VRMMO Reality Merge Regressor Brother - 2

Many hours later.

After completing his homework, followed by an intense cramming session, Min Woo-Jin felt completely drained.

Reincarnation came by pure luck (probably). He wasn't a genius. The good grades that he got were a result of his diligent studying habits.

After experiencing death once, studying was surprisingly easy. Boring to the extreme, but easy.

Faint smells coming from the kitchen confirmed his parents' arrival. Neither his big bro, nor his lil sis could cook to save their lives.

'What an embarrassment for descendants of a noodle shop…'

Min Woo-Jin decided to knock some (cooking) sense into them at the first opportunity.

The laughter of his siblings was the first thing he noticed as he approached the kitchen. His mother's fake angry tone, combined with his father's giggling muffled by the usual kitchen clatter, brought a smile to Min Woo-Jin's face.

Their home never felt this merry since his big brother started dating the infamous gold digger!

"Min. Woo. Jin!"

Upon realizing his mother was calling his name, with a not-so-fake angry tone, Min Woo-Jin immediately started evaluating whether he did something wrong!

"Brother is here!" Min Yoon-Ah shouted while peaking outside the kitchen.

A crisp command came from the kitchen in response. "Come here."

Min Woo-Jin entered, and slowly sat down on a seat facing his mother, who had her arms crossed.

"Are you going to explain yourself?" She said with a dangerously steady voice.

On the side, his brother was smiling, his sister was barely holding back her giggles, while his father had already turned his back on the whole ordeal.

"Um…" Min Woo-Jin stammered. "… W-What did I do?"

For a moment, it felt as if his mother's eyes twinkled with violent intent. Was it just a figment of his imagination? Min Woo-Jin thought that was certainly the case. Probably.

Then, she spoke one word. "Cabins."

"… Oh. Oooh…" Min Woo-Jin understood it wasn't a serious issue. 'Cabins. Plural. F*ck, I thought they discovered my R21 modifications…'

In any case, the situation wasn't the worst case he feared!

"Well…" Though he looked around, it was obvious no one was going to plead for him. "… They were already in stock, and since I own half the company, I only pay for manufacturing costs…"

His mother tilted her head slightly. "Three. Hundred. Million." She annunciated each word. "Is that the manufacturing cost?"

Cracks appeared in Min Chungho's smile, while Min Yoon-Ah completely froze.

The former knew a cabin would be expensive, let alone four of them. But he also knew all current currencies would lose their value completely after the reality merge. So what if his little brother spent a large amount on the cabins? This was an investment for the future!

But he didn't expect everything would cost 300 million Won!

That was… not an insignificant amount of money! He felt compelled to advise his little brother about excessive spending habits! Thankfully, their mother was already doing just that. Even if it was completely right and correct, this choice wasn't made with foreknowledge!

Min Yoon-Ah on the other hand, silently compared that number to her own allowance, which was only 150 thousand Won a month! She had also overheard that one of her friend's family was paying 2 million Won for rent. Per month!

300 million… Could it be that her mother made a mistake, and added an extra zero or two?

Min Woo-Jin cleared his throat. "Technically speaking, this is a business expense…"

Han Ji-Eun, his mother, still didn't budge.

"Mom, this was a long time coming. If even my family won't use them, how can I continue owning half the company in good conscience?"

Finally, she sighed. "This is the money you've earned, so I won't say anything. But you should not spend it so frivolously! 1.2 billion Won! How can you still go to college if you keep spending like that every day?"

Min Woo-Jin smiled. "I won't spend so much money in the future mom. You know I'm prepared in case of a second VR crash. But this time it was necessary." Seeing her deepening frown, he pressed on. "You keep refusing to take breaks or vacations … If I don't take radical measures, you'd continue working non-stop until your 120s!"

"Pffft!"

Han Ji-Eun's face blackened upon hearing her husband's barely-contained giggling. "Alright, fine." She finally gave up with a sigh.

"Honey, little Woo-Jin is right. We've did all we could with the wedding, so let's relax tonight, mm?" Min Jaesang wrapped Han Ji-Eun in his arms.

As the atmosphere returned to normal with Han Ji-Eun's embarrassed smile, Min Woo-Jin heard his sister's voice from behind.

"Oppa."

'… The f*ck?!'

"Oppa, let your cute little sister give you a shoulder massage!"

"Stop stop stop! Don't use the O word with me!" Min Woo-Jin tried to prevent his lips from curling upwards to the best of his ability.

They talked about the wedding next door for the rest of the dinner. The entire family has been helping for the past two weeks, so it was the obvious hot topic.

