The Money Duplication Event
80% chance to receive 160 million won
vs
75% chance to receive 320 million won
“Whoa…”
The numbers had ballooned in an instant. Sure, there was a chance of walking away empty-handed — but eighty percent? That wasn’t going to fail. At the very least, I could ride this down to fifty before things got truly dicey, right?
Staring at the absurdly inflating sum, I found myself entranced, copying the second option into the chat window over and over again.
…
65% chance to receive 1.28 billion won
vs
60% chance to receive 2.56 billion won
“Hah… hah… Should I stop?”
Even if I quit here, I already had a little over 1.2 billion. That would double my net worth overnight. A twenty-something billionaire.
“Just five percent more…?”
One more step and I could earn that much again.
“Hah…”
I typed it into the chat first, then decided to sit with it a while.
“Sixty percent… that’s still doable, right?”
“No, probability aside — 1.2 billion is already more than enough…”
An agonizing moment of pure indecision. And all the while, the timer was bleeding out without mercy.
“Huh?!”
After stewing for what felt like forever, I glanced at the chat — and there were only four seconds left. Panicking, I had no choice but to hit send on the sentence I’d already typed.
60% chance to receive 2.56 billion won
vs
55% chance to receive 5.12 billion won
“Huff… huff…”
Now I really had to stop. If I failed after this, it would feel like I’d lost money. Maybe it was already too late.
“Yeah… still, sixty percent should land.”
I’d be content with 2.56 billion. My sense of financial scale had clearly gone completely off the rails, but there was nothing I could do about that now.
“5.12 billion…”
That five-billion figure kept snagging my eye, but if I gave in there’d be no end to it. I steeled myself and hammered the keys with trembling fingers.
“Fuu…”
Send.
“…”
I fired off the KokoaTalk message, but this time no reply came. That was how it was supposed to work. What I needed to check now wasn’t this chat window.
It was the Kokoa Pay window.
If the sixty-percent roll had succeeded, the money would already be sitting there. I closed KokoaTalk and immediately pulled up a search engine.
Is a 60% chance actually high?
A flood of titles popped up.
Nothing but ominous headlines as far as the eye could see.
“No. Fuck that. I’m different.”
Further searching was pointless. I just opened KokoaTalk and checked.
“Uuugh—!!!”
Randomize my face… check the future and buy crypto…
None of that. One click. 2.5 billion won.
“Holy shit, for real!”
“Holy shit! 2.5 billion!”
There was no one to share this joy with, no one to brag to, and the feeling just wouldn’t settle. Of course nobody around me knew I was this rich — and even if they did, there was no way I could explain that I’d just clicked my way into 2.5 billion with zero effort.
I wanted to tell at least one person about the Balance Game. But I’d never once seen a novel where revealing something like this ended well, so of course I had no intention of going public. Someday I hoped the Balance Game would hand me an ability that forced people to keep secrets.
I couldn’t tell the truth and share the joy — but something good had happened all the same, and one person floated to the top of my mind first.
“Hello?”
“Ajeong? When are you getting here?”
“I’m almost there!”
“I’ll come pick you up.”
I threw on some pants and headed out of the building.
“Woohyun~!”
In the distance, Ajeong came into view, waving both arms wildly as she approached. I broke into a run and pulled her into a hug.
“Eek!”
“It’s so hot. Was the walk rough?”
“It was close, so I was fine! Let’s go already!”
On the way back to my place, Ajeong was dripping with sweat — but she never once let go of my hand.
“Hwaah~ So cool!”
Good thing I’d blasted the AC before heading out. I’d done it for Ajeong’s sake, but even the short trip outside had left me sweating.
“What should we do today?”
Ajeong had already claimed the bed as her natural territory. She lay on her stomach, looking up at me as she asked.
“Let’s do that one today. Plant Valley.”
“Is it on sale??”
“No.”
Most paid games ran discounts at specific times of year, so buying at full price always felt like a loss — people usually waited for a sale. We’d planned to do the same. But there was no need for that anymore.
Buying a game at full price only cost you a few tens of thousands of won more than the sale price. And when it came to spending the 2.56 billion I’d just scored, I’d already decided to be reckless about it.
Just pretend there’d been a forty-percent chance I never got it in the first place.
“I’ll buy it for you~”
“Really? You don’t have to…”
“I want to play it right now. And honestly, I already bought it.”
“You did? Then I should get mine too.”
Looking resigned, Ajeong got up from the bed and sat down at the computer.
“I already bought yours too, I told you.”
“Huh? How?”
“You logged in last time and left it open.”
“Hup! Thank you…”
I gave a soft smile to the look of pure gratitude on her face.
No need to thank me, Ajeong… this isn’t even my money.
The game finished installing in no time and I figured we were ready to go — until Ajeong stopped me.
