[What's life anyway, you just live as you live]
[What's life anyway, you just live as you live]
A national emergency had been declared out of the blue. The email sent to every government department with the strange title [From.Raccoon Girl] was only a few dozen megabytes in size, but its contents were worth more than gold.
The current biggest problem was the Dimensional Rift.
Enemy Species could still be repelled. Even though their levels had risen, they weren't at a level that couldn't be defeated yet. Unlike the Great Depression 20 years ago, many of the current Force Users were veterans who had lived through those times.
However, the Dimensional Rift was the problem.
A significant portion of modern research on Enemy Species was the work of Dr. Alion. Among them, the Dimensional Rift Detector was an item that had contributed greatly to the maintenance of modern society.
Thanks to this system, which detected Dimensional Rifts—portals through which creatures from other dimensions, not the dimension where this star, Earth, exists, squeezed through—and issued warnings in advance, people could evacuate, and Force Users could buy time to mobilize.
But recently, Dimensional Rifts had begun to open more stealthily. The damage caused by rifts that couldn't be detected by current Dimensional Rift Detectors was immense.
The media had simply labeled it as accidents caused by malfunctions of the Dimensional Rift Detectors, but it was only a matter of time before the truth was revealed. Even the creator, Dr. Alion, asserted that it would take at least half a year of research to upgrade it any further.
If people were engulfed in anxiety, society would become unstable and eventually lead to catastrophe. If the Dimensional Rift Detector hadn't existed, it would have been impossible for current society to even exist.
And right here, in South Korea and nowhere else, the blueprints for the latest Dimensional Rift Detector had fallen into their hands.
"How did it go?"
"Fortunately, since all the places the email was sent to were government-affiliated, it was easy to keep it under wraps. We urgently arrested those who were trying to leak it overseas, but..."
"That's not what I'm asking. I'm asking if the blueprints are credible."
"Yes. They are flawless blueprints. After seeking various consultations, the result is that there is over a 90 percent chance that the performance indicated will be achieved if produced according to the blueprints."
"Hoo..."
This technology was at least a generation ahead.
In the first place, the current world still doesn't know much about the Enemy Species coming through the Dimensional Rifts. The very existence of other dimensions is absurd, so if you asked someone to develop technology for it, it would be faster to write a science fiction novel.
Even the Dimensional Rift Detector was only understood in its basic principles after Dr. Alion created it; no one had been able to dig deeper.
"Is it possible to trace the email?"
"...I apologize. That seems difficult to figure out."
At the secretary's words, the man sighed again.
He thought he was going to have a headache due to friction with Japan, but this time he was experiencing an unexpected windfall.
The merit of being the only one, a monopoly, is bound to be profitable anywhere. If only Korea, and not any other country, possessed technology a generation ahead, the benefits arising from this would be incalculable.
"What shall we do?"
"..."
The man pondered carefully.
And he focused on one sentence written in the email.
[We are distributing the blueprints only to Korea for non-profit purposes, so please mass-produce them as soon as possible so that there are no victims caused by Enemy Species.]
The person who sent this didn't want money or fame. The most important thing was that there were no victims.
And if you try to eat something big all by yourself, you're bound to get indigestion.
"First of all, since it's noisy with Japan right now, let's soothe them through joint research. And start mass-producing the detectors. Even if the finished products are distributed, it will be easy to figure out the structure anyway. For now, let's think about the people first. Let's think about the profits second."
If you play around with equipment that can save people, you'll be called someone who toys with human lives.
In that sense, it was a choice that pursued honor rather than money.
And if a small country like Korea possesses a treasure, there is no guarantee it won't be stolen by other countries. It's better to distribute it and take a reasonable profit rather than holding onto it, unable to use it, and then getting robbed.
"Understood, Mr. President."
The secretary bowed and left the room.
The 19th President of South Korea, Lee Nam-seok, sighed.
Looking at the sales of the new menu, the Doenjang Chicken and Soy Sauce Chicken were selling well, but the Coq au Vin Chicken wasn't moving as much. Still, it wasn't a level that could be ignored, so it seemed to be selling decently.
