Chapter 43
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Floaties for Everyone
Swim lesson at the water park, and she's demonstrating on you
The restaurant Jessica recommended was a kind of fusion cuisine.
We ate pasta and steak with unusual spices; they were tasty, but not really my thing.
Even while eating, Kim Yang kept glaring at me, and Ryuseoram wolfed everything down while repeatedly exclaiming, in a hard-to-believe tone, “This is the taste of the future!”
“I’m full, but weirdly I feel bloated.”
“H-here.”
The antacid Kim Yang handed me.
The medicine sold in Cyber City was supposed to work fast, and sure enough, as soon as I took it, my stomach settled right down.
“It works great. I should buy a few before we leave.”
I did know there was a limit on how many medicines you could buy, but I’d have to cram as many as I could into my luggage.
It would be perfect to keep a few in the office.
“Hey, Ryuseoram. You’re not going to buy medicine here, right? Then buy some for me too.”
“Huh? Call me big sis.”
“...Don’t be annoying.”
“Pfft! Hey, more importantly, where are we going? Christmas! With two beautiful women on either side of you?”
When asked where we were headed, Kim Yang, apparently curious too, turned her head slightly.
“What are you talking about, two beautiful women?”
One was a company employee, and the other was a man wearing a woman’s skin.
“What do you think there is to do on a Christmas like this?”
“A hotel?”
“Ryuseoram really does sound like an old man.”
I could already see him sipping beer on his day off and hurling curses at the baseball players on TV.
“Christmas in Cyber City. There’s a place where a very special event is held.”
Just in case, I’d checked a few tourist spots while coming up to the 6th floor.
“Let’s go! We’re going to make a killing!”
* * *
Cyber City’s casino, Bolboom.
From the entrance, the clattering spin of the roulette wheel welcomed us like a rain of money.
Even though it was nearly 2 a.m., the brilliant golden lights showed no sign of going out, and among the bustling crowd, bursts of cheers or despairing cries drifted like ghost stories.
“Oppa! Welcome, nyo!”
The moment the woman in a bunny suit started soliciting customers at the door, every man’s mouth naturally went slack.
‘Is that why people like beastkin?’
“A-aren’t you cold?”
Kim Yang, watching from the side, tugged at the bunny girl’s latex in disbelief.
For a moment it looked like I’d be able to see down her cleavage, so I stood on tiptoe, but Ryuseoram blocked me from the side and I couldn’t see.
“Oh my! Sis, is that your type, nyo? I can do anything. Once I’m equipped, nyo!”
Equipped...?
She immediately looked dejected.
No matter how you look at it, that’s not right.
“Now, if you’re going in, put these on, nyo!”
As if even the brief chat had been part of the business, the bunny girl immediately held out single-ear earpieces for us.
“The language is 3rd Floor Earth, Korean, right? Put them in and they’ll translate based on the first word you say, so be careful, nyo!”
I put the earpiece in and said a few random words, and sure enough, it really started translating.
“Wait... you know Korean, bunny girl?”
“I’ve got a language translation module installed! Nyo! It’s the latest model, capable of 130 languages, nyo!”
Ryuseoram looked at me with a baffled expression and pointed at the bunny girl.
“Isn’t the language module broken? She keeps saying ‘nyo’ at the end. What is this, a busted game console?”
“Oh my, nyo! Sis, isn’t that even cuter, nyo? Right, oppa?”
Just look at her clinging to my arm.
“Hmm, kind of cute.”
After I nodded, Ryuseoram went inside as if she’d seen something she shouldn’t have, and Kim Yang followed without a word.
Embarrassed, I hurried after them.
“Oppa! Win a lot and you have to give me a tip, nyo!”
Look at her, really dragging it out because she thinks she’s hooked a sucker.
“That’s professionalism. Kim Yang, that’s the kind of customer service you need to learn.”
“I-I’m not a rabbit. I’m a sheep.”
“Who told you to go nyo-nyo? I’m talking about customer service.”
“......”
Because Kim Yang immediately took a head-butting stance, I apologized and quickly walked on.
First thing to do was currency exchange.
I went to the exchange booth to swap it for chips used only in Bolboom.
“Th-then, Juseon.”
“......?”
I was startled when Kim Yang called out to me from beside me while I was tapping away at the kiosk to exchange money.
“What did you just call me?”
“Ju, Juseon.”
“I was your fri—ah, right.”
Until you pay me back, we agreed I’d be called Juseon.
As she remembered the bet, Kim Yang’s lips curled upward in a sneer.
“D-do you have money? It’s, uh, expensive.”
“......A little left. You’re supposed to only play with small amounts in a casino.”
“B-because you’re broke, so just a little?”
“It’s the same thing in the end, so just let it go.”
I exchanged the two million won I’d scraped together with my whole soul for chips.
Ryuseoram, who’d also exchanged money at another kiosk, had a basket full of chips, and the highest-value gold chips alone numbered three.
“......300 million?”
What the hell is she?
“What, are you planning to settle down here? You exchanged 300 million won?”
“Ah, why. I can spend this much. The money left in your bank account is what counts.”
I was ridiculously jealous.
After Kim Yang finished exchanging hers too, we headed straight for the main gaming lounge.
It was lined with slot machines, poker tables, holographic fishing, coin fountains, and more.
A line of flashy contraptions, like tiny little creatures that dazzled the eye, seemed to be challenging us to a duel.
All or nothing.
