"Ugh."
A man lay on his bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.
The man's name was Wolfgar. Lying in a room so spacious you wouldn't believe it was for someone living alone, he let out a bored sigh.
"There's jack shit to do."
He was 24 years old. A proud second-year reservist and fine young American man, he was living a life different from most people.
For starters, he'd never even set foot in a university, which most people his age attended.
"Everyone's too busy with college to even meet up. Ungrateful bastards."
To him, university was useless. He was already doing just fine on his own, and he didn't want to waste time there. Though lying in bed staring at the ceiling all day was already a waste of time.
"Work... I should work... but that's not happening, is it?"
Wolfgar shook his head. He knew himself well.
The moment he started working, the demon in his head would definitely get him fired within a week.
He lived alone but didn't need to work. All thanks to the inheritance his father left him.
"Father..."
Wolfgar, who grew up in a single-parent household, really loved his father. His father was an excellent businessman, a self-made entrepreneur who'd started his business young and made a fortune.
He'd married his first love from his school days, and while he didn't run a conglomerate, he operated a pretty solid company and was respected by people as a great boss.
Not to mention he paid attention to his family and built a harmonious home.
Wolfgar really loved his father.
"Why did you leave so soon?"
But they say there's no such thing as a perfect person, right? His father had a major flaw.
That flaw, which appeared late in life, destroyed their once-harmonious family, and when his mother left, it ultimately became a single-parent household.
"You loved fishing so much, and now you can't even do it anymore. I hope there are rivers and oceans in heaven. Otherwise, it'll be hell for you up there."
One of the dangerous hobbies people shouldn't mess with. The number one hobby women hate in men, year after year.
Something so bad that people say you'd be better off getting obsessed with cars.
"That's the only thing left now."
It was fishing.
Wolfgar rolled over and looked at the corner. There stood a single old fishing rod.
It was the last rod remaining after selling off hundreds of pieces of equipment his father had bought as a pro fisherman. Though worn, it was a fishing rod filled with memories that his father had treasured, saying it was the one he'd used to catch his first trophy fish.
Every time he saw it, the demon would stir, but Wolfgar couldn't bring himself to throw it away.
"Keeping just that one should be okay, right?"
As mentioned earlier, Wolfgar's father was capable enough to build an enviable family when Wolfgar was young.
That household started falling apart after he really got into fishing.
[There's news of a big catch at Montauk, so I'm heading out.]
[Finally flounder season. I heard Cape Cod's been good lately, so I'm going.]
[Rockfish are fattening up. Gonna head to San Diego Bay for a bit.]
[Where am I going? The Florida Keys. Heard they caught snapper there!]
They say hobbies learned late in life are scary. Ever since his first fishing trip with a business partner, his father couldn't escape fishing's grip.
He stopped remembering his wife's anniversary, which he'd always kept. Then he started missing important company appointments one by one, until eventually he stopped going to the company altogether.
Since it wasn't a corporation, the company without its president quickly collapsed, ultimately going bankrupt and leaving them with debt.
Even after all that, he apparently couldn't get his head straight because he kept going fishing.
[Honey! Me or fishing? Pick one!]
[How can I choose? They're both the meaning of my life.]
"What an idiot of a father."
If he'd just answered properly then, mom wouldn't have left. But his father, who hated lies, couldn't bring himself to say something insincere.
After the company went under and the family fell apart, Wolfgar's father finally felt regret. People only realize what's precious when they've lost everything.
That happened when Wolfgar was in high school. Heartbroken, his father quit fishing and wasted away, eventually passing away six months ago.
"Damn it!"
At least the good news was that the debt didn't transfer to Wolfgar thanks to inheritance rejection, and there was a house and assets put in his name when the company was doing well, so he had no problem getting by.
Living off that inherited wealth, he thought about his bank balance. As a man living alone, he didn't have major expenses, but it wasn't a fortune either, so the money would definitely run out in a few years.
"If only it wasn't for the demon. Just the demon!"
But this guy.
What's this demon he keeps talking about?
"Why did you take me with you everywhere!"
Wolfgar, who'd been thrashing around on the bed, grabbed the fishing rod. He wanted to run out right this second, but he held back and dove back onto the bed.
That's right. The demon he was talking about was...
"I want to go fishing!"
The same fishing as his father.
Since he was his father's only child, precious beyond measure, Wolfgar's father had taken his son everywhere since childhood. Naturally, they fished together, and for Wolfgar, who'd learned fishing like it was early childhood education, fishing was basically his life.
Actually, when the family fell apart, the reason he didn't follow his mother—sure, he liked his father, but you couldn't rule out fishing either.
So why wasn't he going fishing and instead groaning by himself?
"Why did you leave such a will?"
It was because of the will.
His father, who'd lost everything with only his son left, had left the following words:
[Wolfgar... don't go fishing... Please... Don't live like me...]
It was a lesson with flesh and bone in it. But for Wolfgar, who was already consumed by his father's obsession, it was nothing short of torture.
"I wish I'd never learned to fish..."
The demon was strong. Whether he was reading a book or walking outside, it would pop into his head whenever he got bored.
The feeling of the rod when hooking a fish, and those days of waiting endlessly, lost in thought.
Those were experiences that would never be forgotten.
