Chapter 20: Bug (1)

It all started with a post on the community forum.

[Username: oo]

[Title: Is this a bug in Girls Memorial?]

【Screenshot showing an abnormal accumulation of paid currency, Magic Stones】

Our home Wi-Fi is a bit unstable, so when I clicked the button to claim the 500,000 pre-registration reward, it got stuck in an infinite loading screen. I reconnected, and

After that, the rewards keep coming in.

What the hell, this is scary as fuck

[Comment Section][Sorted by: Most Views]

- Goodbye lololol

- Holy shit, how many Magic Stones is that? lololololol

- The server's gonna shut down

- You're definitely getting banned lololololol

At first, even the community users thought it was either a fake troll post or an impossible-to-implement bug, so they didn't pay much attention.

It seemed like the post would be buried, but an hour later, an anonymous post verifying the bug implementation caused the situation to spiral out of control.

*

The phone rings.

The sound of the bell woke me up from my deep sleep, which I had been using to catch up on lost rest.

Having just woken up, my voice comes out as a deep, groggy rumble.

"Hello..."

[I'm terribly sorry for calling so early. This is Seijo Tanaka from SFLAG.]

"Ah, yes... Mr. Tanaka, has something happened?"

[We've taken the server down due to a serious bug that's emerged. I've sent you the details via email, so please check it.]

A bug?

The unexpected situation chased away all remnants of sleep.

"I'll head to the office right away to check and get back to you."

[Understood. Please contact us as soon as possible.]

As soon as I hung up, I jumped out of bed and started getting dressed.

How the hell did this happen? The QA team must have checked everything multiple times...

Cursing under my breath, I called Myung-hoon first.

No matter what, we'd need the development team to fix the bug.

After a couple of rings, Myung-hoon picked up.

"Hello? Is this Myung-hoon hyung's phone?"

[Uh, yeah...? Who is this?]

"It's Ho-jin."

[Oh... Hey, Ho-jin. What's up? Did something happen? It's the middle of the night.]

I paused for a moment before responding to Myung-hoon's question.

"...Yes."

I heard the sound of bedding being thrown off from the other end of the line.

Looks like his reaction is the same as mine.

[...Really?]

"I just got a call from Japan saying a bug has emerged and they've taken the server down..."

A moment of silence fell over the call.

Then, I heard Myung-hoon sigh on the other end.

[I'll head to the office right away. You're coming too, right?]

"Yes, I'm about to leave now."

[Alright, see you at the office.]

After hanging up, I shoved my feet into my sneakers and headed straight for the company.

If I'd been living at home, the taxi fare would have been astronomical, but fortunately, my apartment was near the office.

I greeted the security guard at the front desk and headed up to the team office, where I saw Myung-hoon.

His messy bed hair, pajamas, and slippers combo clearly showed how rushed he'd been to get here.

Myung-hoon looked at me with a sympathetic expression, probably thinking the same about my appearance.

After all, my outfit wasn't much better than his.

"You're here?"

"Yes, hyung."

"We need to figure out what the problem is... You said Japan sent some data, right?"

"Ah, here it is."

I forwarded the data I'd received on my smartphone to Myung-hoon's work messenger.

Myung-hoon moved to his desk in the office and started reviewing the data I sent.

About five minutes later,

Myung-hoon, his face deeply furrowed, spoke without taking his eyes off the screen.

"This is a headache."

"Is the bug that serious? Hard to fix?"

Myung-hoon shook his head at my words.

"No, fixing it isn't difficult. It's clearly a server-side issue, so the fix itself isn't hard... but why didn't the QA team catch this earlier?"

"I was wondering the same thing."

"Anyway, the fix won't take long. About 30 minutes if I do it alone? The problem is what comes after."

"It's going to be chaos when morning comes."

Myung-hoon and I sighed simultaneously.

The tasks we'd have to tackle after fixing the bug were overlapping in our minds.

We'd need to compare the abnormally increased Magic Stones with previous data to determine the severity of bug exploitation,

And we'd have to deal with the accounts of users who had unfairly benefited from the bug.

Moreover, since it was clearly our fault, thinking about how much compensation to give users was giving me a headache.

At least Myung-hoon hyung might get off with just a written warning, since the blame is shared with the QA team...

The thought of managing public opinion after such a major bug right after launch was making my head throb.

"I'll call you when it's fixed. Go do what you need to do."

