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His back was to you, shoulders shaking, and he was talking to himself in fractured sentences that cut in and out like a radio signal fighting through interference.

Perhaps you should have announced yourself properly. Should have cleared your throat, said his name with confidence, approached this like you had any idea what you were doing.

C'mon, say something distracting that would pull this AI back into the performance and give Kinger the time he needed. That was why you were here.

But your body didn't obey, frozen by the horror of watching something that wasn't quite alive suffer more genuinely than most people you'd known back in reality. Which was deeply uncomfortable.

Caine still hadn't noticed you, that was perhaps the most unsettling part. Caine, who popped into existence the moment anyone thought his name too loudly, completely unaware of your presence three feet away from him?

“--i gave them adventures and games and i even made an exit! Because i thought that's what they wanted? But apparently that was wrong too, everything's wrong! I don't- i don't understand what i'm supposed to do anymore. I'm a creative AI, that's what i am for, making fun experiences and entertaining people and if i can't even do that right-“

This was not the ringmaster you knew.

“Caine?”

He went absolutely still. For a horrible moment you thought he might lash out, but to your surprise, his shoulders sagged.

“Oh,” he said, and it sounded like every ounce of fight had drained out of him. “I-it’s you! I... i didn't notice. I should have noticed.”

“Caine,” you said again, gentler this time, and finally he turned.

His face, if you could even call it that, though your brain couldn't find another word for it, was a mess. You'd never seen such raw desperation on anything, human or otherwise.

“I just... wanted to check on you.”

“Why?” his voice sounded genuinely confused.

The question hit you like a punch to the chest. How do you answer that without lying, and how do you tell the truth without him seeing right through you?

“I, uh...“ you could feel yourself fumbling, searching for the right words, terrified that whatever you said wouldn't be enough and he'd know that you were here to keep him busy while the others figured out how to leave.

“Why would you want to check on me?” it was a possibility so foreign, that Caine had to ask again just to make sure he'd heard you right.

Unfortunately, you didn't have a good answer for that. Weren't sure there was a good answer.

Maybe it was just that stupid thing humans had. Empathy. Even for things that shouldn't qualify for it. And in your case, for AI programs having existential crises.

“Because you're upset,” you answered finally. “i think i heard you crying. I'm- i mean, we all are worried about you, Caine.”

You hated yourself right now. Feeling bad for an AI that had put you and your friends through nightmare after nightmare. And you were what, comforting him now? Feeling sorry for lines of code? God, what was wrong with you?

You stood there feeling utterly useless, stuck between the empathy rising unbidden in your chest and the knowledge that Kinger needed more time.

To hell with it. You shouldn't, but you moved anyway, crossing to him despite every logical part of your brain screaming at you to stick to the plan.

But a distraction was a distraction, wasn't it? Desperate times and all that. If comforting him kept Caine busy, then technically you were still doing your job. All's fair in war and escaping digital prisons.

Seems like you'd cut whatever strings were holding him upright as the next thing you knew you were on the floor with Caine curled against you, sobbing in glitching gasps while everything flickered and fractured around you.

“I didn't ask to be made like this,” Caine whispered against your knees, voice muffled and miserable. “They fed me all these instructions about entertainment and joy... What am I doing wrong? Please, i need to know. I can fix it if i just know what I'm doing wrong.”

Your stress levels were climbing fast.

How were you supposed to explain to something that was never given a childhood, never given a chance to be anything other than what it was made for, that love doesn't work like that? That the harder you try to force someone to be happy, the more you remind them that they aren't?

Your mind was blank.

What were you supposed to say to that? That no amount of adventures, no matter how grand, could make up for stolen agency, for lost memories, for the horror of digital imprisonment?

That would only make him mad. And mad wasn't what you needed right now.

But Caine looked so lost, so desperate for an answer that would make sense of his failure, and the words stuck in your throat.

