Ark The Legend Vol 2 Chapter 5

s.p.a.cE 5. The 3rd Group (PART: 2)

“Hrmm……”

Hyun-woo looked at his appearance through the reflection in the gla.s.s. He was wearing an expensive suit and looked quite amazing. Hyun-woo’s clothes matched the flashy venue. An orchestra was playing underneath a huge chandelier and people wearing formal suits and dresses were gathered around tables laid with food.

‘The game is a h.e.l.l while reality is heaven…..’

His life had changed 180 degrees in 4 years. At that time, it was heaven in the game and reality was h.e.l.l. Of course, the world hadn’t changed. Hyun-woo’s position had just changed. But Hyun-woo didn’t come to this party to play around. Hyun-woo found this place unnerving. He also had no time for it considering the situation in Galaxian.

‘d.a.m.n, that Ha Myung-woo…..’

Hyun-woo sighed and scratched his head. Hyun-woo was at this party because of his job.

-New Year’s Eve donation party to help refugees overseas.

“Director Kim has to come to this party. Director Kim is in your twenties so it will be good for the company image if you show up.”

That was the reason Ha Myung-woo sent Hyun-woo here.

‘Well I am young but……’

The party didn’t match with Hyun-woo’s personality. It was an event to gather donations to help refugees abroad but they had spent a tremendous amount of money to hire a famous hotel as the venue. It was like sitting in a high place and throwing bread to someone pitiful while thinking ‘Hahaha, you should thank me!’ He would rather spend his money buying flour and sending it himself. Hyun-woo had a reason for such values. It was his mother Park So-mi and his stepfather Gwon Hwa-rang. After his mother’s body recovered from the long ago accident, she had gone overseas with Gwon Hwa-rang to help the refugees and had spent 7~8 months in places like South Africa.

‘Leaving her son alone…..’

Hyun-woo’s thoughts were then interrupted. He suddenly saw a woman with a familiar face. She was a woman in her twenties wearing a red dress. Hyun-woo looked doubtfully at her face.

‘Eh? She somehow looks familiar?’

When he first saw the woman, her face looked really familiar. Hyun-woo was curious so he turned around and gradually approached her. He held up a c.o.c.ktail and stealthily looked at her face.

‘Wait? That face…..eh? I-is that Irina?’

She was the cyborg like Irina in charge of the supplies on Beltana!  The woman in the red dress had a 90% synchro rate with Irina’s face.

‘Eek? I-it can’t be? This woman is really Irina?’

He already knew that Irina was a user. But he heard the rumours that she was an aunty in her forties and never thought her appearance would be like this. She didn’t even blink as she let prisoners die of starvation yet to find her helping at an event for overseas refugees…..an exclamation mark appeared in Hyun-woo’s head as he stared at her.

‘Wait? This might actually be a chance!’

Some people might be difficult to approach in the online game but were different in reality.

‘If she really is Irina then she is an officer for the galactic federation. If we became familiar then there are several ways she could help. Well, it might be too obvious if I approach her talking about the game…..’

He needed to pretend he didn’t know her. Hyun-woo thought like that and started to walk towards her. But before he could, a group consisting of 1 man and 2 women approached her. Hyun-woo missed the timing thanks to them.

“Hey unlucky woman, why are you showing your face here?”

“…….”

“Ha, look at that expression.”

“Yes, that att.i.tude makes me even angrier.”

“You unlucky woman, we had to see something inferior because of you.”

“Honestly, it is worthless if you come to a place like this.”

The man and two females cornered her.

‘What is this? What is their relations.h.i.+p?’

Hyun-woo just stared blankly. After a brief moment, he started to get angry at the group. She was just standing there silently as the group said more and more abusive words to her. He didn’t know what their relations.h.i.+p was like so he didn’t feel like he should interfere. However, she wasn’t doing anything to stop it. Then the group said with cold eyes.

“Anyway, it will be gold if you go into a corner to eat rice so we won’t notice you anymore. Or just leave.”

“…….”

She still didn’t say anything.

‘Irina…..there’s no doubt she is the same person. Their characters are the same.’

Despite this situation where Hyun-woo thought she should be angry, her face was still expressionless.

‘Anyway, this isn’t the time to talk to her.’

