Chapter 23 : First closed

▣ APK FANS GOING ALL OUT!……GIF

[Sno.1 Broadcast Clip]

They’re so desperate they’re offering a transfer to a streamer.

Are you serious? Damn, do you even want to win?

─Who would launder a cheater team?

└If you’re Korean, you’d obviously be a Seoseong fan, right?

└Seoseong shills are so disgusting;;

└Yeah~ I can’t hear anything from APK fans who couldn’t even do Troun~

└ㅋㅋㅋㅋYou’re laughing at others being disgusting when you were holding onto a guy who was released for doping as a sub-dealer? Aren’t you guys more disgusting? It makes me want to puke? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

─But who is he to offer a transfer?

└There’s some spammer who’s really good at Minder.

└What are you talking about?

└I don’t know.

*

▣ The offer itself isn’t bad.

But why would you make such an offer in such a manner, you morons?

[Photo of The Batter holding a bat]

Everyone except the manager, from the front office to the players, get down.

─Why exclude the manager? He’s the most corrupt of them all.

└Where’s the respect for elders?

└Respect for elders, my ass; that guy needs to be attacked; the old geezer who only knows how to use a keyboard is ruining the team, damn it.

└Sir, you seem very angry, please calm down.

└Still, he’s a legend from the past, so we should respect him.

─I’ve been watching Sno.1’s broadcasts consistently, and his playstyle is exactly what APK needs right now. Actually, APK doesn’t need a sub-dealer, but an assassin who can quickly cut down the opposing dealer by considering C.

└What the hell, are you saying we should bring in a guy who only plays troll characters? Are you a Seoseong shill, you bastard? If you want to ruin a team’s roster, go ruin your Seoseong, you idiot.

└Why is everyone a Seoseong shill if they say anything, you damn APK fan?

*

▣ They just got caught by a streamer and got media played.

Isn’t it obvious? Haven’t there been tons of people who stir up issues like this to make a quick buck? Streamers are all the same.

─Did the APK front office order you to write that?

└What are you talking about, Seoseong shill?

└ㅋㅋㅋ Why don’t you say that the streamer deliberately hired a reporter and placed them there? Why don’t you say that all the Seoseong shills roaming around here are comment spammers hired by the streamer?ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

─It’s vague to call it a mistake, considering the circumstances and the situation, but isn’t this just a cute level of mistake?

└Yeah, Seoseong shill.

└Seoseong shill for everything, you idiot. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

*

▣ So who is he?

A Minder master? How can there be a master in Minder?

─There are a lot of disabled people.

└There are a lot of trolls, too.

└ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

─Sno.1 is live streaming on Pachichik~ Please subscribe, like, and turn on notifications~

└It’s written like a comment spammer. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

─So, is he good?

└Yeah, he’s really good.

└Probably the top Minder.

└Anyone can be the top Minder if they don’t pick him;

└True.

─But he doesn’t stream.

└He’s on break today?

└What kind of streamer takes a break on their second day? Seriously. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

*

Today is my monumental first day off.

It’s not that I wanted to take a break from streaming, but Manager Cha made another heartfelt plea, so I had no choice.

“We need to fuel the fire that the Chairman started yesterday.”

“Fuel it more?”

I glanced at the community site.

It seems like it’s already burning enough, but fuel it more from here? It seems like our Manager Cha wants to emulate the Great Fire of Rome. Does he want to be Emperor Nero?

“Yes. Actually, the issue hasn’t reached its boiling point yet. Just wait until it’s around 99 degrees. And when it reaches 100 degrees, you have to go in and turn on the broadcast to receive all the pressure of that boiling point and instantly bounce up. Chairman. Trust me!”

“Well, I’ll trust you.”

So, today became a forced day off.

[Taking a break today.]
Because Zero Popsy Lime is delicious.

I wrote and uploaded the break notice on the Pachichik streamer bulletin board myself. Even if I use people for other tasks, I wanted to do this notice myself. After uploading the notice, I turned off my smartphone.

Then, I took out my personal phone.

A product of the leading American company, Apple. Come to think of it, APK, the team I gave a big middle finger to, was a pro team under Apple, right?

So, did I give Apple both the disease and the cure?

While I was thinking about that, the phone rang.

“Oh, Miley. I’ll be down now.”

I grabbed a hoodie and jeans.

As I was getting dressed, I felt a bit tired. Lately, I’ve only been going back and forth between work and home, so I guess my physical strength has decreased due to lack of exercise.

Come to think of it, I haven’t exercised since I came back here.

‘Wasn’t there a gym under the apartment?’

I should start running at the gym from tomorrow.

Physical strength itself doesn’t have a big impact in virtual reality, but it does seem to have some effect on stamina, which allows you to use the virtual machine for a long time.

I made a mental note to ‘go to the gym and exercise’ and leisurely left the house.

It’s been a while since I went out.

*

Even in the other world, I basically liked being in my room to some extent.

Maybe it’s because I was a person who lived off of government subsidies and clung to the country, so that habit stuck with me.

