5. Lawyer
5. Lawyer
I stretch and get up.
The fatigue from my night courier part-time job yesterday still lingers.
I guess Health and Stamina really are different concepts.
'Status'
[Owned Cards: 2]
[Current Emotion: 3/100]
[Cumulative Emotion: 103]
The value of 100 required to obtain the third card didn't increase any further.
I thought it would be like a game where the experience required for Level 2 is higher than for Level 1, but I guess not.
Or maybe it increases later after unlocking C-rank cards.
I realized that the rewards for this phenomenon, which I thought were just simple self-satisfaction, were immense.
The saying that one's fate can change in an instant started to feel real.
All I did yesterday was lend my phone for 15 minutes and provide about 50,000 won worth of service.
Just for that, I received an absurd card called Disease Immunity.
I learned a little more about this phenomenon.
This system only grants Emotion points when someone feels happy and grateful because of me.
I wondered if people receiving packages while I worked the night shift might feel a little happy, but I didn't get a single point.
Thinking about it a bit, while they might be happy to receive a package, it seems no one thinks that happiness is thanks to the delivery driver.
I briefly thought about switching to a job where I could deliver more happiness.
Whether I change jobs or keep this one, the big issue right now is my father's lawyer.
The fact that a lawyer is coming means it's probably about the inheritance.
I know my father dabbled in dangerous work and amassed a considerable fortune.
I don't know if he remarried, but given his personality, it would be almost impossible for him to take a woman as his wife.
Because to my father, every woman except for my mother was an object, a slave, or a pet.
If it's debt instead of an inheritance, I can just refuse it.
Still, seeing that he prepared a lawyer for me after his death, it seems my father did think of me after all.
Even though we were a father and son who hadn't spoken a single word to each other for over 10 years.
A lawyer.
They're people I've never met in person in my life.
Even when I got into an assault case and had to settle, I didn't see one in person.
I guess my father and mother were the type of people who could easily meet and use people like lawyers.
It might be nothing, but depending on the amount of the inheritance, my life could change 180 degrees.
When I thought, "Could the power of the Fate Card be influencing this too?", I felt something unsettling.
Do other people use this Card System too?
Is someone out there harming others and getting tons of rewards using the base settings I first thought of?
Is there a time limit on the cards received as rewards?
Are there any side effects or costs I don't know about?
Worries I hadn't even thought of yesterday are swelling up.
But thinking about it won't give me any answers. For now, I'll wash up and wait for the lawyer.
I went to the coffee shop, the meeting place, on time.
In the coffee shop parking lot, a foreign SUV of a brand that you could clearly tell couldn't be bought for just 100 or 200 million won was parked proudly.
"Could that be the lawyer's car?" I thought as I entered the store.
The store was quiet because it was morning. Two tables of customers caught my eye.
One was a cool gentleman in his 60s, holding a mug in one hand and reading an English newspaper in the other.
A man with some gray hair showing here and there, but whose sophisticated attire and dignified face made the word "cool" come out automatically.
He's probably the person I'm meeting.
The other person was also a customer you wouldn't normally see in this neighborhood.
A tight, pure white suit skirt and a blue blouse. She was reading a book that could be a novel or a self-help book, slowly enjoying the coffee in her cup.
By themselves, these might just be an ordinary customer, but I couldn't help but look. Because she had a truly pretty face and a beautiful body.
Although it looked a bit expensive, her ordinary suit attire made her shine like a model in a photoshoot.
Her face looked young, but judging by her aura, she seemed to be about 30, 2 or 3 years older than me.
Of course, women like that know they have a baby face, so even if they are actually 30, you have to be careful because they get angry if you say they look 30. My mom is like that.
I wondered, "Will there ever come a day in my life when I can talk to a woman like that?"
Actually, when I lived with my father, he seemed to manage to bring home pretty people all the time.
Now that I'm older, I think my father was quite amazing, regardless of his character.
That bitch, too, must moan with unfocused eyes under someone. She must suck on someone's cock, sucking and licking with an ugly expression.
Even if she shines with beauty like this during the day, at night she must be happy giving her pussy to someone.
