Chapter 1
Translator: Dreamscribe
Is it now?
No. Not yet. Not yet.
I sat in front of the computer, staring blankly at the screen.
[Hey. Jin-ho. Hurry up and press it.]
[Really, you should perform a ritual, a ritual. Man.]
"Ah. Hyungs, just wait a moment."
Then the guild member hyungs who were in a voice chat with me started nagging.
[Just press it!!]
With a voice loud enough to burst my eardrums, I reluctantly clicked the mouse.
Poof~.
It was red.
That meant a junk item appeared.
“Come on. I told you. These things are all about timing!”
[Timing, my ass.]
[It’s all about natural-born luck. That box was doomed from the start. You think an S-grade weapon’s coming out of that?]
“I still have one left. And this time, I’m doing it my way.”
[Kekeke. As if you're gonna get anything.]
[Hey. If you get it, I’ll give you 1 million Gold. For real.]
“Really? I’m writing that down, okay?”
[I’m throwing in another 1 million Gold.]
[I’ll bet too, so let’s see if you really pull it. Youngest.]
“No matter what, I’m going to get it this time, so all of you go hunting or something.”
After sending the guild member hyungs off, I stared at the screen again.
If I click the open button, this last remaining Item Box will open.
Just like before, a piece of crap item could come out, or with a very low probability, an S-grade Item might appear. But it's not time to open the box yet.
‘Just a little longer… just a little more.’
I waited endlessly.
[What? Is he still doing that?]
[Crazy bastard.]
[The more you drag it out like that, the less likely it is to come out.]
“Everyone, please be quiet.”
Just when the guild members were about to start coaching me again.
I felt a tingling sensation at my fingertips, a jolt that spread through my whole body.
‘Now!’
Before the feeling disappeared, I quickly clicked the mouse.
[Oh? Wait. Didn’t that just shimmer gold?]
[No, no way, did it actually appear? Huh? Did it?]
Looking at the golden weapon that popped out of the box, I let out a shaky breath.
This ecstatic feeling.
Anyone who hasn’t experienced it would never understand.
"It came out!!"
[Kyaaaah!]
[You crazy bastard!! Did you really get it!?]
[It came out? For real? Don’t bullshit. How could that come out! The odds are insane!]
“Hehe. Didn’t I tell you? This Jung Jin-ho. If he say he’ll do it, he do it.”
The guild members all seemed mesmerized by the dazzling golden weapon I was showing off.
“Oh right. And to those who bet 1 million Gold earlier, pay up now.”
[Ugh. He actually remembered that.]
[Ah. There goes all the Gold I saved up.]
“No discounts. Pay up quickly.”
The guild members congratulated me and really sent 1 million Gold each.
It was a lot of money to me, but apparently not a big deal for these hyungs.
[Wow. Jung Jin-ho. You're raking it in today.]
[Isn’t that weapon worth a few million if you sell it for Gold?]
[How much is this guy making today?]
“It’s all thanks to you hyungs. I’ll gratefully rice-farm this.” (TL Note: rice-farm is a slang here which means converting game money to real money and earning that way.)
[As if you’re really gonna rice-farm.]
[He’s gonna blow it all leveling up and buying items again anyway.]
[Still, thanks to the youngest, we’re ending the day with a dopamine blast.]
[Hey. Did you record the item pull?]
“Psh. Of course I saved it. I’ll upload it in our chatroom.”
[Alright. I’m logging off.]
[Me too~ good work, everyone.]
“Oh. Take care.”
After sending off the hyungs, I leaned back in my chair, staring at the shimmering golden weapon.
“All of this is thanks to this ability.”
It’s a bit vague to call it a superpower, but how should I put it.
With things like these gacha pulls or insanely low probability enhancements, I wait until I get a ‘feeling’.
It’s something hard to explain in words.
A tingling sensation spreads through my whole body, and a jolt hits, like the moment has come.
If I clicked without missing that exact moment, there were really many times when an item like this would appear.
“Of course, the problem is that I have to wait endlessly.”
Waiting until that feeling comes sometimes eats up an enormous amount of time.
So there were times I gave up, but today I got lucky.
You could call it a personal ability I never told anyone about.
“If only it could tell me the lottery numbers.”
It was such a fleeting ability that passed by in a split second, so of course it couldn’t predict lottery numbers.
But who knows.
Maybe I just don’t know how to use it properly.
Or maybe I’m just deluding myself into thinking I have a special ability.
“Ah. I’m proud of myself.”
Whatever the case may be.
I did it today.
A smile just naturally crept onto my face.
“You’re proud? I wish I could be proud of you too.”
At that moment, a chilling voice came from behind, and I jumped and turned my head in shock.
“Huh. Mom. Wh-when did you get in?”
“This kid is so absorbed in his game he doesn’t even realize his mom and dad came home from work.”
“S-sorry. You must’ve had a tough day again.”
Behind Mom, Dad followed in with a grim expression.
“How long are you going to live just playing games?! Aren’t you going to get a job? Other kids your age all have jobs and even live on their own!”
“.......”
“Your younger sibling already has a job and is doing fine at work. But how long are you going to keep this up?”
My parents began letting out everything they had been holding back.
They weren’t wrong in a single word, so I didn’t talk back even once.
“Sigh. Jin-ho. We’re saying all this for your own good. If our son wants to play games his whole life, I’d love to make that possible. But realistically, that’s hard. We can’t be around to support you forever, right?”
“......I understand.”
“Jung Jin-ho. Get it together. Before you get any older.”
“Dear. That’s enough. He got the message.”
Dad held back the words he wanted to say at Mom’s urging.
