the world turned into a game after i woke up
Translator: HunterW
Editor: RED
‘Thief,’ I heard Earth call me as I sat around in my rooftop room, but I paid it no mind. I really did receive so much more from the Shire Group, Abu Dhabi’s royal family, the Chloe Group, and the Asyut Group, on top of the letters of recommendation. But I hadn’t gone to them to try and take more from them, like the way Earth had so kindly put it. I went to go help them and only asked for a letter in return. These organizations were my comrades for at least three years during the Otadolon stage. I didn’t tell them that, since they weren’t going to believe me in the first place. I just showed them what my abilities were and that I would be a great asset to them.
When I did that, each organization wrote me a splendid letter on their best stationary and ink and dumped a pile of gifts in my arms. I tried to turn them all down, but they insisted. They tried not to show it, but they were very afraid of me. I completely understood why, since I would have been the same if I were in their shoes. Only time could fix that.
“Should I move?” This small, cramped rooftop room had been my home for thirty years of my life. It was the one place I could rest at, it separated me from the rest of the world. I always missed it, to the point that I had even visited its ruins when I made that small trip to Earth from the Continent. But when I came back to the rooftop room that was restored to its previous sad state, I realized that I had brainwashed myself into thinking I had good memories here… or maybe I had just become too big for it.
“Let’s move!” I made my decision.
“Move?” Shaman Ko suddenly appeared and asked me, with the Dungeon Mole and the Tendon in his hands.
“Yeah, let’s move to a huge place big enough for you to run around in with your Mole and Tendon,” I replied, undeterred. This was the first time Shaman Ko actually talked to me, but I wasn’t surprised. I had been waiting for it to happen.
‘Me too! I want to move to a big house, too!’
“…” I didn’t reply to Earth. It was impossible to find a house big enough for Earth to run around in. Ignoring Earth, I reached into my pocket and took out six cards. They were limitless bank cards given to me by the six conglomerates I had visited a few days ago. Still, I was probably the richest man on Earth without these cards. I hadn’t realized it when I had borrowed the gold from Earth, but I still had billions of golden rings in my inventory. Each one was made out of solid gold and from what Earth had told me, I had more gold than existed naturally on Earth.
‘Give me my gold already!’
“Alright, alright. Here, take it.” I pulled out a handful of golden rings and stuck my hand out in front of me. In an instant, the golden rings vanished from my hand.
‘Give…no, plus interest!’
“Ugh, fine. Take them.” I took out another handful of golden rings.
‘Hmph. I feel like I lost out on something.’
“I have no idea what you mean.” I leaned back, thinking about what sort of house to move into.
“I should get an interview after all those letters, right?” I had gotten offers from all six conglomerates to join their company when I told them I wanted to work for the Sunbin Group, promising me a high position. But I turned them all down. I had a reason I put in all this work.
“Well, since there’s some time until the interviews, I should go see them. They’re the perfect people to have as assistants.” The Gnosis Guild was the last guild to join the Empire. I had the chance to talk a lot with Alpha, the guild’s master. He told me that he ran a private detective agency in Seoul before the Otadolon stage. He also told me that he was the son of a USFK soldier and a Korean woman, and was raised alone by his mother. He also told me about his anger and disappointment towards the father he had never met.
“I can hire him to look into my grandfather’s company. I guess India is all that’s left.” Repaying Pedro was easy, I just needed to deal with the NCR cartel that was oppressing him and his family. But it was going to be difficult to help Lagus and Muskan in India. To help them, I was going to need economic power. Then again, I had all the economic power I needed in my pocket.
——
The Sunbin Group’s board of directors was in a panic over the application of one new hire. It attracted so much attention that Song Daechul and Song Myungsoo had to intervene.
“They’re all real?” asked Song Myungsoo.
“Yes sir, every single one of them. It was hard to believe that the Shire and Chloe Groups were among them, but the UAE even sent the ambassador from their embassy to confirm it. The ambassador told us that Lee Jiwon was considered a member of the royal family.”
Song Myungsoo stared at the head of Strategic Planning in silent surprise. The embassy didn’t just send a liaison; they had sent the ambassador himself! That meant the Sunbin Group no longer had a reason to doubt Lee Jiwon any longer.
“Why does someone like this want to join the Sunbin Group?” He was thirty years old, too old to be a new hire and he didn’t have enough qualifications, but who cared about that? He had enough connections to get letters of recommendation from CEOs and the president of a foreign nation directly. He was set for life!
Furthermore, from the conversations the Sunbin Group had with the foreign companies, it was clear that they all highly respected Lee Jiwon. They lauded him. That confused the Sunbin Group even more. All Lee Jiwon had to his name was the small rooftop room he lived in. There was also no reason to think that he was a corporate spy or anything. He had provided all of his legal information and the Sunbin Group had already done a thorough background check.
“All of this information is true?”
“Yes sir. We checked and double-checked. We even went to the factory he used to work at.”
Song Myungsoo held the file on Lee Jiwon in his hand. He was an orphan and lived in poverty most of his life. There was nothing about him that could get him all of those letters.
“Should we bring him to the first round of interviews?” Bang Manho, the head of Strategic Planning asked.
“Of course we should. He’s connected with the Shire Group. We can establish an avenue to approach the American company and open up more trade into the US.” The Sunbin Group carried more than a hundred years of perfect business experience and had spent the last ten to twenty years as the forerunner of IT in South Korea. Song Myungsoo was not going to easily let this chance go. “He is also well connected to the Abu Dhabi royal family and the Asyut Group of Egypt. If we play our cards right…we can obtain an easier tap on natural gas.”
