WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: LilGuyBlastoise
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Economics of an Alchemist ◈
Chapter 14
──────
Ring-ring.
TechPark, Park Tae-su, a influential blogger on the country’s number-one portal site, checked the caller ID.
“Ah, Manager Hong. Yes, of course I tested the laptop you sent. But the heat control is such a mess that there’s no way I can defend it. My blog’s credibility is on the line. How can I call this good?”
He continued the call, leaning back arrogantly in his chair.
“You’ll double the banner ad rate? Hmm... Well, the design is pretty good, so I’ll highlight that in the post. Yes, take care.”
After hanging up, TechPark let out a short, mocking laugh. These days, even managers at major corporations approached him with their heads bowed.
Out of habit, TechPark logged on to DCOn, the country’s biggest online community.
Keeping up with industry trends was a given. Besides that, there was the small pleasure of teaching fraudsters spreading fake information a lesson.
It looked like another fake-poster was stirring things up today. One post had a standout number of comments.
“Not a single quiet day.”
With a snicker, he clicked the mouse.
[Found a crazy phone case today, holy crap]
[Posted by: OldManWhoMills]
「I went down to my apartment parking lot earlier to smoke, and some lunatic put their A-phone 4 on the ground and drove an SUV back and forth over it.
I thought there sure are a lot of crazy people in the world... But after moving the car, they picked up the phone, and it looked perfectly fine?
At a glance, it looked like it had one of those ordinary jelly cases that come bundled with phones. What could it be?」
└Anonymous: LOL, a car drove over it and it didn’t break? You sure your head isn’t what broke?
└AppleFanboy: Quit fishing for attention.
└OldManWhoMills: It’s real, damn it! I saw it with my own eyes!
⋮
With a nasty smile, TechPark placed his hands over the keyboard. It was time to teach them a lesson as an expert.
└TechPark: The front and back of the A-phone 4 are tempered glass. If it had a jelly case on, the internal display components should shatter first when the tire applies a vertical load. An SUV weighs around 1.5 tons. Given the structural limits of currently commercialized polycarbonate or TPU materials, an A-phone 4 would definitely be destroyed under that weight. At least study up before making fake posts.
└Anonymous: Ohhh, a famous user showed up!
└Anonymous: TechPark, please recommend a cheap laptop with insane value for money.
⋮
The gallery users went wild at the appearance of a influential blogger. Then a reply appeared.
└OldManWhoMills: Just wait. I’ll find that person and definitely record a video.
“What pointless posturing.”
TechPark scoffed. He congratulated himself on properly teaching another compulsive liar a lesson.
But two days later.
A featured post sat right at the top of DCOn’s Smartphone Gallery. It was posted by OldManWhoMills.
[I recorded the phone-crushing video. Still think it’s fake?]
TechPark clicked on the post.
The video looked as though it had been secretly filmed. The location was an outdoor parking lot. It appeared to be just after sunset.
In the shaky frame, an old SUV mercilessly drove over a smartphone on the ground.
‘Of course it’ll be crushed to pieces.’
A man got out of the car and picked up the phone. He wiped it against his clothes, then checked the screen.
When he pressed the Home button, the smartphone screen lit up brightly. It had not merely survived. The panel was functioning perfectly.
TechPark, who had been frowning as he focused on the video, widened his eyes.
The camera zoomed in. The A-phone 4 really was covered by an ordinary jelly case.
“W-what? Why is that turning on?”
TechPark looked over the comments. They had completely exploded. Every time he refreshed, comments poured in like crazy.
└Anonymous: Holy shit! It’s real?
└AppleFanboy: Don’t get excited. Look closely. The quality sucks, but there must be cracks on the screen.
└Anonymous: Cracks can happen. A car drove over it. The problem is that the motherboard and panel didn’t die, and the screen turns on? That case is definitely insane. Did they make it by torturing aliens?
└Anonymous: Where do they sell it?
└Anonymous: Isn’t this a fake video?
└FoodGalleryUser: I watched it frame by frame, but I can’t find anything strange...
└Anonymous: Idiots. You got hooked again today, LOL.
