Chapter 33
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A few days had passed since Old Man Ryuichi's matter was settled.
The day after the broadcast, as usual.
Gu Namcheol came to see me.
"You said you were going to take the skills test today, right? Let's go together. I had to go renew my driver's license, too."
"Yes."
I arrived at the driving test center with him.
And then, the skills test.
- No. 31. You passed.
"That was perfect driving!"
"No, that was a squeaker of a pass."
"Oh, come on. How can you say that...!!"
Can a national civil servant really slander an innocent citizen like this?
"Anyway, congratulations. Now all that's left is road driving. Are you going to keep going to that academy?"
"Yes. They said they also do road driving practice there."
The academy had gotten quite a bit better since the director changed.
There was no need to switch, really.
"I know a great pollock stew place. Let's eat there before you go."
"Thanks for the meal."
The place I stopped by with Gu Namcheol was a pollock stew restaurant near Jongno.
It was really delicious.
Civil servants really do know the good food spots.
"By the way, how's that drug-related case going?"
"Ha. That guy was nothing but a distributor after all."
He brings in drugs from overseas, then takes them from wholesalers and sells them using runaway kids.
Or uses them as couriers.
"The worst part is... the ones he lured in use minors."
"Huh."
The really rotten ones do it openly, but the problem is the kids who aren't like that.
They expose them to violence and threats, forcing them to carry drugs.
And if they get caught?
They cut off the hired hands and leave them to take the fall.
"They're extremely nasty."
Runaways, or punks obsessed with delinquent-gang play.
They use kids like that to distribute or sell drugs, and if it comes to it, they toss them aside.
It was a way to avoid risk for pocket change.
"The quality of drug dealers couldn't possibly be good, but this sounds like a real headache."
"Yes. Haa. I wonder what's going to happen to the world."
"You must have a lot on your plate."
"Yes..."
He let out a sigh and shook his head.
Anyway, lunch was delicious.
"I'll pay."
"It was over 30,000 won, so let's split it."
Receiving a meal treat like this is dangerous for civil servants, apparently.
If that's what he says, who am I to argue?
I should just let it go.
"Then take care on your way back."
"Yep."
I said goodbye to him after he dropped me off in front of my place, and just as I was about to go into the officetel...
I saw some students.
I saw the future of one of them.
***
Go Youngjoon was an ordinary boy from an ordinary family.
His father worked at a mid-sized company.
His mother ran a small-to-medium business.
So he always thought of himself as ordinary.
But even so, he had no intention of doing anything like rebelling.
Playing delinquent?
Childish and pretentious.
But compared to that, what about Dunsa?
Wasn't it much more straightforward?
On top of that, the friends who had gone up to the same middle school this time were all playing Dunsa together.
So they got close quickly, and Go Youngjoon's only joy in life was going to the PC café with his friends and grinding Dunsa.
That joy.
Crashed down in a single day.
"You little bastard. If you tell anyone what you saw today, I'll kill your mom and dad with my own hands."
"It's one life anyway, so you think I can't do it? Do you want to end up an orphan, you fucker?"
What he saw was a group of high school students when he went to the bathroom at the PC café.
To a middle schooler, the scariest people are high school students, and high schoolers who smoke and act tough are that much scarier.
He saw those guys exchanging white powder.
He even saw one of them snort it through his nose.
It was an unexpected discovery, and an awful sight he didn't want to see.
The price for that was brutal.
"We aren't just gonna let you leave."
"I'm going to spread these photos all over the internet."
They beat him up in the bathroom and even took photos of him after stripping him naked.
It was terrifying.
Why was this happening to him?
He cried and regretted ever going to the PC café.
He should have done what his dad said.
He should have studied instead of playing games.
That day.
If only he hadn't gone to the PC café that day.
What can a boy, stricken with fear, choose?
Only to flee.
From that fear.
From the world.
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"Hey, student."
"Yes?"
"Whaaa?! It's Noah hyung!!"
There was one among the students with Go Youngjoon who recognized me.
Unlike the guy jumping up and down in delight, Go Youngjoon just tilted his head.
Come to think of it, this kid isn't interested in internet broadcasts at all.
Go Youngjoon's only interest was one thing.
Dunsa.
What a very excellent, model student.
A student like that shouldn't have to fall off the balcony of a 24-story apartment because of those bastards.
"Want to flip this one over?"
"Huh? Uh..."
"Hey! Hey! It's Noah hyung!! The best fortune-teller! The prophet!! Hyung! Can't I flip it?!"
"There's no reason you can't, but I'd still like this kid to do it once."
"Uh... yes."
After hesitating, Go Youngjoon flipped the card.
The card that came up was the reversed Chariot.
The confused boy and the other one, whose eyes were sparkling.
I placed my hand on Go Youngjoon's shoulder in front of the two middle schoolers.
"Go Youngjoon."
"Huh... How do you know my name..."