It was a menu that required the least amount of effort anyway, so it felt like a bonus.
"Thank you for your hard work today."
"Yeah, see you tomorrow."
After finishing the cleaning and tidying up, I closed the shop shutter. I worked hard today, so I should go home and cuddle with Sion.
I didn't know if the higher-ups were trying to quietly sweep the things I did as Raccoon Man under the rug, or if it was buried because of the latest Dimensional Rift Detector issue Sion sent, but the media had gone quiet, so I was relieved.
Team leader Jo In-hyung, who told me to call if there was any trouble, hadn't contacted me either, so it seemed like no noticeably strong Enemy Species were appearing.
Around the time I closed the shop and was heading home, my phone rang.
"Huh? Who is it?"
Come to think of it, my human relationships did seem a bit sparse. At least I used to have a few friends, but since they all went to college or the army, I felt like we had lost touch.
Because of the EMP attack by the Enemy Species I crushed in Japan last time, my phone's address book was wiped clean, so the only contacts in my new phone were my house, Sion's phone, our shop, and the phone numbers of Baek-ri and Jin Seo-ae. My already sparse address book had shrunk even further.
Since even the numbers of people I knew weren't registered, I couldn't tell whose call it was. The number looked familiar, but I'd have to answer it to know.
"Hello?"
[Hey, you asshole. You should've contacted me when you were discharged, you crazy bastard!]
"You bastard, calling me names right off the bat. Aren't you the one busting your ass in the army right now? You, who went to the army later than me."
[Don't act all high and mighty just because you went a few months earlier.]
"Hey, our enlistment dates are 7 months apart, you moron. When you were doing individual combat training at the boot camp, I was already a Private First Class in my unit. Aww, poor baby."
[I told you to enlist together, but you went and applied for the recruitment soldier by yourself.]
"You went to college. I couldn't afford to."
Hearing the voice, I knew who it was. Hey, this is a pleasant surprise!
20 years ago, during the Great Depression when the Enemy Species first appeared, both my parents passed away, and I had no relatives to be entrusted to, so I went to school from an orphanage.
It was a big deal at the time, and so many people died that there were many kids like me who became orphans all alone, so the welfare system was set up to some extent, and I went through compulsory education without much inconvenience.
However, there was subtle discrimination at school. The very fact that I grew up in an orphanage meant I had no parents, and that wasn't something that got treated very well by my peers.
Sometimes there were bullies who picked on me. I just let it slide as long as they didn't cross the line. But even in the midst of that, I made a few friends.
Among them, there was a friend I had known for almost 10 years, from elementary school to high school, and that was Kang Hyung-sik, who was calling me right now.
For reference, he went to the army later than me, so he was probably just starting to prepare for his discharge.
"What's up? Don't you still have some time left before you're a senior sergeant? Did you give up your final leave and come out?"
[I just came out for a bit. Can we meet up?]
"For a drink?"
[You know that Samgyeopsal place we used to go to often? Let's meet there.]
"Got it."
Come to think of it, for the past few months, I'd just been cuddling with Sion and running the shop, so I hadn't done anything outside of that routine. I wasn't a workaholic, but my route was always house, shop, house, shop, and occasionally eating out with Sion. It was monotonous.
I should have gone out and grilled meat with a friend and had a drink once in a while. I could have at least had a drink somewhere else with Baek-ri... My thinking was short-sighted.
"I'm going out to meet a friend for a meal, so eat dinner without me."
[Understood. Have a safe trip.]
"If you've already set the table, just leave it. I can reheat it when I get back, so just eat another meal since it's already set."
I called Sion to tell her I'd be home late and went out to the meeting place.
The Samgyeopsal place where I used to go to drink with the guys after becoming an adult was close to the orphanage where I lived, so the feeling of passing through familiar roads was quite pleasant.
Growing up in an orphanage without parents might be a bad memory for others, but I'm a little different. It wasn't like I had parents from birth, so I didn't have much sentiment about my birth.
