Chicken-Hearted, You Say? I Held It In!!
“You have to take this seriously!! We’re gamblers putting a hundred billion on the line!! Get it through your head like that, okay? Lose, and you lose a hundred billion. No—a trillion. No—ten trillion. A hundred trillion. You lose everything. It’s over. Your life is over.”
I poured out my burning heart as hard as I could.
I want to do this with a real punch. Not fake—real. I’m that serious. You can’t break my sincerity.
I mean… look. I ground the max score of thirty thousand points on three burner phones while I played this game, okay?
I want you to know how incredible that is!! I’m going to show you my sincerity, my passion.
“Whoa… you’re really staking your whole life. On just this?”
“Yes!! That’s how we do it!! Got it?”
“I… I can’t. I’m scared. I’m scaaared~. It’s too scary.”
“Ah. No!! I didn’t mean for real—I just meant we act like we’re serious. Augh, seriously!! Motteok-nim is a conservative. Right-wing. Motteok-wing.”
“What!? So what, you’re Left-Seona? Left-Jjang? Why are we suddenly doing politics. What is this!!”
“Ah, I’m a Left-Center-Rightist. For the record, do you know I actually put some thought into this one? Let me explain.”
Left-Center-Right.
It was a word I’d genuinely racked my brains to invent for blocking baseless attacks. It was perfect. It shut almost everything down.
When I made this word, I had yelled Eureka!!
“What is? What thing? Left-Center-Right? What are you even talking about?”
“I’ll explain right now. Write Left-Center-Right in Notepad and look at it. See it?”
I wrote Left-Center-Right in Notepad as I explained.
You might not get it just from looking. But once you hear the explanation, you’ll get it instantly.
I spoke with my whole heart.
“So, with center as the baseline, left-wing appears on the left and right-wing appears on the right—so why start with left-wing? Are you left-wing? This is the method that shuts that down completely. And if someone forces it with ‘Actually I read text from the right,’ you hit them right back with ‘Are you Japanese? Koreans read from the left.’ Amazing, right?”
“Oh… oh? That’s crazy?”
“Right? Bwahaahaha!!”
Explaining something I’d invented felt amazing.
So amazing that laughter just kept pouring out of me.
I didn’t even try to hold it back…!! The laughs just kept coming.
“Hahahahaha.”
“Bwahahahaha!! This is the best.”
“No, no. Heeheehee. No, no. Hwahaha. What’s so good? What. Hahaha.”
“It’s the best. You know the human needs pyramid, right? The second one. Res… respect? The need for esteem. Trying to have honor… uh. Hang on a second.”
I opened ChatGPT and dug up something I’d asked before.
It took about three minutes, and when I scrolled down, everything I’d ever asked GPT spilled out in a flood.
“In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, it’s the fourth stage, and uh… it means the desire to be recognized and respected by others… uh. You want to achieve things with your own ability and receive high evaluation. Uh… status, respect, recognition, honor… pride. Success… good things like that are included.”
“Oh. I see. Thanks, Jjang-ssaem.”
“Yep!! You learned well. Good good.”
I was helpful. Ehehehe. Today I got praised and I helped someone.
What a great day…!!
But that doesn’t mean I’m going easy on her in the game.
I’m always serious.
“So what map should we do?”
“Before we pick a map, Motteok-wing. Declare it. We’re playing with a gambler’s mindset!! I will commit with all my sincerity. I will be sincere enough to stake everything. Declare it!!”
“No. Why do you have to go that hard over this.”
“Because I’m going to be serious. I’m just going to thrash you completely. The game’s going to be so brutal the viewers will be shaking.”
I’m serious. I don’t want to see my sincerity get twisted.
Do you know how hurtful it is when I was serious and the other person wasn’t? It really hurts!!
Hah. This isn’t working. I’ll just have to show her with pure skill.
Even if they say I’m deflated, even if they say I’ve got no feel for it—I won’t forgive that. Watch. My skill.
Have I ever talked this confidently? Never. The only reason I can say this is… because I’m that sure of myself!!
“Fine. Just hurry up. You’ll know once we play. I won’t forgive you!!”
I’m going to punch for real.
I won’t forgive you. Motteok-nim. Even if it’s unfair, I won’t go easy.
I let my fighting spirit show.
“Here we go!! Duel!! It’s Seon, not Seona!! Ah. I’m second turn.”
Whether Seona’s confidence reached the dice or not, she won with absurd luck.
In the first and second matches, Motteok couldn’t do a thing in the face of Seona’s overwhelming fortune.
In the third match she fell behind early, but flipped it hard at the end.
“Yesss!! Ehehehe. Overwhelming victory. Unforgiving Seona is scary.”
“Whoa… this isn’t right. This is pure luck abuse.”
“Luck abuse!? This is skill.”
