Chapter 148: 148

Chapter 148

Jackson responded.

“I’m here in order to find the Eastern Star. It’s one of my main scenarios.”

“The Eastern Star?”

Jackson shared most of his scenarios, clear methods, and monster-killing methods. The Great Explorer Jackson was a VIP in every country, and his information was essentially public property of humanity. He was a paragon and a hero who offered everything for the common good.

‘I don’t remember a scenario called Eastern Star.’

The Jackson now, in the beginning days of Playing, vs. the Jackson I knew. There was definitely some kind of difference between the two. A difference that had nothing to do with my existence as a regressor.

“Would you be willing to tell me what that is?”

“Sure, since I have a good feeling about you.”

Jackson’s explanation wasn’t complicated.

“…So you’re saying this ‘Eastern Star’ is a type of king candidate?”

“Yes. I don’t know what a king is yet, either.”

This Jackson was searching for a ‘king’. He was different from the Jackson I knew. I couldn’t look at him with Eye of Perception right now—he was being protected by a special power.

“If it is alright with you, may I inquire about your class?”

“My class is [Exploring Baptist].”

The class Jackson said he had in the past was [Exploring Pilgrim]. Did the Jackson I knew lie, or was Exploring Pilgrim the higher level of Exploring Baptist?

Baptist.

Pilgrim.

They were words in the same vein.

‘What puzzle piece am I missing?’

I couldn’t figure it out.

“Since I’ve revealed my class, could I also inquire about yours?”

“My class is…” I looked around once. “Observing Sovereign.”

It was seven parts truth, three parts lie.

‘Though if you really nitpick, it does seem like three parts truth, seven parts lie.’

In any case, it wasn’t really a lie. I was an observer, and at the same time, I fulfilled the role of a sovereign.

“Observing Sovereign… It sounds like a great class. Somehow, I get the feeling we will meet again.”

Jackson dipped his head towards me, but then, something seemed to suddenly occur to him.

“Ah, right. Do you happen to have an artifact related to a ‘king’?”

“An artifact related to a king?”

I did.

[Ancient Crown]

It was the reward I got from clearing the Early Adopter scenario of the Gwanghwamun Dungeon.

“I don’t.”

“I see.” He asked me another question. “Is there perhaps a crown in the future you see?”

At that moment, I was overcome with that strange feeling of déjà vu again.

‘He specifically asked about a crown. What does this mean?’

I made it very clear. “There is definitely no crown in the future I see.”

There was a crown in my past, but not in the future, so this wasn’t a lie.

Eye of Perception sensed some kind of energy.

[Detecting a foreign energy.]

It definitely belonged to Jackson. He was probably trying to verify the truth of my words. I spoke the truth. I had a crown in the ‘present’, but there was no crown in the future I knew and saw.

“I see. I understand. This has been truly instructive.”

The déjà vu disappeared. With a good-natured smile, Jackson said, “I intend on exploring the Gwanghwamun Dungeon. I will contact you if I come across any good information. Could you give me your number?”

We exchanged numbers. And with that, I established a “hotline” with the Great Explorer himself.

* * *

Back inside the car, Sunhwa was long asleep, and I fell into thought.

‘In this world… there are things I didn’t know.’

The government’s duplicitous announcement regarding the Six-Tailed Fox.

The unknown beings who were cultivating Predator Trees.

A Guardian who wanted the Red Eyes, as well as the Blood and Iron Queen Song Junghye who wanted them as well.

And even my machine-determined evaluation of ‘No Talent’. Little by little, I was uncovering things that were different from what I knew. No, to be more precise, they were things I didn’t know.

On top of that, the Great Explorer appeared in Korea.

‘He definitely seems like an Irregular, but he doesn’t have the mark of one.’

It wasn’t all that unusual that a Ranker and skilled Player of his level, a person who was praised as the Hero of the World, was an Irregular.

‘But that Irregular feeling is…’

I couldn’t be sure, but—

‘It’s similar to the feeling I got from Seohye’s Red Eyes.’