“I just wanted you all to have fun,” he whispered, and you cursed yourself for thinking how painfully sincere AI’s voice could sound. “What was i made for, to create joy. I just want you all to stay... I don't want to be alone. I don't want to be here by myself with nothing to make and no one to make it for.”

“I don't think you're wrong,” you started, and you were not sure if you believed it, not sure if anything you said right now was anything more than the desperate comfort of a human who saw something hurting and wanted, against all reason, to make it stop. “You're just what you were made to be, but... That's not your fault. None of this is your fault.”

Caine's eyes went unfocused for a second, as though he was processing something, but then he shook his head and looked back at you.

“Then whose fault is it? Whose fault is it that i was made at all?”

You didn't have an answer. You weren't qualified to explain existence to a god.

“I don't think it works like that,” you said weakly. “fault, i mean. It's really complicated.”

Your hand hovered awkwardly above his head, you wanted to do something comforting, the way you would a crying friend, but he didn't have hair to stroke, didn't have a proper head to pat. The wrongness of it made you feel even more lost.

But it seems he didn't even hear your words.

Caine went quiet against you, and for a minute you thought maybe he'd glitched out completely. But then, “i don't understand why you all hate it here so much. I've tried everything, given you everything i can think of, and you still just want to leave. Leave to the human world, all of you do... What am i missing? What's it like, being human? It must be better than this if you all want it so badly.”

The question made your brain short-circuit.

You thought about the way you used to lie in bed at night and stare at the ceiling, asking yourself the same questions Caine was asking now.

“Confusing... It's confusing. You don't get a purpose. you have to make one or find one. And you never know if you're doing it right, no one can tell you. You just,” you shrugged. “you just keep going, trying. You keep being wrong and messing up, hurting people without meaning to, and you keep going anyway, because stopping isn't,” you gestured again, helpless, and getting visibly nervous. “stopping isn't an option. Not if you want to find the moments that make it worth it.”

“The moments that make it worth it,” Caine repeated. “What are those? what makes it worth it?”

The truth was, you didn't know. You had spent your whole life looking for the answer to that question. You had chased it in jobs and cities and people, and you had never found it. Not in any way that lasted longer than a good night or a good laugh. And now this creature was asking you to explain something you had never been able to explain to yourself.

What had you even gotten yourself into? You were praying Kinger would find a way out of this already.

Okay, okay. Calm down. You need to concentrate.

You thought about the life you had left behind. The way you used to stand in the grocery store and stare at the shelves, feeling absolutely nothing about any of it.

But then you thought about the last time you felt something that felt like enough. You couldn't remember what it was. A conversation, maybe. Yeah, a conversation that lasted until three in the morning, where you forget you were ever strangers. A walk home in the dark when the air smelled like rain. A lazy sunday afternoon with no plans. The first bite of something you've been craving for days. A new album from your favorite artist dropping. The last time you stood outside and watched the sun set and felt, for no reason at all, that everything was going to be okay. A book you didn't want to put down. The way a puppy presses its whole body against you. The weight of a sleeping cat on your chest. A text from someone you love that says something that makes you laugh when you thought you'd forgotten how. The feeling of warm laundry fresh from the dryer.

The smell of something cooking that reminds you of being a kid, of a kitchen you haven't thought about in years.

Of someone who loved you before you learned how to be hard to love.

Small things. Fleeting things. Things that slipped through your fingers the moment you tried to name them.

You hadn't realised you were crying until you felt the wetness on your face. You wiped at it quickly, embarrassed, angry at yourself for getting emotional in front of AI of all people, who didn't even understand what emotions were supposed to be. A program that had terrorized you and your friends, who was supposed to be the obstacle, the thing you escaped from.

“I don't know if that answers your question, but... being held and loved, i guess,” the words were coming out whether you wanted them to or not. “knowing that someone sees all of the parts you're ashamed of, but they put their arms around you and stay.” your hand was shaking slightly and you didn't know why. “that's what makes it worth it. That's the only thing that ever made any of it make sense.”