└Anonymous: The poster must be thrilled. They caught a huge one, LOL.
⋮
The controversy kept growing.
The most common comments said it had to be fake. TechPark agreed.
His petty pride as a influential blogger rejected this phenomenon that lay beyond his shallow common sense.
He paused the video and stared at the screen, looking for a flaw.
‘Right. It wasn’t filmed up close.’
Because it had been shot from a distance in secret and zoomed in, the picture quality was too blurry to confirm the A-phone 4’s detailed condition.
A nasty smile spread across TechPark’s face.
‘It has to be fake. It’s not like I’d fall for something like this once or twice.’
Without hesitation, he began typing.
[Crazy case? Don’t let yourselves get fooled]
[Posted by: TechPark]
「One fake-poster keeps stirring things up. There’s a strong chance this is a typical fake meant for a crowdfunding scam.
Here is the evidence.
1. The phone’s condition cannot be confirmed.
2. The camera angle when the tire passes over it.
The tire probably just grazed the edge of the phone, or the phone was placed in a slight depression in the ground to avoid the tire’s direct vertical load. In other words, it’s a visual trick.
3. The screen turning on? It’s probably a mock-up with an A-phone 4 shell, modified so only the backlight comes on.」
Public opinion swung again after influential blogger TechPark posted his analysis of the supposedly fake video.
└Anonymous: As expected of TechPark. Reading this, it has to be fake, right?
└AppleFanboy: No wonder the video was shaky as hell. If a crowdfunding post goes up soon, that proves it one hundred percent.
⋮
Smiling with satisfaction at the comments under his analysis, TechPark leaned back and took a sip of coffee.
Then it happened.
A post by OldManWhoMills went up.
[TechPark? If you’re going to refute it, do it properly]
The title alone got under TechPark’s skin. He set his coffee cup down on the desk a little too hard, gripped the mouse, and clicked the post.
「There really is no shortage of armchair Conans.
Grazing the edge? A dip in the ground? Watch from the twelve-second mark frame by frame.
For the exact three frames when the tire climbs onto the phone, you’ll be able to see a tiny bit of the ground’s color beneath the tire.
That proves the tire briefly lifted up as it rolled over the phone, leaving a gap. If the ground had been depressed, the tire would press more tightly against it, making the shadow darker.
I’m an engineering student at Korea University. Want me to run a simulation of tire deformation caused by a point load?
And a mock-up? You can clearly see them pick up the phone and swipe the screen to unlock it. What are you babbling about with backlights? Are your eyes just for decoration? LOL」
A provocation aimed directly at influential blogger TechPark’s expertise.
‘A Korea University mechanical engineering student?’
TechPark’s irritated fingers began flying over the keyboard.
└TechPark: I swear on my blog’s emblem that this is a physically impossible scam! Are you even really a Korea University engineering student?
└OldManWhoMills: Being a influential blogger means you’re always right? Calling it a scam based on your own imagination, what the hell.
└OldManWhoMills: (Link) Here’s my Korea University verification. Nothing to say now, right?
└Anonymous: Holy shit, they showed their student ID.
└Anonymous: Korea University mechanical engineering, damn.
└FoodGalleryUser77: One hundred percent chance that’s fake too.
⋮
Their keyboard battle continued. Before long, TechPark’s face turned red with humiliation, and he slammed a fist down on the desk.
The gallery users were delighted by the spectacle. They began spreading the entertaining news everywhere.
In just two or three days, the flames spread at terrifying speed beyond DCOn to other major communities.
Pompu, the country’s largest shopping and information community.
[Did anyone see that video blowing up on DCOn, where a phone case doesn’t break even when a car drives over it? If it’s real, I’m definitely buying one.]
└TechPark showed up and fact-checked it. He said it’s one hundred percent fake for a crowdfunding scam.
└But the poster showed their Korea University mechanical engineering student ID. Follow the link and take a look.
Klear, a major IT community full of early adopters and experts.
[Anyone seen DCOn’s SUV smartphone-crushing video? What do you think?]