It was subtly similar, but not. So subtle that if I hadn’t personally met and observed Ahn Seohye when she had the Red Eyes, I wouldn’t have been able to feel it.

‘It is similar in feeling to the Red Eyes.’

I had neither evidence nor reasoning. Just feeling.

I decided to base my judgment on the assumption that Jackson from the future came to the Gwanghwamun Dungeon at this time, too. Big currents in time wouldn’t change unless someone forcefully diverted their path.

‘The Eastern Star…’

A king candidate.

‘This timeline’s Jackson is here.’

But the future Jackson never said he was in Korea before. He even pretended he couldn’t speak Korean.

‘Something’s fishy.’

I didn’t know what it was, but I decided to be suspicious for now. Why did the future Jackson cover up the fact he Played in Korea before?

‘Even though he revealed all the high class info he obtained.’

Why?

‘There was either a matter in Korea that he absolutely had to hide, or… the [True Scenario] he’s doing takes place in Korea.’

It was possible the strategies and info he shared were extremely useful and outstanding to other people, but to Jackson, they were meaningless. Therefore, he publicized the ‘meaningless’ information and kept the information he ‘truly needed’ to himself.

‘It’s still just an inference.’

I couldn’t rule out the possibility that the ‘past’ and the ‘present’ may have really changed. I decided to keep every theory open. While lost in thought, we arrived home.

We had cleared the Gyeonghoeru field a ton. I decided to rest a little.

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* * *

The currently 14-year-old— soon to be 15 years old—Song Jinchul threw his game console. The device cost a whopping $6k, but that didn’t matter at all to him.

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“Ah seriously, so boring.”

Right on cue, he heard footsteps outside his ‘Gaming Room’. He couldn’t see who was outside the door, but he knew who it was.

“Ajumma! Come in for a sec!”

TN: Ajumma is the Korean word for married, middle-aged woman.

She was one of the countless housekeepers working at his house. He didn’t know her name or her age. A housekeeper was simply a housekeeper.

Sure enough, a woman in her 40s came into the room, her back respectfully bent.

“Please excuse my intrusion.”

“Get rid of all of this. Ptui!”

Jinchul intentionally spat all around him. The woman took out a rag from her pocket and wiped away the gobs of saliva, as if such an incident was an everyday occurrence.

“Ah seriously, so frustrating. Who the hell is that Kim Hyukjin? Just who the hell?!”

Before, his grandpa’s attention had been his, and his alone. His mom and dad were dead anyway. His older brother and sister were duking it out for the succession of the company. Jinchul didn’t give a rat’s ass about the succession choice. He only needed his grandpa’s love and attention.

To make matters worse, he heard his older sister say, “I’m gonna go meet that Kim Hyukjin guy.”

His sister going out to meet someone in person wasn’t a common occurrence. Normally, people came to meet her, not the other way around.

‘The oldest, my brother, is interested in him. The second oldest, my sister, is interested in him too.’

Not just grandpa, but even his brother and sister both showed immense interest in Kim Hyukjin. To his young eyes, his brother was almost entirely converted to ‘Team Kim Hyukjin’. Kim Hyukjin? Who the hell was he? Was he more amazing than their Sungshin?

“Ajumma. Answer me.”

“Yes, Young Master. Please go ahead.”

“Is Playing that amazing?”

There was a manual in place for the housekeepers. She answered mechanically.

“I apologize, Young Master. I’m not sure.”

That was all she had to say. It wasn’t a conversation. Just inputs and predetermined outputs. The pay was way higher than other places, so she simply endured and worked in silence.

“I’m wondering if I should just go and Play, too. Should be a lot more fun than these shitty games.”

In the future Kim Hyukjin knew, Song Jinchul didn’t have much interest in Playing. It was dangerous and annoying, and he already had money and fame. It was his opinion that he should just live his life using plenty of the money he had.

That was why Song Jinchul ended up taking his talent plate exam with a scowling face when Kim Hyukjin was 25, so when Jinchul was 19. And it just so happened that Hyukjin’s result came out as 67 at that time.

