Overgeared

11:33 p.m.

Lim Cheolho, the head of Satisfy’s development team and of the S.A. Group, was working all night. Satisfy was a game with over two billion users, so there were always countless variables. Satisfy’s overall flow, whether small or large, depended on what each of the two billion users were doing. The system was impossible to maintain if errors kept occurring.

Lim Cheolho was always enthusiastic about building a complete system.

‘I can’t allow even a single error.’

He had unmatched concentration whenever he focused on his work and only heard his ringtone after 40 seconds or more. It was a call from the operations team.

"What’s going on?"

(Quest B408 has been triggered. Please authorize the convening of an emergency meeting).

Lim Cheolho’s mind revolved and then recalled the information about B408.

B408. It was a codename for S-grade hidden quests that needed special conditions to be fulfilled.

‘The compensation for Quest B408 is a second class?’

The user who cleared B408 would be able to obtain another class. In Satisfy, they might be the first user to have two classes. But the more rewarding the quest was, the more difficult it would be.

In particular, the content of Quest B408 was very unique, as the user had to be trapped in an enclosed space for 200 hours of Satisfy time. It had a direct impact on the real world, since the user who performed the quest was at a great risk of suffering serious psychological damage. One of the reasons why the clause ‘the S.A Group has permission to view user’s personal information’ was created was due to quests like B408.

“I give permission. I will go as well.”

Lim Cheolho immediately stopped working and headed towards the conference room. He arrived in the meeting room and looked at the documents. It contained information about the user who triggered the quest.

“Amazing. A Mongolian person.”

Originally, Mongolia was the world’s 10th richest country when it came to resources but lacked the technology to find and use those resources. But after breaking away from communism, the Mongolian government established diplomatic ties with many countries and actively attracted foreign direct investment (FDI).

Since then, numerous governments and companies advanced into Mongolia, including both the Korean government and Korean companies. They called Mongolia the ‘land of opportunity’ and made investments. There was a huge inflow of foreign capital into Mongolia.

However, once Mongolia’s regime changed in the 2010s, the FDIs started to slow down due to the rapid change in policy. After many years, the regime changed once again and the Mongolian officials tried to induce the FDIs again, but many had already lost confidence in Mongolia. In the end, the Mongolian government’s plans didn’t proceed as planned and Mongolia remained a developing country until the 2030s.

But now it was different. Mongolia’s FDIs were revitalized as the world’s economy boomed, thanks to rapid technological development in the 2040s. The Mongolian government cooperated, and through some successful processes, the nation stepped into the ranks of the developed countries.

But despite this, the nomadic temperament of Mongolia didn’t change. The vast majority of the Mongol people couldn’t adapt to the new benefits and still wanted to wander the grasslands. As a result, Mongolia became one of the countries with the smallest number of Satisfy members.

According to statistics, more than 60% of the total population of developed countries were Satisfy players. In addition, Satisfy-related businesses created a lot of jobs. But in Mongolia, only 3% of the population played Satisfy. For the Mongols who loved wandering the grasslands, the act of being trapped in a small capsule was unacceptable.

‘3% of the population is a miracle.’

The 25-year-old with the name of Allunbatar, which was hard to pronounce, was a level 127 orator. Lim Cheolho was already surprised to see a level 127 orator, a class that was weak in combat, but he couldn’t believe that the user was a Mongolian.

’Quest-based leveling: by utilizing the characteristics of an orator, he could obtain relatively difficult quests, an effective way to play.’

As Lim Cheolho read the documents, the executives who had been sleeping at home rushed in for the emergency meeting. Some of them gave off the scent of alcohol. Lim Cheolho paid attention to Yoon Sangmin. Director Yoon Sangmin was obsessive about cleanliness, so this was the first time Lim Cheolho saw him with scruffy hair.

"I thought you of all people would comb your hair, even in the midst of a war. Is Director Yoon’s weakness sleeping?”

The other board members had the same thought and laughed.

"We finally found Director Yoon’s weakness!”

"Haha, that’s right. I was suspicious that you might’ve been a robot that wouldn’t bleed from its wounds. Fortunately, you are human.”

The atmosphere lightened those few words from Lim Cheolho. The laughing executives completely woke up from their sleepy or tipsy state.

’You made me a scapegoat.’

Yoon Sangmin’s face reddened as he beckoned to Yoon Nahee.

"It seems like all the executives are gathered. Have the Mongol branch president and officers come together?”

“Yes. I will connect to them immediately.”

A 3D image appeared in the center of the huge roundtable. It was the appearance of the branch managers and executives of the S.A. Group’s Mongolian branch. They greeted Lim Cheolho.

Lim Cheolho proceeded with the meeting.

“The agenda of this meeting is to secure the safety of the Mongolian user who triggered Quest B408, called Allunbatar. I will entrust this to Branch Manager Park.”

