I Have Too Many Money-Making Talents - Chapter 4

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Too Many Profitable Talents — Episode 004
On the monitor, a message appeared: “PePe is typing.”
But I had no time to check it.
“I’m going to be late at this rate.”
I hurried into my coat and left the house.
What mattered more to me right now was picking up my mother, who would be exhausted from working at the restaurant all day.

* * *
“Welcome to Ciel Bank. What business brings you in today?”
“We’re here about your newborn loan special…….”
I pulled a number ticket from the dispenser by the entrance and handed it to them.
“Please have a seat, and we’ll call your number shortly.”
“Thank you so much.”
The young couple bowed slightly to me and took their seats in the waiting area.
I watched them settle in, their image lingering in my mind.
Working as a bank security guard for so long, I’d noticed that younger people tended to be kinder and more polite.
In my experience, the older someone was, the more authoritarian and disrespectful they often became.
“I keep yawning.”
I’d been sleep-deprived these past few days, exhaustion accumulating.
Was it from preparing for an upcoming certification exam?
No — I’d been staying up late, absorbed in playing Go.
‘I advanced to 4-dan yesterday.’
A perfect record: twenty wins out of twenty matches.
I’d achieved the remarkable feat of jumping two ranks in a single promotion.
What was even more surprising.
‘It wasn’t really that difficult.’
I maintained control throughout every game, overwhelming my opponents.
The only opponent worth remembering was PePe.
‘That one played well.’
A game that was solid yet crisp in its decisive moves.
Looking back, I couldn’t afford to lose focus in our match.
The skill level was definitely different from the other amateur 2-dan and 3-dan players.
‘Maybe they really were a sub-account?’
The unfinished conversation from when I’d left to pick up my mother the other day came back to me.
Mumyeong : Am I really that good at playing?
PePe : No? I just made a careless mistake.
PePe : Hey.
PePe : Hey!
PePe : If you don’t want to expose your main account, let’s just play another game
PePe : Accept the match request!!

When I checked after getting home, PePe was already logged out.
I waited to see when they might log back in, but they never appeared after that.
‘Well, there’s nothing I can do about it.’
What mattered was how far my Go would take me.
From what I’d learned, real masters started at 7-dan in online amateur ranks.
That’s what made me curious.
Could I defeat them and reach 9-dan, the highest amateur rank in online Go?
Buzz.
While entertaining these thoughts, my smartphone vibrated in my pants pocket.
After confirming there were no pending customers, I sneaked a quick look at the message.
[Jin-woo : Sillim Station at 7. Whoever shows up even a minute late buys the meat.]
[Hyun-do : That bastard saying stuff like that is hilarious ㅋㅋㅋ]
[Sang-mo : You’re buying? Thanks for the meal! Hehehehe!]
[Jin-woo : ㅗㅗ]
It was a chat group made by friends I’d been close with from my college days.
Whether because of today’s meetup or not, messages were flying faster than usual.
[Inha : See you then.]
I put my smartphone back in my pants pocket.
Under normal circumstances, the thought of seeing friends after so long would have excited me, but today felt different.
It had been a while since we’d all gotten together, so it seemed natural that we’d end up drinking.
Once that happened…….
‘I won’t be able to play Go today.’
I couldn’t feel the joy of matching wits against an opponent, or that dopamine rush when victory came.
A small sense of disappointment settled over me.
“Inha.”
I turned at the sound of my name.
Cha Ye-ryeon, who’d gone on a staggered lunch break and returned to the office, held out a takeout drink to me.
“It’s iced tea.”
“Oh? Yes, thank you.”
I took the iced tea with an awkward expression.
Even after more than two years, this was my first personal conversation with her.
She’d always been the quiet type, someone who didn’t say much.
“I’m only working until this week. I’m taking Parental Leave, so I thought I should say goodbye.”
“Ah.”
My eyes drifted to her swollen belly.
……So that’s why I’d noticed her midsection filling out. She was pregnant.
“Take care of yourself. And best of luck landing the job you want.”
“Yes, and wishing you a safe delivery.”
Cha Ye-ryeon nodded and turned back to her desk.
‘This is a first.’
The feeling was strange.
Until now, no one at the office had ever mentioned a personnel change to me directly.
One day I’d come in and the staff would be different, and I’d accepted it as a matter of course.
I was just a Contract Employee bank security guard—not even invited to the branch chat room.
I put the straw between my lips and sucked down the drink in long pulls.
Whether it was the sweetness or something else, my afternoon fatigue seemed to ease a little.