Hyun-woo sensed the uncomfortable atmosphere and was about to turn his body.
Suddenly the two women giggled and exchanged glances. And one of them approached her with a c.o.c.ktail. She intentionally pretended to stumbled and poured the contents of the c.o.c.ktail onto Irina’s back. No, she tried to pour it!

“Ik! It was about to fall down.”

Hyun-woo quickly approached and helped her with a smile.

“Be careful. Won’t various people be troubled if it falls?”

“Who cares!”

The woman flared up and quickly turned around. However, there was a vague smile of satisfaction on Ark’s face. Hyun-woo aimed for this chance to speak to Irina. But stopping it was too obvious. He had been able to walk away when he saw the opportunity and grasped it. Now he had a chance to naturally talk to her.

‘It might be a little uncomfortable but……’

Hyun-woo hadn’t intentionally produced this situation. There was no reason to be stopped by his conscience.

‘Huhuhu, won’t a conversation naturally follow now?’

“Are you alright?”

Hyun-woo laughed and turned around. However……

“Eh?”

……There was no one there. Hyun-woo looked around with confusion and saw her slipping away. Although he saved her from having a c.o.c.ktail poured on her, Irina just rejected any chances of conversation and walked away.

‘She must be embarra.s.sed……’

Ark decided to think like that.

—————————————————————————————————————–

“Hyung-nim!”

A prisoner grabbed Ark’s hand.

“This gift! I will never forget it for my entire life!”

“This gift, it is nothing……”

“Don’t say that!”

The prisoner forcefully shook his head and said.

“I gave up on everything before meeting Hyung-nim. Going onto the battlefield when starving and then dying, I thought it was a miserable daily life that wold be repeated forever. But then I met Hyung-nim. I’m not starving thanks to Hyung-nim so I’m able to avoid the bullets better. I’m going to leave this h.e.l.l place thanks to Hyung-nim. Hyung-nim is my saviour!”

‘That’s right.’

Ark inwardly smirked. However, he would get more benefits from acting modest. Ark acted like he was refusing the thanks and said.

“Today’s result is because of your effort. I just gave you a small opportunity. Are we fellow buddied who have shared hards.h.i.+ps? It is natural to help fellow soldiers and to receive their help later. You don’t need to be too thankful. No, I am the one who should be thankful. You’ve believed in me and followed me so I’m very thankful. You might not be a prisoner anymore but I hope you remember your fellow soldiers forever.”

“H-Hyung-nim…..”

Tears gathered in the eyes of the young prisoner. He wasn’t the only one. 10 other prisoners were gathered around him with red faces. The prisoners all looked at Ark with tearful expressions.

‘It took some time to come here……’

While watching them, memories of the past few days pa.s.sed through his head like a panorama.
10 days ago, Ark had been able to use the Dig skill to find kilograms of Iridium and was able to solve his food problem. However, Ark wasn’t satisfied with just that.

‘The most necessary things in this place are colleagues!’

Ark knew. Colleagues were the most important thing on a battlefield. Prisoners paying money in return for Valencia’s protection was similar to gaining a colleague. Ark gave away free food in order to gain colleagues that would die for him on the battlefield. Even a little bit of help in a harsh environment would be impressive. Ark’s sacrifice (?) was enough to impress the prisoners and they naturally flocked around him. The 1st group among the prisoners were users who offered money to the regular troops for protection. The 2nd group were relatively high level prisoners while Ark gathered all the leftovers into the 3rd group.

‘But my organization is still lacking unity. Even if the 3rd group of prisoners are gathered around me, it isn’t possible to call them an organization yet. The prisoners received free help so they are obliged to return the help. However, that would make it impossible to show off effective group cooperation on the battlefield. They need a shared target in order to show off any teamwork.’

Ark immediately launched a two stage plan. Stage 2 is to create ‘graduates’ from among the 3rd group! Thanks to Ark’s support, the survival rate of the prisoners increased. They were able to build up achievements and some managed to escape from Beltana. The prisoners gathered around him were those who gained enough achievements to be pardoned.

“The prisoners who followed Hyung-nim have been pardoned!”

“We believe that Hyung-nim will help us escape from here!”

That idea formed within the prisoner’s consciousness. Ark had aimed for this. He planted a shared target within the prisoners! The prisoners had gathered in order to return the favour. But that was just mere courtesy. However, it was different if they had a shared goal. They had already become an organization and Ark could command them now. Of course, the leader of the organization was Ark!

