C1TW | Chapter 001 – Novelish Universe Translations

Chapter 001

This work is a work of fiction. Any names of actual companies, organizations, or individuals mentioned in the story are used fictitiously and are entirely unrelated to reality.

I swear, I’ve lived my life pretty diligently.

So why on earth do I have to listen to this kind of bullsh*t?

“One hundred million won by age thirty? Ayy~ when was that ever the standard? You’re out of the loop. These days, the ‘seed’ starts at three hundred million. If you’ve hit your thirties, you should’ve gathered at least three hundred million. We live in a world where even apartments in the countryside go for three to five hundred million.”

“Ahem! Manager Kim…”

“Oh, right! I forgot our Assistant Seo just saved up one hundred million recently! Look at my head, we even had a celebratory dinner for it. I definitely wasn’t talking about you, Assistant Seo. Sorry. It’s my fault. My bad~ We’re cool, right?”

As if we are, you jerk.

Not long ago, when the Section Chief was talking about ‘car-poor’ people, this guy was shaking like a leaf, wondering if it was directed at him. Now, here he is acting up with that terrible English pronunciation? It’s my fault? Give me a break.

‘I hope Manager Kim drops dead…’

If I weren’t an INFP, I would have headbutted you.

If it weren’t for that guy, I wouldn’t still be stuck at the Assistant level in my sixth year. And I wouldn’t have had that embarrassing moment of pride where I bragged to my coworkers about finally saving one hundred million won…

Yura / HR Team: That was 100% a dig at you.

Me: I know;

Yura / HR Team: Don’t mind him. He’s not worth it.

Yura / HR Team: There are plenty of people waiting for that loser to go down for workplace harassment. I’d bet a hundred million on it.

Me: Don’t say “one hundred million.” I’m getting PTSD.

Me: You think one hundred million is easy? You think it’s a joke???

Yura / HR Team: Sorry..

Honestly, isn’t it a human victory for a victim of rental fraud—who also got dumped by her fiancé—to save one hundred million won while working at a shitty small company? Am I the only one who thinks so?

“The keyboard’s going to catch fire, Assistant Seo. Just hold it in.”

“Ah, sorry…”

As I gave an awkward smile, Senior Assistant Jang whispered to me.

“It’s because people are talking behind Manager Kim’s back about how he even got promoted. That’s why he’s like that. He’s keeping his guard up against you. Pretty pathetic, right?”

“…Weren’t you two close?”

“Oh my. Why would you have such an unpleasant delusion?”

“I heard you were alumni, so you were on the same ‘line’…”

“You’ve watched too many dramas. What kind of ‘lines’ exist in a shitty small company like this?”

Well, true… In a place where everyone is busy looking for an exit strategy while earning a net monthly salary of 2.5 million won, what kind of “line” could there be?

I was the fool for believing it even for a second.

As if reading my mind, Jang muttered to herself.

“What’s the point of graduating from a good university? Working at a place like this, everyone just settles into a downward trend as if they promised to.”

…Senior Assistant Jang. How many people are you hitting with that comment right now?

The image of myself proudly wearing my university jacket throughout my college years flickered before my eyes. Did I ever think I’d end up living like this?

I felt a surge of sorrow, but like the resilience of a six-year veteran of shitty small companies who can endure almost anything, the sadness passed over me like a light scratch.

Anyway…

‘The starting line for seed money is now three hundred million?’

Since when?

I nearly crapped blood trying to save up one hundred million, and now this thunderbolt of bullsh*t? Is he sure? Did he exclude Blackpink and IU before calculating that average?

Manager Kim is obnoxious, but he’s a source of information since he’s in every crypto and real estate chatroom out there.

Sure enough, when I hurriedly checked, the selling prices of apartments in the provinces were burning bright.

“This is driving me crazy…”

Is owning my own home in this lifetime really just a mental delusion?

‘…Should I just cancel my housing subscription account now?’

* * *

[“That’s why I told you to get into crypto with me! If you had entered back then, imagine how much you’d have now!”]

On the way home.

To my story, which I poured out like a grievance, Seok Eun-chu (Relationship: Childhood Friend) screamed through the phone.

“Forget it. What do you mean, crypto? And it’s crashing lately anyway.”

[“Tsk! That’s only temporary. Anyway, you need to break out of that old-fashioned notion that crypto is gambling. Does that kind of value system make sense in today’s world?”]

“I hold human labor sacred and consider the value of labor to be sublime…”

[“Are you from the Stone Age? Humanoids are on standby for deployment, what value of labor? Don’t you know about the AI revolution, you primitive person!”]

