episode_0015

15th Episode: PC Bang in the Good Old Days (1)

Whoosh.

“Phew, that’s refreshing.”

I flushed the water refreshingly.

Back in the day, if you got caught taking a dump at school, you’d get teased endlessly about taking a dump at school.

It was the worst in elementary school, and it continued through middle school.

Usually, by about the third year of middle school, even if you hesitate a bit, an atmosphere is created where you can naturally take a dump at school.

“What are you looking at? Never seen someone take a dump before?”

“Oh, no.”

There was some guy who opened the door and stared strangely, so I chased him out.

But why did he cover his nose as he left?

Was it that bad?

Hurry up and come back to smell more.

Anyway, doing the exact opposite and taking a dump openly like this causes no problems.

Thinking about it, it was ridiculous.

Idols take dumps, presidents take dumps, so saying anything about taking a dump is just strange.

Or, like women’s restrooms, get rid of urinals in men’s restrooms and only have stalls.

So that unless you observe whether a kid is taking a dump or peeing, you’d never know, creating a quantum superposition state.

“Huh? This is actually quite good?”

I mumbled that and wiped my hands.

While doing so, I sent my gaze towards the mirror in front of the sink.

Haven’t I become somewhat handsome? That’s something you only think about while showering.

There was something else I wanted to check.

[Clear Grade 『Sub S+』]

[You have cleared it very successfully.]

[『Sub-S+』 grade bonus rewards will be given.]

[You can choose one of three rewards.]

The status window logs that appeared along with the curry I made earlier.

I had to choose the reward for the sub-quest I just completed.

Anyway, S+.

I got a grade I’d never received even while attending university.

University only goes up to A+ in the first place, doesn’t it?

“Somehow, I get the feeling that there might be SS, SSS, and even EX, including +0-.”

Even so, S+ belongs to the very high tier.

In a typical hunter genre story, the protagonist usually achieves S-rank hunter status at the earliest in volume 3, or usually volume 5.

If it’s a munchkin, they just start with EX right from the beginning.

[1. 『The North Face Himalaya, Essential Item for Insiders in the Good Old Days +3 Enhancement』]

[2. 『Essence of a Loner Who Absorbed Negative Energy for 37 Years』]

[3. 『Beginner Life Point Jar』]

Number 1 is an insider item.

The second is a loner item.

And the last one is just a general item related to the status window.

Just by looking at the names, I couldn’t get a sense of what to choose, so I decided to look at the descriptions first.

First, that padding jacket.

[『The North Xace Himalaya, Essential Item for Insiders in the Good Old Days +3 Enhancement』]

[▶Description: The ultimate insider item from the good old days]

[▶Effect: When fighting one-on-one, Stamina stat temporarily increases by +3, and while the trend lasts, Charm stat increases by +3.]

[(※If you do not have the Stamina stat, the Stamina stat will be created.)]

Hmm.

Somehow, the ability is exactly as the name suggests.

Yeah, I’ve never worn one, but it felt like it would hurt a little less when getting hit while wearing it.

The problem was that it was usually worn by the person doing the hitting, not the person getting hit.

“Do I need it?”

There was no need to ponder.

If it were HP, it might be okay, but I wondered why I needed a Stamina stat that presupposes getting hit in the first place.

If I keep putting points into that stat, will I survive even if I get hit by a car later?

[Tip✍ The higher a stat, the harder it is to raise, but there is no limit to the value.]

Huh? If that’s the case, it might actually be quite good?

If I can survive being hit by a car, doesn’t that mean I can survive being shot further down the line?

Frankly speaking, I might even encounter a random killer like we talked about in the debate earlier.

Because you never know in life.

“Thinking about it that way, it’s not too bad for unlocking the Stamina stat.”

Still, I need to check all three options first.

Next, I immediately checked the effect of option 2, 『Essence of a Loner Who Absorbed Negative Energy for 37 Years』.