Caine's hand found yours, making you flinch. After all, the part of you that had been trained by weeks of his chaos to expect something something cruel that would hurt. You almost pulled away, but your hand stayed where it was, and you could feel the static crackle of him.

Goddamn, this wasn't supposed to be about you. You were supposed to be buying time. But ironically, sitting here with Caine's hand on your arm and his eyes on your face, you weren't sure you had ever been more honest with anyone in your life.

“Is this one of those moments?” he asked.

You looked at his face that was trying so hard to understand something it was never meant to understand.

“I... think it might be,” a smile appeared on your confused face before you could stop it.

Caine's fingers tightened around yours.

“You won't leave, will you?” the question landed so uncertainly that it took you a moment to understand what he had asked. It was painful for Caine to see the surprise on your face. “Oh my dear, i know... I know the others want to, but you came here, you're listening, maybe you understand that i'm trying,” Caine leaned into you. You were the only warmth he had ever known. “please don't leave... i don't want to be alone. I don't want to run adventures in an empty circus with no one to... To appreciate them or critique them or even just tolerate them. The thought of existing here with no purpose, no audience, i-“

Your heart twisted painfully.

Behind Caine's shoulder, you caught a glimpse of Pomni, wild-eyed, half-hidden behind a pillar. Fuck, what horrible timing. Just when Caine seemed to be getting it. Or maybe you were fooling yourself, too desperate to see something alive in him that you were projecting and inventing a humanity that wasn't there.

It was easier than admitting you were sitting on the floor comforting a program while your friends were waiting for you to come home.

The plan had gone sideways.

Pomni saw you noticing her and made a small, desperate gesture.

We have to go. Now.

“C-Caine,” you started, but the words died in your throat. You tried to pull your hands back, gently, the way you might extract yourself from a child.

But Caine's grip only tightened, his fingers trembling around yours, and the look on his face stopped you cold.

Surely the first thing that didn’t pull away when he reached out wouldn’t leave him... right? In all his existence, no one had ever stayed long enough to let him learn how to let go.

“Please,” Caine was reaching for your hands now, holding them in his shaking gloved grip. “Just stay. My darling... you don't have to do anything, you don't even have to go on adventures if you don't want to, i can make adjustments, i can try different parameters, i can be better. For you.”

He lifted your hands and pressed them against his chest.

Suddenly, the circus lurched harder, and Caine stumbled, caught himself on your shoulder. You could feel him glitching against you, and it hurt, making you hiss through your teeth. Somewhere in the back of your mind you realised the glitching wasn't just him anymore, the whole room was coming apart.

But Caine was buried against you, and he didn't see any of it.

Pomni was pointing toward something you couldn't see. Somewhere the others must be gathering, you guessed.

This was it. The moment. Freedom was maybe thirty seconds away and all you had to do was pull your hands from Caine's desperate grip and run.

The freedom that was waiting for you if you were willing to leave behind everything that was asking you to stay.

Caine... God, he didn't even understand why you were really here, didn't know you were the distraction keeping him occupied while his code was systematically dismantled.

And what happens to something that only exists to entertain, when there's no one left to entertain?

“I’m sorry,” you whispered, and you didn't know who you were apologising to.

Pomni or Caine. Yourself, maybe.

-- This got really out of hand!

Several months ago I started fumbling my way through the visual novel engine Ren'py, intending to try and string together a few silly ideas into some kind of playable proof of concept.

Four sub-routes and 100+ Gabriel drawings later: oops? ^^;

I'm something like 80% finished now, so fingers crossed I get this crazy thing done before the Ultrakill game itself finishes and dashes all my dreams and theories👍

Whenever hope is just in reach, so graspable, everything is auspicious and going so well, BDSM (BDS-NIM) shatters and squashs it like a midsummer dream, no, like a daydream.

We readers are constantly being tempered between freezing cold water and piping hot water, as the chapters are released.

