Chapter 22
Among all the many professions, there were plenty of reasons I chose to become a taxi driver of all things.
The biggest reason was that it seemed to offer a lot of freedom.
Police or gangs.
The basic premise seemed to be that you had to belong to some organization and follow orders.
But who is Wayo?
A first-year super-rookie VTuber.
Isn't Wayo a game streamer destined to become the queen of all-game streaming in South Korea someday?
Working under someone else was definitely not for me.
Of course….
[What?? Taxi driver?? Hey!! Let's be cops together!!]
I didn't particularly like that bastard Haega, who had written me a recommendation, but what could I do?
I'd already decided to become a taxi driver.
Anyway, that's why….
“Rain falling down the Gyeongnam Line~”
-Oof, the old-person vibes;;
-It's raining, and the mood is nice
I'm driving a taxi right now.
Vroom-!
“Ooh, your handling is smooth.”
-I know everything south of the 38th parallel~
-The cornering is something else..
-Now this is driving bb
I hadn't really picked up any passengers yet.
I was just taking the taxi around the map once.
[Ding- Ding-!]
-You're getting a call?
-You're not taking it??
“I'm not quite ready yet.”
Well, calls were coming in, but I needed to learn the roads first.
What if I picked up a passenger, didn't know the way, and just stumbled around helplessly?
Oh, and for reference, the taxis here each had their own slogans.
[The taxi is comin']
[Wayo Driver]
I was driving around with a pretty convincing slogan of my own, too.
“Didn't I come up with a pretty good one? I think that's why I'm getting so many calls.”
-Hmm?
-Hmm.. Decent
-It's just ordinary
“Oh, yeah~”
They were all impressed, yet they just had to grit their teeth.
I gave a vague answer and continued driving down the road.
“The graphics are nice.”
It was a game that had been released some time ago, but the backgrounds were pretty good in their own way.
The city was beautiful, and the mountain slopes along the roads were easy on the eyes.
-Hardly surprising, it's the number-one game in the world
-It isn't bad
"Outwind had nice scenery too."
-?
-What's with sneaking in an Outwind fanboy plugㅋㅋ
Seeing the natural scenery reminded me of Outwind.
That game really did have beautiful scenery.
For reference, I hadn't played it again since that day.
Starting over from the beginning had seemed daunting.
It was a two-player game to begin with, so maybe I'd have a chance to play it with someone else later.
[Ding-! Ding-!]
“Hmm?”
That was when I was driving along, lost in thought.
The phone held by the default character began to ring.
-You're getting a call?
-Who is it?
-Oh crap, it's a big-name company
At a glance, it was that bastard Haega.
How did he even know my phone number in the game?
Hmm, if I answered, he seemed likely to give me shit again for choosing taxi driver….
Click.
I quietly closed the phone.
-??
-You're not answering?ㅋㅋ
“Tsk, who looks at their phone while driving?”
-?
-Oh, professional ethicsㅋㅋ
-That does sound plausible, yeah;;
-Are you really not answering??
“If it's important, he'll come find me.”
-??
-You're a taxi driver. How's he supposed to find you?ㅋㅋ
“I dunno, I dunno.”
-This 'I dunno, I dunno' nonsense;;
-He hung upㅋㅋ
-Getting passed over by a major company, now that's something bb
I was grateful that Haega had written me a recommendation, but if possible, I hoped I wouldn't have to meet him.
“Now that I've gone around the city once, shall I start accepting calls?”
Because he was a police officer, after all.
An ordinary citizen shouldn't have any reason to run into the police.
**
Anyway, after trying out taxi driving for about thirty minutes.
“No, I really am a taxi driver.”
-??
-What did you think it was?
-It's probably because it's still early on
I was startled by how much it really felt like being a taxi driver.
You actually picked up passengers and drove them around.
Then you drove, got paid,
and asked things like, “Where are you going?” and “What's your job?” along the way.
The only thing missing was a political radio station. It felt like a genuinely realistic taxi-driver experience.
Well, it was a different kind of feeling….
“Why is the base fare so stingy?”
Could anyone actually make money doing this?
The whole point of the game was supposed to be making money, after all.
From what I'd heard about the server, there were all kinds of things you could use once you made money, but it looked like I wouldn't even get to see them.
-That's what taxi drivers are normally likeㅇㅇ
-If you don't like it, join a gang and rob a bank
-You should work honestly
“Wow, you can rob banks too?”
-Apparently you can rob banks and police stations too
-You can get robbed as well
-That's why catching gangs as a cop gives you a big bonus
-You could change jobs even now??
“Maybe it's because I'm an emotional ordinary citizen, but that's not really my thing.”
-??
-?
-Weren't you a soulless psychopath before, you fuckerㅋㅋ
“That was Wayo.”
Wayo was the emotionless psychopath top laner who headed to a side lane with a cool, calculating mind even when our main force was being pushed back.
What was in this server right now was Wayo-yong, an ordinary citizen and taxi driver.
Since this was a server where everyone was supposed to maintain their RP, shouldn't I be thorough about that sort of thing too?
Well, it was funny that a VTuber wearing a cartoon avatar had made up another RP and joined the server in the first place.
