Chapter 270 - Chapter 270 (1/2)

Only I Level Up Recollections/After Stories

Part 6: Goodbye

(TL: Here it is, the very last chapter.)

[The sibling conmen duo of Hwang Dong-Seok and his younger brother Hwang Dong-Su that caused an uproar in the country have been arrested earlier today....]

Beep.

The TV located inside the Violent Crimes Unit that spat out the news was turned off. Jin-Woo put the remote down and picked up his coat while standing up, prompting Seh-Hwan next to him to stop the administrative work and ask a question.

"Uh? Hyung-nim, you're leaving already?"

"Yeah, I've got a prior arrangement to attend to, so I'll be going home early today."

"Yessir."

Jin-Woo replied with a smile towards his partner performing a playful salute and escaped from the office. Seh-Hwan watched his boss's back disappear from view and chuckled slightly while crossing his arms.

"It's so strange. Hyung-nim always goes home early on this day every single year...."

….Hang on a minute.

He shifted his gaze over to the calendar stuck on one of the walls and a certain thought popped up in his head.

"Ahh, so that's what it was. Today is...."

***

Baek Yun-Ho spat out a low sigh, his face a mess of black soot and dirt.

"Fuu...."

Not too long ago, he and his crew managed to put out a massive wildfire raging near a residential area. This victory came about after over 50 fire engines and firefighting helicopters, as well as 800 or so brave firefighters had been mobilised.

Baek Yun-Ho took a look around him. He could see his fatigued colleagues lying or squatting on the ground here and there. However, not one of them carried gloomy expressions. Some of them grinned brightly or raised their thumbs up real high when their gazes met.

Whenever that happened, Baek Yun-Ho also raised his thumb up as his reply.

No one died or got injured while they successfully reined in the fire. That should be seen as a real miracle in the scene of such a large-scale blaze.

Even though they were deeply fatigued and left with no energy whatsoever after battling the flames for the whole night, they used their expressions to cheer each other up and celebrate their success.

Baek Yun-Ho also felt deeply pleased about this outcome.

It was then.

"Ouch, that's cold."

He got startled by the sudden coldness touching his neck skin and took a look to his side to find Captain Seong Il-Hwan holding a bottle of ice-cold water.

"Thank you, sir."

Baek Yun-Ho bowed his head slightly and took over the water bottle. Seong Il-Hwan settled down next to him and wetted his throat with a different bottle.

The veteran of a hundred battles.

Or, the greatest captain in history.

Didn't matter what you called him, it didn't sound ill-fitting with Captain Seong. And as his nickname had alluded to, he had displayed unparalleled brilliance in today's event, too.

Baek Yun-Ho was proud to be in the same crew as Seong Il-Hwan. Heck, all these bits of soot stuck on his face felt like medals of honour to him, even.

'One day, I....'

He sneaked a glance at his respected senior from the corners of his eyes, before pouring down the remaining cold water over his head.

"Pu-haah."

Now he felt like a living person again. The stuffy heat clinging onto him felt as if it got washed away, starting from the top of his head.

But then….

"...Ah."

….A scene from the past suddenly entered Baek Yun-Ho's brain.

The side profile of a face he saw back then!

"Captain!"

Seong Il-Hwan's eyes opened wider as he turned to look at his junior.

"Yeah?"

Baek Yun-Ho hurriedly carried on.

"You know, that the large-scale blaze in Daesung Building three years ago…. You still remember that, Captain? Our team got trapped in there and almost died, didn't we?"

"Yeah, I remember."

Back then, Seong Il-Hwan and his crew were steadily losing their consciousness after being trapped within the blaze, but a mysterious stranger appeared out of nowhere, like some kind of a fantasy, and helped them to survive the ordeal.

This mystery man rescued the isolated firefighters before disappearing without a trace, leading some to question whether the folks that day saw a mass hallucination at the same time or not.

"Actually, I saw the side profile of that man for a brief moment before I passed out, you see."

"Oh, is that so?"

"Yes. But that guy looked so much like....."

Unfortunately, Baek Yun-Ho didn't get to finish what he wanted to say.

Because Seong Il-Hwan had ripped open a packet of bread he brought along with the water bottle and pushed the resulting chow in Baek Yun-Ho's mouth, that's why.

"Euph, euph??"

Baek Yun-Ho chewed through the bread and tilted his head.

"Captain?"

Seong Il-Hwan didn't try to answer with verbal replies and grinned as he bit into his own bread.

And, as if to cool down the heads of the firefighters fatigued by all that heat, a gentle breeze blew in from somewhere and brushed past their hair, ever so softly.

***

Inside a conference chamber located on the top floor of a certain high-rise building.

"Chairman?"

"...."

"Sir, are you alright?"

Yu Jin-Ho barely managed to suppress the corners of his lips trying to rise up to the heavens above.

"Yes, I'm fine. Well, then. Let's continue...."

Yu Jin-Ho fished through the documents placed in front of him before raising his head up to see the faces of his employees filling up the conference chamber. He formed an embarrassed grin and asked them a question.

"Uhm, what were we talking about just now?"

"..."

The expressions of these employees hardened for a short while after they all realised that their boss hadn't heard a thing they were talking about for the past 30 minutes of the meeting.

However, they calmed themselves and got the meeting going again.

"Sir, we were informing you that we need to come up with a new title for the virtual reality video game our company is about to publish."

"Ah, that's right. Right."

Yu Jin-Ho nodded his head, but then, couldn't hold it back anymore and shot up from his seat to loudly cry out towards his employees.

"Everyone, my wife is pregnant!! It's already the sixth week, apparently!!"

His face was filled with an uncontrollable amount of joy right now. The inside of the conference chamber was filled with a sudden silence. But that lasted only for a brief while.

Soon, documents were flying in the air and at the same time, employees were crying out in cheer as well.

"Congratulations, sir!"

"Congrats, sir!!"

"Finally, our Chairman has become a father!"

Yu Jin-Ho did a lap around the conference chamber and high-fived all of his employees jumping up and down in joy as if this news concerned themselves.

His absolutely lovely wife, his soon-to-be-born baby, and his game development company that was making a killing year after year….

How could the world be this beautiful to his eyes right now?

'Heot!!'

During the middle of his lap of celebration, Yu Jin-Ho had a moment of sudden, powerful inspiration. He climbed up on the conference table and confidently made a declaration to his employees.

"The Beautiful World!!!"

Quite obviously, the gazes of all the employees gathered on him.

"Excuse me?"

As they began doubting their ears, Yu Jin-Ho oh-so courteously proved that their hearing wasn't faulty.

"That will be the title of our new game! Let's go with the "Beautiful World'!!"

The joy-filled conference chamber was enveloped in a sudden bout of silence.

"....Are you serious, sir?"

Yu Jin-Ho replied without a moment's hesitation.

"Of course. The name 'Beautiful World' fits our game that will virtually recreate reality as close as it can, so…. Ahh? What are you all doing?? H-hang on a second, everyone!! I, I might fall, you know??"

The employees began to tussle with Yu Jin-Ho desperately in order to pull him off the top of the conference table. In the midst of his struggle, his gaze inadvertently shifted outside the window.

'H-hey. Feels like something flew past just now, didn't it?'

Too bad, the feelings of having seen something got erased from his head in no time at all after he found himself under the crossfire of his employees' holy crusade to stop him.

"Sir, you should rethink this...."

"The fate of our company hangs in the balance with this game, siiiir!"

"I mean, it's not really a 'Beautiful World', is it, sir??"

"You're being too much, you know?!"