According to Ha Saetbyul, it all started during the Happy Happy Comment Squad days.
“You and our nurse asked us right…? You know, to cheer for our Goddess. Uhuhu…”
Back then, BM brought in dozens of network devices and had asked them to manipulate the comment section. But even then, the 30-man special force agents didn’t think much of Kaeul. They were just following the nurse’s orders.
“We didn’t know her face nor her name. We were just following our mood, repeating good words…”
Yu Jitae could still remember the things that happened after that. A video of Kaeul taken by Bom had been sent to his device.
‘Nn? What’s this? Why are you taking a video of me?’
‘It’s a Q&A.’
Kaeul had her hands on her cheeks and was acting cute, but widened her eyes after hearing the words, Q&A.
‘Can you try introducing yourself? What kind of person are you, Kaeul?’
‘Hmm, I’m…’
Bom asked who she was, where she lived, the food she liked and so on. Throughout the video, Kaeul replied with a bright smile without any sign of falsehood.
When BM played that video, Kaeul’s tweeting voice as well as her refreshing smile replaced the somber mood of the underground labyrinth. Seeing the unpretentious voice of honesty, wide smiles were revealed on the faces of the agents.
‘What do you think, Kaeul, about buff superhumans?’ Bom asked, before showing her a picture of famous superhuman bodybuilders. They were around 2.5 metres tall and their bodies were covered with explosive muscles!
‘Uwah…! They’re so cool!’
‘Are they?’
‘Nn! It would’ve been super hard to make their bodies like that right? I think they’re super, outrageously amazing…!’
‘I see.’
‘And my mum liked people with good bodies as well!’
The special force agents that were watching the video shown by BM, felt their happiness increase by twofold.
“Hmm…”
“Kuhum…”
“She is cultured indeed…”
“Kukuk…”
Whenever they smiled, their arms and traps twitched. Regardless of gender, their faces were showing dark smiles.
“Miss Kaeul was it…? She’s a good, pretty child…”
“She’s precious and cute… she’s like my daughter…”
“She really is like my daughter. If there are people badmouthing her, I would like to have a chat with them in real life…”
“Santos. Don’t you only have 3 sons?”
Santos smiled benevolently in response to someone’s doubt.
“It happened last year. My first child is no longer a son.”
“You mean…?”
“It is possible to have acquired daughters.”
“Ouh god…”
“T, That’s a joyous occasion indeed…”
In any case, the 30-man special force agents became more active in writing positive comments after coming across the video. And soon, Kaeul’s name and face gradually began inertially being attached to their lives.
There were two factors that caused people to move inside the underground labyrinth. One was a strong desire for improvement that controlled the subconsciousness, which was the reason why the special force agents were crazily addicted to exercises.
And the other factor was the inertial actions of life.
“Hmm… Mister Nurse. Could you please give us a picture of Miss Kaeul?”
“…What?”
“Her cute face continues to hover inside my head. I feel that we’ll be able to exercise better if we see her face.”
BM was dumbfounded.
He deliberately didn’t show pictures of their family members to the special force agents, because it would be troubling if they wanted to suddenly leave before the mental contaminations were cured.
However, Kaeul’s pictures should be fine. So BM took a few still pictures from the Q&A video and printed them out for the agents to keep.
“They are here…!”
When Ha Saetbyul opened the door of the gym, scorching heat gushed forth. “Guaah!”, “Chwaaa!” Even during the day, the agents were swinging metal poles as if they were crazy.
All around the gym were pictures of Yu Kaeul, as if she was a celebrity.
In fact, one of the lockers was filled with those pictures.
“Whose locker is that.”
“It is mine. Dear Doctor…!”
Kuhuhu… laughing like a drunkard, the large Mestizo woman came to his side. She was the boss of the special force agents, Bell Baryon.
According to Ha Saetbyul, there was an incident which caused Kaeul’s popularity, which had already been on a gradual increase, to increase to a massively explosive level.
It was none other than Bell Baryon’s SBD 20,000 incident.
“Before, my records were 4826 kg bench press, deadlift 7210 kg, and 7452 kg squat… For over 4 years, I couldn’t cross the SBD 20,000 level because of 600 or so kilograms.”
Bell Baryon’s two large fists shivered.
“The problem is clearly because my two arms are that weak… In order to become stronger, I tried zealously for years… Others did increase faintly, but I just couldn’t bench press 5000… It was times like this that made me frustrated for being born a woman, with weak arm strength…”
Now, even her arms began shivering and for some reason, Ha Saetbyul’s arms also trembled. Her powerless gaze had fluttering madness within.
“But, that day, I was saved… I don’t know why but Goddess Kaeul looked for me in my sleep… Puhuhu… And then she smiled after seeing me…!”
“…”
“That’s when I realised that it was time…! 1 rm. The weight I was going for was 5400 kg… It was 574 kg above my previous record…! It would be enough to crush my bones and kill me if I couldn’t press it…! I was scared…! But I called out the name of the Goddess…! Right, like this…!!”
She opened her large mouth.
Yu– Ka– Eul–!!!
Her thunderous shout shook the gymnasium. The agents who were each in a trance with their barbells were surprised, but soon went back to their exercises while shouting after her.
““Yu Kaeul!!””
““Yu Kaeul!!””
““Uaaahhh–!!””
Shatter–!
All the mirrors that were inside the gym shattered. Their yells were so loud that it made even Yu Jitae frown.
“What’s all this about!”
In surprise, BM ran into the gym after opening the door and shouted.
“You’re killing me with this noise, you crazy beings! Be quiet!”
