3. Card
3. Card
The doorbell rings.
I didn't get dressed after waking up, as I was busy taking a call and organizing my thoughts.
"Just a moment."
I fumbled into my clothes and opened the front door.
Standing in front of the door was Si-u, the middle schooler from upstairs, holding a side dish container.
"Oppa! Mom told me to bring this over."
Si-u, who just started middle school this year, still looks like an elementary schooler. They say kids these days grow up fast, but I guess that doesn't apply to her.
The square plastic container held beef jangjorim, the pride of the lady upstairs. It was probably a thank-you gift for fixing her bathroom last week.
"Oh. Jangjorim. Your family's jangjorim is seriously delicious, tell your mother I said thanks."
You have to accept kindness gratefully. I take the container with a slightly exaggerated look of delight.
Seeing that, Si-u chuckles.
"I eat it every day, so I'm sick of it... Is it really that good?"
"Of course. What could be better than this for a guy living alone?"
"Why do you live alone, oppa?"
"Well... living alone is just comfortable."
As I say that with a smile, Si-u stares at me quietly.
I've known the twins upstairs for over 10 years now. Before I went to the army, I would sometimes pick them up from elementary school and take them to their academies, play with them instead of their parents, or even teach them when their parents were busy working.
Now, they're practically like my younger siblings or niece and nephew.
I could tell exactly what Si-u was thinking just by the way she looked at me.
"Oppa. I have a favor to ask..."
"Only for 10 minutes."
I unlocked my phone and handed it to her, and Si-u's expression brightened instantly.
"Thank you."
As soon as she took the phone, Si-u stepped into my place from the entryway and went into the bathroom.
Si-u had her phone confiscated by her parents after getting disastrous grades on her last midterm exam. She cried and begged because she couldn't call her first boyfriend behind her parents' backs, but they wouldn't budge. Her twin brother Si-un, who got decent grades, didn't have his phone confiscated, but he wouldn't dream of lending it to her; he'd probably tell their parents about her having a boyfriend instead.
I guess boys hit puberty later, so he doesn't seem to understand his younger sister's heart yet. Or rather, even if he did understand, he wouldn't lend it to her. That's what I've heard about biological siblings.
So, Si-u has no choice but to come ask me for favors sometimes, and I occasionally lend her my phone. The lady upstairs knows about it but pretends she doesn't; she probably doesn't know the person on the other end is her boyfriend.
Since my place is a studio apartment, there are no separate rooms, so Si-u took the phone and went into the bathroom to talk to her boyfriend. I keep it clean, but personally, I'd never want to make a call from the bathroom. But for Si-u, who just wants to talk to her boyfriend, it doesn't seem to matter.
While Si-u is on the call, I transfer the jangjorim and wash the container clean.
The promised 10 minutes passed, and it was about 15 minutes later when Si-u finally came out of the bathroom.
She couldn't hide the smile on her face, probably because she had a sweet conversation with her boyfriend.
"Is it that good?"
"Ju-hyeon said let's go to an amusement park after the finals. He already bought the day passes with this month's allowance."
It looks like heart beams are about to shoot out of her eyes.
"Thanks, oppa. We couldn't talk much lately, so he was really worried that I might have lost interest in him. I think things worked out thanks to you."
Si-u bows politely. This is why I like the twins upstairs. They are always polite and upright. They're probably different from the roots up compared to a guy like me.
"Just thinking about going out with Ju-hyeon makes me happy already."
Seeing Si-u's face change from a child's to a young girl's makes me feel good too.
And then, a chime echoed:
-Emotion acquired.-
It didn't seem to be audible to Si-u, who was still stuck in her expression of happiness. I didn't know what this sound was, but I had a feeling it was something only I could hear.
I returned the empty container to Si-u and thought about it again. I remembered the bizarre dream I had forgotten due to the shock of my father's obituary.
-Status-
[Owned Cards: 1]
[Current Emotion: 43/100]
[Cumulative Emotion: 43]
Damn. That scared me.
