Everyone is Young Except for Me - Chapter 288

Chapter 288
The father of Aegle, Erytheia, and Arethusa was ‘Atlas,’ who stole the clouds along with Prometheus. Prometheus was Atlas’ older brother. In other words, these three sisters were Prometheus’ nieces.

“Uncle, uncle, have you been sleeping in the meantime?”

“Yes. I slept for nearly 500 years, Aegle.”

The three sisters of Hesperides gladly welcomed their uncle whom they met after a long time. Park Muyeol and I entered the Temple of Clouds under the guidance of these three sisters.

“You are originally a sleepyhead, Uncle?”

“You were also a sleepyhead when you were young, Erytheia. It is the same for you, Arethusa. Both of you slept the most.”

“I am no longer such a lazy person. Erytheia is lazy.”

“Arethusa is too! Bah—!”

The three sisters chattered as if they were enjoying the reunion with Prometheus. They seemed to have forgotten about Hercules. However, Park Muyeol was still anxious. “...Hey, is it really okay?”

“Ah, of course. Their uncle is present. What can the nieces do?”

“Sigh. It feels like I’m walking on thin ice.”

Park Muyeol let out a sigh and Hercules couldn’t hide his anxiety through the indirect messages. The funny thing was that every time Hercules sent a message, Arethusa glared at Park Muyeol. This kept happening and Park Muyeol just shrugged, whistled, and pretended not to know anything. I couldn’t help grinning at the pitiful sight. It was the first time I had seen him acting like this.

“Let’s prepare a welcome dinner. Kids—!”

A welcome party began with this sudden cry. Aegle started to create clouds that resembled Solar to give as a gift to Prometheus, while Erytheia ordered the monster to procure fruits and food. Arethusa started cooking with the procured ingredients. She created a fire, boiled water, added plenty of delicious ingredients, and cooked meat. Arethusa’s cooking was of high quality. She had been in charge of cooking for the three sisters for many years so it was natural to be skilled.

“Phew, it is delicious.”

“I’m full.”

Park Muyeol and I placed our hands on our protruding stomachs and stroked. It had been a long time since I had eaten other people’s food. It was because there was no one better at cooking than me in this world. It might sound like bragging, but it was true.

“I didn’t know you could cook like this, Arethusa.” Prometheus, in the form of Solar, clutched his stomach and expressed his satisfaction.

“You're overpraising me. I’m glad you enjoyed it.” Arethusa smiled with a satisfied expression.

Right then, Aegle, who was kneading the cloud, brought over a piece of cloud resembling Solar. The sculpture was very small and detailed. It was unexpected that those big hands would be so delicate. “Uncle! I will give this to Uncle!”

“Eh? Uh, yes. Thank you. But the shape I’m in now…”

Prometheus glanced at me. The two of us understood each other just by making eye contact. I immediately approached Aegle, opened my inventory, and placed the Solar cloud sculpture that Aegle had created inside. Prometheus looked satisfied. Now I had to ask about Atlas’ whereabouts...

[※ Emergency Notice ※There will be inspection soon.]

“Eh?”

“What?”

Park Muyeol and I had wide eyes at the same time.

[Please shut down your access in 5 minutes.]

[Once again, Union will repeat it...]

[An emergency inspection will be carried out soon.]

[All users...]

An emergency notice popped up out of nowhere. It was a message from Union to the users. They had never done this before so I was very flustered. It seemed that asking about Atlas’ whereabouts would have to be delayed for a bit.

* * *

At Union’s headquarters in Gangnam, Seoul...

“The emergency inspection notice has been issued to all users.”

“The server will shut down in five minutes.”

“There are a total of 1,245,680 users currently connected.”

“The number of users logging off is increasing.”

“If it continues this way, all the users would log out stably.”

The strategic planning office and other monitoring personnel moved in a busy manner. They weren’t flustered by the sudden shutdown order and ran in a busy manner to respond to Lee Seokjun’s order.

“......”

“......”

Lee Seokjun and Yoo Minseok watched the progress in the strategic planning room. There was only silence in the room. Lee Seokjun was the first one to open his mouth, “...Honestly, I still can’t believe it.”

Worry filled Lee Seokjun’s face. Yoo Minseok had told him everything, except for the matter of Lee Geonmyeong’s involvement in all this. He said that before Dr Kang Jaeseong collapsed, he left coordinates to prevent a fatal bug.

