Chapter 15: An Unexpected Visitor 2

“Your aunt must have stir-fried the rice while it was still hot, so it got a bit soggy. In that case, let it cool, then stir-fry it again. The moisture will evaporate and it’ll taste better. Yun-jo-ssi, you don’t cook?”

“No, I don’t really.”

Jeong Yun-jo hesitated as he answered. The house was still the same as when he lived with his parents, so the height and structure of the counter made it hard for someone with his physical limitations to use. He usually got by with instant rice or delivery food. Of course, that was all an excuse. Even when his body was fine, he wasn’t the type to cook for himself.

“It shows.” Kim Jun-ho nodded. After the meal, he moved the empty bowls to the sink and even washed them himself, not caring that his sleeves were still wet.

The ANT vice president was doing dishes in my kitchen. I had no idea what to make of it.

“You worked hard. Thanks.” I took cold water from the fridge and handed it to Kim Jun-ho, who had finished washing and turned around. He smiled faintly, took the cup, and downed it in one go. Then he even rinsed the cup and placed it on the drying rack before coming back. I had to admit it.

‘What would you call that… So truly… Prime husband material.’

Thanks to that, my impression of Kim Jun-ho changed a bit. He always wore brand-name shirts and expensive watches, and though his face was handsome, his overall look was sharp, so I had a prejudice that he might be difficult. But seeing him cook and wash dishes skillfully, he seemed quite domestic. Did the vice president ever get married? Even if not, he must have a lover. Congratulations to whoever it is. You’ll have a happy married life.

Waiting for him to sit again, Jeong Yun-jo asked. “By the way, why did you come today?”

“Ah, right. I have a proposal for you, Yun-jo-ssi.” Kim Jun-ho pulled a chair and sat as he spoke.

“A proposal?”

“Yes, Eternal Sun will be celebrating its 9th anniversary next year. So our company is preparing a commemorative update. We’ve been doing updates steadily, but this one will be massive. New content will be added. The goal is to reignite the passion of players who’ve fallen into a rut.”

“An update like…?”

“There are several things. What I’m thinking is adjusting the in-game timeline. We want to fast-forward time and skip nine years.”

“Nine years?”

“Nine years for the ninth anniversary. That way we can change the world setting. We’ll also touch up the map. Right now the background is just one country, so it’s limited.”

Jeong Yun-jo, who had been nodding as he listened, suddenly asked. “What about the emperor?”

“Huh?”

“The emperor is sick in that setting, right? So the empress is regent. After nine years, everyone will be quite older, so I thought there should be some changes by then.”

Kim Jun-ho tilted his head, as if the question was unexpected. “Well, we haven’t gotten that far… What kind of changes do you mean?”

“For example, by then the Crown Prince might have ascended and become the next emperor?”

“Ah… we’ll have to think about that. How old is the Crown Prince now…?”

Jeong Yun-jo quickly answered. “Eighteen.”

“So after nine years he’d be twenty-seven? There’s no rule that the eldest legitimate son must inherit the throne. No one knows what will happen in nine years.”

Jeong Yun-jo was momentarily blank at the unexpected remark, then nodded. “…Ah, you’re right.”

Kim Jun-ho, who was looking at him, asked back. “Interested?”

“Huh?”

“I was about to say earlier, we’d like you to participate in this project. You can join meetings via video, so it won’t be hard. If it’s difficult, you can just give some ideas.”

Jeong Yun-jo’s eyes widened as he looked at him. Kim Jun-ho grinned and added. “This time I’ll calculate the guarantee correctly.”

At that moment, Yun-jo understood his intention. To be honest, the company was no longer a small startup like before. It now had the resources to hire the best brains in the industry. There was no real need to bring in an amateur like Yun-jo, who had no notable career, even if he was the original developer of the game. Yun-jo himself didn’t think the popularity of Eternal Sun was solely due to his original version. Many parts had been overhauled before release, and those changes contributed to its popularity. But the fact that the company made a fortune while the original creator got a pittance clearly bothered Kim Jun-ho ethically. The fact that he cared about something no one else cared about showed that Kim Jun-ho was a good person.

