[TS] Formula One Streamer - Chapter 125

“Drink, drink!”

“It’s a holiday today, so let’s drink!”

“What will I do tomorrow? I don’t know, I’ll figure it out tomorrow.”

It’s exotic here because it’s Italy.

The staff were talking quietly at tables, tilting their soju glasses.

Every time the green soju bottle featuring a popular female celebrity tilted, the clear soju sloshed in the glass and overflowed onto the hand. Although the dish of pork belly had settled in, perhaps the culture had not.

Seeing the soju filled to the brim, almost creating a surface tension, made me feel as if it was my glass even though it wasn’t, and my mouth felt all clammy.

As my stomach became bloated from the greasiness, nothing could wash it down better than a glass of soju…

“Absolutely not. How can a sickly kid drink soju? And you’re a minor.”

“I’m healthy now. I’ve worked out a lot and I’m nineteen…”

“Tch.”

Jihyun, with her fists on her waist. If I could just have one drink, I would have no wishes left, but because Jihyun was vigilantly watching me, my wish remained just a wish.

The fact that I got drunk on wine at the restaurant in Monza on my debut day should stay buried with me until the grave.

Then, all I could eat was pork belly. I thought I might as well eat a lot of it and managed to get most of the meat with my chopsticks.

Won-jin, who failed to grab any, glared at me.

What can you do? It’s your fault for not being faster.

“So, Enrique, which project do you want to go to? The foundation for the suspension project is all laid out, so shouldn’t you pass it on to someone else and move to another team?”

“Hmm…”

Logan, sitting across from me, asked Enrique after downing a mouthful of soju. Watching Enrique, who seemed lost in thought, I felt irritated.

Logan, why are you even eating at this table? If you’re in a serious position, you should stick to your own people! But, our table was particularly special.

Minoto, Logan, Shin Juhyun. The F1 Ferrari director, general engineer, and his very senior colleague.

No matter how friendly they were with the staff, as subordinates, we couldn’t shake off the pressure that came with their positions.

In a company gathering, it’s common for the boss to just throw down the card and leave, which is both sensible and polite. But having followed them here, I didn’t expect them to leave; they should at least set up a separate table for themselves. They should at least show some sincerity. The atmosphere is a mess.

On the surface, it didn’t seem like the atmosphere was that bad.

Since Leclerc and I were the only two drivers on the team, I often conversed with Minoto. Therefore, there wasn’t really a problem with Logan, and Shin Juhyun was the same, so it was comfortable.

However, Enrique, Won-jin, and to broaden it, Jihyun as an intern, made it mandatory for three of us to eat in awkward silence.

“We’re a bit free for now, so I plan to look around various projects and attach to the most needed team. Still, if I narrow it down, I think it would be the aerodynamics side.”

“Aerodynamics? Yeah, that sounds better.”

I don’t like talking about work while eating… but Enrique’s judgment was right. He and his team should definitely be working on projects related to aerodynamics.

Whether it’s engines or power units, KERS—like MGU-K in the power system—they’d certainly excel in those areas. The project they were in charge of had a significant focus on aerodynamics, and they understood this system better than anyone else.

In terms of time or the performance of technology, it would indeed be more desirable in terms of efficiency.

“I heard you and Won-jin led the development this time. Would it be alright for you and Jin to lead the project teams, splitting them into two?”

“Yes. Jin will manage just fine on his own, so I think it won’t be an issue. The other engineers are also quite competent.”

Won-jin, weak to compliments, eagerly responded, but as always, happiness did not last long. It was due to Logan’s teasing towards Jihyun.

“I can do well now too!”

“Okay. Then, it would be better for Intern Jihyun to be with Enrique, right?”

Good, Logan! Show me the reason you’re sitting here eating with me!

My wish to cheer for the newly found affinity with Logan also didn’t last long. It was because of Enrique, the perceptive shield, standing firm.

“I can take care of it, but since both Jin and Jihyun are fellow Koreans and of a similar age… I feel like they learn a lot from Jin. I think it would be better to assign it to Jin.”

Enrique Tinko… undoubtedly the worst engineer. That remark dropped him to the bottom of my internal rankings.

As the three seniors got further into their drinks, the conversation shifted from formal work-related topics to personal ones. Tales of family back home were the most common, due to the nature of F1, where one must travel around the world for 22 grand Prix each year.

The three aged pillars, who were already well into their years, boasted about their children as if they were parents themselves, while the four of us, still in our teens and twenties, expressed how much we missed our parents.

Leclerc, Enrique, and Won-jin were the exception, with only Jihyun being absent from the center of that conversation. I couldn’t help but understand why.

She must have been conscious of me.

Mr. Yooihyun’s parents passed away in a car accident when he was young, so there was no way Jihyun, who shared joys and sorrows with me, could comfortably talk about family in front of me.

In a sense, I also possessed the spirit of Jin Hyun-woo before Yooihyun. Therefore, immediately after the possession, the fact that a loved one had suffered a terrible accident didn’t shock me as much.

As expected. The reality that there’s no home to return to at any time is rather lonely, whether Yooihyun’s past is mine or not.

“What about Jihyun? You must miss your parents a lot too.”

“Of course, I miss them. But it’s okay because I have Hyun. Hyun is like family to me.”

