Searching for My Old Self
Kim Cheolgeun, the workshop owner, boarded his flight to America before dawn. I saw him off in my Bentley, and his face was brighter than ever. Going to see his family back home must feel incredible.
[Kimhae International Airport]
People crossing borders since the early morning. The place where anticipation lingers in the air.
“Sir, please don’t worry. Enjoy yourself and come back safely!”
“Thanks. I’m really glad I got to meet you. See you later!”
“I should be the one saying thanks! I’ll take good care of Breath of Steel for you!”
“Heh heh, do whatever you want, just stay healthy. You’re my top client, after all. Heh heh. Cough, cough.”
“Is something wrong, sir?”
“It seems like the flu is going around lately. But it’s better to get sick there than here. Cough, cough.”
“Dress warmly!”
“Come back in the spring!”
Kim Cheolgeun shook his passport with the ticket in his mouth and passed through the security checkpoint. He waved goodbye to me several more times before heading to the duty-free shop.
That’s when I made my way to the parking lot.
My heart was pounding harder and harder.
It felt just like the time I was home alone watching over the house while my parents went to their family reunion and stayed up all night playing video games.
“I can spin the synthesis wheel to my heart’s content!”
And upgrade...
Talent was just as important as level.
You saw Tesse’s Mythic two-piece set, right? No separate Dragon Ball Son Goku.
That’s how important talent is. And now I have the chance to do something about it. Plus, the opportunity to run a business on top of that has me buzzing.
At my age of only thirty, where else could I get such an experience?
“First... shall I expand it legally?”
Truth be told, I never really liked the Breath of Steel building I had. But this was another chance. A chance to turn it into a truly impressive forge!
Legally!
I checked the Oryukdo Gate public notice for the current size of land available for expansion of Breath of Steel.
300 pyeong.
The current Breath of Steel store was only a thirty-pyeong building, but the registered business land included the backyard, making it ten times bigger. It was plenty big enough to expand the business.
“The supervising department is the Oryukdo Gate Hunterpol Police Station?”
In that case, Oryukdo Gate fell under Busan South District Hunterpol Police Station jurisdiction, making things much easier.
Tesse belonged there.
No, the Oryukdo Gate itself was under Tesse’s jurisdiction.
I dialed Tesse.
♬
[Tesse]
“Tesse! How’s it going?”
“Hey Doosik. See you later.”
“Did you catch a cold too, hyung?”
“What cold? Why?”
“I’m trying to expand the Breath of Steel business. Is it that simple? I see it’s approved for expansion up to three hundred pyeong.”
“It’s something I was doing originally, so there shouldn’t be any problems. But I’m no longer the one in charge of Oryukdo Gate.”
“What?!”
Suddenly, what was this?
A transfer?
“It’s because of that smuggling case. I’ve been reassigned somewhere else. I’ll explain the details when we meet.”
“Oh... I see.”
I felt a little bitter.
Oryukdo Gate was Tesse’s territory...
Yet Tesse had stayed here because of Bae Hyeongsin. With Bae Hyeongsin likely in China, staying here made no sense.
“Congratulations, Tesse! Promotion? Is that it?”
“It’s something like that, but I’m not really in a celebratory mood. I’m just really busy. By the way, I’ll send you the contact for the South District Hunterpol Police Station chief.”
“What? The station chief?”
Suddenly the police station chief?
That was too high a person.
A tsunami of pressure hit me.
“You’re still like an uncle to me. The person is Won-tae Lee, a lieutenant general. He’s an A-class hunter like me and reliable. He’s also set to become the Busan Police Chief.”
“What? The police chief? Oh...”
I responded with a stiff nod.
The station chief was already too high, and now he was going to be the police chief? Did our ranks match after all? Could I really call him?
“I’ll send the contact. If you need anything, give him a call. I’ve already told the station chief. I’m busy now, so I’ll hang up.”
The tone over the phone was a bit unsettled.
“Thanks, hyung! Take care!”
“You too. Cough, cough.”
After the call ended abruptly, it felt a little sad.
I missed Tesse.
Zing—
A text message arrived from Tesse.
Nothing special, just the contact.
[Busan South District Chief Won-tae Lee]
I saved the contact.
Among the contacts on my phone, the person with the highest formal position.
A connection was born, so I could count it as a good thing. But somehow...
