Chapter 11
Chapter 11
“This is played on the computer using this mouse and keyboard. Like this, you click to select an enemy, then like this.”
When Kim Insu used the area-of-effect fire spell called “Fireball,” the wizard character extended his staff. A fireball flew forward, followed by the explosion effect Insu had painstakingly created bursting brilliantly on the screen.
And the numbers that appeared reflected not only critical hits, but also defense and even a resistance system. It looked the same on the surface, but the calculations underneath were on an entirely different level from the previous sample.
“Ooh.”
Of course, Eunha had no interest in systems like that. Still, the sequence of animations where the characters moved according to Insu’s controls and displayed fairly flashy effects was quite interesting to her.
The quality of the art was not especially high, so if she had seen this at an arcade, she probably would have glanced at it once and walked past. But hearing that a child she was close to, a kid only five years old, had made it himself made it hard to look away, filling her with complicated thoughts.
“This... you really made this yourself?”
She should have been more careful saying something like that, but Eunha was still young herself, so the words slipped out before she realized it.
But Insu did not seem offended.
Honestly, even I’d find it hard to believe if someone said a five-year-old made something like this.
Rather, he saw it as a chance to show how amazing he was. He immediately opened up the code.
“Yeah. This is the game, and I did all of it myself.”
The dense wall of English that suddenly appeared made Eunha’s vision spin for a moment. There were many ways to get someone uninterested in games involved with one, but one of them was probably making games seem like something incredible rather than just a trivial pastime.
...Is he a genius?
Ever since their first meeting, she had thought this little kid was unusually smart for his age. To begin with, the fact that a five-year-old could even hold a conversation with a middle schooler like her was far from normal.
But now he was showing her something similar to what the genius programmers in movies did, so naturally, the word “genius” came to mind.
In that sense, Insu’s plan was working fairly well. However, since he could not read her thoughts, he did not realize it. Instead, he carefully gauged the atmosphere before cautiously speaking again.
“But noona. Could you help me a little?”
“Huh? With what? I don’t know how to use computers.”
Still marveling over meeting a genius, she became slightly flustered when he suddenly asked for help right after showing her something she could never imagine doing herself.
“No, it’s because of the drawings. I’m not very good at drawing. Look, the art in this game is pretty bad.”
After hearing Insu’s words, Eunha looked back at the images on the monitor. Earlier, she had not even thought to evaluate them because they were images coming out of some machine she did not understand, but now that she looked closely, they really did seem awkward.
“You drew these too?”
“Yeah. Everything in this game was made by me.”
Wow...
Eunha was impressed all over again, and at the same time, she felt like she finally understood why this child had been interested in drawings and comics. As she examined the game images and assessed Insu’s skill, she found herself half unconsciously thinking about how she would have done them instead.
Then Insu called out to her again.
“Noona. Could you help me?”
“Huh? With what?”
“With making this game. Help me draw the art.”
“What?”
Eunha’s first thought was how she was supposed to do that. Since she was so far removed from computers and games, the very idea that she could contribute to something like that never even occurred to her.
“Drawing on a computer isn’t hard! It’s just drawing on a computer instead of paper. Look.”
Rather than reading Eunha’s thoughts, Insu had already anticipated this reaction to some extent, so he immediately launched Luxury Paint and showed her how he drew with it.
Wow...
This genuinely interested Eunha. She had once read in a magazine that people could create art on computers, and that in the future, even comic artists would all use computers.
And now that she was seeing it in person, it was definitely different, but in some ways, it looked more convenient than drawing on paper.
“You don’t even have to erase things one by one. If you do this, you can erase the whole line at once.”
“Wow.”
“It’s not that hard, right? Please help me. Oh, right! I’ll split the money we make from selling the game too!”
Honestly, if he could, Insu would rather just pay her for the work and leave it at that. It was not just about which option was more profitable. He simply did not want to share the game he was making with someone else.
But as a five-year-old kid who was not born with a silver spoon, he had no money. Which meant the only solution was becoming partners. Of course, Insu’s share would be much larger.
“Money?”
“Yeah. Comic artists get paid when their comics are published too, right?”
Maybe because she was still only in middle school, Eunha had never connected game development with economics. But once he explained it by comparing it to comic artists, the idea became easier for her to grasp.
It was still vague, but she had heard stories about famous comic artists making a lot of money, and she herself had imagined becoming rich through a hit work someday.
Maybe this was the moment she first started thinking about possibilities beyond simply becoming a comic artist.
“I’m going to sell my game not just here, but in America and Japan too. If that happens, I could probably make even more money than a popular comic artist.”
“...”
“Hm? Noona, let’s become a team and make something amazing together! And if we become popular, it’ll help you later when you draw comics too!”
Of course, if Eunha’s skills turned out to be better than expected and her potential exploded into a huge success, he intended to cling to her leg if necessary and never let her go. But for now, this was what he said.
Eunha briefly doubted whether he could really sell it.
But he’s a genius.
The geniuses in movies always found a way to overcome impossible situations. Of course, Eunha knew movies and reality were different, but because of the subconscious image she had of geniuses, she leaned toward thinking it might actually be possible.
The idea of earning money was extremely tempting.
It was not because Eunha was materialistic. It was simply because she was still young. Most people probably had similar thoughts when they were children. The idea that if they had money, they could become free.