Anyway, because of that, my range of activity tended not to go beyond a certain range unless there was something special. Of course, in Earth, where there is a tool of civilization called a car, it has become a little wider.

And Seoul, Myeongdong was barely within my range limit. Honestly, if it weren’t for the car, I would never have come here on my own will.

Oh, what about going to the US to collect my winnings?

Isn’t that a different dimension of story.

Anyway, the reason I came here is obvious.

“Master, I think you need to buy some clothes. The number of clothes you own seems to be too small.”

Miley pointed out my clothes.

She looked at me with her hands on her hips, like a mother who had found her child not cleaning their room.

“Even that hoodie. How many days have you been wearing the same clothes?”

“Huh? One day.”

“……That can’t be true. As far as I remember, the clothes you wear every day are the same.”

“Well, because I bought 31 of the same?”

I said so and raised my left arm to show the side of the hoodie. There, the number 14 was embroidered with overlock stitching. It’s today’s date.

“This is the hoodie I wear on the 14th.”

“……By any chance, did you buy 31 jeans too?”

“Isn’t that obvious?”

Of course, I have 31 jeans too. Of course, if I wash and wear them myself, a few would be enough. But that’s also annoying, right? And I don’t know the difference between detergent and fabric softener.

Of course, I can use Trimaje’s laundry service for laundry, but I have to apply for it every time. So I just bought 31 of both.

“This way, I only need to use the laundry service twice a month. I’ve also set up an automatic laundry system, haven’t I?”

“……By any chance, is that automatic laundry system telling me to apply for laundry on the 7th and 21st of every month?”

I nodded.

Then, Miley’s poker face cracked slightly. She mumbled for a moment, then shook her head. Again, a happy smile appeared on her face.

“Let’s go.”

“Where to?”

“To buy clothes.”

Yes. So I was dragged.

To Myeongdong, of all places.

“There are too many people.”

I muttered with a tired face.

Myeongdong really had too many people. To be precise, the population density was too high compared to the area of the space. Damn, if it were the other world, these human figures would have trembled and hid in mouse holes the moment I shouted ‘gah!’

“I want to shout gah.”

“Please be patient, Master.”

“If we were going to buy clothes in the first place, shouldn’t we have gone straight to the department store? Why are we walking around the streets of Myeongdong?”

Then Miley became speechless. What?

Even while that was happening, the number of people around us still increased.

“Hey, look at that.”

“Wow, damn…… It’s paradise, it’s really paradise.”

“Are they celebrities?”

“Maybe they’re YouTubers.”

“Wow, her face is the size of my palm. She’s so pretty.”

“The shorter one is cute too.”

No, I think it’s increased even more than before. It seemed to be because of Miley’s appearance. Her beautiful appearance was attracting people’s attention.

After wandering around for a long time, we arrived at.

[Kim’s Mom Tanghulu]

“Tanghulu……?”

I glanced at Miley.

“Why did you want to come here?”

Then Miley made a slightly awkward expression.

It was an expression that was a little shy. It seemed like an expression as if she was lost in distant memories.

She hesitated for a moment, then took out a handkerchief from her pocket and laid it on a cheap plastic chair in front of the street tanghulu stand. Then she gestured for me to sit. I didn’t know what was going on at all, but I sat down anyway.

“Two green grape tanghulus, please.”

“A foreigner speaks our language well. Are you from Seoul?”

“That’s not it. Do you take cards?”

“Only cash.”

Soon, Miley, who bought two green grape tanghulus, handed me one. I still didn’t know what this was all about, so I just took the tanghulu she gave me.

What is this? Does it have any meaning?

As I thought that.

「Do you remember? Agent. When we went to catch the first evil god.」

I raised my head at the sound of the other world language I hadn’t heard in a long time.

Miley muttered with a look of reminiscence.

「I think that was the moment when the most difficult ordeal in my life came. Honestly, at that time, I resented the main god. Because I thought I would die there.」

I silently looked at her.

「At that time, you made this food with the little food we had left and said. You would definitely save everyone and send them back. Not the main god, but trust you. And that promise was kept.」

Miley turned her head and looked at me.

Then she smiled.

“This is the store that sells the food that tastes the most similar to the food we ate then. After coming to Korea, it took a long time, but I finally found it.”

Only then did I realize why Miley wanted to walk here, to Myeongdong. It was because of this tanghulu.

Because she wanted to taste the most similar food together, the most memorable taste from the most difficult times.

I grinned and put the tanghulu in my mouth.

I felt the crunchy taste and the taste of sugar.

“Well, is it similar?”

To my question, Miley said as if it were obvious.

“It’s similar. No, it’s the same.”

Oh, I see. It’s the same taste.

But, Miley.

‘The food I made for you back then wasn’t tanghulu……?’

It was definitely a different food, so why was it distorted into tanghulu in this guy’s memory? I couldn’t understand, but well. When was I ever able to understand Miley?

I shrugged and chewed the tanghulu.

Surprisingly, it tasted pretty good.