Chapter 34
Chapter 34
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 34
Chapter Title: Hell of Hedonism
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There’s a term for a certain kind of face: "the kind that gets an instant pass from the in-laws."
It refers to an impression that wins over the other family’s parents at the first formal meeting, a look that practically guarantees their approval.
Why am I suddenly bringing this up?
Because I’m feeling exactly what those parents feel.
“I heard about you from Jin-gyeong… I wanted to meet you, but dinner seemed a bit much.”
He passes the first round.
I’d only seen his clothes and appearance, yet a sense of goodwill was already blossoming within me.
Of course, I shouldn’t make a decision like this.
…I shouldn’t.
‘This man…!’
How far will he go to move me!
“It’s getting warm. I guess it’s spring…”
*Click.* He undid a button on his shirt, revealing a white T-shirt with a bizarre print.
Ten points.
“…Let’s get right to business. First, could you take a look at this?”
A laptop emerged from a black backpack.
Preparedness. Another ten points.
No, ten points weren’t enough.
My eyes widened.
The stickers plastered all over the laptop were…!
‘Laptop stickers…!’
And not just any stickers—logos of first-generation IT companies!
An industry aesthetic that the average person would never understand!
An unconscious expression of respect for the industry as a developer!
Another twenty points! For a total of forty!
‘Stop!’
This was more than enough.
And yet! And yet…!
“Actually, I took a look at your game’s code. That’s why I came out today. I wanted to talk about it. Just a moment…”
Go Myeong-gyu began to show me.
‘Ah…’
*Swoosh—!*
The moment he powered on the laptop, his neck bent forward.
As magnificent as a 155mm howitzer preparing to fire, as smooth as a machine whose engineer never missed a day of greasing.
Posture is the trajectory of one’s life.
It is a trace, a tattoo.
The overwhelming naturalness, impossible to forge in a day or two, and the 47-degree angle—a masterpiece of geometry—spoke volumes.
‘Chronic turtle neck…!’
A turtle neck worthy of another forty points, and then some.
Eighty points already.
Though he hadn’t shown me anything concrete, I was certain.
‘I found him.’
My programmer.
I struggled to calm my racing breath.
I still had to assess his practical skills and work style…
“…The code was really interesting. My understanding is that you intended to reduce resource usage with a simple structure, is that right?”
“Hah…!”
“Hm? Anyway, based on this code, I quickly put together an algorithm…”
*Slap!*
I grabbed Myeong-gyu’s wrist.
He was startled. Of course, he would be.
I knew it was rude, but I couldn’t help myself.
His eyes trembled like the ground in an earthquake, his body flinched back—every part of him expressed his discomfort, but it couldn’t stop my urgency.
It all flashed before my eyes.
The hardships of the past.
—I’ve never played a game before.
An art director who had never even played games.
—Give me back my items!!! Waaaaah!!!
A sound director who was a middle-school dropout and unemployed.
—Yeon-ho, Yeon-ho!
—Sunbae, sunbae!
And a couple of noisy kids.
…Yes, they were good team members I had personally chosen and nurtured.
I truly believed I would never find team members like them anywhere else, and they were precious talents I wouldn’t trade for anyone in the world.
But still.
Even knowing that, I couldn’t help but feel the stark contrast.
I couldn’t help but be this moved.
This was how it was supposed to be.
Scouting an employee should be predicated on this kind of high professional assessment!
‘The kind of face that gets an instant pass?’
What a ridiculous joke.
I faced my own arrogance and whipped myself for it.
I bitterly regretted how rashly I had judged him.
This wasn’t just a pass.
If this were a formal meeting with the in-laws, and Myeong-gyu were my son-in-law…
I would say this without a doubt.
‘A king…!’
This man had the face of the supreme king of first impressions.
It was as if a halo was shining behind him.
At that moment, Myeong-gyu’s lips parted.
“Uh, um…”
“Senior. No, hyung.”
I cut in.
“Let’s go to my office first. We can continue our discussion there.”
Ah, I had finally met a real team member.
One I could call ‘the real deal’…
***
Go Myeong-gyu, 27. Graduate of Korea University, Computer Science. Quit a major corporation 14 months after joining. Currently job hunting. Reason: ‘I want to make games.’
He had charged toward his dream and, by a chance opportunity, was introduced to his junior’s junior.
His impression leading up to the meeting had been good.
‘He writes really interesting code.’
Researching a company’s work style was basic preparation.
