Chapter 208: Ch 208 Part 1 Finale :D
The iridescent potion ripples in my hand.
The color of Dream Essence.
A potion that grants wishes.
...The instructions are engraved in relief on the transparent glass bottle, and
whenever the liquid inside shimmers like waves, the words are revealed.
I looked into it.
: Daydream Potion :
Wish
EX (miraculous)
Lift the bottle with both hands.
Express your heartfelt wish in a single sentence...
With your eyes closed, drink all the liquid in the bottle at once.
Any wish will come true.
I had already known about these instructions since before.
So I had agonized over it from the beginning.
What sentence should I use?
When using the Wish Ticket, in what single sentence would I express my
wish?
Every time I lay awake in bed unable to sleep, every time I wrote an
exploration report at the office, every time I barely survived a ghost story
and walked home after work, I thought about it.
The very first thing that came to mind was that.
The primal desire.
It was a desperate plea.
But I put it on hold.
’Home’ is too abstract a concept.
It’s not as if there was only one place I’d lived until now. I couldn’t tell by
what standard the Wish Ticket would activate.
If I phrased it wrong, it might even send me to the Daydream Inc.’s
company dorm.
...Even when I was infiltrating the Disaster Management Bureau, the
aversion that made me avoid the concept of ’home’ and move from motel to
– Please send me home.
motel likely stemmed from this.
So I thought again.
I had to eliminate every possible loophole.
’I can’t make a mistake.’
I absolutely must not let the Wish Ticket grant my wish in some unintended
way.
’Please send me back to where I originally lived’? That’s just as abstract.
Rejected.
’Please send me to a world without ghost stories’? There’s no guarantee
that’ll be the world I was originally from. What if I died and went to
heaven? That would technically be a world without ghost stories... Some
insane interpretation like that might happen.
I rejected options again and again, and chose with the utmost caution.
A perfect sentence that could designate time and space precisely.
And I decided.
Clutching the potion tightly in both hands, I opened my mouth and spoke.
"My wish is..."
Right away.
"...To return to where I was the day before I joined Daydream Inc."
To the world I originally lived in, at the point before I spun the roulette at
the popup store.
It was the perfect fit.
– Excellent!
’It’s done.’
Hearing the host’s admiration, I calmly opened the cap of the Wish Ticket
potion.
A burst of light erupted, but I covered it with my hand and closed my eyes.
Then I poured the potion into my mouth.
"...!"
A dream that you drink.
That was the only way I could describe it.
A strange, synesthetic liquid like nothing I had ever experienced slid down
my throat.
Radiance filled my stomach.
An intangible power. Transcendent authority. Overwhelming mystery.
Ecstasy and awe led me forward.
Yes. I am moving!
’Holy...’
My whole body was being sucked away somewhere.
Very deep, very far...
To wherever my wish reached.
It felt like I was traveling to fulfill a long-cherished desire. Transcendent
power was transporting me.
Yes.
Yes!
Just like this, I’m going to return safely to my home...
...
...
...?
"Cough."
I collapsed to the floor.
My body rolled across a dusty, filthy floor and I coughed.
Musty air.
Even when I opened my eyes, there was only pitch blackness. Even
blinking, I couldn’t make out any contours.
Silence.
Stillness.
What is this?
The fantastic sensation was gone. The Wish Ticket had vanished. Which
meant...
This was my destination.
"..."
The blood drained from my head.
I felt numb.
"Ugh."
I struggled, twisting myself off the floor. Sharp fragments scraped my arms
and hands, leaving a stinging pain.
Gasping for breath, I lifted the empty bottle I was still holding in one hand.
The last few drops of the Wish Ticket liquid faintly shimmered.
My surroundings became visible.
...I was on top of shattered glass.
"...!"
When I turned my head, I saw where I had fallen.
An empty glass tube was shattered.
I had collapsed onto the broken glass shards in a dust pit.
’...Why?’
How did I end up... inside this place?
My heart thudded uneasily. Before the ominous feeling could take over my
mind, I desperately tried to make out the silhouette of the device in the
darkness.
It looked like a device for storing large volumes of liquid. But...
...The machine was familiar.
There were no lights, and below the empty glass tube, I saw buttons and a
keyboard panel. An old lab machine, straight out of the 2000s.
That, that’s...
The Dream Incubator.
A broken, shattered Dream Incubator from Cheerful Research Institute.
...
Blankly, I looked around.
My eyes, now accustomed to the darkness, used the leftover shimmer from
the Wish Ticket to finally make out my surroundings.
This place.
This is Cheerful Research Institute’s prototype Dream Incubation Chamber.
"...!"
Something’s wrong.
Something’s definitely wrong.
Why did I end up here?
"No."
Calm down. Calm down. I definitely wished to be returned to where I was
the day before I joined, so why am I here. Wait. No, no it’s not.
"This isn’t the same place!"