“…”

Actually, I know. I know about the AI revolution.

OpenAI, NVIDIA, Tesla, Gemini, Perplexity, etc… How could I not know? I follow every news cycle and have been steadily making installment investments.

However, only in front of Seok Eun-chu do I maintain the attitude of a scholar-girl who is indifferent to worldly affairs.

Why?

‘Because I’m so, so jealous…!’

My childhood friend, Seok Eun-chu, wasn’t just a “crypto-insect”—the social evil everyone talks about. He was a FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) member who achieved self-made success at an early age through a brilliant investment strategy.

The protagonist of a 21st-century luck-myth, where the 10 million won he put in out of curiosity when crypto was unknown returned as 10 billion won.

Watching a guy like that right next to me made my stomach ache and my pride sting so much that I didn’t even want to go near crypto. This is the snot-nosed kid from next door whom I’ve bossed around since elementary school!

But…

‘He really has no loyalty.’

When he was last in the whole school, if he had urged me with even half the sincerity I had when I forged his report card using Photoshop?

When he said he would tattoo his girlfriend’s face on his back, if he had urged me with even a quarter of the sincerity I had when I packed him a lunch to stop him?

Would I really have not bought it?

Eun-chu, are we even real friends?

“I just canceled my housing subscription account.”

[“Gasp!”]

“Seok Eun-chu, I’m in a really bad mood today. Phew…”

[“This won’t do. Where are you now? Want to meet? It’s raining; how about a drink for comfort?”]

If you want to comfort me, give me money. You crypto-insect…

[“Or a gift? Is there nothing you want?”]

There is. Your entire fortune…

“Ha… I’m pathetic.”

[“What! I offer to give you a gift and you’re throwing a fit?!”]

“Not you, me. Seo Sing-ah. I’m pathetic.”

Sing-ah, oh Sing-ah.

Since when did you become so obsessed with money?

You definitely had dreams, goals, and so many things you wanted to do. Since when did you start chasing only money?

Since when did you become so shabby?

“I’m so disappointed in you…”

[“…Me? Not me, right?”]

The thirty-year-old me I dreamed of wasn’t like this. The adult me I imagined was much, much more—

“Aak, sh*t! Oh my god!!!!”

What is that?!

“Mister, what are you doing?!”

I was finally trying to set a sentimental mood! What are you doing here, seriously?!

The bus stop in the rain, where the day had turned dark.

A homeless man was hunched over, sobbing.

Since he was wrapped in something like a sack, for a moment I thought he was a ghost and nearly fainted from shock.

[“What is it! Seo Sing-ah! Are you okay? Send me your address right now!”]

“I’m fine. I’ll call you back later!”

[“Hey, don’t hang up! Hey!”]

I cautiously took a step closer.

“Ex-excuse me…?”

It was a rainy night. It wasn’t that I didn’t know I should be on guard…

‘Just how many days has this person starved?’

It was a sight that could move even the cold heart of a Seoulite. From his face, which looked pale with illness, to his tattered clothes that were so worn they barely covered his body…

The sound of his crying, which didn’t stop even at this moment, was the finishing touch.

“Are you okay? I don’t think you should be here like this…”

“—Seo Sing-ah!”

Oh my god! I turned around, startled.

A young man holding an umbrella with his weight on one leg. As he approached, dragging his slippers, his silhouette was revealed under the streetlight.

It was my fierce-looking younger brother, Seo Cheong-song.

“What are you doing there?”

His low tone was quite annoyed. He looked like he had just woken up.

Due to his job as a police officer, his days and nights were constantly swapped, but since last month, he had become busy for various reasons, including taking responsibility for my commute home because of a serial killer case nearby.

“Do you know how many times I called? Who were you talking to for so long? Do you have a boyfriend?”

“It was Eun-chu—no, look at this person. Quickly.”

Only then did Seo Cheong-song, who saw what was in front of me, approach while raising an eyebrow. He naturally handed me the umbrella and grabbed the homeless man’s shoulder.

“Sir? I’m a police officer. Are you feeling unwell somewhere?”

…Since the ‘cane of the people’ had arrived, was it time for me to get lost? Thinking the same thing, Seo Cheong-song signaled with his eyes.

“You go ahead.”

“Are you taking him to the station?”

“He’ll die if we leave him like this. In this weather.”

“True. Got it.”

It was already late due to that damn overtime.

Soon after, a patrol car arrived, and leaving behind the homeless man in the rain and the busy police officers, I went home first.

