After spending a bit of ti playing a shooting ga at the office, I could feel a faint ache behind my eyes.
“Ugh... It’s already been two hours.”
Long if you think about it, short if you don’t. Back when I was a total burnout in my past life, I used to play gas all day long....
“Eh, not fun anymore.”
Maybe it’s because I’m living cleaner these days, but I get bored faster. Ugh.
Especially fiddling with this horrible low-spec ga console—it just makes want to build a computer. And I’m old enough to actually develop one now.
Was Xevious only 40kb in size? Seriously, I want to fast-forward ten years of my life.
Doo-doo-doo.
I ran over to the full-length mirror in the office to check my reflection. Aside from my eyes being a little dry, there didn’t seem to be any visible change.
‘Mm, perfect again today.’
Then I glanced at the company president who’d been playing gas with .
“You took care of the contract, right? It might seem like arcades are everything right now, but it’ll all change later.”
Still clutching the Famicom—the Family Computer—he nodded.
“Oh, yes. I did. When we reached out to Nin*endo first, they responded positively. There are still so difficulties because of governnt regulations, but... well, since you’re involved, I don’t think it’ll be a problem.”
Exactly. If you have power, you can ignore minor regulations. After all, the ones who set those rules are the powerful themselves.
I smoothed my sleeves with my tiny hand and called for my secretary.
“Lee Si-hyun, let’s go now.”
My secretary, Lee Si-hyun, quietly packed up my things and stood behind .
“Yes, young lady.”
She’s loyal, but kind of a boring person. I found myself thinking that as I looked at her.
“You’ve never played gas before?”
She looked briefly flustered at the question, then shook her head.
“Um. No, I couldn’t really afford to. And... those kinds of things are a little...”
“Unwholeso?”
I asked with a teasing eye-smile. Sure enough, that finally got a reaction out of her.
“Ah, no! I didn’t an it like that.”
“Relax, I’m just joking.”
I chuckled and then suddenly stopped in my tracks, spinning around. Taking her hand, I dragged her over to the console.
“Let’s play a few more rounds of Pac-Man before we go. You play this ti too.”
“Huh?”
She seed a little flustered but didn’t refuse my command.
***
Even though she said she’d never played before, Lee Si-hyun was soon totally absorbed in Pac-Man. The classic ga—still being reimagined in mini-gas everywhere—was truly tiless.
“Ah—Agh!”
When Pac-Man was caught by the chasing ghost, Lee Si-hyun made a face like she was about to cry.
“My turn now. Move over.”
Tap. Tap-tap.
I quickly scored more than double her points. Getting off the seat with a smug expression, I looked at her.
“I-I can win this ti.”
I never said we were competing—just that we should have fun. But it seed her dormant competitive streak had awakened. If this had been sothing she was actually good at, she probably would’ve let win with so excuse like good manners.
‘Mm. Now it’s getting interesting.’
One round. Two rounds.
The number of rounds kept increasing, and eventually, she put down my bags and focused entirely on the ga.
“Ah! T-the controls didn’t respond! Ahh!!”
Bang!
Whoa, shotgun.
As my secretary-slash-bodyguard, she had a solid, athletic build from all the training she’d done. Thanks to that, even her frustrated outburst ca with a punch. Smiling slightly, I gave her firm shoulder a few taps.
“But you still lost, right?”
“No, I really had a good feeling this ti... Just one more round, and I’ll...”
I stopped her before she could go any further. If I let her keep going, Lee Si-hyun might really spiral into a path of no return.
“We should head ho now, don’t you think? Look outside—it’s already been another hour.”
“...Huh?”
Only then did her eyes refocus as she glanced around. The president, who had been watching us for a while, had already sent all the employees ho and was getting ready to leave himself.
I looked at her with amusent.
“How was it?”
With a dazed expression, Lee Si-hyun answered.
“It was... nice.”
“Not that. What did it feel like to lose to ?”
“...Frustrating?”
“And?”
“I... wanted to win. I think that’s how I felt.”
Smiling with my eyes, I nodded at her words.
“That’s right. You wanted to win.”
As I handed my bags back into her arms, I began speaking.
“The reason gas are fun is because the rewards co quickly and clearly. And the steps you need to take to win are laid out so obviously.”
That’s why the people who say studying is fun are usually the ones who are good at it—and most of them lose interest once studying gets harder.
Because when the short-term results disappear, the motivation does too.
“...”
“You know, the world looks like a ga to . I can clearly see what I need to do to move forward. No matter which path I take, it’s like a staircase—just different in difficulty, but all of them lead upward.”
That’s why life is so fun these days. If I could just speed it up a bit, it’d be perfect—but I guess that’s asking too much.
“That’s... strange.”
She looked at with a puzzled expression, like I was so kind of enigma.
“What is?”
“You, young lady. How... how do you know all this? You’re only eight years old.”
Well...
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
“Because I’m a genius.”
With that one sentence—so blunt it made all explanations and questions irrelevant—Lee Si-hyun was left speechless.
“So you need to work harder too. If you’re going to be my secretary, at the very least, you should understand what I’m thinking and where I’m aiming.”