If you didn’t know what programs they used and how they used them, your work would stumble from day one. And it would be a constant annoyance.
From that perspective, it was a perfect 100.
‘I didn’t know you could do it this way…!’
Yeon-ho’s algorithms were a learning experience.
Just by studying them and creating examples for a week, Myeong-gyu had definitely experienced a qualitative improvement in his work.
Naturally, a thought came to mind.
‘I want to work with him.’
A guy like this would be great to work with.
That’s why he had come.
But the initial 100-point evaluation quickly began to drop.
‘Minus 10 points.’
Face, -10. Height, -10. Physique, -10. Precise diction, semi-formal suit, confident attitude, and that rude gesture—another -40 points.
A total of -70 points.
Which meant a final score of 30.
Unlike Yeon-ho, Myeong-gyu’s internal evaluation was on a steady downward curve.
If you were to graph their two evaluations and overlay them, they would form a perfect X, just like a supply and demand chart.
But still, you couldn’t judge a person by their appearance alone.
Myeong-gyu had the same thought Yeon-ho had earlier.
Then they arrived at the office.
His evaluation hit rock bottom.
“Huh? Who’s that?”
“Ooh! He looks smart!”
“What, what? Are we hiring someone?!”
“Wow…”
Women.
The entire office was filled with women.
Myeong-gyu’s breath caught in his throat.
His gaze, filled with disbelief, shot toward Yeon-ho.
“These are my employees. Please greet each other.”
An unconscious thought surfaced.
‘…This son of a bitch?’
In less than two hours, the potential employer had gone from ‘this person’ to ‘this son of a bitch.’
A storm raged in Myeong-gyu’s mind.
*What does he think an IT company is?*
*Is he even serious about making games?*
*Why are there only women in the company?*
*Ah, right. You’re a man too, aren’t you?*
Thanks to him, his college days came flooding back!
The memory of being a wallflower at a group blind date he was forced to attend because of Han Jin-gyeong!
—Jin-gyeong oppa is so funny!
—Haha! Really? Ah, by the way, this is my senior…
—Hello! But Jin-gyeong oppa! You…
‘Aaargh…! Graaaah…!’
A sharp pain lanced through his chest.
At that moment, a fact dawned on him.
‘Wait, now that I think about it!’
This guy was Han Jin-gyeong’s junior!
Birds of a feather flock together, indeed!
He’s planning to use me just like Han Jin-gyeong did!
His internal evaluation finally hit zero.
Myeong-gyu’s eyes became bloodshot.
His body began to tremble.
“Please have a seat here. I should explain about the company first.”
He sat down.
His insides were boiling, but the guy’s coding skills seemed legit, so he decided to focus only on the work.
It was the last shred of reason Myeong-gyu had left.
‘R-right. I’m not coming to the office to date.’
He was probably overreacting.
Composing himself, Myeong-gyu began to focus on the job details.
Fortunately, that part was fairly easy.
When it came to the work itself, the conditions were tempting enough to sway him.
“Basically, we’re an indie company, so we’re a bit small. The individual workload is high. I assume you were aware of that before coming, so I’ll explain. First…”
It was quite long.
Myeong-gyu mentally summarized Yeon-ho’s explanation.
“So the programmers are you and me, the work direction is decided through meetings within the lines you set, then we code autonomously, have another meeting for feedback before implementation, and then debugging?”
“You’ve understood perfectly.”
“Hmm…”
They had already discussed salary on the way here.
He would be receiving a pretty high salary for a fresh graduate.
On top of that, it seemed all allowances were properly paid.
Work intensity?
Was there any place in this industry that was lax?
Considering that any company above a certain level required overtime and all-nighters as a basic expectation, getting paid properly for it was good treatment.
What truly intrigued him was the direction of the work.
‘A lot of meetings.’
In other words, they were serious about communication in programming.
Having already experienced corporate life, Myeong-gyu knew.
If you got a domineering boss on your team, your work efficiency and coding productivity were bound to drop from being forced to conform to their methods.
In that respect, the work environment wasn’t bad.
The strong will to coordinate things from the bug-fixing stage was a good sign.
Most importantly, he liked that Yeon-ho seemed to have no reservations about sharing his know-how.
That meant there was a lot to learn.
Myeong-gyu was the type to prioritize work ability over age or seniority.
‘Ah, this is pretty good…’
As he was contemplating, Yeon-ho spoke.
