Chapter 7
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 7
Chapter Title: The Most Pitiful Guy Among the Successful People
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Modern society is complicated, with some folks always at the center of heated debates. Once the argument about one person dies down, it shifts to the next, then the next.
The reasons and targets vary wildly.
But there's one thing they all have in common: most debates fizzle out after a few days at the shortest, a few weeks at the longest.
Yet the controversy surrounding Tae-jin had dragged on for a full five years.
It kicked off with the question: "Is it okay to abandon a citizen just because he became a mage?"
But the debate around Tae-jin gradually twisted as a handful of mages sneaked through the Gate and caused trouble.
Public opinion slowly shifted from "How pitiful, citizens abandoned just for becoming mages" to something like "He's one of our citizens, but a mage? Kinda iffy."
The public showed a fierce rejection of these unknown threats.
Why else would they cluster military weapons bristling with detection gear around the Gate to block mages using Invisibility Magic?
Of course, no single debate lasts five years. Controversy needs to hold people's interest to survive.
The argument over Tae-jin's custody didn't even make it half a year.
So what fueled the remaining four and a half years—what's still going on today?
This was less a serious societal discussion and more like a silly "vs." game. You know, like dipping your sweet-and-sour pork versus pouring the sauce over it.
"Is Kim Tae-jin really that pitiful?"
"Becoming an average office drone on 3.5 million won a month vs. becoming Kim Tae-jin."
"Becoming Kim Tae-jin vs. becoming a eunuch." And so on.
Opinions were all over the map on these. Truly endless fodder, endlessly regenerating.
Type "Kim Tae-jin" into a search bar, and "Kim Tae-jin vs." pops up as autocomplete.
No matter what, isn't it kinda pitiful living out in some backwater village beyond the Gate for five straight years?
My sister just got back from a Gate trip, said Kim Tae-jin was chilling at the military base there, playing games on a console.
Not the base lol. He's got this swanky standalone mansion next to the lab. I thought it was the lab director's place or some bigwig's vacation home.
That was Kim Tae-jin's house? Looked just like a foreign celeb's mansion, so I was wondering.
But the dude can't even use the internet. Sucks.
Think about it—he snaps up one or two Gangnam apartments every year. Hard to call that pitiful no matter how you slice it.
Kim Tae-jin raking in 5-10 billion a year and you call him pitiful? Fuck off, I'm dragging my ass to a hellhole job for 2.5 million a month.
Become Kim Tae-jin and have your furry fetish exposed vs. just live a normal life.
His ad revenue's so huge he straight-up made a corporation for it.
That corp's been around for like three years lol.
Still inconvenient right now though—can't go where he wants, just staring at empty fields all day.
Pitiful my ass—the second mages can enter, he'll be set for three generations.
That's the future. Not really jealous right now.
Thinking Kim Tae-jin has it rough, turn on the TV... and boom, there's Kim Tae-jin. Fuck.
Now that you mention it, every ad shot beyond the Gate features Kim Tae-jin. Not one without him.
Tae-jin had just wrapped up shooting an ad and returned to his mansion.
The ad wasn't much different from usual. They set up a decent stage, shot some simple scenes with pretty idols, then wrapped with Tae-jin showing off some flashy magic visuals out on the Great Plains.
If there was one perfect way to describe Tae-jin's situation, it was "the most pitiful guy among those living large."
'One thing's for sure—it's full of inconveniences.'
He'd always wanted to try overseas travel but never had. Wanted to date but never did.
The hordes of tourists crossing the Gate were mostly friendly toward him. Plenty of women among them. But those encounters could never turn into relationships.
'We're talking people I might see once every two or three years at best. Romance? Forget it.'
Even if a girl cheated on him, he had no way to fight back in his current setup. In the end, Tae-jin cleanly gave up on dating.
He could probably score a one-night stand if he tried. As a celebrity, hooking some excited tourist girl at Gate City would be easy enough.
But sadly, Tae-jin was the incarnation of pure love, craving natural connections.
Others might mock him, but he was the type to attach deep meaning to his own virginity. The kind who believed your first time should be with someone you love.
'Surely that's not why I became a mage.'
Tae-jin shook off the pointless thoughts, headed inside, and fired up his latest console.
The walls of his spacious home were stacked high with game titles. The TV was massive. The sound system had cost hundreds of millions of won.
Household appliances worth months of a salaryman's pay were piled everywhere.
The only issue was the racket from all the generators needed to keep the mansion running.
'Everything's great, but there's always these nagging inconveniences.'
