The Hypnosis App Appears
Past flashback: I roughly washed up and crashed into bed. Even after rolling around at the warehouse for days on end with loading and unloading, sleep wouldn't come—in fact, my mind was sharper than ever.
Let's see, this month... I'm losing my mind. How the hell am I supposed to survive on this? After paying rent, I'd be flat broke. Well, it wasn't the absolute worst yet. At least I wasn't starving. ...Though just scraping by without starving felt pretty damn close to rock bottom anyway.
"Fuck it, whatever."
To forget it all, I fired up YouTube. I'd never searched for anything like this before, but it recommended some chaebol third-gen named Lee Heena. Was YouTube even working right?
The thumbnail showed a beautiful, pure-hearted beauty smiling as she swung a golf club. My hand moved on its own.
What must it feel like to be born into that kind of life? With the backing of the Yangho Group bloodline, the title of golf goddess, a face so stunning it made perfect sense, and world-class skills to boot. It was like she'd been handed every cheat code in the book.
While I was trembling over a few tens of thousands of won, Heena probably tossed around tens of millions or even billions like pocket change when she got bored. I tapped one of the videos. It had been filmed not long after she'd won a world championship.
"Yah!" Crack! With a cute little kiai, her golf club smashed into the ball. The guests cheered as it soared cleanly off into the distance.
"See that? If you just swing with brute force, it won't go far. It's all about precise form and..." Heena explained how to play golf properly, beaming with a radiant smile. The beads of sweat dotting her skin only made her already beautiful, innocent face shine even brighter.
Ha... I want a girlfriend like that. Maybe it was because Lee Heena was so stunning, but the thought slipped out unbidden. But it was an impossible dream. Feeling a pang of sadness, I closed YouTube.
"Huh?"
Suddenly, something weird caught my eye. Right next to the YouTube app was a pink heart-shaped icon.
I read the app's name as if entranced. "Hypnosis App? What's this doing here?"
Hypnosis App. I knew what that was. I wasn't obsessed with comics, novels, or movies like that, but I'd seen a few.
But that stuff was for fiction. No way something like that existed in reality.
I never downloaded this. Hacking? Or some new scam? Naturally, hacking was my first thought. Logically, it couldn't be a real hypnosis app. Hacking was way more likely.
Delete it.
So I long-pressed the app to uninstall it, resolving to splurge on some good antivirus software even if it cost a bit.
"What the hell? Why won't it delete?"
But it wouldn't budge. Normally, a long press brings up the delete option, but no matter how long I held it, nothing happened. Instead, it registered as a tap and launched the app.
Huh? What's going on?
I frantically mashed the back and home buttons, but it was useless. The app loaded in a flash, and a swirling rainbow screen spun into view.
Fuck, is this ransomware or something? Am I screwed?
Panicking, I tried everything—back button spam, home button spam—but nothing worked. Back and home were dead, and even long-pressing the power button wouldn't shut it down. Tense about my personal info leaking or the pitiful amount in my bank account vanishing, I was greeted by this message:
> Hypnosis App service starting.
A new message popped up.
> Show the app screen to another person, and the target will fall under hypnosis.
> Hypnotize the target and issue any command. You can alter their common sense or perform any imaginable act.
> Notifications will be batch-deleted 1 minute after confirmation.
Staring at the app's glowing rainbow screen, I felt like I was being sucked in.
"Is this for real...?" I muttered dumbly to myself.
Only now did the home and back buttons respond, letting me open my banking app to check my balance—no money was gone. I transferred a small amount between accounts to test deposits, and it worked fine. Typical ransomware would've locked everything and demanded crypto payment, but nope.
Guess it's okay.
Still wary, I tried deleting it again, but no dice. I even factory reset my phone, but the Hypnosis App remained untouched.
"......"
This development... I'd seen it before. As a guy, I'd consumed my share of adult content. Some of it was hypnosis stuff, where protagonists suspect a hypnosis app is a hack or virus, try to delete it but fail, then test it "just in case" and boom—it's real. A total cliché by now.
