Chapter 4
Chapter 4
Additional tools like graphics software and sound tools would eventually be necessary, but for now, this alone was enough to begin development.
Come to think of it, middleware probably doesn’t exist yet either.
Starting as a pioneer during the early introduction of PCs was certainly exciting, but the reality of having to build everything from scratch was still overwhelming.
“You really seem to like computers.”
At some point, Seongcheol had walked over and was stroking Insu’s head as he spoke. Startled, Insu turned around to see that his father was already dressed in a suit and standing beside him.
“Yes. They’re really fascinating.”
To the him from his previous life, computers would have felt more familiar than fascinating. But for some reason, that answer came out naturally.
Maybe it’s closer to remembering a previous life than actually being reborn.
He was still somewhat confused, but since he had to live here now, this seemed like the better outcome. A man in his thirties wearing the shell of a child would have been difficult for himself and practically tragic for the people around him.
“Have a safe trip.”
“Yep. I’ll be back!”
Just as Insu thought he could finally focus on game development once Seongcheol left for work, Hyein spoke.
“Insu, shouldn’t you start getting ready for kindergarten too?”
“Huh?”
Only then did Insu remember that he was attending kindergarten.
Naturally, he did not want to go. It was not because he had any particularly bad memories of it, but now that he had regained the memories of his previous life, it felt like a tremendous waste of time.
But there’s no way around it, is there?
At home, Insu had already learned Hangul, numbers, and even a little English, so kindergarten had never really been for academic purposes to begin with. Hyein had once said it was to make friends, but now that he thought about it again, the real purpose had probably been social development.
Still, he could not simply refuse to go outright. One of the downsides of becoming a child again was that his persuasiveness dropped dramatically. It was not about the logic of his words. The problem was that he himself was a child.
Hyein and Seongcheol were kind parents, but that kindness did not mean they indulged his every whim.
Insu could remember getting smacked on the butt in the past. He unconsciously shivered. Even by the standards of a five-year-old, it was not something he wanted to experience again.
I’ll probably need to show them something first.
Right now, if he said he did not want to go because he needed to develop games, it absolutely would not work. So for the moment, he had no choice but to quietly attend.
“Insu, let’s go to kindergarten.”
“Yes.”
Still, before leaving, he stuffed the C language book into his small yellow backpack. If he remembered correctly, they would spend time slowly reading A, B, C, D one by one there, and without anything else to do, he would probably lose his mind sitting through it with the other children.
He cautiously glanced at his mother, but thankfully she showed no suspicion toward how oddly stuffed his bag looked.
[Seomrok Kindergarten]
The kindergarten was not far from home.
“Listen carefully to your teacher, okay?”
“Okaay.”
Looking up at the kindergarten building, which appeared somewhat bleak compared to the twenty-first century, Insu walked inside. Still, the interior had been decorated enough to feel recognizably like a kindergarten.
Following his memories, he entered the room labeled Forsythia Class.
Several children had already arrived, and children at this age really did feel extremely young. They probably had their own forms of communication and interaction, but to Insu, who now remembered his previous life, they felt overwhelmingly instinct-driven.
“Hi.”
“Yeah. Hi.”
Most simply made eye contact and moved on, but a few children greeted him first. Insu responded politely before heading toward one corner of the room.
This spot should work.
Unlike school classrooms, there were no assigned desks. Insu settled into a partially hidden area near a bookshelf. It looked like a small reading corner created with the concept of a mini library.
Of course, if he hid completely, the teacher would probably start searching for him, so he chose a spot where his face remained partially visible.
“Hello, everyone!”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the teacher was not scary. This was not elementary school. Well, technically, it was still called National School in this era, but regardless, it was not formal education yet, and these children were still closer to babies than actual students. It would have been difficult to hire someone intimidating for a place like this.
She looked to be a young woman in her early twenties. She was not breathtakingly beautiful, but the way she smiled brightly and waved energetically made her seem pretty.
“Hello!”
All the children responded in high-pitched voices. One child right beside him had been deeply focused on a toy but suddenly shouted too, startling Insu enough to flinch.
Until yesterday, he would have acted the same way alongside them, but after only one day, everything suddenly felt strangely unfamiliar.
“So what are we learning today?!”
After briefly scanning the children’s faces as if checking attendance, the teacher began the lesson.
As expected.
He listened for a moment just in case, but it was a lesson on the alphabet and simple words. Back then, joining in with the teacher and feeling united with the other children had been fun in its own way, but now it only felt like wasted time.
So he quietly pulled the book out of his bag and opened it.
At first, he kept glancing around cautiously, but before long, he became completely immersed in the book.
The schedule was, naturally, very relaxed. After learning something for thirty minutes, they would spend another thirty either resting or playing games.
“Then shall we stop here for today?”
And the day ended surprisingly early. After lunch and a little more time, it was already time to go home.
Then why even bother eating lunch here?
Of course, there were reasons for it, but from Insu’s perspective, when he just wanted to go home quickly, he could not help thinking that way. There did not seem to be any extended-day program either, because once dismissal time came, everyone rushed out together.
During class, he had felt disconnected from the other children, but at this moment of going home, he could finally relate to them. Whether it was school or kindergarten, the happiest time was always when it ended and you could leave.
I really need to show them something soon.
