314. A Day in the Life of an Another World Capsule Installer
314. A Day in the Life of an Another World Capsule Installer
***
BaTalk! BaTalk! BaTalk!
At the sound of the incessant, noisy alerts, the woman with snow-white hair kept tossing and turning.
Serin had stayed up late exercising, decorating Seoyun's room, and checking the community's reaction to her stream, so she had only fallen asleep once dawn broke.
"...Ugh."
She frowned, her face plainly showing deep fatigue, and let out a faint groan.
BaTalk! BaTalk!
But with the alerts continuing to ring, she eventually flailed an arm and grabbed the smartphone lying nearby.
Click.
Along with the sound of the lock releasing, Serin blearily opened eyes that refused to focus.
"Who the hell is it this early..."
She muttered in a voice thick with exhaustion, then saw the flood of messages.
Seoyun.
[It's already past lunch. Don't tell me you're still asleep...?]
[The installation technician said he'd visit around 2 PM? Probably around then. Did you tidy up the room?]
[Ugh... Every time you don't answer, I feel like I'm going to lose my mind.]
[It looks like it'll take me a while to get there]
[I'll keep messaging until you wake up. Just so you know]
[No! Seriously, when are you going to answer? It's past 1 already!]
The visible messages alone were timestamped almost minute by minute, and when she saw the last message saying it was past one, she snapped awake as if someone had thrown cold water on her face.
She bolted upright.
As she hurriedly sat up, her thoroughly disheveled hair briefly obscured her vision, and Serin recalled today's schedule.
It was supposed to be a weekend with no plans. But today, there was one.
"Right. The capsule installation..."
She muttered in horror and hastily checked the time.
—1:41 PM.
"Shit!"
She cursed reflexively, threw off the blanket, and launched herself out of bed.
Clank!
She practically flung off her clothes as she started the shower, getting ready faster than she ever had before.
The scheduled capsule installation time was 1:50 PM. Barely ten minutes remained before the technician's visit.
...
A day in the life of an Another World capsule installation technician was breathlessly busy.
People often ranked loading and unloading delivery trucks and answering calls at popular game customer service centers among the hardest jobs.
Ironically, the intensity of what a capsule installation technician went through was no less grueling.
—Demand creates supply.
It was one of the most basic principles of market economics, simple enough for an elementary schooler to understand. But right now, that saying ironically applied to capsule installation technicians as well.
Even though the game had entered its third year since release, the capsules used to access it were still being prepared for shipment to new customers every single day.
"...Ha, damn it."
The capsule installation technician, twenty-nine-year-old Lee Junseok, muttered a quiet curse. The man, his face haggard with fatigue, shook his head and finished parking.
Visiting more than ten customers' homes on a busy day meant the job exposed you to all sorts of people, but today Junseok was more annoyed than ever.
The worst kind of customer, without a doubt, was the one who never responded to contact.
With a packed schedule of installations to complete each day, nothing stressed him out more than delays caused by unresponsive customers.
And the customer he was visiting now lived in a residence that could only be entered with the occupant's permission, so a lack of response meant even greater delays.
"Ha. Still, watch your mouth."
He got out of the car, loaded the capsule onto a transport cart, and slowly reminded himself.
No matter how popular Another World was and how high the demand for capsules remained, customers who ordered a capsule with full options were still rare.
The capsule's base price alone was expensive, and adding full options brought the total to nearly ten million won—a price range difficult for an ordinary household to afford.
The world had always belonged to those with money, and that was an unwritten rule unlikely to change.
If he made a careless slip of the tongue in front of a customer like this, the only one who would suffer was himself.
Having steeled himself, Junseok took a deep breath and calmed his nerves.
Ding-dong.
When the elevator arrived, he pulled the cart aboard with a rattle and straightened his uniform.
'If I just finish the installation quickly, it'll be over.'
The best way to deal with a difficult customer wasn't to confront them.
It was to finish the job early and never see them again. In his years of experience, that was the best approach.
...
Clank.
When the front door opened, Junseok delivered his standard greeting.
"Hello, ma'am! I'm here to install the capsule ordered by Han Seoyun."
He forced a bright expression as he looked up, but when the door opened and someone appeared, he froze without meaning to.
"Yes. Hello...? I'm sorry. I responded way too late, didn't I? I heard you even waited outside for about twenty minutes..."
Her voice was so soft and gentle that it felt like his ears were being purified, but what surprised him even more was the woman's appearance.
Her snow-white hair, still slightly damp, was striking on its own, and even though she wore a light blue boxy tee and shorts with no real exposure, her face was impossible not to be startled by.
He had dealt with close to thousands of customers over the years and thought he had seen just about every kind of appearance. But her looks shattered that notion in an instant.
The only regrettable part was that she wore a mask, so he couldn't see her entire face, but even so, her appearance was dazzling enough.
'Is she a foreign celebrity?'
Her looks were so exotic that the thought crossed his mind, but since he hadn't watched TV in ages, he had no way of knowing.
Her fluent Korean made him wonder if she was mixed-race, and for a brief moment, he even felt confused.
"Ah. I-it's fine. May I come in to begin the installation?"