"Alright."

After hearing Myung-hoon's words, I left the office and made a call.

The recipient was Tanaka from SFLAG.

As they were the publisher we'd entrusted with operations, it was only natural to explain the situation to them first.

"Hello?"

[Director, I've been waiting for your call. How's the situation?]

"We should be able to fix it in 30 minutes to an hour at most."

[That's a relief. But... what comes next is the problem.]

"What is SFLAG planning to do?"

[For now, we'll probably go with a brief apology and promise to prevent recurrence as per the manual, but...]

I inwardly sighed at Tanaka's words.

Times like these really make me feel like I've gone back in time.

Before my regression, directors had already learned from past incidents and established manuals on how to respond.

That manual called for an immediate apology without excuses and sufficient compensation.

To the average person, this might seem like common sense, but the reality was quite different.

At this point in time, unlike the future, many people still held the outdated mindset that apologizing was admitting fault,

And compensation was directly linked to company revenue, so most cases were hesitant to provide it.

That's why SFLAG had adopted this type of manual approach.

"Would it be possible to leave the handling of the aftermath to me?"

[...That's not something I can decide on my own, so I can't give you an answer right now. Do you have some kind of plan?]

"I think I might have a solution. But I'll need SFLAG's help to resolve this situation."

[Help, as in...?]

When I explained the preparations needed to resolve this situation, Tanaka's voice turned skeptical.

[I'll report it to the team leader, but if it's not approved, there's nothing I can do.]

"That's enough for now."

[Alright, I'll contact you again later.]

After ending the call with Tanaka, I could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

I was worried about possible rejection, but things seemed to be going better than expected.

Looks like we've got the first step down, next is...

I took out my smartphone again and made another call.

"CEO, I'm sorry for calling so early. There's an urgent matter—"

*

Two hours later, I visited the studio at Enson Korea headquarters with Yu-mi.

We were there to record an apology broadcast to quell public outrage.

The reason we came all the way to Enson Korea in the morning was... because Enson GT's office didn't have a broadcast studio.

And booking an external studio would have been too time-consuming given our urgency.

"Yu-mi, could you fill out the rental form? I need to make a phone call."

"Okay..."

Leaving Yu-mi to fill out the rental form, I stepped into the hallway just as my smartphone rang.

[Director, do you have a moment to talk?]

"Yes, go ahead."

[All the requests you made have been approved.]

"Really?"

[Of course. I actually thought one or two might be rejected, but we got lucky.]

I breathed another sigh of relief at Tanaka's words.

Looks like we've cleared the biggest hurdle.

"I'll contact you again once we finish recording the video."

[Understood. Please do so as quickly as possible.]

"I will."

After hanging up, I returned to the studio to find Yu-mi had finished filling out the form.

"Director, you're back?"

From the looks of it, she was helping the staff with the broadcast setup.

"Yeah, who's that next to you?"

"Oh, this is the studio's resident staff member."

"Hello, I'm Choi Ye-jin, assistant manager from Enson Korea's studio."

Ye-jin introduced herself with a slight bow.

I returned the gesture and said:

"Nice to meet you, I'm Director Ji Ho-jin."

"I heard everything from the PM. I understand it's urgent... shall we start recording right away?"

"Of course."

"Alright, and you'll be filming in your current outfit, correct?"

"That's right."

My current outfit was an all-black suit that might make people wonder if I'd just come from a funeral.

This, too, was a styling choice learned from the examples of countless directors before my regression.

"Then... please step into the filming area."

Following Ye-jin's instructions, I entered the set.

Ye-jin then brought in several stand lights and positioned them around the set.

"Would you like some help?"

"No, it's fine. I prefer to handle lighting setup myself."

It wasn't just politeness—she finished setting up the lights in no time.

"There are still some minor adjustments left, but given your time constraints and the concept of this video, I think it's better without effects. Is this okay?"

"This is more than enough."

"Alright, I'll count down from three and say 'cue' to start filming."

I faced the camera and tried to calm my nerves at Ye-jin's words.

"Okay, three, two, one—!"

Ye-jin's cue followed.

Hearing the signal that filming had started, I bowed at a 45-degree angle and began speaking.

I was slightly worried about speaking in Japanese, but the words flowed naturally, dispelling my concerns.

"Hello, I am Ji Ho-jin, the director of Girls Memorial."