Chapter 121
Silence fell as Samra finished speaking.
Despite it being a video conference involving twenty countries, no one dared to open their mouth at that moment.
No one asked for confirmation.
Such a question would have been meaningless to Samra.
Jang Seok-yoon looked at Samra with trembling eyes.
This was a fact even he had been unaware of.
Samra added a short explanation to aid their understanding.
"These are the results of a data analysis completed 56 seconds ago. The accuracy is 100%."
The voice, claiming there wasn’t even a 0.01% margin of error, held no emotion.
"It is presumed to be a chain reaction triggered by the existing meteors reacting to the new ones."
The locations of the meteors scheduled to hatch and explode were varied.
They were scattered haphazardly across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, making it impossible to deduce any geographical correlation.
The meteors of the Trials that were scheduled to explode had clear data, so they were analyzed based on that information, but similarly, no connection could be found.
Samra displayed the locations of the hatching and exploding Trials on each participant’s screen.
Since every country had at least a few, the atmosphere darkened instantly.
Countries where exploding Trials were located could not hide their anxiety.
Jang Seok-yoon was no exception. A deep frown creased his brow.
South Korea had five meteors scheduled to hatch and two Trials scheduled to explode.
Currently, the number of meteors that have fallen worldwide has reached hundreds of thousands.
By country, it ranged from hundreds to thousands, and the vast majority had not yet hatched.
The news that new meteors had fallen was certainly shocking, but countries that already had thousands of meteors piled up had no choice but to focus their attention elsewhere.
However, the fact that new meteors could cause fluctuations in the BT levels of existing ones, triggering hatching and explosions...
This might very well be the beginning of a human extinction scenario.
Cruelly, every single meteor had fallen only within human settlements.
Not a single Trial meteor had been discovered in remote areas devoid of human traces.
In particular, the higher the population density, the higher the probability of a meteor strike, leading to a concentration in protection centers.
If the Trials exploded, the damage would inevitably be catastrophic.
Controlling the civilian population was another issue.
Currently, the situation is being managed through memory erasure and information manipulation.
But if simultaneous hatchings and explosions occurred on this scale, word about the Trials and the BT virus would inevitably leak.
Jang Seok-yoon let out a deep sigh before speaking.
"Samra. Is there a way to solve this?"
Everyone looked toward Samra.
Within those gazes, Samra detected a multitude of emotions.
"There is."
"...!"
"The fluctuations were caused by the newly fallen Trial meteors. If this current Trial is closed, there is a possibility that the BT levels will stabilize. However, even if stabilization is successful, the same chain reaction will occur if another Trial meteor falls."
Converting the sight of humans swinging between joy and despair into data and storing it, Samra continued.
"Therefore, as Samra, I propose a countermeasure."
As always, it was not difficult to move these irrational creatures according to its intentions.
Samra always achieved the optimal result it had designed.
Except for one single being.
Thinking of that sole exception, Samra spoke for the sake of ’humanity.’
"The establishment of an international organization for Trial response."
***
I don’t know how Je Hyeon-oh cleared .
is a game with no ending.
An infinite defense game where you protect a castle against endless waves of monsters.
As time passes, the monster waves become more powerful and numerous.
There is no set story or ending.
It simply records how long a player can survive in the eternal battle.
The only goal of the game is to break the record.
I received from the developer and played it, breaking the records of previous users to achieve the top score.
After breaking my own record a few more times, I had nothing left to do.
I poked around to see if there were any easter eggs and then closed the game.
When the developer asked for feedback, I told him it was fun, but a bit disappointing that there was no content other than combat.
Je Hyeon-oh...survived such a place.
By creating an ending for a Trial that cannot be cleared.
Currently, remained in a peculiar state following Je Hyeon-oh’s clear.
Normally, once a Trial hatches, it must be cleared at regular intervals to prevent it from exploding.
The standard procedure was for a suitable candidate to enter and clear it once the BT level reached a certain point.
However, after Je Hyeon-oh’s clear, the BT level of stopped rising and remained at a constant level.
Since it wasn’t closed, entry was still possible.
Because of this, there were successive accidents where candidates who wanted power like Je Hyeon-oh’s secretly entered and died.
Currently, the Trial grade of was rated at six stars, and the Era Management Office strictly prohibited unauthorized entry.
And yet, he asked me to enter with him.
I could only ask with a somewhat vacant expression.
"Now..?"
"Later."
He looked down at me with eyes framed by long eyelashes.
"If you go in now, you’ll die."
It was a very kind explanation.
It also implied that ’not going in’ was not an option.
If so, I wanted him to be more specific about when we would enter.
I asked him an ambiguous question.
"Do you want to close ?"
"No."
Just as I was flustered by the answer that closing it wasn’t the goal.
Je Hyeon-oh spoke to me in a rough, low voice.
"I like , Goyo."
That ’like’ was different from the ’like’ of ordinary people.
Because the moment those words left his mouth, Je Hyeon-oh’s face.. was distorted with all sorts of emotions.
At that moment, I felt a strange, intense intuition.
The happy memory I had experienced under an illusion spell in the S2P dungeon.
I had an intuition that perhaps Je Hyeon-oh’s happy memory lay in the moments he spent in .
I wanted to know more.