[『Essence of a Loner Who Absorbed Negative Energy for 37 Years』]

[▶Description: An essence created by the condensation of 『Han Gyeong-jun』’s loner energy accumulated over 37 years.]

[▶Effect: Infuses the opponent with loner energy, turning them into a loner. The loner energy typically lasts for 37 years.]

[(※The duration of the loner energy may vary depending on the opponent’s existing personality and disposition.)]

“……”

I was washing my hands and lost my words.

The water continuously flowing from the sink only indicated that water was being wasted.

Click.

First, I turned off the water,

and decided to look at the third option.

[『Beginner Life Point Jar』]

[▶Description: Money makes money~ Points make points~]

[▶Effect: When you open the jar, you gain an additional +1~3 Life Points.]

The last one is simple.

This is the safest bet and it’s definite when you use it, but…

How come all the rewards are so ambiguous?

No, none of them are useless, but they all just seem… a bit off, just looking at them.

Maybe it’s because they are bonus rewards for a sub-quest.

Still, thinking about it, considering it’s a sub-quest, it feels like they’re giving away quite special things.

“I can choose this later, right?”

[Reward selection is deferred to a later time.]

Pop.

The status window that disappeared from sight like that.

That’s a relief.

“From now on, it would be good to try and clear other quests as hard as possible.”

If there are sub-quests, it means there are main quests as well.

The main quest hasn’t appeared even once yet, and honestly, I don’t even know what the main quest will be.

For now, I have a rough idea of what kind of person the status window wants me to be based on this sub-quest.

[Tip✍ The higher the Charm stat, the more positively it affects the quest clear evaluation.]

Status window, you want to turn me into an insider no matter what, don’t you?

* * *

“So, from next Friday, we’ll have CA classes, so don’t forget what CA you decided on today.”

Starting next week, on Fridays, classes will only be held until the morning, and the afternoon will be for CA time.

They say CA is something like creative special activities.

It’s not like having proper club activities like in some delinquent webtoons or Japanese school manga.

Even more casual than clubs.

What they usually do is, if it’s the film appreciation club, the teacher puts on a movie and does their own work.

Students just watch the movie, do something else, chat, or sleep.

So, it doesn’t really remain as a memory, and honestly, I completely forgot about it after middle school.

“Those who haven’t decided yet must submit it to the teacher by Monday, okay?”

What did I choose?

I chose the science club, same as in the 1st playthrough.

Surprisingly, the science club is a total cakewalk.

The most popular one is the film appreciation club, which literally just watches movies and does nothing else.

Actually, the science club is the same.

They always show EBS science documentaries, or foreign ones with subtitles.

Students can just sleep, study, or do whatever they want.

You can’t even chat in the first place because the kids who chose the science club are all loners like me, so there’s no one to chat with.

And sometimes if they show something like Iron Man, it’s a total cakewalk.

So I decided on the same science club as in the 1st playthrough.

Anyway, it’s not like we do anything important, and I absolutely detest being bothered.

The film appreciation club is popular and would be noisy, so I proactively went to the least popular one.

Only the status window, which wants to turn me into an insider no matter what, would be fretting.

“Okay, class president, stand up and give the greeting.”

“Attention. Bow to the teacher.”

“Alright. Have a good weekend, everyone.”

“Yes~”

“Teacher, have a good time with your husband too!”

“Hahaha!”

“You rascals really…!”

And so, the homeroom class ended, and it was time to leave school.

“Hey, let’s go to the PC bang?”

“Ah, crap, no money.”

“I can. Where are you going?”

“There’s a new place near GX Mart. 500 won per hour.”

“Wow, that’s freaking cheap.”

Common conversations during Friday after-school hours.

Stride, stride.

Of course, I don’t really have friends to leave school with.

And since I didn’t really intend to, I quickly left school first with the bag I had prepared beforehand.

“Surely, if it’s near GX Mart, it’ll be Jjolra-man PC Bang?”

For reference, I also planned to go to a PC bang like them.

