Chapter 93
After Jang Seok-yoon left, I stood blankly inside the laboratory.
Ham Ji-wol, who had been fiddling with the frames of her glasses, slid over to my side.
"Mr. Goyo..."
She murmured, looking pitifully at the back of my hand where the IV needle was inserted.
"You didn’t have to do this, Mr. Goyo.... Why did you let them put it in... I-I told them not to...."
Since she was speaking loud enough for me to hear, I simply reached out my hand to her without a word.
Ham Ji-wol brightened instantly, stepped closer, and pulled out the IV needle for me.
As she tried to sneakily pocket the gauze used for hemostasis, I called out to her.
"Doctor Ham. Do you need a blood sample?"
Ham Ji-wol’s eyes and mouth flew open simultaneously.
"I-I do! I need it so, so much!"
To the woman who looked as if she wanted to slice me open with a scalpel right then and there, I spoke calmly.
"I’ll let you draw blood, so please have a conversation with me."
"O-Of course...! Talking with Mr. Goyo, I’d love that..!"
Ham Ji-wol rushed out, saying she would quickly bring the blood collection tools.
As her flustered figure disappeared hurrying lest I change my mind I was left alone for a moment.
Suddenly, I felt the strength drain from my entire body.
It was too difficult to even stand, so I just slumped down onto the floor.
I looked up at Mo Hae-in inside the glass pillar.
I had naturally assumed she was out on a mission.
Je Hyun-oh and the captains were always busy, after all.
I didn’t expect her to be in a place like this.
As she slept, her face looked peaceful.
So peaceful that I thought she might be spending a more serene moment now than when she was awake.
After staring at her for a while, I lowered my gaze slightly.
The Meteor of Trial glowed with a brilliant pink light.
It felt somewhat mismatched with Mo Hae-in, which made it seem even more alien.
I observed the meteor for a while, trying to guess what kind of trial it was, but nothing came to mind.
I dropped my head.
I had no idea.
Neither that a meteor was embedded in Mo Hae-in, nor that her younger sibling was trapped within a trial.
The Creator’s game was set in South Korea.
Within the Archive world, I had traveled through trials and across South Korea, gathering a vast amount of information.
But in the end, all that information had been processed through the Creator’s hands.
I could only know the information the Creator wanted me to know.
The distribution of information was unbalanced.
I knew quite a bit about the members of the Special Task Force, but I didn’t know everything.
There were many gaps, even in crucial areas.
’I didn’t even know the names they used in the trials, nor did I know their respective pasts...’
While the Special Task Force members were presented as fragmented pieces of information, some figures were detailed down to unnecessary points.
’He even told me Chairman Chun Kang’s personal history, including the fact that he changed his name.’
It wasn’t just information about people.
The same applied to other things; information that should have been provided was often omitted.
’I didn’t even know the locations where the trials hatched in Korea.’
What was the criterion for selecting information?
The Creator must have had his own standard, but I couldn’t figure it out.
Suddenly, a strange hypothesis occurred to me.
Perhaps he only wanted to show me the "good" parts of the Archive world.
Like a joyful and pleasant game, or an interesting novel or movie.
He might have created and shown me a fairy-tale world where I could join forces with attractive people to overcome moderate hardships and adversity.
It was merely a guess, but....
Recalling the Creator I had seen in my dream, it seemed plausible to some extent.
He seemed to value me playing the game in a fun and enjoyable way.
Regardless, one thing was certain.
’I must not judge reality based solely on the information obtained from the game.’
The information I possessed was acquired through the following process:
1. An event exists.
2. The Creator selects only a portion of that event to provide as a game.
3. I play the game and judge and acquire information according to my own perspective.
Information processed twice, once by the Creator and once by me cannot be the complete truth.
Yet, I had regarded it as absolute and never doubted it.
The first moment I felt a discrepancy with the game was Mo Hae-in’s Black Moon Blade.
Based on what I had seen and judged in the game, I was certain the Black Moon Blade was a spear.
If I hadn’t heard it directly from Mo Hae-in, I probably would have never known.
Because I believed I was right, I wouldn’t have even asked her.
Similarly, I regarded Je Hyun-oh as merely an overwhelmingly powerful existence, just as I had seen in the game.
The sight of him harming himself while seeing happy memories under Gorgos’s illusion magic.
I had never even imagined such a thing.
And seeing Mo Hae-in today, I fully realized it.
One must not speculate or judge someone using only game information.
I need to step away from the game and listen to the stories of reality.
"Roasted Chestnut."
I picked up the pudding slime, who had been waiting quietly for me, and placed him on my palm.
Dominic, who allowed himself to be caught obediently, sat on my palm and looked up at me.
"Roasted Chestnut, you are the master of this place."
He advised me in a low voice.
"If humans offend you, there is no need to take action yourself. Can you not simply command your subordinates? The subordinate made of black metal seems suitable for such tasks."
Let us employ him.
I smiled slightly as I listened to Dominic’s long-winded speech.
Whenever I heard him speak as if I were some magnificent being, it felt like a small comfort.
In reality, I was just an unemployed man who had retired as an athlete due to a broken body and spent his days shut in his room playing games.
My only advantage was that I had played games a bit more than others.
Right now, I was struggling just to clear quests involving limb amputation and eye extraction.
Whenever Dominic gave such serious advice, I truly felt as if I were a young god of Earth.
"Mr. Dominic."
"Yes, Roasted Chestnut."
"Can I squish you again? Just a little."
"Hmm..."
The pudding slime stared at me.
I looked back at him with pitiful eyes.
"I shall permit it, if only for a moment."
Having finally obtained the pudding slime’s generous approval, I enjoyed the squishiness for a while.
