5
# Chapter 5
The storage shed contained everything needed to maintain the garden.
The first thing he did was mow the lawn.
He turned on the fully charged lawn mower.
Along with the sound of the motor, he could feel the vibration in the hands gripping the handle. As he pushed it forward, the machine spat the freshly cut grass out behind it.
Starting around the pavilion, he gradually expanded the area he was mowing.
Seeing the overgrown grass becoming shorter gave him a strange feeling.
Perhaps it was similar to the feeling of cutting hair that had been allowed to grow for a long time.
After five minutes, then ten minutes, the hand gripping the machine began to ache.
He turned off the mower and climbed onto the pavilion to rest for a while.
These days, there were apparently fully automated lawn mowers equipped with AI.
But Yoon Geon preferred the old machine his father used.
When he was young, whenever his father mowed the lawn, he would always follow behind him.
He mowed a little more grass, then began trimming the garden trees.
The memories of his parents tending the garden were so vivid that he did not hesitate over what to do or how to do it.
After spending the morning productively, he ate a hearty lunch and entered the computer room.
“I worked all morning, so it’s okay to play a few games, right?”
Feeling proud of himself for having worked after such a long time, he turned on the computer.
He launched Legend of Legends and prepared his stream.
— Thanks for the donation through chat. That’s what he’s doing.
He remembered a viewer’s comment from two days ago.
He glanced at the microphone.
Turning on the microphone was an extremely simple thing.
But for Yoon Geon, even that simple action was incredibly difficult.
Communicating with someone.
For Yoon Geon, who lacked social skills, there was nothing more difficult than that.
After staring at the microphone for a long while, Yoon Geon seemed to make up his mind and turned it on.
“I’ll just pretend I’m talking to myself.”
This wasn’t communication.
He was simply talking to himself while playing a game.
He had always done that while gaming, so he would just do the same as usual.
After convincing himself as though hypnotizing his own mind, he started the broadcast.
The moment he turned on the stream, viewers began pouring in at an incredible speed.
The number of people waiting for Yoon Geon to start his broadcast had been steadily increasing.
The dignity of being ranked number one in Grandmaster had not been earned for nothing.
He was a treasure coveted by every professional gaming team, an exceptional player so talented that even teams from China and North America were trying to recruit him.
Many familiar IDs appeared.
“Hello. I’m Geon. Hello, Roombound Grandmaster. Welcome, Bang Bang Bang. Old Guard Inspection Team, you’re here again today.”
The moment Yoon Geon greeted them, the chat exploded.
— Holy crap! Everyone who said Geon couldn’t talk, put your heads to the ground.
— Geon! Your voice is so nice. Why did you hide such a great voice?
— Wow! His voice really is nice. Could you say ‘good night’ just once?
“Haha, I just started streaming. You shouldn’t go to sleep already.”
Unlike his relaxed voice, Yoon Geon was extremely tense.
The letters in the chat window began to look blurry, and his heart started beating rapidly.
‘It’s okay. It’s okay. I’m just talking to myself.’
Fortunately, his vision became clear again, and his racing heart gradually settled.
“I might not be able to look at the chat much when I’m concentrating on the game.”
Contrary to his words, Yoon Geon was reading every message in the broadcast chat even while playing.
He only needed to glance at the chat window for a moment to read all the messages.
His speed reading and memorization abilities were astonishing.
— Geon, how are you so good at the game? Every professional gamer who has laned against you says you’re on another level. Can you give us some tips on how to play well?
It was a viewer using the ID Bang Bang Bang, who could be considered the biggest spender in Yoon Geon’s stream.
In the week since Yoon Geon had started streaming, Bang Bang Bang had donated nearly ten million won.
Yoon Geon suspected that Bang Bang Bang was someone connected to the gaming industry.
Perhaps he was building a good relationship through donations before eventually revealing what he wanted.
“Tips...”
Yoon Geon thought about what kind of tips he could give his viewers.
But nothing in particular came to mind.
He simply...
“Dodge the enemy’s skills and land your own, and you win.”
The chat exploded once again.
— Who doesn’t know that? We don’t do it because the enemy’s skills somehow fly exactly where we’re trying to dodge, while ours never hit!
