The hot water of the shower washed away the last of his lingering shame about his old life. As he toweled off, the numbers began arranging themselves in his mind, not as a source of panic, but as pieces on a chessboard.
He pulled up his banking app. Balance: 268,500 ₩.
A week ago, that number would have been a death sentence. Now, it was his opening move.
Okay. Rent is 950,000. The student loan is 240,000. That's 1,190,000 in non-negotiables.
A familiar knot of anxiety began to tighten in his stomach, but he shoved it down. No. Look at the other side.
My part-time jobs bring in 1.2 million. That covers the essentials with… 10,000 won to spare.
A grim smile touched his lips. For his entire adult life, he had been running on a treadmill designed to make him fail, surviving on a margin so thin it could kill a man. But that was the old math.
His eyes flicked to his laptop, where the Fiverr tab was still open.
That's the old math, he thought, the realization a surge of pure power. The 268,500 in my account isn't for survival. It's my war chest. It's for groceries, for Coke, and for buying me the time to land the next 500,000 ₩ gig.
Another idea sparked, born from his recent client work. The code was flawless, but the website still looked like a relic from 2005. If I could also design the UI... I could sell a complete solution, not just a fix. I could double my quotes.
He immediately searched for a Photoshop subscription.
26,400 ₩ per month. Minus the 3% cashback.
His finger hovered over the payment button. This was a real business expense—his first. He clicked.
After the digital pleasantries of signing his data away, he installed the behemoth of a program and opened a new canvas.
He was immediately stunned. And horrified.
The screen was a hieroglyphic nightmare of toolbars, palettes, and icons. He clicked the brush tool and scribbled a wobbly line. Okay, not bad. He then spent ten minutes trying to figure out how to change its color.
Layers? What the hell is a layer? Why does it need to be smarter? He remembered a TikTok where AI seamlessly filled in backgrounds. Where was that button?!
There was a catch, a monumental one. He had absolutely no clue how to use the software.
My god. I'll have to actually learn this.
He pulled up YouTube: "Photoshop for Complete Beginners (Korean)."
An hour later, he had successfully followed a tutorial to create a "simple, modern" button. It looked like a bloated rectangle with a misaligned drop shadow. It was, by any professional standard, an abomination. It was also the best thing he'd ever made.
He felt a flicker of accomplishment. It was a start.
[Generating Skill…]
[+25 EXP]
[Reward: Photoshop Mastery, EXP (25/1000), LVL 0]
[RANK: LAYMAN]
[NOTICE: 2x EXP Penalty multiplier active. Skill was not earned via a Quest or Practical Grinding.]
"No! You absolute CUNT!" he yelled, swinging his fists at the holographic prompt, which shimmered mockingly. I have to grind for this one, too?! I thought the system was supposed to make things easy!
…
A new prompt appeared, this time in crimson.
[New Quest Line: 'Foundational Product']
[Objective: Develop and launch a market-ready software product.]
[Time-limit: 48 Hours]
[Reward: ???]
[Penalty: 10% donation from primary account to Nestlé S.A.]
"Nestlé?" Dong-seung yelled at the hologram. "Are you serious? So if I fail, I'm personally bankrolling their next corporate water-heist? That's a war crime!"
The system flickered, unimpressed. A new, smaller prompt appeared, its tone drier than the Sahara.
[User Fact-Check Alert.]
[Statement: '...corporate water-heist.']
[Verdict: Hyperbolic. While Nestlé's groundwater extraction practices have been the subject of significant global controversy and legal disputes, the term 'heist' implies a singular, clandestine event. Their operations are typically permitted, if contentious, commercial activities.]
[Conclusion: Your motivational outrage is noted. The penalty stands.]
"Fine! You win, you smart-ass!" he spat, his shoulders slumping in defeat. The clock was now ticking.
…
BING
"Fiverr?"
A review popped up.
"An incredible recommendation for Dong-seung! He completely transformed my slow and buggy website into a fast, secure, and smooth platform. His delivery was lightning-fast, communication was top-notch, and he charged very reasonable rates – all while fixing issues left by another developer who cost significantly more to achieve nothing. 5 stars!"
That felt good. When was the last time I got praised? Was it in his childhood? From Min-jun? From his former girlfriend? He couldn't quite pin it down; the memory was that faint. It was pathetic how a few lines of text from a stranger could genuinely make his day.
The feeling of satisfaction curdled into a sharper, more familiar emotion: guilt. I should donate the next gig's earnings to Uncle Tae-shik. He needed to start repaying the kindness he'd been shown for years. A place to live, even at a discounted rent, was one thing.
