Lotus Mirage

SO GOOD to see GSGW fandom brewing theories and going insane again. Insanity is the new normal here.

Aaaaaaand we are back!

The hiatus was, in fact, longer than the first one (April 30th, 2025-July 6th, 2025 / 2 months and a week), but we all survived and made it to see our beloved MC go through the horrors again. Brace yourself for another whirlwind of rollercoster ride.

Also, 11 chapters in a single day?? THANK YOU, BDS-NIM. MAY YOUR CROPS BE WATERED AND FLOURISH, AND HOPE BOTH SIDES OF YOUR PILLOW ARE COLD.

I'm not going to do a one-by-one review of each chapter, but I will speedrun the chapters, probably mention some important details, plot-wise, and explain some shamanistic terms or words that can be lost in translation. It's getting too long, so this is gonna be a three-part post.

Anyway, let's start!

- Part 3 starts with some random drunk guy with an astronomical amount of debt (500 million won/about 330 thousand dollars), seeing a job offer flyer that could guarantee quick cash. As expected, something ghost story-like happened, and the man disappeared into thin air. And then, the full flyer is shown.

Daydream Corp.

Namhae Branch

"Namhae(남해/南海)" is a REAL region in Korea, called Namhae County (남해군). It is located in the southwest part of Gyeongsangnam-do (a southern province in Korea) and consists of two islands. As you can see from the map, it's a very remote region.

- And Soleum, who's now in the OG world, has been experiencing PTSD-like symptoms in his daily life,

“Well, search for something fun. Why, didn't Soleum-ssi read something? Something….” ……Wait. “Like a ghost story.” “…….” Right after hearing that pronunciation. An eerie chill crawled over my spine.  Something traumatic or nostalgic, that weird feeling. An unusual sensation. 

Sometimes, I would flinch.  -Stay tuned!  Whenever I hear that line on the TV talk show.  Whenever subway announcements make a static sound, whenever I fill the hot tub with water, whenever I hear a jingle from a Market, whenever I see a therapy program ad, and…. Whenever I stumble on <Field Exploration Record>. 

and actively avoiding anything that can trigger his experience in the DER world at all costs for a year.

Now I cannot consume it as merely an entertaining story.  If you read the record or ending of people you actually met before in real life, do you think you can’t feel the sensation of ‘I can’t take this anymore’? I cannot enjoy <Field Exploration Record> as I did before.  At the same time, just imagining myself enjoying it as a ‘wiki’... gives me qualms.  I felt I shouldn’t be doing this. 

Now everything he read in the wiki is real; it is no longer fiction, but more of a news report. And it is still ongoing. Soleum escaped from the horrors, but the people he knew and cared about are still living among the nightmares. Also, HE KNOWS that the world will soon meet the apocalypse, it has a fixed deadline.

Despite knowing all that, he made a decision to leave them behind. Oh, his guilt would be going through the (figurative) roof.

- But he keeps returning to that department store basement, the place where the <Field Exploration Record> pop-up was held in his dreams. And he hears a sound, which is new for him, in one corner of that place, pitch-black dark.

Someone is spinning the roulette.  In one pitch-black dark corner, a sound coming from inside, at a distance that can’t be seen.  Only sound is heard.  (...) And, Eventually, I can't resist myself and turn my head, over there, I stare at the dark space over the sign.......

This scene reminded me of that famous Nietzsche's quote.

"Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster... for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss also gazes into you."

It actually fits with Soleum's situation very well. Soleum, who used to battle with ghost stories/darknesses/disasters, became one of them by contamination. And the latter part of these lines encapsulates the scene above.

- Soleum makes a decision to confront the elephant in the room and searches for the DER wiki. However, EVERYTHING IN THE WIKI IS NOW GONE. Only left with this on the website.

--- The apocalypse came. Thank you so much ---

- But smart & astute as ever, Soleum figures something's off with this and finds out the hidden message by adjusting the screenshot of the lines.

--- After your way back home The apocalypse came. Thank you so much Ireum-nim. ---

Someone knows Soleum is Ireum-nim & he went back to his OG world.

That's creepy. It has that Church of the Luminous Unknown tone in it.

I'm speculating that Heoun is one of the candidates for the person who figured this out and has access to the site. Not the Heoun we knew from the beginning, but one of the Heouns resurrected from the dead. He is still strongly indoctrinated by the Church's doctrines, and while undergoing a journey with Soleum and his team, he probably might learn one or two things about Soleum. Also, the fact that Soleum is his employer makes it easy to garner information.

To support this universe, there needs to be one prerequisite. '...Supernatural phenomena are prevalent in this world, enough to be collected.' Especially considering the characteristic of dopamine-craving content, creating more and more provocative, dangerous ghost stories as time goes by.... This world inevitably becomes more and more dangerous and horrifying, which leads to a single conclusion, meeting the probability. '...The world ends because of the containment failure.' - Due to the supernatural phenomenon that humanity can't handle, eventually everyone dies. (...) [Prophecy of the Apocalypse: Field Exploration Record] In the end, every ghost story on the wiki is the prophecy and omen of the apocalypse. (Chapter 373)

We finally got the direct answer to "how the apocalypse occurs." It happens because of "the supernatural phenomenon that humanity cannot handle and contain". So, it's probably gonna be S-rank or Catastrophe Type (or higher than those) ones.

One of the most plausible candidates for this apocalyptic phenomenon is, of course, Ireum-nim. Soleum went insane by the music box biohazard ghost story, became a reality-bending, wiki-powered god, and that was how the Ireum-nim cult was born.

Throughout parts 1 & 2, Soleum left big footprints on the DER world: saving characters that should be dead, terminating darknesses/disasters that were meant to harm people, and rejuvenating ghost stories that were supposed to wither and disappear. Even Soleum himself said that he created a butterfly effect.