That was what I wanted to say to her today.
She’s my person now, so she should be working harder, becoming even more exceptional.
“I thought... I was already working pretty hard.”
That’s true. Just rising up from the bottom to get here, Lee Si-hyun was certainly an impressive person.
“You need to work harder. Ah, of course, I’m sure you’ve already worked quite a bit. But you’ve worked less than you think. A person’s limits are higher than they believe.”
“...”
That hit her pride. Her brows briefly furrowed. People who’ve built themselves up hate having their hard work and path denied—it’s sothing they despise to the core.
Just like I once did.
But Lee Si-hyun knew my family situation and the brutal schedule I’d been following since two years ago. So she said nothing and chose silence.
Anyone watching lately would say I was possessed—dedicating myself to studying like a madman. The amount I’d studied recently probably rivaled what she did back when she was preparing for university.
“What you did was hardship. I don’t call things that are just painful without results ‘effort’. That’s how I see it.”
Pain without results—that’s hardship.
“...I don’t really understand.”
Lee Si-hyun’s lips moved slightly, her expression a mix of confusion and thought. I gave her a simple analogy.
“You’ve studied a lot too, so you’ll get this. When you’re studying, just staring at a textbook doesn’t really help, right? You need to take notes, summarize things on paper—that’s when studying becos effective.”
“Well... yeah, that’s true.”
“What you’ve done is, basically, born into a single-parent household and studied hard during school. That’s about it. Ah, and I guess working as my secretary too.”
Honestly, that’s already impressive. I heard she grew up without a father and supported her mother and younger sibling on her own.
Even for a man, that wouldn’t have been easy. But she handled it all with her natural ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ strength and talent.
But the truth is, there are tons of people like that in the world. Even just in Daehwa Group, you could find dozens.
“So... you’re saying there’s still more I need to do?”
This ti, Lee Si-hyun’s question ca not from defiance, but pure curiosity. And I was happy to give her the answer.
“If you leave a power shovel alone and dig with a hand spade instead, would you call that effort? That’s just foolish. But... when it cos to money and life, people don’t seem to think that way.”
“You an... there’s an optimal path in life. And you can see it, young lady.”
“That’s right. If it brings no results and only wears you down, forget about it. Let it go. And... just watch . Follow .”
Most hardships in life are inevitable, but so people voluntarily walk into suffering. That’s because they don’t understand the difference between hardship and effort.
They pick up a shovel and dig furiously. And after sweating buckets, they convince themselves they’ve achieved sothing great.
It’s not their fault. No one ever opened their eyes. No one ever taught them.
Those worn down by harsh years and ignorance can’t see the giant machinery sitting right beside them. Just like Lee Si-hyun now.
“...Even so. Sotis, there are things you just can’t give up. Like family... things like that.”
Hmm. I think she misunderstood sothing.
“Wait, you didn’t think I was telling you to abandon your mother or anything like that... right?”
“...Weren’t you?”
As if I’d turn my secretary into so heartless psychopath.
“No, you misunderstood. What I ant was, there are often better choices than just agonizing over things.”
Being that stiff and rigid—it’s not good.
Besides, I’m in a bad mood now.
And my mood is the absolute standard in this world. I can always make more money, but once my mood’s ruined, there’s no fixing it.
“Here. Take this. It’s a gift. It should be more than enough for your mother’s hospital bills or dicine.”
I pulled a check out of my pocket and handed it to her. It had fifty million won written on it—a huge sum for any entry-level worker in the 1980s.
“Young lady... why are you... going this far...”
Lee Si-hyun’s eyes trembled. She was an ordinary human after all—when faced with a large sum of money, her first reaction was rejection.
This is the problem.
“Co on, it’s only fifty million won. That kind of pocket change—I could earn it in a day if I really tried. Honestly, if you’d asked for it the day we first t, I would’ve given it to you right away.”
She stared at and the check with hollow eyes.
“Then... all this ti I spent scraping by and saving every penny... that was just pointless hardship?”
“Exactly. Like I said—don’t suffer, make an effort. Instead of wasting ti pinching pennies, think about the future. Focus on supporting . Got it?”
Since she’s my first loyal subordinate, I might as well take her all the way with .
In gas too, your first hire or character usually becos your favorite. If they turn out to be a solid perforr with a bit of enhancent, it’s worth spending a little money on them.
Besides, she’s pretty. In a trash ga with no appearance-customization skins, that really matters.
“Yes. I understand. And... thank you... young lady.”
Lee Si-hyun bowed deeply and thanked . Soone who used to only look one step ahead, swept along by the tides of the era, was now looking at instead of just the next step.
She might not be able to see the future—like a normal person—but what does it matter?
I’m already living in the future.
If she’s watching , then that’s no different from seeing the future herself.
I smiled and brushed her cheek. The soft feel of her skin pleased .
“Good. Be even more thankful from now on. That way, you’ll work harder and make more money.”
Anyone who can’t adapt to a changing era has no place beside .
And Lee Si-hyun... succeeded in adapting.
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