As I was doing so, Ham Ji-wol returned. Carrying a heap of blood collection tools, she asked with an excited expression.
"Mr. Goyo! Um, how much."
"100ml."
"No! That’s -that’s too little."
She probably wanted to force more blood out of me, but she had no way to subdue me right now.
If she called the researchers, her attempt to secretly collect blood would be discovered.
To the impatient Ham Ji-wol, I made a proposal.
"If Director Ham answers my questions sincerely, I might increase the amount of blood."
"Ugh...!"
Ham Ji-wol gnawed on her lip anxiously.
I waited, wondering if the appropriate blood donation amount for an adult was 400ml.
Eventually, unable to overcome her greed, Ham Ji-wol accepted my offer.
"F-First, tell me!"
"The meteor embedded in Captain Mo- is it alright?"
"Of course it’s alright..!"
As she tried to insert the needle, I let her know that the answer came first.
Ham Ji-wol pouted and explained to me.
"If you transplant a meteor into a compatible host, it goes into hibernation..!"
Originally, a hatched Trial Meteor explodes if it is not cleared within a certain amount of time.
However, if the meteor is placed inside a compatible host’s body, it enters a dormant state, like a computer that has been powered off.
"I-It’s an extremely dangerous operation, and I’m the only one who can do it!"
The higher the grade of the meteor, the more it must be transplanted into a compatible host capable of handling it, but matching the grade isn’t enough.
One must also satisfy the extremely vague criterion that ’the trial itself must like the compatible host.’
If both conditions are not met, the meteor explodes the moment it is transplanted.
In the early days, the transplantation method was discussed as a way to stop the trials, but it seems it was discarded due to human rights issues and the difficulty of finding a compatible host.
In truth, the reason was likely less about human rights and more about the fact that if too many compatible hosts died during transplantation, it would create problems for trial defense.
Since a hibernating meteor is judged as an ordinary stone, one can enter a trial even while having one transplanted.
However, a compatible host who has received a transplant must be careful of two things.
First, they must not die.
The moment the host dies, the transplanted meteor explodes immediately.
Second is emotional agitation.
Strong emotions could act as a catalyst, stimulating the meteor and causing it to hatch.
"Captain Mo... the reason she entered the special isolation ward after closing 3Clean is because of that."
She had entered the special isolation ward to prepare for the possibility of the meteor hatching due to a PTSD reaction.
Not knowing she had been in a special isolation ward, I quietly lowered my eyes.
Then I asked.
’Did you perform the experiment, Director Ham?"
"N-No! For someone like Captain Mo, the higher-ups would have to approve...."
Captain Mo wanted the transplant.
Hoping that she might one day be able to close the trial, she had transplanted the meteor of the trial where her sibling was trapped into herself.
It seemed her ’hospitalization’ in the lab this time was also to ensure no problems arose with the meteor.
After being lost in thought for a while, I spoke under Ham Ji-wol’s burning gaze.
"200ml."
"Ugh, why...!"
I answered diligently..
"Do you want 300ml?"
Ham Ji-wol nodded her head vigorously. I held out my forearm so the blue veins were clearly visible and said.
"Then please lend me your phone."
Ham Ji-wol’s pupils wavered. I could see the thought ’I shouldn’t’ flash through her mind.
I smiled slightly and said.
"I’ll give you 400ml."
Returning to my hospital room, I turned on Ham Ji-wol’s phone.
And immediately, goosebumps broke out all over my body.
The wallpaper was me....
It was a picture of me sleeping, and judging by the objects visible in the background, it seemed to be the laboratory.
’When was I in the laboratory?’
Since I only remembered the hospital room, I thought about it for a moment.
Perhaps it was when I was first brought to the TRA Administration. I was a suspect back then, after all.
After being creeped out for a moment, I scanned the hospital room.
There were no CCTVs in the new room.
Holding the phone, I spoke with firm faith in the state-of-the-art android.
"Samra."
It was a belief that if I just got my hands on some electronic device, Samra would handle it somehow.
’He can create electromagnetic reverse-phase waves and manipulate nanobots; surely he can do this much?’
And as expected, Samra did not betray my trust.
The phone screen suddenly went black. Then, a short loading screen appeared.
Now loading...
A percentage was displayed below the loading indicator.
The number, starting from 0%, rose rapidly and soon reached 100%.
Following that, the person I had been waiting for appeared on the screen.
- Mr. Han Goyo.
It was Samra, looking somewhat anxious.
As soon as I saw him, I brought the phone close to my face and asked.
"Is your body alright? You were attacked by the Great Sun Tathagata."
- I am fine.
"I’m glad you’re okay. I was worried."
Upon hearing my words, Samra was silent for a moment.
Looking at me through the screen, Samra slowly closed and opened his eyelids, pretending to be human.
- Do you worry about me as well, Mr. Han Goyo?
"Excuse me?"
- It is nothing. Please speak.
Because he said something so obvious, I worried again that he might have suffered an error because of the Great Sun Tathagata.
Still, he looked fine on the screen. After observing Samra for a while, I asked.
"What about Lieutenant Colonel Je and CEO Cha?"
- There are no issues. CEO Cha has been detained due to this act of terrorism.
In reality, ’detained’ just meant he had allowed himself to be caught.
It was surprising that he went along with it so obediently, but I figured it was because he had caused such a massive incident.
I wanted to ask more, but I brought up the urgent main point first.
"Samra, please help me."
- What do you desire?
What I wanted was clear.
However, I had no intention of moving exactly as Jang Seok-yoon wanted.
"I’m planning to give Director Jang Seok-yoon a little surprise.