Author: rolypoly
  1. Metabus, are we going to ride it?

 

The world has gotten a lot better these days.

 

I was amazed when I signed the electronic contract.

 

“Then I’m really a Hunter who belongs to the Association from now on.”

 

“Yep. That’s right. So, I’m going to discuss whether we should organize the articles posted on video sharing sites or various communities. It seems like there’s a fan cafe called HolyHolic.”

 

Ah, that.

 

I remembered a fan site that produced various kinds of goods… with me wearing a white helmet.

 

Until recently, I thought the figure of a Paladin would protect me, so I left it as it is, but what should I do now?

 

“My manager said she would think about a promotion plan, so I think it would be good to decide after hearing that.”

 

“Ah… the manager.”

 

Myunghan replied hesitantly, recalling Miyeon, who was standing with fierce momentum and on alert because of him while holding a tray earlier.

 

“What is that person…?”

 

“Of course, mostly promotion to sell something.”

 

“Ah… she seems to be very capable. The hotel coffee shop is doing very well.”

 

It was a terrifying ability.

 

“So what I’m saying is…”

 

I squeezed out the last drop of latte’s power for Secretary Myunghan and continued talking.

 

****

 

I quickly returned to work after seeing Secretary Myunghan off to his car.

 

Miyeon was even breaking out in a cold sweat after I left the busy hall.

 

When I went upstairs, it seemed that even Geumdong and Toto had been mobilized.

 

“Bossss….!”

 

“Y, yeah. Sorry, I’m sorry.”

 

“First of all, please take this glass. For table no. 7!”

 

“Weren’t our table numbers only up to 6?”

 

I asked in a bewildered voice.

 

“I put another table outside…! I borrowed two super chairs because there were so many people.”

 

I’m doomed.

 

Even if Yeongchunjang is thriving, it seems to be thriving too much.

 

After the war-like reception of guests, I sat down with Miyeon in the cafeteria to take a breather.

 

Because the prepared stock ran out to the point where it was impossible to serve other beverages besides Americano, we hung a sign on the cafe saying that we ran out of ingredients.

 

“Starting tomorrow, I will have to buy more than the ingredients I have now. The delivery of whipped cream and syrup will be late, so it would be better to go to Yeongchun Station tomorrow morning to buy them.”

 

I checked the list of ingredients by hand and told Miyeon.

 

“Yes, yes. It’s good.” 

 

Miyeon picked up the pad and neatly marked what I was saying.

 

Did you say a to-do list app?

 

I was amazed when I looked at Miyeon, who was accustomed to using the new culture. 

 

“Oh, I’m sorry I left earlier. I signed the contract with the secretary.”

 

“You finally signed a contract!”

 

Miyeon had a happy expression.

 

“It turned out that you signed the contract. Let me tell you something…” 

 

“Oh. Before that.”

 

After hesitating, I pulled a stiff envelope out of my arms.

 

“Today is the beginning of the month. So I’m going to give you a salary.”

 

“….?” 

 

I smiled awkwardly and fiddled with the envelope.

 

“Actually, our hotel doesn’t have proper welfare… It’s small compared to the distribution company you used to work for… To repay the heart that decided to work with us… I will try harder in the future.” 

 

Or in terms of the amount. Or in the welfare sector.

 

Paying someone a salary like this made me realize that I had become self-employed.

 

I never thought that the moment I took care of the salary of the person who works with me would bring happiness to me too.

 

“But it hasn’t been a month yet….”

 

After saying that, Miyeon shyly accepted the envelope.

 

“It’s been a while since I received it. A paycheck envelope.”

 

“From now on, I’ll send it to your bank account. I prepared it like this because it’s your first salary. Please check it out.”

 

“T, the amount…”

 

Miyeon hesitated, then opened the envelope and checked the amount inside.

 

“….?”

 

Miyeon’s eyes widened.

 

“Is this correct?”

 

“Of course, it won’t be as good as when you’re in a large company, but…”

 

“N, no, I mean, all I do is serve coffee!”

 

Miyeon was about to cry.

 

It’s a relief.

 

I guess it’s not a small number…

 

But it would be small compared to the manager’s salary of a five-star hotel.

 

“That coffee saved a person’s life. You saw it the other day. It’s really reassuring that you’re with me.”

 

“T, thank you…!”

 

Miyeon bowed her head.

 

I waved my hand and held out my phone.

 

“Oh, and it’s fine if you don’t sign this after you check it out once.”

 

On the screen of my cell phone, the title of <Employment Contract> was written.

 

“With this contract with the Hunter Association, the dungeon hotel above Yeongchunjang will also take the form of a hotel business, at least formally, so I wondered what it would be like to use a formal employment contract. The four major insurances and a small bonus will also be included in the conditions, and above all, the Hunter Association will be able to take care of the personal safety of the manager.”

 

And that’s not all.

 

Secretary Myunghan’s first suggestion was that he would ‘treat her as a quasi-public official and pay for her children’s tuition and school expenses’.

 

As we talked to that point, Miyeon’s hands trembled.

 

“….!”

 

Miyeon raised her head with a pale face.

 

“What’s wrong?”

 

“No. It’s just… school fees… I’m so moved. When I was organizing the papers, I was told too many times that I should endure with it until my kids went to college, even if it was dirty and cheap…!”

 

“Y, you’re not crying now, are you…?”

 

“…Hiks…”

 

Because she’s crying hard.

 

I patted Miyeon on the shoulder and slightly wiped away her tears.

 

Just how long have you been like that?

 

Miyeon sniffled and pointed at her pad.

 

“I’m going to work really hard now.”

 

“You’ve already worked hard enough…”

 

Even if our hotel staff works a little less hard, I will acknowledge it. Really.

