Chapter 103
“Stop talking bullshit.”
Han Jaemin stood up from his seat.
“You’ll become useless before that happens.”
“Yes. I want to become useless.”
“If that’s what you want, I’ll make it happen for you.”
“But what if that doesn’t happen? What if I die, Jaemin? Then I’ll go back to the past again and meet you. After that, I’ll grab an even stronger weakness of yours and squeeze you tight. What if you eventually die?”
“That’s none of my concern.”
“Why isn’t it your concern? Jaemin. The past you sent me away in the same manner, but I came back like this.”
It was a line mixed with lies, but no one could tell it was a lie.
“Remember? When we met at the abandoned factory. I didn’t remember you, right?”
Han Jaemin frowned.
“Back then, our father killed you. You might think you killed our father now.”
“You’re really just spewing whatever comes to mind, aren’t you?”
“Resenting your parents for killing Yu Dohyun, I killed all of you and everyone around you. That’s why I couldn’t recognize your adult face when I saw it after such a long time.”
“Just because your mouth is open…”
“Don’t believe me if you can’t. But you’ve been believing all along that Yu Dohyun lived such a life, haven’t you? You’ll end up believing me, won’t you?”
“Stop it.”
“Scared of the truth?”
“I said shut up.”
“But in the end, everything except the truth is all fake.”
“…”
“As long as I die, you just become fake.”
“You really don’t help my life at all.”
Han Jaemin turned around and strode out the door. I sighed as I watched his retreating figure. He was clearly anxious. At least enough that he couldn’t easily decide on my death.
*
Afterward, the things I had to do were narrowed down to a few. Researching and studying this system as much as possible before the mana was extracted. And settling this life that might not have much left. If I failed, yes. I would go back to before sending Yu Hyunjae abroad. It was neither a bad nor good situation. From there, I would just need to prepare for the current situation again and think about how to escape from Yu Dohyun. According to the system, I was clearly living my tenth life after dying nine times, so I still had one regression left. I couldn’t know what would happen when that chance ran out, but either way, it meant I had one more opportunity to overcome this situation.
Nevertheless, I didn’t want to go back to that time. The reason was simple. I didn’t want Yu Hyunjae to feel that pain again, to go through those hellish two years again. That’s why I wanted to resolve everything right now, in my tenth life.
“System.”
The system faithfully carried out my command. Based purely on intuition, I had now become almost like Yu Dohyun. This happened even without separate fusion supplements. This meant that my own mana was almost disappearing.
[Welcome, Administrator. You are now connected.]
[You can control all settings now.]
[Press 1 to see the goal achievement rate, press 2 to see the user’s critical values, press 3 to modify goals, press 0 for user settings management, or say “exit” to leave.]
“Isn’t there any other management besides this?”
[Command not recognized.]
“Like, saving memories. Or showing them to the user. Or perhaps storing mana. Shouldn’t there be things like that?”
There definitely should be. Otherwise, there would be no reason why past memories could be recalled in artificial Gates, or why I could use some of Yu Dohyun’s abilities at the Dogok-dong Gate recently.
[Please speak more clearly.]
I widened my eyes at those floating letters. So, if I became more clear, I could access it? I adjusted my posture and sat up straight on the sofa with my back straight.
*
“Recall memory.”
[Please speak more clearly.]
“Um… make me remember.”
[Please speak more clearly.]
“Let’s see… call up the Administrator’s power.”
[Please speak more clearly.]
“Administrator… power… ah, shit.”
[Please speak more clearly.]
[Please speak more clearly.]
I finally crumpled the paper I was holding, threw it, and shouted. It had already been an hour. What command would it understand? I sank deeper into thought. So, using the system’s power to recall certain “memories” or bring in Yu Dohyun’s “power” all happened in Gates. Maybe the Gate location was the key? If so, this was an impossible problem to solve right now. Moreover, after the recent S-class Gate intrusion incident, security around me would be even more tightened. If I entered a Gate again at will, I might end up in prison before resolving anything.