Those footprints will turn into something cataclysmic. His actions, despite good intentions, come back as an anomaly. Something unexpected, something unheard of, something uncontainable. With that in mind, real Soleum (still insane and in therapy) is still there, and we readers have no idea what's going on with him.

- Soleum searches for the wiki admins (since they seem to know who Soleum is) and their whereabouts, but it turns out that currently nobody operates the site. Also, they all quit right before the pop-up event was held. Realistically, a monetary issue, but....

I, made a slightly different judgement. "......." A chilly inkling from a person who actually experienced a supernatural disaster, a ghost story. "...What if there is no admin at all?' A wiki site maintained all alone. What if... it became a ghost story by itself? "......." What if the ghost story is manifesting in real life here as well? (Chapter 373)

Uh-oh. Two worlds (DER world & Soleum's OG world) merging theory?

- What if, only the <Field Exploration Record> Wiki became a ghost story? And. -What if I'm the only person who can see that?

Yup, getting warmer. You can, because you're Ireum-nim that people in the DER world are looking for, and you are still connected to that world (One in his dream and the other in reality, that black box).

- Soleum realizes that the abandoned pop-up store place is real, and not a by-product of his traumatized unconsciousness. And as a curiosity-bound person he is, he takes another proactive measure. He makes a move before bad things come to him.

- Like entering Sekwang High School in his dreams, he reenters that nightmare of the abandoned pop-up store.

- A 3D printer-looking, identification card-making machine was still operating, making endless cards, mountains of them. The machine, which was obviously a ghost story, was first mad at Soleum losing his identity card, but Soleum, as usual, threw a nat 20 persuasion. Thankfully, it gave him a second chance ("Are you going to cherish it?"), with the identity card Soleum was holding.

--- [Church of the Luminous Unknown] ■■■ ■■ White Sector ---

The problem is, that the card was from the Church.

- Soleum, again, transmigrates to the DER world. This time, a harsher environment where he himself can't recognize the place and in a much worse physical state.

Daydream Corp.

Namhae Branch

Finishing Team

And yes, it CAN get worse.

- The religious activity here seems to be something shamanistic, related to a ritual called Gosa/고사(告祀).

Before explaining what Gosa(고사) is, first, Jesasang (제사상).

Jesasang(제사상) is a table prepared with various foods, which are offerings to the spirits. It is set for the ancestral rite called Jesa(제사). Above is one example of Jesasang (제사상). This ritual is held to commemorate and thank one's ancestors, who are now in spirit form, protecting and watching the living members & descendants.

Like all rituals do, there are formalities regarding the placement of foods on Jesasang. Such as: "In the second row, fish goes on the right(east), its head facing east & tail to the west, & meat goes on the left(west) (어동육서, 두동미서)", "In the fourth row, fish jerky is placed on the leftmost area & Sikhye(sweet rice drink) is placed the rightmost area (좌포우혜)," etc.

In modernity, people don't follow those rules as strictly as before, and just place foods that their ancestors used to like during their lifetime, such as cake, pizza, chicken, burger, etc. Because it is the thought that it counts. Some people joke, "If I die, please put (food name) on my Jesasang." In conclusion, it got modernized.

When there is a "Pig Head" (NO, I will not post any image) on Jesasang, however, it has a different meaning & becomes a different ritual, called Gosa(고사).

Gosa is a ritual to wish good luck and wealth to the god. "Pig head" symbolizes wealth (because Chinese character referring to a pig (豚/돈) sounds the same as money), luck, and prosperity. This ritual usually happens when people start something new, like starting a business or driving a new car, or before the maiden voyage(flight), wishing for NO ACCIDENTS.

Considering all that, this is a finishing team, having a very high chance of dying and being involved in numerous accidents. Gosa, here is probably the finishing team's desperate attempt to wish for their survival. OR, as for Daydream employees, a better survival rate for a person means more experiments to run from them, so they would hope for the same.

- Finishing team members have a sticker somewhere on their body, and it cannot be detached. They get a penalty if they do. Also, finishing teams are team X-Z, and Soleum is Z999. THE LOWEST OF THEM ALL.

Also, in the beginning, Soleum was being bullied by other finishing team members, with the nickname "Pigeon", because his number is Z999. 9 in Korean is Gu(구), and it is the same sound as what Pigeon makes (구구구/gugugu) in Korean.

This is a form of goroawase (語呂合わせ, phonetic matching). Like 79(chilgu) can mean friend(친구/chingu), or 1004(cheon-sa) can mean angel(천사/cheon-sa), and 18(Sip-pal) can mean curse word, Sibal.

- Soleum is a roommate with a corpse (Z993), the only roommate from his cell (Z 990-999).

'Then eight other people...' Are all dead already? Am I the only survivor in this room? 'Daydream, you crazy bastards.' What the hell is with the insane survival rate? Is this why it's a finishing team? 'Can't believe the day that I would scream, "my head office employee days are better," would come.' The fatal drawback that I can't relax because of my roommate was a paradise compared to this. At least my roommate is alive there. (Chapter 374)

Awww. Soleum missing Saheon.

And so, an exhausting and crappy morning has come. (chapter 375)

Such a mood, Soleum. Keeping this line.

What on earth are they saying. 'Don't say... that a medical office is a service that a worker should be purchasing by themselves?' Save me please..... What kind of Capitalism hell is this. The work environment itself is a damn ghost story.

LOOOOL "Capitalism Hell". Btw, Soleum says this phrase TWICE. Theme of GSGW? Capitalism is the true horror that surpasses all.

- Soleum gets into the manualess ghost story, but without any information at all. At least Kwak gave basic information about it & was in a controlled environment. But this? NAHHHH. It's a difference between lab-grown meth & cooked meth.