episode_0024

Yoon-seo, who came out to get a newspaper after staying up all night and sipping a cup of mixed coffee as usual, almost dropped the coffee cup for a moment.

That would be the case, seeing the sight of a group of housewives gathering in front of our arcade from the morning, wouldn’t anyone feel the same way?

‘What the heck?’

Yoon Yi-seo felt the next level of confusion when the National Intelligence Service came to arrest her.

And after a while, she couldn’t help but be shocked when she saw a group of middle-aged women sitting on the street and holding up placards.

[Stop the devil’s temptation at the arcade that ruins students!]

“Oh shit.”

Only then did Yoon-seo realize.

That she, and the arcade, were screwed.

Because it is blocking the road, you can’t even pass by the arcade, let alone pass by.

Fortunately, the arcade door was closed.

If I had left the door open, that place would have been occupied too.

It was quite a rare experience to witness Yooseop wake up in real time when he came out of the PC room half-asleep.

“First of all, I should report this to the police for obstruction of business. What the heck is this…”

Yooseop showed his complex emotions even through his squinted eyes.

However, the protest did not disperse.

“The protest was reported normally and there were no violations of the Assembly and Demonstration Act. Rather, if you interfere with it, you will be punished.”

“Huh? No, how can you just leave it alone when they are so blatantly interfering with business?!”

“The protest site happens to be in front of an arcade. It’s not like there’s a big problem if the arcade closes for a day. They disperse after the sun sets, so just wait until then.”

The civil servants of this country were not trustworthy people, and the police officers were no different.

***

I felt suffocated.

It seemed like the whole environment was trying to hinder me in some way.

My atheistic thinking became solid again and my mind became covered in black.

Everything is cause and effect. So, did my actions create this cause and effect?

What if I had just quietly made computer games? What if arcades hadn’t been popular enough to be a topic of discussion? What if I had quietly waited until games became mainstream culture? What if I had refuted them more thoroughly in debates?

The thoughts continued on and on, like a rope, binding me, like a leash that was pulling me into an endless pit.

The protests continued, and the January sun was too long.

Yoo-seop, who could not stand to watch, went out to stop it, prepared to be punished.

“This is obstruction of business! At least clear the way for people to enter!”

“I can’t stand seeing my kids go to places like this! Are you going to take responsibility if our kids become gambling addicts?”

“Where the hell is gambling! What nonsense…!”

“If putting money into something like that and bragging to your neighbors about getting points like that and satisfying your vanity isn’t gambling, then what is? Stop trying to ruin the kids and get out!”

Oh, those fucking kids.

When an ignorant and uneducated person has a belief, it becomes infinitely scary.

It was only after the sun had set that the police finally dispersed the protesters, and only then were the doors to the arcade opened and the lights turned on.

“What on earth was that, sir?”

“I don’t know either… sigh…”

Even Yooseop’s sighs followed the thread of my thoughts and went down endlessly along the already sunken ground.

***

The next day, the ladies gathered again.

They protested when the sun rose and dispersed when the sun set.

We just opened the door to the arcade, and the lights were always on when the arcade was open.

Despite having the perfect conditions of a large south-facing window, we could not see the lights being turned off in the open arcade.

The next day too.

And the next day too.

Even on weekends, not just weekdays.

They didn’t stop.

The sidewalk in front of the arcade was particularly dirty, trampled by their cheap shoes, and all sorts of trash left behind by the protesters.

They had the same ominous, filthy look as the photos of our arcade when it first appeared in the newspapers.

It didn’t matter to them what it was like originally.

It was a problem where if they didn’t like it, they could just make it so they liked it.

The KIN logo drawn diagonally on the arcade signboard has now lost its meaning and is nothing more than a neon sign hanging precariously like the signboard of a closed store.

After quite some time, or maybe not much, I realized that I was just another one-eyed idiot in a one-eyed village.

Why do people in this country, especially mothers, react to games like that?

If they don’t play games, do kids even know how to study?

Shouldn’t we look back at the environment and why we started playing games?

They are influenced by confirmation bias and see only what they want to see.

In the end, there were too many monsters in the world who couldn’t even look back at themselves.

Could it be that this country itself is a giant hypnotist?

The beliefs of the ignorant are not very noble, but rather a pernicious prejudice that is harmful to all.

However, such stubbornness gathers to form a phenomenon, and eventually becomes a law, disguised as a normal function of the world.

I hated such things in the original world and in this world.

In the original world, putting a half-naked skin on the character was also one of my rebellions.

But has anything changed?

No, it is not.

In this society, which is a huge mass of path dependence, my small efforts only pushed me back.

I was feeling despair again.

The despair that I had felt so tired of even in the original world.

I thought a lot had changed, but

Nothing has changed.

***

The new semester has started.

I started the 7th semester graduation process as I had planned.

I submitted the thesis that I had been preparing steadily and satisfied all requirements by earning full credits.

