Chapter 89
Chapter 89
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 89
Chapter Title: The Peculiar Otaku
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Otaku Bale was truly a peculiar man.
His height was around 165 cm?
His weight was probably pushing close to 100 kg, several times mine.
If he went for a health checkup, the nurse would no doubt chew him out for severe obesity.
And from how much he'd suffered over the years, even the top of his head was bald.
His chronic condition—hair loss—was in full swing.
"...Who're you?"
"……"
He was even stranger than I'd imagined.
But every now and then, geniuses emerge from types like this. The program he'd pieced together was something on another level entirely. It was beyond what any one person should be capable of, like he'd shattered the limits of human achievement.
"Yes, sir. Could you send that over?"
Hope Delivery Guy or whatever—none of that mattered now.
I glanced at Jin-seong, who had the good sense to apologize to his viewers and pause the stream.
‘Holy shit, it's insane!’
It hit me like a shaman who'd spent over twenty years in the mountains finally catching the scent of that fat wild ginseng she'd been dreaming of. A unique energy pierced my senses.
‘No, snap out of it...’
I immediately called Seo Kyung-hwan and soon received via email the program that had been a thorn in Vigang Systems' side.
"Mr. Oh Deok-bae."
"...Who're you?"
Oh Deok-bae tilted his head innocently with wide eyes.
From the chat comments, he'd seemed to have a bit of that tough-guy vibe at first glance, but nothing could be further from the truth.
He was genuinely pure-hearted.
"If you refine the program here, I'll pay you 50 million won."
"Huh? Do-jun hyung, what do you...?"
"Bukppudeupppu oppa, f-fifty million!?"
Sorry, but even 50 million was peanuts.
This puzzle was uncharted territory—even KAIST, the nation's top science university, hadn't made progress in five years.
It might have been a misjudgment on my part.
The kind of thing that had Vigang's rising research team shaking their heads and giving up...
"I solved it all..."
"...Pardon?"
"I untangled all the knots."
"!"
Incredibly, he'd fixed it perfectly in just ten minutes.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "Hey, go buy me some bread."
"...?"
"Goddamn it, you pig-eyed retard! I'll gouge your fucking eyes out! Just go buy it!"
"Uh, okay..."
The classroom was packed with kids in school uniforms.
Not wanting to take a beating, Oh Deok-bae reluctantly nodded and headed to the canteen, a crumpled thousand-won bill already shoved into his hand by the bully.
As he walked, he muttered quietly to himself.
Things would be different once he grew up.
But reality had other plans.
Even after graduating high school with top grades and getting into a prestigious engineering university, he was forced to stop there at the high-school level.
Because his only parent—his father—went to prison.
The charge: fraud.
The neighborhood never let him forget it, calling him the son of that swindler. Already introverted, he tossed his acceptance letter in the trash and became a shut-in hikikomori.
"Hehe~"
Surprisingly, making ends meet was no issue.
Whether by heaven's will or innate talent, he earned a living solving programming commissions from companies. Code flowed from his fingertips like water, always leaving clients thrilled.
"Won't you consider joining Ilseong?"
"...Who're you?"
"...Then how about a private contract? We'll pay triple the usual fee per job. But no other companies..."
Click!
Oh Deok-bae hung up on the Ilseong rep without a second thought.
He belonged to no one.
He feared meeting people that much.
"This is HT Group. Join us, and we'll offer a 300 million signing bonus with a consultant position..."
"Hunyeon Soft here. We reviewed your email. The server runs flawlessly now. Please apply officially to this recruitment..."
Top companies in the country relentlessly courted him, but he always rebuffed them coldly.
And he had one wish.
To make a friend.
Since school days, he'd had zero friends—not even a glimpse. Watching classmates chat and laugh as they left after class filled him with envy.
He lacked for nothing materially, but his heart was cold and empty.
Until he turned thirty.
That day, as usual, while tackling a company commission, he stumbled on an internet broadcast. With six monitors anyway, he multitasked work with movies, anime, and hobbies.
What a room-bound hikikomori loved most? Stimulating streams, of course.
And at the pinnacle of those thrills was streamer Jin-seong.
"Hahaha..."
Internet broadcasts made hard days fade away.
Even his fraudster dad rotting in jail slipped his mind.
It was a tiny room, barely a few pyeong, but it had everything—or rather, he could indulge any whim. The rush of fiddling with code to his heart's content, finally cracking a months-old puzzle, was indescribable.
"Oh? Hope Delivery Guy?"