“This is totally luck abuse…”
“Where’s the luck abuse in a dice-rolling game!! It’s all skill. Ehehehe. See? I’m insanely good, right? Can’t breathe, can you?”
Buzzing with excitement, Seona checked the chat first.
“Ehehehe. If you call me a cheater in a game that’s pure luck… then I’m god-tier. Ehehehe.”
Seona couldn’t help but swagger.
Incredible luck was on her side.
The dice came out exactly the way she wanted. When she needed a six, a six landed; when she needed a three, a three landed. Even if someone claimed she’d rigged it, she’d walk free.
“Ehehehe. I won, right? Couldn’t breathe, right?”
“Yeah… you’re really good.”
“Ehehehe. Ehehehe.”
Seona just kept laughing, in too good a mood to stop.
Even she hadn’t expected to win this overwhelmingly.
She’d figured she’d play casually and still win, but it was so one-sided that… at first she was dazed, then Motteok’s reaction and the chat’s reaction made her mood shoot sky-high.
“I’m a pro. Ehehehe.”
“You really do seem like a pro.”
“Yep. That’s right. Ah, and I don’t forget. The wish ticket. I won’t forget. When are you giving it to me?”
Seona had issued enough wish tickets to know the drill.
If you let people forget, they ghost you. Let time pass and it all gets fuzzy.
So she had to lock it down.
“Please pay out within three days.”
“Pay out what?”
“Huh? The wish ticket. What was it again? Ah. Delicious food… I’ll change it to something else.”
“That’s not allowed. I’ll give you a delicious hamburger~”
“Hambugi… Tteokbugi…”
“Hey, don’t just slap ‘tteok’ onto everything. No.”
“Why? What’s wrong with Tteokbugi?”
“The sound of it is violent.”
Seona tilted her head. What’s wrong with Tteokbugi? It’s super cute and reliable.
Viewers said Seonbugi sounded bad, that Abugi had no foundation as a name, and when she tried Jjangbugi they said it didn’t inspire trust.
Compared to all that, Tteokbugi sat perfectly in Seona’s heart.
“Tteokbugi is really good. Tteok!!bugi. Bugi.”
“Don’t emphasize the tteok!!”
“Why? Tteok!!bugi. Bugi.”
“No!! Sto… stooop. Just call me Mobugi instead. Or Mabugi.”
“Mobugi is a copyright violation. You think the green one from the DP series is a pushover? That’s a masterpiece series. I played it too.”
“What are you even talking about!! Anyway, stop. Tteokbugi banned.”
“Hmm… Yep!! Understood!!”
Seona answered bright and firm.
She already had the Putting-Yourself-in-Others’-Shoes Grand Legislation (New-New) version equipped, so if she was told not to do something, she wouldn’t.
Technically it had been installed in the previous version too, but thanks to the more precise update she had gained the ability to stop on the spot.
Seona was flustered for a second, then adapted fast.
They’re doing this on purpose to dunk on me…!!
As if she’d understood everything, Seona let out a hearty laugh.
“Hahaha.”
“Why all of a sudden?”
“Ah, nothing. I just laughed.”
“Oh…”
“Anyway, not a hamburger—give me something else!! I’ll tell you what!!”
“Okay. Got it. So are we done?”
Seona hesitated for a moment at Motteok’s words.
With luck this good, she felt like she could win anything… Stake a car? Stake a house?
Delusions were just delusions.
And her parents had always said, Never, ever do gambling or drugs. Better to spend money stupidly.
She had carved that deep into her chest.
“Yep!! Honestly with luck this good I felt like I could stake a car or a house and still win? But Dad said never ever gamble, so I’ll stop here!!”
“What? Th… that’s scary. Wait, you’d stake a house? Actually scary. You’re trying to strip me for everything. I’m chicken-hearted so I can’t. I refuse.”
Seona furrowed her brow.
The reason was a truth she’d forgotten this whole time.
Motteok-nim should have a huge chest, right? Was it a fake chest?
No, it’s a real huge chest. It is!! But a huge chest can’t be a chicken heart.
A huge chest should have huge ambitions. Hmm.
But she only thought it. She didn’t let it leave her mouth.
Grown-up Seona can hold it in!! If she couldn’t hold it here, there was no point in having grown at all.
That would be admitting the whole growth was fake. She absolutely didn’t want that, so she clenched it down hard.
The urge to say it kept tightening, and tightening.
“Yep… understood.”
“Then later just tell me what you want to eat and I’ll send it.”
“Yep…”
“Good work. See you later~”
“Yeep!!”
Seona turned off Discord and her mic, then muttered to herself.
“Good job. Seona, good job. You grew!! Praise for not saying it. You have to eat ten marshmallows.”
She diligently patted the head of the self who had held back with such difficulty.
You have to give rewards or you’ll work even harder to keep it up. Seona believed that, and lived by it.
She praised a today that was better than yesterday.