S.A Group’s Mongolian branch manager, Park Eunhyuk, had already completed the preparations as soon as he heard that the Quest B408 was triggered by a Mongolian user.

"I’ve tracked the IP address of Allunbatar, who is connected to Satisfy, and have confirmed that the address in the member information matches his current residence. If a situation occurs, the Mongolian government will cooperate by dispatching medical personnel and police officers. Finally, during the quest, the security team members will observe Allunbatar in real time.”

Quick and efficient actions. Lim Cheolho nodded with satisfaction.

The branch manager, Park Eunhyuk, gave his opinion,

“The Mongolian branch sees this quest as an opportunity and aims to use it as a foothold into the market here. I will leak some of the quest information to the media. This will be the first user who might have two classes in Satisfy, and the fact that it is a Mongolian user will be widely reported throughout the media around the world. This is natural PR, and the Mongolians will see one of their own becoming a global star through Satisfy, increasing their interest in the game.”

“Oh, that is a good idea. Once they have interest, the number of people who want to experience Satisfy will increase.”

"The major media companies in each country, especially the Mongolian media companies, will definitely jump on the news. If the press builds Allunbatar into a huge person, the Mongolian pride will be triggered and the PR effect will be maximized."

Most of the executives were favorable towards this idea. However, a small number of them didn’t like it.

“Is there any guarantee that Allunbatar will succeed in the quest? What will happen if we make the whole world pay attention to this quest, only for it to fail?”

Yoon Sangmin, who just finished brushing his hair, shook his head.

“It doesn’t matter if the quest is successful or not. Even if it fails, the fact that he is the first user to acquire an S-grade hidden quest will make Allunbatar stand out. Still, it would be preferred if the quest were successful. Unless there is a problem with Allunbatar’s personality and he logs out, it should be a success. Team Leader Yoon Nahee, have you analyzed the chances of Allunbatar’s quest succeeding?”

“Yes.”

Once Yoon Nahee replied, her team members handed the executives a new piece of paper. The Mongolian branch executives also received the document through email. After a while, the executives read the contents of the paper and frowned.

“What is this? The probability of success is only 9%?”

Director Yoon Sangmin was shocked. "W-What is this?"

Yoon Sangmin couldn’t accept this response.

"Doesn’t Quest B408 involve being rescued by a hidden NPC? Allunbatar’s health condition is also very good. If we protect Allunbatar on the outside, it is unlikely for him to log out. If Allunbatar doesn’t log out, he will be rescued by the hidden NPC and will clear the quest. So why is the success rate so low? I’ve predicted at least an 80% success rate.”

"Well...” The moment that Yoon Nahee tried to explain.

“Kuhahahahaha!”

The silent Lim Cheolho suddenly burst out laughing? Everyone looked at Lim Cheolho in shock.

Tsk tsk tsk. Lim Cheolho clicked his tongue and stated, “Your nature is too frantic. Shouldn’t you read the document first before asking the question?”

“......”

The executives read the document carefully at Lim Cheolho’s words and were shocked at its contents. Yoon Sangmin nervously crumbled up the piece of paper and muttered,

“Again... this person...”

The normal scenario for Quest B408 was like this:

A user with high reputation would build up affinity to the maximum with the Winston residents. In the process of building affinity, the user would learn about the wickedness of Winston’s lord and the Mero Company. At this time, the user would be assimilated with the Winston residents and sincerely resent the Mero Company and the lord. The residents of Winston would detect this and give the user a quest called ‘For the Residents of Winston’.

Once the user accepted the quest, the story would begin in earnest. The user would try to meet Earl Steim, but they couldn’t go against the powers of Winston’s lord and the Mero Company. The user would be caught and eventually imprisoned in the dungeon.

At this point, the quest would change from ‘For the Residents of Winston’ to ‘Wait’. If the user were to accept this quest, the ‘Mysterious Apostle of Justice’ NPC, who would be hiding in Winston due to special circumstances, would rescue the user after 200 hours.

In this case, the user would establish a relationship with the ‘Mysterious Apostle of Justice’ and find out their identity. Then the user would go on a journey to help the mysterious NPC. Once the user performed all the linked quests, they would receive rewards beyond imagination.

However, a variable meant that the quest didn’t flow along the scheduled scenario. The variable was that Allunbatar shared the quest information with another user. The planned ‘Mysterious Apostle of Justice’ NPC became obsolete, and the related quests to the NPC also disappeared.

The news that Allunbatar was confined in the dungeon after failing the quest would be passed onto the user whom he shared the quest information with, not the ‘Mysterious Apostle of Justice’. But that user turned out to be...

“Grid...”

Exactly 12 days ago, the Korean user who obtained a legendary class by chance. Right, it was Shin Youngwoo.

Glossary of Common Korean Terms.

OG: Glossary Link.

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