Chapter 26
The next day, I didn’t deliberately set an alarm when I fell asleep last night.
As usual, I woke up at 7:30 and had a little breakfast. As I found nothing special about Revival Legend these days, I decided to go to bed until late in the morning since I had to take a break anyway. It was something I would not have again in the future.
So, when I got up, the clock display showed that it was 11 AM. I got up and moved to the bathroom to quickly wash and got ready to go out. I promised to have lunch with my mother during my call with her the other day. And I also promised to have dinner with the whole family, including my father, brother and sister.
After washing, I went out of the one-room studio and moved to a nearby bus stop. I took a city bus, now familiar to me, to Chongdamdong near my home, then took a taxi there.
“Welcome, son!”
As soon as I got off the taxi, my mother was waiting for me in front of the big gate.
“Why are you waiting for me here, Mom?”
“It’s because you were almost late.”
“It’s because...”
I could not bring myself to tell her that I slept late.
“Never mind. Let’s go in.”
“Sure.”
I had a good relationship with my mother. She was not as coercive as other women from wealthy business conglomerate families, and she always looked at things from my point of view.
Anyway, led by my mother holding my hand, I moved straight to the kitchen table where all kinds of delicious food were ready. There I found an unexpected person, who was none other than my older sister.
“There you go. Can’t you come earlier? Do I have to go hungry because of you?
“Why aren’t you having a date today on the weekend, Sis?”
Even during my school days, she was always busy, especially during the weekend.
Crossing one leg over the other, she raised her head and opened her mouth as if she was reminiscing the past, “Lol. I love those days. I could meet boys freely without any worry.”
Slap!
“Ouch! Mom!”
“Watch your language!”
“Did I say something wrong? It’s no wonder I was popular as I was the daughter of a business group and I was a beauty. If you want to blame me, you should have not delivered a pretty baby girl like me! You’ll never know how annoyed I was because I was too pretty.”
I knew my sister’s personality, so I sat down quietly after washing my hands.
Then I had lunch with my mother and sister while chatting about various stuff after a long time.
“Where’s Daddy and Brother?”
“Working at the company.”
“Even on the weekends?”
“Yep.”
“Wow, they must be busy.”
“You bet. I am also so busy that I can’t even remember when I last went on a date.”
“Even you, Sis?”
“Of course. You know I’m beautiful, but at the same time I’m competent.”
“Well..”
I did not refute her statement because it was true.
After a nice lunch in an amicable atmosphere, I moved to my room, which was still being cleaned, because I had to pick up something. It was none other than the 3rd generation high-end VR adaptor.
Knock, knock!
At that moment, I heard somebody knocking on the door, which soon opened.
“Are you playing a game now?” my sister asked.
“...”
Of course, the scope of VR applications is endless, such as education, videos, calls, conferences, medicine, business, etc. It was easier to find a field where it is not used. However, VR’s biggest application was for games.
“Yeah.” I replied cautiously because I felt a bit awkward if she thought I was playing games after I was expelled from home. Besides, she even went as far as to protect me, threatening my father by holding a hair trimmer to shave her hair.
“Which game?”
However, my sister asked back casually as if she didn’t care.
“Revival Legend.”
“Revival Legend?”
“Yeah.”
“What is your game type and your level?”
As far as I knew, my sister didn’t play anything like games. But she now mentioned my game type and level naturally, so I corrected my posture and said, “Ice-type wizards and Level 100.”
“Hmm. Level 100 for ice-type wizards. I guess it took two or three weeks for you to get there. Oh, if you achieved it without any support, it would have taken you a month and a little longer, I think.”
“Well..I guess so.”
Five days, no, more precisely, it took me four days and ten hours. However, I didn’t feel the need to correct her, so I glossed over it with a vague answer.
“Good job.”
I didn’t want to show my mother I was playing games because I didn’t return to campus after being discharged from the army when I entered the most prestigious Seoul National University.
But I confided to her about it because she was my sister. I still had a fond memory of her threatening to shave her hair with a hair trimmer to protect me from my father. Since I never expected her praise, I could not help but ask back, “Good job for what?”
“You did a good job. I mean you did well when you chose Revival Legend among many other games. Just send me a message about your ID and your location in Revival Legend.”
“What?”
At the moment, I couldn’t accept her response properly because I had the impression that she was also playing games. But she didn’t say anymore and turned around as if her mission was over that evening.
***
Dinner time for the whole family didn’t last long because my father and brother didn’t sit at the table for long, pretending to be so busy.
Of course, I wanted to ask my father or brother if they knew about Daesung because if it was true that Daesung was really operating a game system, it was something serious.
But I didn’t have the nerve to ask because if I did, I might end up publicizing to my family that I was hooked onto games. At that moment my sister opened her mouth as if she misunderstood my concern about my father and brother.
“Try to understand them, Juyoung. They’re really busy as bees these days.”
“Sure.”
Of course, since she was playing ‘Revival Legend,’ she might know about Daesung, but I didn’t ask her either because I felt a bit uncomfortable mentioning the game right now when my father and brother were not present.
Then my mom said, “Son, it’s late. Sleep here tonight.”
“Sorry. Mom. I have got something to do today.”
“You mean this evening?”
“Yeah.”
17 hours of cooldown. I had to go back for that.
“Got it. Let me wrap some side dishes for you. Wait a minute.”
“Okay.”
“Dang it! Why don’t you sleep here?”
My sister rebuked me while my mother was busy packing some food for me.
“Next time.”
“Never mind. By the way, send a message to me. Let me head out first then. I’m busy. See you next time.”
“Alright.”
As if she was pretty busy, my sister quickly left the kitchen with quick steps.
I grabbed the food that my mom wrapped for me and went out of the house.
She saw me off at the door.
“Son. Don’t forget to call me often.”
“Sure, Mom. Goodbye.”
“Let me see you leave first.”
“You know our family driver always gives me a ride back.”
historical
“I don’t care.”
Although I took a bus and taxi to go home, our family driver always gave me a ride back to my place. I gave my mother a hug, got into a luxury sedan and moved to my one-room studio.
While driving to my place, I texted my sister a message about my ID ‘lumen’ and my place in Revival Legend, namely Kotum Castle.
“Execution!”
On the way back home, I downloaded ‘Revival Legend’ onto the 3rd generation high-end VR adaptor. As soon as I got home, I hurriedly put it on because 17 hours had already passed. That is, the cooldown time had ended.