“No, damn it. Why does something that should do everything I say keep asking me to speak more clearly? Isn’t it the system’s job to understand what I mean even if I say it poorly? I always had to follow through with whatever crap you said.”
Thinking about it, it was really unfair. I had to do everything this bastard said, whether it made me regress multiple times, urged me to quickly complete some vague event, or told me to follow the novel’s text.
Wait a minute.
I narrowed my eyes. Come to think of it, there were instances like that. When all free will suddenly stopped, and the so-called “novel” text appeared, forcing me to read it. At the time, I thought it was a happening because the story needed to progress according to the novel I had read, but now that I realized this world wasn’t the content of a novel. So that was…
“Scenario?”
[Would you like to turn on the scenario prompter for goal achievement?]
Wow, unbelievable.
“Turn it on.”
[Turning on the scenario prompter set by the Administrator.]
[As the scenario is long, loading will take time. It could take as little as 10 minutes or as long as 10 hours.]
“10 hours?!”
What’s so lengthy? I opened my mouth and stared at the loading bar slowly progressing.
[Loading scenario… 1, 2, …5, 7, …9.]
Fortunately, the numbers weren’t rising extremely slowly. I patiently continued to watch the window, waiting for it to reach 100%. The speed noticeably decreased after passing 20. Please. I relaxed my back and kept staring at the loading bar.
[Loading scenario… 22……, 23…………]
“Come on, really.”
When I urged it, the numbers seemed to speed up a bit. Of course, it was probably just timing or my imagination, but whatever it was, I continued to prompt the system in hopes it would progress faster. Anyone watching would have thought I was crazy, but there was no one watching anyway.
It took an hour to reach 30. I lay down half-giving up and closed my eyes. It would probably be at 100% when I woke up after a short nap. Though I couldn’t possibly fall asleep, I closed my eyes and remained still.
I opened my eyes suddenly to a loud mechanical sound. I must have fallen asleep after all.
[Loading complete! Would you like to turn on the scenario prompter now?! Y/N]
Looking at the clock, exactly five hours had passed. The loading had taken a total of six hours. I barely swallowed the curse that was about to escape and nodded. Instantly, numerous chapter lists appeared. There were countless chapters arranged in stages. I slowly scrolled down the chapters with widened eyes. There was too much to check everything, but some chapters were grayed out as if they had been clicked once. I slowly clicked on one of them to check.
[Entering scenario memory. This chapter will automatically play when entering ‘Special Space: Artificial Gate’.]
[Would you like to view it now?]
I slowly nodded. Instantly, two figures appeared before my eyes. My heart began to pound heavily. It was a scene I had already seen. That scene where one person is lying half-collapsed and another is pointing a gun.
“It’s an order.”
“I’m just doing this job because I received an order.”
I couldn’t get close at the time, but now I could approach sufficiently. The person struggled to make a sound with their vocal cords pressed. He had an appearance that would easily remind me of Yu Hyunjae, even if I had seen it without knowing the truth.
“Why are you doing this to me?”
The man lying down asked. He was so badly injured and crushed that he might naturally die without even being shot.
“…Why are you asking when you already know?”
Kim Guhyeon said. It was the same dialogue as before.
“Team Leader Kim. It’s useless to plead with me.”
“You’d understand this desperate feeling if you had a family.”
“Ah, yes. You said you’re in your fifth year, right? Marriage must be good at that time.”
“Yes.”
“I’ve never been married so I wouldn’t know, but watching you, I thought it might be okay to try it once.”
The conversation that followed was the same as before. My ears became sensitive again as soon as the name “Team Leader Yu” was mentioned.
“I heard I’m the same age as Team Leader Yu’s second son.”
“Stop. Turn it off now.”
I couldn’t bear to see Yu Hyunjae’s father’s face. The scene unfolding before my eyes disappeared like a mirage. So that’s what it was. All these things were being named as “scenarios.” The future I saw in my dreams, the inevitable events I had to experience.