A charcoal grill place that looked a bit old. They sold various offal in addition to Samgyeopsal, so it was a good place to have a drink. It was a good time, so it was packed with people.
"Hey, over here, over here."
"Soldier, is it okay to have hair that long?"
"I'm a senior sergeant, you know. If I trim the sides and wear my combat cap, I won't get caught."
"What are you ordering?"
"I ordered two servings of Samgyeopsal and one serving of pork skin for now. Oh, Auntie! Please bring us a bottle of Soju and two glasses!"
He must have arrived first and waited, as the charcoal was already in the brazier, making it nice and hot.
The Samgyeopsal and pork skin we ordered came out, and we immediately put them on the grill and started cooking.
"What have you been up to lately?"
"Just running a business."
"Oh, you're good at cooking, so I thought you'd go into that, is it that?"
"It is the food service industry."
Chicken is food, so a chicken shop is definitely the food service industry.
I popped the cap of the Soju bottle with a Ka-deuk! and poured it into each other's glasses. We shared a light toast and downed it in one shot. The distinct smell of alcohol from the Soju rose up.
"Kuh, it's been a while since I've had a drink, but the Soju is sweet."
"Don't act tough, man. The army really ruins people."
"What, you bastard. You were a soldier until a few months ago, why are you like that?"
"I've lost all the military smell. Are a first-year reserve force and an active-duty soldier the same?"
"You asshole!"
"Uh-huh, tsk, that's not nice."
Jigeul-jigeul, I wrapped the well-grilled Samgyeopsal in lettuce, smeared some ssamjang on top, added the grilled garlic, put a piece of fresh kimchi on top, and ate it.
Meat and garlic are basic, but fresh kimchi is optional. But this place's fresh kimchi is delicious, so I eat it like this.
"What about the others? Did you contact Sang-chul or Jong-soo?"
"Both those bastards are wasted right now, so they hung up while we were talking."
"They must be living their campus life to the fullest. Going to college and not studying like they're supposed to."
"You should've gone too."
"I had no money, nothing. So I didn't go."
Actually, since I have Sion, if I wanted to go now, I could. My grades aren't good, but if it's Sion, she might just build a new library and get me in. But personally, I don't want to go to college.
Even if I went, there isn't much I could learn and use. In the first place, I'm a liberal arts guy. If I went into science, I'd drop out after the first semester because I couldn't keep up with the progress.
I can feel things by intuition, but my brain doesn't work for theory, so I can't do it. In the first place, I filled in my lack of talent with time and experience, so I would need that much time to learn something anyway. A few years of learning at college wouldn't be enough.
"It would have been nice if Sang-chul and Jong-soo came. Isn't that the same group from when we were in school?"
"We even got banned from the PC bang for playing LoL on the school library computers. Remember?"
"Ah, shit, I told you not to do it back then, but wasn't it Jong-soo who egged us on?"
"Then what was I, who was quietly reading a book next to you?"
"Bullshit, you were reading a Romance of the Three Kingdoms comic book."
"Comic books are books too."
The alcohol kicked in, and I started to get a little tipsy. As the meat cooked and the snacks were ready, the speed at which we drank started to increase.
We brought up old stories and reminisced about those times. We were at most in our early 20s, college student age, but the desire to go back to when we were younger is always the same.
"Hey, do you remember the bullies who were in the same class as us in our second year of high school?"
"Of course, shit. I forget small things that hurt my feelings quickly, but I remember every bastard who insulted my parents."
There's a bully in every class, they say. We had them in our high school too.
With my personality, I could have crushed those bullies, but back then I was an orphan from an orphanage with no parents. If I had crushed them 'directly', the only thing that would be ruined was my life.
Back then, I didn't know I would meet Sion, so I wanted to at least make a way for my own life, so I lived relatively quietly.
Now? I have Sion, so who cares about my life!!
"There were a few other kids living in the orphanage besides you. Those bastards had such rotten personalities that they even went around insulting their parents."
They knew the kids living in the orphanage had no money, so they couldn't extort money, but they bullied them in other ways. Spitting on them, making them run errands, things like that.