“Although it is regretful that the number of prisoners who followed me decreased……”

The result was a great success. Now the prisoners gathered around Ark weren’t just thinking about paying him back. They were following Ark in the hope of escaping from Beltana. The change in consciousness made them into Royal Guards with a deep loyalty for Ark. However, Ark’s progressing plan also brought an additional effect.

“Hyung-nim, I have something to discuss before leaving.”

These were the first graduates that Ark discharged from the Royal Guards. A prisoner called Asuran visited Ark before leaving Beltana.

“In fact, I was the boss of a bandit group in the city of Sidellin.  Although I might’ve spent my life stealing from others, I know how to return a favour. You handed out food to trash like me and saved me from a life of h.e.l.l! Oh, I will never forget it. So Hyung-nim should visit me once you leave this place. I want to pay Hyung-nim back a little bit. Please!”

Asuran grabbed Ark’s hand.

Asuran was dispatched to the disputed planet Beltana after being arrested and you’ve saved him and allowed him to be pardoned. Asuran is impressed by your favour and wants to pay you back.
If you visit Asuran in the city Sidellin on Istana then you will get a special reward.

Difficulty: –

‘Quest?’

Ark’s eyes popped out with surprise. He never imagined that he could get a quest from a prisoner on Beltana! But it wasn’t that unusual when he thought about it. It was natural for users to get quests from NPCs. Even if they were prisoners, it was possible for them to give quests to Ark. But he thought of the prisoners as beggars and hadn’t expected anything. However, there was one thing Ark hadn’t considered. They were NPCs. They might be prisoners but they were different from users. They might be prisoners thrilled about food but once the prisoner ident.i.ty was taken off, they were thieves, engineers, merchants etc. Since then, Ark’s gaze towards the prisoners changed.
Not only could the prisoners help him on the battlefield but he could also receive rewards from the NPCs. Anyway, Ark managed to transform the prisoners into a Royal Guards organization. Therefore he needed to quickly build achievements for prisoners who would give compensation. He had to give priority to those prisoners.

‘I need to understand the prisoners in order to do this.’

So Ark started to have regular conversations with the prisoners.

“I was born as the son of a poor peasant in the slums and started stealing because I was hungry……”

‘I will put him on reserve for the moment.’

“I was a follower arrested after covering for the crime of the boss of my organization……”

‘He will be on reserve too.’

“I was the owner of a large store.  I had at least 30 employees. But money was my enemy. I became too greedy and started tax evasion. Hah, if I managed to escape from this place then I could return the favour……”

‘This guy!’

He became a top priority to be pardoned. Ark rallied all his power to raise the achievements of the prisoner. It was highly likely that a compensation quest would be given. Of course, not all the compensations gave compensation as they left. However, the prisoners who didn’t give quests repaid him through other methods.

“I think Hyung-nim needs this more than me.”

Item Type: Gun   Wearer Restriction: Level 20

Attack: 15~20 Durability: 18/30

Number of Ammunition:  12

Fading Steel is an automatic pistol with excellent performance. Although the damage might be less than other pistols of the same grade, it is a reliable long range pistol beloved by pioneers. However, the light weight of the gun means there is a strong recoil and is a weakness of the gun. However, this gun is equipped with a laser scope which increases the hit ratio.

Some prisoners would give the weapon they were using!

“It’s not much but this technique might be useful to Hyung-nim.”

Withdrawal (User, Active): The universe is a place where you might face any risk. Therefore the most important thing to all pioneers is survival! This survival skill manifested due to that desire.

This technique concentrates all your mental power to reduce the probability of being detected by machines. However, your body has to be concealed if you want to use this. In addition, the mental consumption is big so a break is needed after 30 minutes to reapply it.

Mental power consumption: 30

Some prisoners also taught skills before leaving. It was the same for a prisoner called Milan.

“Even though it was only for a short time, I’m proud to serve under Hyung-nim. We might be separate but I will come running if Hyung-nim calls, even if I’m on the opposite side of the galaxy. And you didn’t forget the promise from yesterday? It’s a promise. Be sure to visit me once you leave Beltana.”

Milan spoke in a tearful tone and the information window appeared.