A mundane moment he'd normally scroll past.
But today, unusual courage welled up.
"Should I try? If I go on Jin-seong's stream, will I finally have a friend?"
Oh Deok-bae murmured, unwittingly telling himself a white lie.
He'd been called "skinny" by a girl in his childhood.
His mom.
She'd fled their drunken, rutting father's street rages, but that was a minor detail. To meet Jin-seong, he racked his brains and won a spot as first-time story submitter.
"Yesssss! Meeting Jin-seong!"
He screamed.
Finally face-to-face with the idol he'd only seen on-screen.
But.
Even after meeting him, no time for chit-chat—he tinkered with programming.
Because of one guy.
"I solved it all..."
"...Pardon?"
"I untangled all the knots."
"!"
How could something so simple stump them?
Especially that big-eyed man's pupils trembling like aspen leaves.
Word was, this was Vigang Systems' hot new headache.
Why couldn't they solve it?
Wasn't it just a shift in perspective?
The issue from Vigang stemmed from the flight controller. Using IMU—inertial measurement—for gyro data to determine drone position and orientation, then signaling the lead drone.
The comms module for drone-to-drone data clashed with the IMU.
Oh Deok-bae pondered as he tweaked the code.
Drones sure are fun.
YouTube and news always hyped how they dominated modern wars.
He couldn't fathom why militaries couldn't just shoot down these toys.
His curiosity ignited.
"Easy. Just tweak it like this, that, and boom—done."
"...Pardon? What do you...?"
"See, do this, then that, add this—it's over. Can't believe they complicated something so straightforward."
"……"
No one but him got the detailed explanation.
With a deep sigh, Oh Deok-bae broke it down slowly, step by step.
And watched the tangled AI data algorithm unravel in a flash.
A sharp scream escaped Kim Do-jun.
"I-Impossible!"
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Vigang Systems headquarters.
The newly joined researchers buzzed about busily.
CEO Seo Kyung-hwan paced his office anxiously day after day. Solve this Vigang riddle, and DJ01's power would multiply.
Currently, DJ01 let one soldier control over twenty drones at once. With production scaled up, that meant outnumbering foes 20-to-1, more efficiently and sophisticatedly.
"S-Sir!"
"Yes? How'd it go?"
"W-Well..."
"...It failed?"
"N-No, not failed—it's working too well, that's the problem."
"What're you talking about?"
Senior researcher Lee Dae-hwi, Vigang's most veteran, couldn't hide his shock.
"DJ01's issue was multi-unit ops. Untraceable RF interference or bandwidth shortages caused latency, leading to control failures."
"Right. That's why everyone's pulling all-nighters. Worse in urban or mountainous terrain than plains."
Tests continued.
But drones sometimes veered off inexplicably.
They'd dissected it endlessly, to no avail—until some random guy cracked it.
"Yes. Jamming vulnerability was a risk, but that's gone now—completely."
"!"
Drones had endless value.
But limits too.
External interference, complex terrain—military ones especially had to evade high-end air defenses to hit targets.
Thus, the key was precise simultaneous control capacity.
Without it, you'd spam cheap decoy drones for confusion.
But that wasn't Vigang's goal.
"That Oh Deok-bae guy?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Can we scout him?"
"...What?"
Lee Dae-hwi had strong pride, despite appearances.
KAIST grad—nation's best.
No pride would be weirder.
Vigang, packed with KAIST elites, lagged in corporate structure vs. giants, but future potential was unmatched.
Competitors like Ilseong and Daeyoung scrambled for them.
No denying: these researchers were Korea's finest.
"Recruit Oh Deok-bae to Vigang?"
"Yes. Parachute hire, sure—but one genius changes the world. History's full of examples."
"True."
"I'll handle telling the regular hires. Competition won't hurt them. Rivals drive growth."
"Dae-hwi, you okay with that?"
"Huh?"
"If someone like that joins..."
Lee Dae-hwi knew exactly what Seo Kyung-hwan meant.
Companies run on results.
Even as Vigang founding pillar, if a threat arrived, his clout might not shield him forever.
Yet he smiled brightly.
"Don't researchers chase one thing? Curiosity and discovery. Watching humanity's knowledge advance firsthand is reward enough."
"Dae-hwi..."
"Hyung-nim!"
He called him "hyung-nim"—not CEO—for the first time in ages.
"For Vigang, set personal ties aside. Focus on one thing."
Lee Dae-hwi spoke with utter conviction.
"To you, Vigang comes first—not me."