Chapter 20
Chapter 20
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 20
Chapter Title: Bug (1)
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The incident began with a single post on the community forum.
📰 Post [Nickname: ??] Girls Memorial—is this a bug? [Screenshot of paid currency Mana Stones abnormally stacked up] My home Wi-Fi's a bit unstable, so when I hit the pre-registration 500k reward button, it got stuck in infinite loading. I reconnected... And now the rewards keep pouring in nonstop. What the hell is this? It's freaking me out ㄷㄷㄷㄷ 💬 Comments [Sorted by Views] — Anonymous Bye lololol — Anonymous Holy shit, how many Mana Stones is that? lololololol — Anonymous Server's gonna shut down. — Anonymous You're getting banned first lolololololol At first, the community users dismissed it as a photoshopped troll post or some impossible-to-reproduce bug, paying it no mind.
Thanks to that, it seemed like it might just fade away unnoticed, but an hour later, an anonymous post with proof of the bug being exploited set the whole thing ablaze uncontrollably.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ My phone rang.
I'd been dead to the world, catching up on much-needed sleep, but the ringing jolted me awake.
Still groggy from just waking up, a thick, muffled low tone escaped my throat.
"Hello...?"
[I'm truly sorry for calling so early in the morning. This is Seijou Tanaka from SFLAG Corporation.]
"Ah, yes... Mr. Tanaka, what happened?"
[A serious bug has cropped up, so we've taken the servers offline. I've sent you the details via email—please take a look.]
'A bug?'
The unexpected situation chased away any remnants of sleep.
"I'll head into the office right away, check it out, and get back to you."
[Understood. Looking forward to your prompt response.]
The moment I hung up, I bolted out of bed and threw on some clothes.
'The QA team tested this thing a dozen times over—what the hell broke?'
Cursing under my breath nonstop, I called Myunghoon first.
No matter what, fixing a bug meant getting the dev team involved.
After a couple of rings, Myunghoon picked up.
"Hello? Myunghoon Brother, is this your cell?"
[Uh, yeah...? Who's this?]
"It's Hojin."
[Oh.... right, Hojin. What's up? It's the crack of dawn—what happened?]
I fell silent for a moment at his words before speaking.
"...Yeah."
Then, from the other end, I heard the sound of blankets being flung back.
'This guy's reaction is exactly like mine.'
[For real?]
"Just got a call from Japan. A bug hit, so they shut down the servers..."
Silence stretched across the line for a moment.
Then came Myunghoon's sigh.
[Alright, heading to the office now. You too, right?]
"Yeah, I'm on my way."
[Cool, see you there.]
I hung up, crammed my feet into sneakers, and headed straight to the office.
If I'd been living at my parents' place, taxi fare would've wrecked me, but luckily my place was right by work.
I greeted the security guard in the booth and headed up to the team office, where Myunghoon Brother came into view.
His messed-up bedhead, pajamas, and slippers combo screamed how rushed he'd been.
Myunghoon gave me a sympathetic look, clearly thinking the same about my getup.
Not like mine was any better—total disaster, barely different from his.
"You made it?"
"Yeah, Brother."
"Gotta figure out what's wrong first.... They sent over the data from Japan, right?"
"Yeah, here."
I forwarded the docs I'd gotten on my smartphone via the company messenger.
Myunghoon settled into his seat and started reviewing them.
About five minutes later,
His face scrunched up, eyes glued to the screen, he spoke without looking up.
"This is a headache."
"That bad? Tough to fix?"
Myunghoon shook his head at my question.
"Nah, fixing it ain't hard. Server-side issue for sure, so patching it won't take much... But why the hell didn't QA catch this sooner?"
"No kidding."
"Anyway, fix itself? Not long. I could do it solo in 30 minutes tops. The real problem's after."
"Morning hits, and it'll be chaos."
Myunghoon and I sighed in unison.
Our minds were already overlapping with the crap we'd have to deal with post-fix.
Compare the abnormally inflated Mana Stone transfers against old data to gauge exploit severity,
and handle accounts that abused it for unfair gains.
And since it was blatantly our fault, figuring out compensation levels for users was headache central.
'At least Myunghoon Brother'll get off light—written apology at worst, since QA shares blame....'
Dealing with public backlash right after launch made my head throb.
"I'll call you when it's fixed. Get to work."
"Got it."
I left the office after hearing that and made a call.
To SFLAG's Tanaka.
Standard protocol to brief the publisher we'd handed ops to first.
"Hello?"
[Director, I've been waiting for your call. How's it looking?]
"Optimistically, 30 minutes to an hour to fix."
[That's a relief. But... yeah, the aftermath's the issue.]
"What're SFLAG's plans?"
[We'll probably go with the manual: short apology statement and promise no recurrence...]
I sighed inwardly at Tanaka's words.
'Regression hits different in moments like this.'
Pre-regression directors had manuals from past incidents.
Quick apology, no excuses, ample comp.
Common sense to outsiders, but not back then.
Lots of old-school mindsets where apologizing meant loss,
and comp got skimped since it hit revenue.
Why SFLAG's manual was like that too.
"Could you leave the post-incident handling to me?"
[...That's above my paygrade, so I can't say right now. Got some idea?]
"I think I can resolve it. But I'll need SFLAG's help."
[Help how...?]
I listed what we'd need for resolution, and Tanaka's voice turned hesitant.
[I'll run it by the team lead, but if no go, my hands are tied.]
"That's fine."
[Talk soon, then.]
I let out a relieved sigh after hanging up with Tanaka.
Half-expected rejection, but it went smoother than hoped.
'First button's buttoned right. Next...'
I pulled out my phone from my pocket and dialed.
"President, sorry to call so early. Emergency—"
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Two hours later, Yumi and I visited the studio at Enson Korea HQ.
To record an apology broadcast to calm the storm.
Why trek to Enson Korea in the morning? Enson GT's building had no broadcast studio.
And no time to book external.
"Yumi, mind filling out the rental form? Gotta take this call."
"Sure... "
I stepped into the hall after leaving Yumi to the form, and my phone rang right on cue.
[Director, free to talk?]
"Yeah, go ahead."
[All your requests approved.]
"Seriously?"
[Yep. Figured a couple might get shot down, but lucky break.]
I sighed in relief again at Tanaka's words.
'Looks like we've crested the tough part.'
"I'll call back after shooting."
[Great. As quick as possible, please.]
"Will do."
Back in the studio, Yumi had finished the form and was bustling around with a staffer, setting up the broadcast.
"Director, you're here?"
"Yeah. Who's that with you?"
"Oh, this is the studio's resident staff."
"Hi, I'm Choi Ye-jin, assistant at Enson Korea Studio."
She bowed slightly in intro.
I returned the nod.
"Hello, Director Ji Hojin."
"PM filled me in. Sounds urgent—ready to record now?"
"Absolutely."
"Cool. Shooting in your current outfit, right?"
"Yes."
My all-black suit screamed "just left a funeral."
Learned from pre-regression director playbooks.
"Alright, head into the set."
I followed Ye-jin inside.
She dragged in a few stand lights.
"Need a hand?"
"Nah, I'm good. Never let anyone else handle lighting."
Not politeness—she finished in a flash.
"Some fine-tuning left, but you're in a rush, and for this vid's vibe, no effects might be better. This work?"
"Perfect."
"I'll count down and cue. Ready?"
I faced the camera, shaking off nerves.
"Three, two, one—!"
Her cue hit.
I bowed at 45 degrees and spoke.
A bit worried about the Japanese, but words flowed smooth as butter.
"Hello, this is Ji Hojin, director of Girls Memorial."