Moreover, the bullies these days don't just use violence; they're also good at studying, so they're the type who gain the trust of teachers. There were 4 bullies back then, and one of their parents was a CEO of some company.
They had no morals, they had connections so it was hard to punish them, and the teachers were on their side. It was practically a lawless zone. The era of their republic was exactly our second year of high school.
Back then, Hyung-sik and I were in different classes. The kid who was in the same class was on Sang-chul's side. So Hyung-sik used to come over during breaks to chat and hang out, but since a kid from another class came, there was a day Hyung-sik became a target.
"I'm still pissed off thinking about it. It's so refreshing that those bastards ended up like that. How did they end up like that without dying? Right?"
"........Yeah."
I smiled faintly. It wasn't easy to act like I didn't know.
If I'm the one being bullied, I can just ignore it, but it's an exception when people around me are being bullied. If I beat them up directly, I'd be the one suffering in the end, so I had no choice but to choose another method.
It wasn't anything special, but when those bastards were riding motorcycles at night—I don't know where they got them—I used my ability on their wheels to make them stop suddenly.
Underage, drunk driving, no license. They achieved the triple crown, the grand slam, and on top of that, they weren't wearing safety gear, so they didn't even wear helmets.
There were two guys on one motorcycle, and I can still see the image of the guys ejected from the suddenly stopped motorcycle rolling on the ground.
How did it turn out after that?
They didn't die. They didn't. Two guys became vegetative and are lying in the hospital, one guy became paralyzed and is in a wheelchair for life, and one guy had one leg and one arm amputated.
If they were brain-dead, I don't know, but since they're vegetative, they're still alive, so it's safe. None of them died.
"The world is originally like this: if you live kindly, you receive blessings, and if you live badly, you receive punishment."
"What, you believed in that?"
"Then how do you explain those bastards ending up like that?"
"I guess you're right. Come on, cheers."
Clink, the glasses clinked lightly.
Except for this incident, it's safe to say I never used my ability during my school days. Since no one died, it wasn't murder, and there was no need for the police to investigate the guys who had an accident while driving without a license and drunk, and since they would suffer for the rest of their lives, everything was resolved amicably except for the parties involved.
By the way, one question I have is, why did Hyung-sik call me?
"You said you were saving your leave because you wouldn't be at the unit in your final days, but you still have over a month left, right? Why are you out already? How many nights and days is this?"
"I came out for 4 nights and 5 days."
"Did you use your annual leave? That's short, isn't it? You haven't been out since your recruit leave after enlisting, right?"
Usually, the leave given to soldiers is about 30 days, and if you add personal rewards, depending on the individual, you can get a few days unless you're a complete screw-up. I had a point system, so I went on leave for a total of nearly two months.
He must have received Taekwondo rewards, boiler technician rewards, and whatnot, so he should have over 40 days, so 4 nights and 5 days is a bit short even considering his final days.
"Do you have something to tell me?"
"........."
He hit the nail on the head.
But seeing as he wasn't speaking easily, it seemed like a very important story.
"No, never mind. It's nothing, so don't worry about it."
"It's nothing, but a senior sergeant who has to be careful even of falling leaves is coming out on an unplanned leave out of the blue? Spill it before I call Sang-chul and Jong-soo and we give you a beating."
"I'm telling you, it's really nothing. It's just hard to tell you........"
"First, just tell me what it is, we can think about it later. They say worries are halved if you share them. If it's something I can help with, I'll help."
"........"
Hyung-sik sighed and drank a few glasses of Soju without even eating his snack.
Maybe he was trying to borrow some liquid courage; I waited patiently. Soon, when he started to get tipsy, Hyung-sik said.
"My father collapsed."
"Your dad?"
One of the reasons I became best friends with Hyung-sik was because of his family.
Hyung-sik's family is a four-person household with his parents and Hyung-sik's grandmother, and I often went over to play, ate there often, and they treated me like their own child, so I was practically part of the family.
During vacation, when I had nothing to do and had to stay at the orphanage, they took me with them on a trip to the sea. Hyung-sik's family wasn't that well-off, but it was a good family.
