Chapter 34
It took me a while to dredge it up from the memories I’d been forgetting.
It had been too long since I’d last revisited them.
’Maybe I have seen him before...’
To be precise, it wasn’t that we’d met — just that there was a chance he might know who I was.
’But that doesn’t make sense.’
Then again, it was a long time ago, and I wasn’t exactly the kind of person who left a lasting impression.
Someone like Chairman Cheon-gang probably had talented people crawling all over him.
He was so far above my station that he’d have neither the reason nor the leisure to remember someone like me.
"If you wish, Mr. Han Goyo, I can arrange a meeting with Chairman Cheon-gang."
"The Chairman...?"
"Yes."
Samra looked like he didn’t see what the problem was.
Apparently, if the chairman of a major conglomerate wanted to meet you, you just... met him.
I wasn’t sure if this was the power of the TRA or Samra Mansang himself, but it was surreal.
Either way, I needed Good-Looking. It would be an enormous help if I used it in Clean3.
I’d lost count of how many times I’d wished I’d had Good-Looking back when I played Clean3.
I made up my mind and spoke.
"I’d like to meet him."
"Understood."
Samra stared into space for a moment. He was probably contacting someone.
Light swirled in his holographic pupils.
Watching him, a random question popped into my head.
’How does he go outside?’
He’d probably cover himself up like Je Hyun-oh, but even if he wore goggles, his hair would be a problem. To completely block the holographic light from leaking out, he’d have to wrap his whole head in a cloth or something.
While I was indulging in that useless speculation, Samra finished his contact.
"Lunch in two days, at noon."
"...Can you just schedule something with the Chairman that easily?"
"Why wouldn’t I be able to?"
Samra acted as if my reaction didn’t make sense.
"Right now, there is no one more important in the Republic of Korea than Mr. Han Goyo."
His casual downgrading of Chairman Cheon-gang made me let out an awkward laugh.
He was probably the only one who thought that way.
After finalizing the appointment with the Chairman, Samra quietly looked at me.
"How is your body?"
"I’m fine."
Samra, who had all my physical data at his fingertips, knew my condition better than I did.
Sure enough, the real topic came next.
"I would like to know why you pushed yourself so hard to clear it."
Since there was no reason to lie to him, I answered honestly.
"To become the Top Contributor. I wanted to prove my worth to the TRA."
"Was my testimony not enough?"
"No, that’s not it. Thanks to you, I became a Trainee... I just wanted to be more certain. That was my greed."
Samra stared at me as I hurriedly made excuses, without so much as blinking.
There was silent reproach in his inhuman gaze.
Ever since I entered DeZonDeal, Samra had told me to prioritize myself above all else.
"Mr. Han Goyo, you are a unique existence at this point in time."
Recalling his words, I put on my most apologetic expression.
"I’ll be more careful from now on."
Samra still didn’t take his eyes off me, but fortunately, he moved on to another topic.
"There is something I need to confirm regarding the items you acquired."
I waited for his words with an attitude full of willingness to cooperate.
"Items cannot be extracted from you. Is this an inherent ability?"
"...What?"
But the question was completely incomprehensible.
Item extraction?
I just stared at him with wide eyes at the unfamiliar term, and Samra immediately inferred that I didn’t know and explained.
"The Trial Response Agency extracts items acquired by affiliated Adaptees when they clear a Trial."
This was news to me.
’Extraction...’
How did that even work?
The word felt distasteful, but I could understand it — if you were a soldier, ownership of items would naturally transfer to the state. I could accept that.
’Still, I wonder if you get rewarded for good items.’
There had to be some kind of compensation, given that people like Je Hyun-oh and the Captains risked their lives entering Trials.
Shaking off some of my discomfort about extraction, a natural question arose.
Because it was strange that I hadn’t known this.
I’d learned all kinds of miscellaneous information while playing the Archive’s games. I knew several things that could be considered classified. It made no sense that I hadn’t known something so basic — something even the regular office workers at the TRA would know.
Even if I assumed the Creator had deliberately restricted the information, the reason was unclear.
’Is he hiding negative aspects from the Player? But why?’
It felt a bit lacking as a motive to keep me playing the game.
"I had no idea about extraction at all. Likewise, I don’t know why the items I’ve acquired haven’t been extracted."
Samra’s pupils dilated, then contracted. He seemed to have judged my statement as true based on my physical reactions.
"Extraction failed when you cleared <Happy Smile Factory>. Director Ham Ji-wol wanted to halt extraction for physical data collection when we attempted re-extraction, and I agreed."
And extraction had also failed after clearing <Dead Zone Delivery> this time.
I hadn’t known that.
It must have happened while I was still unconscious.
After finishing his explanation, Samra asked me.
"Will you show me the items you acquired?"
Perfect timing.
This would be a natural opportunity to ask Samra to listen to the music.
I fished the small candy and the cassette tape wrapped in wired headphones out of my inventory and handed them over.
"Happy Smile Candy and a Portable Music Player."
But when Samra received the items, he made a strange expression.
"These are..."
He looked at me as if he couldn’t believe it.
"Bound items."
Items obtained as Trial clear rewards were sometimes bound to the Adaptee. Once bound, only that Adaptee could use the item. But it was extremely rare — there were almost no cases worldwide.
Yet both items I’d acquired were bound type, usable only by me.
Two in a row, at that.
Unlike me, who was flustered, Samra seemed filled with interest.
"True Ending clears and binding shouldn’t be related... What kind of items are they?"
"Ah, well."
Feeling a bit embarrassed, I read him the descriptions written on the items.
"A candy that makes you feel happy and laugh when you eat it, and a music player containing a cassette tape with 666 exciting songs. Listening to the music is said to make you feel joyful."