I used to imagine doing trance music at a university festival, but now it seems like it will be difficult.

When the sun starts to set, the lecture ends and I go to the PC room. I don’t feel like running like I used to.

As soon as I arrived at the PC room, the ladies started to pack up and leave. I didn’t get tired of it at all.

In fact, there wasn’t as big of a hit to sales as expected.

Last time, I persistently filed a report of obstruction of business while showing the sales slip, and it worked, so it was possible to prevent the protesters from entering the sidewalk.

During that process, there was an unfortunate incident where a window was broken by a rock flying from an unknown direction, but it was minor and could be overlooked.

Anyway, it wasn’t a big blow to us, since college students were our main target.

Fortunately, these people were already accustomed to society’s gaze and criticism for enjoying games and new types of music, a culture that was already stigmatized as kidult culture.

Going back to what we were talking about earlier, when you enter a PC room, Park Seung-hyeop’s native English class is waiting for you in one corner.

What do you mean Seunghyeop Park is a native speaker?

To be exact, the native speaker friend who appears on his video call service is a native speaker.

He said that he met Seunghyeop Park as an exchange student, and when Seunghyeop Park told him about the prototype test of the video call program, he immediately agreed and is now giving this lecture.

It seemed like a service that could be quite exciting if done well, so I gave it a try and it wasn’t too bad.

If we do it well, we could hit the jackpot with something like a video tutoring service.

Come to think of it, it’s about time for things like online lectures to come out.

After an English class that lasted about three hours, I hurriedly ate dinner.

Honestly, I make a lot of money at the arcade, so I don’t feel like I’m broke even if I eat decent meals instead of instant food.

But people tend to live frugally by inertia. If the arcade goes out of business, you should try to be frugal as much as possible and watch the situation rather than just sitting there.

I thought I would gain a lot of weight if I just ate without moving, but strangely enough, I didn’t gain that much weight.

Rather, it feels like my breasts are getting bigger. Lately, it feels like my bra has gotten a little smaller.

Anyway, I’m living a pretty honest life. I think that if I just keep going like this, I’ll be able to get a job at a big company without much difficulty and go on to success.

It’s a bit flagrant, but what could happen? Hey.

By the way, I’ve been getting a ton of spam lately. Office rentals, scouts, etc.

Of course, the contract terms and conditions are obviously a scam to anyone, so they’re all just being thrown in the trash.

Honestly, if the contract terms had been more normal, I would have believed he was a real scout and signed the contract without even knowing it was a scam.

In the original world and in this world, getting a job at a large foreign company is my grand dream.

Well, I guess it’s okay since I wasn’t scammed.

***

At that time, Silicon Valley’s leading corporations.

‘It’s almost time to bite the bait. And you still don’t come here after all this? It’s so poisonous.’

‘How much did the other side ask for that you’re not moving at all? Or are you deliberately holding an auction? Honestly, this should be worth that much…’

‘Goddess, please, let’s start over here instead of that damn country. Please. I’ll even give you this office, so please look down on me just this once!’

‘If I can just bring the Virgin Mary, I’ll have the technological edge. If I just have the Virgin Mary, I can show the others the shock and fear I felt when I first saw the Tiger tank…!’

Of course, Yoon Yi-seo’s technical skills were already at a level where she could change the average contract requirements as she pleased and have them approved as is.

Yoon Yi-seo still didn’t know herself well.

But humans are not creatures that can realize that they do not know without intelligence.

The routine of emails being sent over undersea cables from Silicon Valley and then being dumped in the trash can was not yet over.

***

Each day continues with a routine that is not peaceful.

It was as if it was a time loop, with each day being the same, and then another day passing by.

A regular life can be so boring.

My ordinary daily life shook up my sense of time, and when I came to my senses, it was the final exam.

I passed my thesis and met all 7th semester graduation requirements.

While I was preparing my resume for job application, an idea suddenly occurred to me.

In this situation, isn’t it impossible to block domestic public opinion with something like a large corporation’s shield?

Rather, isn’t it that we are unable to create games because we are restricted by the environment of large corporations?

The illusion of my only joy disappearing flashed before my eyes.

Above all, soon, not only the company but also the country will be on the verge of collapse.

“If we don’t receive bailout funds, the country will be ruined!!!”That is becoming a reality.

Therefore, starting a business is also impossible. Is there any reason to lose all your capital?

“After all, the answer is abroad…”

Actually, you can go if you want to. If you sell all your real estate like your house and stocks, you can get enough money to pay for the permanent residency application fee, the plane ticket, and buy a house in the suburbs and move in.

At this point, I really should seriously consider immigrating. It’s practically my lifeline.

On the way back from finishing my exams, I continued to seriously think about my future.

At that time, I felt relieved with a sense of liberation, but also strangely uneasy.

The smoke from a bonfire rising from the uninhabited island could be seen in the distance.

The arcade gate that had been running for a full two years was coming to an end.