[Translator - Jjescus]
[Proofreader - Gun]
Chapter 194
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Investors III
6
Tuning customers' dreams and advancing them.
This is the job assigned to the new generation of writers.
Because of that, even the titles of the writers have changed.
"DM-nim! Today's dream was amazing! Honestly, these days, life is more enjoyable when I'm asleep than when I'm awake!"
"Haha, I'm glad you had a restful sleep too."
Dream Manager (DM for short).
Now, writers were often called "DM-nim" rather than "author." U//ppTodated fr/o/m nô/v/e/lb(i)n.c(o)\/m
"Then, good luck with your work. I'll go get some sleep now..."
"Oh, right, DM-nim, it's your sleep time now! Sleep well!"
"Yes, thank you. Yawn..."
While others slept, DMs worked, and while others worked, DMs slept.
They were forced into an extreme night owl lifestyle, but DMs didn't mind. Even when they were authors, they chose to be more bird-like than mammal-like.
And then...
"Doctor Jang. There's this new DM trend going on lately, have you heard of it?"
It was around this time that I heard about the "Recent_Writer_Updates.jpg" from Tang Seorin.
I was always busy traveling across the country, so I often heard about trends among the general public late.
"DM? What's that?"
"To put it simply, they're sleep managers. You could say they enhance the dreams that fairies provide."
"Hmm..."
"Anyway, people are going wild over it. It's gotten to the point where top-tier DMs are so in demand that they're hard to hire even for a fortune."
"Strange things are happening."
"Right? I even hired a DM for myself recently. They're a Harry Potter fan, and we get along. They prefer the current generation over the past, just like me."
Current generation? Past generation?
At the time, in my 205th turn, I tilted my head at the barrage of jargon.
"So, you're saying you hired an ordinary person as your personal manager and gave them the authority to manipulate the world of dreams? Isn't that dangerous?"
"Oh, don't worry. DMs can't do anything without the tutorial fairies anyway. As long as the fairies don't betray us, it's hard for a DM to pull any funny business."
"Hmm."
"Besides, they're just regular people without any awakened abilities."
At that time, I just shrugged it off.
But in fact, Tang Seorin's statement held a bombshell of information.
As everyone knows, Three Thousand Worlds is one of the top guilds in Korea.
Only the best of the best, those proven in character, loyalty, talent, and boldness, can enter.
(Except for Yoo Jiwon, who sneakily passed through the special Latin track.)
For ordinary people, it was a dream job, one they couldn't even apply for.
But now, an ordinary person who wasn't even an awakened individual got hired?
And not as a janitor or handyman, but as a full-fledged employee?
Moreover, they became the personal manager of Tang Seorin, who, along with Noh Doha, holds power in Busan? A complete ordinary person?
Entry was easy, business prospects were bright, and there was even a chance to gain fame and power? The result?
"Mom! I want to become a writer when I grow up!"
"Writers are like gods!"
[Translator - Jjescus]
[Proofreader - Gun]
A craze swept through the Korean Peninsula. As mentioned earlier, the Great Literary Age had suddenly dawned.
Many incidents and accidents happened during this Great Literary Age. For example, the fairies in the tutorial went on a massive strike, declaring they couldn't take it anymore. But in this episode, I plan to cover just one incident, and it's a story where anomalies were not involved at all.
As I warned from the start, today we'll focus on the stories of 'ordinary people,' which we don't usually cover. And who is the representative of these ordinary people? Let's not hide it.
"I'm feeling burned out these days..."
"What?"
It's Writer A, who has appeared from the beginning to the end of this episode. For reference, I couldn't get permission from Writer A to use their real pen name in my story. So, I reluctantly refer to them as Writer A. Just know that they are a web novel writer with a very timid personality, and their pen name ends with the letter "A" in pronunciation.
Anyway.
"What are you talking about, DM? Your cocktail bar is doing great these days! You've even increased the customer capacity to 50, and hired 5 bartender NPCs. Oh! The new bartender you hired got rave reviews recently!"
"DM, DM, that darn DM..."
"What?"
"I'm a writer! A writer! And writing novels, creating stories, this isn't it!"
Crash.
Writer A threw a wine glass in front of the assistant writer, smashing it. It seemed like only yesterday they couldn't even afford clean water and had to drink rainwater. But now, having tasted a bit of success, they'd already developed the bourgeois disease.
"Look at what I've been doing lately! I greet customers with 'Irasshaimase,' make cocktails all day long, and tinker with the appearance and backstories of new bartenders... Is this being a writer? Is it?"
"Well, you're easily making hundreds of thousands of won a day..."
"A world full of struggle yet beauty! Lively characters! Battles of defeat and victory, schemes and plots, a ballroom at midnight where some dance while others walk the scaffold, such, such a work! That's what I want to writeeeeee!"
"......"
For those who may not know, that's called 'New Work Syndrome,' a chronic condition that strikes every writer who has serialized the same work for more than 18 months. There were also other endemic diseases among writers, like 'Remake Syndrome,' 'Discontinuation Syndrome,' 'Relay Novel Syndrome,' 'Contest Syndrome,' 'My Work Sucks Syndrome,' 'My Work Rocks Syndrome,' and 'If I Don't Write a Female Protagonist, I'll Die Syndrome.'
You might be shocked at how such flawed creatures still exist on Earth, but you're not done being surprised yet.
"But I can't create such perfect dreams alone...!"
And here, Writer A made a very writerly, or from the general human perspective, a very foolish decision.
First, they called upon the 7 fellow writers with whom they had once shared a humble meal of army stew. These fellow writers had now become the 'Exalted 8,' who were successful in the industry. They had upgraded from army stew to holding gatherings at a BBQ restaurant.
"Honestly, you're all tired too, right? Right?"
"Uh, well..."
"The Great Witch is great and all, but her demands are too high... Sometimes she even points out inaccuracies in dreams, but honestly, that's not my fault. The original settings are inconsistent..."
"Exactly!"
Bang! Writer A put down their makgeolli cup.
"Let's create a work together!"
"What?"
"Each of us should take charge of a few main characters and develop their backstories. Then we'll combine them. Let's build the world together. You're good at political intrigue, so handle that part. And you're great with war stories, right? So balance the conflicts between the fictional countries!"
Writer A declared.
"We're the first writers in human history who can manipulate dreams! How long are we going to keep fiddling with the dreams of the powerful? Let's create an MMORPG with an unprecedented level of freedom, a perfect 'virtual world!'"
"......!"
That's right.
Unfortunately, Writer A and the Exalted 8 had contracted the worst disease among all writer diseases, the one that sends shivers down your spine just by pronouncing its name:
Co-llab-o-ra-tive W-o-rk Disease.
[Translator - Jjescus]
[Proofreader - Gun]