Game
Game
"Hmm..."
It was an RPG he'd been enjoying lately.
He was taking it slow, since he'd heard you could have plenty of fun without spending a single cent.
It had been about a month since he'd gotten a taste of "character building" by browsing community sites for guides and videos.
It was fun in the beginning, but he was starting to worry it was getting progressively tedious.
"How the hell am I supposed to catch this boss..."
He had already hit a wall.
It seemed that in this game, seeing the end content was impossible without spending money.
Changing item options could only be done with Jaehwa — a form of Cash with real currency value.
Were there really games like this in the world?
"Haa... It's tough. So tough."
"That's not how you play that."
As he sighed at a game that was hard to enjoy without opening his wallet, A-ra, who had just finished washing up, sat down next to him and spoke.
Of course.
It was only natural that playing this way wasn't fun.
"Oh? Noona, you play this game too?"
"Yeah, I spent some money on it."
A-ra took the towel out from her white robe and started drying her hair.
Smiling, he gently took the towel from her and dried her hair for her.
"I've never seen you playing it, though?"
"Things like hunting are annoying, so I hired part-timers."
Hiring part-timers for a game.
To be honest, he wasn't quite sure what A-ra was talking about.
"Huh... there are people who do stuff like that?"
"A lot of people do it, since you can work from home at minimum wage."
Listening more closely, she said she had three people working on rotation.
Eight hours a day... so a three-shift system?
That honestly sounded better than working at a factory.
A life where you earn money just watching CueTube or Tuplix at home...
"But what did you mean when you said that's not how you play?"
"Seong-hwan, that item you have equipped? You shouldn't be using it."
"Hmm... but CueTube said it was okay to use for a while."
The equipment he had on was a set called the Lion King Set.
He had purchased each piece for 500,000 Gold Money from the exchange.
Since he could pull in about 20 million Gold Money a day in this game, they weren't exactly expensive — but before he'd moved to his current hunting ground, monsters had died in four skills, so he'd been satisfied with them.
"Mo... Monsters taking four skills to kill?"
"Yes. Before I equipped these, it used to take seven hits."
"Seong-hwan... in this game, killing monsters in one skill is the basic standard..."
"...Really?"
Compared to other people, he'd apparently been playing the game rather strangely.
You were supposed to kill monsters in one hit...?
"Hmm... my husband... you have this much money and you've been using items like these? Most of your gear is tutorial clear rewards."
A-ra made him move from his spot and sat down in the chair herself.
Scrolling down through the equipped items with the mouse, she started with a wry smile and ended by letting out a quiet sigh.
"Did you really hunt with gear like this?"
"Yes..."
"I don't know if I should call it incredible perseverance... or just be amazed that you found this fun..."
It seemed what he'd been doing was closer to manual labor than a game.
She said it was more like a challenge run that veterans with nothing left to do attempted, just to test the limits.
"Starting today, noona's going to teach you properly."
"Ohh..."
A-ra took a black card out of her wallet and sat back down at the desk.
Was she really planning to swipe that card?
*
"Ohh... the monsters are dying in one skill..."
So this was a game...?
What on earth had he been doing until just now?
"It seems a bit more manageable now, right?"
"Yeah, the leveling speed is insane now."
Of course, it was a game where gaining even a single level was brutally difficult.
But at his current level, the level-up speed was fast — just like the CueTube videos he'd watched before.
"But with this, what level can I hunt up to?"
"At this pace, it should be enough to reach max level. Probably."
The max level for this game was 99.
He was currently 43, so...
Still, how much had A-ra spent on his account?
If it was enough to hunt all the way to max level, it couldn't have been a small sum.
"Anyway, thank you. Thanks to you, noona, I think I'll actually be able to enjoy it now."
"Of course. Games are meant to be fun in moderation... you know?"
He smiled wryly as he watched A-ra give his head a thorough pat, yawn, and walk out.
She had definitely been wearing a white robe just a moment ago... where had she gone off to, anyway?
***
"You didn't know? A-ra's famous as a ranker in that game."
"She's probably spent more money on that game than anyone in the world."
Things he didn't know, these two did.
Or was he just that uninterested in A-ra as a singer?
"Hey, more importantly — we have the presentation today."
"Huh? The assignment? That presentation — Jeong Hwan-yi, you agreed to do it."
Since it was an assignment tied to a field practice topic, he took it seriously.
