46. New Residence (2)
Baek Jinwoo’s mother, Hwang Myeonghui, felt like she was dreaming every single day lately.
Thanks to 「Yoobaek」’s family care service, she received 10 million won a month for living expenses.
Hwang Myeonghui cut down her workload from three jobs to one, and thanks to that, she even started attending alumni gatherings she hadn’t been able to join before.
“Junghye. Your son—didn’t you say you had some new news?”
“Haha, my son? Actually, he got into Baekho this time.”
“Baekho? Isn’t that one of the Big 3? Oh my—why are you only telling us now!”
“Seriously? He must be doing insanely well.”
Even with the usual child-bragging that never changed, Hwang Myeonghui didn’t feel the slightest sting.
Maybe you could say she had more ease in her expression now.
“Baekho?”
She learned about it thanks to her friends, too. One of the three great guilds representing South Korea, right?
Baekho, Arirang, Ilwol.
They were such enormous guilds that if you didn’t know those three, people would call you a spy.
“If he’s a player affiliated with Baekho, doesn’t that basically make him a quasi-chaebol? Junghye, you’ve made it!”
“Hehe, it’s not to that level yet. He’s still a newbie. They recruited him as a special hire, and the guild master said he saw potential and praised him.”
“Waaah, the Baekho guild master… that’s rank #2 in the country!”
Rank #2, Park Hoe.
A monster player who also placed 3rd in the national team selection trials this time.
And for the record, the domestic rank #1, Kang Geonho, was Baekho’s vice guild master!
That was why Baekho was considered the most prestigious even among the Big 3.
Even though it all sounded like a story from another world.
Hwang Myeonghui just smiled brightly.
Baekho, whatever.
‘My Jinwoo is just Baek Jinwoo.’
Baek Jinwoo. Just those syllables carried an enormous impact across South Korea.
Park Hoe? Kang Geonho? If they stood in front of Baek Jinwoo, they’d all be a one-minute cut.
But Hwang Myeonghui didn’t tell her friends that.
She wanted to brag so badly it was practically bursting out of her, but she’d come to an agreement with Baek Jincheol.
-Don’t go around talking about it.
It was enough to support your child’s success from behind—why run around boasting about it out loud?
“Still… Myeonghui, it’s been a long time?”
One friend spoke to Hwang Myeonghui.
To the classmates, Hwang Myeonghui could be summed up like this:
‘Born poor.’
‘Son in a traffic accident.’
‘Lives in an old villa.’
‘Works three jobs and lives desperately.’
‘Daughter is pretty. Still, not suitable as a daughter-in-law.’
Nothing but negative assumptions.
“Haha, yeah. It’s been a while, right? I quit work recently, so I have a lot more time.”
“Oh my, but what’s with your skin?”
Skin.
At that word, the classmates’ gazes turned toward Hwang Myeonghui.
“Now that you mention it… yeah?”
“You look a little like how you did when you were young.”
“W-Wait… it’s like you got younger. Why don’t you have a single wrinkle on your face?”
“Oh my, look at your hands. Why are they so soft? Do you just not age?”
Maybe they found it fascinating, because their attention shifted from the aunty named “Junghye” to Hwang Myeonghui.
“Ah, this.”
Hwang Myeonghui smiled. Then, with innocent eyes, she brought out her summon.
“A snail?”
“What is that?”
“A summon…?”
At their reactions, Hwang Myeonghui couldn’t help making a little brag that wasn’t quite a brag.
“Yeah, my son bought it for me. I guess it’s like a cosmetic? I put this on and my skin got way better. Want to try some?”
Hwang Myeonghui held the snail out to the classmate who had spoken to her first.
“Really?”
The classmate’s eyes lit up as she carefully took the snail. Then she gently spread a small amount of the slime onto the back of her right hand.
“It is moisturizing.”
“Check tomorrow—you’ll be shocked. Your wrinkles will smooth right out.”
“Really? Then I should put some on my left hand, too.”
