Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Chapter 25 Coffeehouse Ramen (2)

As we ate our ramen, we had the conversation we had been too overwhelmed to have earlier.

We exchanged brief introductions, and I learned that the Imugi named Yongman had only one Dragon Pearl left, having wasted the other on a trivial wish.

In short, Yongman had used his Dragon Pearl for some reason he ultimately refused to explain.

To revive a game that had failed and shut down its servers long ago, no less.

The Elder had brought this pitiful Imugi, who could no longer ascend, all the way here to extract his one remaining Dragon Pearl. He even intended to outsource the extraction.

"Elder, I don't think even Satan would go this far."

"Who said anything about taking it away! Since things have turned out this way, I'm merely asking you to help this fellow ascend. And if he can ascend without the Dragon Pearl while we're at it, all the better."

"Yes, you're truly overflowing with compassion."

"Ahem."

I stacked the bowls, which had long since been emptied, and rose from my seat.

"Where are you going? What about the solution?"

"To clear the dishes. I'll have to think about a method from now on. It's not as though there's a deadline."

"Even so, isn't there a saying that one should strike while the iron is hot?"

At the Elder's insistence that I produce a solution immediately, I asked the person concerned for his understanding.

"I've heard the general circumstances, so I'll look for a method worth trying as well. Make yourself comfortable today."

"I wasn't expecting much anyway. That fellow who calls himself a divine beast was boasting so confidently that I came along just in case."

Contrary to his cold tone, disappointment was plainly written across Yongman's face.

"By the way, about that game."

"Hero's Path?"

"Could you teach me how to play it sometime when you have the chance? Since you used a Dragon Pearl on it, I think I should see what kind of game it is."

"Well, I'll send you the link. Though I don't know whether you'll be able to install it."

"Mister, can you play that too?"

"Of course. I've got a phone right here."

It was a fairly old model that had now been relegated to the status of a phone for elderly users, but I doubted that would matter much.

After all, the game screen Lia had briefly shown me while saying it was Sani looked quite far removed from modern graphics.

And so we gathered around the table again, each holding our own phone.

An impromptu lesson began. You might call it a special beginner's lecture from a seasoned veteran.

"There's no separate class system. The NPCs in town teach you the skills you need early on, so just walk around and click the skill acquisition icon whenever you see one. This is a normal skill, and this one here is..."

His explanation was long.

The surly young man had vanished without a trace, replaced by a smooth-talking salesman sitting before me.

His nonstop explanations about the game were logical and well organized, and he showed no sign of stopping.

Like most children, I had enjoyed games quite a bit during my school days, so there was no particular need for him to explain things in such detail. Even recently, I had downloaded and tried a few games out of curiosity after seeing them heavily advertised on MeTube.

But he was talking so enthusiastically that I couldn't bring myself to say anything so coldhearted.

"That's a skill warrior-type characters shouldn't learn. A higher-tier skill becomes available through a separate quest later. I'll send you a link to a page where I've organized all the higher-tier skills."

On top of that, he was surprisingly serious about it. All I had intended to do was take a look at the game he had spent a Dragon Pearl on.

"Sani's in here too! He follows you around right by your feet!"

"Then would Lia like to try playing too?"

"Can I really?"

"As long as you don't play for too long. Just a moment."

I went into the storage room and brought out a box filled with miscellaneous electronic devices.

After rummaging for quite some time through the jumble of USB cables, portable fans I couldn't remember buying, and other odds and ends,

I finally managed to pull out two phones coated in dust.

One was a black phone covered in scratches and so badly battered from being dropped that the screen was practically the only undamaged part. The other was a pink phone densely decorated with sparkling beads.

The Department Head and Manager Lee had given me their old phones when they replaced them. After all, both were newer models than my own.

However, I had yet to fulfill my condition of "I'll switch to one of these when mine breaks," so they had remained buried in storage.

-Ding-a-ling.

Fortunately, both began charging normally when I plugged them in.

"Here, this one's for Lia. You can only play games for two hours a day. Understood?"

"Yes!"

"Hm? Why me?"

I offered the remaining phone to the Elder Nine-Tailed Fox, but instead of thanking me, he questioned me.

"Lia is still young, so a guardian needs to play with her. And while we're at it, please get this activated and start using it. Stop making Director Baek handle all those bothersome calls for you."

"If you're going to give me one, you should at least give me something that works properly!"

"It turns on, doesn't it? It's a better model than my phone. I have to clean up now, so please play with Lia, Elder."

"Good grief."

"Grandpa, hurry!"

"Yes, yes, all right. How does one do this?"

And so, quite some time passed before the hastily assembled beginner's party finally managed to reach the introductory screen.

Of course, I had escaped under the pretext of cleaning up, so I had to content myself with eavesdropping on their conversation as they played.

"You said this was made in Joseon, so why is it full of clothes worn by Westerners? Is there no hanbok?"

"Hanbok? This is a fantasy game..."

"Then what about talismans?"

"There are staffs."

"You brat, are you mocking me because I'm old!"

"N-No, that's not what I meant..."

"Grandpa, stop that and hurry over here! There are frogs in the pond!"

"That's not a pond! It's a dungeon!"

Even with an experienced instructor, it seemed unlikely that their adventure would go smoothly.

_____________

Late into the night, after I had finally managed to send Yongman away using business hours as an excuse.

The Elder and I prepared two cups of coffee and sat down by the window again.

"You've figured something out, haven't you? Is that why you're so calm?"

His seemingly casual question carried a note of certainty.

"It's still only a guess."

Instead of explaining, I turned the phone screen I had been looking at toward the Elder.

"Good heavens, are you saying he wrote all of these by himself?"

