Chapter 15:Money and Talent Pour In

 Chapter 15: First Talent (2)

Something abstract and hard to describe pierced through his mind.

“Uh, uhh…?”

Fragments floated around, then came back together, eventually forming a strange shape while simultaneously granting him a certain realization.

Things he already knew.

All kinds of sensations were reconstructed.

They laid a new foundation on the ground.

Built a structure, and then created an image he had never seen before.

Like a photograph.

Shiver.

A tremor ran through his entire body.

But it was only for a moment.

A bizarre, never-before-felt inspiration began fanning him furiously.

Move.

Use this inspiration right now—it urged.

He hurriedly sat down at his desk, opened the tablet next to his laptop, launched a drawing app, and began sketching with the pen.

Swoosh, swish swish.

The dainty, charming art style born from his fingertips.

His skill wasn’t bad.

He had once learned drawing because he dreamed of becoming a webtoon artist, so it was better than an average person’s, and naturally not at the level of those who had properly studied art—but that wasn’t the issue. What was surging up now was pure creativity.

Something a little more unusual than others.

Something that caught the eye.

A unique yet captivating art style began to take form.

A servant boy sitting in front of a heaping bowl of rice, crying.

A servant boy splitting firewood while laughing.

A servant boy checking his bank account.

A servant boy getting scolded but looking completely indifferent.

A servant boy drinking makgeolli.

A servant boy getting caned.

A servant boy fuming and jumping in anger, and so on.

The moment he added creative captions that expressed their states on top, the strange sensation that had filled his head completely vanished.

A sense of emptiness, as if something had been drained out.

“Mmm…!”

No matter how much he flailed, the feeling could not be regained.

It was both regrettable and a shame.

He lowered his gaze with a slightly hollow expression.

“This is…”

What he saw was 19 different drawings.

Emoticons.

Even at a glance, he could tell these were emoticon drafts. Ryu Seong had used messengers a lot himself, so this was a familiar domain. Back in his freshman year of university, he had even considered submitting emoticon proposals.

Of course, he never actually did.

But now, perfectly finished, unique, and eye-catching emoticons had appeared as if by magic.

Even to someone who didn’t know much, they felt charming.

This is pretty impressive.

Who would’ve thought the talent called “creativity” would manifest in this way.

That sensation had been so vivid yet fleeting.

It felt like briefly holding a cloud he could never grasp again.

The emptiness lasted only a moment.

Because a thought occurred to him—maybe, if things continued like this, he might feel that sensation again more often than expected.

Yes, as long as the quests kept coming.

Someday, once again.

“Huu…”

He let out a deep breath to reset his mood.

“From now on, no matter what reward comes, I absolutely can’t ignore it. Right, Lucky?”

Nya〜?

After petting Lucky once, he organized the emoticon drafts.

11:45 p.m.

Fortunately, he could still submit them before the day ended.

“It’d be nice if they get approved.”

The quality looked more than sufficient.

He’d find out once he waited.

Holding Lucky in his arms, he lay down on the bed. Slowly stroking the spot between the cat’s eyes, a peaceful purring sound spread through the room.

*

Slightly upturned, torn-looking eyes, with dark circles that seemed to drip black ink beneath them.

Hollow cheeks and a firm jawline.

Add thin lips to that, and he transformed into the very image of a strict, no-nonsense middle-aged man.

“Haa, this is so tiring, seriously.”

“Team Leader Hwang, shall I get you a cup of coffee?”

“If you would, I’d appreciate it.”

“I’ll be right back!”

Even during that exchange, Team Leader Hwang was continuously reviewing the flood of incoming emoticons.

“Ugh, seriously.”

The quality was trash and the creativity was nonexistent. Since most of the submissions were like that, filtering them out still built up stress.

“Team Leader Hwang, here you go!”

“Thanks.”

“Hehe, then I’ll take a look too!”

“There are too many participants today, so let’s push anything that came in today to the next season.”

“Should we?”

“Yeah, let’s just finish checking up to what came in yesterday.”

“Got it!”

About an hour later.

The employee who had brought the coffee suddenly widened their eyes.

“Huh? Team Leader Hwang.”

“What?”

“This one… isn’t it pretty good…?”

“What is it?”

---

Team Leader Hwang frowned and slid back in his chair. He then fixed his eyes on the emoticon draft displayed on the monitor screen.

Without saying a word.

Silently scanning through the emoticons.

“Is… is it not that great?”

“Hmm. When did this one come in?”

“Last night.”

“Yesterday?”

“Yes. I was going through them in order… but there really wasn’t anything decent, so I started looking from the bottom up.”

“Hmm. Everyone has their own style, so I won’t comment on that. Just don’t make any mistakes.”

“Yes, sir!”

“More importantly, why did you recommend this one?”

“This one?”

“Yeah.”

“Uh, well… so…”

While the employee hesitated, Team Leader Hwang kept staring intently at the emoticons. The art style itself wasn’t particularly outstanding, but the ideas were bursting with freshness. The servant boy motif was cute yet somehow poignant, and the finishing touch—the exquisitely chosen captions—was what made it perfect.

“This one’s crying in front of a heaping bowl of rice, saying he’s hungry.”

“Right.”