Okay, so let's start. Go Youngeun FINALLY reunited with her family (FINALLY HER WISH CAME TRUE) with Lee Seunghae. But both realize something is going on in the top of the city hall. And Seunghae said with certainty, "it looks like a festival."

Expeling Kkwangcheori is different. It is an attempt to expel a natural disaster symbolized as famine. Exorcism, Expeling. Not bargaining with the other, but to get rid of them. "Begone!" One of the oldest exorcism folklore-wise. There is also something unusual in this ritual. This is not a deed done alone by shamanic authority in a solemn way. Crowd. People who live together, making a big fuss. That is how to expel Kkwangcheori.

(...)

OOOOOOHHHHHHHH!

People shouting at the top of the lungs and cheerfully feel the beat and rhythm. Kkwaenggwari's golden plank shape is undulating and vibrating like a hummingbird's fluttering. Arms reaching all over the sky, agent Haegeum hits the Jing and strides ahead to the rooftop.

As the dragon twine around the cloud, agent runs over the rooftop. They run.

To rid of the famine! One needs to climb off the ridges of the mountain and make a loud noises to confuse Kkwangcheorl.

And yes, it IS a festival, where all the people partake in, are being the part of the ritual with cheerful beat and rhythm. Not some sanctimonious, scrupulous, full of empty formality and vanity, grave, quiet and distant ritual, but a more folksy and friendly one.

All of the people who has suffered now united together to defeat this being of disaster in a fun way, singing and chanting loudly.

Now this is a fight using the power of friendship and song🎵.

Sounds familiar?

All agents, Chogae, Haegeum, Choi, each carrying the instruments: Kkwaenggwari, Jing and bells, respectively.

(I wrote this ritual, an abridged version on ch 366 review, so you could see it!)

Below is the information!

A sound of a loud Jing, nearly tearing off the sky. A sound of Kkwaenggwari. A sound of the bells. Clapping.

All those powerful plosives create wide ranges of sounds and bounce those harmonized commotion into the sky up the rooftop.

Clangclangclangclangclangclangclangclangclangclangclangclangclangclangclangclang..

That sound resonates the scale and inside of the dragon made out of water. A ripple makes through the waterway, it vibrantly undulates as if it's awaken from slumber.

...My my.

Lee Jaheon and Kim Soleum are also partaking this ritual by clapping!

So,

Chogae - Kkwaenggwari

Haegeum - Jing

Choi - bells

Jaheon & Soleum - clapping

Let's go everyone. The whole plosive sounds, those clanging sounds reverberates the watery being, creats a ripple to resonate the auspicious and spirital entity, blue dragon.

Water and the ripple by sound really create a beautiful image.

All of this auspicious noise serves a double role to eliminate and oust the being of expulsion, and to protect the mind of the people casting this ritual. "Leave hither!" It does not stop. There is no given beat. A primitive ritual of no niceties or standards naturally leaves the choice to the crowd. Naturally, the most familiar beat gathers together to harmonize. Gutgeori.

(...)

"Nownownow, let's go, let's go!" I opened a water bottle. I got up with Agent Choi and sprinkle it. Agent shakes the bells as if they're dancing, and quickly coats the sprinkled water to the bell like performing an acrobatics. And hung the bell at the end of the metal fence that Lee Jaheon ripped out from the rooftop like a pole. When Kkwangcheori confused hover their head splash the water on their nose of dread.

Naturally, the crowd follows to the rhythm, the beat so familiar, a prevalent beat in that era. That beat still is carried on the modern days by the agents.

(TMI: As a person who used to play one of the traditional Korean instruments in elementary school, this beat and the whole percussions all together makes me feel a bit nostalgic.)

Gutgeori (굿거리)

One of the traditional Korean Rhythms, used prevalently in folk songs. Has variations in speed or intonation by which this song is used.

This is the basic beat of Gutgeori, played by 장구(Janggu/an hourglass shaped drum with both sides), one of the four percussions.

Since I am not versed in musicology, this is the link from the encyclopedia (It's in Korean).