└I analyzed it frame by frame. Judging by the path of the shadows and the tire deformation as the axle passes over, there are no signs the video itself was manipulated.
└So you’re saying it’s real?
└With current technology, that level of durability is physically impossible, so I’m extremely confused too.
The “miracle phone case” rumor swallowed the country’s smartphone communities in only half a day.
Those convinced it was manipulated and those who believed the video was real became entangled, sending site traffic soaring.
At the center of it all, TechPark broke out in a cold sweat as blog notifications and messages rang nonstop.
Things had gotten far too big. If he backed down or lost the argument now, the authority he had built as a influential blogger was in danger of crashing to the ground.
‘I have to be right.’
A few days later, TechPark was on DCOn checking whether OldManWhoMills had made another post.
Then a post appeared from an unfamiliar fixed username.
[We are Valence, the manufacturer of the recently controversial smartphone case.]
[Posted by: Valence]
「Hello. We are Valence, a new company entering the smartphone accessory field.
We heard that, through an employee’s carelessness, footage of our case being tested before release had been leaked to online communities, so we have come forward.
Does the phone remain intact even if a car drives over the case, as shown in the controversial video? We will answer that first.
Yes. It remains intact.
The manufacturing process is a trade secret, but this is because we have achieved shock absorption and pressure distribution performance on an entirely different level from existing TPU-based materials.
Rather than give an engineering explanation, we thought it would be better to show you a test video we filmed ourselves, attached below.
It contains only the facts, without tricks.」
TechPark pressed play on the video attached to the post.
“...!”
The crisp resolution filled the monitor, on a completely different level from a smartphone camera.
At the bottom right of the screen, a digital clock ticked by in seconds, seemingly proving it was a single uncut take.
[2-meter drop test]
[3-meter drop test]
Along with the captions, a man in a baseball cap repeatedly threw an A-phone 4 onto the ground. Yet when the screen was held just five centimeters from the camera lens, it was spotless, without even the slightest scratch.
“...It really doesn’t break?”
A woman’s clear voice rang out as the camera quickly moved after the man without a cut.
[Staircase drop test]
The phone was flung from the height of the third floor of a concrete emergency staircase, rolling down with a loud crashing sound. But when it was picked up from the first-floor landing and checked, it was once again in perfect, brand-new condition.
TechPark watched the video without moving and bit down hard on his lip.
[SUV crush test]
The final test was in the parking lot outside the building. The man tossed down the phone and got into the old SUV.
Vroooom!
The heavy hunk of metal mercilessly crushed the smartphone.
The high-resolution lens clearly captured the tire’s sidewall bulging as it yielded under the load.
As if that were not enough, the SUV shifted into reverse and crushed the phone again.
The man got out, picked up the phone marked with tire tracks, and pressed the Home button. A clear light came on with the “slide to unlock” screen.
“Wow! This one didn’t break either?”
The woman’s voice sounded again, and the video ended.
Only silence filled TechPark’s room.
‘No. It’s definitely manipulated. But how?’
His fingertips trembled slightly as he scrolled down to check the comments.
└Anonymous: Holy shit... What did I just watch? Was that really one take?
└AppleFanboy: When they put it right against the camera lens, you can even see dust. Not a single scratch, damn.
└FoodGalleryUser: A car drove over it, then reversed over it, and it’s still fine? Did they make it by torturing aliens?
└Anonymous: Where did TechPark go? Come out and explain this.
└Anonymous: Isn’t this the point where he runs away in his underwear? LOL.
⋮
The comments surged in real time. Every refresh added dozens more.
TechPark tightened his grip on the mouse. The comments felt as though they were tearing at his authority.
Influential blogger TechPark.
He had climbed this high on that name alone.
And now, because of some company making fake ads?
‘Don’t make me laugh.’
TechPark’s eyes turned cold. He immediately began typing.
└TechPark: If you’re truly confident, send me a prototype. I’ll test it myself under my blog’s emblem. The moment it is proven fake, be prepared to be permanently branded a scam company.
The moment the comment went up, the gallery exploded.
Footnotes:
“Armchair Conans” is a joking label for self-appointed internet detectives.
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