Yim Ji Sub was sprawled out lazily on the sofa, watching a TV show with a bored expression. After ten minutes of viewing the show, he abruptly stood up to a sitting position and started to mess with his own hair.
“GAAAAAHHH!! I’m so damn bored. Isn’t there something fun to do?!”
He had just graduated from high school three month ago. For the first month he had been so excited and hung out with friends late into the night. As time went on, though, they would end of going up home sooner and sooner, while less and less people started to come out. After that first month, they didn’t even meet every day anymore and they now mostly spent their times lazing about.
“Damn it, should I have just gone to college right away?!”
It was particularly worse for Ji Sub. During his high school senior year, he had made a deal with his parents. If he was able to remain in the top twenty percentile grade wise within South Korea and he was able to win the Tae Kwon Do high school competition, his parents would allow him to take a year break before he went to college.
Even though he wasn’t nearly as smart or hardworking as those geniuses throughout the nation, he still thought he had a pretty good head, and with a lot of effort, he was able to be in the top twenty percentile for high school seniors test wise.
Tae Kwon Do, on the other hand, had always been his passion since a young age. With his father being a Tae Kwon Do instructor, he began training at a young age and found out that he excelled in it. With his father’s strict training and his own meticulous and persistent drive, he ended up being the champion of the nationwide high school Tae Kwon Do competition for the last two years.
After he won the last Tae Kwon Do competition though, he finally started to feel tired. The reason wasn’t because he trained for so many years or it was too taxing on his body, but because the matches began to become dull. He had trained so hard and possessed enough talent where he wasn’t able to find anyone who could excite him during a match anymore. With the loss of excitement, training started to become dull and he slowly stopped practicing, much to the annoyance of his father.
With no friends to hang out with and no practice, he simply had too much time on his hand now. At first he tried to fill the gap with books. After he had finished reading all the books he was interested in, he even began to try playing games. Still, that too quickly grew boring and now he was at the state where almost nothing was entertaining.
As he was contemplating what he should try now to fill up his time, a new TV section came on.
“Hello everyone, this Park So Young. For today’s section, I have the great pleasure of introducing everyone to the lead developer of Path to Immortality, Park Ji Sung! Welcome to the show, Park Ji Sung nim.”
“I’m honored to be here Ms. Park So Young.”
“Park Ji Sung nim, I’m going to get to the point right away. As I’m sure everyone viewing the show is curious about this, could you please explain the details about the new technology that your company is about to release?”
“It would be my pleasure. As everyone is aware, Path of Immortals will be our, Immortal Phoenix’s, launch game for our new technology, Neuro gear. For those who are not aware, Neuro gear is the highest technological system for virtual reality. Unlike its predecessor, Nerve set, Neuro gear allows for ninety five percent realism within virtual reality. Instead of those head gear sets that move along with the head movement, the Neuro gear synchronizes with your body and sends your consciousness into the virtual world. With this new technology, people will be able to not only see and hear, but also taste and feel everything in the game. Also, there is almost no lag between the movements of the user’s avatar with their thoughts, it’ll feel just as though you were moving your own body in the real world.”
“Wow that sounds so futuristic and unreal, Park Ji Sung nim. How were you guys at Immortal Phoenix, able to create such amazing technology?”
“We, at Immortal Phoenix, recruited scientists who were at the top of the study of Neurology to the company so that they would research the idea. Due to their vigilance, the scientist were able to make a breakthrough into the new study and bring about this new amazing technology ten years after the creation of virtual reality in 2016.’
“That sure is amazing. Next up, could you please explain to us in detail the new game that will be released at the same time, Path to Immortality?”
“Path to Immortality is the flagship game for the Neuro gear and us, Immortal Phoenix. It will be the very first fully immersed VRMMORPG. The setting for the game is that the player will start off at either one of two continents: Olympus or Chungook. Olympus is the western continent where the setting is in medieval times. Chungook, on the other hand, is the eastern continent and the setting will be similar to ancient China, Korea, and Japan. The storyline for each continent will be different to go along with their period. Also, although the majority of the basic classes will be the same, there will also be unique classes to each continent.
In between the two continents, will also be a large island that is called Atlantia. Atlantia will be a sort of meeting point for players between both continents. At Atlantia, there will be high level and special quests while also serving as a place for where players will be able to determine who the strongest character in the game is. Unfortunately, the island will not be available at the beginning and will only be opened later on.
Something unique to Path to Immortality will be that although there will be original skills for each class, players will also be able to create their own skills! As long as you make the proper movements that are acknowledged by the system, they will generate a new skill. For this system, we invited top martial artists from all over the world to receive their opinions and guidance.
As for the story, like I said previously the storyline will be different for each continent but the main goal will be like what the title states, walking the path to immortality! Become the strongest person, create an empire, and leave your name in history!”
