Chapter 2
Chapter 2
A Ciel Bank branch located on the outskirts of Gyeonggi Province.
From the morning, the bank counters were in chaos.
It was because customers had flocked in, with it being Monday, the end of the month, and even utility bill payments overlapping.
“How many times do I have to say it! The machine won’t give me any money!”
In front of the ATM, a stubborn old man shouted, veins bulging in his neck.
“As I mentioned, your account hasn’t been registered for ATM withdrawals……”
“Then why isn’t it registered! Everyone else can use it just fine!”
I wiped the spit that had splattered onto my face with the back of my hand.
The type who doesn’t listen to others and thinks everything will work out if they just insist hard enough.
A real nuisance.
“Please calm down first. If you have your ID and seal with you, we can help you apply for withdrawals at the counter inside.”
“You mess things up and now what? Do I look like I have time to spare to you!?”
The troublesome customer shouted while pointing a finger at me.
His face was flushed red with anger, his breathing rough.
“Do you even know how much I have deposited here? Acting all high and mighty. Go call your branch manager!”
“……”
At the all-too-familiar line, I kept my mouth shut.
At this point, whether the fault lay with the customer didn’t really matter.
Until his anger subsided.
Whether it took minutes or tens of minutes, I had to endure the insults and verbal abuse.
Because that’s what the manual says for customer service.
“So basically, I’m supposed to be an emotional punching bag.”
Tap, tap.
After venting, the man tapped the name tag on my chest with the corner of his bankbook.
“Kim Inha? I’ll remember your name.”
“……”
“A brat like you, working as nothing more than a security guard…… talking back to an elder like that. No manners.”
Glaring fiercely, he stormed out of the automated banking area.
I swallowed down the rising anger and unfairness.
Yeah, just like he said, I work at a bank, but I’m not a banker.
A contract security officer.
Officially, a bank guard.
My main duty is security, but in practice, I mostly guide customers to keep things running smoothly.
Does that mean I deserve to be treated like this?
“Ha……”
Swallowing the bitterness, I walked back inside the bank.
After drinking a glass of water, I sat down at my desk by the entrance.
Despite all that chaos outside, the interior felt like a different world—peaceful.
Especially compared to me, the counter staff selling financial products to meet their targets looked so different.
“I wanted to work like that too.”
After graduating with a business degree from a regional university, I worked tirelessly to make up for my lack of qualifications.
But getting into the company I aimed for wasn’t easy.
Even when I somehow passed the document screening, I would often fail at the second interview.
The longer my job search dragged on, the more anxiety and pressure tightened around me.
I couldn’t even think about dating, and I avoided meeting friends.
Feeling like a useless person, my self-esteem hit rock bottom.
That’s when I started working as a bank security guard.
I felt like I had to do something.
“I didn’t expect to be here for over two years……”
Since it was close to home and had fixed working hours, I managed to earn three additional certifications while working.
But I kept failing to get hired.
Meanwhile, I had turned 29.
Still stuck as a contract security guard at a bank.
“Inha, could you come here for a moment?”
Before I could even collect my worn-out mental state, Assistant Manager Oh Mina from the loan department called me.
“The branch manager said to join us for lunch today.”
“Me too?”
“Yes. Don’t eat alone, just wait.”
“……Understood.”
It was already uncomfortable eating with the bank employees, but lunch with the branch manager too.
He’d probably sit me in front of him and talk about himself the whole time.
Recently, he’d even been subtly pressuring me to learn Go, something I had no interest in.
“I already feel sick just thinking about it.”
I returned to my desk, swallowing the suffocating discomfort.
At that moment.
Ding!
“What, what was that?”
At the sudden notification sound, I instinctively lifted my head.
A translucent window I had never seen before spread out in front of my eyes.
“Congratulations. Having the worst day, you have partially met the conditions to use the system.”
“You can use the system once all conditions are fulfilled.”
My heart pounded at the unreal phenomenon.
Was I seeing things from too much stress?
I rubbed my eyes repeatedly.
But the hologram didn’t disappear, as if firmly fixed in place.
“Excuse me!”
“Ah.”
I snapped back to reality. A middle-aged woman with permed hair was glaring at me.
“I’ve been calling you several times. Why aren’t you answering?”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“Just give me a parking ticket already.”
I hurriedly opened the drawer and handed her one.
She snatched it away, shot me an annoyed look, and turned sharply.
Whirr.
As the sound of the automatic door opening and closing faded away—
“Huh? The text is gone?”
The hologram that had been floating in the air just moments ago had completely disappeared.
Startled, I looked around, but there wasn’t a trace of it.
As if it had never existed in the first place.
“Did I…… imagine it?”
I stared blankly into the air for a moment, then let out a small laugh.
