Sunday
Sunday
People who play 4-5 subculture games simultaneously often make self-deprecating jokes like this:
"'I'm busy because I have too many worlds to protect.'"
Of course, this is just a figure of speech, but back in my time billionaire days, it wasn't an empty phrase—I really did have too many worlds to protect.
Because back then I was a Summoner, a Commander, a Teacher, a Producer, a Savior, a Master, a Traveler, a Trainer, an Explorer, and a Captain.
Even if homework took 5 minutes per game, for 10 games that's at least 50 minutes.
There were weekly story updates, and character pickups that came around once every three weeks for all 10 games.
Even if I only had monthly subscription passes, with 10 games that was a fixed expense of about 200,000 won per month, so part-time work wasn't a choice—it was a necessity.
To briefly summarize my daily routine back then:
Wake up in the morning, spend about an hour completing homework for all the games I was playing, then breakfast.
In the morning, attend lectures; during lunch, eat triangle kimbap from the convenience store to save money while playing backlog events.
In the afternoon, work part-time to earn gacha money; then drag my tired body home, lie in bed, consume all the stamina accumulated during the day, and sleep.
This lifestyle continued even after I graduated from a four-year university and became a job seeker.
"'It was almost at the level of a professional streamer.'"
After I got a job at a game company, even I couldn't keep up with all 10 games, so I started cutting down one by one from the games I had less affection for, but Red Asterisk and Star Beyond were the ones that survived almost to the end.
And both of these games had a common feature: auto-play.
When I was younger, I used to think, 'Why play a game if you're just going to auto it?' But looking back now, auto is practically an essential feature for office workers who don't have time to play games.
Actually, it was also useful when doing homework on three or four games simultaneously.
Anyway, I got a bit sidetracked talking about the past, but to cut to the chase, my desperate lie worked on both of them.
Yang Bibi was skeptical at first, saying it didn't make sense, but when Saori, who has mind control abilities, vouched for it, she completely fell for it.
Anyway, once we cleared up the misunderstandings, Yang Bibi started asking how I'd been, catching up on recent events.
Just like with Saori, this was my first time meeting the real Yang Bibi, but talking to her wasn't uncomfortable at all.
Probably because our internal intimacy was MAX from the start.
Anyway, as we talked, Yang Bibi got curious about my current job—no longer 'Captain' or 'Teacher'—and asked about it, leading to the current situation.
"What? That Captain became a game developer? Lololol?"
"Ah, don't laugh."
"No, no, how can I not laugh after hearing that! I bet even if the others heard it, they'd have the same reaction."
Yang Bibi said that while clutching her stomach and rolling on the floor.
It wasn't strange for her to react that way, because the Captain character in Star Beyond is a moderately diligent, moderately cool, solid type of protagonist.
Sometimes there are choices that seem a bit off, but fundamentally, he's a character far from an office job.
But since the real me gives off a completely opposite impression, it couldn't be helped that Yang Bibi reacted this way.
"Ah, I haven't laughed this much in a while. But since you're a game developer, you must have made some games by now. Can I try playing one?"
Yang Bibi showed interest as she said that.
For reference, Yang Bibi's hobby in the original work was games.
And she was an incredibly omnivorous gamer who didn't discriminate by genre or era.
But my current situation was too bad to meet her expectations.
"Ah... about that, I left the company due to various circumstances, so it's hard to say it's a game I made now."
"So there's no game I can play at all?"
"Well, it's in development plans."
Though I don't know when it'll be finished.
"What's with that vague answer?"
"Because I haven't even decided what genre of game to make yet."
As I said that and awkwardly scratched my cheek, Yang Bibi made a dumbfounded expression.
But Yang Bibi was a woman who didn't know how to give up easily.
"Then how long would it take to make from scratch?"
"I've set a deadline of one year for now. I think my bank balance can last that long."
"Make it one month. I can't wait longer than that."
I was dumbfounded by Yang Bibi's unreasonable demand.
What kind of negotiation is this?
"How can you develop a game in just one month? I'm a one-person developer, physically short on time."
"If it's a manpower shortage, I can solve that problem."
"What?"
"I happen to have an artificial intelligence I acquired a while ago and left unused because I had no use for it."
As she said that, Yang Bibi pulled out a suspicious-looking USB from her back pocket.
"Mind if I borrow your computer?"
"Wait...!"
Before I could stop her, Yang Bibi boldly plugged the USB into the computer tower.
At that moment, the monitor screen turned black, and green strings of text started scrolling down at an incredibly fast speed.
As if it were being hacked.
"What did you do?!"
My precious computer worth 12 million won!!!
As I clung to the computer tower almost screaming, Yang Bibi spoke as if it were nothing.
"I just installed one high-performance AI into your computer. Well, considering the level of civilization here, it's a technology gap like heaven and earth."
It even includes an automatic singularity function, she said?
While Yang Bibi excitedly explained about the AI she installed, the rapidly scrolling green text suddenly stopped,
and a white sentence appeared.
[protocol: Please name this unit.]
A sentence very kindly displayed in Korean.
At this point, it was honestly a bit scary.
Strictly speaking, isn't this alien technology?
"It's fine, just input it quickly. Do you think I'd give you something useless?"
As Yang Bibi kept urging me from the side, I reluctantly sat in front of the keyboard.
'A name for the artificial intelligence.'
Several names immediately came to mind.
Like Jarvis, Friday, Ultron, Siri.
Of course, whichever I chose would probably be copyrighted, so I looked around the room for a suitable name.
Then something caught my eye: the red numbers on the calendar.
"I'll go with Sunday."
After all, AI names should be based on days of the week.
[Hello, Master.]
The next moment, a mechanical voice came from the speaker connected to the computer.
"What..."
I couldn't help but be bewildered.
I mean, I only named it as instructed—I never imagined an AI would suddenly start talking to me.
But regardless of my reaction, the same voice came from the computer speaker again.
[I am your all-purpose AI secretary, Sunday. Please give me your commands.]
Then Yang Bibi suddenly cut in and asked.
"Sunday, with the computing power currently allocated to you, how much of this planet's network can you take over?"
[Calculating... I can take over approximately 93% of the networks existing on 'Earth' at this point.]
"The 7% is independent intranets?"
[Correct.]
"So that means you can effectively take over all networks on this planet."
Yang Bibi muttered that and looked at me.
"With this level of performance, it should be enough for the Captain to use for making games, right?"
"No, no, no, no."
From what I just heard, this AI has a danger level almost like a nuclear button.
This is less like using a cow-butchering knife to kill a chicken, and more like using a dinosaur-butchering knife to kill a chicken.
"Isn't it too wasteful to use something this amazing for making games?"
"What's wasteful about an AI? It was originally made for humans to use as a tool."
But Yang Bibi, a super hacker with a strangely twisted sense of values, tilted her head as she said that, and I was left speechless.
"Well, it's not wrong..."
"Oh, and don't worry too much. For Sunday to output full power at this civilization level, it would need to draw enough electricity to blackout roughly one city. So nothing you need to worry about."
"You're saying something incredibly scary with a smile on your face."
Anyway, the situation was already in motion.
And for better or worse, it was clear that Sunday was an AI with incredible performance, so I decided to accept the situation positively for now.
'After all, a long development period doesn't guarantee a good game.'
Of course, even considering that, one month seemed too short, but with an AI of this performance, it seemed like it could easily realize things I had to give up due to real-world constraints.
'Alright. Let's do it.'
I made that decision and sat in front of the computer desk with a determined expression.