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Even though the commentary continued on, Ji Sub didn’t hear the rest and was contemplating what he had already heard. Fully immersed VRMMORPG.. the idea of being able to fight monsters and go on a journey by himself was very intriguing to him. Ever since he was young, like all children his age, he dreamed of being a hero who fought against monsters. Also, the idea of leaving his name in history was tempting. Truthfully, who didn’t want to leave his mark on history?
As those thoughts ran through his mind, he felt a burning desire rise up in his body. Without even turning the TV off, he rushed over to his room. Once he went in, he turned on his laptop and began searching for any information he could find regarding the Neuro gear and the game Path to Immortality.
After searching the internet for an hour, he finally leaned back and let a sigh out. There were thousands of articles about the two topics. After reading through some of them, he now had more detailed knowledge, which made his desires burn even more. Still, he unexpectedly ran into two big issues.
The Neuro gear and Path to Immortality was planned to be released a month from now. From what he was saw, the gear itself costed a thousand dollars. There was no way he had that much money or that his parents would lend him that much. Also, the bigger problem was that it seemed that the Neuro gear was already sold out and had a large waiting list. As he thought of those two problems, he tried to think of ways to get past them; He wanted to start playing the game as soon as possible.
After contemplating the issues for a while, a potential resolve appeared in his mind and he immediately picked up his cell phone. After searching through his contact list, he finally found the number he was looking for and called.
“Hello?”
“Ji Won nuna, it’s me Ji Sub.”
“Oh, Ji Sub! It’s been a long time since nuna has talked to you! How have you been?”
“I’ve been good, nuna. Oh yeah, when will be coming home?”
“I’m glad to hear that. I just finished the first concert of my tour so I won’t be able to come home for another couple of months..”
The person that Ji Sub called was his older sister, Yim Ji Won. Ji Won had been spotted and recruited by a major Korean entertainment company to become a singer five years ago when she was a senior in high school. After training for two years, she began her singing career and recently just released her third album. With her captivating and emotion filled voice, she stole the hearts of millions of people all around the world and soon became a world star.
“Haa.. I see.”
“Yeah… anyways, what’s up? It’s pretty rare for you to call me. Is there something you need?”
“Oh yeah. Nuna, I was going to ask you for a big favor. Have you heard about the Neuro gear that’s coming out next month?”
“Neuro gear, huh? Of course I have. It’s all people been talking about these days. Ji sub ah, I thought you weren’t really interested in games?”
“Eh… I really wasn’t but this technology and the game seems to be very interesting. I was going to ask you if there was any way you could get a set for me?”
“Hmm…. You do know that it’s already sold out, right?”
“Yeah…”
When he heard what his sister said, his shoulders drooped a little. He had held a little hope that since his sister was a world famous singer and knew quite a lot of people she might be able to get the Neuro gear for him through back door means.
“Still, it is what my one and only younger brother wants. Nuna will find a way to get it for you, so don’t sound so depressed, okay?”
“Really, nuna?! You know a way to get one?”
“Haha actually, I got a call from Immortal Phoenix a couple of days ago asking if I could sing the opening theme for their video game. I was actually debating whether to accept the offer or not right now. Since it’s for my younger brother, I guess I’ll have to accept and just ask for a Neuro gear as payment.”
“Really?! Nuna, I love you.”
When Ji Won heard how excited Ji Sub was, she wasn’t able to help but chuckle a little. It had been a long time since she saw him so excited.
“Still, I can’t just let you get this for free. You have to promise nuna something, okay?”
“Eung, what is it?” (A/N: Eung means okay or yeah in korean)
“When I go back home, let’s go on a date, okay?”
Since Ji Won was such a popular singer, she was always travelling around the world due to commercials, advertisements, and her tours. Unfortunately the times she was back in Korea and at home were too few now. She dearly missed her brother and her parents. Before she was famous, she used to hang out together with her brother a lot, but since she became famous, those times slowly dwindled. She missed those times and thus made a decision to make that kind of condition. Ji Sub, on the other hand, was actually looking forward to being with his sister so agreed right away.
“Of course, nuna.”
“Eung. Ji Sub ah, nuna has to start practicing soon so I have to go.”
“Alright nuna, stay healthy and come home soon!”
“You too, Ji Sub. Tell mom and dad I love them.”
With those words, Ji Won hung up her phone. Right as she got off the phone, Hae Ri, her manager, spoke.
“So you’re going to take Immortal Phoenix’s offer, huh? I’ll let them know.”
“Eung. Unnie, ask them for two Neuro gears as payment please.” (A/N: Unnie is an informal way for girls to call older girls)
“Eh? I thought you were just going to get one for your little brother?”
“Yeah, I’m going to get one for him but I also want one. Even though I won’t be able to play as much, I can still meet up with Ji Sub in the game.”
“Ah, alright. I don’t think it’ll be a big issue.”
As Hae Ri walked out the room to contact Immortal Phoenix, Ji Won looked up to the ceiling.
“Mom, dad, Ji Sub. I can’t wait to see you all again…stay healthy until then.”