Chapter 70
“Ugh... why the hell are you so ugly?”
“Hey are you crying? uh? This kid is really crying.”
“Oh, he\'s the same as me. The real worst!”
“I’m sorry, but could you stop talking to me?”
It was easy for him to fall prey to the so-called playful Iljins because of his looks that made it hard to win the favor of his classmates and his sloppiness in every single action.
“Hey, the guy that goes well with that guy is Bread Shuttle No. 2. Got it?”
There were people who openly bullied or harassed him, but most of them quietly ignored and avoided him for fear of being treated on the same level as Jae-gyun. That\'s why break time and lunch time were always hard times for Jaekyun.
‘What am I thinking about today...\'
Jae-Kyun kills time by sitting alone at his desk without anyone to talk to. He used to dig into his own world at some point.
The fantasy he had seen in novels, the science fiction he had glimpsed in movies, and one day, recalling a scene of fierce war in a history textbook, he imagined something over and over again every day.
His school days, which used to be class time when he recalled countless thoughts and stories in the world of endless fantasy. From elementary school to high school graduation, those countless imaginations disappeared in vain. But those times were never wasted.
“This nonsense...”
The astonished employee hurriedly manipulated the keyboard and checked the numbers on the monitor. Then he muttered to himself in a trembling voice.
“A normal person... even using a device for the first time, and the implementation rate is about that much...?”
Still on the screen, the images of people fighting fiercely for survival to avoid the monsters continued to be shown.
[Kiehehehe!]
[Eat this and die!]
[Quaaang. Phuong!]
Even a spectacular scene where a building collapses helplessly at the gesture of a giant monster and an oil tank at a gas station exploded by survivors. All of that was being implemented in real time so naturally and endlessly smoothly that it was mistaken for reality.
“Wow...that\'s no joke.”
Jaeyoung, who experienced lucid dreaming himself, could tell how amazing it was just by looking at it. In particular, it felt like my head was being squeezed to the limit just to implement and maintain one background, so it made no sense to maintain such a huge scale of realization in real time.
“This crazy.....”
As if agreeing with Jaeyoung’s sentiment, the employee was staring blankly at Jaekyun’s work, almost breaking into a cold sweat. Then he looked at Jaeyoung with a really confused look and asked.
“Here is the student. What the hell is that friend?”
“why?”
“Although lucid dream is a device that realizes human imagination as data, it is impossible to realize a perfect image in real time like that. You know how much mental energy this consumes because you experienced it yourself.”
“That’s right...”
Jaeyoung nodded as if agreeing with that statement. He must have experienced the actualization of lucid dream, which put a lot of strain on his brain to the extent that even a little use of it made his head thump.
“Even Arcadia\'s chief designer spent three months just making a promotional video. The amount of video made in that way is only 15 minutes, so 15 minutes! But what about your friend? Just look at the length of the video that friend made!”
The timer for Jae-Gyun\'s video has already exceeded 10 minutes. Even someone talented enough to hold the title of chief among Arcadia\'s development staff was able to produce in just 10 minutes the level of effort he had worked on for three months.
However, new scenes are still being implemented and screened in real time. Jae-young and the staff just watched with their mouths open in a situation where they couldn\'t even guess how far Jae-gyun\'s limit would be. And at some point, people started coming in from all over the place.
“Wow what is that?”
“that\'s interesting. Is this a promotional video?”
“Is this a new game made in virtual reality?”
“Virtual reality integrated production machine.... Lucid dream? What is this?”
A booth where people who became interested in the images of the splendid monitors bursting with visual beauty began to flock here and there. Just as people started pouring in from all over the place, Jaekyun\'s video stopped and the production system started shutting down.
[Save the work so far.]
Take advantage.
I heard the word save and the sound of compressed air being released, then a lucid dream that slowly opened.
Jaekyun slowly walked out of it and shouted in an excited voice.
“Wow, this is really fun!”
At those words, Jaeyoung and the booth staff made indescribable expressions.
“Are you having fun?”
Jaekyun\'s impression that it\'s fun.
However, Jaeyoung and the booth staff knew how ridiculous that was.
The process of expressing a high level of imagination and implementing it consumes a tremendous amount of mental strength beyond imagination. Even just perfecting a short video is an act that makes ordinary people feel fatigued to the point of exhaustion.
However, even after making a video that went well over 10 minutes at once, Jaegyun\'s behavior of coming out with a nonchalant expression and exclaiming with sparkling eyes saying that it was fun was absolutely not normal.
And the staff of Arcadia\'s design and production department who know that more accurately than anyone else. He approached Jae-gyun with a really serious expression and asked, because many people clung to each other and coughed up blood and struggled to realize it.
“Hey student... what\'s your name by any chance?”
“Me? You say your name is Lim Jae-gyun, why do you say that?”
An employee who asks for his name with a serious expression on his face. Seeing his expression like that, Jaekyun answered the question with a puzzled expression as if he was slightly embarrassed. Then, the employee handed Jaegyun a business card and asked.