After scrolling down for quite some time, the Elder asked again with an incredulous expression.

Just how long had he waited alone on this abandoned message board?

-(Administrator) I miss everyone...

-(Administrator) Hey, remember when we had that guild war against the Overlord Guild?

-(Administrator) No matter how I think about it, Paladin was more fun before Absolute Defense got nerfed.

-(Administrator) Anyone want to hunt in Fallen Valley? We've got one healer and one damage dealer right now.

-(Administrator) Today's lunch.jpg

-(Administrator) Got some great loot today. They're giving out bonuses at the guild office on a first-come, first-served basis. Hurry up and come. lol

-(Administrator) The reliable tank heading for the final boss on Illusion Island is checking in again today!

...

He had been posting messages like these every day, even though no one was reading them.

Among the countless posts, I clicked on a title that particularly caught my eye.

『Title: I miss everyone.

Author: (Administrator)zSupremeMircoolz

Content:

I wonder if everyone's doing well.

At least Seolwoo used to log in occasionally and ask how I was doing, but I think it's been about two years since he last came.

He said his third child was born, so I guess he's busy.

Deko started coming around less often after school started, and apparently he's playing a different game now.

Lord Venezia and Foolish Pucci went with him, but my phone's specs are too low to install it.

Maybe I should get a part-time job and upgrade to a newer model too?

I've never worked part-time before, though.』

Time passes differently for monsters than it does for humans. Some of them live for thousands of years.

It occurred to me that simply living among humans, whose lives pass in the blink of an eye, might itself be a great trial for such monsters.

Just like this Imugi, who had clung so dearly to even the brief relationships he had formed in an online game.

Yongman's posts, stretching back through an unimaginable number of pages, vividly reflected memories of the past, like the diary of a diligent child.

Five years ago.

-(Administrator) Flower Deer! You'll automatically be kicked out of the guild if you don't log in for ninety days! If you see this, please log in soon!

Seven years ago.

-(Administrator) Girishidan hasn't been around much lately. Is he busy? [1]

And nine years ago.

-(Administrator) Thank you all for being so kind and teaching me. [8]

-(Administrator) I put the game into the device like you told me, but I can't figure out how to log in. [13]

-(Administrator) I got an old phone without a service plan. Will this game run on it? [17]

This was probably where it all began.

He must have been lucky enough to find a phone, and as he wandered around the internet, he formed connections with people for the first time in his life through this mobile game.

Unfortunately, however, the game's lifespan was not very long.

Like so many other mobile games, it was quickly buried beneath the flood of new releases and lost its vitality. It was then abandoned for years without a single update.

During that time, players naturally began quitting one by one, and Yongman waited for them.

Even spending the Dragon Pearl he had spent a thousand years creating.

"I think I'm finally beginning to understand why his personality became so twisted."

"What a foolish fellow. To think he'd go so far over something so trivial. Tsk."

"Perhaps it was his entire world. Didn't you say he was fated to spend his whole life waiting deep in a river for the day he could ascend?"

"If those relationships were so precious to him, could he not simply have kept in touch with them separately?"

"I imagine he tried at first."

"Hm?"

"At most, you can only reminisce about an old game two or three times. That would be even more true of people who have never met face-to-face and aren't especially close."

Deliberately confirming through chats and phone calls the awkward distance that has grown between friends who drifted apart because of their busy lives might be an even crueler experience.

Especially for Yongman, who had formed relationships with people for the first time.

"We should help him. Whatever the circumstances, we practically forced him to come here, so we can't simply pretend we don't know anything now. Lia seems to like him so much too."

"I would like to help him as well. But what more can we possibly do?"

"There's more than one path."

"I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about."

There was more than one path.

The Dragon Pearl was merely one of the countless paths leading to the Celestial Realm.

After all, surely not every Taoist I had met in the Celestial Realm had ascended to heaven carrying a Dragon Pearl.

And fortunately, these beings had plenty of time. Enough that even an unsuccessful attempt would be of little consequence.

____________

The following day, at the construction site where Yongman worked.

"Well, I'll be! Porter, did you eat something bad today? Why are you working so hard instead of playing with your phone?"

"Move. I'm busy."

"Ha! Still as rude as ever. Hey, I've got a son about your age at home... Huh?"

Yongman practically shoved Worker Choi out of his way as he climbed the stairs.

He was carrying five thick bags of premixed mortar on his back.

"Wow! Our Yongman is carrying five bags at once. He's practically a crane!"

"Is Yongman finally becoming our ace?"

"Boss, we ought to give our Yongman an extra fifty thousand won today!"

Passing workers began adding their own comments, astonished at how different he was from usual, when he would carry one bag at most, or occasionally two if the workload was heavy and things were running late.

'Since when were we close enough for them to call me our Yongman? Inferior creatures.'

But perhaps because it was praise of a kind he had never heard in his life,

he swallowed the words he would once have spoken aloud without hesitation.

And after finishing his work a full two hours earlier than usual, Yongman hurried toward the bus stop.

"Boss, what's gotten into that bastard all of a sudden? Is he about to drop dead or something?"

"What's wrong with him working hard for once?"

"Maybe he's got himself a girlfriend?"

A worker passing by Choi and the foreman wiggled his little finger.

"Good grief, as if a rude bastard like him could ever get a girlfriend. He's always glued to his phone, so maybe there's some new model coming out today. Anyway, what are you all doing! Planning to stand around here seeing him off until he gets on the bus? Come on, let's get back to work."

Even after Yongman boarded the bus and disappeared, the construction site remained filled with chatter for some time about how he had finally become a decent person and how, if he only learned to drink soju, he would be a perfect ace.