He had somehow endured the day, and it had not been unbearably difficult, but he still could not shake the feeling that it was a waste.
But how am I supposed to survive elementary school, middle school, and high school after this?
For a moment, his vision went dark. Still, if he forced himself to think positively, at least once he reached actual school, there was a possibility of finding peers who could develop games with him. But kindergarten was hopeless.
He had secretly observed the children just in case, but they were genuinely little kids, children at the stage where it was impressive enough that they could communicate at all.
Of course, Insu himself had once gone through that stage too in his previous life. But experiencing children again after having acquired an adult’s intellect felt entirely different.
He felt like he finally understood why people compared intelligent animals to young children.
I guess there could be genius kids like in comics somewhere out there.
The problem was that the odds of one being near him were incredibly low.
He returned home alone. He did not know what things were like in the twenty-first century, but in the 1980s, if home was close enough like his, five-year-old children simply walked home by themselves.
The feeling left Insu both comfortable and uneasy at the same time.
Even with the memories of his previous life, or perhaps because of them, he understood objectively just how powerless he currently was as a small child.
Come to think of it, I think kidnappings involving children were supposedly more common back then too.
The thought made him instinctively glance around. But it was broad daylight, bright enough to hurt his eyes, and the sight of laughing children and the familiar residential neighborhood gradually eased his tension.
It’s only a few hundred meters anyway.
It felt farther than when he had been an adult in his previous life. Picking up his pace, Insu practically ran home.
“Mom! I’m home!”
There were no smart locks yet, so after opening the door with a key and entering, Insu shouted almost reflexively. Honestly, ever since remembering his previous life, calling someone “Mom” and “Dad” had felt slightly awkward, but habits ingrained into his body ignored that awkwardness and came out naturally.
“Hm? You’re back?”
His mother seemed to have been cooking something in the kitchen. In truth, many of the things people found awkward or uncomfortable stemmed from worrying about how others would react.
But after blurting it out instinctively and seeing his mother smile warmly as she welcomed him, much of that awkwardness and worry vanished. Insu did not realize it himself, but he would probably feel even less hesitant from now on.
His eyes immediately drifted toward the computer in the living room. He wanted nothing more than to sit down in that chair immediately.
But experience from his previous life told him that would be a bad idea.
Even though his previous-life mother had barely been home, she still had not liked seeing him glued to computers or smartphones.
Right now, a five-year-old becoming fascinated by something as difficult as a computer might seem interesting to his parents. But if he became too absorbed in it and neglected everything else because of it, resentment would gradually build up.
Well, it’s better for me too.
For now, the only thing he needed to do was wash up. After cleaning himself in the bathroom, Insu cautiously approached the computer and sat down in the chair.
Then, just as he reached for the power button, he suddenly remembered something he had forgotten.
Earlier at kindergarten, after noticing they had some books there, he wondered if he could learn how the history of this world had unfolded differently. But after becoming absorbed in the C language book, the thought had completely slipped his mind.
Only now did it return to him.
Unlike his previous life, this world did not even have widespread internet access yet, let alone smartphones, so there were very few ways to gather information. Books were at least a relatively convenient option.
Otherwise, he would have to either sit around watching TV until a relevant program aired or ask people questions one by one, and he was not desperate enough to do that yet.
Well, I’ll figure it out eventually.
More than anything, he wanted to start making games as soon as possible.
He already had a rough outline in mind. There had been games he wanted to create since his previous life, and over the past few days, various ideas had naturally started taking shape.
For starters, he planned to use Japanese manga-style visuals like those seen in JRPGs.
That might sound obvious now, but in the early days of RPGs, it really was not.
Western RPGs of the era also emphasized distinctive features to improve visibility despite limited graphics, but the result often resembled symbols or pictograms more than actual characters.
That simplicity had advantages, but it did little to help immersion.
Japanese manga-inspired visuals, however, could create familiarity while still using minimal computing resources. Of course, that effect would only work immediately in regions already familiar with Japanese manga. But over time, Western audiences would eventually grow accustomed to those aesthetics as well.
The problem is drawing the art itself.
It was not as though Insu could not draw at all. Since he once aimed to become a solo developer, he had studied and practiced graphic design too, so he could draw decently enough.
But “decent enough” wasn’t good enough.
This kind of thing depended heavily on artistic sense. He needed the kind of skill where someone could draw a seductive image with only a few lines, something capable of stimulating the player’s imagination as much as possible with minimal resources.
Still, there was nothing he could do about it for now. If he were at least a middle or high school student, he could go around searching for talented artists himself. But currently, he was just a tiny kindergartener.
For now, I’ll just have to draw things myself, even if it’s not ideal.
Thankfully, because he had studied art a little in his previous life, he would at least avoid producing stick figures or childish doodles. Besides, the game would not be completed anytime soon, so he planned to continue searching during development.
Suddenly, Insu stood up and walked over to his mother in the kitchen.
“Mom.”
“Hm? What is it?”
His mother was busy stir-frying anchovies.
“Do you know how to draw?”
“Uh...”
Caught off guard by the unexpected question, Hyein hesitated instead of answering immediately. She did not want to tell her child that she could not do something if she could help it. But at the same time, she could not bring herself to tell a lie that would immediately be exposed.