“Sadly, there’s a limit to how much it produces in a day.”
Junghye, who’d been watching their chatter from the side, frowned. Her son-bragging hadn’t even finished, and it irritated her that the topic had changed.
But then—
“Huh?”
Junghye tilted her head.
‘That snail…’
She’d definitely seen it somewhere.
What was it?
She searched her memory, and then—her face went pale in shock.
‘R-Rainbow Snail?!’
Among wealthy women who loved luxury and spent serious money, the rumor had already spread everywhere. For skin, Rainbow Snail was the final answer.
They were saying that a skin clinic using that summon would soon appear in Daeseong.
There weren’t many snail-type summons in the world, and there was only one summon with a rainbow-colored shell like that.
“N-No way!”
In the end, Junghye blurted it out loudly.
“Huh?”
“What’s ‘no way’?”
The others asked, puzzled.
“That snail!”
She pointed directly at Hwang Myeonghui’s summon.
“Isn’t that Rainbow Snail?”
“…Rainbow Snail?”
“What’s that?”
Junghye was frustrated.
“You idiots! Do you even know how much that thing costs?”
“How much?”
“Is it expensive?”
“Myeonghui said her son gave it to her as a gift… Come to think of it, didn’t her son have an acci—”
“Oh my, you didn’t hear? He’s been awake for a while now.”
Junghye listened to them talking and felt a creeping sense of confusion.
‘Wait. How does Hwang Myeonghui have something like that?’
Myeonghui was poor. No money. No connections. Below average even among ordinary citizens.
But then—
As far as Junghye knew, the current market price of Rainbow Snail was 50 billion won. And since there were only 100 of them worldwide, the price was only climbing.
Estimated value? Around 100 billion won.
That was why rich people who were quick on information would joke about “snail investing”.
“…”
Sensing the strange atmosphere, Hwang Myeonghui hurriedly unsummoned the snail.
“Ah, I just got it as a simple gift. I don’t really know the price either. It’s probably not that expensive.”
As she spoke, sweat beaded at her temple.
‘I need to be careful.’
Honestly, Hwang Myeonghui hadn’t even considered that a friend might recognize the snail. More than anything, she didn’t know the snail’s price at all.
“…”
Thankfully, Junghye didn’t say anything more.
‘Just what on earth does her son do to give her something like that as a present?’
She only kept staring at Hwang Myeonghui with suspicious eyes.
* * *
“Completed! We’re done!”
At the foot of Geomdansan in Hanam City, Yoo Jia stretched both arms wide and shouted, “Hooray!”
“Wow…”
“Woooah…”
Following behind her, Kim Byungjin and Hwang Taeseop stood there with their mouths hanging open in admiration.
The construction company had finished all the cleanup and pulled out. The mountain land Yoo Jia had bought had become a little paradise of its own.
Buildings rising tall and straight, and a grandly designed entrance!
“Isn’t it awesome? From now on, this will be Yoobaek’s base.”
Yoo Jia murmured, pressing down hard on her ambition.
“…Yoobaek’s base.”
“As the world’s best one-person management company, we’ll hire only the top elites from around the world… and of course, we have to promise the industry’s best facility and welfare.”
The first step was ‘housing’.
「Yoobaek」 would lend spacious homes to employees and their families for free. For as long as they worked there.
And once they reached retirement age and retired, the plan was to transfer ownership of the house to them as-is.
“Then… are we moving here too?”
“Of course.”
Yoo Jia smiled and continued.
“But before that, there are people we need to bring here first.”
Yoo Jia named the complex 「Yoobaek City」. It was meant to feel like a small city that only Yoobaek’s members could enjoy.
Let’s take a quick look at the design.
First, in the very center stood Yoobaek’s 35-story headquarters building. From now on, it would include a research institute, legal team, sales team, marketing team, finance team, sales support, and more—divided into multiple departments, all to care for Baek Jinwoo.
