Season 3: Chapter 267. Spring (5)
Pang, Kang Uh-Jin, his real name meant to live strongly and kindly. His Japanese mother was well-versed in Kanji, but his father insisted on a Korean name.
Initially, Pang was a sharp young man. Not quite strong or kind, but he had a good head for studying. He entered a good university and a slightly better company than most, yet always felt a strange emptiness inside him like someone who lost their memory. A blank space existed as if something had been erased.
One day, Uh-Jin tried the game Civil Empire for the first time. He became fascinated as if hypnotized by the game. The empty space in his heart slowly filled up. Due to having a Korean father, he was captivated by the ability to play as Joseon.
From the beginning, he was always interested in the national competition. Naturally, he climbed the ranks. There, he met Hui-Chul and also Wan-Yong, a friend with a name his mother would likely appreciate. At the time, they were all young, passionate, and bright like the spring outside the window.
Memories of those days remained as beautiful as a cheap cherry blossom filter in his mind. Sometimes, he questioned if such filters were meant for first love memories, but he never found the answer. He liked his friends and wanted to pour everything into this game.
However, the reality was harsh. His father, who built ships at a shipyard during his youth, died of lung cancer. The government offered compensation, stating it was cancer from industrial dust. It wasn't even enough to secure a rental deposit. Meanwhile, the government took inheritance tax without exception.
His mother remained alone in Korea in a foreign land and refused to return to Japan. She said all her memories with his father were here. After his father's death, Pang’s legs wobbled on the subway ride back to work. It felt as if a pillar of his world had vanished, yet the subway kept moving and life continued.
The world spun on and the company that compensated them still built ships. Patriotic videos about the resurgence of the shipbuilding industry frequently appeared on YouTube.
Uh-Jin didn't like those videos. He was neither a filial son nor a patriot. Even as he rose from a new employee to a manager at a large company, he never stopped playing the game. From a mere archer, he became the leader of an archery unit and Hui-Chul became the commander. Wan-Yong also became adept with the sword.
Gradually, the older members got married, had children, and left the game. This left the three of them as the team's elders. Joseon achieved little beyond their first tournament appearance and only qualified once throughout those years.
As other countries received sponsorships and turned professional, creating leagues and pro leagues beyond the national competition, Civil Empire was thoroughly ignored in Korea.