I paused mid-sentence, about to argue the usefulness of the candy and music player before he could criticize me for bringing useless things.
Samra’s eyes were flashing.
They were glowing so brightly that the small hospital room seemed to brighten.
"Samra, the light in your eyes..."
I said, nearly squinting from the brightness.
Then Samra blinked for the first time since entering the room, and the light dimmed back to normal.
"This is the first time an emotion-affecting item has appeared. There must be a meaning to it."
Samra examined the items carefully for a while, then returned them to me.
Because they were bound anyway, and because I might end up using them inside a Trial.
In exchange for getting them back, I promised to provide Samra with information if I ever used the items.
"And regarding the Creator — I have identified a user who watched his broadcasts and played his games."
"...!"
This time, I was the one surprised by the unexpected news.
If my eyes could glow too, they would definitely have been flashing.
"However, obtaining a statement from this individual is proving difficult, so I am currently exploring various methods."
You could schedule a lunch with Chairman Cheon-gang, but this was hard?
I had no idea who it could be that Samra judged as difficult.
But even if I asked who it was, he probably wouldn’t tell me.
’If he could tell me, he would have already.’
I didn’t ask.
And when Samra asked if I needed anything else, I said no for now.
I only added one request — that once I got my phone back, he make sure no AI-generated videos showed up in my M-Tube algorithm.
I liked watching animal videos when I was bored, but lately there were too many fakes.
After he left, I was alone in the hospital room, staring at the closed door.
’He didn’t ask about my eyes?’
Samra hadn’t asked about my pupils, which had turned gold during the Trial.
I couldn’t tell if he simply wasn’t mentioning it, or if the people who entered with me hadn’t reported it.
Either way, I had no reason to poke a hornet’s nest, so I stayed quiet.
’Let’s just rest.’
Recovery came first.
Until the day of the lunch appointment with Chairman Cheon-gang, Ham Ji-wol visited the hospital room several times.
Fortunately, each time, Samra chased her away using all sorts of creative methods.
The hospital room door would automatically lock. A sudden emergency broadcast calling for the Director would go out. Things like that.
Thanks to him, I was able to focus on recovering without losing so much as a single gram of my fingernails.
On the day of the appointment, Samra came to the hospital room to pick me up.
After changing into the casual clothes I’d been issued, I stared wide-eyed at Samra.
Dressed in a light-colored suit, Samra now had beige hair and eyes.
It was still eye-catching, but compared to his original holographic color, it was practically the look of a model student.
"How did you change it?"
Samra smiled a little at my startled reaction.
"I used an item."
"Wow..."
I desperately wanted to ask what kind of item he’d gotten from which Trial, but I held back.
"Lieutenant Colonel Je Hyun-oh has a similar item."
I grew even more curious, but I couldn’t ask for details.
Because there was a TRA person accompanying Samra. It might be confidential, so I kept my mouth shut.
The place we arrived at in a black sedan was incredibly intimidating.
"Um... Are we eating at... Chairman Cheon-gang’s residence?"
"Yes."
With Samra beside me, who saw no problem at all, I looked up at the Hannam-dong mansion before us.
In my vague imagination, I’d thought we’d eat in a private room at a Korean restaurant, like in a drama.
I never expected something even more pressure-inducing than that.
I stood blankly in front of the gate for a moment.
Then a large van — the kind celebrities rode in — pulled up smoothly.
As the door opened, an irritable voice was the first thing that hit my ears.
"Grandma, what charity project are you starting now?"
A woman in a suit got out, followed by a strikingly beautiful woman who scrunched her face in annoyance as she stepped out of the car.
It was Kang Byeokrin, the fourth-generation chaebol and Chairman Cheon-gang’s granddaughter.
Well-known even among the general public, she was incredibly popular on social media thanks to her outstanding looks.
Though I’d heard her personality wasn’t exactly gentle.
"I told you I don’t do that ’hanging out with commoners’ thing!"
...It seemed that was true.
"If you bring in shabby people and make them work, the results will be shabby too. I’m already in a bad mood lately, and Grandma is going to drive me cra—"
Suddenly, Kang Byeokrin’s words cut off. She’d spotted me and Samra standing in front of the gate.
I tried to greet her first, but I couldn’t.
For some reason, Kang Byeokrin was staring at me with a deeply shocked expression.
She looked more stunned than when I’d run into Je Hyun-oh in the middle of the night.
Kang Byeokrin stared at me as if in a daze, then suddenly jumped and shouted.
"W-wait, hold on! Clothes! I need to change clothes! I’ll be right back. No, come inside. Director Woo, escort the guests!"
Then she dashed into the house.
Left behind, I stood there dumbly, then looked at Samra.
I shot him a look that said, ’This is a disaster, isn’t it?’ but Samra only gave a meaningful smile and added an unhelpful comment.
"It’s going well."
Kang Byeokrin raced up the stairs.
She usually took the elevator to her third-floor space, but she was too flustered for that and sprinted all the way up.
Panting, she caught her breath in front of the door to the innermost room — a room even Director Woo wasn’t allowed to enter freely, let alone the cleaning staff.
Kang Byeokrin grabbed the doorknob with trembling hands.
The door slowly opened, revealing the room inside.
The room was filled with posters, photos, photocard binders, dolls, and all kinds of official and unofficial merchandise.
They were all about one person. The quantity was enough to fill the spacious room, but the variety was surprisingly limited.
Staggering toward the display cases where dozens of identical items were lined up in rows, Kang Byeokrin groaned.
"I’m losing my mind..."
Then, with her face flushed bright red, she muttered.
"Why is Goyo at my house...?"
She was a fan of the pro gamer ’Goyo.’