It’s different!
Yes. The lab had the same structure, but it wasn’t the same. The silhouette
was strangely different.
Other machines and documents were visible. Even cassette tapes and empty
reagent bottles. And computers, too...
’There’s no dust on the computers.’
...Strange.
I staggered and turned my head. I needed a hint, any hint.
And then I found it.
An experiment log.
"..."
Soaked in blood and filth, all records meticulously erased, only the phrase
’We fell for it’ frantically repeated.
It was there, right next to the shattered glass tube of the Dream Incubator.
Just like how I had found it last time in the Dream Incubation Chamber.
"..."
I walked closer.
The old paper wasn’t soaked with blood and filth this time, but was
browned as if scorched.
With trembling hands, I turned the pages.
There were charred spots, but I could read them.
From the very first page’s title.
I drew in a breath.
Research Objective : Verification for ...’s existence
...incarnation and contract of an external entity into the present
world.
Derived from earlier research, the name of a god worshiped by a
certain cult currently in rapid growth was adopted and used as the
subtitle for this research.
This would be Cheerful Research Institute’s final project.
My heart pounded with dread.
I flipped the pages frantically.
Countless experiment records filled the pages.
Because none of this was registered in any database, the format was
inconsistent, and there were several experimenters.
All sorts of attempts and preparations.
Failure, Dream Incubator #21 discarded.
Failure, failure.
Horrible materials of unknown nature and extreme methods, half-erased,
remained.
Things that were created, summoned, then discarded.
And then.
Success.
Some meaningful result was achieved.
Experiment #316
Essence volume : 1200L
Materials: Qterw-A-4...’s ...dragon, ...-...326, human blood, ...,
and 13 other synthetic elements.
Successfully awakened Ireum-nim’s mind within the glass tube.
Contract failed. Form collapsed within the essence.
Suspected cause : Insufficient essence. Will adjust variables based
on this research.
And then it became more refined.
Experiment #322
Essence volume : 2300L
The awakened Ireum-nim screamed inside the glass tube while and
after ... ... lost all vital signs.
After recognizing the mutation of its own bodily tissue, it rejected the
combined materials, resulting in lumped collapse.
A request was made to adjust the material ratios to prepare a
medium more closely reflecting Ireum-nim’s exact appearance.
Currently confirming Darknesses related to shapeshifting.
My hands shook.
Ominous speculations swirled through my mind.
The experiments continued, the conditions becoming more and more
specific.
The currently confirmed requirements for invitation and contract are
as follows :
1- Preservation of Ireum-nim’s original identity.
2- Erasure of previous emotional attachments.
3- Provision of a survival goal.
4- Removal of all sense of incongruity.
It is believed that these requirements can be fulfilled through a
powerful binding, and various methods are currently being proposed.
And then...
An existing invention from Cheerful Research Institute is mentioned.
It is now a discontinued invention, designed to partially imbue a doll
with the presence of a being from the reverse world, so that it may
serve a supportive role to the contractor.
A limited version is currently distributed as a souvenir in a certain
board game, and this
That thing.
product is called ’Good Friend’.
"..."
I barely managed to turn the next page.
The final experiment record.
Experiment #444
Essence volume : 39,999L
Materials : Same as #443.
Result : Success.
Utilizing the ritual used in the discontinued invention, Ireum-nim was
successfully and fully invited.
... have been imbued. Stabilized.
As soon as the subject awakens, it will be separated from the Dream
Essence and a simple interview will be conducted.
The page ends there.
But.
"..."
When I turned the last page, I saw a torn sheet of paper wedged in.
It looked like it had been crushed and balled up in a hurry, then someone
else had carefully smoothed it out and put it back in the experiment log.
And scrawled over it was more writing.
The previously neat handwriting was now completely destroyed.
Daydream found out. They burst in. It was another trick. Before
Ireum-nim could be taken, I spirited them away and hid them in the
place with the most humans.
Please
The writing abruptly and unnaturally ends there.
And under the words ’place with the most humans’, someone had
underlined it heavily and, in a different hand, written another note.
New employee orientation?
As if deducing from the note.
"..."
It can’t be.
My mind rejected it.
But the conclusion was already clear.
No. There wasn’t even anything left to guess.
It was too obvious.
In answer to my wish, ’Please send me back to where I was the day before I
joined Daydream Inc.’—
I had awakened inside this shattered Dream Incubator.
So, that means.
I...
I was the research subject of this experiment log.
The Good Friend.
Something synthesized, an entity from the reverse world invited by
Cheerful Research Institute, imbued within.
Just like the host ’Braun’ projected into the plush toy.
The consciousness of Kim Soleum, existing in another world, projected into
’something’ created in the Dream Incubator.
...Is that it?
"...No."
No, it can’t.
There must be... must be some other explanation.
What did it say about the binding up above? I don’t qualify for that. I want
to go home. I need to return to my house, to meet my family and friends.