“And what's with changing jobs now? Let's stay true to our roles.”
Anyway, as I chatted and drove along whatever roads I could see, I eventually found myself at the outskirts of the map.
“There aren't any calls out here.”
-? Why did you come all the way hereㅋㅋ
-You need to go back to the city
-Ugh, at this rate, when will you ever make money
“If I take a call here, it feels like I could get a surcharge, maybe even a quadruple fare.”
I had come so far from the central city that it made me wonder if I'd been acting without thinking.
Were there no passengers in a place like this?
-The server just opened. Would there be any here??
-It's really dead out here
-Guess your old knack for running a fan cafe hasn't gone anywhereㅋㅋ
“Why are we talking about my fan cafe? Want to go to jail?”
-Gasp
-What
“Anyway, since we're here, let's look around the map.”
The game whose server had opened was a hugely famous title.
But I'd only dabbled in it before, so I didn't know the map.
That was why I'd driven around the city once earlier, too.
-Can cars even drive here?
-There isn't a road up aheadㅋㅋ;
“If I go there, won't it become a road?”
What else would it be if it wasn't a road?
A passenger car weighed over a ton by default.
Even if nature tried to block my way, if a steel mass almost as big as a rhinoceros pushed through, that became a road.
Crunch! Creak!
And so, I pushed aside simple branches and made my way down the narrow path.
Still, it was a path designed to be passable.
Though normally, only a motorcycle would have been able to get through.
-It's pushing right through this;;
-Wayo's Teto power is something else
-Who's going to repair the car??
“Our ancestors will take care of the repairs~”
The car did get scratched up quite a bit while I was making my own road, but it didn't matter.
In a rough city where gangs like these operated, weren't scars on a car supposed to be badges of honor?
Of course, these scars had been made by branches, not bullets.
Anyway, after forcing my way through that somewhat rough path, I saw a lake on the small minimap.
“There's a lake here. Can we fish, by any chance?”
-What's a taxi driver doing fishing?;
-Is this bastard here to play?
-He just came campingㅋㅋ
-You can, thoughㅇㅇ
"Really?"
I'd heard the game offered a lot of freedom, but fishing actually worked?
“Where do I buy a fishing rod?”
-You can buy one at a convenience store
-I think they'll pay a decent price for fish
“Oh~ Really?”
Fish were worth money?
That made it kind of tempting.
Since I'd come all the way here, trying out fishing didn't seem like a bad idea.
I parked the car for a moment and bought a basic fishing rod and some bait at a nearby convenience store.
“It's a little pricey.”
-Do you even have enough money for gas?
-He spent everything he earned todayㅋㅋ
-No, is he really fishing??
“Even a life that races relentlessly needs a little time to rest.”
-You haven't raced anywhere, damn it;;
-What are you racing?
-Info) He picked up three passengers
Now that I had a rod and bait,
I set up beside the lake I'd spotted earlier and sat down.
"Let's just do it for a little while."
-Yeah, just for a little bit
-It is pretty fun in its own way
Well, it wasn't as if I could catch anything amazing with basic bait and a basic fishing rod.
Sometimes you needed moments like this, too.
**
It had been three days since I joined the large server.
To cut to the conclusion.
Fishing in this game was surprisingly fun.
Maybe it was because it was an open-world game that emphasized realism.
There was also a surprisingly wide variety of fish to catch.
-How long are you going to fish?
-You crazy fishing freak bastard
-How many days have you been fishing now, fuck;;
“No, that's not what's important right now. They say you can catch skipjack tuna here.”
And it even made a decent amount of money.
How much would a skipjack tuna fetch?
It was far more profitable than slowly saving up taxi fares.
-You're a taxi driver
-Then become a fisherman, for fuck's sake
“There wasn't a fisherman profession.”
If there had been one, I would've seriously considered it.
For reference, I was currently at the seaside on the very edge of the map.
There was something about fishing in the salty wind before the vast ocean.
Of course, it was only on a monitor screen, but sitting there leisurely still gave me a sense of freedom.
-Are you seriously doing nothing but fishing??
-Please go back to the city
-Is this bastard some kind of nature person??
-You came all the way to the large server, and all you're doing is fishing, fuck;;
Of course, the viewers must have been tearing their hair out in frustration.
But my heart was more peaceful than ever.
For good reason.
[Viewers: 245]
By joining the large server, I'd gotten most of the viewers who had wandered away to come back.
Now that I'd successfully recouped my losses, what reason did I have to hold on to any lingering regrets?
As expected, you really had to hand it to the large server's name value.
It hadn't been long since I started, but familiar usernames had already begun appearing one after another and settling in.
It was a little early, but it seemed fair to say that I'd already achieved my purpose in joining the server.
“Let's get that skipjack~”
So I was enjoying myself without a care in the world.
I'd even been told in advance to play freely, after all.
As long as I maintained my RP, wasn't this sort of play actually in line with the server organizers' intentions?
-Please fall into the sea and die..
-You've been staring at the sea all damn day ㅆㅂ
-You crazy fishing freak bastard..
...Or not, whatever.