Still, when I looked at Jihyun as she responded so warmly to me, the deep sorrow and loneliness filling my insides felt like they retreated behind the bright veil of light.

Though Jihyun wasn’t family to Yooihyun, what difference does it make? A family is someone who stands by you no matter what happens, anywhere, anytime. If that’s the case, isn’t it enough to call them family?

She was, just as she was for Yooihyun, my refuge, the only person I could lean on in a warm embrace.

You and me, family, us.

Though our last names differ, can’t I squeeze in that kind of insistence once?

“We are family.”

At my words, Won-jin scrunched his face and jumped up.

“Huh? What family? You two don’t look alike at all. And… Jihyun is much prettier.”

Sure, Won-jin. You’re absolutely right.

Still, I hope this insistence is accepted by the world until December 31 of this year. I’m still a nineteen-year-old minor living in March of 31.

Because I’m Yooihyun.

*

*

*

Occasionally, piercing screams and various gunshots filled with the smell of gunpowder announced their presence at a busy intersection in a major city. On the road, cars that had collided in a chain were billowing white smoke in the middle of a street that was completely wrecked.

Leclerc, Enrique, Jihyun, and I were standing there.

While contemplating how to spend the holiday after the company gathering, a simple and clear suggestion came.

“Since virtual reality is doing great, let’s play a game!”

I was wearing black combat boots and rough jeans sticking to my body below the navel. Above, I had on a black long-sleeve shirt for warmth, a sturdy denim jacket for defense, and was fiddling with a combat vest filled with magazines.

After about ten minutes facing the cold wind blowing between buildings.

Bang-! Bang, bang-!

I grumbled while shooting at the empty player’s seat with a rifle.

“Won-jin, why isn’t he coming? The maknae is missing.”

“Oh, Jin said he’d be back from the bathroom. He’s not coming out… should we go help him?”

“Brother… please pull him out gently, without hurting him.”

Enrique’s teasing joke was met with a response from Jihyun. We had decided to speak informally with everyone this time, and it seemed we had all been itching to joke around. Without anyone taking the lead, we exchanged light-hearted banter.

Especially Enrique, whose seriousness and attention to detail in the laboratory disappeared completely and became incredibly light-hearted, was enough for even Jihyun, who usually referred to him as the team leader and had difficulty approaching, to feel comfortable.

Having spent a long time as a driver, Leclerc had a rounded personality that was easy to get along with, while Jihyun, with her typical girlish demeanor and vivacity, monopolized the cuteness in the group.

Won-jin… with a lively nature, was still treated like the youngest, as usual.

After some time passed, the final puzzle piece, Won-jin, appeared in that desolate city.

“Sorry for being late, hyung and noona.”

“If you’d come a little later, we would have all been ready to go help you.”

“How can you say such terrible things…”

Won-jin skillfully began setting up, having experience with the game. A pump-action shotgun and two pistols. Eight grenades and a single iron frying pan whose purpose I couldn’t figure out. He was dressed in a sky-blue short with neon shorts and a cute palm tree printed sky-blue t-shirt, only topped off with a combat vest.

Why does it smell like a stagnant body of water?

“Have you played this a lot? The setup seems unusual.”

Won-jin paused his actions, stared at me, and let out a laugh that seemed mocking.

“Hyun-noona, I’ve been in the top 500 of this game. No one in Living Dead doesn’t know my name!”

Living Dead. That was the name of the game we were about to play.

Living Dead was indeed a survival game of the zombie genre, as the name suggested.

Survivors isolated in a major city are all carriers, with little time left before they mutate into zombies. The survivors’ goal is to reach the top of the skyscraper located in the center of the city, where the vaccine is stored, and secure it faster than others.

The survivors form teams of five, with a total of twenty teams participating in the game. Since there are only enough vaccines for five people, everyone else besides the team members is an enemy.

So, while avoiding and killing zombies scattered all over the city, each one must also k*ll every human they encounter. It’s a cruel battle royale like, “To live, you must k*ll!”

But… Won-jin, you’re a ranker in this brutal game of bl**d and guts? That image doesn’t match at all.

Anyway, since the appearance sounds like a pro, I guess I should trust it.

According to Won-jin, there are players who run around in nothing but panties, massacring both users and zombies, but since virtual reality is reality, even this level of costume is treated as a pro look.

He added that Living Dead is a game where physical alterations are impossible.

Hearing this, Enrique exclaimed.

“Wow… so they really walk around with their faces out, wearing only panties?”

“That’s not a pro; they’re just madmen. So, is it a glossy pink leather panty?”

“Yeah. It’s glossy pink, and it’s got neon too.”

“Hyun, I feel like throwing up…”

Thinking of hairy men in glossy, neon pink leather panties flying around with shotguns was revolting.

I questioned Won-jin whether this game had any moderation.

“Everything that needs to be covered is covered. So it’s not a problem. And it’s a game where brains explode and guts spill out, so what moderation?”

So shouldn’t there be more restrictions? If a gorilla with glowing underwear pops out in a game that’s already generally disgusting and gory, wouldn’t that be a zoo instead of a zombie game?

Regardless, we became survivors in this game. Whether there are glowing panties or not, I guess we’ll find out once we go in.