Ki Ha stared at Da Son. "You are now husband and wife." Young nodded and handed Da Son the rope. "Keep it safe." Da Son nodded back. Ki Ha and Da Son turned to their guests. Ki Ha's family was all smiles, while Jinwoon and Sung Hoon had complicated looks on their faces.
Ki Ha himself felt complicated. When he left Sung Hoon's he didn't go straight home. He walked around the palace and capital before returning late in the night. He had found Da Son leaning at his door. The sight of her waiting for him gave him a strange feeling.
He had woken her up and promised that they would talk the next day. Da Son gave him a sleepy glare before going back. This time sleep didn't come easy. The next day he himself went to find Da Son. They had a long talk before he finally agreed.
"I can't believe my brother really got married." One of his younger siblings was staring at Da Son and Ki Ha. "How long do you think it will last?" The other started to snigger but stopped when they saw their father's face.
"I give it a year. I say she'll last 6 months." They were all whispering at each other. It wasn't that they disliked Ki Ha, it was just like Da Son had said. Nobody believed that Ki Ha could love another person or have a long relationship.
Jinwoon felt bad for Ki Ha. "Congratulations on your wedding." He and Sung Hoon had to leave soon. "Are you going on your honeymoon?" Ki Ha glanced at Da Son. "We are going to visit her family and have a small wedding there."
They bid everybody goodbye and before leaving. "I'll bet he'll return home without a wife." Ki Ha's younger sibling just couldn't stop making comments. Jinwoon turned to Sung Hoon. "Do you really think so?" Sung Hoon just shrugged.
~~~~~
In a room that was not part of any realm sat a being looking at the screen. There was a table lying in front of it with symbols flashing. The being was Tae Jinwoon, of course that wasn't it's real name. Over the eons it had many different names, so many that it didn't remember it's real name.
All it knew was it's true name; Zuoane. It remembered that it used to be just like all the mortal beings it would pick up. It didn't remember it's home planet, it's home country or anything that might tell it what it used to be. It didn't care anymore.
Zuoane was in human terms a gamer. It was responsible for four realms. It was it's duty to cultivate and manage these realms. After a while it had to compete with others to claim a new realm. The being with the most realm would win a chance to be reborn.
Zuoane used to be optimist and driven but after failing over and over again it was now playing just to stay in existence. Jinwoon was its last chance to stay in the game. If Jinwoon failed it would be annihilated and replaced by another being.
Zuoane still had some time to set up all it's pawns but it needed to hurry. It's four realms were still too far behind when it came to inhabitants and technology. It was wondering if it should inject coins into it's realms or if it should use a cheat when it got a message.
"Zuoane! Have you heard. The top player, Gwon has managed to be reborn. We're all moving a slot up." Zuoane didn't care. It was near the bottom. Another message came. Before he could press it away the message opened automatically."
"My dear friend, thanks to me beating you the whole time, I've managed to win a slot in the rebirth cycle. To repay you for being my main cheat and money realm, I'm giving you my coins and other power-ups. Use them well. Bye!"
Zuoane was wondering if he should be happy about this. It opened the attached link and it's mouth dropped. There were septillion [1x10(24)] in coins, trillion [1x10(12)] of power-ups and boost. 'No wonder, that Gwon beat me the whole time.
Winning really did give you good perks.' For the first time in eons, a genuine smile came across Zuoane's face. 'I might be able to win this time. I have a chance to stay in this damn game.' "Let's start developing my realms, then I'll try and capturing the realms around me."
~~~~~
Two months had gone by before Ki Ha and Da Son returned. Ki Ha's siblings were amazed that Ki Ha had managed to keep Da Son. Sung Hoon was secretly amazed too. The four of them were sitting in Sung Hoon's living room.
"Did you have a great time?" Da Son and Ki Ha both pulled a face. "It started out well but when we reached Yang all hell broke loose. Her family is weird." Ki Ha shot Da Son a look but she didn't get mad. "He finally understands.
Jinwoon was curious. "What happened?" Da Son turned to Ki Ha and they both gave a shudder. "It was horrible. My father asked Ki Ha about his other wives." Jinwoon and Sung Hoon didn't get it. "With us it's normal to have more than one wife."
"And with Ki Ha's age it is normal to have already two or three wives. My father was disappointed in Ki Ha and tried to find him a second wife." Sung Hoon started to laugh. "How did you manage to refuse him?"
Ki Ha glared at Sung Hoon. "We told him that it's frowned upon here. Her father acted like he understood but then he asked if we didn't want to stay and live in Yang. If I wasn't your advisor I would have become a citizen of Yang."
Jinwoon was holding back his laugh. "I'm sure you can laugh about it in the future." Da Son and Ki Ha looked at each other again and shook their heads. They had made it seem easy but it was actually a month spent screaming and yelling at her father.
Nobody knew but they had fled Yang in the dead of night. Jinwoon was looking at Ki Ha and Da Son, seeing that there was something going on. When all of a sudden there was a flash of light. When he opened his eyes, he was back in the white room.
"Hi there! Nice to see you again." Jinwoon stared at Tae Jinwoon. "What do you want?!" Tae Jinwoon gave him a toothy smile. "I wanted to notify you about some changes to your planet. Don't worry, nothing drastic." Jinwoon frowned, not trusting Tae Jinwoon.
"Did you have to bring me here to do it?" Tae Jinwoon nodded. "Yes. You're the anomaly in there. I can't change anything if you are still there." Jinwoon was scared to ask. "What are you changing?" Tae Jinwoon pointed at the screen.
"I've earned some money, so now I can bring my realm into 'modern time'. Jinwoon looked at the screen and his face fell. The ancient buildings were being replaced by familiar looking towers. He even saw satellites going into outer space.
"What about the people I've met?" Jinwoon's heart was aching thinking that he had lost Sung Hoon and his new friends. "I told you don't worry. They are still there. Time hasn't moved." Jinwoon felt a little better. As long as Sung Hoon and the others were there he didn't really care.
"Why are you doing this?" Tae Jinwoon was looking at his tablet, furiously tapping. "I need to conquer more realms." He said it like Jinwoon was asking a stupid question. "You and your lover are going to help me with that."
Jinwoon knew that he had little choice. "Yeah, of course. I will go into outer space and conquer a few planets or realm for you." Tae Jinwoon gave him a thumbs up. "That's the spirit!" Jinwoon rolled his eyes.
"Alright. Everything is set. When you return you'll have some special knowledge. You'll need that to find the realms that need to be conquered." Before Jinwoon could say another word, the white flash was back again.
He blinked a few times and noticed that he was sitting in a very modern room with Sung Hoon, Da Son and Ki Ha still sitting in the same setting. Jinwoon wanted to ask them a question. When everything turned black.