"They said it's liver cancer. Fortunately, the survival rate is high if he gets a transplant, so they said he just needs surgery."
"Whose liver are you using?"
"I'm using mine. I came out on leave this time for that test."
Liver transplants usually have a higher success rate with family. Just like the saying that blood is thicker than water, in the case of transplant surgery, family members' organs have the least rejection.
The liver is an organ with high regenerative power, so if he gets a transplant, his recovery will be fast, and if it's a direct family member's liver, the rejection will be minimized.
But that's not the problem. There's the most common problem.
"You need money."
"......Yeah."
In the end, it's money. The hospitalization fee for a multi-person room in a decent hospital varies by hospital, but it can be from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of won per day. If you go to a single room, it might be millions of won per day.
Plus, the surgery cost. Even if he uses Hyung-sik's liver, the surgery cost alone will be tens of millions of won.
As it is a capitalist society, it's comfortable if you have money, but there are cases where you have to die without living if you don't. In the end, it's just a variable value determined by humans.
"How long has it been since your dad collapsed?"
"It's been about a week."
"Shit, why didn't you tell me sooner?"
"Why didn't you tell me you were discharged?"
I felt a slight sense of betrayal. But I wasn't in a position to say that either.
We treated each other like family, but Hyung-sik, who didn't let me know about his family's misfortune, and I, who thought of them like family but was negligent because I was with my more precious family—we're both idiots.
"Is your dad hospitalized now? Which hospital is it?"
"Yonsei Severance Hospital. That's where."
"Let's visit him later."
First, let's solve the money problem.
My account has the money I earned running the chicken shop, but it's only money I've earned over a few months, so it's not in the hundreds of millions.
Moreover, Hyung-sik's family isn't well-off. To prepare for the surgery costs, they'd have to sell their house and sell this and that. Since his father, the breadwinner, collapsed, there would be no income either.
"Wait a second."
I called home first.
Before the first ring tone even finished, Sion answered the phone.
[What's the matter?]
"Sorry, but can you send some money to my account?"
[Is something wrong? If you need to pay for damages, I'll send our Lawyer Kim first.]
"I've heard of him, but I've never met him. Ah, that's not it, I need money."
[How much do you need?]
"I think I need to put out the urgent fire first, so........ I wonder if I need about 100 million won."
Considering the surgery costs, hospitalization fees, and living expenses, I have about 150 million won if I add my account balance to 100 million. That should be enough to put out the urgent fire.
[I will send you 1 billion won. A man shouldn't be stingy like that. I can't stand seeing my man spending money in a petty way anywhere. Swipe that Black Card freely and pay in cash. Since you're the type who doesn't ask for money because you only do your hobby, take this opportunity to spend some money.]
Immediately, a message popped up on my phone that 1 billion won had been deposited into my account. My wife, who is super-fast with computer-related things, is the best!
"Thank you. I'll talk to you when I get home."
[I'll sleep in a separate room until you spend all that money.]
"You're joking, right?"
[I'm serious.]
I had a serious dilemma about whether I should just give all this money to Hyung-sik.
When I hung up the phone, Hyung-sik was looking at me with a bewildered expression.
"Uh, who was that?"
"My wife."
"What the fuck?!"
Ah, right. I didn't tell him I was married. Come to think of it, I had never told my friends or people around me that I was married.
Because of Sion's appearance, we couldn't even have a wedding, so it was hard to invite people, and we just submitted the documents to get married, so if I didn't tell them, they wouldn't know.
"You're married?! When?"
"Ah, almost right after I was discharged."
"Shit, you didn't have a girlfriend! You didn't even have anyone you were dating, so how did you get married?"
"There was someone I knew a long time ago. We became a couple and got married."
"What about the wedding?"
"We didn't have one. There were circumstances."
"Augh, you asshole. You got married and didn't even tell your best friend. You son of a bitch, I didn't think you were like that. Wow, I feel betrayed."