“I’ll speak informally. I need you, hyung. As you can see from my methods, it’s a bit hard to find someone who can match them. We’re not a company that would appeal to experienced developers. And when I look for younger people, so far there hasn’t been anyone who understood my algorithms as well as you.”
The honesty was good.
Myeong-gyu understood, as it was more or less what he had expected.
The fact that Yeon-ho was also flattering him suggested good social skills (this was a minus point).
Myeong-gyu’s gaze fell on Yeon-ho.
His appearance was still not to his liking.
But the biggest problem was…
“Yeon-ho, Yeon-ho! Is our new programmer here? Who is he? A senior? Does that mean he went to our school?”
“Sunbae, sunbae! Introduce us too!”
…those two, who looked like they would suck the life right out of him.
He could just ignore the other two, but for some reason, these two seemed like they would approach him first and create all sorts of distractions.
The mere thought of it made him shudder.
It was at that moment.
*Thump!*
The two women sat down on either side of him, as if to corner him.
Myeong-gyu’s body froze solid.
‘Huh?’
The scent of cosmetics.
“Wow! Oppa? Is it okay to call you oppa? Your skin is so fair!”
“Unni, look here! His fingers are so pretty! Damn, prettier than mine.”
“Oh my god, look at your skin! How do you not have a single blemish? Do you get skincare treatments, oppa? What products do you use?”
“Awesome! Your clothes smell so nice too! What fabric softener do you use, oppa?”
“Uh, uhh…!”
Go Myeong-gyu, 27. All-boys middle school, all-boys high school, public service, engineering college, followed by joining and quitting an IT company.
Immunity to compliments from the opposite sex: 0.
Immunity to compliments on his appearance, specifically: -100.
In other words, dating experience: a grand total of ‘0’.
“Th-that’s…”
“Wow, what’s your weight, if you don’t mind me asking? I think you’re slimmer than me! That’s crazy!”
“Your nails are so neat. Oppa, can I try painting them for you?”
The attack power of Hye-ji and Yu-mi was explosive.
At least, to Myeong-gyu.
“W-well, I mean…”
It all happened in just five minutes.
The words of the two women, who were naturally cheerful and saw the good in people, began to turn Myeong-gyu’s worldview 180 degrees.
‘Huh?’
*Am I actually popular?*
*Was I just too busy studying all this time to realize it?*
*It’s true my skin is fair since I don’t go out much. And I’m thin because I don’t like to eat… I don’t sweat much either…*
The Myeong-gyu who had thought, ‘They seem like they’d be a pain to get involved with,’ was now nowhere to be found.
“Both of you, back to your seats. We’re in the middle of a discussion.”
Yeon-ho tried to cut in.
It was at that moment.
*Grab!*
The two women grabbed Myeong-gyu’s arms from either side.
“Whyyy~ Let’s talk a little more~.”
“That’s right! If he’s a new employee, we have to get close!”
“Hup…!”
Myeong-gyu was having trouble breathing!
Just then.
Yeon-ho narrowed his eyes and chided the two.
“Can’t you see you’re making him uncomfortable?”
But that only made the two tighten their grip on his arms.
Myeong-gyu’s brain was beginning to suffer cognitive decline from a lack of oxygen!
“Besides, he hasn’t even said he’ll join our team yet, so putting this much pressure on him…”
“I-I’ll do it.”
“…is not a good idea.”
“I’ll do it. The programmer job.”
Myeong-gyu replied, his face beet red.
It was hardly a rational decision.
Of course, the conditions were good, but shouldn’t a job search involve some deliberation?
Yeon-ho pointed this out with concern.
“I’m grateful, of course… but there’s still a lot you haven’t heard. Are you sure?”
“Y-yeah…”
Myeong-gyu nodded.
In that instant, a philosophical thought manifested.
*What do humans live for?*
*Why do we work, function as members of society, and run toward our empty deaths?*
Just now, Myeong-gyu had found the answer.
‘To be happy.’
That’s right, as long as you’re happy.
And right now, Myeong-gyu was very happy.
“Yay! We’re counting on you, oppa!”
“By the way, where do you live, oppa? Is your house close? Oh! Do you have Facebook? Let’s be friends!”
His sense of smell was paralyzed by the scent of cosmetics.
That was the long and short of it.
“Um… I’ll go print the contract. We can talk about the details while looking at it.”
Studio Rewind had successfully recruited a programmer!
Hell of Hedonism.