chapter 87

The door of the capsule opened and I saw the ceiling of a familiar place. I looked up blankly and wiped that tears that had unknowingly flowed. Then I remembered the message I had seen before I fell unconscious.

[You have been knocked out by the overload of great power.]

[You can access the game again in 12 hours.]

It seemed the burden was greater than I thought. Still, it seemed natural because I wasn’t even level 100. I stood up and immediately saw the photo of my wife. “Honey, was this what you felt?”

The portrait of my wife didn’t answer and just silently stared at me. Before I knew it, darkness had fallen outside. I looked up at the serene night sky and declared, “May the blessing of the stars be with you.”

* * *

The next day, the world was lively.

Not only were the Arkstar broadcasters reporting the news, other game broadcasters were also reporting breaking news. Every one of them, including the newspapers, were talking about the same thing—the emergence of a new Star’s Beloved. Everyone was wondering about the identity of the person who ate a Star Fruit.

All sorts of speculation spilled over and it became distorted information. Then there was one more thing. It was a message that a constellation had returned to the cradle of the stars. TV experts and newspapers were talking about it. Cha Jincheol woke up in the sleeping room within the company and saw it. The Internet, TV, and newspapers all had the same story.

“What happened while I was sleeping…”

He had to work early in the morning. He couldn’t help sighing as he looked at his laptop. He thought perhaps his brother-in-law would say something.

“…Still, this was what he made me do.”

Originally, it was his responsibility to monitor during the night. He was in charge of the 1st strategic planning team and had never missed anything like this before. However, this time the 2nd team intercepted it.

‘I will go see the 2nd team.’

Cha Jincheol moved straight to where the 2nd team was located. Once he arrived, he was forced to question what was going on

“Does this make sense? What the hell did you do?”

The angry voice of Woo Seongjae, the team leader of the 2nd team, could be heard through the door. He took a breath as he overheard the conversation. No one knew that he had come.

“How can you not find anything after working all night? Eh? This is why you get told that you are inferior to the 1st team!”

Woo Seongjae sounded furious. In the context of the situation, it was clear that the 2nd team hadn’t found anything all night. After yelling at the team members for a long time, Woo Seongjae opened the door and came out. Woo Seongjae and Cha Jincheol’s eyes met.

“Ah, good morning.”

“Ugh!”

The red-faced Woo Seongjae stormed away. Cha Jincheol felt it earlier but Woo Seongjae was a really hot-tempered person. How did he become a team leader with that personality?

‘He isn’t suitable to be a team leader. His subordinates are suffering.’

In that sense, Cha Jincheol was lucky. Yoo Minseok, the leader of the 1st team and his brother-in-law, was a man with excellent leadership. At the very least, he wasn’t someone who would shirk his duties or pass on the blame for failing to do his work. Cha Jincheol got a cold coffee from the vending machine and sat back in his original spot.

Then he relaxed his fingers. “Then what should I look for?”

Union’s best monitoring agent—that was Union’s assessment of Cha Jincheol.

* * *

It was a lazy afternoon with no clouds…

The doorbell rang at the mansion that was likely to have been bought by a fairly well off businessman.

Ding dong~!

Park Muyeol got up from where he was napping and opened the door. He rubbed his eyes and asked the people had come, “Who are you? Why wake me up from my nap?”

“D-Delivery!”

“Delivery…?”

He looked behind them and could see men holding a box as big as a refrigerator. The moment he saw the Union label written there, Park Muyeol clapped like he just remembered it.

“Ah! The thing I ordered has finally arrived. Come on in.”

“Y-Yes!”

They looked somewhat scared as they entered the house. The interior space was larger than they thought as they wandered around.

“Come here.”

Park Muyeol led them into a room. He smiled warmly as he watched the young men start to install the capsule in a hurry. After a while, the young men finished the installation and one of them spoke for the first time, “Excuse me…”

“What is it?”

“Do you have a permit…”

“Why?”

“It is a procedure that needs to be checked…”

“Urgh. Wait!”

After disappearing somewhere for a while, Park Muyeol returned and handed the virtual reality game license to the young man.

The young man saw it and looked shocked.

“S-S-grade…?”

“Are you dissatisfied?”

Park Muyeol remembered that when he was retested, the doctor said, ‘There is no way another S-grade can appear at our hospital.’

They were just as picky as Chuntaek said but it needed to be done. Then Park Muyeol made a fierce expression and everything became okay. His natural appearance had become a great weapon. He was looking at the young man with the same expression he had at that time. The young man cried out, “H-Hik! I-I’m sorry!”

They hurried to clean up their equipment and left the house. Before he left, the young man said the permit needed to be inserted in the capsule to make it work. Park Muyeol looked and there was really something like that. He inserted the permit into the capsule. The lid of the capsule opened.

He saw it and frowned. “It is ominous. What is this?”

Park Muyeol picked up his phone right away. He was calling to inform Chuntaek of this fact. However, he quickly stopped.

‘Wouldn’t it be fun to keep it a secret from Chuntaek?’

Chuntaek said he had been playing this for some time. Park Muyeol thought it would be quite interesting to catch up to Chuntaek. He put away the phone and lay in the capsule straight away. Tension flowed as he pressed the red button and the lid started to close. Then he saw a message in front of him.

[Welcome to the world of Arkstar.]

* * *

Meanwhile, I completed my morning exercise and logged straight into Arkstar. I thought about watching the news but after I received Prometheus’ memories, I developed the habit of not watching it very often. All the high-quality information was in my mind due to Prometheus. Even if things I didn’t know were to appear on TV, I could just ask Sujeong, Mido, or Jeongdo.

