happy for the big ot, but there was no one around he could share his feeling with

The neighbors of the place he lived for a couple of years were always busy surviving another day or they lost their reason for life so they only lived because they couldn’t die There was no place in their ive any attention to him when he settled at this place, with help from Union Welfare service, but soon he rew as the ti back to his adoptive parents laying his pride aside

“Well, I got used to it anyway” Said Jungmin

Jungmin is too bashful to approach the others and he didn’t even dare to do it, so he partially gave up other’s attention and love He only could live on doing that way Itdepression AND having the bad living environ with that mindset slowly made him have neither dreaic

Even though it was noon, inside of the building was so dark It has been so long since the last day when they painted the wall The building itself was so old that you could see the wall frames in places It is still a place to den out of the wind so what a relief

Criminals and those homeless who sold their own house lived on the streets There were uncountable cases of how these people wentinvolved in crimes So you should be thankful to have a house, even when it is an awful one

On the 18th floor of this old poor building, there was a total of 10 houses including Jungled room houses and six of thehbors as all they did were to

It if was Jungmin, he wouldn’t dare to have a child as it will only inherit hiht those people who formed a family will be happier than those lone wolves There was a sudden feeling of soot over time It was loneliness

‘Would Jinsob at homin answered to his own question

Jinsoo lives in the next door, and he is one of the neighbors that Jungmin actually communicates with Jinsobcaether at street restaurant Jinsoo is 26, and nowadays, he works at Union farms

‘What should I do, alone?’ Thought Jungmin

Being incomin did any public job that he could take; fro the street filled with dust and sands His health wasn’t good enough to even atteher salary jobs such as construction site worker, building cleaner or waiter Jungmin lost his job as a public worker that didn’t require much physical ability It was because he became an adult today

Jungmin took off the piece of cloth that he used as a turban and tapped on his coat Sands mixed with dust dropped to the doorway He used to clean the house, but he learned how to give things up He headed to the bathroom to take a shower As the dust and sands contain radioactive materials that were released by thousands of nuclear weapons launched centuries ago, you had to wash themin took off his pants, shi+rts, and underwear that were provided periodically by Union as child welfare Bony, rather skeleton like the body, was reflected in the mirror

“What should I do to live on now?” Jungmin feebly said

He iined what if he was born in District F in the first place Maybe at least he could have learned how to survive in this place frohbors Schools here do vocational educations at least If he didn’t adrift in his young ages, he could have gotten the education about preparing the future even he was classified as incompetent But he missed that chance as well

He was really hoping for soive advice on his future or his life, but there was no one around who could help hi off his frustration by letting out a sigh

Like his usual break, Jung how dusty winds dyes the sky with yellow, through the sames, but even that didn’t draw his attention for soift, oruncertain future

The gift was delivered after few hours past lunch ti reflective box as if it was bewitching him By the looks of the box, He only could think of the coffins that S-class nobles use He wondered ould ever want to git hiination didn’t answer the question

“Well, It is not gonna be a coffin of mine It isn’t like I reat to be buried under the actual dirt so there is no way one will sendnone of them actually make any sense

Jungure out whichbox ishe has seen nor heard It was certain that it wasn’t made out of metals like alu the box until JungThere was a button on the side of the box that is unnoticeable unless you look for it really carefully

The box opened min couldn’t take his eyes off the inside of the box tons of sacks and bags filled his eyesight They came with different sizes, and they were so many that those were uncountable

“What on earth are these? I guess I will find it out soon” said Jungmin with excitement

Junged the sacks out one by one He lost the count after counting a hundred of theered his curiosity was not the nus, but it hat sacks contained, and what sacks were made out of He didn’t knohat sacks were ht his eyes

“Wheat flour, Rice flour, Arrowroot, Licorice, Red Sea Cucu, Spicebush, Knotweed, Eplimediums Koreanum, Honey… What on earth are these?”

Those were endless, Somin finds it familiar only could be seen in the history books Unlike the days before Human Calendar, there were not h Union far, the rest of them were small Some had labels of various fruits Some were labeled with the names of rare herbs, sea creatures, seaweeds, there were even minerals You could not obtain these anymore because of the barrier

“I simin wondered

It was certain that it was not soht that the box ht as there were so s with names he never heard of When he reached to that point, a serious curiosity rose up to the surface

He thought ht be very hard to obtain, in or out of the barrier He could tell because of one of the sacks he was holding, with the naend

Wild Ginseng!

(TL note: Most of the nanized as rare ood source of food that recruit’s one’s energy Wild ginseng is considered to be one of the best of all)

As he grows up, Jung is, even in the past, before the earth had two s is considered as the best ames that effectively increases the stats of your characters As VR gaame, everyone heard about the name of it

Jung out approximately 2000 sacks

“Plathiumin failed to hide his surprise

Jungmin reached out his hand, he couldn’t believe what he saw

By periodically illuht, he could ensure that it was plathium

Plathium is invaluable y It had properties of shock absorption, self-e of it was not well known to the people

It was not a substance that you could buy with money The conditions for a production are too strict, the required materials are very rare Also, it requires multiple steps of the procedure to be produced, but there were toovery easily No Unions could even drea it

Contrasted with the dull appearance of the box, the blue-violet illumin how valuable the box was It couldn’t be all made out of plathium so it is should be either coated or plated with, but still, the value of it was uniinable

‘This can’t be just an ordinary box’ he thought

Jung that ever could belong or gifted to Jungood relationshi+p with society Not even a fraction of a chance

He couldn’t find any type of letter anywhere He even checked the inside of every single sack very carefully, but there wasn’t even so about thousands of sacks and a box with unknown use in his room

“Wait a sec It looks like you can connect so in this hole” Said he

And he was right! There was definitely a hole on the sideway that you can connect a power line of soround and re cable between the sacks He has been thinking it is too random to be there

“So is this supposed to go here?” Said he connecting the cable

He could hear the vibration from the box as he connected the cable It wasn’t even connected to outlet yet

‘Does it have dedicated generator as well? If it is, This IS soht

The box started to vibrate very quietly with low-frequency sound wave He could tell soure out what the function was He couldn’t see any change inwardly nor outwardly

Suddenly, there was knock at the door

—

Door knocks surprised and woke Junghts about the box He noticed how dark the roo in

“Huh? When did it get so dark?” said he

He couldn’t see how fast the tiht all over the room He hurried to the door and opened it up There was Jinsoo who already walked to the front of his house when Jungmin saw Jinsoo in his dusty cloth and his sunburnt face His face bore the tiresome of his work

“Jinsoo!” Jungmin called him out

“Hey, you were in”

“Sorry, I didn’t hear you I was thinking about so”

“I dropped by to celebrate your coh despite how it sounds”

Jinsoo had typical in-barrier youth appearance, as just as bashful as min was It was common to see low-class youth like him to live a real life without any hope, but with their dreaames

“Let’s have dinner together, Jinsoo”

“Nah, sorry but I’ve got things to do Oh, don’t you play VR gaaht”

“‘Beyond’?”

“Ya, they say they’ve implemented extreme reality that cannot be… Where I should rather say it refused to be coames came out so far”

Jungmin also heard about Necoame company in the world, Also one of Top 10 business company in the world They had le Union had Beyond also was not any news to hiah rumors

8 years ago, thousands of Supercoround of Mojave Desert They are believed to be built in the Ages of Dooh there were not much communication between the Unions, Scientists of allobal scale research on these supercoms

Necohts to use an enormous number of those Supercoame And they made Beyond

“Of course, I want to play too, but I’m little short on…”