“Are you thinking of working for our company?”
“yes....?”
“If it\'s your level, just apply for a job and you\'ll pass right away. If you accept it, I will tell the team leader right away...”
An employee who suddenly asked me to come into our company and was so excited that he was drinking not just a bowl of kimchi soup, but a whole truckload of kimchi soup. He didn\'t even have time to ask Jae-kyun\'s intention, he was muttering frantically to himself about specific plans, just assuming that his employment was a fait accompli.
“Wait... wait a minute... what the hell is that...?”
“huh? Are you fine? Then I\'ll call the team leader...?”
An employee who takes out a real cell phone and tries to make a call somewhere. Jaekyun sweated for a long time trying to stop him from doing so.
* * *
After a long time of persuasion, Jae-kyun got out of the booth. He said, looking at Jaeyoung with an absurd look, as if something special had happened.
“Whew, I was really embarrassed. Looking at
Jaegyun who sighed while hiding the cold sweat on his forehead as if he was really embarrassed, Jaeyeong asked as if he couldn\'t understand.
“But why did you refuse? It\'s Arcadia, not anywhere else. Isn’t it a great opportunity for you?”
Jae-gyun\'s ability is so extraordinary that a person who looks like an employee rolls his eyes and promises a special loan that he has no authority over. It was clear that if Jaekyun actually joined the company, the flower path of his life would unfold, but he shook his head firmly.
“Hey, how old am I, already working at a job? I don\'t think that\'s the time yet.”
Jae-kyun, who has just turned 20 and has become a full-fledged adult. Although he is still young, he said with firm conviction, as if he did not want to live the life of an office worker buried in work from now on.
“And if you join Arcadia, won’t you be able to enjoy the games they service there? As an employee, I won’t be able to work as long as I do now, but I don’t want to.”
As a user who plays Arcadia, Jae-kyun said that he did not want to become an employee with severe restrictions on his actions and play. Jaejoong nodded his head in understanding.
“Yes, it\'s your choice, but you can.”
Although he did not say exactly what kind of benefits there were, the situation is openly spreading that the annual salary he will receive when he enters Arcadia as a new employee is basically over 100 million won.
That\'s why Jae-gyun\'s ability to refuse an offer that could make a lot of money in one breath, according to Jae-young\'s values, was truly great to the point of respect. Of course, the reason Jaekyun rejected the proposal was because he was too young.
“And... it\'s fun going to school with you, and you can see Chaeyeon too...”
Jaekyun blushes a little and mumbles as if he\'s embarrassed by what he says. At his words, Jaeyoung looked at him with an expression that seemed absurd.
“...You still haven’t given up?”
Tae-soo continues to hover around Chae-yeon and keep her competitors in check, as if he had already guessed. There was no rumor that they were dating yet, but there were already a lot of people around them who confirmed that the two would be dating and talked about it.
I\'m not sure if the person concerned knows or not, but Tae-soo treats even Chae-yeon without hesitation. Therefore, from Jae-gyun\'s point of view, there was a high probability that he would get hurt and meet a tragic ending after creating a love triangle by being caught between the two. However, Jaekyun shook his head violently at Jaeyoung\'s words, as if denying that reality.
“No way! What a bad bastard Tae-soo is... For him and Chae-yeon to date... never... never.”
Jaekyun speaks as if he were a father marrying off his beloved daughter to an unknown bastard. Seeing him like that, Jaeyoung felt a throbbing headache as if she was overloaded with a lucid dream.
“Ehh.... Yes, I get it. I think I wasted too much time, but let\'s go back quickly. As you said, how does Chaeyeon know what she is doing with Taesoo?”
“Huh! right! Why are you saying that now!”
Upon realizing the important fact that he had abandoned Chae-yeon all this time, Jae-kyun runs away in a panic, startled. And Jaeyoung looking at his back. He let out a deep sigh with a really tired expression on his face and muttered:
“That Dapper still had a special side...”
Jae-gyun, who was below average in all areas, far from being exceptional. Although Jaeyoung was one of the few friends I made in college, he was really lagging behind in terms of social skills, looks, and physical abilities to the point of tears coming out of my eyes.
“It would have been much better if I had just a little more real notice.”
Sometimes Jae-kyun\'s worst weakness is that even Jae-young can\'t accept it.
It was the fact that the eyes were not dirty.
Just like now, I can\'t notice the obvious chatter between the two of them, and I can\'t give up my feelings for Chae-yeon, so I can\'t give up my feelings for Chae-yeon, so when I see her idly by the side looking for an opportunity, it makes me feel like I\'ve eaten dozens of sweet potatoes in a row along with eggs. Sometimes it\'s upsetting.
“Haa... We\'ll have to talk about it separately later.”
Jae-young, who was not very close to Chae-yeon, but as Do-ri, who became her friend, couldn\'t let her use such ridiculous bean pods forever. He quietly walked behind Jae-gyun, promising to talk to Chae-yeon and establish a relationship. Without even imagining how Jaeyoung himself would get involved in that damn love triangle.