Ah, I want to draw pretty red lines on her ass with a whip. I want to grab her hair and slap her. I want to ruin her so that her current appearance is unbelievable.
"Welcome. Is it just one?"
The clerk's words brought me back to my senses in an instant.
Returning to reality from my base delusions, I sigh at my own nature.
Damn it.
My shitty nature crawled up during a moment of carelessness.
Along with a moment of disgust, I feel relieved that, unlike my father, I don't even have the power to approach a woman like that anyway.
"Ah, yes. I'm supposed to meet someone here," I said, looking at the old gentleman.
And then, that woman who stimulated my delusions and whom I thought I would never have a connection with in my life, raised her hand and said,
"Over here. Kim Seon-min-ssi."
I placed a simple order and went to the table where she was.
I thought my intuition was pretty good in life, but I guess not.
The lawyer wasn't that old gentleman, but this incredibly beautiful woman right in front of me.
I couldn't look her in the face because I was embarrassed, remembering my earlier delusions.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Lawyer Kang Min-jeong."
The lawyer held out her pure white hand and offered a handshake with a bright smile.
Looking at her, I worried if a guy like me should even hold that hand, but standing there awkwardly seemed more insulting, so I lightly took her hand, shook it, and sat down.
"Ah. Yes.... Hello."
In contrast to her confidence, I feel pathetic with my unsure expression and tone of voice.
She didn't seem to care about my behavior, smiling gently as she sat down and took various documents out of her briefcase.
"I understand you heard the news of Kim Gyeong-hak-nim's death yesterday, is that correct?"
"Yes. I heard it through my mother yesterday. By the way, what was the cause of death?"
"It was a traffic accident after drinking. He drove into oncoming traffic and hit a dump truck, and the other party reportedly had no damage other than vehicle destruction."
Honestly, I was a bit surprised. My father, drunk driving?
After the divorce, my father, who had become a monster, managed himself thoroughly.
So even in my father, whom I thought had become a complete monster, there was still some weakness left.
"The compensation for damages is all settled."
She handed me a document detailing the compensation for the dump truck driver.
Seeing the number 34 million won for compensation, I let out a hollow laugh.
"The accident I caused was bigger than my father's drunk driving accident," I thought.
"Then, first of all, about the inheritance to be passed on to Kim Seon-min-ssi."
She quickly got to the point. I thought she seemed very used to this kind of thing.
She wasn't much older than me, and I thought she was a truly amazing person.
"There are many small things, but first, let's talk about the big ones..."
I gulp.
The reason I didn't ask my father for money was because I was afraid of him, not because I have no greed for money.
"First, the inheritance tax on the cash and real estate is quite high."
"Uh... about how much is it?"
"Excluding the inheritance tax, only about 4.8 billion won in cash will remain."
At her calm words, I dropped the phone I was holding.
"And there are memberships, and... um... other things, but if you inherit all of these too, you'll have to pay about 200 million won more."
200 million won is an amount that makes my head spin.
But thanks to the 4.8 billion won I heard earlier, I feel quite pathetic.
"Since things other than cash and real estate are closer to a change of ownership than inheritance, if you give up ownership, there won't be any additional costs."
With her pretty face, she was talking about something that would change my entire life as if it were nothing.
"Do you agree to the inheritance?"
Of course, inheriting an estate is obviously good news, but it's too good to be true.
I check again to see if there's anything I don't know.
Because lawyers are the people needed for cases like this.
"Is there any debt or obligation I have to pay off?"
"No. The amount remaining after paying all expenses is 4.80916 billion won in cash."
The 9.16 million won had been omitted because of the 4.8 billion won earlier.
I gathered my spinning mind and picked up the dropped phone with trembling hands.
"What about the rest?"
"There's the expenditure of about 200 million won needed for the change of ownership, and the process of disposing of items you received in the inheritance that you don't want to own to people who want them."
"Pardon?"
"Valuable items like artwork. Of course, you have to decide to inherit first before we can proceed with the discussion."
She handed me the documents needed for the inheritance and urged me to make a decision.
Of course, there was no option not to inherit.