Forming the Eternal Pirate Crew #1
The first meeting was at a cafe. While we were deciding on a second location, a message from my mom popped up on my phone.
Mom is Mother: Mom has to pull an all-nighter at the office today lol. You probably won't wake up on time tomorrow so I'll give you a wake-up call~
It was a text saying Mom would be staying overnight at work. She'd been really busy lately, so I barely even saw her face these days. And she was just going to leave me alone in a house that had cockroaches and ghosts popping out of nowhere? Every time she was gone, the ghosts showed up. It was absolutely terrifying.
“Hey. Guys. Let’s go to my place for the second round. If you’re up for it, just crash there. Stay over for one night. Mom’s not home, so there’s plenty of room.”
I invited my classmates over and asked them to sleep at my house at the same time. If a ghost suddenly jumped out, having my friends there might make it a little less awful.
“You guys are staying over, right? Please!”
I asked again while looking at the crumbling old villa building. Jeong Seok was typing something on his phone before answering calmly.
“I already told them we might stay over.”
Yes! Perfect! I was thrilled as I started up the stairs, but Jeong Seok stopped and frowned.
“We’re seriously walking up to the fourth floor?”
“What else would we do? Want me to carry you?”
“……”
Was it because he was a rich kid? He looked around like he couldn’t comprehend the concept of walking up four flights of stairs. But in the end he gave up and started climbing.
When we reached the third floor, Jeong Seok asked, “Yang Ju-hui, are you going to be okay? Your mom came to school last time because you stayed out, right? If you stay out again tonight, won’t she actually make you drop out?”
Now that he mentioned it, that was true. When Elder Kim Yeo-ok had stormed into the classroom with scissors, roaring like she was going to chop off all of Yang Ju-hui’s hair, we’d all shrunk back, completely overwhelmed.
If she found out Ju-hui was sleeping over with me and Jeong Seok… wouldn’t she come rip our heads off? Jeong Seok might even get straight-up shredded.
“It’ll be fine. My mom likes Yeong-won. He’s a pastor’s son. If she knows I’m with him, she’ll probably be even happier about it. She won’t make a big deal about me staying over.”
Really? It seemed I’d unknowingly earned a lot of points with Elder Kim Yeo-ok. In any church, the pastor’s son always felt like one of their own to the elders.
“Ha Yeong-won is a pastor’s son?” Jeong Seok looked at me, eyes sparkling. “I thought you were from a single-mother household.”
“Every family has its own circumstances. Anyway, come on in.”
Jeong Seok didn’t press me any further about my vague answer. Smart guy that he was, he also had good manners.
Beep. Beep-beep.
I unlocked the door and stepped inside. Everything was pitch black.
Click.
When I turned on the light, the complete disaster of a living room came into view.
“Oh right. I left without cleaning any of this.”
It was the aftermath of the chaotic fight I’d had that morning with all the duplicated moms. I’d tried to tidy up a bit, but there was still sand and dirt all over the floor. It was a total mess.
“Hello.”
Yang Ju-hui took off her sneakers, revealing white socks, and walked right in without hesitation. Meanwhile Jeong Seok stopped at the shoe rack, too busy looking around.
His mouth hung half-open. Was that awe or horror?
“……”
He looked exactly like a chaebol politician stepping into a tiny studio apartment for the first time. Come to think of it, they both had the last name Jeong. I jokingly asked, “Hey, Seok. Is our house bigger than your shoe closet?”
“I’m not sure about… whoa!”
Jeong Seok suddenly screamed and jumped back. Shit, was a ghost already here? These damn ghosts really had no manners, popping out even when all the lights were on and three people were staring wide-eyed!
I was about to piss myself thinking they had zero decency when something went skitter-skitter right past Jeong Seok’s feet.
“Cockroach! It’s huge! Holy crap—”
Jeong Seok looked absolutely terrified by the cockroach. I mean, he was a guy. Getting scared by a bug? But I was so scared myself that tears welled up and I felt like I might foam at the mouth.
“We have to kill it! We have to kill it! If we don’t, I won’t be able to sleep! Kill it!”
I pleaded with pure emotion. A cockroach the size of a human thumb was crawling around the shoe rack. There was no way my courage was big enough to let me sleep like that. What if it crawled onto my face while I was sleeping? I’d actually die.
“Our Yeong-won is making such a fuss over something like this. I thought a ghost had shown up.”
At that moment, Yang Ju-hui lifted her foot and stomped down hard on the black thing.
Splat.
It was an incredibly cool move, but at the same time it made me want to lose my mind.
“Wait, you stepped on it with your sock on…”
“I was going to throw these socks away after today anyway. I can just wash my feet.”
She casually peeled off the sock and tossed it in the nearby trash can. Then she said, “I’m using the bathroom,” and disappeared inside.
Shhhhhhh.
The sound of the shower running suggested she was washing her hands and feet.