“Please trust me. I couldn’t believe it, but after experiencing today’s sudden situation, I think that Dr Kang’s words might be true.”

“......”

Lee Seokjun was still speechless. His brow was deeply furrowed. He was reacting like this just by hearing about Dr Kang Jaeseong’s words. It was unknown what storm would occur later if he heard the story of Lee Geonmyeong.

‘It is better to postpone that talk as much as possible.’

Yoo Minseok once again determined when he saw Lee Seokjun. In this situation, his father was planning a disaster and was a bad guy who did illegal experiments. It was one of the worst things. It was because Lee Seokjun might object the moment Yoo Minseok said it. Perhaps at that moment, Yoo Minseok would be expelled from Union and then he wouldn’t be able to help anymore. It would be best for everyone to be careful right now.

“Then what is the identity of Grandfather Choi Chuntaek? He is something Dr Kang Jaeseong left behind to prevent the fatal bug? What, like a vaccine?”

“Yes. That’s right.”

The words Lee Seokjun just spoke were lies that Lee Seokjun had made up casually. It was because originally, a lie was a mixture of truth and falsehood. For Lee Seokjun, the fatal bug was at the level of a disaster.

“Then the deadly bug has something to do with the Star Fruits that appeared now?”

“That’s right.”

“Sigh, the users will be very upset.” Lee Seokjun tried to relieve his headache by pressing a hand to his temple. He didn’t know what to believe in the story. First of all, they closed the server in a hurry. How should they suppress the backlash of the users?

‘My head hurts.’

It was too late to announce that a fatal bug had been found and that it needed to be fixed. They didn’t know the identity of the bug or how to fix it.

“Sigh, how to manage this...?”

He had lost contact with his father. If he made a mistake, the position of the next president would pass onto someone else. Lee Seokjun was facing the biggest crisis of his life since he was born. How could he tell his father, Lee Geonmyeong?

“Department Head-nim.”

“......?”

Lee Seokjun removed his hand from his temple and raised his head.

“Why don't we do an emergency patch? You can't find bugs, you can't fix them right away. However, we can’t stop Choi Chuntaek from playing the game when he is the only hope to fix the bug.”

“What do you mean by an emergency patch?”

“I want to add the social media I mentioned the other day to Arkstar.”

“SNS?”

Lee Seokjun’s eyes slightly widened. This was one of Yoo Minseok’s most ambitious projects. The name was ‘Arkstagram.’ It was a project that would strengthen the interaction between players and increase communication, bringing more people to the virtual reality game. The astronomical advertising revenue was a bonus.

“What will you do with that?”

“The moment the deadly bug occurs, cooperation between users will be necessary. Firstly, we need social media for that.”

“The second reason?”

“Through social media, users will be able to get news more quickly. Therefore, the discovery of bugs will be easier. The advertising effect will also add further income. This is the second reason.”

“Hmm...”

Lee Seokjun heard Yoo Minseok’s words and was deeply troubled. Perhaps it was a good thing to search around the server that was suddenly closed. The media would say that it was a temporary measure to make the Arkstar awards ceremony more visible to all users. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to bring out a new social media patch and focus the attention of the users there. In particular, if the fatal bug that Yoo Minseok mentioned really occurred, then there should be a way for users to seek solutions with each other.

His troubles didn’t last long.

“Good. I will approve the SNS patch right now.”

“Thank you, Department Head-nim.” 

Yoo Minseok hurriedly opened the door and went outside. Lee Seokjun sighed as he looked at Yoo Minseok’s back. “Sigh. I don’t know if I did well.”

* * *

Park Muyeol and I immediately logged out.

“Grandfather!”

The moment I came out, Mido ran over and hugged me. The Korean national team also approached and greeted me. They had turned on the TV where breaking news from Union was appearing on the screen.

[Breaking News. Arkstar’s emergency inspection is being carried out.]

The content of the breaking news was simple—Union announced it was conducting an emergency inspection, in order for all users to see the awards ceremony of the World Competition.

“Hmm. I guess it was because of that.”

“That’s right.”

Park Muyeol and I nodded simultaneously as we watched the TV. Just then, the door of the waiting room opened. Everyone’s eyes shifted to the door and saw it was a staff member of Union who entered. I can’t help but wonder—why did this friend become nervous the moment he entered our waiting room? Did he like someone here?

“...Excuse me, it is time to go to the awards ceremony. Before that, can I get a signature?”