The reason people go cross-eyed and pull the lever is probably not just the money, but also because they get drunk on this atmosphere.
“Hey, what are you going to do?”
Ryuseoram, apparently drunk on the atmosphere too, grinned as she asked. She seemed to have already decided where she wanted to go, because her gaze kept drifting one way.
“I was originally going to go to the card tables... but, hiss, something about that area feels off.”
The poker tables had a rough atmosphere. It was full of guys who looked like Cyber City fixers or mafia.
I doubted you’d be able to walk away with your winnings from there.
Faces that looked like they’d put a bullet in the back of your head the moment you stepped out of the casino.
Even if I went for blackjack or baccarat, the dealers were AI, so I couldn’t see any chance of winning a psychological battle.
“If you’ve got nothing to do, come with me.”
Ryuseoram grabbed my arm and pulled me along as if she’d been waiting for that.
Kim Yang followed without saying anything.
“......Baseball?”
[Hologram Super baseball!]
A total baseball nut.
To think she’d come all the way here just to watch baseball.
Hologram baseball.
Under the mini ballpark, hologram players entered one by one.
If I had to compare them, they were only a little bigger than chess pieces.
[05:03]
The central scoreboard showed there were five minutes left until the game started.
Looking at the list, I saw some players whose individual physical stats were quantified in hexagons, and others who had strengths they could bring out in specific situations—.
Ryuseoram studied the players carefully.
I, on the other hand, looked at the odds.
Simply predicting win or loss paid out low odds.
Predicting the score, who’d get a hit, how many home runs there’d be, and so on.
There were more options than I expected.
‘I’ll just follow Ryuseoram.’
Even if I thought about it too much, I wouldn’t really know.
At times like this, I might as well just follow self-proclaimed baseball expert Ryuseoram.
“Hey, decided yet?”
“Omega Devils are the favored pick. I’m going with them.”
Three gold coins.
So Ryuseoram, without hesitation, bet 300 million won on the Omega Devils.
She even put one on the bet that the cleanup hitter would hit a home run.
‘That’s the heart of a true beast.’
You might think that, but...
300 million won wasn’t really that much money to Ryuseoram.
If anything, I was the one betting my life on it.
Three hundred million was pocket change to Ryuseoram, but two million won was almost my entire net worth.
Of course, I did have some money tied up in stocks.
“I’m betting on you.”
“Who else would you trust but big sis?”
I almost got angry on the spot and bet on the other side.
After placing our bets, we sat in the Omega Devils’ section, but the back of my head kept feeling chilly.
‘What is this? What kind of sensation is this?’
I was wondering why I felt so uneasy when Kim Yang, who had already bought popcorn and was munching on it beside me, asked.
“Juseon.”
“...What?”
“H-hey, do you know baseball well?”
“The rules, at least.”
“U-um, I-I don’t know.”
“Then teach me this time? If you watch influencers, there are lots of cheerleaders too.”
“Y-you watch that kind of thing?”
“......”
Just as I was about to explain the rules, a realization flashed through my mind like lightning.
“Ah.”
Ryuseoram was a hardcore baseball fan, but she supported the perennial last-place team, the Daehung Bearforce.
“Aaagh!”
I was so startled it was as if I’d just seen a horror movie scare, and I wanted to change it right away—but—
[PLAY BALL-!]
The game finally began.
Since it was gambling, it didn’t go on as long as a real baseball game; one match ended in about ten minutes.
The holograms moved quickly.
This wasn’t simple baseball.
From time to time, they’d toss in variables—an ace pitcher secretly wearing a prosthetic arm got ejected, a batter missed the game for drug use, or someone couldn’t run properly because they hadn’t been oiled enough, and so on.
It was like watching a slapstick cartoon baseball sitcom.
The important thing was that, even if they were having fun, the people who’d bet money on this were reaching the end of their rope.
“You fucker! What are you doing?!”
“This is rigged, right? It’s rigged, you bastards—!”
“A prosthetic arm? No, look, he’s using a prosthetic too! Don’t give me that over-spec bullshit!”
“Ah—! This is fucking stupid.”
The holograms kept carrying on with the game briskly, utterly unaware that the people watching them were screaming themselves hoarse.
“Hey, Seoram.”
“...What?”
“I think I’m about to start swearing.”
As Omega Devils, the team we’d bet on, started to get pushed back, rage I couldn’t contain surged up in me too.
The guy on third suddenly said his leg had rebooted or something, then even after getting a hit at the plate he just stood there; it was the kind of situation that made me want to explode.
I felt like I was starting to understand why Ryuseoram was angry all the time.
“When I watch baseball, I really can’t keep my temper in check, you know? Whenever that happens, there’s a kind of spell I chant.”
A magic spell Ryuseoram taught me for times like this.
The moment I heard it, I stared at her like it was some ridiculous nonsense, but Ryuseoram only nodded.
“That’s bullshit.”
“It’s real. If you do it, you’ll feel a bit better at least.”
“...Fine. It’s better than cursing.”
Hiss, I took a breath in.
Ryuseoram and I shouted at the same time.
“Hey! This egg bread is really sweet! Aaaagh!”
“Yaaagh! This egg bread is really sweeeet!”
Surprisingly, it was strange how I actually felt a little calmer.
notes
Corrected the chapter title to the standard simple English form. Used names/neutral phrasing in a few spots where the draft’s pronouns were inconsistent or the source context was ambiguous, and kept the repeated “nyo”/chanting beats as intentional source-style repetition.