He stammered, uncharacteristically, and Serin nodded, guiding him inside with an apologetic expression.
As Junseok followed behind Serin, his gaze unconsciously drifted to the snow-white hair cascading down to her waist while he also surveyed the interior.
Modern yet simple. The sparse furniture was luxurious, and the interior was immaculately clean.
The irritation that had filled his heart before the visit had melted away like snow under spring sunshine, leaving only wonder.
Rattle.
Seeing the massive box loaded on the cart the technician pulled along, Serin thought anew that Seoyun's Another World capsule had really arrived, though she still felt dazed.
She had quickly washed up, replied to the messages, and let the technician in through the underground parking garage—all in the span of just a few minutes.
BaTalk!
At the sound of another alert, Serin glanced at her smartphone, then led him to the room where Seoyun would be staying.
"It's here. You can install the capsule around there."
"Yes, understood. After installation, it will take about twenty minutes to test the device."
Junseok answered calmly, barely managing to keep his gaze from drifting toward Serin.
"Okay. I'll leave it to you, then."
Serin smiled with her eyes, still looking a little apologetic.
"Y-yes!"
Junseok ended up staring blankly anyway, nodded exaggeratedly, then, as if realizing his mistake, began the capsule installation.
Rustle, rustle.
As the technician dismantled the box on the cart and the capsule came into view, Serin watched for a moment before leaving the room.
She figured he would handle the installation on his own. Checking BaTalk, she saw a message from Seoyun saying she would arrive soon.
Looking at it, Serin felt a pang of guilt.
'Thank goodness he's a nice technician.'
Honestly, even as she opened the door, she had expected to hear some kind of complaint from the technician.
She had heard he arrived about twenty minutes early and waited the whole time due to the security registration, so she knew she had inconvenienced him.
"Why didn't I set an alarm, seriously..."
She shook her head, feeling like an idiot for carelessly skipping the alarm just because it was the weekend.
Creak.
Serin opened the fridge, took out apple juice, poured it into a glass, and looked around for a small snack.
After rummaging through the kitchen for a moment, she took a few chocolates from a luxury gift set and prepared them as well.
When she headed to Seoyun's room, the door was open, and a snow-white capsule—different from her own—sat prominently in one corner, with the technician plugging in various cables.
She hadn't looked closely before, but seeing more than ten cables connected to the capsule, she found it fascinating and her eyes lingered.
Slide.
She carefully set the snacks and juice down in one corner, and the technician paused his work to glance over.
"Oh, it's not much, but please have some while you work. I'm sorry again for making you wait."
She smiled a little awkwardly, and the technician returned a warm smile.
"No... you didn't have to go to all this trouble. Thank you so much."
Serin then quietly watched how the capsule installation proceeded, and under her intent gaze, Junseok's hands occasionally trembled without him realizing it. Still, he worked even harder and finished the installation five minutes faster than usual.
After connecting a new type of cable to the capsule, Junseok held up a tablet-like device and spoke.
"Normally, you would test it by logging in yourself. But since you're alone right now, I'll connect it to this device and show you that there are no issues with access."
Given the state of the world these days, access tests were not performed directly in homes where a woman was alone. Junseok displayed the screen on the prepared device and demonstrated that there were no access issues, continuing his explanation as Serin nodded along to most of it.
Once all the explanations were finished, Junseok gathered up the boxes, plastic, and other security materials he had unpacked for the installation. When Serin moved to help, he hastily waved his hands and shook his head.
"But..."
As Serin murmured with an apologetic look, Junseok quickly continued, his expression flustered.
"Oh, n-no. It's really fine, ma'am. This is all part of the technician's job, so there's no need for you to help."
It had been a long time since he had said that to any other customer, but seeing Serin's apologetic face, Junseok found himself repeating the behavior from his early days.
'Am I turning into a pushover?'
The thought crossed his mind blankly, and he realized he was smiling without knowing it.
He could have demanded compensation for the delay caused by the lack of response at the scheduled time, and after the installation, he could have half-heartedly cleaned up and left without any real consequence.
But seeing one woman's face had changed all of that.
After thanking her for the snacks and juice she had prepared and disposing of them, Junseok checked once more for any shortcomings or issues in the installation process before finally preparing to leave.
"Well then. Thank you for purchasing the capsule, ma'am. I hope you have a great day."
Junseok bowed politely and departed, and Serin nodded as she saw him off.
Clank.
The moment the door closed, I found myself muttering without thinking.
"People in this world really are kind."
Honestly, even if he hadn't openly gotten angry, she had expected the technician to voice some complaint at least once. But far from it, he had smiled brightly and been friendly throughout the entire installation, making her think what a nice world this was.
She wondered how everyone she met could be so good-natured, and what all those people in Black Ark who had shown their ugly sides had even been.
Slide.
She went back into Seoyun's room and looked at the newly installed snow-white capsule, and it finally started to sink in.
"I'm really... going to be living with Seoyun now."
Her life of living alone was over. Seeing the installed capsule made it hit home.
Ding-dong!
Just then, the doorbell rang, and Serin smiled without realizing it.