“Woohyun, do we need more patches for this?”
“Huh?”
“You didn’t know? You have to install mods and put skins on too.”
“Ah~ Really?”
“Yep! I’ll do it. I looked it all up ahead of time.”
Ajeong scooted over beside me and started installing things with practiced ease. She’d clearly been looking forward to this a lot. She’d done all this research and still somehow managed to hold out for a sale.
“You were really excited, huh?”
“Yeah… I want to play it already.”
I poked her repeatedly as she worked diligently on my computer.
“Hngh, stop~ Done! I’m inviting you now, just accept.”
What kind of game needed this much extra installation? The stuff we’d added on top was somehow larger than the base game itself. Thirty minutes later, we were finally ready to start.
It wasn’t a game that needed sound-based play, so we didn’t bother with headphones.
“Woohyun, what should we name ourselves?”
“Hmm… just two syllables from our names?”
“Okay!”
Character names were the first decision. Since it was a cozy story game, using our own names would make it easier to get immersed. Two-syllable nicknames were also the classic way to go.
After settling on names, we each started customizing our characters. They were tiny pixel sprites, so the options weren’t as extensive as I’d expected — it didn’t take long.
“Woohyun, I’m done!”
“Yeah, I’m next door.”
A game about moving to a backwater village and farming. Naturally, the protagonist started with a plot of land, and a house was already built on it from the jump.
“What the— is this you?”
“Yeah. You made yours look really cute.”
We stepped out of our respective houses and met each other’s characters for the first time.
“You made a girl character…?”
“No?”
“Why is the hair so long… and you’re wearing a skirt…”
“It’s genderless fashion. Respect it.”
Girl characters were the golden rule for game avatars. A two-syllable nickname and a female character — those were non-negotiable. But since romance and marriage were part of the game, I’d compromised with a cross-dressing guy as a middle ground.
“Woohyun, we’re getting married, right?”
“Hmm…”
“Why are you hesitating!”
Plant Valley had an affection system. Once affection hit a certain threshold, you could date — and beyond that, get married. It worked with NPCs by default, but since we were multiplayer, it worked between players too.
Ajeong had clearly assumed we’d date and marry as a matter of course.
“I’ve got someone in mind.”
“It’s not me?!!”
“We can do that in real life, so let’s try someone else in the game. Both of us.”
“…Hmph! I was going to do that anyway!”
She reacted like she was sulking, but she didn’t actually seem that upset. This game was famously more fun for romancing NPCs than farming — if players just married each other, there wouldn’t be much point in playing. Ajeong probably had an NPC of her own lined up.
“Woohyun, who’s your type?”
“I’m going for Abigail and Haley.”
We left the farm together and wandered the village, hunting down NPCs.
“Oh, this is her.”
The first one we ran into was Abigail.
“What… so you like purple hair?”
Not specifically — but purple was genuinely nice, that much was true.
Next up was Haley.
“This kind of blonde delinquent is your type…?”
“She’s pretty.”
Objectively the most beautiful character in the game.
“Her hair’s yellow and the way she talks is totally childish. I bet her personality’s awful and she smokes too. She might even have tattoos!!”
Someone from real life flickered through my mind for a second.
No… not quite.
Sticker tattoos and a Vita-stick didn’t quite rise to that level of treatment.
After a quick lap around the village, we got down to actual farm work. We were supposedly doing this together, but somehow Ajeong felt like the landowner and I felt like a tenant farmer.
“Woohyun, plant it over here!”
“Water faster!”
“Clear these trees!”
Ajeong barked orders at me with military precision, like she’d watched a whole strategy guide beforehand. This was supposed to be a healing game — was she taking it a little too seriously?
“Ajeong, it says I’m out of energy.”
“That refills if you go lie on the bed. Fill it halfway and come right back out!”
…
Bedtime was just before 2 a.m. Waking at 6 a.m., working all day, then sleeping a bare four hours. It was just a game, and yet it was exhausting work.
“Woohyun, where’d you go?”
“I’m~ recharging energy on the bed.”
“You’re not at Abigail’s house?”
Busted. How the hell did she know?
“I’ll be right there…”
I’d snuck out to grind affection. Luckily I’d already hit up Haley first, so I’d gotten what I needed.
“Woohyun, press M.”
“Huh?”
I hit the M key like she said.
“Ah.”
Map.
I hadn’t known this game even had a map function. My location was displayed on it in full, shameless detail. One click of the M key and Ajeong could find me and drag me straight back to the farm.
“Woohyun, there are way too many trees!”
“Chopping them down right away, ma’am~…”
Having fully submitted to the farm owner, I diligently continued my life of servitude.
And then, one day—
“Woohyun, what is this sound?”
My little act of rebellion amid the slave labor had been discovered.