Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Ding-dong!
“Dad must be home.”
Hyein’s face brightened. Even in the memories Insu recalled, his parents seemed to have had a pretty good relationship.
That’s a relief.
For Insu, who had grown up in a divorced household in his previous life, it was an especially reassuring thing.
Well, Mom probably lived her life the best she could.
His mother in his previous life had not been a bad person either. But she had frequently gone out ever since he was little, and by the time he entered high school, the house had been empty almost every day. Then, the moment he became an adult, she remarried.
Still, he had never gone hungry growing up, and she had always provided everything he truly needed. Even after remarrying, she had continued supporting part of his tuition and living expenses.
Naturally, he resented her at first. But the older he became, the more he realized how difficult life was, and most of that resentment eventually faded away.
As for his father, there was not much to say. He knew what he looked like from photographs, but he had no memories of him. Child support had apparently been sent occasionally, though no matter how he looked at it, it felt less like his father willingly sent it and more like his mother squeezed it out of him.
“I’m home.”
The front door opened, and a young man in a suit walked inside. He looked exhausted, but his voice was cheerful.
“You’re home?”
“Yeah.”
Insu’s father, Kim Seongcheol, had a round face and sharp eyes behind his glasses. His build was average, but he gave off an unmistakably intelligent impression.
Did they get married in their early twenties?
Just like his mother, his father also looked no older than his twenties no matter how Insu looked at him. Insu had heard that people married young back then, but it seemed his parents married especially early.
“Did anything difficult happen today?”
“Hm? No, I’m fine. Oh! Insu! Dad’s home.”
Though he already knew from experience, Insu’s father, Kim Seongcheol, was not the type to put on airs as the head of the household.
“Welcome back.”
In his previous life, the concept of a father had always felt unfamiliar to him. On top of that, he had heard that this era tended to have strict patriarchal fathers, so Insu instinctively bowed politely with slight tension.
“Yep! I’m back!”
Seongcheol burst into a delighted smile at the sight of him and immediately scooped him up into the air. Insu flinched in surprise, but the overflowing affection was so tangible that he quickly relaxed and let himself be held.
Even if the version of himself preserved in his memories was technically older than this father, to five-year-old Kim Insu, Seongcheol had still been his dad from the moment he was born until now. Moreover, physically, Seongcheol was overwhelmingly larger and stronger than Insu himself.
Logically, he understood that it was only because he was still young. But the immediate difference in size and strength made it much easier for Insu to naturally accept his relationship with his parents in this life.
“Oh right, honey. I think our Insu really likes computers.”
He had only sat in front of the monitor-less computer and clicked the keyboard, but children’s likes and dislikes were often impulsive and emotional like that.
“Oh? Really?”
Seongcheol’s face lit up at his wife’s words.
He was deeply interested in computers. Part of it was because he worked in a field that used computers, something still rare in this era, but even before that, he had been fascinated from the very first moment he encountered one.
“Insu, do you like computers?”
Unlike the era Insu had lived in, computers were not yet common household items. Because of that, Seongcheol rarely had anyone to share his interest with. So hearing that his own son, someone practically an extension of himself, was interested in computers instantly made him excited.
“Yes.”
Since he really was interested, Insu nodded unconsciously. But after answering, he realized this was an opportunity and spoke again.
“Can I use the computer too?”
It was great that there was a computer in the house, but ultimately it belonged to his father, so he could not simply use it whenever he wanted. Besides, he was still a child.
At Insu’s question, Seongcheol looked pleased but also slightly concerned. After hesitating for a moment, he nodded.
“Sure. Then should we learn how to use it?”
“Yes!”
“First, wash up and eat dinner.”
Seeing that Seongcheol looked ready to head straight to the computer, Hyein stopped him. Honestly, she had already been slightly displeased that he came home from outside and hugged Insu before even washing up.
“Ah. Right.”
Unlike the era Hyunwoo had lived in, this world still had strong patriarchal values, so Seongcheol did try in his own way to carry himself with the dignity of the head of the household. But it never worked very well. It was probably just his personality.
Dinner was fine. Though this was technically the past, it was not distant enough for there to be major differences. Or perhaps it was because he had already grown accustomed to this life while living as Insu.
“So, want to use the computer together?”
“Yes!”
After dinner, Seongcheol changed into comfortable clothes and came back out, smiling as he beckoned to Insu. His attitude completely treated him like a little child, but strangely, Insu did not feel uncomfortable about it.
Even if he had regained the memories of his previous life, that did not mean a five-year-old had suddenly become a man in his thirties. Or perhaps having the body of a child inevitably dragged him in that direction.
“Do you know how to turn it on?”
After dragging a dining chair over and waiting for Insu to climb onto it, Seongcheol asked the question.
“Yes. I just press this, right?”
The monitor sat atop a large main unit laid sideways underneath it, a somewhat unfamiliar setup.
Honestly, Insu had only ever seen such old computers in internet images. But since he had spent years around computers and also possessed memories of watching Seongcheol use one, finding the power button was not difficult.
“Oh, smart kid. Then go ahead and press it.”
The moment he pressed the button, the screen flickered to life after a short delay. Then a loud screeching sound, like metal scraping against metal, filled the room.
Without realizing it, Insu’s eyes widened slightly. But seeing Seongcheol remain perfectly calm, he figured old computers must have originally been like this.
