Assistant Manager Kim Hates Idols-Chapter 307: Game System

I watered the barley and beans and chased away the harmful birds until the sun went down. At night, I caught minnows with a disposable fishing rod made from branches I had picked up during the day.
The fishing rod broke every time I caught a fish, but it was okay. I had filled my backpack with branches in preparation for such an occasion.
For the 30 minutes that corresponded to one day in the game, dot-Yiwol did not rest even for a moment.
When the morning sun rose, he would run to the supermarket to sell the minnows, buy fertilizer with that money, spread it on the field, and then carry buckets of water. After watering the crops, he would pick up branches around the farm and then chase away the birds again.
There was so much to do at night, too. After realizing he could catch more expensive fish than minnows if he was lucky, dot-Yiwol couldn’t leave the riverside, like a water ghost, once the sun went down.
To buy a better fishing rod, corn seeds, and a sprinkler, dot-Yiwol worked hard without even laying his back on the bed once.
One day, after a week of this, the mayor came to visit dot-Yiwol, who was about to harvest his first beans.
『Yiwol, how was your first week on the farm? Don’t you think it’s about time you introduced yourself to the villagers?』
Don’t give me that nonsense.
I don’t need it! I’m busy!
Get out of the way, I have to harvest the beans!
A quest window appeared, but I closed it as if to ignore it. Why should I have to give away my hard-earned minnows to the townspeople and greet them? They couldn’t even take care of a young man who had just moved to the countryside.
Don’t you feel sorry for me, who has to sell minnows to buy seeds? Don’t you pity me, who has to carry water with a bucket on a 100-pyeong farm while you guys are driving tractors!
I huffed and puffed and repeated the work of digging the ground and planting seeds until my fingers were about to break.
After chasing away both a crow and the mayor at the same time and planting barley, I heard the sound of a door opening.
“Hyung, our dinner is… hyung, you’re still playing the game?!”
Jeong Seongbin was startled.
“It’s already been four hours! Doesn’t your head hurt?”
“It does. I don’t think I can buy a sprinkler within the second week no matter what I do.”
“I told you this is a healing game!”
Due to Jeong Seongbin’s dissuasion, dot-Yiwol’s farm revival project ended in just one week.
At the same time, I ended up getting a warning that only an elementary school student would hear: that I should only play the game for an hour a day.
I quietly watched as Jeong Seongbin saved the game progress. With the message ‘Do you want to save?’, the playtime and progress stage appeared on the screen in order.
“If I save it like this, I can continue from day 8 next time, right?”
“Yes. It’s also possible to restart from the date you want. You can even replay from day 6, which has already passed.”
Jeong Seongbin pressed the calendar tab and showed me the saved records. On the calendar, the pennies I had earned day by day were written down.
“The profit on day 4 was low. If I were to restart, I’d probably start there.”
“This is just game money…”
Jeong Seongbin said in the tone he only used with Mr. Jeong Seongjun. I must look pretty pathetic right now.
“But the barley’s germination rate was bad that day too. If I restart, isn’t there a chance the germination will turn out differently?”
“I don’t know. I’m not sure if the germination rate is a fixed value or a variable value.”
Saying it probably varied, Jeong Seongbin moved to press the quit button. And then, a thought flashed through my mind.
“So you mean there are some elements that can be restarted, but also some that can’t?”
“Yes. For example, if you start the game over from the beginning, the money will be reset, but the character name and design won’t be changed. Same with the town’s geography. The playtime will also be accumulated.”
“Instead, my money will go back to the beginning, and I’ll have to listen to the mayor’s explanation again.”
The more I heard, the more familiar this structure was.
A virtual world with clear lines between what I could control and what I couldn’t. NPCs issuing directives to the player.
“Did you say this was a healing game?”
“Maybe not for you, hyung… but I heard the original intention was a mood-refreshing game for modern people tired of urban society.”
And a clear sense of purpose.
“Seongbin.”
“Yes?”
“Then, what if…”
I carefully chose my words. Words that could be conveyed as clearly as possible.
“What happens if an error occurs in the game? For example, if barley that should take two days to grow grows in one day, or a bug makes the store start selling the mayor, breaking the game’s natural flow.”
“Um…”
Jeong Seongbin thought for a moment and then answered.
“Two methods would be the most representative. The game company re-releases a version with the error fixed, or they roll back the game.”
“Is that so?”
“Wouldn’t it be impossible to ignore it? Because bugs are fatal to the progression of the game.”
I had never been particularly curious about a divine being in my life.
“I guess so.”
It seemed the time had come for me to be curious. Very seriously.
* * *
At night, the members went back to their rooms one by one. I also lay in bed, pretending to be asleep, and closed my eyes. My head was busy with updates… or rather, organizing the things that had changed since I returned to the past.
