Assistant Manager Kim Hates Idols
SS Chapter 44: Hobby Life Update
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TL: FoodieMonster007
While I neglected Dot Iwol and the farm I was forced to adopt, the game had a massive update. The notification window vibrated explosively when I logged in after the loading finished.
This has never happened before. Why?
The reason was simple. Veteran players had protested for N years about the lack of content. As a new player, I had no idea.
The update added significant content, from maps and new shop tools to quests. You could even plant sweet potatoes now.
It was too much information for Mr. Kim Iwol, who had only ever traveled between his front yard and the store, let alone explored the town.
As I struggled to process the news, a suspicious sentence caught my eye. A quest I never expected during this harsh rural adaptation had arrived.
[You can now create a 'family'!]
What family? I don't even have friends.
The only characters I had spoken to since moving to this crappy town were the village chief and the mart owner. Dot Iwol’s social life was in shambles, busy with the bean harvest.
There are quests you don't have to clear to progress, right…?
I almost opened the diary with Jeong Seongbin’s great tips, but I had thrown it away. I had also promised Jeong Seongbin I wouldn't look for the predecessors' treasure trove of wisdom.
I barely held back tears.
Let's think positively. How could a game keep users without this level of hardship?
Changing my perspective made it slightly more bearable.
Besides, I was confident about making a family.
What kind of group is spArk? Aren't we a team so close we're called a pseudo-family!
≫ It's nice that we're becoming more like a family as the years go by, but it feels strange
It's… like watching a family from a sitcom
└ It's still a family, so that's good, right?
└ Definitely not a serious drama
└ It's not easy to be like this when you've only gathered actors with serious drama faces
≫ The evolution of spArk's family photos
A classic family photo you'd see hanging in an old photo studio (brass-colored frame is a must) → A self-shot photo taken in a photo booth on the street → A 'let's just be glad everyone is here' photo taken on a whim because everyone gathered for the holidays
└ Isn't the second one giving off major self-photo studio vibes? lol
≫ I've contracted a disease that makes me see that group photo as a family photo
How can they not be a family when our boys are this in sync
└ When are you guys going to transfer your family register under Seongbin
└ Do the hyungs have to go under Seongbin too…?
└ lolololololololol
spArk boasted a unity second to none, and I was part of it. Someone like me could surely make a single family for my game character.
Just you wait, Dot Iwol. I'll make you a family.
I comforted my avatar and read the detailed instructions. A new stage was added to the relationship system, which previously only went up to 'Friendly Neighbor' and 'Friend'. This was surprising news for me, as I had zero friendly neighbors.
[- Additional rewards for creating a 'Special Bond' -] Rewards were even available just for upgrading a resident to a friendly neighbor. I never got anything like this for making Super Beans and Sturdy Barley. I farmed so hard that my crops got modifiers, but the mart owner just bought them for a higher price. I had missed so much content because I was too busy laboring.
[Iwol, aren't you going to make friends? lololol] [You're an E, so why do you make Dot Iwol go around aloneㅠlol] [It's good even if you have friends…! That's a spoiler, so I'll stop there!] No wonder the Sparklers asked if I would make friends for Dot Iwol. Their foresight was incredible. The fans are never wrong.
I had only planned to enjoy the game briefly, so I never bothered with anything but the main content, but now I thought it might be good to expand my horizons and grow more attached. It definitely wasn't just because the rewards I checked tempted me.
Making friends wasn't easy. I went to the village after finishing my farm work, but everyone had already gone to bed. Only an old man was night fishing, so I just went home.
From the second day on, I had some success. I managed to greet people.
They weren't very welcoming to outsiders. I had been in this village for a while, yet no one knew my name. They would, however, post 'Today's Expensive Crop' on the village bulletin board in huge letters. The game urgently needed to introduce a move-in registration system.
After about a week in game time, I had several friendly neighbors. A week later, I even made a friend. I ran around recruiting family candidates until my feet sweat. At night, I checked each resident's affinity, harvested my crops, and went to sleep.
The smoothly progressing family-making project hit an unexpected wall. I couldn't figure out the cause, so I took my laptop and went to the maknaes' room for advice. Lee Cheonghyeon, who hadn't gone to his studio because of the rain, greeted me.
"Cheonghyeon, have you or Kiyeon ever played 'My Farm'?"
"No. Why?"
"I need to become a family with my character right now, but we're not becoming one even though we're as close as possible."
"Isn't it because you put up a family wanted ad in a mad dash?"
"So that's the reason?"
We put our heads together, but no clear answer emerged. Just when I was desperate for a wiki, Kang Kiyeon appeared.
"Kang-geon! You're just in time. Come look at Iwol's game."