“Another one is splitting firewood and saying it’s fun instead of tiring, and even though he’s a servant who clearly can’t earn money, he checks his bank account and says he’s rich now. The irony is hilarious.”

“Anything else?”

“When he’s getting scolded, his expression is completely blank, which contrasts with the angry-looking art style, but the caption goes completely opposite— it really catches the eye, doesn’t it?”

Team Leader Hwang nodded.

He had been thinking exactly the same thing.

“Nice. Let’s bring this one up at the next meeting.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. It’s not animated, but it has charm. Even I think it’s good.”

“Yes, Team Leader!”

“Alright then, we should find a few more like this, huh?”

“Ugh, yeah, we do.”

“Just hang in there a little longer.”

And so, Ryu Seong’s draft—along with a few others—was submitted for the next internal meeting.

*

The review result came much faster than expected.

“Hm?”

When he had looked it up online beforehand, he remembered hearing that it usually took about 10 days.

But already?

Only 5 days had passed.

Of course, he was happy about it.

Less waiting time was definitely good news.

Did it pass?

Unable to hide his anticipation, he tapped the email notification that popped up at the top of his phone screen. It automatically opened his inbox. At the very top, in bold and large text, were the words:

**APPROVED**

“Huh, for real?”

By that point, Ryu Seong couldn’t hold back his laughter anymore.

He had hoped, but he never actually thought it would really get approved.

He basked in the joy for a long while.

“Lucky, wanna see this?”

Nya?

Lucky tilted his head as if he had no idea what was going on.

“Good, right? Good, right? I’m happy too.”

After fully savoring the happiness, he regained his composure and slowly read through the rest of the email.

[Hello. This is Emoticon Studio. First of all, thank you for your wonderful submission and for waiting patiently. Before we proceed with commercialization, if a new contract is required…]

It ended by saying that a contract representative would contact him separately within 3 days.

“Short and sweet.”

Just as he closed the email and was about to return to studying—

His phone screen lit up.

A quick glance showed it was a text message. Most texts were either loan offers or spam, so he usually ignored them after a peek—but this one he couldn’t.

Hello.

This is Kim Mi-so, student council president of Class of 17, Oo High School. This year’s alumni reunion will be a bit more special…

It was a message about the class reunion.

While he was reading it in detail, a call came in from Lee Shin-woo.

“Hey, what’s up?”

(Did you get the text?)

“The reunion one? Yeah, just about to read it properly.”

(Yeah. So, you going? The date’s still pretty far off.)

“Eh, not bad. It’s been a while since I saw the guys. Might see the teachers too.”

(Then let’s go together.)

“Sure, whatever.”

(Okay, then… oh, crap—customer’s here. Gotta go. Talk more later.)

“Yeah, good luck.”

He ended the call and went back to the text. It wasn’t just a simple gathering—there was also a plan to collect a small amount of money from everyone to donate to their old school.

“ Donation, huh…”

He murmured quietly to himself.

[ding!]

At the familiar sound he hadn’t heard in a while, Ryu Seong’s eyes sparkled.

New text appeared before his eyes.

[Quest Activated!]

[You Can’t Resist Donating to Your Alma Mater!]

While reading the quest, Ryu Seong let out a small chuckle.

This was exactly what he liked about it.

It told him not only who to trust but also how to fill in the gaps—everything laid out clearly. He wasn’t suspicious of the school itself, but the quest explicitly pointed out the need for periodic confirmation of how the funds were being used.

Anything else?

As he scanned the quest description again, one meaningful phrase caught his eye.

**Sufficient amount.**

He had never seen wording like that before.

The quest where he had spent the most money so far was when he took Lucky to the animal hospital. Between various tests and treatments, he had shelled out several hundred thousand won. That was also the day he received a whopping 4 points, along with a note that an upper limit had been applied.

Back then, there had been no such phrase. So just how much money were they talking about this time? And how many points would he earn from spending that amount? Just imagining it made him feel oddly satisfied.

“This is actually exciting.”

With a fluttering heart, he decided to look forward to that day.

A little while later.

He forced himself to push thoughts of the reunion aside and sat down in front of his laptop. Before starting to study, he checked the current performance of the U.S. stocks he was invested in.

+7.2%.

In terms of actual money, that translated to roughly 1.44 million won in profit.

“Pretty solid, huh?”

After a quick check, he searched for any recent issues related to the companies he had invested in.

Nothing particularly concerning came up.

Instead, what caught his attention were the fields those companies were currently focusing on.

“Metaverse and NFTs.”

Industries that were inevitably deeply tied to cryptocurrency.

[Is the era of Web 3.0 finally arriving?]

[NFT-related coins are the hot trend right now!]

[In the metaverse world, coins replace real currency!]

[Cryptocurrency is only just getting started!]

[Bitcoin—how far will it go…?]

[Could Bitcoin actually replace gold?]

[The ever-growing cryptocurrency market…]

His thoughts naturally flowed toward Bitcoin. Opinions about cryptocurrency varied wildly, but knowing more about it certainly wouldn’t hurt.

Strangely, the more he studied, the more he realized how interconnected all these industries actually were.

It was truly fascinating.

Right now everything still felt vague and hazy, but as time passed and technology advanced, wouldn’t the special relationships between them become clearer and stronger?

“Haaah, my neck’s killing me.”

It was already late at night.

He decided to call it a day here.

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