Once they moved to the living room with fruits, Min Chungho unconsciously dragged his little brother away. "Hey, did you really pay 1.2 billion Won?" He asked with a low voice.

Min Woo-Jin understood his big brother's surprise. The entire family knew his investment venture was successful, but only his parents knew of the extent.

'Well, 1.2 billion Won… Should be a little more than 1.2 million dollars in my past life… That is kind of excessive…'

His affirmative nod caused his big brother to deeply sigh.

Min Chungho felt that life… had been really unfair for his little brother! The reality merge had wiped off all trace of his success, and would do so yet again! If only Min Woo-Jin lived in normal times, he would've lived a happy life…

There were many things that he wanted to say, but… now wasn't the time. Min Chungho forced a smile and patted his little brother's shoulders. Then spoke the words that he wished he had uttered before his regression. "Well done."

In response, Min Woo-Jin smiled.

Though his big brother was receptive, and supportive of his family before he started dating, today was something else. Min Woo-Jin was sure that something earth-shattering had happened to his brother. The sudden personality change didn't make any sense otherwise.

And, to make matters even more bizarre, it seemed as if his big brother was aware of the personality change, and was giving his best effort to hide it from them.

'… Idiot, good luck hiding anything from me, let alone mom...'

However, since his brother didn't want to address the issue, Min Woo-Jin wouldn't push him.

'Well, what's the worst that could happen? It's not like he became a regressor or something, right? What's this, a web novel all of a sudden?'

The idea was just laughable. What were the odds of having a reincarnator and a regressor in the same family?

The rational explanation for Min Chungho's regret was simply the recent fights he had with the family. In fact, Min Woo-Jin was quite impressed that his big brother was able to make up with their little sister this quickly.

"Big brother…" While peeling an apple, Min Yoon-Ah used English 'big brother' instead of Korean. "Shouldn't we get into the queue? I heard the game had billions of pre-orders."

Min Chungho exaggeratedly frowned. "Big brother? So distant… Why not Oppa?" Seeing that Min Yoon-Ah rolled her eyes, he chuckled. "They have amazing servers, or so I heard. There's no use in waiting in queue beforehand." Then he turned to his parents. "What are you planning on playing?"

Min Woo-Jin raised his head and waited for their response. Both his mom and dad had a rare twinkle in their eyes.

Han Ji-Eun glanced at her husband with a complex, but clearly excited gaze. Min Jaesang held her hand, his smile seemed to hold back many memories.

Min Woo-Jin realized that he had made a mistake. If it wasn't for his big brother, he wouldn't be able to see his parents so excited.

The one constant of this life that separated it from the previous, was his family.

"Well…" Min Jaesang's smile transformed into a smirk. "We might dust off the old punisher build…"

Han Ji-Eun buried herself in her husband's arms. "It's been a while…"

Min Yoon-Ah rolled her eyes. "Hello. Your children are watching..."

Min Chungho seemed surprised, but he didn't let it reflect on his voice. "Adventurer mode should be what you want then. Peasant mode is for casual roleplaying, you can still choose to become adventurers of course, but you'd need to travel to border cities first."

"There are different modes?" Asked Min Woo-Jin.

"Yes. The final mode is the Ruler. Anyone can choose it during launch, but it is a time-limited mode. The gameplay it offers is also really hard and different compared to others." Seeing that everyone was waiting for an explanation, Min Chungho obliged. "Ruler mode starts you as a noble and expects you to develop the land. But NPCs are unpredictable, and many of them are treacherous. Especially non-humans. On top of that, dying in Ruler mode deletes your character. It's like the hardcore modes of older games."

Min Woo-Jin nodded. "Let me guess, you will choose the Ruler mode."

"… I…" Min Chungho didn't even try to answer, he just nodded with a wry smile.

'… There's no way he regressed or something, right?' The more Min Woo-Jin heard about Mysteries Online, the more he remembered the old VRMMO web novels from his past life. 'So many coincidences… What are the odds?'

"I'll choose adventurer!" Exclaimed Min Yoon-Ah. "And become the most powerful Sorceress!"

'… Well, she's at that age. She's even going to eighth grade…'

Everyone smiled, but no one noticed how Min Chungho's body froze.

The Grand Sorceress of his previous life was just a little girl right now.

When the time hit 8:50PM, the family finally started heading to their cabins.

Min Woo-Jin happily watched his parents trying to hide their childlike excitement.

He felt some regret that he didn't bring in some cabins in the past and dealt with the aftermath. But getting to this point wasn't easy, and if he were hasty, perhaps his parents would've refused altogether. He didn't know what magic his big brother used to convince them, but he was glad that it happened.