Soon afterward, the text “C:\” appeared on the black screen with a blinking cursor. Compared to the Windows and Android interfaces familiar to him, it looked unbearably barren, but it was not entirely unfamiliar either.
(Translator’s Notes: Android — Mobile operating system developed by Google and released commercially in the smartphone era. In Insu’s previous-life history, Android became the dominant global mobile OS by being distributed broadly to manufacturers.)
So hard disks already existed back then.
He had studied computer history a little before, but he did not know the exact timeline details. Or perhaps this alternate world had developed slightly faster.
“This is the computer’s basic screen.”
Seongcheol was not especially good at teaching. But he had at least learned through experience that you could not teach a five-year-old the same way you taught an adult, and that sparking interest first was important.
“Should we start with a game? Do you know what a game is?”
“Mhm.”
Insu nodded cautiously. Of course he knew, but right now he was supposed to be a five-year-old child from the 1980s. Looking a little smart was fine, but he definitely did not want his parents to think he was possessed.
“To play games, you first have to go where the games are. Just like how you need to open the toy box if you want to play with toys.”
Seongcheol slowly typed commands on the keyboard so Insu could follow along.
On the black screen filled with only text, they had to manually input commands to move through folders. To Insu, who was used to the graphical interfaces of Windows and Android, it really drove home that this was the past.
Thankfully, since Insu had studied computers himself before, it was not completely unfamiliar.
Seongcheol was about to tell him to try it himself, but stopped. It occurred to him that while this was easy for him, it could be difficult and boring for a five-year-old child.
It’d probably be better to show him how fun the stuff inside the toy box is first and build up his enthusiasm.
After moving into a folder, he typed another command to display the list of files inside it.
“These are the games. To play one, you type in the file with letters after the dot.”
Seongcheol looked down at his son, wondering if he understood. The child’s large black eyes sparkled brightly.
Did he actually understand?
Of course, there was no way Insu did not understand. Rather than trying to decipher it, he was simply fascinated by what kinds of games existed during this era, or rather, in this world.
Seongcheol soon launched a game.
A shooting game?
It involved shooting alien-like monsters in outer space. The mechanic of earning money to upgrade the spaceship looked surprisingly interesting.
At first, since it was monochrome and not a genre he particularly cared for, he had been somewhat indifferent. But before long, he found himself fully focused on it.
“You play it like this.”
Seongcheol played quite skillfully. Then he gave up his seat so Insu could try it himself, and it turned out to be much harder than it looked.
Afterward, he got to see quite a few different games.
As expected, I don’t recognize any of these.
Of course, Insu did not know every game ever made. But he had been genuinely passionate about games and knew quite a lot, yet none of the titles sounded familiar.
It really hit him again that this truly was a different world.
At the same time, however, he realized it was not a completely different world either. Though the games were unfamiliar, many of them still shared similarities with the classic masterpieces he remembered from his own world.
This one’s in color.
And not all the games were monochrome. In fact, most of them actually had color. Though even then, the range of colors was quite limited.
Maybe around sixteen colors?
Apparently, this was around the time color graphics were first being introduced.
“And this kind is called an RPG.”
Oh!
Insu loved RPGs. But considering the era, he had not expected much. Yet Seongcheol surprisingly had rather diverse gaming tastes.
<Eden>
That was the title, though naturally the graphics were unimpressive.
Feels kind of like Ultima I.
He would need to play more to know for sure, but visually, that was the impression it gave.
“Go ahead and try it. If there’s something you don’t know, ask.”
Seongcheol glanced sideways at Hyein, but she widened her eyes and rapidly shook her head. She was not completely ignorant about computers, but she had little interest in them and certainly was not knowledgeable enough to teach someone else.
“...There are books over there too, so if you’re curious, look through them.”
So instead of saying to ask his mother, Seongcheol pointed toward the bookshelf in one corner of the living room.
Truthfully, while some five-year-olds could already read, independently looking up books to study, especially technical books, was rather absurd.
But since he abruptly changed topics after almost mentioning Hyein, and because Insu was unusually bright, the words came out that way.
Thankfully, his son showed no signs of confusion and simply nodded calmly.
Insu had already been planning to look through the books anyway. Although he had studied some programming before, he had only been an amateur and aspiring developer, so he needed proper books. Besides, since this was another world, there was no guarantee the programming languages would be identical.
Still, he had been slightly worried that it would seem strange for a five-year-old child to suddenly start reading technical books. So obtaining his father’s permission like this was a relief and made it easier for him to do so openly.
Insu sat down in the seat Seongcheol vacated and spent a long time using the computer.
Honestly, compared to the flashy games of the twenty-first century that he remembered, these could not satisfy him completely. But classics had their own charm, and the fact that these were games from another world entirely made them deeply fascinating, allowing him to immerse himself far more than expected.
Then, about an hour later, when his immersion finally loosened, a sudden thought crossed his mind.
I’m pretty sure I could make something more fun than this.
That did not mean these games were bad. But Insu was someone who had seen the future, even if it was from another world.
It was not just graphics either. He had experienced vastly more advanced game designs and systems.
In truth, after regaining the memories of his previous life, Insu had spent a lot of time thinking about this. He loved games and wanted to make them, but life was reality.
He had already learned in his previous life that surviving while only doing what you loved was not easy. To put it bluntly, he lacked confidence in succeeding.