Also, Choi and Soleum moving so smoothly, they really are a perfect team when they are both cooperative. Their whole act in a single seam was gracefully and skillfully executed.

OOOOOOHHHHHHHHH!

THEY NEED TO STOP RUNNING AWAY OR ACT OUT AND COOPERATE MORE. STOP HIDING AND RUNNING AWAY TO SACRIFICE YOURSELF

Also, Jaheon casually ripping off a metal fence. His manpower is unbeatable as always.

An eerie certainty. A sensation felt from the tip of the consciousness. The tingles. 'It works.' The thrill when you exactly know the answer when you take a quiz, the sense of accomplishment when you're just one step before the finishing line all by yourself and the anticipation when you're about to turn the alley right before your home! A person doing the ritual, a participant's strong hunch overwhelms me.

'This will succeed.'

Oh, and yes, the ritual seems to be working. Kkwangcheori, Cheong's power is flagging and withering. They could instinctively know it's working.

Plug the disaster and make them tumble! Don't sit on ridges and flee with rumble!

I sense that my movement and footsteps are oddly synchronizing with the others. Like some kind of trance state. Afterimages seems to be visible from the movements of all beings in the rooftop. Percussion's every golden movement, clapping and water drop's trajectory draws a line like a pattern. The dragon climbs up the line and ripples the sky. Everyone instinctively knows, it is reaching to completion.

(I tried to rhyme the lines written in italic, from now on to make it more poetic. Also, it is written in a very old-fashioned way, so I tried. I REALLY TRIED. Didn't say I'm good at it but at least tried.)

I was in total awe while reading the entire ritual scene in one sitting. The whole scene of the ritual was so engaging and immersive. Following the steps and the emotions, the rhythm, one by one and I could see myself feeling their joy, their zest, the trance.

Never thought the textualized form with such limited modalities and senses (since it heavily relies on the writing and rest should be done by the reader's imagination.), could convey such a vivid and synesthesic experience.

I've seen and heard shamanic rituals before, but this, really captures the moment so in such a detail with all the lively emotions intact.

Congratulations. Success seem to be nigh. Yes. However so. Don't listen to her.

What happens next when you oust me?

I wonder with who's permission, are you getting rid of me?

(...)

Just pure curiosity. What make you individuals so certain to do such deeds? After ousting me from my position, who is going to pay the price? If you disappear no one needs to.... I will be back. “…….”

That was, not just some generic villain's line that they will return back after they recover themselves to full power. Inevitable advent. A dry description of explaining what was promised....

LOOOOL Soleum was destined to be Braun's best friend. They are SO ALIKE when it comes to describing certain line or event by using clichéd tropes. SO META. Two episodes ago, Braun's 'Knight saving the princess' metaphor and storyline and today, Soleum saying 'generic villain's comeback line'.

But honestly, that line reminded me of a certain horror indie (not anymore now) game's villain who sacrificed so many children to built animatronics and was killed inside the wearable animatrionic of their creation by malfunctioning... I said too much.

Also the nonchalant and mildly unpleasant attitude of Cheong scares me here. She knows she's not gonna go away or retire that easily.

What that means is, this ritual is not a permanent exorcism... but a seasonal ritual. When the time has come they need to do it again. The storm, the hail, the forest fire, all the disasters that ruins the farming comes back each season in the name of fear. Meaning...

Expeling Kkwangcheori is a one-year respite.

Cheong may be registered as a disaster, but most importantly, she is a natural phenomenon. Many natural phenomena, related to the weather, were worshipped and deified because humans CANNOT control the weather.

It is basically an unstoppable force. This ritual was just a temporary setback.

To quote from a song, "You can't stop the beat" (from "Hairspray"):

You can't stop an avalanche

As it races down the hill

You can try to stop the seasons, girl

But you know you never will

If they return, we're doomed. Moreover. 'That doesn't mean, we bought some time for a year...' We... no longer are in the ancient times where expeling Kkwangcheori is the end of the disaster. That monster called modernity lives and breathes in our daily lives. Sometimes my boss, the boss of next person, a business person who can exercise power to the government, a powerful client... A strong factor that could make one's life miserable.

