Ripening Fruit (1)
At six in the evening, Du-ho left the Administrative Bureau after work and slipped out through Save Point into the alley near Moru Workshop.
He’d already achieved his original goal, but at Jang Mun-seo’s suggestion, he’d ended up taking a job at the workshop.
An incredible chance to learn item-crafting techniques.
Besides, Jang Mun-seo was a true production-class Awakened, the real deal.
If I run out of stamina, I can always rest in the Garage.
When he opened the workshop’s inner door, hot air wrapped around his face.
“I’m here!”
Jang Mun-seo looked up from the workbench.
“What time do you get off work that you’re here this early?”
Du-ho changed into his work clothes as he answered, “I came early so I could eat with you, boss.”
“Come to think of it, it’s time for dinner.”
“How about sundubu baekban?”
“Good.”
After placing the order, Du-ho approached the workbench.
“What should I do while we wait for delivery?”
“Help me cut this beast hide.”
Spread across the bench was Drake Runner leather.
Du-ho let nanobots flow from his fingertips and cut it with exquisite precision.
Swish—.
The cross-section was clean, the cut immaculate.
Jang Mun-seo wore a satisfied look.
Heh heh.
“You’re better than me now.”
Du-ho scratched his head. “That’s far too much praise.”
“I’m not being polite for the sake of it. With your skill, you won’t be outdone anywhere.”
Just then, the door opened.
A hunter stepped inside.
“Boss, can you fix these gloves for me?”
“Wouldn’t it be easier to just buy a new pair?”
“Aw, there you go again. If you patch just this part, I can use them a few more times.”
As the hunter chatted away, Jang Mun-seo turned his head toward Du-ho.
“You do it.”
With the cutting finished, Du-ho took the gloves.
He checked the torn section, found matching leather, patched it, and stitched it back together.
When the hunter tried them on moments later, he broke into a wide grin.
Oh—what the hell.
“These are tougher than new! Boss, you can retire now.”
“You little bastard.”
After the hunter left laughing, Jang Mun-seo added, “That one looks like an easygoing fool, but he’s a veteran guide who can find his way to the thirtieth floor of the Abyss blindfolded.”
“Ah! The thirtieth floor… that’s amazing.”
Working in the workshop had the nice side effect of making this kind of high-level information come naturally.
Then—
“Dinner’s here!”
Almost at the same moment as the door opened, a quick-moving young man blurred past like a afterimage.
Papapapat!
Two servings of sundubu baekban and a container of side dishes were set on the table in an instant.
“Enjoy your meal!”
Spot—.
The young man vanished like the wind.
Using a Windrunner skill for food delivery.
Indeed, this was the hunter city.
A true Yeouido scene.
The two men stopped working and ate dinner.
And just as they were nearly finished—
Creak.
The workshop door opened again.
“Old man, let’s get this armor repaired.”
Huh?
Du-ho’s face froze when he saw who had come in.
The man was none other than Han San-ho, the one who had entered the rescue team when Du-ho awakened during the Rift.
Han San-ho glanced at Du-ho, who was clearing away the dishes.
“You look familiar….”
Jang Mun-seo answered, “He’s a fellow who’s been helping out lately.”
“Ah, I see.”
Du-ho gave him a side glance.
He doesn’t seem to recognize me.
-He’s not exactly a promising talent for world conquest, hamda. That goldfish brain!
-A slow-witted human like that would be better off just living according to our robot’s orders.
Shut it. Mind your own business.
It had probably been enough time since the Seongnam Rift that Han San-ho no longer remembered him.
Han San-ho asked, “You’re an Awakened, aren’t you? Why don’t you go into the Abyss?”
When Du-ho hesitated, Jang Mun-seo said curtly, “Quit prying into another man’s valuable employee.”
“Ah, so you’re a production-type Awakened.”
With a grin, Han San-ho handed Du-ho his business card.
“I’m Han San-ho, guild master of the Han San Guild. Looks like you’re the old man’s successor, so I hope we’ll get along. And it’d be nice if you gave me a discount.”
“If we go any cheaper than this, we might as well eat dirt to survive!”
“Hey, that’s just a figure of speech.”
And so, with an endless stream of hunters coming in to have their weapons and armor repaired, before long it was time to close the workshop.
