"Shit ..." blurted a teenage boy sitting at a table looking at his laptop.
"Did Silent Stalker just give a job to a 60000 won bid?" asked another in surprise.
"It's your own fault," said a third. "That really was a mean thing to say, ChungHee."
"I just told the kid to get a job, Ye-Jun," ChungHee replied. "If he can't afford more than that, he shouldn't play until he can."
"How much is in your bank account, ChungHee?" asked JiHo from the other end of the meeting table.
They had all met at the law office that morning.
"I've been saving my money, hyung," ChungHee replied.
JiHo looked up from his paperwork to stare at the young man. "You've been saving your money to spend on a character in a game? Il-Seung, what bad habits have you been teaching these boys?"
Il-Seung laughed as he tapped his fingers on the keypad to prepare his character. "I've taught them the best, quickest way to defeat their enemy is to hire Silent Stalker."
JiHo shook his head as the five teenagers at the long table cheered.
"It isn't their fault you're old, hyung," Il-Seung teased.
JiHo threw a pen at Il-Seung as the boys laughed. In reality, both men were the same age, twenty-seven.
"Hyung, you should play with us," invited one of the boys. "We'll teach you."
"I have a lot of work to do before we go to the hockey rink, Byeong-Ho," JiHo answered. "Have you filled out that résumé for the job fair?" he asked. "And you, ChungHee?"
Byeong-Ho nodded. "Yes, hyung. I did it the day you gave it to me."
"Me, too," said ChungHee.
At nineteen, they were the oldest boys there. They would soon be sent to military service but would need to work in the meantime and have a job to return to.
"Hyung, can I get one?" asked another. "I'm about to turn eighteen."
"Yes, Tae-Hyun," JiHo answered. "You can get it out of my desk. Bottom drawer on the left."
"Thanks, hyung," he said as he hurried to retrieve it from JiHo's office.
"Hyung!" called out U-Jin. "I think you have a hit out on your assassin."
"Mine?" wondered Il-Seung. "Who would put a hit out on my assassin?"
JiHo looked up from his work again to pay closer attention to what appeared to be shocking news.
"Is your assassin so terrible that no one would bother?" asked JiHo.
"Hyung's assassin is one of the best in the game, hyung," answered ChungHee.
"The only one better is Silent Stalker," added Ye-Jun.
"Is that why that kid hired Silent Stalker?" wondered Byeong-Ho.
"No one else would stand a chance against Samjoko," Ye-Jun replied.
"Samjoko?" asked JiHo.
"My assassin," Il-Seung answered as he feverishly scrolled and typed to contact the player who worked for him as his assassin.
"Player Samjoko is offline"
"Dammit!" exclaimed Il-Seung as he pulled out his phone.
As he was texting, Tae-Hyun returned.
"Tae! Silent Stalker is going after Samjoko!" announced U-Jin.
"What?" he asked in surprise and hurried to his chair.
He set the résumé beside his laptop and looked through the game.
JiHo shook his head and laughed at their frantic gameplay. He looked at his watch and saw that it was getting late. Their reservation at the rink would begin soon. He wondered if he should call Nari to take three of them. He and Il-Seung had room in their cars, but he wanted to see her.
He pulled up the live stream again. He paused it at the usual place where she quickly looked at the camera. He missed her more than he thought he would. She'd been so quiet the previous week, and he wondered if it had anything to do with her uncle.
"He's dead!" shouted Il-Seung.
"No way!" replied Ye-Jun.
"I just received a text from the guy who plays Samjoko," he told them. "It was Silent Stalker."
"Silent Stalker just got the hit order," Byeong-Ho marveled. "No one can be that fast, not even goyo."
"Samjoko said goyo was using a new sniper rifle," Il-Seung informed them.
"No one has that weapon yet," Ye-Jun remarked.
"It's an assassin-exclusive item," replied Il-Seung. "Silent Stalker is the first with it."
"It's expensive," Tae-Hyun told them as he browsed the game's supply shop. "It's the most expensive weapon in the shop."
"Is Silent Stalker some rich kid?" pondered ChungHee.
"It's all those bids Silent Stalker gets," U-Jin guessed. "The highest was 12000000 won ($10,000)."
"On a game?" exclaimed JiHo in shock. "That's it. Log off. We're going to the rink."
As he stuffed his work into his briefcase, he shook his head at the absurdity of anyone making and spending that much money on a game. He thought to himself that he would like to meet this Silent Stalker to find out what was really going on. If one bid was 12000000 won and this player was the most sought after, they were making a lot of money from kids with no sense of financial responsibility.
He marked it down in his mental "to do" list of things he still had to teach these kids who relied on him to prepare them for the world outside of a computer game.
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