It felt like using a dragon-slaying sword to catch a chicken.
“I should stash this good card away. But when is Tesse going to shoot the Busan full course...”
Thinking about it, Kim Cheolgeun said he shoots the Busan full course too. What kind of thing was that? Something like imagining animals—dragons, phoenixes, unicorns.
No, dragons and phoenixes actually exist.
I formally inquired with the South District Hunter Police Station whether expansion of Breath of Steel was possible, then returned to Oryukdo.
“Hyung! Please summon more skeletons!”
At the back of Breath of Steel, Hyeong-do, who had been training every day with personal coach 13, came running as if he had been waiting.
“13?”
“I won! Cough, cough.”
“Really?”
Looking back, Hyeong-do’s body looked different. Sweat glistened across his bare torso, reflecting the sunlight, and his six-pack and chest muscles were clearly defined.
A muscular guy.
I looked at my own body in comparison. Neither a belly nor a chubby body, but I didn’t have such clear muscles.
I must have grown a lot by summoning so many skeleton soldiers. Why had I only been walking in place?
“Hurry.”
“Summon.”
13 appeared again. The guy rushed straight at Hyeong-do the moment he summoned, angry. Hyeong-do smiled lazily and began sparring with 13.
Hyeong-do held a pickaxe, 13 fought barehanded.
Unfair, but 13’s martial arts were close to perfect. I watched their sparring while sitting on the Throne of the Immortal King.
Suddenly.
“Ah, ah!”
The Throne of the Immortal King effect made 13 suddenly move at breakneck speed. Hyeong-do got hit with a straight punch and a reverse blow in an instant, then retreated while coughing.
13 raised both arms and giggled.
“Ha, whew.”
“Should I remove the buff?”
“No. See you later! It’s actually better this way. Let’s go again.”
Hyeong-do, burning with passion, started sparring again with the now much faster 13. After a few more exchanges,
“Haah...”
Hyeong-do adapted to 13’s speed. He slammed the pickaxe into the ground, spun it around the handle, dodged 13’s attacks, then countered with a vertical strike.
Thud.
13 disappeared without a trace after the pickaxe struck his forehead.
“Nice!”
Hyeong-do had grown.
There was no denying it.
At first, the guy could barely touch 13...
I clapped without realizing it.
It was also a stimulus.
“The difficulty is getting higher and higher. That’s good.”
I summoned every skeleton soldier,
“Hup... this is... cough, cough.”
Is the flu really going around?
Even Hyeong-do was coughing.
“Under 13 as coaches, you two are apprentices.”
14 and 15 took submissive poses. The sparring between 13 and Hyeong-do resumed, and again Hyeong-do won.
[Skeleton Soldier Death ... Capabilities transferred.]
But only one layer of transfer.
14 had doubled his stats.
Hyeong-do was bewildered by the new difficulty,
“Cough. Cough.”
From then on he started getting pounded a lot. Eventually he tapped out in 14’s headlock.
Hodu came running and licked Hyeong-do, and the [Pet] trait activated, restoring his HP.
“Lick lick!”
Hyeong-do, who dreamed of becoming a cool hunter, was seriously training.
Can effort overcome talent?
No, Hyeong-do’s effort was itself talent.
“Hyeong-do, keep training with three skeletons. Hansik, Changsik, Geunsik, Minsik, Cheolsik.”
I called the five named ones excluding Hodu.
They lined up in formation.
Mission assignment.
“From now on, Changsik, take fifty skeleton soldiers and concentrate on clearing the Kalid honey stomach. Sweep everything inside the Kalid sac.”
Swoosh.
Fifty skeleton soldiers lined up behind Changsik in formation, taking submissive poses.
“And Geunsik, Minsik, Cheolsik. You three, turn all the loot collected from the honey stomach into new items through synthesis. It’s going to be busy. Each of you pick five and raise future blacksmith apprentices.”
When the fifty filled the honey stomach, the speed would explode.
Three blacksmiths might not be enough, but raising them was fine.
Swoosh.
Fifteen added to the team.
Still sixteen left.
“7, 8, 9. You’re going to go see your father. Hansik, design the expansion of Breath of Steel with the remaining skeleton soldiers. Make it clean, stylish, and practical.”
Following my instructions, Hansik actively gave his opinion.
“Should I design it with multiple floors?”