His memories of using the internet were now hazy at best. At first, he'd fiddled with his smartphone out of habit.
Internet and online games had been his life. He'd even played in his dreams sometimes.
But five years without it, and the emptiness was gone. Hell, he'd probably feel weird if he could use it freely now.
The one inconvenience Tae-jin desperately felt, though, was his inability to get adult content.
That's right. It had been five years since he'd last seen a video packed with skin.
He had more money than he could spend and could get anything he wanted from beyond the Gate. But requesting 19+ videos? Too embarrassing.
He couldn't risk his tastes going public and unleashing who-knows-what backlash.
He didn't have the guts to face a future where porn titled "The Video Kim Tae-jin Himself Chose" floated around online.
In the end, a few tame magazines smuggled from the nearby base became his under-bed treasures.
The most humiliating news Tae-jin heard while living beyond the Gate was that people had started digging into his personal info for kicks.
Unfortunately, "Tae-jin" was an insanely common name, and plenty shared his birthday.
The result? A mix of facts and fiction about countless "Tae-jins" spread as gospel truth about "Mage Kim Tae-jin."
Some leaked dumb internet posts or shopping history? Fine.
His stint as a congressman's aide or his childhood gaming nick "Falcon Punch"? Not embarrassing.
The problem was when that curiosity veered into more private territory.
Rumors flew: Kim Tae-jin likes brown-skinned black women. Nah, he's a furry fanatic. A Tae-jin with a slightly different number in his nick searched gay stuff. No, obsessed with a specific actress. Wrong—he loses his mind over animal ears. Etc.
All nonsense, but Tae-jin responded with stoic silence. He knew engaging with rumors only made things worse.
Best to let idle gossip sink on its own.
Tae-jin cleared his head, powered through a new game, then flopped mindlessly onto the sofa.
Too lazy to cook today, and instant food sounded gross.
He stepped outside. Sunset was spilling gently over the Great Plains.
Maybe hit the base, grab some chow with familiar faces. Or head to Gate Frontier City for sketchy eats.
That's what he figured as he headed out.
A short walk later, a familiar face appeared. His same-age soldier buddy, Sergeant Lee Hong-cheol.
The guy who'd first broken the news when old man Richer crossed the Gate and stirred up trouble. He'd taken about two weeks' vacation—must've just gotten back.
Sergeant Lee Hong-cheol sauntered over with a cocky grin.
"Yo, what? Heading for mess hall grub? Money can't buy freedom from that charm, huh?"
"Just didn't wanna eat alone. Food here's solid anyway."
"Can't beat it. You know how many cooks volunteer for Gate outpost duty?"
A sudden thought hit him. Why was Hong-cheol coming from the direction of his house?
Something clicked. A messenger bag slung over Hong-cheol's shoulder.
Without a word, Tae-jin turned and led him back home.
Hong-cheol's messenger bag yielded a whopping four skin mags.
One of them had somehow bypassed Korea's adult content regs entirely. Tae-jin's hands trembled with emotion.
"Bro Hong-cheol, thank you. For real."
"Why not just tell me your tastes and get custom stuff on USB? I can overlook mags, even if USBs are dicey."
Tae-jin pondered briefly, then shook his head. Low odds, but the risk was massive.
His tastes weren't that extreme, but imagining them flooding the internet made him dizzy.
In the end, he pivoted the topic.
"Anyway, any good news lately?"
"Nada. Few new cities going up, house prices through the roof, that kinda thing."
"Huh. Must be nuts if it's headline news."
"Gangnam's up 30-40% from this time last year, they say. And Uiwang's getting a new development."
"Uiwang?"
His ears perked up. That's where his family home was.
Tae-jin's place was on the outskirts of Uiwang City. The neighborhood elders always griped about it.
'Prime spot, but weirdly no development ever happens.'
Tae-jin fired off without hesitation.
"Where in Uiwang?"
Hong-cheol's answer floored him. It was his neighborhood—the one with his family home.
Even Tae-jin, who'd detached from unreachable wealth, found this beyond the pale.
Sure, the apartments he'd scooped up around Seoul had ballooned in value. But the real kicker was issue number two.
With cash burning a hole in his pocket and nowhere to spend it, Tae-jin had bought up hundreds of pyeong of land around the house whenever nostalgia hit. Farmland was dirt cheap.
How much would prices explode with this new city? Tens of times? Hundreds?
Screw ads. He didn't need them anymore.
The life he'd adapted to beyond the Gate suddenly felt suffocatingly dissatisfying.