001. Contract.
Whoosh~
“Ugh, it’s only October. Why is it so cold?”
Though the autumn wind blowing along the Han River still carried summer’s lingering warmth, Jinwoo, who had become unemployed two days ago, felt the chill in his bones.
Grrr-umble!
His stomach was growling that he was hungry, but he didn’t feel the slightest motivation to eat anything.
Because he was unemployed.
He had spent a full nine years as a pro gamer.
Though it was five years ago, he had even reached the LDK World Semifinals.
But due to his age of twenty-seven and his recent slump in performance, he had failed to renew his contract and became unemployed.
Overnight, he had become a man with no affiliation.
He had gone to an interview with another game team today as well, but he figured he wouldn’t get it because of his age.
Honestly, though he was called an unaffiliated pro gamer, there wasn’t much difference between that and a game-addicted unemployed guy who played games all day.
They said that among all unemployed people, the worst was the game-addicted unemployed, and feeling like he had become someone closest to that worst, he fell into depression.
Deep in his heart, there was even a dark urge telling him to go check the bottom of the Han River right this instant, but thinking of his family, he scattered that thought away.
“Sigh. What am I supposed to do with my life now?”
Sitting on the Han River embankment lost in thought, there was actually one easy answer.
Because there was an answer pointed to by nine years of living alone, a major in Food and Nutrition, and his military service as a cook.
The restaurant business.
In other words, selling food.
He had even obtained a chef’s certificate in the army, so he could get a job immediately.
But for now, he liked gaming more than cooking.
[Pick up the phone~! Pick up the phone~!]
When he checked the caller, it was Gangil, his team director.
Though their working relationship had ended, he was a hyung who had been through thick and thin with him for nine years, so Jinwoo composed himself and answered.
“Yes, hyung.”
“Hey, where are you? Get to the team office right now. Come quick, it’s urgent.”
“Why?”
“I’ve been in this gaming life with you for nine years. If you’re retiring, I should at least get you a good job.”
“Hyung. I’m grateful, but I don’t fit as a coach. The kids will rebel. Imagine a hikikomori coaching them.”
“Hey, how many guys in the gaming scene aren’t hikis or otakus? And it’s not a coaching position, so stop yapping and get here quick. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime.”
After Gangil hyung hung up having said only his piece, Jinwoo considered not going.
But remembering the custom-fitted equipment he had left in his locker, he had no choice but to head to the company.
***
“Hahaha. The kid’s gotten a bit thin, hasn’t he? This is Jinwoo Park you were looking for. I don’t know how he knew, but he even came wearing a suit.”
Gangil hyung grabbed my head the moment he saw me and forced me into a perfect ninety-degree bow, and in front of me sat a white-haired Caucasian old man in a wheelchair.
“Huh?”
I felt like I had seen this bad-tempered old man with his cold, piercing gaze somewhere before.
“Gasp, Elon Busker of the Changing Corporation?”
The name popped out of my mouth before I knew it, having seen a celebrity.
“Hey!”
Gangil hyung poked my side, and I barely came to my senses.
“Ah, I’m sorry. The name just slipped out.”
“Hahaha, it’s fine. The kid looks exactly like a nerd who can’t study. Perfect.”
Since automatic translators had already been commercialized in 2035, I quickly put earphones in my ears.
Seeing Elon Busker looking at me with satisfaction, I whispered to Gangil hyung.
“Hyung, what on earth is going on? Why is that person—the richest man in the world—here?”
“He says he wants to scout you as a game tester.”
“What? Game tester? Me? Why? There are plenty of pro gamers who won championships or have good academic backgrounds. Why scout me?”
“I can hear everything you’re saying.”
“I-I’m terribly sorry.”
“Let me tell you why. There are several reasons why I need you specifically. You run this blog, don’t you?”
The secretary beside him unfolded a screen, showing my personal blog where I occasionally posted ramblings.
“Yes. That is my blog.”
“I quite liked your thoughts on classic online games in one of your posts. Furthermore, as a pro gamer you reached global fourth place, so your abilities are verified as well.”
