A New Game, A New Beginning
One month later.
Clunk!
“Soo-ah! Cindy! Hwa-ryun! Yu-ran!”
The women had been relaxing comfortably at home when they saw Yoo Kang-hyun walk through the door. Their faces lit up as they rushed to greet him.
“Honey! You’re back!”
With a sudden leap, Jung Su-a threw herself into his arms.
“Hey! That’s not fair, Soo-ah! I want a hug too!”
“Please embrace me as well, brother-in-law.”
Su-a, Shin Cindy, and Jung Hwa-ryun all competed to reach him first. They buried their faces against his chest, inhaling his scent, clearly overjoyed by his return.
Kang-hyun wrapped his arms around the three of them, savoring the warmth of their bodies and the familiar fragrance of their hair. Then he suddenly noticed one person was missing.
“Huh? Now that I think about it, I don’t see Yu-ran anywhere. Where is she?”
“Ah, Yu-ran is currently…”
“Senior Yu-ran is at work at National One right now. We haven’t seen her face in quite a while either.”
“That’s cold… Even if she’s busy, her husband finally comes home after two months. Shouldn’t she at least show her face?”
“…Honey, don’t you think the real problem is that you haven’t come home in two months?”
“…Kang-hyun, I think Su-a is right.”
“…Brother-in-law, I agree with my sister.”
“Ahaha, sorry. Sorry. I was just joking around a little…”
“Sigh. I know. I know you’re incredibly busy and that you weren’t just out having fun. But no matter how important your work is, you need to pay a little more attention to your family.”
“That’s right, Kang-hyun. Do you have any idea how hard it’s been for all of us while you were gone?”
“Indeed. Brother-in-law. At the very least, you could have called more often.”
“Sigh… I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I’d been neglecting the family so much. I’ll be more careful from now on. Let me give Yu-ran a call real quick. Just give me a moment.”
Clunk!
“There’s no need for that!”
The front door suddenly flew open and Na Yu-ran strode in, startling Kang-hyun and the others.
Without hesitation, she grabbed his face with both hands.
Chuuup.
“?!”
“Wait, Yu-ran! What are you doing?! I’m the legal wife and I haven’t even gotten to kiss him yet!”
“That’s so unfair, Yu-ran!”
“Senior! We’ve been holding ourselves back too!”
Her sudden return was shocking enough, but her even more sudden behavior left them speechless.
Shluurp. Chup. Chuuup.
Paying no attention to their protests, Yu-ran wrapped her arms around Kang-hyun’s head and pushed her tongue deep into his mouth. Kang-hyun thought to himself that this was exactly like her, and simply accepted the passionate kiss.
“Haa~ Ah, now I feel alive again. How was your trip, husband?”
“Haa… It felt amazing. You really never change.”
“…Honey! I’m next!”
“No, it’s my turn!”
“It’s my turn now!”
“Haha, Su-a, calm down for a second…”
As the voices grew louder and the situation turned chaotic, Kang-hyun suggested they settle it with rock-paper-scissors. Only after he had kissed Cindy, Su-a, and Hwa-ryun in order could the whole family finally sit down together for dinner.
And that was when they heard the astonishing news from Yu-ran.
Especially for Kang-hyun, it was information that made his eyes sparkle with intense interest.
“So they’re making a brand new game at National One?”
“That’s right. It’s actually a project that’s been in development for a long time… But Changcheon Murim became such a massive hit that the entire project had to be heavily revised, which delayed the schedule by a lot. I only touched the programming a little bit in the very early stages before tossing it aside, so I’d completely forgotten about it. Apparently National One has finally finished most of the preparations.”
“Wait, why didn’t you tell me about something this important?! And National One is making it? I’ve never even heard of this!”
“Strictly speaking, there was no way you could have known. The planning phase began not long after I was assigned to the American branch. At the time, Chairman Jung Dae-woon wasn’t particularly interested in virtual reality games, and Changcheon Murim hadn’t become a hit yet. Besides, while you are the successor, you still aren’t the official successor.”
“If it was when Yu-ran was in the American branch… that would have been long before we even met. Back then I was still an active CIA agent, so it must have been about seven years ago?”
“If you count from the initial planning stage, it’s been over ten years. They asked me to build the basic foundation right after my promotion, when my abilities started getting recognized in the States. They said they lacked talent, so the plan was grandiose but they couldn’t move it into actual production. The technology at the time was insufficient too.”
“Hearing you explain it, it makes sense. Father-in-law only really started paying attention to games after he made that bet with us… So. What kind of game is it? And does it have any connection to Changcheon Murim?”