"The game? Are you playing 'My Farm' again?"
"I've hit a crisis."
"They're not updating it anymore?"
"What are you talking about? I'm suffering because of the update."
"True suffering comes from a lack of updates."
The trauma from picking up an unfinished work seemed severe.
"Look here, the affinity is maxed out. Until now, when the bar filled up, the relationship would improve and a new bar would appear. Now only the final stage is left, but a new bar isn't opening up."
"Are you playing without looking at the wiki?"
"Yeah, I promised Seongbin."
"Even if it's a new update, there should be info in the official announcements."
Like someone who knew his way around games, Kang Kiyeon skillfully checked the announcements on his own.
"So you succeeded in getting to the 'Friend' stage?"
"Yeah. I wasn't making any progress after becoming friends with one person, so I secured five friends just in case."
"Then don't you have to get married next?"
"What are you saying? That sounds like you're telling me to quit being an idol."
It was an utterly absurd remark. Kang Kiyeon himself remained nonchalant after pushing someone to the edge of a cliff.
"You said you have to become a family. In comics, couples often get together in the ending… It's written here. 'Partner in Life'."
The title suddenly felt heavy.
For a mere game SYSTEM, how much work is it planning to give me?
I briefly wondered if I should just go back to the farm right now.
"The question is how to become that partner. Shouldn't a prompt asking if you want to be partners pop up?"
"That's what I'm saying."
Lee Cheonghyeon and I both objected. Kang Kiyeon stroked his chin in thought, then presented another shocking hypothesis.
"Wasn't there a proposal option or something?"
"I… haven't seen it yet."
"Aha. There might be a separate unlock condition."
"Like buying a ring?"
"Exactly. Iwol, how did you make friends until now?"
"By giving them sugarcane."
"So it was a capitalist village."
Lee Cheonghyeon said, the light gone from his eyes.
To put it simply, the three of us were unsuited for the 'Partner in Life' project. Kang Kiyeon was a narrative enthusiast who couldn't accept becoming friends just by giving gifts. Lee Cheonghyeon grew up with brothers so dry they seemed to have gone through a dryer, and I, despite having an older sister, had never discussed romance, so my knowledge was zero. We could do nothing together. Lee Cheonghyeon was a talented event planner, but this project failed because the theme was matchmaking and romantic coupling.
"If only Jeho or Joowoo were here!"
Lee Cheonghyeon lamented greatly. The day had finally come when I actually missed Choi Jeho. That guy would have found a good solution using insights gained from being between his older sister Jeyoung and his younger sibling.
Or Park Joowoo could have shared the cyber-romance skills he learned from watching his sister Jaeha.
The trio of blockheads couldn't do anything and just made poor Dot Iwol run around in circles on the farm.
Lee Cheonghyeon stared intently at the status window and asked.
"Did you only give the residents sugarcane as gifts?"
"I gave them other things too. I'm not that much of a scumbag."
"What did you give them?"
"Snacks I bought with all my money and flowers I picked from the roadside. I gathered ten of each and handed them out every day."
"You became friends with just that?"
"Does it look like you can online shop in this village? That was the best stuff I could get!"
It was unfair. I worked hard to become a friendly neighbor. I greeted residents, picking any flowers I saw and putting them in my pocket. I would only trudge back to water the unlit field after the sun had completely set. Tears welled up as I remembered turning my laptop brightness to the max, watering pixel by pixel because the screen was too dark.
"Do you know how much they all looked down on me at first? They'd get my name wrong, and even when I gave them a gift, they'd just say, 'Hmph, I guess I'll take it.'"
The end of such a journey was to find a partner in life and be tied to the village, farming forever.
Maybe Dot Iwol should be preparing a contract, not a proposal.
"Really? Was the reaction the same every time you gave a gift?"
"It was different for each character. Some were nice about it, and some were prickly. Why?"
After some thought, Lee Cheonghyeon pointed to a status that showed a noticeable difference.
"You said the list of gifts you gave was the same, right? But some are already friends while others are still just friendly neighbors. They don't seem to be getting closer at a similar pace either. Maybe each friend has a different compatibility with certain gifts?"
"You mean giving them high-quality crops isn't always the best?"
"Lee Cheonghyeon has a point. This is also a kind of character trait."
"So the ones who spoke nicely liked the gifts I gave, and the prickly ones didn't?"
"Or is even this reaction part of their character? Like a manga character who deliberately hides their feelings even if they like something?"
"Yes. So deducing clues from the dialogue is…!"
What started as an attempt to enjoy new content had spiraled out of control. I wracked my brain, trying to recall which resident had seemed particularly happy when I gave them gifts, and what I had given that person.
This is harder than planning my barley double-cropping.