Could this be...? I seriously considered it for a moment, then shook my head to dismiss the idiotic notion.
No way, no way... What am I even thinking?
This wasn't some novel. This was my reality. No matter how little education I had, I wasn't senseless enough to act on novel tropes. I still had a grip on reality.
What if I get reported for trying something stupid? In woman-superior Korea, flashing this screen at a random woman? I'd be lucky not to get arrested. Guys? Might get punched.
So I closed the app roughly, tossed my phone aside, and sighed as I lay back down.
Vrrr!
How long had I slept? A strong vibration jolted me awake. It was, of course, my phone.
Who is it?
Ah, Dahyeon. I couldn't ignore a call from my childhood friend.
"Hello?"
"Were you sleeping?"
"Nah, nah. I was just up. What's up?"
"Nothing much. Wanna grab a drink after so long?"
"Uh, booze?"
"I'm heading there now. It's a meat place near your place—sending the address."
"......"
"I'll pay. And you need your nutrition pills anyway. Hurry up."
Free meat? No reason to say no. I threw on some clothes and headed to the address Dahyeon sent.
It was rush hour, so the Meat Restaurant was packed with after-work salarymen on company dinners, parents with kids, all sorts of people. Dahyeon stood out even among them (especially her chest), though her pristine white lab coat didn't quite fit the vibe.
"Faster than I thought. Sit."
Dahyeon, who'd already started grilling pork belly before I arrived, tonged some onto my plate.
"Eat. You must be hungry."
"What? How long have you been grilling?" The portions were no joke. Any slightly burnt bits went to her plate, the perfectly cooked ones to mine.
"Not long. Just finished this batch."
"I'll grill now."
"No, I'll do it. You eat. You look tired."
Who was calling who tired? I knew she pulled all-nighters on god-knows-what research without sleeping three hours.
"I'm not tired."
I tried snatching the tongs a few times, persuading her, but she wouldn't budge. I surrendered and wrapped some ssam, stuffing it in. Delicious.
"How is it?"
"So good!"
Starving, I devoured the meat without offering her any. Dahyeon watched with a pleased gaze.
"Cough! Hack!"
"Here, beer."
As I pounded my chest from the blockage, she handed me a glass of beer she'd poured who-knows-when. I took it gratefully and sipped obediently.
"Whew!"
It went down nice with the beer. Felt alive again.
"Our Geon-woo eats well."
Dahyeon pressed the bell for more meat and poured soju into our glasses.
"Cheers."
"Yeah. Cheers."
Our glasses clinked in the air. We downed them in one go. I poured for Dahyeon and placed some well-cooked meat on her plate, asking, "What've you been up to? Something about making stuff?"
"Yeah. Plasma shield."
Sounded straight out of a sci-fi flick.
"Plasma what?"
"Plasma shield. It can withstand nukes. Also researching interplanetary travel devices."
"Got flies teleporting to the moon already. Now the question is humans. You?"
Interplanetary travel? Aliens only.
"You're joking, right?"
"Does it sound like a joke?"
She asked with a faint smile. Honestly, yeah.
"Kinda... Feels like you're messing with an ignoramus like me who knows zilch about science."
"Could be. How about you?"
"Me? Same old. Job hunting like crazy."
"Ah... Yeah? Tough break."
"Tough what."
"It is tough. Your nutrition pills ran out, right?"
After rummaging in her pocket, Dahyeon handed me a small bottle. Inside: thirty rainbow-colored pills—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.
"Ah, perfect timing. Thanks."
"Yeah. One a day, no skips."
"Got it. But what's in these anyway?"
"Told you last time. Take 'em regularly, stay healthy."
"Right. Been doing warehouse gigs lately."
"Yeah."
"Weirdly manageable. Haha, could keep this up forever."
"You're on nutrition pills—of course."
Dahyeon smiled as she spoke, but her voice was too soft to catch.
"Huh? What?"
"Eat up. Ahh~"
Dahyeon picked up some meat with her chopsticks and fed it to me.