The Healing Solaris Cleric
Chapter 382: One Way (1)

Chapter 382: One Way (1)

Marco’s sudden use of Korean surprised both of them.

"You speak Korean too?"

At Jung-Woo’s question, Marco gave an awkward smile and said, "Ah... my apologies. What I said just now is about all the Korean I know."

Fluent English flowed from his lips.

"Would you interpret for me?"

Another woman stepped out of the car. She was a young and beautiful woman who served as Marco’s secretary.

She greeted them with a sharp, professional bow and said, "Hello. I’m Flora, CEO Marco Fredrick’s assistant."

Her voice was cold and professional.

“Right, hello."

"Nice to meet you."

As Jung-Woo and Ha-Rin offered their greetings somewhat hesitantly, still not understanding the situation, Flora spoke again, "This may be sudden, but would the two of you be able to spare us a moment of your time?"

***

After agreeing to the request, another sedan smoothly drove up to pick them up. They were headed toward Cheonhwa Hotel, which both Jung-Woo and Ha-Rin knew about—it was famous for the sky lounge which offered a full view of Seoul’s nightscape, and the two of them were led into a private room there.

"Hmm?"

"Huh?"

Waiting inside was not just Marco Fredrick.

"Welcome."

Also present was Dr. Jim, the man who had designed the Super A.I. Ramus—the very reason the virtual reality game MID Online could exist.

"Thank you both for making time for us," Marco offered them seats with a friendly smile.

Jung-Woo sat down and took a sip of water before asking, "Honestly, this is quite sudden. What’s this meeting about?"

After hearing the interpretation from Flora, Marco smiled. "Haha, that’s so like you, Kai... or should I say, Mr. Jung-Woo?"

He gestured to Flora and said, "Flora, please bring it in."

"Yes, sir," Flora gave a short nod and stepped out of the room.

Soon, a muscular man entered carrying a fairly large bag. Feeling slightly anxious, Jung-Woo subtly shielded Ha-Rin who was seated on the inside. However, the man simply placed the bag on the table and exited the room.

Dr. Jim opened the bag naturally and pulled something out.

"A laptop...?" Jung-Woo blinked and asked as he looked at what came out of the bag.

Marco powered on the device that looked like a laptop and said, "It’s not a laptop. You could call it a type of interpreter."

Hearing his fluent Korean again, Jung-Woo and Ha-Rin were once more surprised. Just earlier, his Korean had sounded terrible, but now it was perfect.

No, wait. He didn’t actually speak Korean.

The sound had come from the device called the interpreter. It had perfectly mimicked Marco’s voice which was why they had been mistaken. Realizing this, the two of them stared at the device called the interpreter.

"Do you know why players around the world can communicate so freely in MID Online?" Dr. Jim asked.

Jung-Woo shook his head.

"Super A.I. Ramus. That thing interprets all player speech in real time." He knocked on the translator with his finger. "This device contains a fragment of Ramus. Thanks to that, we’re able to talk now."

"That’s incredible. It’d be huge if it entered the market..."

"Unfortunately, it’s not cost-effective, and we can’t exactly release Ramus to the world."

"I guess that’s true."

This device contained a copy of Ramus. A treasure belonging to Pegasus, a company now valued at over one quadrillion won. It was no surprise they treated it with such care.

"Let me formally introduce myself again. I’m Marco Fredrick, CEO of Pegasus Corporation."

"Jim Lewis. Developer of Ramus and director of Project Miracle Dream."

"Haha, no need for fancy titles. Just say you’re Ramus’s dad."

Jung-Woo nodded. "I’m Han Jung-Woo."

"I’m Yoo Ha-Rin."

"Yes yes, of course. I know you both very well." Marco’s eyes sparkled. "It hasn’t been officially announced yet, but if the two of you ever return from the Demon Realm to the Middle Realm, you’ll still be ranked first and second globally. We’ve been keeping a close eye on you."

"That’s an honor to be under constant watch by the CEO of a global company." View the correct content at free.w e bn.ov(e)l(.)com.

"Not at all. I’m more thrilled to be having a conversation with the world’s most famous players." Marco took a small sip of coffee and continued, "Let me be direct. The reason we’ve asked to meet you today is because of the Demon Realm."

The Demon Realm. At those words, both of their expressions changed. Even with the CEO of a global company in front of them, their gaze held the confidence of top-ranking players who didn’t back down.

Yes, those are the eyes I expected.

Marco showed a bitter smile and politely continued, "To be honest, the Demon Realm currently serves as this game’s endgame content. It was a region that wasn’t meant to open for another two years at least."

"If you’ve been watching us so closely, you should know. We didn’t go there by choice."

"Yes... we’re more aware of that than anyone."

"What do you mean?"

As both of them tilted their heads in confusion, Marco let out a sigh as he apologized, “You know that Goliath and Sting advanced to Mythic classes, right?”

“Of course. We took them down ourselves.”

