The Keyboard Warrior Proposal
21st Century Technopia — November 23, 1999, Tuesday. Most employees at ID Technology headquarters were visibly excited. As quitting time drew nearer, the buoyant mood spread like wildfire. It might have been the scorching sales of NewEgg3, which had officially launched just in time for Thanksgiving season. Pre-ordered units were already shipping out, and those who missed the reservation window were lining up outside ID Flagship Stores for the limited stock. Even in the chilly weather, the queues were easy to spot. Yet the excitement throughout ID Technology could not be attributed solely to NewEgg3. The company had grown into one of the largest in Silicon Valley, and it had plenty of other hit products. The Xbox team, which had set E3 in June of the following year as its D-Day, had already claimed an entire section of the headquarters and was constantly noisy. In short, the day-to-day atmosphere inside the company was no different from usual.
What truly excited the employees was not routine business, but a very special event. Thanksgiving, the biggest holiday in North America, began the very next day. The break would last five full days, from Wednesday this week through Sunday the following week. All ID Group subsidiaries located in North America had decided to close for the holiday. Flagship stores and customer centers that had to remain open for consumers would close only on Thanksgiving Day itself and operate on a rotating schedule for the days before and after. Of course, those who worked while everyone else rested would receive double pay as standard, plus high marks on their performance evaluations. Finding volunteers was therefore no trouble at all.
There was also a bonus to make the Thanksgiving holiday even more enjoyable. While many American companies handed out Thanksgiving bonuses, ID Group’s version was special. It included a 10th-anniversary bonus and long-service awards. Originally scheduled for around August, the payouts had been postponed because of preparations for IDDC 99. Employees had been given only a single day off at the time, with the bonuses and awards deferred until now.
In 1994, roughly six hundred employees had reached five years of service. Today, in 1999, the number of employees with more than ten years of service had just crossed two hundred. In a traditional smokestack industry that saw little turnover, that figure might have signaled significant attrition. In Silicon Valley, however, where dozens of companies were born and died every single day, having more than two hundred ten-year veterans was proof of extraordinary loyalty. Meanwhile, the number of five-year veterans had exploded to nearly ten thousand, thanks to the group’s explosive growth and the many employees who had joined through acquisitions and mergers.
Yoo Jae-won decided on lavish gifts for those long-serving employees who deserved special treatment. It had long been ID Group tradition to award watches to core technical staff such as programmers and gold to general employees. For the newly minted ten-year veterans, he chose either an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph or a solid-gold medal engraved with the ID Group logo weighing one hundred don. Both were far more prestigious than the Submariner given to five-year veterans, and far more expensive, but the symbolism was unmistakable. The Royal Oak had been inspired by the ships of the line from the Age of Sail; those vessels had shouldered the heaviest responsibility in fleet actions. Ten-year employees were expected to play the same role. They formed the core of the core within ID Group. Programmers at that level were project managers or higher; general staff were department heads or team leaders. Even if some called the expensive watches wasteful, Yoo Jae-won felt not a single pang of regret.
Five-year veterans received the same Submariner as before, or a thirty-don golden key. Newer employees were not forgotten either. Because their numbers were so large, they received cash instead of physical gifts. The bonus amount was scaled fairly according to length of service: up to five million won for four-year employees, and one hundred thousand won even for brand-new hires who had started the previous day.
ID Group’s extravagant gift-giving naturally became big news in the industry. IT companies in Silicon Valley that had survived more than ten years were exceedingly rare, and among those, few rewarded their long-serving employees so generously. American media outlets praised the company’s care for its veterans and speculated that it might be one of the secrets behind ID Group’s success. Naturally, attention turned once more to Yoo Jae-won himself.
The man at the center of it all, however, was sitting in front of his computer, deep in concentration, while the rest of the company celebrated the bonus festivities. He was pouring every ounce of effort into creating an event program for one person alone. The long-service awards were being handled by the presidents of each subsidiary; Yoo Jae-won personally oversaw only a handful of people, including Choi Kang-wook, Remington, Vincent Greenhill, and Henry Samuel.
“Done!”
Thanks to his focus, he finished the work before his self-imposed deadline. All that remained was to deliver the event in person.
“I’m nervous.”
He picked up his T-Touch Phone and held down the speed-dial button for Tiffany’s number. The ringtone that played was R. Kelly and Celine Dion’s “I’m Your Angel.” A few seconds later, Tiffany’s voice came through the line.
“Jae-won? What’s up?”
“Can you come over to my place tonight?”
“Sure! I was planning to come anyway. What’s going on?”
Tiffany’s Thanksgiving schedule was simple: Wednesday with her parents, Thanksgiving Day at Frederick Taylor II’s house. She had already returned to her San Francisco home for the occasion, so visiting Yoo Jae-won’s nearby residence was only natural. He had suspected as much, but wanted to confirm before calling.
“You know Keyboard Warrior, right?”
“Of course. It’s your first big hit.”
“I just finished the beta version of the official sequel. I wanted you to be the first to see it. If you play it and give me your honest impressions, that would be even better.”
“Really? Wow, wow! I’m on my way!”
Tiffany’s excited voice came through loud and clear. There was a flurry of background noise, then she said she would arrive in thirty minutes and hung up.