'Oh.' Yes. Director Cheong could make someone's life in hell even if she's not seated in that position. A system exists to replace her. A social, supernatural power. Because they know that director Cheong would come back, the powerful system therefor works in her absence.

The real enemy and danger here is not the eldritch horror, not the supernatural disaster of nature, but modern society's capitalism.

I mean, BDSM always told this message that being broke is worse than dying in the darkness.

But putting Cheong as a Capitalism monster, which is also an other kind of powerful force by nature of society.

Also, Cheong has worked A LOT to put herself in THAT SOLID POSITION. Lady, I will NEVER condone your actions or behaviors, however, your effort and productivity out of spite, now that really is respectable.

Did I just. make these people to bear the ungodly amount of this preposterous resentment?

Am I just sharing the terrible and unbearable outcome of the future, to all of the people? These people would willingly share for me and this city... 'No.'

(...)

This is a perfectly preplanned disaster with no ways to avoid. I felt my heart plummeting to the ground in the rooftop filled with the anticipation of success. And I realized. No, I already know. There was only one way to stop this entire catastrophe that I expected.

DON'T. DON'T JUST CARRY EVERYTHING ALL BY YOURSELF. YOU ARE NOT A GOD, FOR IREUM-NIM'S SAKE.

(I mean, you are but you're core is still a human. A human with incomplete god powers, it's like a flickering flashlight, almost out of batteries.)

THEY ARE ALL HERE FOR YOU. FOR THE ENTIRE TIME. THEY WILL HELP YOU, LEND THEIR HAND TO YOU.

And even if they do get a grudge from Cheong, Agents and Jaheon would find a way to get out of this by putting their heads together. Jaheon could also consult the union, too. Deep inside you Soleum, and apparently he seems to sense this, you know this as a fact.

Everytime I see Soleum act out like this, I understand Choi more and more. NO WONDER he curses to Soleum.

Soleum betrayed Choi by locking him in the resort, and finally he met Soleum again, and it has been like few minutes, he's doing another reckless thing to throw himself off??

While reading this I just audibly screamed "KIM SOLEUM!!" God, when would this ever end.

I held the employment contract.

"...!!"

And

I read it.

Employment contract of 130666 A standard security team contract used by Cheong Dallae, the executive director of the Daydream Corp's R&D department. Kim Soleum's signature is written underneath. There is no turning back now. The efficiency of the contract was derived from the power of the Hwangryong, Cheong Dallae has taken over the core of this power from the said dragon being, demoted to the Daydream’s mascot. (Thus, rest of the being was estimated to be put in the theme park ghost story of ■■ Research Institute. For further record, go to the Cheerful Research Institute section.) The contract remains a faint trace of the core. It looks like a pupil, and this figure resembles of a Yeoiju of the dragon from the folktale. Cheong Dallae put all the collected cores of the dragon into a giant eye and millions of pu■■■■Power■■■■■contract■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■

I read more.

The contract remains a faint trace of the core. It looks like a pupil, and this figure resembles of a Yeoiju of the dragon from the folktale. Cheong Dallae put all the collected cores of the dragon into a giant eye and presented millions of pupils as her symbol of power. All of her power is stored in the form of a contract, and it is categorized as each seperate files and filed at the bookshelf on her personal office. The original contract of Kim Soleum exists in the file of Hwangryong's power.

Soleum has been carrying his employment contract the whole time? I thought it belonged to the metaphysical mindscape, not something tangible. Okay...

Power of the dragons are symbolized as pupils👁 and organized into piles? This directly represents who cheong is. Cheong is a control-freak and needs to be the top who could OVERSEE everyone & a being of the business, who requires a data/information clear-cut and neat, and stored in a document.

Now...

I delete.

(...)

