Chapter 26: Loyalty, Loyalty!

“Of course I know it! I know it way too well! I’m level 183 in Eternal Galaxy. My tier is Ascendant Archon. I’ve been failing my promotion to Eternal Sovereign for two months now. But I’m still the highest-level player in Korea, you know? Wow! This is the first time I’ve ever met someone in real life who plays Eternal Galaxy. But what tier are you? What server? Are you over level 100? Akina’s insanely cute and gorgeous, right?”

As Yoon Youngsu fired all that off like a machine gun without giving himself room to breathe, Hwang Sejun hurriedly cut him off.

“Hey, hey, Team Lead Yoon. You’re making the client uncomfortable. Get ahold of yourself.”

Then he quickly bowed his head to Junho.

“I’m very sorry. Our head of R&D usually isn’t like this, but when a certain topic comes up, he gets a little... yes. I’m truly sorry. Team Lead Yoon, what are you doing? Apologize.”

“Uh... I’m sorry. It’s just that this is the first time I’ve ever met another Gal player in real life.”

He said he was sorry, but his face didn’t look apologetic at all.

If anything, Yoon Youngsu was staring at Junho with eyes that sparkled almost to the point of being burdensome.

Doing his best to smile as naturally as possible, Junho said,

“No, it’s fine. This is the first time I’ve met another Eternal Galaxy player offline too. But level 183 with an Ascendant Archon tier? That’s seriously impressive.”

With a proud look on his face, Yoon Youngsu nodded hard.

“Yep! I’m the only one in Korea. But what about your tier, sir...?”

“Ah, I only dipped into it a little back when it was still an indie game, so... I’m still an Outrider. Once it officially launched, work got too busy, so I just bought it and never actually got around to playing it.”

“Ah...”

A trace of disappointment crossed Yoon Youngsu’s face.

Unlike himself, who was at the second-highest tier out of the game’s seven total tiers, Junho had barely made it out of beginner territory, and that clearly left him wanting.

The moment he felt that, Junho immediately continued.

“And once it officially launched, Akina’s graphics changed a little, didn’t they? Honestly, I liked the indie-era Akina model and illustrations more...”

“Whoa! Really!?”

“Jesus, that scared me.”

When Yoon Youngsu suddenly raised his voice again, Hwang Sejun—who had already half given up—jumped in surprise.

Paying no attention to his own boss, Yoon Youngsu quickly blurted out,

“Same! Honestly, after the official release, the gameplay definitely got better, but the character modeling was kind of disappointing, you know? Akina especially was really... how do I put it...”

“Like she lost a little of her charm compared to the indie version? She had that mature but slightly aloof vibe, and the old modeling really captured that...”

“Exactly! That’s it! Wow, we seriously click, don’t we?”

Yoon Youngsu chimed in excitedly.

Inside, Junho felt his whole body curling up in secondhand embarrassment, but he kept smiling as naturally as he could.

The truth was, what he had just said was actually Yoon Youngsu’s own assessment of Akina from before the regression, back when he had gone on at length about his otaku devotion to her.

‘Hell if I know.’

Most of what Junho knew about Eternal Galaxy had come from Yoon Youngsu in the first place.

Of course, before coming to Dawoo Computing, he had familiarized himself with the game’s basic information in advance, but the detailed stuff had come entirely from Yoon Youngsu.

“Anyway, Team Lead Yoon Youngsu.”

“Yes, yes, go ahead.”

Looking at Yoon Youngsu, whose bright eyes were fixed on him as if every ounce of his attention had been focused in one place, Junho smiled faintly and said,

“The work I mentioned earlier. Can you handle all of it?”

“Of course! Leave everything to me from start to finish! We can distribute each zone independently with edge computing nodes, and for power, we can apply failover design on an energy autoscaling basis and build a multi-cloud-region structure—”

As soon as the kind of explanation that was too much for a humanities major started pouring out, Junho swiftly cut him off.

“That’s good to hear. I’ll listen to the details slowly later. But let me ask you this. If Dawoo Computing, and Team Lead Yoon Youngsu personally, do the job perfectly enough to satisfy me...”

“...?”

