The Game Keeps Saving People
Berkin
had spent his entire life as a merchant, yet he had never heard the name before.
“Um… I didn’t investigate it precisely, but the description said it’s something you’ll understand if you try it.”
A laugh burst from Berkin’s lips.
“Hehe… I never thought the Blue Magic Tower would show such arrogance.”
Following the servant’s guidance, Berkin headed toward the computer. Much to his surprise, people had gathered in front of it as well.
It wasn’t exactly a crowd, but something strange caught his eye: their expressions. They cheered, groaned, then leaned forward again and again.
It felt less like mages gazing at a magical tool and more like spectators at the Colosseum cheering on gladiators.
‘It’s almost as if they’re watching a sword fight in the Colosseum.’
“Lord Berkin of the Berkin Trading House has arrived!”
Unlike before, the crowd didn’t part easily. Everyone was too focused on that black-and-white screen.
When Berkin himself stepped forward, people instinctively made way for him.
“Hm… So this is the computer. Let me try it out.”
“If you want to learn, you’ll just have to figure it out yourself. You’re barging in awfully boldly.”
Reven’s blunt reply made the gazes shift to the servant.
“Um… I must apologize, but I don’t know how to operate it either.”
Berkin felt inwardly annoyed, yet he chose not to voice his complaint.
“…Fine. I’ll do it.”
There were plenty of people anyway. Cutting off those who would only slow things down was simple.
“So, how exactly does this game work?”
“It’s already started.”
White blocks fell steadily from the top of the black screen. A strange sense of crisis made him hurry and sit down.
“Use the arrow keys to move.”
“Arrow keys? What kind of—”
GAME OVER.
He kept pressing random keys until the first round ended.
Only on the next round did he finally understand the controls.
“Oh? So that’s how you move.”
He began stacking the blocks. As soon as lines vanished and the score rose, he grasped the goal: clear lines by stacking blocks.
Clearing multiple lines at once earned even more points.
‘…This is easy?’
That was when it happened.
“Eh…? Eh?”
The blocks fell faster now that the level had increased. With his beginner status, continuing the game proved difficult.
Without realizing it, Berkin leaned forward.
At first it was merely to learn the controls, but something changed.
He now asked himself where the next block would land, what shape to form to fill the empty space, whether to leave the right side open or lower the left.
Such useless questions.
Yet strangely, they filled his mind completely.
It was nothing like profit-loss calculations or reading contracts.
No profit, no loss, nothing left over.
Yet he couldn’t stop.
At the same time, the spectators behind him began whispering advice one by one.
“Wow… Can’t you do that?”
“Why put it there?”
“No, just shift it one space to the side.”
“Lord Berkin… Your calculations are demonic, but your hands move so slowly.”
‘These bastards…’
Even as he thought that, he pressed Enter and kept playing at lightning speed.
Rose whispered softly beside Reven.
“He really is hopeless.”
“Sister.”
“Why? It’s the truth.”
“A merchant house lord from a famous trading house.”
“Everyone’s the same in front of Tetras.”
Berkin heard every word, gritted his teeth, and kept playing.
The third round was different. The blocks fell in such a lucky way that he cleared four lines at once with a straight formation.
Tdriririring!
The computer emitted a sound, and cheers erupted from the spectators.
“Haha…”
Berkin’s eyes followed the blocks relentlessly, never releasing the tension in his hands.
He realized he was laughing for the first time in a long time.
From childhood, everything had been easy.
Numbers revealed their answers before he even calculated them, and people’s desires showed themselves before they spoke.
Berkin had understood those truths far too early.
His first deal earned him gold coins.
His second swallowed an entire trading house.
At twenty, all merchants watched his every move. By thirty, even the king could no longer act rashly toward him.
Berkin’s merchant talent was both a blessing and a curse.
Because it had come too easily, there was nothing left to achieve.
But now it was different. For the first time in ages, he stood before a screen where the outcome remained unknown.
“Left!”
“No, not there!”
“Rotate! Rotate it!”