“……”
Jeong Seok and I just listened to the water. I didn’t know about him, but the thought of a girl from our class turning on the water and washing up in my house felt strangely… suggestive. Having gone to an all-boys middle school, I still had some lingering fantasies about girls.
“Yeong-won, let’s clean up first.”
Jeong Seok stepped from the shoe rack into our living room. He grabbed the vacuum cleaner and started pushing it across the floor with surprisingly good form.
“You and Seok will sleep in my room. Ju-hui, you take my mom’s room. If the pajamas are too big or uncomfortable, just tell me. I’ll get you something else.”
I prepared blankets for each room and handed out pajamas and toothbrushes to my friends. It had been ages since I’d had friends sleep over—since elementary school—so it felt both awkward and exciting. On the other hand, it was fun. I never thought I’d get to sleep over with friends. After getting chased by ghosts, I’d assumed my life would only be filled with misfortune. It was nice to have fun experiences like this too.
Nice. I’m happy.
“You had an older sister?” Jeong Seok asked while drinking water. He’d spotted the photo of me and a woman hanging in the living room. He really was observant. The picture was from my middle school graduation, taken with Mom.
“That’s my mom. She’s thirty-four this year, by the way.”
“……”
Jeong Seok looked like he couldn’t process it. He was probably doing the mental math—how old was she when she had the kid? I decided to help him out.
“She had me when she was in high school.”
Anyway.
I sat down in the living room and mentally prepared myself to explain my Status Window to everyone. At that moment, Yang Ju-hui—who had changed into my pajamas—rubbed her stomach.
“Yeong-won, I’m hungry. Can you order a chicken? My baby’s saying it’s hungry.”
“Pffft—!”
Jeong Seok spat out the water he was drinking.
“Dude, gross.”
“No, you said… baby…”
Jeong Seok looked genuinely shocked by Ju-hui’s words. Was he weak to girls’ jokes? Maybe he’d also gone to an all-boys middle school for three years.
“Obviously I’m kidding. But chicken… sure. I’ll pay. Whatever. Just help clean up afterward. Chicken’s fine?”
“Oh yeah!”
Yang Ju-hui looked thrilled. She’d eaten an entire carrot cake by herself earlier, yet she still had room for chicken. Jeong Seok chimed in too.
“I only eat boneless. Do they have Bburinkle?”
“…Who eats Bburinkle boneless? The bones are the best part.”
Rich kids really did have different tastes. As I was thinking that, Yang Ju-hui asked from beside me, “What’s Bburinkle?”
…Right.
I ended up ordering two whole chickens. Eating chicken at home late at night with friends was genuinely fun. We hadn’t even done anything special, but the day felt so enjoyable.
“Hey, this is ginseng liquor. Guys. Let’s each have a glass!”
After devouring a ton of chicken, Yang Ju-hui had now set her sights on the ginseng liquor. It was something Mom had received from work. The golden bottle with a massive root inside was pretty impressive. Was this girl trying to drink my entire household dry?
That’s what I thought, but honestly I wanted to try a glass of ginseng liquor too.
“Wait.”
Slap.
Jeong Seok lightly smacked the table with his palm. It was the same gesture he used to get the class’s attention.
“We didn’t gather here for this. Ha Yeong-won. You said you have superpowers. Explain what they are first.”
Right. I’d meant to talk about the Status Window today. But… the Status Window was my ultimate weapon and an absolute top secret I had to hide from everyone. If word got out that I had it, the National Intelligence Service might kidnap me and crack open my brain.
If you asked whether I could trust Yang Ju-hui and Jeong Seok, I honestly couldn’t say for sure. My relationship with Ju-hui had never been that great to begin with, and I could count on one hand the number of times I’d even spoken to the class vice president Jeong Seok.
Still, I wanted to trust the friends in front of me. The world was too cruel to handle all of this alone.
So I opened the ginseng liquor and poured a glass for each person.
Glug glug glug.
“Listen. The moment we drink this, we become true blood brothers and comrades. Any secret said here tonight must be kept until the end. If the secret gets out, you two could actually die. I’m not joking.”
I held out the glasses to Yang Ju-hui and Jeong Seok respectively. It was a very tense moment.
“Why do you keep making me say the same thing? I already said I’m in. If it means I can find my sister, turn my mom back to normal, and get my family back to how it was… Ugh, it’s bitter.”
Yang Ju-hui downed the entire glass in one go. She really was tough. That left Jeong Seok.
He stared at the ginseng liquor in his glass. To be honest, his connection to me was still pretty loose. Even though we’d fought a feng shui ghost together, he had no obligation to stick with me to the end.
Glug.
Jeong Seok emptied his glass in one swift motion.
“I’m in too. But only because you said your ability would help my life. That information had better be solid. I’m going to become a prosecutor in South Korea one day. I’ll throw every criminal in—”
The way Jeong Seok said it was more serious than I’d expected, and there was a sharp, almost frightening edge to his tone.
Good. I downed my own glass in one go. It was bitter and tasted awful.
