Chapter 145 – Virtual Space Mastery (Part 2)
A few days passed and I heard news that Arena in India has entered South Korea.
The person that called me was the man from before, Krishna.
-I have procured item bags worth 5000 karma.
“Good. As soon as I receive them I will begin treatment.”
-What is the treatment plan?
“I don’t need to personally meet with the patient. The person just needs to eat the flame of life I will provide every day.”
-Can a third party receive and deliver it?
“It doesn’t matter. I don’t know what kind of person this patient is but they can comfortably tour Korea while getting treatment.”
-Very good. Then from now on, every day for the next 2 weeks, I will come to you and receive the flame of life.
“Do so please.”
-Then I will be there soon.
That afternoon I received 20 item backpacks.
I made one flame of life and handed it to Krishna.
Krishna carefully took it and placed it in a large glass bottle.
“Miss Ji-hye, you take some too.”
I handed her 10 item backpacks.
“I don’t want to be a burden to you that way.”
“What do you mean burden. We have to make it to the end together.”
Did my words sound strange?
Cha Ji-hye’s face went a little red.
That shy expression. I hadn’t seen it in a long while.
“Then, I’ll just take six.”
“Were you just feeling shy about it just now?”
“No.”
“Aww, you were.”
“No I was not.”
“It is my wish. Acknowledge you blushed.”
“I don’t want to.”
“6 item backpacks are worth 1,500 karma. You can’t admit it that as a favor? You are very cold-hearted.”
“…… I will give you something else instead.”
“I don’t want to. Say you were embarrassed.”
Ah, how fun.
Not knowing what to do, her eyes darted back and forth. The more I saw it the cuter it became and I thought I could die from it. She always had such a poker face on all the time.
Cha Ji-hye moved her lips slightly and was about to say something.
But when all she had said was ‘bu…’* she shook her head.
(TN: The first syllable of embarrassed.)
“……Yep, I don’t want to.”
“Okay. Then a different prize.”
“Do I have to pay for this?”
“Yes.”
“You are a stingy man. Fine, say it.”
“Let me cuddle with you for an hour.”
Cha Ji-hye’s face grew so red it looked like it was about to explode.
‘Huhu, how fun.’
I held in the laughter that was about to burst out of me.
“I can give you a better prize at night.”
“Nope. I want to cuddle.”
Cha Ji-hye had never refused any sexual advances from me.
“Come come, come here.”
“Ugh…..”
Cha Ji-hye came over to me and sat next to me on the couch.
I made her lean her head on my shoulder. Even just this much was plenty embarrassing.
With one hand, slowly, I brushed her hair.
Pat, pat……
Because of Cha Ji-hye’s immensely embarrassed reaction I didn’t realize the time passing by.
One hour had long passed but we remained nonetheless.
***
I received 14 item backpacks and it came out to 3,500 karma.
“Summon board.”
-Name: Kim Hyun-ho
-Class: 40
-Karma: +10,000
-Mission: rest until the next exam.
-Time limit: 91 days 16 hours
I mastered several skills and still had 10,000 karma!
‘I’m just drowning in it.’
It was good I gifted Cha Ji-hye 1,500 karma.
I wanted to give her more but she refused so adamantly.
I told her I’d give her more too if she let me cuddle her and her refusal became even stronger.. Anyway……
Two weeks passed.
During that time, I got a call from Odin. It was to tell me had had acquired the majeong vehicle I had requested.
In Korean currency, it cost 12.2 billion won.
(TN: $11 million USD.)
It was ridiculously expensive but I, of course, had to buy it.
When the Arena in India patient’s treatment was completed on the 2nd week, we rode a plane back to Denmark.
Someone rushed to greet me as we arrived at the Nordic exam group headquarters.
“Hyun-ho!”
Johanna Marie swooped in and hung onto me by my neck.
“Did you miss me?”
Marie asked cutely as she hugged me.
Cha Ji-hye was next to me and I tried my best to get Marie off.
But right at that moment, Marie must have sensed something because she looked back and forth between me and Cha Ji-hye.
Marie’s eyes narrowed.
“Strange.”
“What, what is?”
“You two are strange!”
“We are not strange.”
Cha Ji-hye replied in her businesslike tone.
“Something is going on between you two!”
Argued Marie huffing.
“There is not.”
“Something happened!”
“Nothing happened.”
Cha Ji-hye’s solid defense.
Marie kept up her suspicious glare but she gave up since she had no way to further verify her suspicions.
Then Odin appeared.
“You’ve arrived?”
“Yes.”
“I’ve acquired the vehicle you asked for. Let’s go check it out.”
“Let’s.”
There was a parking lot in the back with several cars.
Does everyone involved in the Arena live like this?
Every single vehicle here wasn’t commonly seen on the streets.
Porsche, Ferrari, Jaguar, Mustang. Every single car was expensive and sophisticated.
But even among those, there was a supercar that caught my eye.
A unique looking two person car that looked like a concept car that would be shown at an international motor show.
There were only a seat for the driver and passenger each.
A sports car that looked no longer than 3 meters.
With elegant curves and an agile looking frame, an incredibly chic design!
“Is this it?”