I listened to Elon Busker, but this alone felt somewhat insufficient.
Because there were several other pro gamers with similar conditions.
“And the most decisive reason is this personal custom equipment. You had your gear customized by Japan’s Yamashiki Yasuke, correct?”
The helmet and gloves that should have been in my locker were in Elon Busker’s hands.
“Yes. That’s correct. I spent 40 million won to get it customized by Yamashiki Yasuke.”
To Elon Busker, 40 million won was probably the price of a bag of potato chips, but I had saved money for two years to get the equipment customized to match my reaction speed.
“The head of the equipment development team for the game we’re currently developing is Yamashiki Yasuke. He strongly recommended you as a tester. He says you react as sensitively as a loner even to parts that don’t really matter.”
I couldn’t tell if it was praise or a backhanded insult, but hearing the equipment development team head had recommended me made me somewhat proud.
When I had the equipment customized early last year, I had requested modifications from Yamashiki Yasuke for over a month, and even he, who worked with craftsman spirit, had clicked his tongue at the sheer number of my modification requests.
“After receiving his recommendation and looking into you, I heard your contract as a gamer had ended, so I came directly. Sign with us as a game tester.”
The secretary beside me handed over a contract written in Korean, and the amount written there immediately caught my eye.
“Huh? A million-dollar annual salary?”
I hadn’t worked as a game tester before, but I had never even heard of a game tester receiving such a salary.
An annual salary of 1.5 billion won.
“By any chance, do they harvest organs from game testers?”
“Even if they harvested organs, would yours be worth a million dollars?”
“Ah, no. They wouldn’t be worth that much. Haha. But the amount is so large that I couldn’t quite believe it, so I asked.”
Just an hour ago, I had been contemplating whether to check the bottom of the Han River; now I was being told to sign a million-dollar employment contract, so it wasn’t easy to believe.
A high-salaried game tester.
In a way, it was a dream job for a gamer.
Of course, a game tester was a job with a short lifespan.
But even if I got fired after a year, an annual salary of 1.5 billion won was enough money to open my own shop immediately.
“Separate from the contract, we’ll be taking this custom equipment. The 40 million won will be deposited tomorrow.”
“Ah, that was 40 million won just for the customization, and the original equipment cost of 2 million won was separate... Ah, no, the 2 million won isn’t important. Hahaha. But why are you taking it? It’s a product customized for me.”
“Yamashiki Yasuke said there is something to test since it was modified with the highest possible sensitivity. Hear the detailed tester instructions from the secretary.”
Elon Busker moved his wheelchair and left as if he had finished his business, and the Korean secretary alone remained to explain the contract and receive my signature.
“This is my business card. Tomorrow, game gear developed by Changing will be delivered to your home. See you tomorrow.”
“Yes, yes.”
After all the Changing people left, Gangil hyung rejoiced, saying life was a blessing in disguise.
“I don’t know how long game development and launching will take, but hold out and survive for more than two years. Of course, you’ll treat me to a huge meal.”
“Would I only buy you a meal? I’ll buy you meat and liquor too. But I really can’t believe I signed a million-dollar employment contract. It feels like an Elon Busker lookalike actor came to shoot a YouTube hidden camera prank.”
“Wow! Then we’ll be on YouTube. Hahaha.”
Even after eating with infinitely positive Gangil hyung and on the way home, I couldn’t tell if this was real or not.
I wondered if I had just had my expensive custom equipment taken for nothing.
***
[Ding-dong! Deposit: 42,000,000 won]
“Holy crap, it’s real.”
Even after waking up, yesterday’s events were still unbelievable, but seeing the deposited money made it feel real.
And in the afternoon, the equipment team burst into my house, and the equipment they brought was enormous.
“Don’t tell me, is it a capsule-type device that a person enters?”
Until now, most game devices were headset types, and no games using capsule-type machines had been released yet.
“Excluding the development team, Mr. Jinwoo Park is the first user of this device in Korea. Therefore, you must absolutely not spread rumors.”
I felt good hearing the secretary’s words that I was Korea’s first game tester.
