novelThe End was just a New Beginning (2)
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"Oppa, you're a really good person. However, I hate everything around you. It's not a family that I can handle. I definitely have no confidence living with such a father-in-law and brother-in-laws."
As expected, it was because of that!
I had nothing to say. I agreed 100%, no 200% with her. Even if I was Hae Sook, I wouldn't want to come into a family like this.
Shit! Hae Sook made me remember bad things from my past.
My life was really best described with the word cursed.
When I was twelve, my dad's company went bankrupt. He ended up running away, leaving the family with a ton of debt.
A few days later, my half brothers all ran away like my dad.
At some point, I heard news about my dad and half brothers. My dad ended up creating a new family with some woman in Pyeongtaek, and my half brothers ended up as gangsters.
Knowing that, no wonder my life was difficult.
How difficult you ask?
People often tell you to look down when things are tough. Look at how the people who have it worse than you are still able to try so hard to survive.
Unfortunately, I could not find such people. At least around me, there was nobody who had it worse than I did.
There was a bit of time when my situation got better.
When I was in high school, I was able to make some money through Royal Roader. I was able to pay for a room and we were able to get out of the greenhouse we were tired of living in.
The day we moved into the room, my mom and younger sister Minji, the three of us had a samgyupsal party.
I think that was the happiest time of my life.
But that happiness came to an end quickly. Because of my mom's illness, my family had to tighten our belts again. It's the same now, after I have returned from the military. Working at the luxury carwash gets me close to 3, 000, 000 won (TL: that's about $2, 600) a month, but after paying the interest for the loan we got to pay for my mom's medicine, there is almost nothing left.
It was because of this that I could not hate Hae Sook even when she was saying all of this.
I wanted to hold on to her, but I had no face to do so. It's not like she gave me a chance to do that either.
"And as you mentioned, I did find a new man. This time, I am meeting him with the intention of marrying him. So we should have a clean break-up." (TL: Girl, that's called cheating. )
Even though I wanted to say something, anything, my lips had no intentions of opening.
Hae Sook stopped after that and stood up.
"Please don't contact me ever again. No, erase my phone number. I will also erase yours. You don't need to walk me back today."
After saying that, Hae Sook stood there for a second before she disappeared quickly like the wind.
If I'm being honest with you, I was always worried. I always thought that Hae Sook would leave me someday. There was no way a girl like her would marry a guy like me.
Maybe that's why I had been subconsciously prepared to say goodbye. I wanted it to hurt even a tiny bit less when I got thrown away like this.
"It's okay! Let's not be hurt!"
I pretended to be okay as I left the playground.
However, as expected, I had no energy. Rather, I was feeling very depressed.
The worst part was that even in the midst of this, I was hungry. What the heck must be in this stupid stomach so that three times a day, it bugged a person like this?
Maybe it was because of the smell of the soondaegookbap. There was a soondaegookbap store right in front of the goshiwon, and the taste of their food was heavenly.
'Should I buy a plate?'
However, I didn't want to waste my money.
I had to live off of around 400, 000 won a month. After taking out the cost of the goshiwon, I was left with 250, 000 won.
Which means, I had about 8, 000 won a day. (TL: US $6. 99)
Thankfully I could walk the 3km to the carwash and save on travel fees, and I could eat lunch at the carwash.
I don't drink or smoke. I never smoked, and my alcohol tolerance is pretty high, but I never spend my own money to drink alcohol.
The problem was the monthly 6, 000 won fee for internet and phone, but since Royal Roader was ending its service, I had no reason to maintain my internet service.
Just doing that will save me 3, 000 won a month. I finally have a bit of flexibility.
However, my feet headed not to the soondaegookbap store but to the convenience store next to it.
'How can I eat soondaegookbap on a day like this when I'm feeling so down? I'd get indigestion. Let's just have a small meal. '
In the end, I bought a cupbap from the convenience store and went up to my room. It was a bulgogi rice bowl. Usually I fill myself up with the 2, 000 won kimbap, but sometimes, I need to eat other food like this.
Since I even received a tip today, I guess I can consider it a small award to myself for working so hard.
'I should eat it before it gets cold. '
Chew. Chew. Chew.
The cupbap tasted decent when I first ate it, but after having eaten it so many times, now I'm getting tired of it.
I still convinced myself that it was tasty and chewed it down slowly. But without thinking about it, I started to eat faster. My mind was telling myself that I needed to eat it quickly so that I could enjoy Royal Roader for the last time.
When I looked at the clock, it was already 8pm.
Since they said the service would end at 10pm, I had around two hours left.
'Let's make this last run a great one. '
I put down the empty bowl and the spoon and sat in front of the computer.
There wasn't much that I was not able to accomplish after making up my mind while playing Royal Roader. But there was this one thing. That last thing left was punishing the Boss Monster, Demon Heros, that resided in the Blood Field past the Western Mines.
It was the strongest of all the monsters that I've hunted.
For my last act, let's hunt that one monster. Then I will let go without any regrets.
I logged into the game and immediately headed past the Western Mines into the Blood Field.
I always enjoyed solo play.
That doesn't mean that I had no helpers. As one of the top ranked characters, I traveled across the continent and completed many quests, and gained a lot of followers in the process.
There were even some great warriors among my followers. I asked the Magician's Tower to gather all of them in the Blood Field.
There were a total of 20, 000 followers who answered my call. They were all people who were known throughout the continent for their weapon mastery.
I also had a strong slave brigade. They were existences that lived and died based on my command.
I stood in the front. The followers became my wings on the left and right, and the slave brigade created a strong support from the back. We quickly entered the center of the Blood Field in that formation.
Although I had to sacrifice countless followers and slaves, the Demon's strength weakened as well. And Finally, a battle with the Demon Heros! It was a duel between the two strongest forces that nobody could interfere with. It was a 1 on 1 battle between Heros and I.
Heros was definitely strong. I had to press the shortcut key 'Q' to feed myself healing potions continuously as I hunted him down. But in the end, it was my victory. After launching an attack with my life on the line, I succeeded in a whopping 36 hit combo, and the damage counter served as a bloody decoration as I finally defeated the Demon Heros.
Tons of items started to flow out. Of course, none of them had any meaning since the game would end.
But my eyes did notice a somewhat special item.
There was an empty space to submit your wish.
'Who needs a wish when the game is ending?!'
If it was pressing a button on my mouse, I might have done it, but I hated typing on my keyboard. It was too cumbersome. I tried to skip past it.
'Oh? There is no button to skip it. '
I could not skip it. There was no button to move on, and there was no button to close the window either. It was made so that you could not get to the next screen without filling in the blank.
I'm sure if I searched around, I might find a method. However, rather than putting in the effort to find it, it'll probably be easier to just type a few words.
'Fine. I will answer. '
I was about to type randomly before I became curious.
'Should I really try putting a wish down? Then maybe the moderator might be interested. '
I had nothing to lose.
Right now, I only had one wish. The renewal of Royal Roader.
If it was a wish like this, even the moderator could accept it happily. They might even give me a small gift.
On one hand, I even imagined such a situation. Royal Roader becoming reality, and me being the main character in it.
There would be no cooler life than that.
I wrote it in as a joke.
[Royal Roader's renewal as reality. ]
Translator: Miraclerifle
Proofreader: Miraclerifle
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