[Welcome, Jackson.]

I opened my eyes and saw a white scenery. By the way…

“What is this?”

My body was tied up and moving somewhere. I raised my eyes and saw the familiar back of a wolf. I asked the wolf, “Fenrir…?”

The wolf carrying me stopped. It seemed like it really was Fenrir.

“You’ve woken up.”

“How long have I been sleeping?”

“Two days.”

Indeed, the message window had said two days. It was natural. I wondered, “Why am I like this?”

Fenrir started running again.

“The people who came with you tied you up and asked me to bring you. I don’t know how they tied you up.”

I looked down at my body. It was a shabby knot that had the king kong’s snowman leather attached to it to avoid the cold. However, it seemed difficult to unravel based on how tight it was. Why didn’t they say anything to me on the phone? I asked Fenrir, “What happened to my companions?”

“You don’t have to worry about them. They have already arrived in Diya with my brothers. I was late because I had to convey Mother’s will to the inhabitants of Nutscher for a while. Still, don’t worry. We’ll be there soon.”

To put it simply, he was late because he was cleaning up the mess. Still, couldn’t he let me go?

“Fenrir, release me.”

“It’s troublesome.”

“Hey, I’m fine now…”

“Mother is waiting. Since we’re almost there, put up with it a little bit.”

At this moment, Fenrir’s speed doubled. It was so fast that I couldn’t help screaming.

“Kuaaack! You bastard~~!!”

[The first apostle, ‘Prometheus,’ is laughing at the sight of you.]

* * *

After a two hour run, I was finally able to get off Fenrir’s back. Taibeus stood next to me while grumbling about why I was tied up so tightly.

“Truthseeker, you look terrible.”

“I know.”

I growled toward the sky, “You won’t get any soup for a while.”

[The first apostle, ‘Prometheus,’ is holding back his laughter while telling you to do what you want.]

[The first apostle, ‘Prometheus,’ is sipping on ssanghwa tea.]

This damn guy was like this…

In fact, I had summoned Solar. Yet no matter how much I told it to release me, Solar didn’t listen. It was because Prometheus blocked it. I once again remembered Solar’s words.

‘My real master told me to leave it alone! Hehe.’

Shit. I was angry thinking about it again. Then was I a fake master? I was glaring up at the sky when I heard a familiar voice.

“Buroder~!!”

“Drain?”

I belatedly thought, ‘Oops.’

I had completely forgotten he was here. Perhaps I didn’t remember because he disappeared while saying he would look around Taibeus’ place with his crew. If he had sent me a whisper then I would’ve picked him up… since I didn’t hear from him, perhaps he was upset. I felt sorry. “Drain, I’m sorry…”

“Buroder! There are so many clothes here! Beatipul! Wonderpul!”

“……”

He talked about all the fabrics here for a long time. He also told me about the new needlework technique he learned here. In fact, he had been a bit upset when I left but then Taibeus told him there was someone here who made clothes and his disappointment was gone.

“I learned how to attach icicles in this place…”

…Well, it was fine. Drain seemed to have made his own journey. I felt fortunate that he seemed to be in a good mood. In any case, this guy logged in early this morning. Don’t tell me he stayed up all night? Suddenly, Drain clapped. “Ah! I was attaching icicles on the clothes I made for you!”

“Clothes?”

I was sorry I left him behind and I felt even sorrier after learning he made me clothes. I felt like I needed to do better. I should give him the new leather I obtained.

“Huhu. I’m looking forward to it. I’ll wait here.”

After a while, he brought me clothes that were mostly all blue. The occasional orange and yellow patterns seemed to show his originality. It looked somewhat profound. I thought it looked really nice. I wore the clothes he handed me without checking the information window.

[The Emperor Penguin’s Strange Cooking Top has been equipped.]

[The Emperor Penguin’s Strange Cooking Bottoms has been equipped.]

[The Emperor Penguin’s Strange Cooking Hat has been equipped.]

…

…

Emperor penguin…? Where did he get this leather? Emperor penguins were one of the most endangered species in the North Pole. This was the case 500 years ago and I hadn’t expected them to still be alive now. For reference, they were called emperor penguins because they always wore a shiny crown. Drain spoke with admiration, “Gut, gut! The avant-garde looks great! Wow!”

“R-Really?”

I wished there was a full-length mirror but I couldn’t expect one in such a place. Then I saw the message that Sujeong had logged in.

-Jackson: Sujeong, where are you?

-Crystal: Did you log on early? I’m at Taibeus’ house.

-Jackson: I’m right in front of it. Come outside.

I wanted to show her the clothes that Drain had made. He had made it so I thought it was right for him to be praised and feel proud. Then I saw Sujeong waving in the distance. “Good morning!”

I walked proudly toward her. I thought it would be cool to do a handsome moonwalk. Kim Sujeong saw me and exclaimed, “Wow~ aren’t you looking really good? By the way, what are these clothes? Where have I seen them before?”

“The clothes were made by Drain. How are they? Keke.”

She seemed speechless at the wonderful appearance. Kim Sujeong looked at me for a long time before shaking her head. A moment later, she cried out, “Ah! I remember where I saw it!”

“What do you mean?”

“The president of the children!”

The president of the children…? Was this the nickname of a constellation? There wasn’t any constellation with such a nickname in my memories. I couldn’t understand what she was telling me. Kim Sujeong explained, “President Po.” [1]

[1] Korean cartoon penguin character, Pororo.