Thanks to that, working a job was out of the question. And it wasn't that he didn't want to work.
But for someone who imagined fishing in his head hundreds of times a day, living a normal life was impossible.
Even now, looking at the white fluorescent light on the ceiling, he was thinking about fishing spots.
"The foam hitting the rocks was this shade of white, wasn't it? The area around the foam had good bites, probably?"
I shouldn't be doing this. He shook his head and rolled over.
This time he saw the door. A door that seemed completely unrelated to fishing.
"There was a door like that under the breakwater I went to before. They'd laid a door like a bridge between the rocks."
TV was out of the question.
If a river or ocean showed up on screen, he felt like he'd break his father's dying wish.
He wanted to at least work at a dock or a fishing shop, but everything felt like it would violate his father's will, so he couldn't do it.
He truly respected and loved his father. And he was someone even more addicted to fishing than his father.
Bzzzz!
Just then, his phone vibrated. The habit of always keeping it on vibrate in case the noise scared away the fish remained.
"Breathing."
It was his best bro, Lucian.
They'd gone to the same school and been in the same class through high school, but since Lucian went to college, they rarely had chances to meet.
"Don't wanna. I'll just become a fossil like this."
<...Your father would be sad. Please, come outside.>
"Ugh. What can I do? I can't forget it."
Lucian knew Wolfgar's situation well. He was a good friend who'd helped out at his father's funeral too.
A grateful bro who'd stayed up three nights with him. Naturally, he knew about the will Wolfgar's father had left.
"Just go home. I don't have the energy to go out."
"What is it? Just tell me over the phone."
"Geez. What is it?"
"What are you talking about?"
His friend laughed on the other end of the phone.
******
"Here. Have a drink first. How long's it been since we've seen each other?"
The glass filled with a pour.
Lucian had dragged Wolfgar out and taken him straight to a bar.
'Ugh.'
Even though it had been a while since they'd met, Wolfgar's mind was complicated.
'A legal way to go fishing, huh.'
Was there really such a method? Even if there was, would it be okay to do it?
Various worries came to mind, but having reluctantly come out, he really did want to fish.
"Yo. But the girls here are pretty. This is the kind of place you should come for drinks."
Maybe that's why? As the desire to fish started bubbling up inside Wolfgar, he found himself staring at the pot without realizing it.
'Is this mackerel? Mackerel... The rod action when you catch it with a float is killer.'
He imagined catching the mackerel in the pot.
Mixing the chum, casting the float, then spreading the chum there.
Fish gathering. Focusing on the float bobbing on the water's surface.
The moment the float gets sucked underwater, you snap your wrist and hook it.
It's heavy. At least 40 centimeters, probably.
Reel it in. But the rod might break. Should I try to force it?
Don't push it. I brought a landing net for times like this.
Good. It's showing itself at the surface. Don't pull the head up too much. It might shake the hook loose.
Now! Catch the—
"Yo. What're you doing? Let's drink."
"Yeah."
Damn. Almost had it. Wolfgar, washing away his regret with alcohol, asked grumpily.
"What is it? This way to go fishing. And before that, don't you know our family went under because of fishing?"
"I know all about it. But what if you could fish and make money at the same time?"
"Money?"
Fishing was definitely a problem, but money was too. He needed to get a job and earn money to live in the future. He couldn't rely on his bank balance forever, and Wolfgar wanted to work properly too.
"Don't I seem different to you?"
"Hmm. Still look like an idiot to me."
"Dude. My watch changed."
"Your watch?"
Now that he mentioned it, Lucian's watch caught his eye. The pretty high-end watch wasn't something a college student should be carrying around.
"Did you work part-time or something?"
"Nah. Made money from a game and bought it."
"A game?"
"Yeah. I got lucky and scored a unique item. Sold it for $2,000."
"..."
Just a game item? Wolfgar didn't really play games, but he'd played with friends during school and heard stories.
"What PC game lets you earn that much money?"
"You've been holed up in your room so long you don't know what's what. Who plays PC games these days? PC games died ages ago—how could you make this kind of money from those? I made it from a VR game."
After VR games came out, the PC game market crumbled like a sandcastle. There were games that still hung on, but they were all treated as retro games, and even those were rumored to be shutting down their servers within a few years.
"A VR game? You made money from that?"
"Yup."
Lucian refilled the empty glass. Then he smiled and suggested.
"You wanna play Yggdrasil? In that game, you can fish and make money."
"Fishing... but..."
"Hey. Why did your dad tell you not to fish? Because he was worried you'd get so into it you'd neglect your work, right? But in Yggdrasil, you can fish and work at the same time. You can make Yggdrasil itself your job. And since a VR game isn't real-life fishing, in a way it's not even breaking the will."
"Money..."
Wolfgar carefully considered it. He wanted to fish, but he also needed to start earning money soon.
The storm in his heart leaned more toward wanting to fish, but his reason sided with needing to earn money.
'Right. Wolfgar. You need to make money. Do a little fishing in Yggdrasil and earn money while leveling up. This might actually work.'
Having finished his deliberation, Wolfgar spoke.
"Yggdrasil, how do you play it?"
"Don't worry."
And his friend, Lucian, having achieved his goal, grinned widely.
"Your boy here will teach you everything from A to Z."