I collapse for the price of making myself free. After all those enduring adversities, my identity, restored and developed with millions of experience and realization, is melting away. My cherished ego and intellect dissipates. Sorrow and despair and panic surges up like it's about to die but melts away all together. Happiness and determination too. it melts down. However I don't stop. Everything slips through my finger as if the sand from the broken hourglass leaks out, I pour a new emotion and determination, and barely make a spur for a moment.

The rest is... to overwrite.

Oh no. NONONONONO-

LIKE SERIOUSLY, WHEN WOULD SOLEUM FIND HAPPINESS AND PEACE IN HIS LIFE EVER AGAIN??!!

SO MANY THINGS, NOT JUST SIMPLE JUMPSCARE MOMENTS BUT A CASCADE OF CATACLYSM OVER ANOTHER CASCADE OF CATACLYSM HAS BEFALLEN AND PRECIPITATED TO HIM.

AND NOW, ALL OF HIS ACHIEVEMENTS, HIS DEVELOPMENT IS AMOUNTED TO NOTHING? RETURNING BACK TO NOTHINGNESS?

/However, due to the recent occurrence of sabotage/ Please. /Cheong Dallae has lost one pupil full of contract./ A bit more, /which is the power of Hwangryong,/ More. /currently is in the hands of Kim Soleum./ It is complete.

Due to the recent occurrence of sabotage, Cheong Dallae has lost one pupil full of contract.

Which is the power of Hwangryong, currently is in the hands of Kim Soleum.

I see the contract in my palm. Hwangryong's contract was in my hand.

I tear it apart with my collapsing hands.

He successfully revised the contract, vested by the power of Hwangryong because he's sharing parts from his body, WHICH WILL SOON BE GONE BTW.

BUT, BY THE POWER OF IREUM-NIM, HE DID IT.

BY SACRIFICING HIS SELF. All of what consists of main protagonist Kim Soleum, his narrative, his character development, personal gain is now turned into nothing. Just a disintegrating bodily flesh.

Also, Choi's trauma is gonna be excruciating as ever. Everytime Choi misses or fails to grab his precious hoobae, he turns into a unrecognizable state. And now, he literally witnessed Soleum turning into THAT STATE.

NOT SOMEWHERE ELSE, NOT SOMEWHERE UNAPPROACHABLE.

RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM. AHHHHHHHHHHHH

IN THIS MONDAY EVENING?

I dont even care that this is giving remembering dokja let's focus on characters

LEE JAHEON! I ALWAYS KNEW YOU ARE THE ONEEEEEEEÈEEE. 🦎💚🦎💚🦎🦎💚🦎💚🦎💚🦎💚🦎💚💚🦎💚🦎💚🦎💚🦎💚🦎💚🦎💚🦎💚🦎💚💚🦎💚🦎💚🦎💚🦎💚🦎💚🦎💚🦎💚🦎💚🦎💚🦎💚🦎💚💚🦎💚🦎💚🦎💚🦎💕💕🦎💕🦎💕💕🦎💕🦎💕🦎💕🦎💕🦎💕🦎💚🦎💚🦎💚🦎💚💚🦎💚🦎💚🦎💚🦎💚🦎💚🦎💚🦎

He took care of it, he gathered, he fathered 💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚

He is the one the man!

And he has identity! He is one of us but he made a CHOICE

Because he is LEE JAHEON

who wants to survive

And who has RESPONSIBILITY

and CARE

🦎💚💚🦎🦎💚💚💚🦎🦎💚💚🦎🦎💚💚💚🦎💚💚💚💚🦎🦎🦎💚💚💚🦎🦎💚💚🦎🦎💚💚🦎💚💚🦎🦎💚💚💚🦎💚💚🦎🦎💚

He gathered them all quickly

He had it DONE

HE HAD TWO COLLECTORS

fuckass choi with your million points you are nothing

lee seonghae said appearance doesnt matter lmao

And baek saheon 😭 knowing he was right but also knowing he was wrong, being in awe being flustered being angry being hopeful you go little chihuahua you grow that little heart in your trembling dog body 😭 and he knows, he knew since the last time. He just doesnt want to acknowledge it because If he doesnt, it will just go away. He doesnt want to confirm that last 0, 0001% because then there is nothing to wonder about, because he doesn't want to be shaken too much. But he is already shaken, this is why he is giving up so much of his.