“It’s just cause I haven’t tried, but if I do it, I’m gonna be fucking awesome at it. You think so too, right?”

“Of course. You’re great at everything once you set your mind to it, Young Master.”

His ruffled feathers smoothed by those words, the first year middle schooler Jinchul waved his hand, saying, “Enough, go on out.” He firmly resolved himself.

“This won’t do. I’ve gotta go do that talent plate exam or whatever it’s called.”

His foray into Playing was moved forward by five years. Yet another small change began to occur due to Kim Hyukjin’s existence.

* * *

A weird rumor was going around the DMC Riverview Xi.

“No idea. I think some rich madam bought them all up in one go?”

“I hear they offered way more than the market price.”

“It’s because our DMC Riverview Xi’s status and value have skyrocketed.”

“But even so… isn’t it a little weird that six goldilocks apartments were bought in one go? I heard the gross price was $1.5 million each, $1.2 million before taxes.”

“You’re right. No matter how you think about it… six apartments getting sold when we’ve only got sixty in our complex is definitely strange.”

It was just a rumor, but word was going around that someone purchased a bunch of ideally located apartments for $300k more than the market price. The previous owners were charmed by the big numbers and immediately vacated their homes.

“And I hear all their moving fees were covered.”

“In any case, our house prices should go up a lot, too.”

“Whatever it is, it’s good for us.”

About half of that was the truth.

Floor 14, room 1: the Poison Witch Cheon Sooji.

Floor 14, room 2: the Taeguk Shield Song Kiyeol.

TN: Reminder that Taeguk Shield is the name of the guild as well as the moniker of Song Kiyeol.

Floor 15, room 1: Kim Hyukjin and his family.

Floor 16, room 1: Jo Sunghyun and Choi Sung-gu.

Floor 16, room 2: So Yoohyun.

They ended up moving in like that. Hyukjin’s new condo was the largest in the complex, 200 sq. meters.

There, Hyukjin conversed with Song Kiyeol.

“Mr. Song Kiyeol. I hear you’ve bought a condo on the 14th floor?”

“I figured there had to be a reason a person who could see the future specifically picked this place, so I just bought one.”

“By giving $300k more than the market price?”

“Yes. I took care of all the expenses, including the moving expenses.”

“Sungshin is indeed rich.”

But even for Sungshin, it had to be quite the hefty sum.

“It’s on the small side for an investment on the company level. Normally, an investment of several hundreds of millions is standard.”

“And how come Miss Cheon Sooji is here?”

“She has always wanted to come here.”

“Did the Guildmaster tell her that I would be moving here?”

“Not quite. Because this investment was made by Taeguk Shield, it was something Sooji could not help but know.”

Hyukjin thought back to his encounter with Cheon Sooji in the elevator. She slipped him a piece of paper, whispering, “This is the passcode to my house. You’re welcome at any time, even at night.”

Of course, he ripped that paper to pieces.

“I don’t intend on moving in myself. I only purchased one.”

Kiyeol was talking about buying a condo like buying groceries at the supermarket. It was as hard as ever for Hyukjin to understand the way chaebols thought and operated. In any case, six of the top Rankers from his past life ended up moving into the DMC Riverview Xi. Cheon Sooji and Song Kiyeol were also Rankers, after all.

A ‘1st generation Player town’ was developing before him.

Hyukjin called his party members for a meeting. Joining them was Ahn Seohye, who wasn’t a formal member of the party.

“Good work moving in, everyone.”

The issue of their new living arrangements wasn’t important. The more important topic was coming up.

“As you all know, we need to keep clearing the Gyeonghoeru field. As tedious as it is.”

But they couldn’t bet their lives on just the Gyeonghoeru.

“Sunhwa. You’re still doing what I told you to do before, right?”

Before he went into the Gyeonghoeru field for the first time, Hyukjin asked Sunhwa to do something.

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“Of course! Here. This is what you’re talking about, right?”

As the party members, Sunhwa took something out. Sung-gu’s eyes went round.

“Hmmm? What’s this? It looks expensive!”

____

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