“Multiple floors... nice.”
“As my lord commands.”
Hansik rose from his submissive pose,
Swoosh!
89 skeleton soldiers stood up in unison.
Hyeong-do stared with his mouth agape, amazed.
Full of self-confidence.
“Proceed.”
89 skeleton soldiers dispersed in perfect sync.
“Hyung... it feels so grand. Cough, cough.”
Hyeong-do’s admiration.
But even though self-confidence was overflowing, I felt strange. A kind of unknown emptiness.
Tesse who got promoted, Hyeong-do, even the skeletons—they were all growing. But I felt stuck in place.
Of course, it was okay to think the growth of my summoned skeletons was my growth, but my core skill itself felt stagnant.
If I had to name it, I’d call it ‘growth deficiency.’
Plus, the longer I sat on the throne, the more I felt the lack of exercise. Would I end up with a belly?
I opened my laptop with the feeling that I had to do something.
“This is what I used to do...”
The screen was filled with coding-related materials. After I learned that the skeletons coded better than me, I stopped touching them.
Why? It smelled like fig.
“Coding... it was fun...”
I thought coding was the talent I discovered during my unemployed days. I lost track of time when I focused, and here was my future...
“The skeletons are skeletons, and I am me.”
I opened a new project.
I stared at the blinking cursor on the black screen, then suddenly an idea flashed.
//Project Name: Gateway
I flicked my wrist lightly,
#include
int main() {
printf("=== Hunter Conquest Platform: Gateway ===\n");
printf("1. Gate List Query\n");
printf("2. Hunter Spec Input\n");
printf("3. Custom Conquest Method Generation\n");
printf("0. Exit\n");
int choice;
printf("Select menu: ");
scanf("%d", &choice);
.......
I roughly sketched the platform’s functions, starting with gate list query.
struct Gate {
char name[50];
char difficulty[10];
int monsters;
.......
Using N company’s map API to display each gate, and from Hunter Thread crawling gate information to define monster data appearing at gates as a struct...
The coding knowledge I thought I had forgotten exploded with inspiration in my head.
“A platform that hunters absolutely need...”
Hunters present their specs, search for conquerable gates, and when selected, get custom conquest methods. Like Hansik calculating success rate.
Further, party matching.
Hunter Thread already supports party matching, but it wasn’t this specialized.
“For now, the big picture of the platform I want to make...”
Details later.
This was just a sketch of Gateway.
The skeletons were busy, making the surroundings noisy, but as I focused, the surroundings grew quiet.
Completely immersed, sinking into my own world alone. That was why I got hooked on coding.
[(Rare) Broken Assassin’s Sword] [Tigriel’s Bundle...
[(Rare) Old Miner’s Pickaxe] [Tigriel...
[(High-grade) Corn Dewclaw] [Tigriel...
.......
When the system message that the honey stomach collection had started appeared, my concentration wavered a little.
But I adapted quickly.
My fingers moved busily. Then,
[Tigriel’s Bundle] storage space full...
Multitasking.
I emptied the bundle once.
The pouring magic stones and loot.
They became materials, and inside Breath of Steel, the infinite synthesis continued with rumbling and sparkling.
Tap— tatap—
Tadak— tadak...
After emptying the bundle three more times, the synthesis results of the loot collection team, including Changsik, were reported dead due to Kalid’s stomach acid.
At the same time, the compilation success message.
Build: 3 succeeded, 0 failed...
“Nice!”
I had recovered my talent after forgetting it for a while. The thrill of achievement after a long time was exhilarating.
“Ah... the sun is rising. Haaam.”
I stayed up all night. I saved, staged and committed on git, pushed to the remote repository, checked the log, and closed the laptop.
The dark circles melted in the sunlight.
“Ah, good.”
“Kekheluuk!”
“Surprise!”
Kalid had been woken up while sleeping, coughing again.
Even with that noise, Hyeong-do lay sprawled in the corner, unfazed.
Hodu kept licking the beaten-up Hyeong-do.
How seriously had he been training?
I took off the [Dark Cloak] and covered Hyeong-do with it.
It had temperature control, so he wouldn’t feel cold.
The honey stomach collection team had completed their mission, so I was about to get up and check the synthesis results when a noise came from the direction of Kalid.
Kwaang—!
In the direction of Kalid.