* * *
Sillim Station.
Friends began arriving one by one right on schedule.
Hyun-do was first.
“Where are the others?”
“Still coming. Won’t be long.”
“Mark my words—that bastard Jin-woo’s going to be the last one here again. Let’s make him pay for the meat.”
Watching Hyun-do laugh, I couldn’t help but grin too.
Hyun-do, my classmate from college, works at DS Capital, a Third Financial Sector firm.
It may not compare to the Primary Financial Sector, but among our group, he’s the one who landed the best job using his degree.
Right on cue, Sang-mo arrived.
“Here you are.”
“Made it.”
Sang-mo dropped out of school after his military discharge because it wasn’t the right fit for him.
Since then, he’d graduated from a practical music program and was now working as a vocal trainer while picking up side jobs.
“Where’s Jin-woo?”
“Do you think he’d show up on time?”
“Since we don’t know when he’ll get here, let’s just go ahead.”
We moved to our usual spot—a small grilled intestine restaurant.
We ordered what we always got and were trading jokes when——
“Ha ha, you sneaks, eating without me…… Hey, look at the time. I’m not even late.”
Jin-woo dropped into his seat, breathing hard.
I checked the clock. It was exactly seven.
“So there really are days when he doesn’t show up late?”
“Your breathing’s disgusting. Drink some water.”
Jin-woo, apparently parched, drained a glass of cold water in big gulps.
Now that I think about it, Jin-woo’s been consistent in his own way.
Even living just five minutes from campus, he used to miss classes all the time.
I wonder if he’s ever late to the company he works for now.
Jin-woo caught his breath and spoke up.
“Hey, you know who I just ran into on the way here?”
“Not interested.”
“I didn’t ask.”
“Never mind. Inha, you know Yeon-hee, right? That girl—the most popular one among the freshmen.”
“Lee Yeon-hee?”
I remembered her.
One of the freshmen who’d enrolled when I came back after discharge.
She had a bright, straightforward personality and a pretty face.
At the freshman welcome party, there were quite a few guys who wanted to sit beside her.
“Yeah, that one! I ran into her by chance, and wow—she’s even prettier now. Really polished.”
“Is she doing well?”
“Yeah. She said she works at a bank.”
“A bank? Which one?”
“Didn’t get that far into it. Oh, and she asked how you were doing.”
“Me?”
After I came back, I’d somehow ended up registering for the same elective course, and we attended classes together for a whole semester.
We’d grabbed meals a few times and grown closer.
‘……But after graduation, we’d naturally drifted apart.’
I laughed bitterly.
“So I said you were doing well. I also said you work at a bank.”
“What?”
I stopped flipping the entrails on the hot plate and stared at him.
“What, what? It’s not exactly wrong, is it?”
“You have to be precise. If there’s a misunderstanding? Then I’m the one who comes off as unreliable.”
“Oh, oh I see? I just meant to tell it like it is, and… I’m, I’m sorry.”
At Jin-woo’s apology, I let out a long sigh.
Because no matter who heard what he’d said, it would sound like nothing else but that I was a bank employee.
“Anyway…… forget it. What’s done is said. And I won’t be meeting her again anyway.”
“Yeah, yeah?”
“This guy’s been running his mouth thoughtlessly for who knows how long. Let’s have a drink.”
I clinked our soju glasses together and downed mine in one shot.
‘It’s bitter.’
Whether it was the soju that tasted bitter, or my situation—cycling through contract positions despite graduating from the same university as Yeon-hee—I couldn’t tell.
After that, the conversation drifted through various topics.
“What? You teach Kendo?”
“Yeah.”
“And the main job?”
“That’s night shift. I arranged to work part-time during the day, three times a week.”
Jin-woo managed and inspected products manufactured during the night shift at a factory.
He was juggling two jobs by carving out whatever daytime hours he could steal for sleep.
“Isn’t it exhausting?”
“Exhausting, yeah. But when am I going to save up to buy a house and a car? I have to make every penny count.”
“True. I’m pretty buried in cryptocurrency these days myself after work.”
“Has it gone up?”
“……Would it have gone up?”
The conversation naturally drifted toward side hustles and investments.
It was the practical anxiety of four men approaching thirty, after all.
‘I need to get my footing faster too…….’
Every time these topics came up, I felt the pressure mounting.
Compared to my three friends, I felt like I was falling behind.
Perhaps noticing my discomfort, Hyun-do changed the subject.
“Inha, why have you been logging in so rarely lately? You haven’t been on for three days.”
“Yeah, I was trying to get in some three-man ranked games yesterday.”
The four of us had been into AOS Game since university.
We’d played less than we used to, but we still enjoyed it from time to time.
“I’ve been playing Go lately.”
“Huh?”
“Go, not Omok?”
Shock washed across their faces.
Was the fact that I was playing Go really that startling?
“Yeah. The more I play, the more fun it gets.”
“This guy’s at it again. Why don’t you learn Go and try entering a tournament?”
“Go tournaments? Those actually happen?”
“Why wouldn’t they? There are plenty of amateur tournaments with prize money.”
“Kendo tournaments give prize money too if you place. Go probably offers even more, right?”
My eyes widened at an idea I’d never considered before.
‘……They give prize money?’
I’d only thought about leveraging my Go talent as a professional career path.
Competing in tournaments was an option I’d never even entertained.
“Whoa, hold on. What tournament are you talking about? You haven’t even been playing Go that long.”
“I know, but……”
“Tournaments seem too early. I mean, even our instructor keeps getting eliminated in competitions.”
“Just drop it, would you?”
The trivial banter continued without pause after that, back and forth between us.
But my mind was elsewhere entirely.
‘Should I give it a try?’
The thought came to me: nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Online Go was fine, but I wanted to feel the weight of real stones in my hands again, to experience the tension of actual play.
And.
‘You never know what might happen.’
My current online Go rating was amateur fourth dan.
But I believed I could climb higher still.
So I wanted to test myself.
In an offline tournament, not online.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————