The PPT was his responsibility, Lee Min-ho was in charge of collecting all the data, and Jeong Hwan-yi had been assigned the hardest role — the presentation itself.
"About that... our presentation got pushed to next week."
"What?"
"Why'd it get pushed?"
"Normally it goes through the groups up to ours and then rolls over to the next week, right? Well, the group after us said they can't do the presentation unless it's this week."
"Ah... come to think of it, they did say the seniors are leaving first."
Those of them in the class of '17 only did the Social Welfare Field Practice, but he'd heard the seniors also had practice hours for childcare classes.
He'd heard that their school, as a pilot whatsit, allowed students to earn a Childcare Teacher License.
"Still, I'm kind of envious of the childcare teacher license."
"Isn't the Social Worker License basically meaningless for you too?"
"Same goes for you guys."
He gave them a light jab.
These two only ever did this to him.
"Haa... so then we've got nothing to do today..."
"Should we hit a nearby cafe?"
"That's kind of boring... let's just go hang out at your little brother's shop or something."
"Ah, I should do some promotional modeling work — it's been a while."
They'd been busy with university life.
So they hadn't been able to do promotional modeling work very often.
Still, it wasn't a bad situation, since the profits from Hojun's business were climbing day by day.
As expected — Hojun's face card was no joke.
*
"Welcome!"
"Hello. It's been a while."
The moment he stepped in, he smiled and returned the employees' greeting.
He liked that these people always worked with a smile.
"The boss is inside at the moment. Should I call him out for you?"
"Yes, please."
The employee gave them one more nod and went inside.
The moment she disappeared, Hojun came out and threw himself into his arms.
"Hyung!"
"The other employees are watching."
Hojun must have clung to him without thinking, but he wished the kid would check his surroundings a little.
Was this just unavoidable because he was a guy?
He liked being held by A-ra too, after all.
"Sorry — I was just so happy to see you."
Smiling, Hojun pulled back from the embrace and began scanning the store's interior.
He seemed to be checking how much stock had sold and planning what to bring up from the basement warehouse.
"Bring four more of this model... and for this one, prep ten boxes of the 64GB."
"Yes, boss. This one seems to be selling well too — should I bring about three more?"
"Looks like this model's doing well today."
There were customers even now who'd found a model they liked, nodded, and were carrying it straight to the counter.
Was his business sense that sharp, or was the product just that good...?
Or was it both?
"Hojun, what should your hyung do?"
"Hyung, just you sitting by the front door is worth about 150 people. You've got a weak body — just sit down."
"Oh... oh... okay."
Well, sitting there for promotional purposes was his job anyway...
He shouldn't think of it as being pitied by his younger brother...
"Hey, is Hojun the older one here or what?"
"Be quiet."
Lee Min-ho burst out laughing and smacked his shoulder — hard.
Really hard, at that.
Seriously, this guy was only biologically and physically male — he was no different from a woman.
He was more feminine than his girlfriend, Minji.
"But doesn't it seem like there's more stuff than last time we came?"
"There are monitors over there now, and headphones too."
"Keyboards as well..."
It looked like Hojun had expanded his inventory.
If they stocked headphones, wasn't this now a listening shop? And with keyboards, a typing shop?
He could understand the keyboards, but he wasn't so sure about the headphones.
How much return would an investment like that bring here?
"Hyung, want to give them a listen?"
"Sure, why not."
Hojun took his hand and led him to the section where the black headphones were gathered.
Underneath the display, it read "HD600," and they were plugged into some kind of strange machine.
"These headphones need an amplifier to deliver their full output."
"Hmm... does that actually make a difference?"
"A huge difference. Hyung's got good ears, so you'll probably notice it."
"Alright then, let's see..."
He put on the headphones Hojun handed him.
Ohh... it wasn't the feeling of his ears being covered — more like his whole ear was being gently encased. They didn't feel cumbersome at all.
They seemed like they wouldn't hurt even if he wore them for hours.
Though they might get a little sweaty in the summer.
"Comfortable, right?"
"Yeah. These are worth buying just for the comfort alone, even before you get to the sound quality."
"Shall I play some music, then?"
Hojun fiddled with the device connected to the amplifier and started a song.
The melody that flowed out sounded like it was being performed live, right in front of him.
And on top of that — he could hear details that were normally inaudible.
It was fascinating how even sounds that tended to get buried, like the bass, resonated so deeply.