Even if they never consciously thought about it that clearly, they had probably felt frustrated by not being able to live on their own and having to rely on their parents. Regardless of whether one had a good or bad relationship with family, once people reached a certain age, a natural desire for independence instinctively began to form.
And Eunha had a clear goal of becoming a comic artist. The standards of success might include debuting or becoming highly skilled, but money was definitely one of them.
Being paid was one of the simplest and clearest proofs that both publishers and readers acknowledged her work.
For all those reasons, somewhere deep inside, Eunha inevitably wanted to earn money as quickly as possible.
And now, a child she believed to be a genius had just hinted at a shortcut.
Naturally, she found it tempting.
“I’ll think about it.”
“Yeah, yeah! Please do!”
Feeling like things might actually work out, Insu nodded repeatedly as he answered.
Over the next two days, he agonized while waiting for Eunha’s reply. Pressuring her was out of the question, but trying to sweet-talk her felt like it might backfire, so he could neither visit nor call her.
In the meantime, development continued. He had no choice but to keep doing the graphics himself, and seeing the results only made him more desperate.
Should I just go with the whole “visiting three times to recruit Zhuge Liang” strategy?
Again, Eunha was honestly not some top-tier talent on Zhuge Liang’s level or anything like that. Objectively speaking, she was just an amateur with good instincts. But to Insu’s current situation, she was desperately needed talent.
Ding dong!
Then, on the third day, Eunha came back to visit. Insu carefully studied her expression. Her face carried the kind of conflicted look that made it impossible to tell whether she had come to accept or refuse.
“So what exactly would I have to do?”
“You just draw based on the concepts I give you. Though there’ll probably be revisions. Since it has to fit the game environment and all that.”
These were words he had already imagined saying countless times, so they flowed out immediately.
“Mmm.”
Eunha still looked hesitant about something, but Insu felt slightly relieved. If she had absolutely no interest, she would never be asking these questions.
Then, after a moment, she finally gave her delayed answer.
“Okay. I’ll help.”
“Great!”
Without realizing it, Insu held out his hand. Unfamiliar with handshakes, Eunha hesitated briefly before eventually taking it.
If she had been an adult, the first thing she would have asked about was her share. But perhaps because she was young and unfamiliar with such things, she focused more on the excitement of creating something together.
“Then give me that concept thing and tell me what I’m supposed to draw.”
“Yeah. One second.”
He had not organized all the art tasks yet, but since he already had notes prepared for himself and some materials ready in anticipation of Eunha joining, he quickly pulled out a notebook.
“Don’t try to finish everything here all at once. Just bring them little by little. I’ll need to check them and make revisions.”
“Okay.”
Eunha immediately accepted the notebook and started reading through it while nodding. In the twenty-first century, they could have just sent files back and forth every time one was completed, but this era was what it was, and Eunha was still a student attending school.
But after studying the notebook for a while, she unexpectedly said something else.
“Can I try drawing on that computer from earlier?”
“Huh? Oh. Sure.”
Insu immediately gave up his seat and stood beside her, explaining how to use Luxury Paint. Since they only had one computer, his original plan had been for Eunha to draw everything by hand and for him to transfer it into the computer himself.
But if she wanted to do it directly, even for a little while, he welcomed it. Of course, the time she could spend here was limited, so she would not be able to do everything herself.
“Like this?”
“Yeah. That’s right.”
Since she was basically computer illiterate, her use of the tools was naturally clumsy. But her artistic instincts were undeniably much better than Insu’s.
And because she was still young, she learned quickly and visibly became more comfortable with it in no time. Since she already drew regularly, she probably also had an intuitive sense for understanding graphic tools.
This looks promising.
It was a very good thing. If they continued working together, eventually she would have to work digitally anyway. And naturally, it would be far better if she enjoyed it. Since she had never been particularly interested in games to begin with, Insu had been slightly worried, so it was fortunate that she at least seemed interested in computer graphics work.
After that, Eunha started coming to Insu’s house almost every day. He had expected her to mostly draw at home and occasionally stop by to hand over her work, so this was slightly unexpected.
For Insu, it was nothing but good news. She was showing far more enthusiasm than he had originally expected.
He had to give up the computer often, but it was not like they were fighting over who got to use it for games. Instead, while Eunha worked, he could rest or handle development tasks unrelated to coding, so it was not bad at all.
It was also nice being able to give immediate feedback on her work.
“Noona. Make it a little simpler. If the drawings are too complicated, they’ll eat up too many computer resources.”
“Okay. Got it.”
Eunha did not know exactly what “eating up resources” meant, but she roughly understood from context and obediently revised the work accordingly.
Footnote — Changes Made:
Inner thoughts were italicized: “Honestly, even I’d find it hard to believe...,” “...Is he a genius?,” “Wow...,” “But he’s a genius,” “Should I just go with...,” and “This looks promising.”
Fragmented output was normalized into continuous prose, especially “Then—” changed into “Then Insu called out to her again.”
Sentence flow was smoothed without changing meaning, including “trying sweet talk” → “trying to sweet-talk her,” and several comma/transition adjustments for readability.
Glossary terms were kept consistent: Kim Insu, Eunha, Luxury Paint, The Land Of Fantasy-related terminology, and Parallel Soft-related context.