Chapter 118

“It’s done.”

Kwon Taeyoung’s voice, calling from the courthouse, carried both relief and a deep sigh.

“The mediation ended in a settlement, and the other side backed down. Your mother made absolutely sure the written agreement was notarized too.”

In addition to relinquishing custody and visitation rights, it included a restraining provision and a confidentiality clause.

Apparently, once Hanje’s side started coming at them like they were possessed by a money-hungry demon too, the other side backed off immediately.

So much for all that talk about wanting to treat the child well from now on.

They would never again approach the child or his current family, nor disclose anything related to the matter online or to the media. Any violation would make them liable for penalty fees and damages.

When K-Dom’s legal team heard the contents of the agreement, they apparently gritted their teeth and said that they had hated being unable to help because family law was outside their area, but this was their specialty, so the other side had better just try giving them an opening.

“Ha....”

Hanje tightened his grip around the phone.

“What about Gowon?”

“He heard the result with his family. I sent Jonghyeok with them so they could finally relax and go have a decent meal.”

“You worked hard too.”

“...Ultimately, this happened because I put Gowon in the entertainment industry. Of course I should work hard.”

Seriously. If nothing else, this man’s sense of responsibility was ridiculous.

Once Hanje ended the call with Kwon Taeyoung, the strength drained out of his entire body too.

He called his mother next. She complained that Seoul was unbearably chaotic and said she was already on her way back down.

When Hanje asked if she was really leaving without even seeing her son’s face, she told him to come down himself.

Even that utterly ordinary conversation felt like proof that the whole ordeal was truly over.

“...Thank God....”

Thank God Gowon’s little brother, whom he had done his absolute best to raise like a normal child despite everything, could stay with the family he knew.

More than anything...

Thank God Gowon had been spared one more wound.

Thank God that this time, other adults had been able to block the malice of the adults who had come after him.

“...Hey, at least give me some kind of popup saying I cleared that well.”

This had honestly felt harder than most quests.

Gowon had probably been ground down both physically and mentally too.

“Coldhearted bastard.”

The quest window still gave no response.

“What, are you scolding me for failing as The Senior Who Paves the Flower Road?”

It would have been nice if Hanje could have stepped in and helped brilliantly the way he had with other problems, but this time there simply hadn’t been much he could do as an entertainment-industry senior.

Then I’ll just start paving his flower road again from here.

From now until the day Gowon retired, good things alone still wouldn’t be enough for him.

...The problem was that somewhere along that road, they would also have to deal with Gowon liking him.

The concern Hanje had shoved aside by telling himself they could think about it after the urgent crisis was over had finally arrived right in front of him.

“.......”

...No, anyway, Gowon still has to confess, doesn’t he?

Then couldn’t Hanje just decide after hearing the confession?

Gowon still had that confession quest left, after all.

Come to think of it, Hanje hadn’t seen the window blocking his vision in quite a while.

Everything had exploded because of those damned people, and the quest window had seemed completely uninterested in the whole affair, so Hanje hadn’t even thought to summon it. And once he stopped calling it, the thing that usually butted in whether it belonged or not stopped appearing too.

It could have shown that kind of tact in the rainy alley as well. Why had it displayed Gowon’s own feelings right in front of him and made everything awkward?

“Wait. Don’t tell me.”

The confession quest definitely said something along the lines of realizing his own feelings and confessing.

Had the Current Status appeared to help with the realize part?

“Are you kidding me? Are you completely hopeless at romance? If pushing things along with a quest could make this work...”

When Hanje had first been saddled with the quest, neither he nor Gowon had particularly positive feelings toward the other.

Their opinions had only changed after getting to know each other in all kinds of ways afterward.

The more Flower Road Bastard interferes in something like this, the less likely it is to turn out well....

Hanje dropped onto the sofa with a deep sigh—

and suddenly froze.

“......!”

Only now did the sense that something was wrong crash over him.

The quest window had effectively been a bystander throughout this entire incident.

Hanje had assumed that was because the situation wasn’t directly happening to the quest’s target.

So he had found a solution in reality without any help from the quest window.

But even while all that was happening—

time had kept moving.

“...Quest window.”

It appeared as if it had been waiting for him.

Q3-2. A truly devoted son must make sure people see his face often.

If you have established a spotless past, digital performance, and recognition, it is now time to make a lasting impression on the public and secure your presence.

Create a YouTube video with at least NNNN views.

Easy: 1,000,000–3,000,000 views

Normal: 3,000,000–9,999,999 views

Hard: 10,000,000+ views

Time Limit: 07h 04m 11s (D-0)

Success: Rewards vary by difficulty.

Failure: Quest Scenario forcibly terminated.

D-0.

The remaining date, diligently counting down all by itself, was displayed there in unmistakable clarity.

“!!!”

Hanje rushed into K-Dom’s official YouTube account.

“Ah....”

The self-produced content Gowon had filmed with Cha Yensu.

It hadn’t been uploaded.

...Common sense said that was obvious. With no one knowing how the court proceedings would turn out, delaying publication had been the correct move.

But Hanje—

like an idiot—

had overlooked it.

Of course he had.

He had assumed the quest would be easy to clear and had forgotten about it altogether.

Fuck...!

His fingers flew back to the search bar.

Gowon’s Splash Night fancam views....

“...Ha....”

The highest one had 840,000.

Eight hundred forty thousand after more than a month.

Reaching one million within the remaining time was practically impossible.

Wait.

Was the quest really going to fail like this?

“No. No way.”

Part 3 Additional Penalty — Kim Yeban suffers an injury severe enough to cause ■■■■ condition

“Why!”

He had gotten so stupidly buried in the crisis right in front of him that he had missed something truly important.

His mistake had been taking this quest too lightly from the beginning.