“Then I’ll have to go somewhere else.”

Of course, I’m not going to the same PC bang.

Do you know who the worst troublemakers are at a PC bang?

It’s precisely the middle schoolers who just finished school and came to play games together.

* * *

A place further from school but close to home.

By the alleyway next to Sunshine Village, Complex 21.

There’s an entrance to a slightly seedy neighborhood made up of one-room apartments and villas, without any large apartment buildings.

The PC bang in the basement next to Hollalla Oven Chicken there has fewer students and is relatively quiet.

“Thinking about the kids yelling, swearing, and the game sounds while playing Paoka-e… Ugh.”

It’s truly beyond imagination, going beyond just noise to the point of being considered racket.

That game called Paoka-e, especially the shouts the characters make every time they use a skill, is truly no joke.

It’s a given that they’ll always be doing this crap at maximum volume, shouting 『Konoha Senpu! Konoha Senpu! Shigan! Shigan!』.

And the sounds like 『Fire in the hole! Fire in the hole! Ah, damn sniper!!』 from other games’ background music constantly ringing out around them…

That was the common PC bang scene in the year 2008.

And yet, the reason for specifically going to a PC bang?

“Because I asked my parents to switch to ultra-high-speed internet, I have to put up with it until then at least.”

Not just the internet, I need to change my computer soon too.

I managed to persuade them reasonably well about the internet, but I can’t just pester them like a child for a computer.

I didn’t know when I was younger.

I heard later that our family was having a harder time than I thought during this period.

Since I, who was in the first year of middle school at the time, had no idea about that fact at all, I thought my parents were amazing for not showing any sign of it to their son.

So now, I have to do something about it somehow.

Of course, since I’m in a middle schooler’s body, I can’t do part-time jobs or anything like that, and there’s nothing much else I can do, but…

“…Tsk, if I had regressed as a university student instead, I could have at least tutored.”

Of course, even so, regressing as a middle schooler is still better.

Physically and legally, there were many restrictions since I couldn’t do anything without being accompanied by my parents, but…

The amount of time I secured is that much greater.

Of course, even if that’s the case, the frustration is the same.

“Even with regression and a cheat-like status window… it’s not easy in many ways. Ugh.”

Cause a quantum computer revolution.

I said it easily, but it wasn’t something that could be achieved immediately just by having regressed once.

“First, I should do what I can do now.”

Even if I can’t do something immediately, there were many things I could prepare beforehand.

Ding.

Descending the basement stairs that looked like they led to something bad, I opened the door and entered the target PC bang.

Then, the part-timer at the PC bang counter right in front sent a casual glance this way.

The PC bang part-timer, who probably looked like a female university student.

While playing a game on the counter computer, she was about to stand up for a moment upon seeing a customer arrive, but then seeing the customer was a student, she sat back down.

Then, focusing on the monitor, she resumed her game and spoke.

“There are many seats, so sit wherever you want. Are you paying in advance?”

The game the part-timer ‘Noona’ (at least older than me, excluding the regression) was playing was Sudden Attack & Defense.

She was playing the national South Korean FPS gun game.

Well, it’s not like it’s the first time a PC bang part-timer is playing games.

Anyway, her aim is freaking terrible.

“I’ll pay later.”

PC bangs at this time allowed post-payment.

Instead, paying in advance was slightly cheaper.

But on the contrary, if you charge for 1 hour in advance and play, and suddenly the computer shuts off without you realizing the time has passed, it’s more annoying.

Of course, it does notify you with a machine voice message saying ‘5 minutes remaining.’, but I hate that sound even more.

Swish.

I casually sat down in any seat deep inside.

I turned on the computer and first accessed the internet.

And immediately, I typed in the address familiarly.

-Dudududu!

-Fire in the hole!

-Go go go! Euaang! Euaang!

-You have not enough mineral.

While other people were scattered around, engrossed in enjoying their games.

『arxiv.org』

I alone entered a strange English website.