Right, as if something like a status window would appear in real life. This isn’t some web novel or webtoon.
I should at least go wash my face.
If I want to make it through the rest of the workday, I need to get myself together.
The afternoon shift was, in a word, hell on earth.
Things that might happen once a week all occurred one after another.
Requests to exchange and sort coins stuck together with gum and candy.
Emergency repairs for ATMs that had swallowed cash or bankbooks.
Even employees giving me looks for not managing the queue properly as wait times increased.
All the dirty work in the bank fell on me.
They call me a security guard, but I’m basically a handyman.
To make matters worse, the kimchi stew I had with the branch manager at lunch sat heavy in my stomach.
“We’re closing.”
I pulled down the front shutter.
The bank’s closing time is 4 p.m.
Except for rare cases where customers with urgent matters are accepted until 4:30.
Officially, business hours were over.
From this point on, the bank staff begin checking and settling cash and financial transactions.
Meanwhile, I tidy up—refilling supplies, emptying trash cans, turning off tablets and TVs.
“Ah, hot!”
At that moment, Assistant Manager Ha Jongwoo dropped his coffee cup while getting a drink from the vending machine.
Splash.
The spilled coffee pooled on the floor and splattered everywhere.
“Damn it, what bad luck.”
He irritably brushed off his pants and wiped them with tissues.
Then he looked at me with an annoyed expression.
“Inha, you’re not busy, right?”
“Pardon?”
“Sorry, but could you clean the floor for me? I’m busy right now. I’d appreciate it.”
Dumping the cleanup on me, he grabbed another coffee and walked away.
“What kind of person is that……”
Watching him, I was dumbfounded.
He called it a favor, but there wasn’t even a trace of apology.
The shamelessness of acting like it was obviously my job made my blood boil.
“Just endure it.”
It was clearly an unfair order.
It annoyed me. It made me angry.
But what could I do?
I’m just a contract security guard dispatched from an outsourcing company, not even a full-time employee.
“Should I just quit?”
As I wrung out the mop in the bathroom, thoughts of quitting wouldn’t leave my mind.
Discrimination, comparison, disregard.
This kind of treatment gets old fast.
Every time something like this happened, I wanted to quit ten, twenty times a day.
But I couldn’t.
Setting aside my goal of getting into a major company—
There wasn’t any decent place I could go to right now.
“Son, I’m sorry, but could you lend me 500,000 won? I’ll pay you back next month.”
At the end of last year, my father had opened a rib restaurant with his retirement money, only for it to fail and leave him with heavy debt.
Even with both my parents working, they struggled to pay the monthly interest and principal.
I had no choice but to contribute whatever I could to help repay it.
On top of that, I still had student loans.
In this situation, I couldn’t quit without a backup plan.
“……I guess I’ll have to lower my standards and find somewhere else.”
Anywhere would have more prospects than this job.
Just as I made up my mind and was about to leave the bathroom—
Ding!
The familiar notification sound rang out.
At the same time, the hologram window spread out before my eyes.
“Congratulations! You have achieved the worst day. System usage has been approved.”
“You can now acquire talents.”
“As an initial reward, a Diamond Roulette Ticket has been granted. Minimum A-rank talent guaranteed.”
“Would you like to use it now? (Yes or No)”
“Acquire…… talents?”
As if possessed, I reached out and pressed the Yes button.
Ding!
The system window disappeared, and soon a massive roulette, like something from a casino, appeared.
“You have used a Diamond Roulette Ticket.”
A circular wheel with 36 sections marked with question marks spun rapidly.
Rumble.
The endlessly spinning roulette slowly began to slow down.
Soon, one of the question-marked sections stopped at the 12 o’clock position.
Gulp.
As the question mark faded, the hidden talent was revealed.
“Talent: Go (A)”
“Go……?”
My expression stiffened for a moment.
“Is this really a good one?”
I had secretly hoped for an incredible talent that could change my life.
If not that, even something like English or Chinese proficiency would have been useful for getting a job.
But instead, out of nowhere, it was Go.
I had never even touched a Go stone in my life.
It felt less like disappointment and more like being hit in the back of the head.
“The talent ‘Go’ is being updated in the system.”
“……!”
At that moment, a spark flashed in my mind.
Opening patterns, life and death, tesuji—Go terminology and rules.
Game records numbering in the hundreds, maybe thousands.
The ability to read moves and judge value, determining victory or defeat.
Like a program updating, it was forcibly pushed into my brain.
“Th-this is real?”
It was a mysterious and astonishing experience.
Like my inner skill was steadily building up.
“The talent ‘Go’ has finished updating.”
As if possessed, I overlapped my index and middle fingers and mimicked holding a Go stone.
It didn’t feel awkward.
It felt natural, like something I had done my whole life.
“I…… know how to play Go?”