I was so startled by the text suddenly appearing before my eyes that I fell backward. Fortunately, I was sitting on the bed, so I didn't get hurt.
What the hell is this???
Among the three lines of text, I looked at the top one, "Owned Cards".
Then, the letters started to change.
[Owned Card - No. 1 Fate]
Ah... This is like those sub-item links you often see on the internet.
As I looked at "No. 1 Fate", a description appeared again.
[No. 1 Fate - SSS]
[Even those with any talent, ability, or luck cannot help but live an ordinary life if their fate is ordinary. This card is the highest-ranking card among the 48 cards and will lead you to a life that is anything but ordinary.]
It's exactly the same as what I saw in the dream. There don't seem to be any further sub-items for this entry. I guess it means if you have this card, your ordinary fate becomes extraordinary, but I already have a life that's plenty extraordinary. If this is the highest-ranking card, I thought, maybe this "card" thing isn't all that useful?
I thought about looking at the other items, and the text changed immediately.
The text floating in the air is easy to read, but it blocks my vision, so I should never open it while driving or doing other tasks.
I checked the second line, "Current Emotion".
[Current Emotion 43/100]
[Current Emotion - A value obtained when the user achieves the action initially set. When you acquire a full unit of emotion, you can be issued a card. The cards you can acquire depend on your cumulative emotion, allowing you to obtain higher ranks.]
I frown and think carefully about what this means.
The action initially set? What did I set?
I look at the "action initially set" on the floating screen, and the text changes.
[I want to make people happy.]
I remember. The very first thing I said in the dream.
Now I think I understand a little.
If I perform the action I set, I get points. I get cards with the points I receive.
I get the chills for a moment.
What's scarier than this bizarre, unexplainable phenomenon is that if I had set my initial action to something like [I want to make people suffer], every time I made someone suffer, I would receive a card or whatever as a reward, regardless of whether it was helpful or not. And I would probably get addicted to the act of causing pain because of that sense of accomplishment. My character would probably instantly become a monster, or something even worse.
Fortunately, I made the right choice in the dream.
I let out a sigh of relief.
The fact that I just acquired emotion is probably because Si-u felt happy, and it was because of me.
I felt a bit happy.
One of the things I've thought about countless times was, "Did my hypocrisy really make others happy?"
This incomprehensible, bizarre phenomenon gives me the answer. I have no proof, but I felt certain that this phenomenon wouldn't lie to me. Why would a supernatural phenomenon of this magnitude bother lying to me?
The unpleasant feelings that had built up while thinking about my father's obituary and the past associated with it instantly turned into joy. Actually, this rapid change in emotion is proof that my character is a castle built on sand.
But that's okay.
What I wanted was confirmation that I could make someone happy. My nature, which is close to trash, can't be helped, but I can still live my own way.
I check the last line in a good mood.
[Cumulative Emotion 43]
[This is the sum of all emotions acquired so far. With a cumulative score of 500 points or less, you can only acquire D-rank cards or lower. B-rank unlocks at 2000 points, and A-rank unlocks at 4000 points. S and SS-rank cards can be acquired without consuming emotion at 3000 and 5000 cumulative points, respectively.]
It seems to mean that if I acquire a lot of emotion, I can draw better cards. S and SS feel like intermediate bonuses.
According to the description, I'll be able to acquire S-rank faster than A-rank.
I've barely played any games, but like the stories I heard in the army, I thought it felt a bit like a game.
I look at the number 43.
[Si-u's Happiness: 43
She felt happy during her call with her boyfriend after borrowing the phone.]
Hmm, I don't know if 43 is a big or small number, but when I saw Si-u's heart-filled eyes, she looked quite happy. If this is only around 43, I thought it wouldn't be easy to collect emotion.
To be honest, I didn't think I had felt happy very often in my life.
When I ate delicious food, wore nice clothes, or accomplished difficult tasks, I never felt that much happiness.
Perhaps I could feel the greatest happiness when I unleashed my ugly desires on someone.
Because that's the kind of person I was.
Naturally, I have no intention of doing that.