“Ugh. That was nasty. Anyway, from now on we’re all members of the Ha Yeong-won Pirate Crew. To my new comrades, I’ll tell you this. I have something called a Status Window. If I draw it out, it looks like this.”
Scratch scratch. Scratch scratch scratch.
I drew the text I always saw on a notebook.
“It appeared one day. To be exact, it was on the day of the entrance ceremony at Yeongji High. There’s a point system that gives me two points a day. I saved up to a hundred points and unlocked the shop.”
Scratch scratch.
I drew the shop window for them too.
Jeong Seok asked me, “Can you convert those points into money? Or buy points with money?”
“Yeah. One point equals ten thousand won. I also get points from fighting and defeating ghosts. The rules there are pretty inconsistent. It seems to depend on difficulty and stuff like that.”
I also explained that I currently had 821P. Yang Ju-hui’s eyes immediately lit up.
“So that means you have eight million won? That’s insane.”
Eight million won was definitely a huge amount of money for a first-year high school student. But Jeong Seok shook his head.
“I’m against converting points into cash. If everything you’re saying is true, one point is probably worth more than ten thousand won. I think it’s better to start by unlocking the locked items in the shop first. That widens your options.”
It was a pretty reasonable idea.
“Or raise the shop level first. You said raising the shop level applies discounts to items, right? Buying things early like that lets you get the maximum benefit.”
This guy Jeong Seok was smarter than I thought! I decided to follow his advice.
I spent 100P to raise the shop level. Then, with a ding, the shop changed!
Welcome to the Level 2 Shop. Our shop offers a variety of items that will help Heroes in battle.
Leveling up the shop adds new products and applies discounts.
Shop Level 2 Lv (0/500)
1. Trait Draw Ticket - 90P
2. Capsule Draw Ticket - 90P
3. Unlock Locked Item - 90P
4. Open Old Building 2nd Floor – 900P
“Oh. Everything got about ten percent cheaper across the board. And it says raising the shop level again will cost five hundred points this time.”
Spending five hundred on a shop upgrade felt a bit wasteful. I had 721 points left. According to Jeong Seok, unlocking the locked items would give me more options, so that seemed good.
90P consumed. Unlocking locked item.
The Training Ground has been opened.
The Training Ground can be used to train players.
100 points can be consumed to acquire traits.
To unlock further locked items, a Level 3 Shop is required.
A training ground! Training! Acquiring traits by spending points! I see. That meant I could spend 100 points to gift traits to comrades like Yang Ju-hui and Jeong Seok!
“A training ground appeared in the locked items. It says training gives you traits. And to unlock the next locked item, it looks like I need to raise the shop to level three.”
“Traits? Honestly I’m still having a hard time believing this, but… I could get some amazing ability too?”
Yang Ju-hui looked indifferent but clearly curious. Jeong Seok showed strong interest as well.
“Try using it. Tell us what happens.”
So I was supposed to use Ju-hui like a lab rat, huh?
I dragged Yang Ju-hui’s name and dropped it into the training ground.
Yang Ju-hui - Training List!
Push-ups 0/1000
Run at 2 km/h or faster 0/100 km
Reward: Fast Legs
Fast Legs: Run 1.5 times faster for 10 seconds.
“This is what came up?”
“Requirements and rewards. It really is exactly like a game quest,” Jeong Seok evaluated. I agreed with his description. The person in question, Yang Ju-hui, frowned like she found it ambiguous.
“A thousand push-ups and a hundred kilometers of running? That’s pretty tough. Run 1.5 times faster for ten seconds… Is that really worth all that effort?”
Was it? At that moment Jeong Seok got fired up.
“No, this is incredible! The average high school girl’s 100-meter dash is around twenty seconds, you know? The school record holder, Shin Ui-ju, runs it in 12.1 seconds! If you’re just 1.5 times faster than average, that’s 13.3 seconds!”
“Whoa, really? I ran the 100 meters in about sixteen or seventeen seconds last PE class. If I get 1.5 times faster… that means I could run in the ten-second range?”
“For reference, the women’s 100-meter world record is 10.49 seconds!”
“Holy crap, that’s amazing! So if I train just a little, I could make it to the Olympics!”
Yang Ju-hui was overjoyed. The only thing that bothered me was how Jeong Seok knew the women’s 100-meter records in such detail. Did smart people usually know stuff like that? Was he a pervert? Come to think of it, the Class 1-C bully Bong Ji-yeon used to be on our school’s track team…
“Ha Yeong-won! This is huge! Seriously, this could completely change someone’s life! Can you do it for me too? How many people can enter the training ground at once?”
Jeong Seok was so excited it was hard to believe he’d been calm just moments ago. His nostrils were flaring and he was practically snorting. It was almost scary.
“Got it. But before that, can I try one capsule draw?”
I was way too curious about the capsule draw. I spent another 90 points. Now I had 541P left. Something that looked like a gacha machine appeared before my eyes, and round capsules started rattling around inside.
I was wondering what would happen when—
Item has been placed in front of the entrance.
15 steps northeast.