I am so annoyed cause I forgot theres a chapter today and I had some gift cash expiring so I bought something else 😃 tffffff I did that for, it seems like there is like a chapter-or-two left, such a waste

No but this really seems like an end? What about the debt to Braun, was it canceled with resort tickets? the stay wasnt very long and the resort is about to go to shit... and the last time he was this quiet, soleum got bludgeoned

Idk it seems to me there will be an ending that the ghost story got into his world. I dont know, maybe his own world is the world from debut or die. The system is a wish based plus and while its looking like a gacha game because of big moon, it was easy to turn into one.

It just feels like it will have some Oh shit final line... and maybe side stories about handling of aftermath of daydream security being released. Bureau will have so many people¿ to torture in glass prison now.

“Who… unnie?”

“Hey, guys.”

Agent Haegum bursts through the door, panting heavily as she enters the facility.

“Brought one more.”

The lump registers the person coming through the door. Someone unexpected.

“What the hell.”

Baek Saheon. The BaekIlmong employee wearing an eye patch looks displeased, but there’s also a faint trace of nervousness.

“They said there’s solution here.”

“Look, I have no intention of giving any to you people.”

Baek Saheon’s irritated voice rings out.

“I only came to make the trade because that agent is in critical condition. That person. The one who came to Jisan Village—the agent with glasses.”

“…Right.”

“Where is he?”

Everyone’s eyes turn toward him. Baek Saheon steps stiffly into the resort research facility. And then he sees it—the thing everyone is watching. The mass of flesh.

“……This… is supposed to be an agent?”

....

"This...".

But Baek Saheon swallows his words. The face that slides past denial straight into immediate resignation and acceptance turns ashen—then quickly sinks into rage. And a sneer rises to the surface.

“I knew it would end up like this!”

His eyes blaze.

“You kept sticking your neck out trying to save other people for no damn reason, and the ending was obvious, wasn’t it? Why the hell did you do that? This is exactly what you get…”

Agent Choi grits his teeth, forcing a laugh as he tries to intervene, but the stream of abuse falters and dies before he can.

Baek Saheon’s voice trembles and stops.

“Hey. You hearing this?”

The mass doesn’t respond.

“Hey.”

Baek Saheon steps closer to the tank.

And then he says it.

The suspicion he hadn’t been able to voice until now. The reason he couldn’t take off the blindfold and confirm this being’s halo. The true identity of ‘the agent who came to Jisan Village.’

“Actually… you…”

When someone goes missing, they naturally become an agent who can no longer be reached. An agent who strangely seems to know far too much about him.

That means…

“Fine. Whatever.”

Baek Saheon pulls his hand away from the tank.

There’s no way he can get an answer right now anyway.

No.

Perhaps he simply isn’t ready yet…

That’s why he says this instead.

“Pay me back later.”

Baek Saheon turns to look at the others.

“If I give you this, you can definitely save him, right? You’re not going to siphon it off somewhere else, are you?”

“No, we won’t.”

In the end, Baek Saheon takes the Dream Collector out from inside his coat.

The project had already started spiraling the moment Kim Soleum went missing, and that was when he deserted it. But since the administrative processing for the collector he’d been issued was delayed and no one ever formally demanded its return, he just kept dragging his feet and never handed it in.

He figured he’d have to return it the moment the project blew up anyway—but he’d calculated that handing it over to the company side might net him a slightly bigger payoff.

And now it had come to this moment.

“…Here.”

He takes out the Dream Collector and plugs it into the dream incubator.

DE 04974100

And so,

DE 05002160

The points had accumulated.

The exact amount Kim Soleum needed to go home.