"It's Noah hyung!! That hyung can tell everything just by flipping cards on his stream!"
"Uh... b-but why..."
"You're on your way to the PC café right now."
"Y-yes..."
"Don't go."
"Why, why not? There's a triple EXP event starting today, so I need to burn off my fatigue..."
I knew.
So later tonight, after Han Yu-na gets off work, I'll go there with her.
"There'll be a problem at the Joasseu PC café you're headed to."
"What kind of problem?"
"There are people living like orphans even though they aren't orphans."
"...."
"And you'll see something you shouldn't see there."
"Th, then..."
"And then they'll catch you, beat you up, steal your allowance, and take your Dunsa gear and items."
Go Youngjoon's face went pale.
Snapping photos of him after he saw a drug deal, then threatening his family and driving him to suicide? That would be too cruel, wouldn't it?
This alone was enough to serve as a warning to him.
"...Let's not go today."
The friend standing next to him also looked unhappy.
Maybe because of that?
Go Youngjoon's future changed.
He would just go to school normally.
Grind Dunsa with his friends.
And then enter high school.
Yeah.
This was right.
"Thank you..."
"What are you thanking me for? Let's play Dunsa together sometime later."
"Huh? You play Dunsa too, hyung? What server are you on?"
"My server is..."
Turns out, it was the same server.
We agreed to run raids together sometime later and add each other as friends.
And just like that, the two students turned back the way they had come.
Those kids would stay home quietly today.
Triple EXP was nice and all, but they wouldn't want to watch their futures fall apart.
But I wasn't done yet.
I picked up my phone.
"Prosecutor Gu. I think I found the guys distributing drugs."
-What? How do you know?
"Well..."
After I told him what I'd seen earlier, Gu Namcheol's voice turned serious.
-Understood. I'll be there right away.
After waiting about ten minutes, Gu Namcheol's car came back.
He asked with a serious expression.
"You said it's the Joasseu PC café, right?"
"Yes. I'll head to the PC café first."
"Sir, why would you...?"
"I want to see their future a little."
"It could be dangerous."
"I'll do my fortune-telling from the corner. Besides, Mr. Cheolhun is there too, so it's fine."
"I'm very grateful for your help, sir. But... isn't there no need for you to get involved?"
"If I hadn't seen it, I wouldn't know. But having seen it and then pretending I didn't seems even worse."
I am an orphan.
I don't have parents.
But that doesn't mean I plan to live like one.
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"Wow. It's been a really long time since I last came to this PC café."
"Really?"
"Yes. I came here a few times with friends back in the day. It's changed a lot."
"Haha. It has, hasn't it? Want something to eat or drink?"
"I'm in the middle of work, so eating is a bit... but what are you doing?"
"The Dunsa newbie welcome event still has time left, and the triple EXP event has started. Let's play together."
It's not exactly 'just you showing up and we're good to go,' but isn't it always fun when new players join in?
It's time to pump new blood into the guild.
I took a seat near the bathroom.
Then, after ordering some simple snacks, I logged into Dunsa.
I was leveling a new character with the awkward Mr. Cheolhun when...
Some guys who looked obviously thuggish came in.
Those guys.
After the guys who took a seat looked around, they slowly got up and started heading to the bathroom.
I immediately sent Gu Namcheol a message.
[Come in after five minutes.]
I had to catch them when the guys who went into the bathroom were dealing drugs, and when a few others were using them on the spot.
"I've leveled up."
"Put your skill points into physical attack. Physical-attack meta is all the rage these days."
"...I'm a mage, though?"
"Don't you know strength mage? Strength mage?"
It sounds like a trash build, but strength mage is better than you'd think.
With this patch, the option attached to the new unique item is absurdly broken, so the strength mage that had once been a joke build was about to be hailed as the new god of raids.
"Huh? Why are the police..."
Exactly five minutes later.
The police came in with Gu Namcheol.
The young man who looked like a PC café part-timer was flustered, but the detective leading them didn't care at all and searched the area before heading straight for the bathroom.
"Fuck!!"
"Run!!"
"You damn cops!!"
Shouts came from inside.
And then, from the door that flew open with a bang, one punk came tumbling out.
The police pinned him down.
"Let go! Let go, you bastards!! Fuck!! I said let go!!"
Not even juvenile delinquents, and yet they're really putting up a fight.
One of the police officers picked up a bag containing white powder that had fallen from one of the rioters' pockets.
His expression grew colder and colder.
Even then, whether they hadn't grasped the situation yet or not, a few of them were spitting or even trying to attack the police.
But do you think that would make the police back off?
While the lightly subdued punks were being dragged out by the police, I picked up my phone.
[There's a factory in Wolmido, Incheon. The redhead among today's arrests is the leader. He's also the one handling the pickups from the factory, so please take care of the rest.]
After sending Gu Namcheol the factory address by text, I leaned back in my chair.
All right. Then let's keep going with the triple EXP event.