Naturally, the rooftop was lavishly decorated as a private office for Yoo Jia and Baek Jinwoo. Only the early members—including Kim Byungjin and Hwang Taeseop—would be able to come and go there.
Next.
To the north was a training facility exclusively for Baek Jinwoo. They’d built a wide athletic field with a design similar to the existing open lot, plus an underground room with perfect soundproofing, various workout equipment, showers, refrigeration facilities—everything.
It was designed in every way so the summons could train in peak condition.
Next.
To the east was an apartment complex. A total of four buildings had been built.
The very top of the 30th floor was a duplex penthouse with an exclusive area of 489.25㎡—in other words, 148 pyeong. All the other floors were 60-pyeong units as well, large-scale apartments.
The parking garage went down to the 2nd basement level.
It was spacious enough that every resident could park two cars, and the community facilities were unbelievable.
Breakfast service, cleaning, valet, laundry, fitness, golf, a swimming pool, pet care, shops, and more.
It was designed so that you could live your entire life without taking a single step outside the complex.
Next.
To the west, there was a bunker. For the safety Baek Jinwoo had requested, they’d dug it deep underground—so deep that it would be safe even if a nuclear bomb fell.
Even if every resident went underground as-is, there were rooms for everyone, and it was equipped with conditions to sustain itself.
Last.
To the south, there was a grand entrance and gardens. Beautiful walking paths stretched out.
“…Wow.”
“What… is all this?”
“Hehehe.”
Yoo Jia first brought Baek Ajin, Baek Jincheol, and Hwang Myeonghui.
“This is a kind of care service I mentioned before. The three of you are basically the same as VIPs to our company, so… we’ll be giving you a penthouse.”
All four penthouses already had owners decided.
Baek Jinwoo.
Yoo Jia.
Baek Jincheol, Hwang Myeonghui.
Baek Ajin.
Following Yoo Jia’s guidance, the three toured the penthouse and the facilities, their faces filled with emotion.
“Mom, Dad… I think this is the best house I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Baek Ajin exclaimed in awe.
“Thanks to that kid of ours, we’ll be able to live our whole lives without ever worrying about housing again.”
“…Is it really okay for us to just accept something like this?”
Baek Jincheol and Hwang Myeonghui didn’t know what to do with themselves.
They were people who had lived their whole lives in nothing but old villas.
“I’ve never even seen a house like this in my dreams.”
“With our imagination, I guess we couldn’t even come close.”
“Even so…”
Baek Jincheol, who’d been speaking, broke into a grin.
“…We did get attached to our old place, y’know—”
“Like hell you did.”
“Yeah, honey.”
Hwang Myeonghui nodded firmly.
“Don’t you dare say something scary like that. ‘Attached’, my foot.”
Attached?
Attached, my foot!
No matter what anyone said, a new home was the best.
‘Yeah!’
They said her son was the best player in the world! And on the news, they said the national taxes being poured into supporting her son amounted to 2 trillion won!
A house like this was something they could afford, right?
“I always knew our Jinwoo would become a great man!”
“…Didn’t you used to say you’d given up because all he did was play games?”
“When did I ever say that! And what about you? You said you wished he’d at least match half of Junghye’s son…”
“Hahaha, honey.”
Hwang Myeonghui hurriedly covered Baek Jincheol’s mouth.
“What if someone hears? Today, we’re only saying nice things, okay?”
“Okay.”
Watching the couple joke around so affectionately, Yoo Jia smiled, then held out keys, manuals, blueprints, and more.
“We’ll help you move in as quickly as possible from our side. Please take your time and look around.”
“Hehehe, thank you.”
“We’re always grateful.”
Looking at the grateful couple, Yoo Jia smiled.
‘It’s nothing.’
Compared to the assets Baek Jinwoo would earn in the future, this was so trivial it was practically nothing at all.
After finishing her greetings, Yoo Jia started moving busily again.
As 「Yoobaek」 expanded in earnest, work was piling up.
Even so—
Yoo Jia threw herself into her work with the happiest smile she’d worn in her entire life.
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