He returned after scolding the patients. The special force agents were disheartened.
Yu Jitae knew of a similar phenomenon. Ogres, would be enraged by the death of their comrades and enter a status called [Berserk Mode]. They weren’t all that different.
“Kuhum… What a damn strict nurse. In any case, like that, I reached SBD 20,062 with the body of a female…!”
“Ouuh! I get emotional whenever I hear this…!”
“Our boss reaching SBD 20,000…! Goddess…!”
“Damn it…! Goddess Yu Kaeul, please look after this poor old lamb…!”
“Gyaaaaak…! I also want to hit SBD 7,000…!”
It seemed that throughout that process, Miss Kaeul had become Madam Kaeul, before eventually being called Goddess Kaeul.
Although he was dumbfounded, he thought to himself that it was possible because this was in the underground labyrinth. They were mental after all.
Going around the inner room, he looked for traces of Kaeul and it wasn’t that hard. All the new rooms including ‘cafeterias’ and ‘laundries’ were filled with Yu Kaeul’s portraits.
Among them, there was a container block which had nothing inside but a portrait hanging on the wall. It had a gloomy atmosphere, and there were candles burning inside it.
Where was this place? To his doubt, Ha Saetbyul smiled.
“It’s the prayer room.”
He didn’t know what to say.
***
Today’s dinner was Korean-style braised beef ribs.
He bought it from outside.
The salty and savoury scent of soy sauce filled the dining room. After having their share of rice, they cleaned the bones by eating everything that was attached to it.
“Gyeoul. Try this as well.”
“…What is it?”
“It’s a potato; very delicious.”
“…!”
“Uwah. The meat’s super tasty. Hasty. Pasty. Face tea…”
“Nas…”
“Un? Nas, what?”
Their rustling voices reached his ears. While blankly staring at the kids eating their food, Yu Jitae looked at Kaeul.
A question appeared in his mind. How did gold dragons go on Amusements in a place other than Earth, like in Askalifa?
-… The gold race can immerse themselves in the emotions they feel, more so than what is required.
He reflected on what Bom said in the past. ‘Excessive immersion’ was a characteristic of the entire gold race, and wasn’t limited to just Kaeul.
– They empathise to an extremely deep level with the emotions they feel. As if they become that person.
He hadn’t ever been to Askalifa, nor was he able to. The dimension was way too far.
However, if that was a place inhabited by ‘humans’, it was natural for someone to hold hostility against a gold dragon. And if it was that dangerous, the gold race wouldn’t send their hatchlings to the human world for Amusements.
In other words, it meant the gold race was sending their baby dragons off because it wasn’t dangerous even if someone held hostility against them…
“Yes?”
After the meal, he asked Bom.
“I’m not too sure, but the gold race are guardian deities right? They send a message beforehand, saying, ‘My daughter is going on her Amusement. Please take good care of her.’”
An adult dragon probably wouldn’t word it that nicely. ‘Take care of her, if you don’t want to die’ would be more accurate.
“What happens after that.”
“After that, the royal palace sends someone to welcome us. They probably protect the dragon and help from the shadows so that only good things happen to them.”
Bom gave a faint smile.
“If you think about it, our existence is actually quite the nuisance for humans.”
It was his first time hearing such words from a dragon.
“However, Askalifa is a world with many problems. Dragons act as deterrents of wars, block the gap between the world and the outer dimension, and help sustain the natural cycle… well, we do those things for them.”
Is that so.
After listening to that much, Yu Jitae was able to find another perspective to the matter.
Perhaps, the problem laid not with Kaeul, but with the media and the internet.
In the previous and even in the current iteration, he thought the Gold Dragon was the fundamental problem causing this situation.
Her feeble heart added to the excessively immersing characteristic of her race was the factor resulting in her death. Those things were outside his control, so he stopped Kaeul from standing in front of other people, no matter what.
But the fact that gold dragons could enjoy their Amusements in Askalifa, meant that it was fine as long as their ill thoughts did not reach her directly.
If that was correct, the target he was to be mindful of was not ‘Yu Kaeul’, the one with the glass mentality of a mola mola, but the ‘media’ which could easily convey hostile thoughts of a stranger from the corner of a room.
There was a joke among the high rankers of the past. It was that the internet was scarier than S ranked monsters.
It was possible for them to notice S ranked monsters even if they were sneaking up to them, but they had no way of noticing the person next to them swearing about them on their device.
Mana was the manifestation of will. It was the desire to achieve something acting as an invisible force, but electric transmissions were sent from electrical devices that had no desire.
Since electricity itself contained no desire, superhumans were only able to faintly sense it going to and from, and had no way of knowing the content of the message without special equipment or artifacts.
That was the reason Yu Jitae was unable to notice Gyeoul unknowingly pressing on the upload button of the video. At the same time, that was also why Yu Jitae of the seventh iteration, who had the power to stand against the entire world, couldn’t control the media.
“…”
The Regressor quietly thought to himself.
According to this hypothesis, there were two solutions that would positively affect Kaeul.
1. Restricted relationship with a selected few that had no hostility against her.
2. An environment without the media.
The second option was impossible as long as Kaeul was on Earth. But what about the first one then.
“…”
It seemed the seventh iteration so far hadn’t been meaningless. The everyday cause and effect which he couldn’t even think of due to being immensely distant from daily lives, was slowly being shaped inside his head.
It felt quite nice, like a tiny and cramped coffin had been cleared up.
Yu Jitae went to Kaeul’s room.
“Kaeul.”
“Yess?”
“Should we make a video message.”
“A video message? To whom?”
To your religious fanatics.