But his uncle had gone so much further. The furniture? All provided. The appliances? Top-of-the-line. He glanced toward the kitchen, the silent, gleaming monuments to his uncle's generosity. The oven, the dishwasher, the washing machine, and even the dryer were all Miele. A woman's wet dream, he thought automatically.
He immediately cringed at his own internal monologue. What a lousy, outdated thing to think. We live in a different era. I should probably keep those jokes inside my own head, or people will think I'm the kind of guy who beats his wife.
The thought was a stark reminder of the person he used to be—the bitter, cynical one who made edgy jokes to mask his own failure. He was building a new life now. Maybe it was time to build a better personality to go with it.
Let's get ready to rumble. I have to at least start this quest!
He had the core idea: a desktop app that analyzes a website's speed. The logic was the easy part; he could feel the C++ formulas for calculating load times and file sizes arranging themselves in his mind. But a major problem immediately surfaced.
"How the hell do I make a desktop app?" he muttered. "I can't just run C++ code in a web browser."
He had the engine, but no chassis. He needed a way to build a window with buttons and graphs that could harness the raw power of his C++ code.
And then it finally hit him like Truck-kun. He could use a versatile framework like Electron, which lets you build desktop apps using JavaScript. Even Discord uses it.
The plan snapped into place.
For the front end, he would use JavaScript. With that, he could build the interface. It wouldn't look pretty at first, but if he stuck to a Reddit guide or some online tutorials, it would be acceptable enough for the business world. It just needed to be functional.
As the back end, he would use his C++ engine. Calculations in C++ were fast and efficient. You just have to be careful with the variables and the memory management, he thought, the System's knowledge surfacing. It has to be robust, or the whole program could crash. Using C++ for the core engine was the only way to ensure it could handle medium or large websites without choking on memory leaks or taking forever. Pure JavaScript simply wasn't scalable enough for a professional tool. Future-proofing it was the most sensible option.
The idea of his software giving a client false data sent a chill down his spine. He was still traumatized from his own dealership fantasy.
"I'll plan to update it later anyway," he said with a wry grin, already feeling the 48-hour clock ticking down.
…
An hour of frantic research later, he had gathered three core pieces of intelligence:
There are lots of trolls on Reddit.
Stackoverflow.com is a godsend.
The internet is full of free PDFs detailing the exact optimization tips he needed.
He started by testing the water with the new framework. Then came the good part: building the analysis engine. With the help of online guides and his System-given knowledge, he crafted code that was scalable, optimized, and—unlike the spaghetti code from his second gig—even had proper documentation.
I can feed it that developer's own mess, he thought with a dark sense of satisfaction. What about naming the software 'Website-Detangler'? It was easy to remember and told you exactly what it did.
He began stitching the interface together. The buttons were ugly—plain white rectangles with a thin black border—but they were functional. Aesthetics were a problem for Future Dong-seung.
The 2x EXP penalty on his Photoshop skill was a brutal bottleneck. It took him two frustrating hours just to get the spaghetti in the logo to look like food and not a strange worm.
[+10 EXP - Photoshop]
The system chimed, the meager gain a slap in the face.
Some JavaScript here, some configuration there, and voilà. He had a basic, functioning Windows application.
For the final UI, he had grander plans. He'd find a cool color palette, of course, and implement a proper dark and light theme. The dark theme, just like in Discord, would be the glorious default. He added a small version number to the corner and a copyright disclaimer.
Then he placed the tangled mess of spaghetti with a splash of tomato sauce in the top-left corner. It was perfect.
And because he could, he added an Easter egg. If you clicked the logo ten times, a hidden window would pop up. Inside was a simple game, a clone of Doodle Jump, but where you bounced a tiny, pixelated version of his spaghetti logo up a tower of platforms.
It was completely unnecessary, and it was brilliant.
Now for the final stretch: finding a place to sell.
A quick search led him to Gumroad.com. He ran through the familiar routine of signing up, filling in details, and uploading his application file.
The final price? 50,000 ₩.
Upload complete!
[Quest Complete!]
[Reward: Product Designer Title, 100 EXP - C++, Photoshop, JavaScript]
[JavaScript Mastery, EXP (100/2500), LVL 2]
[C++ Mastery, EXP (100/500), LVL 1]
[Photoshop Mastery, EXP (110/1000), LVL 0]
"What does that title do?" he asked the air.
[Grants 25% faster software prototyping and generation]
A genuine smile spread across his face. Nice. I've just built a pipeline for passive income.
On a whim, he grabbed the cold, metallic Amex card from his wallet and navigated to his own product page. He clicked Purchase.
BRRRRR
A notification shimmered into view.
[AMEX: 3% Cashback, 1,500 ₩]
He had just paid himself a 1,500 ₩ commission.