 

“That’s what I mean. I realized what I thought about promoting the hotel with the metaverse I used at the company event I worked for before.” 

 

“….?” 

 

Miyeon, who was shedding tears, sat upright as if she had never done so and floated a panoramic view of the forest made of pixels on her pad.

 

“I don’t know much about programming, but making a metaverse is simpler than I thought. I was wondering if we could open it from today. “

 

I found it difficult to follow this sudden flow.

 

“Now, wait a minute. What’s a metaverse…? I don’t know about that…?” 

 

“Metaverse… you don’t know about that?” 

 

“Meta…bus? Ah, bus. Are we going to ride it?

 

“….” 

 

A long silence passed between us.

 

From afar, I could see Geumdong shaking his head while serving our coffee.

 

“Our boss… old cat…” 

 

Don’t tell me, you know that too? 

 

Meta bus?

 

How many buses is that? 

 

* * *

 

Bang Hansoo, manager of AM Entertainment, led his tired body into his room at the accommodation.

 

M5, an idol belonging to AM, was going through their 7th year.

 

M5 was an unknown idol group that wasn’t famous enough to rank on music shows even once in the four years since their debut.

 

However, in his 5th year, Min Kangjin, a member of the group, suddenly became famous as his fancam dancing with a sexy concept went viral.

 

The members, who had been looking for other jobs while moving from one delivery part-time job to another, began to gather as a central point after that.

 

But the problem started there.

 

The team’s popularity can’t catch up with the popularity of Min Kangjin alone.

 

Because of this, Min Kangjin became more and more cocky and sensitive, showing the other members that he was tired. The team became like a ship that was broken somewhere and was about to sink. 

 

‘I’m just going to leave the company this contract renewal season. I know too. The kids don’t like me. I don’t like them either. So Hyung, help us break up properly. I don’t like it when rumors of fights are spread at the same time that a group is disbanding.’

 

And the point was made by Min Kangjin, who left the waiting room after fighting over a trivial matter like food delivery a few days ago.

 

It was a cool and simple solution, but Hansoo, who had to convey this problem to the company and the members, was on the verge of losing his mind.

 

‘What should I say… Ugh… Why should I sleep together in this thin ice room of company accommodation?’

 

A situation where leaving work is not leaving work.

 

Hansoo, exhausted from stress, turned on the computer.

 

Recently, Hansoo has been immersed in a new game because of Kangjin.

 

Hansoo, who usually likes raising games, recently fell in love with the game <Monster world>.

 

Based on a famous animation, this game is based on the typical story of ‘a farmer’s son in a rural village goes to the city to save the world’.

 

However, due to the high degree of freedom, the number of users who only farm and earn money to build a mechanical farm with the mindset of ‘wouldn’t it be better if the farmer’s son just farms’ has increased more than the number of users who proceed with the game story in a standard way, they can even build modern farms pixel by pixel, eventually making a name as a communication game.

 

It wasn’t originally planned or created as a metaverse platform, but it seems to be considered a kind of metaverse game.

 

At first, he wondered why he would play games if he was going to play like that, but the more he farmed and made money, the better he felt.

 

Just accumulating money is healing.

 

The carrots I grew turned into gold coins, and when I grew tulips and the price of tulips went up, I was looking forward to the smile of my father, a farmer.

 

Hansoo turned on his computer and headed to the train station to sell tulips with the intention of making his farmer father feel good today.

 

On the way to the train station, ogres were likely to attack him, but Hansoo cleverly avoided them and ran with the tulip.

 

It was then.

 

The sorcerer Ogre rushed in from behind.

 

“….?!”

 

Why such a strong monster in this countryside!

 

Hansoo ran and ran.

 

But before he knew it, he was in front of a cliff.

 

“Grrr….”

 

The terrifying sorcerer ogre showed his teeth and roared.

 

The sorcerer ogre’s fireball flew in.

 

It was the moment he thought he was dead.

 

Hansoo kept pressing the key to enter the cliff that never entered on the map.

 

→!→!→!→!

 

Please!

 

The screen suddenly turned dark.

 

And on the screen, which got brighter, Hansoo’s character was standing in front of a thick foggy yard.

 

He could see a blurry purple letter through the fog.

 

Welcome to Dungeon Hotel

 

….?

 

A holy-looking cat stood in front of Hansoo’s bewildered character.

 

??: If you can see the hotel from inside the dungeon, you are welcome to enter… Hunter…

 

What’s a wise man’s way of talking with a cat subject?

 

And the Dungeon Hotel? What’s that?

 

“Hyung, what are you doing?”

 

Then, someone called Hansoo from behind.

 

It was Min Kangjin with a tired face.

 

“Oh… Hyung… I’m going to shoot DunTube tomorrow. Please, let’s get some sleep….”

 

Min Kangjin rubbed his eyes and looked at the screen that Hansoo was looking at.

 

‘Welcome to the dungeon hotel…? Is it a hotel game?’

 

Kangjin didn’t think it was a big deal and turned his head away from the screen and went into the room.

 

It was because he was so tired.

 

And the next day.

 

Kangjin, who was in danger after parting ways with the cameraman and security team while filming DunTube and meeting the sorcerer Ogre, recalled that scene.

 

Welcome to Dungeon Hotel

 

In his head, the purple text that had been flashing on his manager’s monitor flickered like an afterimage.

 

“…the Dungeon Hotel. I need to find it!”

 

Author's Thoughts

Hello! You can also buy the advanced chapter in Ko-fi now, just click the ko-fi button and look for the title of the novel in shop. Thank you for your support!

Table of Contents
Reader Settings
Font Size
Line Height
Font
Donation
Amount
rolypoly

Ko-fi Ko-fi

Comments (0)