Du-ho and Jang Mun-seo cleaned up together.
“How’s the competition?”
“Honestly… the participants are all such incredible people.”
“Just because the participants are impressive doesn’t mean the finished work will be.”
Jang Mun-seo unfastened the support device strapped around his waist.
“Your work… it’s truly excellent.”
Ever since the day Du-ho gave it to him, he’d used it without missing a single day.
Even production Awakened had limits; that couldn’t be helped.
But with this thing on—
“It understands exactly what the user needs from a close perspective and was made accordingly. Thanks to it, I feel ten years younger.”
“That’s too much praise.”
“Not at all!”
Jang Mun-seo burst into hearty laughter.
* * *
The next day.
At a massive waste-processing plant on the outskirts of Seoul, Im Tae-sang stood in the middle of a workshop thick with dust and the smell of oil, facing a pile of reinforcing steel that had to weigh at least 100 kilograms.
Vreeeeeng—.
The moment he inhaled, the support device fitted snugly to his waist and legs operated as smoothly as if it were an extension of his own muscles.
The rebar stack that would normally have been moved by a crane hook was lifted lightly in Im Tae-sang’s hands.
“…Huh!”
A coworker watching nearby dropped his jaw.
“Tae-sang! What… what is that? That can’t be an implant, can it?”
Im Tae-sang set the rebar down neatly in its designated place and clenched his fist with a grin.
“This? My son made it for me.”
“Your son? No way… that’s possible?”
“My son works at the Hunter Administrative Bureau handling androids. He’s an expert, a real expert.”
His voice dripped with pride.
What usually took two hours to sort through the steel was finished in under an hour. And then something unbelievable happened.
…My back doesn’t hurt.
His legs felt fine too.
There wasn’t even the slightest stiffness.
Every time he worked, admiration rose in him all over again.
During a break, two coworkers approached him quietly with drinks in hand.
“Tae-sang, that thing really does look good.”
“I saw it earlier, and it didn’t seem to take any effort at all. My back’s been killing me too….”
Im Tae-sang tapped the support device.
“It’s the real thing. My son made it himself.”
At that, the coworkers’ eyes lit up.
“Tae-sang! Could you maybe put in a word for me too?”
“If the price is right, I’ll buy one right away!”
“I want two—one for me and one for my wife!”
“I’d love to give one to my mother, who’s got a bad back….”
In the blink of an eye, the coworkers who’d been resting swarmed around Im Tae-sang like a flock of hungry birds.
Flustered, he waved them off. “It’s still, uh, something my son’s entered in a competition….”
“A competition?”
“So we can buy it after the contest, right? Reserve one for me! Put me down for a reservation!”
“Get in line! I was first!”
The coworkers’ eyes burned with anticipation.
Then time passed, and lunchtime came.
The cafeteria was buzzing with talk of “Im Tae-sang’s support device.”
“Apparently Im Tae-sang’s son made it.”
“I heard he’s an engineer at the Hunter Administrative Bureau?”
“Some kind of skills competition? He entered there. Maybe he’ll take first?”
“They say it’s insanely comfortable and strong as a bull.”
The rumor spread through the entire waste-processing plant in no time. Before long, workers from other teams came looking for him too.
“Excuse me, are you Im Tae-sang?”
“Yes?”
“We heard about your son. I’d like to order one too.”
“Is it possible to place a group order for our team…?”
Im Tae-sang broke out in a cold sweat.
Why?
Why does everything keep getting blown up like this?
Collecting himself, he said, “I’d have to ask my son first. I’m sorry.”
After finally sending them away, the site supervisor came over and slapped his shoulder, showing interest too.
“Mr. Im, I’ve been watching it for a few days now. That thing’s a real gem. Where’s it from?”
“Ah, my son made it himself.”
“Really?”
The supervisor stroked his chin with a meaningful expression.
“If the price is right… I might suggest we adopt it for the whole company.”
Then he handed over a business card.
“Give me your son’s contact info. I’ll look into it seriously.”
In the end, by the time he got off work, Im Tae-sang had become a walking advertisement.
Was I working today, or just promoting my son’s gear?
But even so, he couldn’t have been prouder. His son was—so very, very amazing.
After finishing the day’s work, Im Tae-sang opened the front door and went inside, where his wife greeted him.