Starting with the cancellation of my university admission and the acceptance of UA’s casting offer, when I traced back the timeline of the incidents, I could reach the scar on my back and my unfamiliar real name.
Seeing the size of the scar, I had thought that my noona’s existence might be uncertain, but I had tried to deny it. But now, I had to accept it.
‘Even things from before I was born could have changed.’
The age difference between my noona and me, or her personal information.
Even the small traces of my noona that remained only faintly in my memory.
How far the system had interfered with surrounding circumstances, I couldn’t tell. That was why I needed to constantly doubt my memories even more.
Even if I managed to extract information about my noona from the memory data, there was no guarantee it would still be valid. The reasons to follow the system’s words had increased.
On the other hand, what hadn’t changed were my grades and college entrance records, the 15 million won deposit, some human relationships including the class president, and the high school I attended.
‘Is there any common thread here?’
The most likely candidate was whether or not outside interference existed. The high school I had chosen and the grades I had earned through my own studying hadn’t changed in the slightest.
It meant that the system did not intervene in the parts that I had decided and put effort into ‘from start to finish.’
This was also similar to the nature of the behavioral guidelines the system gave me.
The system, if anything, urged me to do something, but it never told me not to do something or to avoid it. Even if it gave vague instructions, it clearly wanted ‘me’ to move.
It was clear just by looking at the fact that it didn’t leave room for me to use tricks behind the scenes or rely on the power of others.
Talking about work ethics or giving a self-PR score, and giving a penalty when I violated it, clearly contained the meaning that I should take the lead and act.
‘But then there’s the 15 million won.’
The 15 million won was not money I had asked for. It was what my noona had lent me. This part was what made me unable to be certain.
But since I had no further clues, I decided I would sort things out gradually as more came to mind.
Next, I speculated on how far the system’s intervention was possible.
A developer could guide a player’s actions. At the same time, they could raise or lower the player’s freedom.
The system, too, was guiding my actions with KPIs and final rewards. It adjusted my freedom with rewards and penalties, and had the authority to provide a record of ‘failed to normalize,’ which was no longer exposed to general users, as a reward.
And yet, while it wanted to prevent my death, it couldn’t fully protect me. When beings like Yoo Hansoo and Hong Unseob appear, it could give a warning, but it couldn’t control the unspecified incidents they might cause.
To summarize, the system was ‘omnipotent in areas that transcend the human realm but cannot control individual humans.’ Just as it could insert or turn off specific functions but couldn’t change the basic settings of a game.
It could drop my reputation to the bottom or make the company atmosphere grim, but it couldn’t make people like Song Minil suddenly like me.
The only one this system could control like a puppet was me. I was the only one whose memory could be erased, whose emotions could be controlled one by one. I was also the only one who could read others’ inner thoughts and use inhuman recovery abilities.
At this point, I had to ask. Why me, of all people?
And the hint for this part…
‘Wouldn’t it be impossible to ignore it? Because bugs are fatal to the progression of the game.’
…I had already received it from Jeong Seongbin.
Why, or what mistake I had made, I didn’t know.
I had touched something in the damn system’s world, and the system had rolled back my nine years because it wanted to resolve this situation. That much, at least, was certain.
Damn it, it must have treated me like a parasite living in its utopia.
My head grew hot with anger. Right on cue, the system responded.
+
[SYSTEM] A work instruction from ‘Superior’ has arrived.
▶ Assistant Manager Kim, you’re finally showing some company life experience? You’re starting to understand how the company works, right? Keep it up like this. But don’t neglect your main job. Remember, this is all to help you adapt well to the company. Got it?
[SYSTEM] The ‘Member Resume Viewing Function’ is notified to ‘Subordinate.’
▷ As partial access to company secrets is granted, an opportunity to view the ‘Member Resume’ is provided to ‘Subordinate.’
▷ The ‘Member Resume’ can be viewed at any time, but since it is information corresponding to a ‘Confidentiality Clause,’ external disclosure is prohibited.
▷ In case of direct or indirect disclosure of the ‘Member Resume’ information, ‘Subordinate’ may be subject to disciplinary action in accordance with the regulations for ‘Violation of Confidentiality Clause.’
+
Right, this is how you manage personnel information.
No wonder they hadn’t shown me the résumés freely. For this, at least, I’d give them some praise.
I wanted to tear open the resumes right away, but I held it in. Sudden rewards like this weren’t part of my priorities.
Instead, I stayed up all night, reflecting on whether I had made a mistake in my 29 years of life that was great enough to turn back the flow of time, which no one could defy.
The only thing that came to mind was the fight with my parents at my noona’s funeral. But even if that really had been the trigger, I knew that, in the same circumstances, I would’ve made the same choice again. So I decided not to dwell on it.