Dr. Jim then helped Marco, who let out a sigh and couldn’t easily continue speaking. He tightly shut his eyes and lowered his deeply wrinkled face.

“We’re sorry. The company drastically lowered the difficulty for Mythic class advancement.”

At first, a dumbfounded expression appeared on Jung-Woo’s face, which then turned into a hint of anger. “You’ll need to explain that clearly. You drastically lowered the advancement difficulty. What does that mean?”

“It means exactly what it says.” Marco continued the explanation, “At the time, the two of them were undergoing the Mythic job class advancement quests. We firmly believed they could rival you, Mr. Jung-Woo... so we quietly patched the conditions to make it easier.”

“You call that an explanation...?!” Jung-Woo erupted in anger.

That was clearly cheating and a move that destroyed the balance of the game.

“Do you understand that Pegasus has broken its own promise made at the launch of MID Online?”

“Yes, I do.”

At the launch of MID Online, Pegasus had made no special announcements. Even though it was the world’s first large-scale online VR game, they had said just one thing:

[The administrators will not interfere with the game. Everything will be a world shaped by the players.]

Freedom. Pegasus had promised freedom within the world of MID Online. A world freely created by the players. That was MID Online’s only true identity.

Yoo Ha-Rin, who had been quietly listening, spoke up, “If word of this spreads publicly, Pegasus will suffer massive damage.”

But Marco accepted her words with more composure than expected. “We are aware. Yet, we still chose to bring it up.”

He was a businessman, and a businessman must always be good with numbers and have a sharp grasp of the market.

But a true businessman...

Before reading the market or calculating profits, must first win the trust of their partners. Revealing everything to prevent even the smallest misunderstanding or mistrust, that was what Marco Fredrick believed to be the foundation of being a businessman.

A businessman who cannot win the heart of even one client could never hope to win the hearts of people around the world.

He openly revealed their faults and apologized with confidence. “I am truly sorry. I have nothing to say for that part. It was clearly our fault.”

No one said a word for a moment. Dr. Jim and Marco waited in silence like people standing trial.

“In that case...” Yoo Ha-Rin broke that silence. “Does that patch also have something to do with me receiving a Mythic class?”

“Hmm...” Marco looked at Dr. Jim.

It was outside the scope of what he personally knew.

“That’s right.” Dr. Jim answered confidently. “You may not know this, but you were originally supposed to acquire Inquisitor of Kal Rashya—a hidden class at the Hero mark. But you ended up getting a Mythic class instead.”

“So that was because of the patch?”

“Originally, Paladin of Kal Rashya had very strict advancement requirements. If the Inquisitor of Kal Rashya first revived the church, then one was set to be able to obtain the class called Paladin of Kal Rashya in a future main episode called Forgotten Gods. However...”

“She obtained a Mythic class before the church was even revived.” Strictly speaking, Yoo Ha-Rin had also unknowingly benefited from their silent patch, but that wasn’t the point from Jung-Woo’s perspective. “You will have to compensate her for this.”

“Of course. Absolutely. We fully admit fault for this issue and will honor your requests as much as possible, Mr. Jung-Woo.”

Fortunately, Marco turned out to be more generous than expected, and clearly admitted to their mistake. Thanks to that, Jung-Woo’s anger somewhat calmed down and he decided to settle the matter with appropriate compensation.

“Then let’s get back to the main topic.”

One mountain after another. Even though Marco had just climbed a fairly high mountain, he felt a slight exhaustion at the sight of an even higher one ahead.

“The Demon Realm content. It’s crucial endgame content for MID Online. You’ve already killed one of the Archdukes. Kinessa of the South, I believe.”

“There was no other choice. I can’t exactly let myself die for the sake of game content, can I?”

“Of course not. But because of that, our development team is in chaos right now.” Marco let out a faint sigh. “I’ll say this since it’s been brought up, but our company’s development team sees you as our nemesis. They even start their workday chanting ‘Down with Kai.’”

“Huh? Why do they dislike me that much?” Jung-Woo asked with an innocent look as if he truly had no idea.

Marco stared at him in disbelief. “Are you seriously asking that...? Just think of all the quests you’ve destroyed so far.”

“Hm, I don’t really remember anything about that.”

He decided to play dumb for now, but Marco turned out to be much more meticulous than expected.

“I thought you might say that so I prepared something.” He pulled out a sheet of paper from his pocket and began to read it aloud. “1,524 quests related to the merfolk. 1,712 for the elves. 1,859 for the dwarves. 21 quests deleted due to Lucifer’s death. 210 from Zirukan’s death. 2,108 quests involving the birdfolk... Including other minor ones and the Demon Realm, you alone have deleted over 10,000 quests.”

Jung-Woo had nothing he could say about this one and kept his mouth tightly shut.

Even Yoo Ha-Rin, sitting beside him, glanced at him and muttered. “Oh, that is a bit...”

Even though she considered herself his girlfriend, she (a hardcore gamer who loved clearing quests) couldn't take his side on this one.