But when equipment filled the larger room of my 15-pyeong two-room apartment to the brim, and an emergency power device called a UPS was installed too, there was no space left to sleep, which was troublesome.
“Wouldn’t it be better to install this at Changing Corporation’s Korean branch rather than a private home? I think it would be more stable there.”
“That is because this is still top secret. While some know that Changing is developing a game, no one yet knows that it involves capsule-type gear like this.”
It was classified, so they were installing the equipment at the tester’s house.
“You must play a maximum of 8 hours per day, and the support team will check whether you regularly consume water and nutrients. This is a policy to prevent game addiction, so please strictly adhere to it.”
Since they had recruited a tester for expensive pay, they were going to manage him so he couldn’t become game-addicted or skip meals to play games.
“Yes. But, can I connect right away?”
“Yes, you may. First, watch the Chairman’s video.”
The picky-looking face of Elon Busker appeared on the pad the secretary was holding.
[Reading what you wrote on your blog, it seems you share the same thoughts as me. Do you remember your post about server shutdowns for classic online games serviced in the 2000s?]
I thought I knew which post he meant.
It was a post criticizing the fact that if a game company shut down a game due to operational difficulties, players who had spent real money simply lost it.
And it was a post suggesting that when shutting down servers, they should create and sell server packages.
[I too really devoted myself to a game called EverQuest. But I was disappointed when its service ended in 2025. Then, seeing your post, I thought about making ended online games into package form and selling them.]
EverQuest had been the emperor of MMORPGs before WoW came out.
It was amazing that Elon Busker had played such a game, and also amazing that he would make a game for his own gaming tastes.
[Therefore, the direction of the game we are developing will be a form where you download each package and operate a personal server. It’s a closed-form open game that you can enjoy alone, or invite friends to play in your own exclusive party.]
Listening to this, it seemed like a similar concept to a private server operated by an individual.
There had been an MMORPG called ‘Tera’ whose service ended in 2022.
It was a fairly well-made game, and there were people who said they had enjoyed it with friends and even built private servers after the official servers closed, playing together until 2030.
If ended games could be played in private server form at home like this, it would be the greatest gift for gamers who had played them.
[The game developed as version 1.0 is a basic package weaving together the characteristics of such various online games. Afterwards, it can be transformed into games like EverQuest or WoW through DLC.]
“Excuse me, Secretary. But will this be profitable? And I think you would need to purchase game copyrights. Can that be covered by the cost of selling these game gear capsules?”
“You will understand if you continue watching the video.”
[...Therefore, the title of the version 1.0 game is ‘Cliché World.’ Enjoy the game as a tester!]
“Cliché World? Don’t tell me, are you circumventing copyrights through clichés?”
I admired Elon Busker’s shrewdness.
EverQuest and WoW were both early 2000s games that were already over 35 years old.
The status windows, HP and MP concepts, and similar systems that those games first attempted had been transplanted into nearly every MMORPG released afterwards, and developers and gamers alike accepted such systems as clichés.
Unless a game changed dramatically, control methods and screen layouts were often similar, and no one made copyright issues over that.
Rather, developers were happy that systems they devised were used in other games.
Those developers were people who rejoiced as if it were their own game when their systems made other games fun.
Elon Busker was trying to avoid game copyrights through these kinds of clichés.
‘So that’s why the title is blatantly [Cliché World].’
Even if legal challenges came, they could confidently respond: ‘Don’t you know what clichés are? It’s an obvious parody; other games all do this—why single us out?’
If the scenarios and protagonists were different, and if the base game was transformed through DLC to take on an EverQuest flavor or a WoW flavor, it seemed possible to break through legal issues using clichés and parody.
“The company’s lawyers have already completed their review, so there should be no copyright issues. If you look inside, there are sensors to attach to your body. Then connect, create a character, and come out.”
Following the secretary’s instructions, with the equipment team’s help, I put on a crown-like hat and attached sensors to various parts of my body, including my wrists and ankles.
Since I would have to do it alone next time, I learned properly.
When I closed the capsule and lay down, a connection window immediately appeared before my eyes.
The pointer moved according to my gaze, and I clicked Connect immediately with my eyes.