“You can make the codename for our pension’s AI computing system Akina.”

“...!!!”

In an instant, Yoon Youngsu’s eyes went wide, and then his face filled with joy and emotion.

At that point, Junho had gone beyond being just a client—or even just another Gal player.

He had become a comrade.

***

“Then I’ll be counting on you.”

“Please don’t worry. Even if we have to mobilize every ounce of our company’s capabilities, we will absolutely produce results that satisfy you, sir.”

Hwang Sejun answered with a face full of battle spirit.

Junho smiled and nodded.

“Yes. I’ll trust you, then. But like I said earlier, I’d appreciate the estimate as quickly as possible. The moment the property purchase goes through, I plan to start construction right away.”

“Understood. We’ll absolutely send it within this week.”

“No. I think two days will do.”

“Uh... Team Lead Yoon?”

Hwang Sejun sent an unsteady look at Yoon Youngsu, who had suddenly jumped in.

But Yoon Youngsu ignored him and said confidently,

“For the AI computing server and GPU farm, three or four A100 80-gig units should be enough. For the storage server, we can build it around a 12-bay NAS with RAID 10 redundancy. Capacity should be about one petabyte? For the local network, two 9300 switches connected with a core 10-gig backbone should keep things stable. As for the access points, we’d need to see the buildings and the grounds first, so let’s skip that for now. And for the edge computing and the environment-control devices including power—”

“Yes, yes, understood. So two days, then?”

Once again, Junho cleanly cut off the flood of humanities-major abuse.

“Yes, sir. Leave it to me.”

Satisfied by Yoon Youngsu’s answer, Junho nodded, then turned to Hwang Sejun, who was looking at his tactless employee and junior with a hollow expression.

“Team Lead R&D says two days, but you’ll need time to review it too, Mr. Hwang. Let’s say I’ll receive the estimate by Friday. And...”

Taking out his phone, Junho continued,

“You brought the provisional contract, right? As promised, I’ll transfer the ten percent deposit first. Would... two hundred million won do?”

“Yes! It would! That’s more than enough!”

With the deposit alone amounting to roughly twenty percent of last year’s total revenue, Hwang Sejun’s face flushed red with excitement.

After signing the provisional contract, Junho immediately transferred two hundred million won to Dawoo Computing’s account.

“My lawyer, Lee Dongcheol, will probably contact you within a few days. And this—”

Handing over a business card, Junho continued,

“—is the card for Baek Hail, the owner who’ll be overseeing the overall pension construction I mentioned. Everything from the power systems to the mechanical equipment falls under Mr. Baek Hail’s authority, so you can contact him and coordinate directly.”

“Understood.”

Hwang Sejun respectfully accepted Baek Hail’s card with both hands.

“Then I’ll be going.”

“Yes, have a safe trip back.”

After shaking hands with Hwang Sejun, Junho smiled at Yoon Youngsu, who was still standing there with that bright expression on his face.

“I look forward to working with you, Team Lead Yoon Youngsu.”

“Yes, sir!”

“Oh, right.”

As if he had suddenly remembered something, Junho opened the car door and searched around inside.

A moment later, he came back out holding a small box.

It was the overseas shipment Junhyeok had accepted on his behalf while he’d been away in Busan.

“I got this through an acquaintance this morning, and I figure a genuine fan like you would appreciate having it more than I would.”

“Huh?”

Yoon Youngsu accepted the box with a puzzled expression.

“Open it after I leave. Then I’ll see you again next time.”

With a faint smile, Junho shook Yoon Youngsu’s hand and got into the car.

“Drive safely!”

Unlike Hwang Sejun, who bowed politely toward Junho’s departing car, Yoon Youngsu just tilted his head, glancing back and forth between the car and the box in his hands.

Once the car had completely disappeared from sight, Hwang Sejun turned a twisted expression toward him.

“Haah! Hey, Yoon Youngsu. I told you not to let your nerd side show in front of clients, didn’t I? Huh? Your CEO—who pays your salary—asked you, and would it really kill you to listen?”

“Yes. Sorry, sunbaenim.”

“CEO!”

“Yes, C.E.O.”