Once the call ended, a wave of tension rose in Yoo Jae-won’s chest. He had experienced many things in life, but romance and marriage were different. He had run countless simulations in his head, yet reality felt entirely distinct.
A short while later, her bicycle entered his heart.
The words echoed through Yoo Jae-won’s lavishly decorated multimedia room in a voice that was not his usual tone—low, resonant, and carefully performed.
“Huh? You recorded that yourself?”
Tiffany’s eyes widened. She had rushed over the moment she heard the words “Keyboard Warrior 2.” Yoo Jae-won greeted her with his usual warmth, even while his heart raced, and started the game. Tiffany was visibly flushed with excitement. When he suggested they try the new co-op mission first, she nodded immediately.
She did raise an eyebrow at the setup he had prepared. Co-op missions were not played on a single computer with two people; they matched players connected over the internet. The most convenient way was to use an iWorks notebook on one’s lap, yet Yoo Jae-won had given her his own desktop computer and connected it to a projector screen while he played on an iWorks notebook himself.
“The goal of the co-op mission is treasure hunting. Collecting gold is important, but finding rare weapons and armor is the real objective. Items you obtain here can be used in other game modes as well.”
He continued with a friendly explanation.
“Ah! I get it. Let’s start!”
Tiffany understood at once and urged him to begin. Yoo Jae-won steadied his trembling hands and pressed the start button.
As expected of a two-player stage, zombies poured out the moment the mission began. If they did not frantically hammer the keyboard to clear the monsters, the game would end quickly. Fortunately, both Yoo Jae-won and Tiffany typed at high speed and were already familiar with Keyboard Warrior, so they fought with genuine enjoyment. Then they encountered the stage boss who possessed time-manipulation abilities and began the difficult battle.
At the critical moment—one keystroke from victory—Yoo Jae-won deliberately made a mistake. The boss counterattacked, and a rift in spacetime opened. Both characters were sucked into the growing black hole. The screen went pitch black, filled with noise, then fell silent for an instant before brightening again.
“Huh? What? Wait—what? That’s our school?”
The new stage depicted buildings with orange roofs tinged red and walls of Romanesque brickwork. The detail was so precise that anyone could instantly recognize it as Stanford University. Soon the characters of Yoo Jae-won and Tiffany appeared—rendered in SD style, yet unmistakably themselves.
The special event scene he had spent an entire week crafting began to unfold.
“That’s my bicycle! Bicycle thief!”
“Thief? Are you talking about me?”
The rare electric bicycle had caused a major misunderstanding, but that very misunderstanding had brought Tiffany and Yoo Jae-won together and led them to this moment. Their shared story over the years played out on screen.
“Jae-won.”
Tiffany’s sharp intuition immediately told her this was no ordinary game event. Just as she was about to be moved to tears, the Stanford buildings collapsed with a rumbling sound and monsters began pouring out. The game was not over yet.
They hammered their keyboards again, frantically clearing wave after wave of monsters. Only after defeating dozens did they finally obtain the rare item that was the mission’s true goal. But there was a problem: two items appeared instead of one. The treasure chest was sealed with a special lock that could only be opened if both of them acted simultaneously. Beyond the door lay another spacetime rift, meaning the items would end up in different times and spaces, forever separating them.
Yoo Jae-won’s SD character, which had been heading toward the golden item, suddenly stopped.
“To me, you are more precious than any rare item.”
He had realized that the most valuable thing was Tiffany standing right beside him. He turned to look at her with trembling eyes. True to the spirit of Keyboard Warrior, every word that appeared on screen had to be typed. His confession, delivered through the game format, was no exception.
Tiffany’s reaction was different. An input field appeared, but no predetermined text was required. Already moved to tears, she glanced between Yoo Jae-won and the screen before typing a simple phrase: “Me too!”
“Tiffany, will you marry me?”
He had considered countless lines for the confession. The Memory Palace contained many elegant phrases, yet in the end he had chosen the shortest, clearest words possible.
“Yes!”
Tiffany answered without hesitation. Unable to contain her overwhelming emotion, she stood up and threw her arms around him. For a moment Yoo Jae-won was flustered—he had expected her to type “YES” on the keyboard so the prepared effects would trigger. Tiffany’s reaction was far more intense than anything he had anticipated. Seeing how happy she was made the week of hard work completely worthwhile.
Still, he wanted to finish the scene properly. He pressed the emergency shortcut key. The screen changed to a “Stage Clear” title, cheerful music played, and 3D polygonal fireworks exploded. A message appeared asking them to check the real reward, accompanied by a realistic mechanical whirring sound—the DVD-ROM drive of the iWorks Tiffany had been using opened by itself. Inside the tray, instead of a DVD, lay a silver ring.
It was a proposal ring he had commissioned directly from a master jeweler—crafted entirely from platinum without any gemstones, elegant and refined. Yoo Jae-won took the ring and slipped it onto Tiffany’s finger, bringing the carefully prepared event to its perfect conclusion.
November 29, the day after Thanksgiving break ended, a single piece of breaking news flashed across the world: Yoo Jae-won, who had come to America empty-handed and founded the global IT conglomerate ID Group, and Tiffany Pink, only daughter of Blackstone investment bank and granddaughter of the oil giant Chevron, were engaged to be married.