“I should get going.” Whether he had taken time out of his busy schedule, Kim Jun-ho fixed his rolled-up shirt, glanced at his watch, wrapped up the conversation, and quickly stood. Yun-jo awkwardly straightened up. “Then think about it and let me know.”

“Um… you can drop the formal speech with me.”

It was a bit late to say, but Kim Jun-ho had been speaking formally to Yun-jo, who was nearly ten years younger. It had been the same when Yun-jo was in high school. Yun-jo brought it up on a whim, but surprisingly, Kim Jun-ho declined.

“When we get closer.”

“Huh?”

“Dropping formal speech means we’re close. When you become close with me, then I’ll drop it.”

“Ah, when we become close?”

At that, an unexpected person popped into Yun-jo’s mind, and he let out an involuntary laugh. “Haha…”

Kim Jun-ho looked puzzled. “Why?”

“Oh, I know someone younger than me who’s not that close but uses casual speech with me.”

“What? There’s such a rude guy? Who is it?”

“There is.”

That person probably doesn’t speak formally to anyone in the world. From his tone alone, he sounded twenty years older than Yun-jo. Anyway, unable to explain, Yun-jo just shook his head with a laugh.

Before leaving, Kim Jun-ho paused while grabbing the doorknob and turned his head. “Come to think of it, do you play our game, Yun-jo-ssi?”

Yun-jo hesitated to answer. Should he say yes or no? He was running the beta version, but does that count as ‘playing’? Kim Jun-ho interpreted his awkward reaction as a no.

“Even if you don’t, give it a try this time. You might get ideas.”

“Ah, yes…”

“Oh, by the way, if you look online, there are many user-created patches and mods. Some are quite fun if you choose well. But you have to be careful.” He paused, frowned as something came to mind, and added. “If you search the gamer boards, there’s all sorts of weird stuff. Once, some crazy guy made a patch that turns you into a cat. But it turned out that once you transform, you can’t revert. You can’t turn back into a human. We got a flood of inquiries about characters turning into cats. It was really absurd…”

“What happened?”

“What could we do? It wasn’t an official patch, so we couldn’t revert them. They just had to delete and make new characters. If you look, there might still be a few cat players on the server.”

The story of the cat users left such an impression that after Kim Jun-ho left, Yun-jo searched for that patch on his computer. Sure enough, on various communities and social media, the cat patch incident was mentioned as one of the legendary events of Eternal Sun. Some people were still downloading the patch and falling into the trap of becoming cats themselves.

• [Cat human mode my ass, liar. This is just a cat.]

• [!Warning! Once executed, all existing skills become unusable. Only recommend for those who truly want to become a cat.]

• [f*ck, can’t even chat. Am I the only one who can only type meow in the chat box?]

• [For some reason I kind of like it…]

Of course, not many patches were that extreme. Usually they were related to skills or customization. Some were quite trivial. There were patches that gave the ability to whistle in various ways, or to float a foot above the ground for three minutes, patches with no clear use.

The official paid patches were more plausible. They mainly added various skills not in the original game, with the advantage of high stability and no bugs.

‘Is there a swimming patch?’ Remembering falling into the pond the other day, Yun-jo searched the patch list. Sure enough, there was. It was a comprehensive sports skill master patch that included swimming. It even included sports like badminton, figure skating, and billiards, which would never fit the game’s setting. On the main server, users seemed to form leagues and hold competitions with it.

‘Can it be applied to the beta version?’ He downloaded it anyway. It seemed possible if he tweaked the source code a bit.

Before departure, Seo Sang-yak brought a carriage with herbal medicine. Sahyeon took it and drank. Under the veil, Sahyeon’s lips were pale, drained of blood. Yun-jo, who had been staring blankly, asked. “What kind of medicine is that?”

Yun-jo had appeared at the camp before dawn, and as promised, he calmly boarded the same carriage to go to the Sajik ritual. Sahyeon glanced at him and lowered his eyes. The medicine prepared by Seo Sang-yak was decocted daily by apprentices and served twice a day: once in the morning and once after sunset. Since Yun-jo usually appeared between the hours of the Snake and the Sheep (9 AM to 3 PM), he had never seen it served during that time, so it was natural for him to see it for the first time. Yun-jo leaned in and sniffed the remaining bit of medicine at the bottom of the bowl.

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