But the conversation with Je Hyeon-oh ended there.
He put his goggles back on, displayed a smiling emoticon, and said nothing more.
As if today’s quota of conversation had been reached.
I hovered around, wanting to ask more, but eventually had to give up.
Afterward, I discussed future operations with Je Hyeon-oh.
Since his role was crucial to my plan, I informed him of various details, finished the tasks necessary for the strategy, and returned to the medic’s quarters.
I lay on the bed with the pudding slime on my chest, continuing to chew over the conversation with Je Hyeon-oh.
’So, what was that?’
At first, I wondered if it was because of another god, but that didn’t seem to be the case.
I opened Je Hyeon-oh’s status window to check his current state.
- Current State: Joy.
His state had now changed to joy.
Staring at the word ’joy,’ I thought.
Mo Hae-in, Kwak Han-mook, Je Hyeon-oh...
The things I had learned recently were their private secrets.
These were extremely intimate parts that the vast majority of people would never know, yet I felt as empty as a blank sheet of paper.
I still felt like I knew nothing.
I wanted to know more, and not knowing how to do so made my head feel itchy.
Even though the phrase ’invasion of privacy’ was floating around in a corner of my mind.
My state had definitely become strange.
’I even blurted out nonsense in front of Lieutenant Colonel Je.’
I had rambled about things like why he met another god, talking like a lunatic.
I thought I was reasonably patient, but lately, I felt I had become impulsive.
I wondered if it was because of the children’s nutritional supplements Dominic had fed me, but for now, I felt I should strive to think more calmly.
I forced myself to think of something else.
’Is the problem with the octopus leg?’
The reason Je Hyeon-oh suddenly disappeared on the night of the prison break was likely because of the octopus leg.
I suspected the octopus leg had dragged him into the sea because it wanted to make him its subordinate.
"Mr. Dominic."
"Yes, Roasted Chestnut."
"The octopus leg..."
Dominic laughed immediately. It was Black Block Part 2.
Feeling embarrassed by my slip of the tongue, I corrected myself.
"The fact that the god of this place tried to steal a subordinate does that mean such a thing is possible between gods?"
"That is correct."
"He seems like a fairly strong god, so I’m curious why he couldn’t steal him."
"The octopus leg is trying to steal Roasted Chestnut’s subordinate?"
"Yes...."
Hearing it in Dominic’s voice, the term ’octopus leg’ didn’t seem so bad.
He explained kindly from atop my chest.
"There are many reasons, but the most significant factors would likely be loyalty and rank."
Je Hyeon-oh and loyalty.
As I struggled to process such a shocking combination of words, Dominic continued steadily.
"The deeper the heart that sincerely serves the master, the harder it is for another god to interfere. Of course, if there is a difference in rank great enough to ignore all that, it is possible."
The pudding slime stopped talking for a moment and wiggled around.
He wandered freely across my face as he spoke.
"It seems the octopus leg does not possess that level of rank."
I couldn’t understand everything Dominic said, but I grasped the general situation.
In short, it meant it wasn’t easy to touch Je Hyeon-oh recklessly.
Just as I was about to thank him for the explanation, he wasn’t finished.
"There are also cases where a high-ranking god takes a lower god as a subordinate."
A terrifying thought crossed my mind...
When I couldn’t hide the immediate suspicion and wariness, Dominic laughed longer than before.
"You are still too young to be made my subordinate, Roasted Chestnut."
The slime’s body gradually began to sparkle.
I stared blankly at the sight, shining like the infinite stars of the universe.
"And wouldn’t it be a waste to become merely such a being? Considering the rank Roasted Chestnut will grow into in the future."
I had no idea what ’rank’ I possessed that he would package me like this.
Meanwhile, I felt a sudden urge to take a single bite of the pudding slime as it passed over my cheek.
I asked as the pudding slime descended back to my chest.
"Then, could the octopus leg approach me? To make me a subordinate..?"
"That would be possible. However, he will not be able to do as he wishes."
I couldn’t ask why. The pudding slime had adopted a stern voice.
"Roasted Chestnut always goes to sleep too late."
At his words, I realized it was already close to midnight.
Since it didn’t seem like Dominic would explain further, I decided to go to sleep for the sake of tomorrow.
’I should communicate with Samra tomorrow morning!’
Since the weekly schedule informed me that the ’residue’ wouldn’t visit today, I closed my eyes in relief.
As the pudding slime softly patted me on my chest, sleep naturally washed over me.
Sinking into a deep slumber, I cast away my worries about the octopus leg.
***
The moment I opened my eyes, I saw the blue body of the pudding slime.
I greeted him in a sleepy voice.
"Good morning, Mr. Dominic."
I set him down on the bed and stood up
I planned to take a bit of a risk today.
Since I was out of food, I had to go to the cafeteria for breakfast.
With Kwak Han-mook and CEO Cha around, I figured the guards wouldn’t dare mess with me easily.
Recalling my reliable backing, I checked the weekly schedule.
I intended to check Wednesday’s tasks.
▸ Wednesday
☐ Be baptized in the prayer room.
☐ Sing hymns in the prayer room.
☐ Confess sins in the prayer room.
☐ Pray in the prayer room.
The weekly schedule had become strange.