“Jesus Christ, seriously... if you weren’t my underclassman from school...”

Grinding his teeth, Hwang Sejun shook a fist at Yoon Youngsu, who was too busy picking at the carefully wrapped package with his fingernails to pay attention.

“Huh...?”

Not caring in the slightest, Yoon Youngsu kept tearing into the wrapping until his eyes suddenly widened a little.

“What? What is it?”

Riiip! Rip!

Yanking the rest of the wrapping off with rough, urgent hands, Yoon Youngsu lifted the box up with trembling fingers.

Frowning hard, Hwang Sejun read the English text printed on it.

“What is this? Eternal Code Version... Akina Celestial Circuit...?”

“Waaaaah!!!”

“Shit! You scared the hell out of me!”

“It’s Celestial Circuit! Akina Celestial Circuiiit! And it’s even a double-digit serial number!”

An ultra-rare Akina figure released in a limited run of only five hundred.

Holding one of the double-digit-numbered units in his hands, Yoon Youngsu was so overwhelmed he practically had tears in his eyes.

All without the faintest idea that, in the original timeline, about two years later—just one week before the apocalypse—he himself would buy the exact same item, only with a different serial number, off a used-goods app called Cabbage Market.

“Haah... Client Lee Junho... you’re the true Celestial. Loyalty, loyalty....”

“Youngsu? Team Lead Yoon Youngsu? I’m the one who pays your salary, you know? Shouldn’t your loyalty be to me?”

“Ah! I need to work on the equipment estimate our Celestial client entrusted to us with! I’m heading upstairs first, sunbaenim!”

“I said I’m the CEO!”

Hwang Sejun raised his voice on purpose, but the smile wouldn’t leave his face either. After all, he had just landed the biggest single revenue hit since founding the company.

***

“My whole body is curling up....”

In the car on the way back to his house in Bucheon, Junho shuddered once.

Even if he was preparing for the apocalypse, he had never imagined that one day he’d personally buy a pretty-girl figure—or, strictly speaking, a pretty-AI figure—and give it to an otaku as a gift.

Originally, his plan had been to use Eternal Galaxy and Akina as common ground, talk with Yoon Youngsu, and naturally build goodwill by setting the codename for the shelter AI computing system as Akina.

But somehow, that alone had felt like it wouldn’t quite be enough.

If he wanted to fully recruit Yoon Youngsu onto his side, he had felt he needed something more definite... a finishing blow.

That was when he remembered the limited-edition figure Yoon Youngsu had kept in a reinforced plastic case and treasured during the apocalypse.

Back then, Yoon Youngsu had said he’d bought the same item for five million won, so Junho had simply thrown ten thousand dollars onto an overseas auction listing and, in the end, managed to get the figure.

“He’s gotta be losing his mind over it.”

He hadn’t been able to watch because he had been too busy pretending to be some cool young businessman, but Yoon Youngsu had probably been thrilled out of his skull.

And in proportion to that joy, his favorability toward Junho would rise too.

“For Dawoo Computing’s CEO, I can just ask for him to be assigned out on secondment....”

After what he had seen today, Junho was convinced Dawoo Computing’s CEO, Hwang Sejun, wouldn’t be able to reject his proposal.

For the AI computing system alone, Junho had already budgeted two to three billion won just for phase one.

And that would flow directly into Dawoo Computing’s revenue.

He hadn’t actually checked their financial statements, but judging from Hwang Sejun’s reaction when he sent the deposit, it was obvious their performance last year had been pretty miserable.

To a man like that, Junho—who could hand him over two billion won in revenue in one shot—would be no different from a client sent straight from heaven.

And on top of that, once the AI system was completed, what if he also guaranteed an annual SI maintenance contract worth two to three hundred million won?

And what if, as the only condition attached to that, he asked for Yoon Youngsu to be assigned to him on secondment?

And if Yoon Youngsu’s workplace would technically be the shelter disguised as a pension, but he would also be allowed to continue handling Dawoo Computing’s work there?

“He’ll say yes no matter what.”

Junho was certain there was a ninety-nine percent chance Hwang Sejun would accept his proposal.