Just like any other day, the protagonist **Kurikasu** was living a laid-back life.
With a steady income from online gambling games, more commonly known as poker, Kurikasu always had money.
It wasn't because of luck or fortune that he always won. It was because he used cheats to win his games.
Kurikasu always played dirty, using an illegal program to see what cards his opponents had.
So, all the cards held by every poker player were visible to Kurikasu.
When his opponents had a worse hand than him, he'd go all-in.
If they took the bait, their chips would be wiped out. Kurikasu knew there was no chance they could win, not even a little bit.
When he got bored, Kurikasu would just spend his time sleeping all day, every day. He would sleep, sleep, and never go out. That's how it always was.
But today was different. He decided to go out again. He really wanted to rent a console game from a shop near his house.
That rental shop was a place Kurikasu used to spend a lot of time at when he was a kid. But now that he was an adult, it was difficult to find the time, so he rarely stopped by anymore.
**NEK KADER'S RENTAL**
The shop was owned by a cranky old man and woman.
As he was playing the console game, Kurikasu felt a wave of nostalgia. It had been so long since he'd played a game like this. He remembered his childhood, back when he used to rent from this very place.
Just as he was getting into the game, a kid who was also renting a console game next to Kurikasu suddenly asked him a question.
"Hey, do you know the code for this game? I wanna beat it. I've been playing it for over three months and I still can't finish it," the kid said.
Kurikasu thought to himself, *"Can you even beat this game? It's a quiz game. Even if you finish one quiz, there's another one, and so on."*
He then took the kid's game console and looked at the game's settings menu.
He was suddenly shocked to find an incomplete system within the game.
This system was what would allow someone who beat the game to freely choose any quiz mission.
Kurikasu quickly pressed the buttons on the kid's game console, and the kid immediately shouted, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! You got the code to work!"
Kurikasu gave a wicked smile and handed the console back to the kid. The kid looked as happy as if his mom had just given him a present.
Kurikasu then went back to playing his own game. Time passed quickly, and his rental time was up.
Suddenly, the old woman who owned the rental shop started yelling in a very loud voice.
"Hey! Hey! Your time is up, pal! If you wanna add more time, pay up! If not, get outta here! There are still a bunch of people who want to play!" the old woman shouted.
"Alright, I was just about to head home anyway," Kurikasu said softly.
Kurikasu wasn't mad about being yelled at by the old woman. In fact, he was happy. When he was little, the rental shop owner used to yell at him all the time.
That's what made Kurikasu feel good; it reminded him of when he was a kid, when the old woman would scold him in a loud voice with harsh words.
Kurikasu then got up from his seat to go home.
On his way home, Kurikasu saw a lot of people hanging out on the streets, playing mobile games.
At that time, everyone had switched to mobile, and now, places like console game rentals and internet cafés were very empty.
Everything was instant now. People no longer needed to go to internet cafés or game rentals.
Everything was available on mobile, and there was no longer any need to wait for hours just to rent a computer or a game console.
Before he knew it, Kurikasu was standing in front of an internet café, a place he used to play old-school online games.
Every day, Kurikasu would spend his money just to rent a computer there, but now the internet café was very quiet.
Since everything was now on mobile and all the players had grown up, those were the factors that made the internet café not as lively as it used to be.
Kurikasu walked into the internet café, and indeed, it was very quiet.
It wasn't like the old days when people would wait for hours just because all the computers were taken.
There were only three people in the internet café, including the operator. And just like before, **Godex** was still asleep in front of his computer screen.
He didn't know if Godex was tired from guarding the café or just lazy. To this day, he had never asked Godex why he was always sleeping in front of his computer.
Godex was the internet café's operator. He had known him for a long time. This internet café was like a second home to him.
So, he woke up Godex, who was sound asleep.
"Hey! Hey! Hey! Wake up! Your bum time is up! Hurry up, I wanna play!" he said, nudging Godex's body.
Godex's eyes slowly opened, and he came to.
"Oh... it's Kurikasu... it's been a while since you showed up... I thought you were dead, hahahahah..." Godex said, laughing.
"Hurry up and wake up! I wanna play," he said, still pushing Godex, who wanted to keep sleeping.
"Eh... hold on... hold on... I still remember, you still owe me money. Even though it's been a long time, I still remember," Godex said, raising an eyebrow.
"Hahaha, your memory's insane. Alright, here's the money. And I'll play for one hour," he said, giving Godex the money.
"Okay... the PC is next to PC 9," Godex said, pointing at PC 8.
He immediately went to PC 8. Next to him were two teenagers at PC 9.
One of them was playing, and the other was just watching his friend play.
Occasionally, they would glance at him as he was surfing the internet.
He grew suspicious of why they kept sneaking glances at him, and he tried to find out the reason.
It turned out his suspicion was correct; they had installed a **keylogger** on his PC.
A keylogger is a tool that records a person's keystrokes, so even if they can't see what he was doing, they would know what he was writing and typing on the computer.
For example, if he entered the password for an account, they would automatically know his account password.
Keyloggers are commonly used to hack someone's game account or social media account.