“Will it be possible?”
“I don’t know. But if we can try just by hiring one new employee…I’d say it’s an obvious choice, wouldn’t you?”
“…” No one replied to Song Myungsoo. It was a chance they knew they had to take.
There was one person whose eyes were lit up the entire time. It was Song Haein, who had begged her father to attend the meeting as well.
——
The next day, I headed to Dongdaemun District. It was pretty easy to find Alpha, no, Hong Dukbae’s private eye office. Alpha had told me back then exactly where his office was located.
“Welcome! What problems do you have for me to fix today?” The office was located on the other side of Seoul, but it was just as rundown as Oh Hyungjae’s office. When I went inside, I saw the same five people that had led the Gnosis Guild. Jay, the Clairvoyant, was also a bastard child of a USKF soldier and a Korean woman. Sharing a similar past, Jay and Alpha had stuck together since their childhood days. Jay had a slightly better life, though, consistently receiving money from the father in America who she had never seen. Lim Gina and the other two guys were inside as well, but I passed them and sat down on and old sofa. I seemed out of place, wearing a 1.5 million won suit.
“Do you not serve your clients a cup of tea or anything?”
“Uh, all we have is coffee mix…”
“I like coffee mix, too.”
“Right. Just a sec.” The five people working at this detective agency were visibly nervous. They knew how much my clothes cost.
I accepted the cup of coffee and took a sip. “Ah…there’s no better coffee than coffee made from coffee mix.”
“Ah. Haha. Ha.” Hong Dukbae awkwardly laughed.
I set my paper cup down on the table before me and looked at him. “How much do you make in one year?” I knew that they only made enough to put food on the table, that is, if Alpha was telling the truth back then. But somehow, I knew that they barely even had enough to feed themselves.
“Excuse me?”
I pointed to everyone in the room. “How much do all of you make in one year? Combined.”
Hong Dukbae didn’t say anything for a moment and I waited quietly.
“We make enough to feed ourselves. And we don’t accept illegal requests, no matter what you offer us,” Hong Dukbae said to me finally, almost glaring at me. I wasn’t sure if he was telling the truth, but I knew for a fact that the Gnosis Guild had carried out several illegal requests during the Otadolon stage. They had to, to have become one of the three greatest Intelligence guilds of the world. Then again, it wasn’t like laws were still a big deal during the Otadolon stage. So frankly, I didn’t care if they did or didn’t. I still wanted their help.
“I don’t like illegal stuff, either. And I wasn’t going to make you do anything like that. Anyway, would a hundred million each be enough to feed you for a year?”
All five of them looked at me with jaw-dropping surprise. A hundred million Won for a year was always a faraway dream for them.
“Hmm… we need a contract to get down to business, but I don’t see one in front of me,” I said as I took out the card I had received from Baden al Nayan. “Anyway, I don’t like the sad excuse of an office you have, so I’ll make several contracts with you lot. I’ll offer two hundred million each. That’s one billion in all, right? I’m sorry, but can you take it out of this card? The passcode’s 0000.”
“You’re not worried we’ll take the money and run?”
If I were in Hong Dukbae’s shoes, I’d be just as dumbfounded at the situation, but I did like his question. He was truly wondered if I trusted them with all of that money.
I replied with a smile. “Well, at least you’ll get the money, right? I don’t care if you take a hundred million or a billion each. Anyway, it’s been a while since I had coffee mix. It’s pretty good. Can I get another cup?”
I didn’t care if they ran with the money. A billion Won wasn’t enough to repay the Gnosis Guild for all they did for me.
—
Five minutes later, stacks of stiff ₩50,000 bills were laid out neatly on the table in front of us. I honestly worried something might happen when the bank teller was told to withdraw a billion Won from a card she had never seen before, especially since Hong Dukbae didn’t exactly look like he owned the card. I even ended up getting a call from the UAE embassy. From the call, it seemed that the bank was in real panic and obviously, Hong Dukbae and Lim Gina were there to see for themselves what was going on. That had really kicked them all into high gear, since they had to know just how rich the Abu Dhabi royal family was.
“So what did you want us to…?”
“It’s nothing serious. I just want you to go to Sojung Construction over at Gongju, Chungcheong in my stead.” I took a sip of coffee before continuing, “Tell them I want to build a villa, a really big villa. I want one big enough that they would hesitate to take the job. Give them enough time and enough money. Put all expenses on that card,” I said, pointing to the UAE card.
“Oh, and I’ll tell you where I want the villa to be built later. Can you do it?”
“…Yes, we can.”
“Good. Well, I expect good work out of all of you. It’s hard to work for me, but I can just as easily toss you back on to the streets.”
“We won’t let you down.”
“Good.”
“Before you go, how would you like us to call you?”
“Hmm…you can call me President Lee Jiwon.”
“Understood, Mr. President.”
“Oh, and move to a better office. Like, a really nice office.”
“We’ll need more…”
“Ten billion Won should be enough, right? Go ahead. Just put it on the card.”
“…” Silence filled the private eye office.
“Well, I’ll be going now.” I got up and left the office. I had received a text on my phone while I was drinking coffee, telling me that I had been accepted to the first round of interviews.
“Hmm… I never had an interview in my life… what do I do?” I was more worried about the interviews than about the money.