"Anyway, my wife is rich, so I borrowed some money. She said she'd sleep in a separate room until I spend all the money she sent, so you have to spend this with me today, okay?"
"How much did you get?"
I recommended seeing it rather than telling him. I showed him the text message on my phone that 1 billion won had been deposited into my account.
Hyung-sik's complexion turned pale as he counted the number of zeros. Seeing his complexion, which had been red from alcohol, turn white, he was showing the possibility of evolution where humans can become chameleons. Ah, Darwin, you are a moral book.
"1 billion? Really, 1 billion?! What does your wife do?"
"She's just a building owner who invests in stocks and has land too. I'm also running a chicken shop by renting a building. But where do you get off calling her 'sister-in-law' (jesu-ssi)? Call her 'sister-in-law' (hyeongsu-nim)."
"Sister-in-law."
"Hey!"
Even if we're the same age, my birthday is earlier. My birthday is in October, but Hyung-sik's is in November. Even if it's a one-month difference, I was born earlier.
In the first place, if you count by the age of a reincarnator, there wouldn't be anyone older than me unless they were at the same Transcendent level.
"Don't worry about your dad's surgery costs, man. Here, I'll just give you my card, take this."
"Hey......."
"The surgery costs will be in the tens of millions, and you probably came to borrow 1 or 2 million at most. And even then, you couldn't bring it up because you felt sorry. I know your personality inside and out. We've been friends for 10 years, how could I not notice that?"
Even if I wasn't well-off, I would have done anything to give him the money. Even if I had to work as a Force User for the government.
"I still remember your dad secretly buying me chicken at night when he knew the orphanage food tasted bad. Since outsiders were restricted at night, I received the chicken over the wall."
Pity is fine. There are many people who can't even harbor that pity, and society is changing into one where you can't harbor it.
If you can give to others in a harsh society, you can at least live with a full heart. I don't ignore material value, but what's more important is the spiritual.
"Do you remember when we went on a picnic during the New Year, your grandmother brought me along, saying she had to feed me a bowl of rice cake soup? I ate more of the galbi-jjim she made back then than the rice cake soup."
Unlike Sang-chul or Jong-soo, Hyung-sik is a friend of 10 years.
And for those 10 years, I have nothing but good memories of him and his family.
"When we went on a school picnic, your mother even packed a gimbap for me. At the orphanage, they just gave me a measly 3,000 won."
What's 1 billion? Even if Sion wasn't there, I would have sold my organs to get the money.
"Go and pay for your dad's surgery and hospitalization fees in one lump sum. Ah, change your dad's hospital room to a single room. You'll need living expenses too, so take it out and use it if you need to. You'll need a lot of money because you'll have to recuperate for a while after the transplant surgery too. If you run out of money, contact me again."
"Hey......shit......thank you......"
"If a person lives kindly, they should receive blessings. Your family deserves to receive blessings."
The development of civilization and human kindness are inversely proportional. As society becomes more materialistic, only selfish tendencies become stronger. If material wealth is abundant, the heart is poor, and if material wealth is poor, the heart is abundant.
Even in such times, kind people exist like beans in a drought. If there is a sprout growing green in the wasteland, you should cherish it in its own way.
"I'll pay you back, even if I have to do manual labor."
"Hey, I told you not to bring up money problems between friends. It might cause hard feelings for no reason, so let's just say I gave it to you."
"Hey!"
"I might throw away money, but I don't throw away friends. We've known each other for so long, how could I not give you that much money? Even if I wasn't well-off, I would have sold my organs to get the money. A person should return as much as they received. Don't you think?"
"You son of a bitch.......thank you so much. Shit......ah, I can only curse. Really......."
Hyung-sik cried as he took the card I gave him.
What would I have done if I didn't have money? It wouldn't be common to be able to borrow tens of millions of won on the spot.
.........Huh? Come to think of it, doesn't one tuna cost hundreds of millions?
Suddenly, thinking of the fatty tuna belly of Dong-won that was still left in the refrigerator, I fell into a serious dilemma.
Wouldn't it be faster to make money by riding a tuna fishing boat?