“It’s a science fiction adventure fantasy. Though the genre itself is a mix of fantasy, martial arts, and several other elements. The scale is enormous. Even the current prototype version is supposedly almost twenty times larger than Changcheon Murim. Since the adventures take place on a cosmic scale, the data size had to grow accordingly. That’s why the access device has also changed. Instead of the helmet we used for Changcheon Murim, they’ve created a full-body scan neural interface and built special capsules for it.”
“Senior. With a project of that scale, shouldn’t you and Chairman Jung Dae-woon have known about it? It doesn’t make sense that you only found out now and are just now being brought in.”
“…This is a bit embarrassing, but… they contacted me several years ago asking me to join the project… I was too lazy to even read the details properly and just ignored it… Then I got busy with my own work, met this guy Kang-hyun, and ended up coming back to Korea… Hahaha…”
Everyone stared at Yu-ran with expressions of utter disbelief. She was undeniably a genius, yet she occasionally made absurd mistakes in the most trivial areas.
“Ahem. Anyway, Chairman Jung Dae-woon probably knew about it. He just didn’t feel the need to tell us, so he didn’t. He’s the kind of man who only thinks about himself.”
“…That does sound like him.”
Su-a gave a bitter smile as she spoke.
“But Yu-ran, what’s the connection between Changcheon Murim and this new game?”
“Ah… Originally, this game was supposed to be released as something completely separate from Changcheon Murim. But the game made by our subsidiary, Korea Vision, turned into a massive success. As you all know, it wasn’t just a hit. It was a worldwide phenomenon. National One must have been shocked. So they decided to incorporate the Changcheon Murim universe into it midway through development.”
“?! Then… Changcheon Murim has now expanded to a cosmic scale?! For real?!”
Hearing that his favorite game had unexpectedly grown to such an enormous scale, Kang-hyun felt his heart pound with excitement for the first time in a long while.
“More precisely… it hasn’t grown bigger. It has become part of a larger cosmic setting. Of course, it will be quite different from the original Changcheon Murim, but there will still be many similarities. You’ll have to experience the rest for yourself. That’s more fun anyway.”
“Ooooh!!!”
For Kang-hyun, who had been so busy for over a year that he barely had time to play games or even spend time with the women, this news was like rain in a drought.
However, while Kang-hyun was thrilled, the others weren’t entirely happy.
“…Honey. We already have such a hard time seeing you… and now you’re going to start playing games again?”
“!! S-Soo-ah, t-that’s…”
“Kang-hyun… do you even know how lonely we’ve been?”
“C-Cindy…”
“Brother-in-law, games are fine, but please spend some time with us.”
“E-even my sister-in-law…”
They say that when a woman holds a grudge, it can snow in the middle of summer. The effect of a husband in his prime constantly being absent was far greater than Kang-hyun had imagined.
Above all, every one of them was a married woman. Only Su-a had officially married him, but in reality, the other women were also his wives. They all knew everything there was to know.
There had been times when Su-a, Cindy, and Hwa-ryun played Changcheon Murim together and enjoyed themselves, but it still wasn’t enough to fill the void.
“I’m sorry… I got too excited when the topic of a new game came up.”
“Sigh… Honey, I know how much you love games, and I’m not trying to criticize you for it. We all understand. Everyone’s busy, and especially you, running back and forth overseas as part of your successor training. We understand that part. But when you do have time, we just want you to spend it with us.”
Su-a looked at him with a guilty expression. Even when he did have time, the fact that he couldn’t stay with them for long was ultimately because he still wasn’t good enough. If he had learned faster and earned Chairman Jung Dae-woon’s full approval, he would have been able to spend more time with them.
“Well… I think I can solve that problem?”
The unexpected solution came from Yu-ran herself.
“What? What do you mean, Yu-ran?”
“That new game. We can all start playing it together.”
“…Ah.”
Hwa-ryun let out a sound of realization.
“Like we did back in the Changcheon Murim days?”
“Exactly. Of course, that guy Kang-hyun will still be busy working and meeting people overseas, so he won’t be able to log in much. But it’s still better than nothing.”
“Yu-ran, that’s a great idea!”
“But… I’d rather spend time with our husband in the real world instead of in a game…”
“Su-a, I understand how you feel, but Kang-hyun isn’t deliberately avoiding us. Besides, even when we played Changcheon Murim, we still took care of our responsibilities first before logging in. It won’t be that different this time.”
“…That’s true. Sigh… Fine. But honey, if you start neglecting us again because of the game, I’m really going to get angry, okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, don’t worry, Su-a! I promise. Games are games, and reality is reality!”
“…You really do look happy, hehe.”
Watching her usually overworked husband smile so brightly for the first time in a long while, Su-a felt her own mood brighten as well.
And so the conversation turned to the details of the new game.