“Yes.”
“Wow……”
This is the 12.2 billion won car!
“Look carefully.”
Odin opened the car’s hood.
The insides looked similar to a normal car.
But there was one clear difference.
A clear cylinder shaped case in the very center.
The material seemed to be made of plastic and there was majeong placed inside.
Odin opened the cylinder lid.
“You put the majeong in here.”
“Easy.”
“Very. Easy to drive too, would you like to try?”
“I’d love to.”
I hopped into the driver’s seat.
The car was so compact but the inside was actually quite spacious.
Naturally, Cha Ji-hye opened the door to the passenger seat. But then,
“Hmph!”
Like an arrow, Marie came in and sat down.
“Race, Hyun-ho!”
A very excited Marie. And Cha Ji-hye,
“……”
Just stared straight at me.
She, who had always been so tolerant of distractors like Marie and Hyun-ji, had dissatisfaction in her eyes.
‘No compromise with the cat and cars I see.’
Even nowadays if I summoned Sylph, Cha Ji-hye would pet her and play with her for hours.
Seeing as how she bought an exotic white Lamborghini once she came into money, she must really like cars.
I said to Marie.
“Miss Marie, I’ll give you a ride later……”
“Waahhhh!”
Marie threw a tantrum and began to cry. I hadn’t even finished my sentence!
After a quick thought I gave up my driver’s seat to Cha Ji-hye.
Cha Ji-hye sat in the driver’s seat and, with a satisfied expression, touched the steering wheel.
Marie, as if to pretend she hadn’t cried at all, made a humph face.
After Cha Ji-hye went around the Nordic exam group headquarters at a high speed my turn came.
In summation, it was incredible.
The acceleration was more impressive than the Porsche.
Maybe it was because it used majeong but there was no engine noise. This car was like an assassin moving in the dark.
Cha Ji-hye looked like she looking at my majeong car with envy.
It was the first time I’ve seen her wanting something this much since the first time I showed her Sylph..
“Do you want it?”
“Yes.”
“Then 100 hours of cuddl……”
“No thank you.”
Pffttt.
***
The name of this majeong vehicle was Maglun MSM-2.
“Maglun?”
“It’s a car invented by the Maglun family.”
I see.
With their technological understanding majeong, they made such an incredible supercar. Very much like the Maglun family who was at the forefront of the Arena business.
“That you can take this to Arena and ride this around there, I’m very envious of you.”
Odin really does look jealous.
“Haha, right? It’s the first time I’ve looked forward to an exam.”
“I almost wished to give up a territory for a car like that.”
“Hahaha, that bad?”
“You left how frustrated I was during the carriage ride in the Arena. All because of this lack of good transportation.”
“I did. I really wished I was in a light aircraft then.”
As I was talking I had an aha moment.
“Now that I think of it…would there not be a small plane that uses majeong as fuel?”
At my question, Odin nodded his head.
“I’m sure there is. I have heard that the Maglun family has created one of those as well.”
“If possible, could you get one of those for me as well?”
“That isn’t hard but……”
“What?”
“…… I’m very jealous.”
Odin looked at me as if to ask if there was any way I could bring one in for him too.
I refused of course because it wouldn’t fit. My virtual space has a limit.
We talked for a long time about the car and we eventually moved onto talking about spy satellites.
“The spy satellite tech that can be used in Arena is nearly complete. I hear that they’re just having some trouble controlling it remotely because of the majeong.”
“But we’ll be able to take it to Arena shortly.”
“Yes. As soon as we send up the spy satellites, finding those six high priests or whatever those bastards are called will just be a time issue. We’ll be able to find some suspicious bastards related to them to narrow down our leads. Then we can chase tail after tail until we grab all six of them.”
“The six high priests probably have something to do with the final mission huh?”
“Yes. Since they are at the center of the evil that is affecting the continent.”
Odin must have just thought of something because he continued on to say.
“But do you know that?”
“What is it?”
“The world of Arena.”
“Yes.”
“Have you never thought about how gravity and the length of a day is the same as our worlds?”
“Ah, now that you mention it I’ve never considered that.”
I had just chalked it up to a comfort the angels provided for the examinees.
Thinking it over carefully, it was an interesting thing.
The fact that gravity was the same meant that mass and volume would be the same as earth.
The fact that the length of a day is the same as earth meant the distance from the sun was the same. It also meant the rate that the world rotated at was the same.
“It’s not only that. If you look at the stars, they are exactly the same as ours as well.”
“Even the constellations?”
“Indeed. That is why I’ve come to a certain conclusion. Arena is another version of our world, thus, I wonder if it is not a parallel world.”
Parallel universes? That kind of thing?
“Basically, another form of our world.”
“Yes.”
“Knowing that, I’ve thought a lot about it.”
Said Odin.
“A point of contact, these exams and examinees, has been created between two worlds that should not meet.”
“……”
“To our worlds’ various country agencies who cannot physically enter the Arena, they are researching and preparing related businesses.”
“And majeong and majeong related uses.”
“Yes. After there was a point of contact between the two worlds, the similarities between them are increasing.”
Odin continued.
“Don’t you think the two worlds are slowly merging into one?”