— Kekeke. Idiot. That’s why you’re Bronze.
— Dodge the enemy’s skills and land mine. Easy, right?
“We found a game. I’ll concentrate now.”
He picked a champion recommended by the viewers.
Naturally, it was an old, forgotten champion that did not fit the current game strategy.
The players who ended up on the same team did not complain much despite Yoon Geon choosing a weak champion.
It had been like this ever since Yoon Geon started streaming.
He carried games using forgotten champions that nobody used anymore.
The game soon began.
“Dodge like this, then hit them right there.”
— You have slain an enemy.
“Easy, right?”
“Dodge and hit.”
— Double Kill.
The enemy, driven to desperation by Yoon Geon’s relentless attacks, called for help.
But the ally who came to help also ended up being killed by Yoon Geon.
About ten minutes into the game, an internal conflict broke out on the enemy team.
They exchanged all kinds of insults and started blaming one another, until the player who had been laning against Yoon Geon left the game.
A game they had already been losing five against five became completely one-sided once one player was gone, and Yoon Geon’s team won with ease.
— This is the power of Geon.
— He’s just playing the game, but the enemies’ mental states have already gone to Andromeda.
— Dodge, smack them hard, and it’s over!
Yoon Geon smiled as he looked at the chat.
He had barely said a few words, but communicating with the viewers did not seem so bad.
---
The moment the ID Bang Bang Bang saw that Geon had started streaming, he entered the broadcast.
As usual, he greeted him through the chat.
His greeting was quickly buried beneath the greetings of the other viewers.
— Hello. I’m Geon. Hello, Roombound Grandmaster. Welcome, Bang Bang Bang. Old Guard Inspection Team, you’re here again today.
Bang Bang Bang, who had been watching the broadcast while leaning almost completely back in his chair, suddenly stood up.
“He... spoke?”
Geon, who had not said a single word during the entire week of streaming, had just greeted the viewers.
Someone might ask what was so remarkable about a streamer greeting his viewers, but Geon had never spoken at all during his broadcasts.
Bang Bang Bang immediately sent a donation and typed in the chat, ‘Your voice is really nice.’
Geon thanked him for the donation.
“Ah!”
A short exclamation escaped him.
Geon occasionally spoke even while playing the game.
The comments themselves were nothing special, but every time Geon spoke, a smile appeared around Bang Bang Bang’s lips.
“He really is trying to change.”
Bang Bang Bang was muttering to himself when—
Beep—
The intercom rang.
When he pressed the button, a woman’s voice soon came through.
— Attorney, it’s time for the meeting.
---
— Purchase an instant lottery ticket at a convenience store.
It was a quest.
There was a convenience store about ten minutes away by bicycle, so it was not a difficult quest.
The problem was the reward.
— Upon clearing the quest, you will receive ‘Music Theory’ as a reward.
“It didn’t miss my prediction by even an inch.”
When he had received vocalization, he had predicted that the reward for the next quest might be music theory.
And his prediction had been exactly right.
Yoon Geon checked the time on his phone.
It had just passed 7 p.m.
“Come to think of it, today is Saturday.”
Since he stayed at home all the time, his sense of dates had become hazy.
He grabbed his hat and mask and went to the garage.
Three bicycles stood side by side in one corner of the garage.
His parents’ bicycles and his own.
He took out his bicycle and left through the gate.
As he pedaled, the cool autumn wind struck his face.
“It’s the same wind.”
Was it an illusion that it felt cooler than the breeze that blew through the pavilion in the garden?
The walls were high, but surely they could not change the strength of the wind itself.
No one lived near Yoon Geon’s house, but the roads were well maintained.
Naturally, that had been his father’s doing.
Riding along the well-paved road, he soon arrived at the village.
The village, home to around fifty households, was the largest village in the area.
Several villagers were gathered beneath the parasols in front of the convenience store, drinking together.
When Yoon Geon parked his bicycle in front of the convenience store, all the villagers’ eyes turned toward him.
It was a small neighborhood, so most of the residents knew one another.
Perhaps they thought Yoon Geon, whom they had never seen before, was an outsider, because they looked at him with curiosity.
“Looks like that young man is doing that bicycle hiking thing or whatever.”