“Oh, I managed to survive?”
“Wow, he rotated the blocks to save it?”
Throughout the game, Berkin never hid his smile.
GAME OVER
Berkin stared blankly at the screen, then slowly reached into his pocket and pulled out his pocket watch.
He was stunned.
“…What?”
He looked toward the setting sun, then back at the watch.
‘Where did my time go?’
To merchants, time was gold. To Berkin, it was even more precious.
He had crossed an entire hour.
For ordinary people it might have been mere leisure, but not for him.
He could have reviewed three contracts, received profit reports from two trading house branches, pondered transportation routes, and calculated where to invest hundreds of gold coins.
And there was still that appointment he had forgotten.
When he looked back, the spectators had already vanished almost completely.
“L-Lord Berkin. Are you with us? The appointment with the Greko Trading House for today has already been canceled.”
“…I see.”
Berkin accepted the situation silently. Then he noticed Reven half-asleep and Rose shaking him awake.
“Hey! Wake up already!”
“Mm…?”
‘It’s as if time was stolen from me. Is this what gaming is?’
Someone who detested having time taken from him felt an inexplicable freshness.
Calculation functions? They no longer mattered.
With just this one feature, it could already be sold across the nation and the entire world.
“Lord Reven, are you awake?”
“Yeah… Sir, are you still playing?”
Reven yawned and asked.
“How was it?”
Berkin answered honestly. He believed it was not good manners to hide emotions from the creator of such a wonderful item.
Casual speech didn’t bother him in the slightest.
“It was fun. I didn’t even notice time passing.”
“That’s the charm of games.”
“And of Tetras too.”
Rose chimed in from the side.
“But you wanted the calculation function, right? The servant keeps saying something about it.”
“Indeed. Is this item that excellent at calculations?”
“Do you really need to check that part?”
Gärden of the Yellow Magic Tower could no longer hold back and jumped in.
“Calculation is ultimately about accuracy and speed. Even with this massive device, it can’t surpass a dedicated calculator…”
“Gärden Bellog.”
Berkin’s voice dropped, cutting Gärden off mid-sentence.
“I haven’t asked you anything yet.”
“…”
“And a merchant doesn’t trust someone who draws conclusions before even looking at the product.”
Gärden bit his lip.
“Forgive me.”
Reven sat in front of the computer and spoke.
“It’s not just calculations.”
With that, he began rapidly typing on the keyboard.
Endless characters and symbols scrolled across the black screen, appearing and vanishing.
“This is how you make tables.”
Item, quantity, unit price, tax, total.
It was nothing more than a ledger.
“This is the function. It auto-calculates.”
The moment he entered numbers into the cells, the calculations appeared instantly.
Before he could even perform mental arithmetic, the numbers were already there.
“You can also find averages, maximums, minimums.”
After pressing a few buttons, the total sales for the month, average sales, best-selling items, and worst-selling items appeared side by side.
“There are also filters, search, graphs, conditional displays, simulations…”
Few people fully understood Reven’s explanation, but some merchants instinctively grasped it.
“Wait… so we can see branch-by-branch sales at a glance without needing to deliver reports?”
“We could even spot where inventory is leaking. Easy to catch the thieves.”
“When dealing with tax collectors who act like bandits, if we use this…”
Gärden of the Yellow Magic Tower stared at the scene in vain.
“Such… things exist?”
It wasn’t about calculation speed. The Yellow Magic Tower’s magic-stone computational engine produced only a single answer.
But this was different.
It created tables to hold the answers, then reclassified them, compared them, and even tested other possibilities.
Throughout Reven’s explanation, Berkin held his breath and concentrated. He didn’t need to be told how revolutionary each feature was; he could feel it.
“Hah!”
He had witnessed countless revolutions throughout his life.
New trade routes had opened, magic-stone processing methods had changed, and even the single storage spell that once shook grain prices.
Yet this was different. It didn’t just change the market.
It redefined the market itself.
Berkin had seen it.
Right now, the very threads of history were moving.