That’s why...
Who, exactly, are those people?
"..."
I can’t remember.
I mean.
I was sure, back when I first joined, that I remembered.
Didn’t I recall the conversations with my parents and friends? And didn’t I
look up contact info, check addresses, search through my records and...
...Did I actually do that?
Or did I just think to myself, ’I checked,’ and let it go?
What exact contacts did I look up, which previous address did I visit?
I don’t know.
I can’t remember.
There’s only this conviction that I did...
"..."
So, does that mean,
This body I inhabit,
Isn’t Kim Soleum?
If the place I was before joining was this place.
If I’ve returned to the place this body was.
If I was made in the Dream Incubation Chamber.
Then am I... not human?
"No."
I looked down at my hands.
[No]
No!
E n o u
Kekekekekekekekekekekekekekekekekekekekeke
My body starts to bulge grotesquely.
The tattoo collapses.
I disappear. The human body falls apart.
The self that has realized the truth rejects the shape of a human body. The
body tries to revert to its original form.
Something unknown, sacred and bizarre, synthesized, bursts forth from
within me.
Scales and horns, hooves, spikes all pierce through my ribs...
"No!"
My voice rings strangely through the space. But there is nothing I can do.
I’ve already disposed of all my items. My tattoo is completely empty...!
N o
At that moment,
I realized it.
There is still one thing left inside the tattoo.
Equipment that’s not mine, something I borrowed.
"...!"
I hastily shoved my mutating hand into my tattoo and pulled out the
equipment.
The Security Team suit.
And I started to put it on like a madman.
My mutating body is forced and jammed back into a human form, held in
place. Strange noises ring out as black smoke envelops my whole body.
In that way, I barely manage to regain human limbs.
I have to run away.
Staggering, I searched for the door to the lab. Yellow, lamp-like eyes
flashed. The light found the doorknob.
Leaning on it, I barely managed to push it open and step out...
There are indoor lights.
"...!"
A normal office hallway.
A scene I had seen before.
’...Daydream’s basement.’
The sergeant had told me about Cheerful Research Institute being in the
company’s underground.
What floor underground is this, exactly?
How do I get out?
’Elevator...’
My head and body feel heavy.
A strange, intense pain sweeps over my entire body.
Dragging my feet, I tried to make my way somehow to the end of the
corridor.
Just then.
– The Cheerful Research Institute... it’s still in our company’s basement... – If you go deeper underground... the same office corridors... just keep
repeating...
"Excellent."
...
"You have strong company loyalty. To think you’d come back."
I raised my head.
Someone in a suit was now standing in front of me, staring straight at me.
An ageless impression, cold and immaculate appearance, a perfectly fitted
three-button suit, dark blue hair...
Managing Director Cheong Dallae.
"Already wearing the uniform, are you. Looking good."
Black pupils stared at me.
"But that’s not the proper uniform..."
I opened my mouth,
But no words came out. It felt as if my vocal cords were crumpled up inside
the suit.
The mad, suffocating sensation grew stronger, more... painful.
"Yes. That seems to be a uniform that makes a human look like a monster.
Is this a new version that’s been developed?"
"..."
"But when a real monster wears it, it’s just a mold that forcibly stuffs the
body in. As you know, there are a lot of programs in society whose efficacy
only works when there’s a contract. That’s how it is."
She declared thus.
"At this rate, you’ll soon necrotize."
"..."
"If you don’t like that, there is another path."
Executive Director Cheong Dallae took out a neat sheet of paper from
inside her jacket.
"A contract."
...
"You just need to sign. I promise you the most humane treatment. You’ll
have a satisfying position... in the Security Team, that is."
Blood started to flow from my body. Blood dripped down my fingers.
"Here."
"..."
"Choose."
I feel like I’m going to die.
My collapsing body is being crushed, and so is my consciousness. I can’t
even stumble forward anymore.
I don’t have the strength to even think of any other options.
A dead end.
"..."
I lifted my trembling hand.
And, with the blood streaming down, I signed the contract.
"Good."
The moment the signing was complete.
My body rapidly began to feel at ease.
As if I were wearing perfectly fitting clothes, as if I had fulfilled a promise,
as if just the right amount of water had been poured into a cup.
A sense of peace and unfamiliar power spread through my whole body.
And... more than anything, a clear binding.
"..."
I looked at my superior.
"From now on, you’ll be entrusted with a very important position."
And just like that,
I started working for the company once again.
〈 End of Part I 〉
goblin notes:
You guys. You guys holy shit what did we just read
Damn??? Like????? No words, literally. I can’t think of anything.
I mean I know it was heading there, all the signs were there, I could see the
vision (the novel’s title itself, the Name, all the foreshadowing!)... But
still?? I was so caught off guard I didn’t think BDS-nim would actually take
us there ??!!
I’m so excited for the second part!