His sister Min Yoon-Ah was also excited. Which was rather odd. But Min Woo-Jin understood once he overheard her conversation with Min Chungho.

"Don't forget your promise!" The little girl said. "You'll power level me to 50!"

Min Woo-Jin shook his head. 'She always hated grinding levels, no wonder she's excited and even forgave him so fast…'

Seeing his family in such harmony, Min Woo-Jin's mood improved tremendously.

At the same time, Min Chungho kissed his sister on the cheeks while ignoring her protests. "I will." He said. 'I will never break my promises ever again.' He thought.

The time was 8:58PM. Everyone but Min Chungho had logged in.

'I kept recommending them the Judgment, hopefully they'll select that one. People used to complain that answering questions would turn them into humans…'

Being human was important, because it would reduce the conflicts after the reality merge. Heaven ranked breathing skill that Min Chungho had would also be able to strengthen their souls. A secret technique that only the privileged had access to in his previous life. But this time around, not only him, but his family too, would reap the benefits!

'… I guess I'll have to work on convincing Woo-Jin later.'

His brother was the only one that he was concerned about. As a full-dive VR aficionado, he would probably skip the Judgement altogether and select a race based on looks.

Min Chungho finally logged in. The game had already launched, and 1.2 billion people had logged in during the first minute.

But that wasn't important!

[Select your path]

-------------------------------

[1. Ruler]

[2. Adventurer]

[3. Artisan]

[4. Peasant]

Within the gray void surrounding him, Min Chungho selected Ruler without hesitation.

[Entering the World of Mysteries]

[…]

[Launching Character Selection]

[…]

[Welcome, Player!]

[Please remember to be mindful of your manners!]

Min Chungho knew that gods were somehow involved in creation of this projection. He always found it funny in retrospect that they would ask them to mind their manners.

Another set of menus appeared as he was deep in thought.

[Character Creation Methods]

[1. Judgment (Recommended for Beginners!)]

[Answer questions from the God of Fate, and automatically select a race and class. Includes hidden races and classes not available in other modes.]

[2. Character Templates]

[Choose your path from the carefully curated templates.]

[3. Custom Character]

[Opportunity to craft every aspect of your character!]

Min Chungho selected the first option without even thinking.

He wasn't concerned about hidden races or classes. Getting judged by gods would allow his soul to get accepted by the world faster.

Surroundings dimmed, and a voice reverberated in Min Chungho's head.

|What is life?|

Though he couldn't see anything, he felt as if he was in the presence of something higher than himself. A being that was fundamentally different, was now judging him!

There was no correct answer, because Judgment would differ from person to person. Even if someone that got a rare class recorded their answers, it was useless for anybody else.

"Power." Min Chungho answered. Without power, he would experience the same painful events. Power, overwhelming power was his sole objective in this life!

|What is power?|

The androgynous voice asked once again. Though the voice level stayed the same, Min Chungho thought as if its strength increased.

"Power is the ability to protect my loved ones."

Silence ensued. Was the God of Fate truly judging him right now? Min Chungho didn't know. His knowledge of the fundamentals came from hearsay; his paygrade in the previous timeline just wasn't high enough. Gods were truly involved in some way, but the true extent… that was anybody's guess!

|So be it!|

A flash of light nearly blinded Min Chungho. By the time he was able to see, he found himself standing in the middle of green steppes with no civilization in sight. The sound of the wind, howling across the empty plains slowly increased as his soul became accustomed to his new body.

Without delay, he confirmed his status.

[Name: Min Chungho]

[Race: Human]

[Sex: Male]

[Age: 20]

[Class: Spearman]

[Level: 1]

[XP: 0/250]

[Talents:]

--------------------------------

[Heavenly Martial Constitution]

"Heavenly Martial Constitution…" Min Chungho smiled.

He had no talent in the past! Did the Gods acknowledge his determination this time around?

'No matter. Levels, skills, talents, items, they will all disappear anyway…'

Once the reality merge happened, everyone would revert to their basic races. Any advancement made through the game system would be for naught. Almost any…

This was also why Min Chungho never even thought of investing Earth currency into the game.

'Still, game levels are still useful for the next 2 years. I can make a secret stash on this world and retrieve the "real" items once the portal storm subsides.'

Though Game System items would disappear, real items crafted by the world's residents naturally wouldn't. "Real" items were burdensome for players since they couldn't place them in their inventories.

Back then, only those in the know had made secret stashes in preparation for the reality merge.

Min Chungho smiled. "Let's begin!"