“No, he isn’t. He came down from that direction, didn’t he? There’s only one house over there.”
“That house? Ah—!”
The villagers began to exchange glances before saying anything further.
Then they whispered quietly so Yoon Geon could not hear.
“I heard both of the couple who lived there died, and their son lives there alone. I guess that must be their son.”
“Someone actually lives there?”
“I went up the mountain once before. He was in the garden. It was too far away, so I couldn’t see his face clearly.”
They thought they were speaking quietly, but Yoon Geon could hear every word clearly.
He ignored them and entered the convenience store.
“Welcome. What can I get for you?”
“Five thousand won worth of Quick Pick lottery tickets, please.”
He spoke the words he had practiced several times on his bicycle ride to the convenience store.
The convenience store clerk stared at Yoon Geon for a moment, then accepted the money and handed him the lottery tickets.
“Do you live around here?”
“......”
When Yoon Geon simply stared at him, the clerk tilted his head in confusion.
“I’m a lifelong resident of this neighborhood, so I know everyone around here. I’ve never seen you before, so I was just asking.”
“Ah... yes. I... I live up there...”
The unexpected conversation caused Yoon Geon to stumble over his words.
His breathing quickened, and his vision began to blur.
With a sense of urgency, he gripped the counter tightly.
“Up there? Ah, you live in the mansion.”
Yoon Geon learned for the first time that the villagers called his house a mansion.
“I’ve seen the delivery trucks going there all the time. You can’t order lottery tickets for delivery, so you came out yourself. Haha.”
Ignoring the clerk’s lame joke, Yoon Geon took the lottery tickets and left the convenience store.
“Hoo—”
It was the first time since his parents’ deaths that Yoon Geon had spoken to someone other than Hwang Choong-sik.
Before getting back on his bicycle, Yoon Geon lightly tapped his chest.
“You did well. You endured it well.”
---
The rewards obtained through the quests were very special.
They were not simply knowledge accumulated by reading books.
They were genuine knowledge containing years, or even decades, of accumulated experience.
It had been the same when he received vocalization as a reward.
He had been able to sing Im Dae-ho’s song, which even singers were reluctant to attempt, without difficulty.
His body simply knew instinctively how it should be sung.
The same was true of the music theory he had obtained this time.
The three elements that make up music were rhythm, melody, and harmony.
Rhythm concerned the length and shortness of sounds, melody concerned their highness and lowness, and harmony was the combination of rhythm and melody.
If rhythm was a point, melody was a line, and harmony was a surface.
To study harmony, he naturally had to study rhythm and melody as well.
By receiving music theory as a quest reward, he had been forced to learn the fundamentals of music without choosing to do so himself.
“This song should be good.”
He searched the internet for a song whose sheet music was publicly available.
It was a popular song that Yoon Geon was also familiar with.
Yoon Geon sang while looking at the sheet music.
It was definitely different from simply listening to a song and singing along.
It was difficult to explain in words, but if he had to describe it, perhaps it was like being able to see a path.
He could understand the structure of the song.
When he sang the same song for the second time, he noticed something else.
“I understand why they used a whole note here.”
The whole note, commonly called a quarter note.
The composer of this song must have wanted the singer to put their emotions into this particular section.
The singer had actually done so.
The lingering emotion in the voice was filled with sorrow.
He thought he understood why singers and composers often appeared on television and used the expression ‘for an ordinary person.’
The realm of professionals was clearly different from the ordinary realm.
He searched for the sheet music of another song and sang that one as well.
He also found songs by singers his parents had liked and sang those.
Sometimes he imitated the original singers, while other times he sang using different vocal techniques.
“Two hours have already passed?”
He had clearly turned on the computer just before 2 p.m., after lunch and a walk through the garden.
And now it was already 4 p.m.
He had become completely absorbed in an enjoyment he had never experienced before, like the legendary immortal who failed to notice his axe handle rotting away while immersed in celestial entertainment.
A thought suddenly occurred to him, and Yoon Geon’s eyes sparkled as he looked at the monitor.
“Can I make my own song?”
Perhaps it had heard Yoon Geon’s words.
A message appeared.
— Start streaming content related to music.