“Honey, you worked hard again today.”
Carefully taking off the support device, Im Tae-sang couldn’t keep the corners of his mouth from lifting into a broad grin.
Honey, honey—
“You’ve got to hear this! My coworkers were all fighting over wanting to buy this support device our son made. They were so excited they could hardly work!”
At that, the twins burst out of their room.
“Really? That’s huge!”
“Our brother was a genius!”
With a faint smile, Im Tae-sang sent a text on his smartwatch.
Thanks to my son, I’ve never felt this comfortable in my own body. I love you, son.
A little later, a reply came back.
Enjoy dinner.
I love you too, Father.
Im Tae-sang smiled warmly.
My son… when did he grow up so much?
It felt like only yesterday that he’d been toddling around on unsteady little feet.
For some reason, the tip of his nose stung.
* * *
A few days later.
After finishing his work at Moru Workshop, Du-ho returned to his room through Save Point.
Not long ago, he’d moved the Save Point from near the house into his own room.
There was no grand reason.
When I came home late, Mom kept waking up when I arrived.
So he boldly connected it to his room instead.
Besides, no one else can use it anyway, and it’s not like anyone’s looking into my room.
After changing clothes and stepping back out of the room, he ran into his father.
“When did you get in?”
“A while ago.”
“You must be tired, working after coming home from work.”
“I’m doing it because it’s fun.”
The whole family knew Du-ho was working at the workshop.
“Don’t overdo it.”
“Yes, Father.”
Just as Du-ho was about to head back into his room—
“Son, are you busy by any chance?”
“No. Go ahead and ask.”
“That support device….”
With that hesitant opening, father and son talked for quite a while.
When Du-ho returned to his room, he went into the Garage to shake off his fatigue.
Isto, who had been looking at a laptop, greeted him.
-You came to rest, hamda!
“Yeah. By the way, it sounds like my dad’s coworkers want to buy the support device in bulk.”
Oh! Ooooh!
-Of course they’d want to buy it while praising the ground Du-ho nim walks on, since you made it yourself~ Hehehe.
That sycophant… no, Isto.
-…Why are you looking at me like that, hamda?
“After you conquer the world, what are you going to do next?”
-Eh??
At the sudden question, a swirl spun through the LED eyes.
So you really hadn’t thought about it.
-I-I’ll brief you on that later, hamda!
“No, don’t.”
-Eh, eh?!
Hoguai, by contrast, approached calmly.
-I anticipated this reaction from the moment Father began wearing it.
He snatched the laptop away from Isto.
Tap-tap, tap! Tap!
Typing furiously, he soon turned the laptop toward Du-ho.
-Please look at this.
Images of people flickered across the laptop screen.
Construction workers drenched in sweat.
An old man leaning on a cane.
A patient undergoing rehabilitation….
Hoguai set the mood before speaking, as if giving a presentation.
-Sixty percent of the population of the Republic of Korea are naturals.
“That many?”
-The world’s natural population exceeds five billion.
Du-ho was startled for a moment.
Five billion?
The truth was, because he only moved between the Bureau and home, he hadn’t realized how many naturals there really were around him.
Hoguai continued.
-They are poor, or they dislike mechanical prosthetics. But your support device is different, Du-ho nim. They can wear it comfortably, and it works immediately.
-We’ll be swimming in money, hamda!
-Especially the core technology, the Smart Actuator, will be useful in many places.
-The licensing fees alone will be plenty, hamda! Hehehe~.
As Isto kept jumping in excitedly, Hoguai’s patience finally snapped.
-Don’t toss in your spoon, you iron-headed fool.
-W-What?!
Isto blinked in flustered confusion.
Snort.
Du-ho laughed before he could stop himself.
They do get along surprisingly well.
He brought up a hologram on his smartwatch.
Patent registration complete
Applicant: Im Du-ho
Registered name: Smart Actuator
Starting with that, a steady stream of notifications appeared, showing that every conceivable patent related to the Smart Actuator had been successfully registered.
Du-ho smiled at Isto.
“Isto. Good work.”
-N-No, hamda! I only did what I was supposed to do, hamda. Hehehe~.
The truth was, because Isto had prepared the patent applications for even the smallest details, it had cost a fair bit of money.
Well….
There was no chance of it being taken away now.
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