* * *

Right.

I thought my connection with that homeless man, who seemed to have many stories, ended there…

I glanced at my wristwatch.

5 AM.

It was a dawn where people commuting were extremely rare.

Unless it was a loser like me who started a ‘Miracle Morning’ after being triggered by Manager Kim’s 300 million won comment, it was a time when everyone was just starting to wake up…

‘Why is this ahjussi still here?’

Didn’t the police take him away yesterday?

The homeless man who looked like a starving Jean Valjean yesterday looked like a Gollum on the verge of death now that the sun was up.

‘Sigh. I’m not usually this kind of person…’

Fine. Let’s think of it as doing a good deed.

A beautiful woman with a rough fate like mine needs to build up some good karma occasionally.

“Excuse me. This… You look like you’ve starved for a long time, so if you eat just anything on an empty stomach, you’ll get sick. This will be better.”

When I opened the lid, a savory smell and white steam spread. It was a thin porridge made with a bit of white rice, eggs, and oatmeal.

My lunch box, goodbye…

And just as I was about to take a step that felt like it weighed a thousand pounds.

“You’re the young lady who helped me last night, aren’t you?”

“Huh? Oh, I wouldn’t call it helping…”

“You left your umbrella behind. For me to use. While you went off into the rain.”

He was only crying yesterday, so when did he see that?

While I hesitated, the homeless man fumbled through his rags and pulled out a pair of cracked glasses to put them on.

Then, his impression changed surprisingly.

From a Gollum on the verge of death due to total ruin, he looked like an intellectual Gollum on the verge of death due to total ruin!

“That young policeman yesterday, too. He seemed like your older brother; I’m indebted to him.”

“He’s not my older brother, he’s my younger brother. Seo Cheong-song is twenty-six, I’m thirty. There’s a whole four-year difference…”

“Ah? I’m sorry. I’m clumsy with those things. I don’t recognize people well. I’ve wasted all my years.”

“It looks like it.”

“…?”

“No! I misspoke. Because it’s a fasting morning. It’s not that, I meant you look like someone who studied a lot—not someone marginalized by society. Like a researcher or something.”

“H-How did you know?!”

…For real?

I just threw out some bullsh*t because he kept pushing up those thick glasses.

“Well, it’s just written on your face. That you have a ‘long bag strap’ (highly educated).”

“I see. It shows…”

The homeless ahjussi became dazed. He looked hollow for some reason.

After an incredibly awkward few minutes had passed.

Just as the notification sound for the bus arrival—a salvation for an INFP—was heard, the homeless ahjussi spoke again.

“By any chance, do you know a company called <Quera>?”

What.

Is it written on my face that I’m a primitive person with no interest in AI and future industries? Is it?

“Is there anyone who doesn’t know Quera? Sungja, Nyx, Quera. I might not have stocks, but do you think I don’t have knowledge? It’s a prejudice that if you’re pretty, you’re ignorant. Who doesn’t know the Big Three of the KOSPI, honestly.”

Even when an INFP, triggered in a strange way, got angry, the ahjussi didn’t react much. He just looked up at the distant sky.

“My name is Park Min-soo.”

“Pardon? Yes. I am Seo Sing-ah.”

“Park Min-soo… you don’t know?”

“It’s, it’s a good name. A bit common, but…”

“You really don’t know?”

What do you want me to do?

“You don’t know. I suppose so. Even if you hear the name, you’d wonder what this is all of a sudden.”

So you know…

“Actually, I am the founder of <Quera>.”

Ah…!

He was a sick person…!

“I know. The founder known to the world is someone else. But that guy, that scammer isn’t even a co-founder. He’s nothing more than a despicable traitor.”

He was a very sick person…

While I was contemplating how to maintain a safe distance, the monologue of the homeless man, Park Min-soo, began to move beyond mere grumbling and turned dark.

“The limit of Quera is definitely not this. What does that guy know about Quantum? If I could go back to that time, I would never let him be. I will never, those guys again…”

What. This is scary. Save me.

‘When is the bus coming?’

It was then.

A blue shadow flickering at the end of the road.

You’re finally here! Toward the bus that was even more welcome than usual today, I hurriedly took a step forward. But.

“Huh?”

It’s… not the bus?

A bright blue Yongdal truck, familiar to any Korean, was racing magnificently through the dawn wind.

“The fate of this country, and perhaps the fate of the world, would have changed… If only I could go back to that time…!”

Wait. Just a minute.

Something’s strange…?

The homeless man’s “tongues-speaking” time behind me was no longer important.