One million views on Easy was the kind of quest Gowon could clear just by promoting normally.

But Gowon hadn’t been able to do any activities at all for the past month.

“Right now. Something that can break one million right now. Anything that could become an issue.”

He was sorry to Gowon, but maybe if he deliberately triggered some kind of fake scandal and then cleaned it up afterward by saying it wasn’t true—

That won’t work either.

This wasn’t about suddenly developing a conscience.

Gowon’s current recognition still wasn’t high enough to create that kind of explosive buzz within a few hours.

And a dating rumor wasn’t the kind of issue that would necessarily translate into video views anyway.

Something.

Something shocking.

Something even people who knew nothing about the entertainment industry would become deeply invested in...!

Something like—

Expose his family history.

The thought slithered into his brain like a snake.

“......!”

Thump. Thump. Thump.

His heart pounded as though something were stomping on it.

A boy who had clawed his way to success while helping his grandparents raise his half-brother, only for some adult to come sniffing around for money and use the child as leverage.

Vile people trying to bleed dry a young breadwinner who had become a celebrity....

Right.

That would enrage the entire country.

The views would be guaranteed.

But.

“How could I do that...!”

Hanje knew better than anyone how Gowon had lived.

How happy he had been to finally find some light in his life.

How the hell could I do something like that to him!

The hands in front of him were trembling violently.

He had been complacent.

The quest window had threatened him using the older members again and again, but he had always managed to get through somehow.

Somewhere along the way, he had started fearing the penalties far less than he had in the beginning.

Is there really no other way? What if I ask them to edit the thing he filmed with Yensu and upload it right now? No. It’s already too late. Even if we promoted it like crazy, it’d still be cutting it dangerously close. Am I seriously going to gamble with Yeban’s life? Compared to that, having some painful past exposed would actually be... No. Please. Stop thinking in that direction. There has to be some other way....

It was even more suffocating because he couldn’t discuss this with anyone.

...No.

There was one person.

Someone who knew everything Hanje had been through.

“Yunjin...!”

Despite the late hour, Yunjin answered immediately.

“Yunjin. What—what do I do? I completely forgot about the views quest. There aren’t even a few hours left now....”

“.......”

“I was stupid, I just...! Ah...!”

But Yunjin’s silence on the other end of the speaker was far too calm.

...No way.

“Did you know? That I’d completely forgotten to do the quest?”

“.......”

The sigh Hanje heard was full of pain.

It was answer enough.

“Why didn’t you tell me! If you’d said something halfway through, I could’ve done something! Kim Yeban’s life is on the line! How could you just—!”

“Hanje.”

The voice that came back was full of anguish.

And in that instant, Hanje understood.

Yunjin hadn’t chosen not to tell him.

He had been unable to.

Yunjin, forced to watch the entire time, had probably suffered through something worse than Hanje was suffering now after only just realizing the truth.

“.......”

Hanje squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them and forced himself to organize his thoughts.

His gaze drifted to the ceiling, washed in reddish sunset light.

It seemed almost like a visible measure of how little remained before the day ended.

“...The only idea I can come up with right now is turning Gowon’s family history into an issue. That’s it. That’s all I’ve got.”

“.......”

“But there’s no way a quest that supposedly wants Gowon to succeed would want something like that. So there has to be another way, right? Maybe I should threaten the quest window with Gowon instead. Tell it that if it doesn’t extend the time right now...”

That he would hurt Gowon.

Even though it would only be an empty bluff that Hanje had no intention of carrying out, the words refused to leave his mouth.

“Baek Hanje. When you thought of exposing it, did that ‘quest window’ react like it was trying to stop you?”

“No. It didn’t really....”

“And based on all your years in the entertainment industry, that was the first move that came to mind?”

“...Yeah.”

“Then that might actually be the option that helps Gowon the most.”

What the hell was he talking about?

Hanje understood so little that he couldn’t even ask the question.

He just went still.

“The biological mother and her attorney are obviously rotten adults no one should want anything to do with.... You said the youngest child caught up in this is Gowon’s little brother. What kind of kid is he?”

“Just a normal ten-year-old who’s excited because his brother became an idol. There’s nothing else to say.”

“Then if a normal little brother gets dragged through gossip for a while, it probably won’t affect his future career much.”

“......!”

The voice was far too cold for an assessment of a child.

A chill ran through Hanje too.

“But if his brother’s biological mother is this kind of person, that family problem can become poison again at any time. In that case, maybe it’s better to cut out the infected part completely while you have the chance.”

“.......”

“That could be what the quest wants.”

“.......”

Hanje couldn’t answer.

They had obtained a written agreement, but as things stood, her parental rights had not been completely severed.

Yes.

If the public turned against her hard enough, Suhyeon’s biological mother would never dare approach Gowon’s family again.

And that attorney could even see their livelihood affected.

Just as Yunjin said, it would certainly be more effective at ripping the problem out by the roots.

But Gowon and his little brother would unquestionably be deeply hurt in the process.

Why had everyone worked so desperately to keep the case from ever reaching the public in the first place?

And the quest window wanted the exact opposite...?

His thoughts rang in chaos.

“That thing clearly tries to fulfill someone’s desperate wish according to whatever it judges will benefit humanity as a whole. But that doesn’t mean the method it chooses is humane or compassionate. ...You already know that.”

Of course Hanje knew.

He had seen it with his own eyes more than once.

But—

“Still... if this thing has some kind of will, I thought at least... it cared about Gowon. It worries about his mental state. When Executive Director Choi had him cornered, it made impossible things happen. It made me act for the sake of his success....”

“.......”

“...And you’re saying the quest might actually want me to expose all this....”

Hanje wished, even now, that some alert would appear denying it.

A warning message telling him he was about to do something wrong.

But the space in front of him remained completely silent.