“I’ll believe in you one last time. Really show us you’ve changed now. Got it?”
With those final words, which sounded like they’d kick me out otherwise, their scolding came to an end.
“Ha.......”
There wasn’t a single thing they said that was wrong.
I’m 27.
I can’t keep living as an unemployed man in my parents’ house forever.
To be honest, it’s not like I never tried.
Even if it wasn’t a top university, I graduated from a university in Seoul, and I did my fair share of applying here and there.
But after getting rejected a hundred out of a hundred times, I guess my motivation broke at some point.
That was when it started.
When I picked up the game again, which I had quit for job hunting.
“I really did slack off for too long.”
At this rate, I was honestly getting scared I’d become a total shut-in for life. Maybe I was finally facing the reality I had been purposely ignoring all this time.
***
[What? You’re quitting the game?]
“Yes. I even thought about selling all my game items and converting them into real money, but it’s not that much anyway, and I owe a lot to you hyungs, so I plan to give everything away and leave.”
[Why all of a sudden? You were doing well in the game.]
[Yeah, youngest. Did we do something wrong?]
“Oh no, it’s nothing like that. Actually.......”
I explained my situation from beginning to end.
That I was quitting the game to focus on getting a job.
[That’s……]
[Tsk. Yeah. Your parents aren’t wrong.]
[That sucks. Without our youngest, what’s going to happen to this dreary guild vibe? It’s already just a bunch of old guys in here.]
I felt just as bad too.
But what choice did I have.
Until I get a job and secure a stable footing, I can’t afford to waste time on anything else.
-Jin-ho.
At that moment, the Guild Master sent me a message separately.
Why was this hyung messaging while being in the group chat with everyone else?
-What university did you say you went to?
-Jinseon University.
-Hmm. That’s a school in Seoul, right? What was your major?
-Business Administration.
Then suddenly, he started asking about my academic background.
-Then you must’ve learned how to work with numbers? Stuff like accounting?
-Yes. A bit.
-Good. Then instead of going somewhere else, why don’t you try coming to our company?
I couldn’t believe my eyes.
-Huh?
-Don’t waste time with this job hunting stuff. Just come work at our company. That way you won’t have to quit the game either, right?
That hyung, he always spent freely at guild meetups and drove a nice car, so I figured he must have a lot of money.
But he was a company CEO?
When we met one-on-one, he was just a warm neighborhood hyung.
-Write up your resume and send it to this email.
-Hyung. Are you serious?
-You’ve done really well in the guild all this time. You’ve got a good character. You’re polite. You’ve managed the raid teams well in my place. I just wanted to repay you somehow. Besides, I feel like the game won’t be any fun without you.
Hearing that, I felt my eyes starting to tear up for no reason.
So this hyung had noticed all my efforts.
He was usually so quiet, I had never even imagined he had these thoughts about me.
‘But... what if the company’s not great?’
No. Get a grip, you idiot.
Is this the time to be picky?
Even if it’s a small company, what matters is getting a job.
“Let’s see.......”
I received the email address the guild master hyung sent me.
Still, I was curious about what kind of company it was, so I checked the domain at the end of the email address.
The moment I checked it, my eyes widened.
“......Huh?”
He’s really the CEO of this place?
***
Kwangwoon Securities, one of Korea’s top ten securities firms.
It had over 10 trillion won in assets under management and was categorized as a mid-sized financial company thanks to its stable financial structure.
Though it was still smaller than the major securities firms, it had pride in being one of the top ten in Korea, and above all, its biggest strength was that it was still growing.
Because of that, it was one of the dream workplaces for young people aspiring to work in finance, and the HR Team was always busy trying to find the best talent.
“Who the hell is this?”
-Name: Jung Jin-ho
-Age: 27
A Seoul university, but nothing fancy.
Only the most basic certifications.
“No Certified Investment Manager or Certified Financial Analyst either?”
It’s not like we’re asking for the CFA or FRM, the MBAs of the investment world.
But he didn’t even have the common finance certifications everyone else includes by default.
Normally, this would be the kind of application you’d toss into the shredder while wondering what kind of confidence it takes to send something like this. But there was a problem.
“Team Leader. This came from above.”
"Above? Where above?"
“The CEO’s office.”
“What?”
From the CEO himself?
That meant this applicant was a parachute hire.
“Was the CEO always the type to push in parachutes?”
He was known for not hiring unless someone was clearly capable, all for the sake of the company’s growth.
His own skills aside, he had a great eye for people and had grown the company from the ground up to its current scale.
“But no matter how you look at it, there’s nothing impressive about this guy.”
It was the first time a resume had come directly from the CEO’s office like this.
It was a silent command.
Get this person in, however you can.
“Could he be family?”
“Tsk. The surname’s different, but still. You don’t have to share a last name to be family.”
Kim Moon-sik, the Team Leader, stroked his chin.
“There wasn’t any instruction about where to place him, right?”
“No.”
Then it meant to place him wherever we saw fit...
But what the hell are we supposed to do with someone like this?
“Put him in the Trading Department.”
It might be best to place him somewhere that’s mostly hands-off, doesn’t have a lot of work, and is just right for coasting.
“The Trading Department? He’ll probably hate it there.”
“What choice do we have. He’s someone pushed from the top. There’s a high chance he’s related to the CEO. Besides, junior traders don’t really do anything, right? Just a little mock trading and some file organizing, that’s it. Send him there.”
A parachute hire at our company.
Well, now that the company’s this big, it’s about time family members start claiming positions.
“Jung Jin-ho.......”
I should remember this guy’s face well.
You never know.
He might become my superior someday.
Isn’t it said that in a company, bloodline matters more than performance?