Chapter 105
Chapter 105
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 88
Chapter Title: The End of the Eternal Dream
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It felt as though I'd dreamed a profoundly ancient and interminably long dream.
A fleeting confusion washed over me, blurring whether this place was still part of the dream or true reality. But ultimately, this was reality.
Before my eyes lay the squad leader, Do-hyun, and my old friend Hyeok Tae-jun, all unconscious.
It was proof of my enlightenment.
Or perhaps, more literally, my awakening.
The memories forged in an instant from eons of time were chillingly cruel and crushingly heavy, yet somehow I'd endured them.
"Ha... haha."
It started with hollow laughter.
I'd harbored immense resentment at being possessed by this uncertain entity called a tale, but in the end, it was a story I'd created myself.
"Ha, hng... hngh..."
But the laughter didn't last. It soon gave way to a deeper emotion—sorrow.
The hardships of my past life splintered into various feelings, but it seemed sorrow had filled its vessel most completely.
Still, there was no time to cry.
I had work to do.
The story I'd crafted wasn't over yet.
Realizing this truth was merely part of my scenario.
According to my own script, the outer god's curse had already begun.
I had to thwart that evil deity's incursion, complete my mission, and fulfill my responsibility.
"Yeah... doing things alone just doesn't feel right."
Among the vast memories embedded in me were recollections of time spent with the headquarters chief and Hyeok Tae-jun.
It felt like a massive void had been punched through my chest, as if all those moments had vanished in a blink.
But there was no need to worry.
After all, I'd written a happy ending for myself too.
I stuffed the wristwatch—the trigger that had revived my memories—into my pocket and pulled out the key hidden inside instead.
This key led to the shop.
It should have connected to the backrooms by rights, but this was a promise with the shop.
There was one more promise I'd made with it, too.
"Well, maybe I can't call it the shop anymore."
I gripped the key tightly and twisted it forcefully.
A door materialized in midair, swinging open naturally to link this space with that one. I stepped through.
⚙ SHOP NOTIFICATION ⚙ Merchant, you've returned. A familiar yet somehow novel red window—unchanged after what felt like half a year—filled my vision.
"My name is Shin Jin-seong. Call me that."
⚙ SHOP NOTIFICATION ⚙ ... The atmosphere's changed a bit. How'd you spend such a boring time in there? Or have you just grown weary of your own life? "No, it's not like that."
⚙ SHOP NOTIFICATION ⚙ Whatever, not my concern. More importantly, business has piled up. Your personal quests kept us from trading, didn't they? "...Well, now it's time to end this role-play anyway."
⚙ SHOP NOTIFICATION ⚙ What did you just say? I ignored the shop's question and headed into the bedroom.
The opulent bed in the bedroom, and beneath it, the mysterious core embedded there.
But now I knew its name.
The current chief researcher of the Tale Management Bureau—or originally, the leader of a certain residential complex.
This was the core of the device Mun Woo-seok had created.
And the reason it was embedded here was...
⚙ SHOP NOTIFICATION ⚙ You, what are you planning to do right now? "Because of a contract I made with the angel. I'm here to fulfill it."
⚙ SHOP NOTIFICATION ⚙ Wait, stop! Didn't I tell you last time? If you just yank that out like—! I pulled out the core.
And at that moment, the window before my eyes froze, displaying an intense message: "Mira."
Rumble—
The sudden friction echoed, signaling a shift in the space.
The 30-pyeong area once known as the shop crumbled and reformed.
The ceiling parted, revealing an endless sky and its radiant light pouring down toward me.
"My contractor." "The time to fulfill our promise has come." The ancient curse once bound to the bureau—the angel—manifested.
"Long time no see."
Indeed, so it seems.
Savior, you might think that way.
But to me, a year is less than a human second—barely a blink.
"Ha, not sure if you even have eyes."
Perhaps think of it like the metaphors humans often use.
I reminisced on the past—or more precisely, the future.
Back when I was spinning tales from the deep underground, I felt limitations in my story.
No matter what, I couldn't find a path to an ideal ending.
So I made a contract with the angel I once despised.
This was also why the bureau's power in the current world had weakened abnormally.
Because I'd taken the angel, that asymmetric force, for myself.
I am the angel, proxy of the divine.
The fabricated time you created as the shop was quite ideal for understanding humanity.
"Is that a compliment?"
Hm, yes, it wouldn't be amiss to call it high praise.
The time I spent with you as the shop held that much value!
I'd asked the angel to become the shop for me.
The angel granted my wish, perhaps out of whimsy or a desire to intimately understand human emotions.
I'd love to try it again sometime, but that core is best kept far from me.
Losing the past isn't ideal for a tale.
You could say it's like you losing your story—my holy power lost its brilliant glow as a result.
"Yeah. Besides, we won't be doing this again anyway."
But shoehorning the angel directly into the tale would've strained plausibility, so I had to suppress it. The result was the shop.
And it seems some changes happened to me too.
The shop's personality has merged with mine.
Quite amusing.
"Chitchat's over. Time to start our final transaction."
Ah, yes.
Savior, as you know, this deal requires a hefty price.
When I was the shop, your assorted body parts covered it, but this time, that's not possible.
"I know. I know what I'll offer as payment for this deal."
I looked around.
This cathedral-like space felt oppressively confining instead of grand.
"Right. I'll offer Yoon Seo-yeon's body as the price."
I'd wanted to inflict eternal agony on Yoon Seo-yeon, a pain so deep even death wouldn't come.
Now that my memories were restored, that urge gripped me even stronger, but the future mattered more than personal vengeance.
If Yoon Seo-yeon were fully alive, it would've sufficed as payment, but her state was far from survival, no matter how you sliced it.
You must know that too, but do you really think it can serve as the price?
"No, but her corpse comes with my responsibility attached. Nothing could be heavier."
A price is subjective.
If I had trypophobia, losing a finger might feel like a reward.
Thus, Yoon Seo-yeon's death... is a price greater than anything else to me.
It's an insult to the headquarters chief and a mockery of my own vow.
Haha. Well, fine. Since it's a deal with my contractor—my friend—perhaps I can be generous.
"...Thanks."
"Now, I shall fulfill the transaction." "Targets: Park Se-jin, Kim Do-hyun, Hyeok Tae-jun, Mun Woo-seok, and Seo Kyung-sik. Correct?" "Yes."
Good.
A vast light bathed the world.
That warm glow symbolized both the final chapter of my tale and hope itself.
I simply embraced that gentle hope with my entire being.
"Your wish is granted." ◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "Ugh..."
"Squad leader... are you okay?"
"Haa, seems like it."
The three who'd been knocked out by Shin Jin-seong began to stir, one by one.
They weren't unscathed, but not immobilized either.
"That damn mercha—"
As always, frustration bubbled up, urging curses at the merchant—but something felt off.
"Shin Jin-seong..."
Park Se-jin's utterance of that name froze the air.
"I... I remember who Shin Jin-seong is."
Park Se-jin said it plainly, and the other two silently nodded in agreement.
What was Shin Jin-seong's wish?
Simple: to restore their lost memories.
This held two key meanings. First, he needed their help for the plan. Second, it was atonement toward them.
"Merchant... no, but how on earth..."
They each recalled their vanished pasts, but their remembrances differed.
Park Se-jin, who died before the apocalypse hiding everything, saw Shin Jin-seong as the coward who'd concealed it all.
Mun Woo-seok, who'd viewed him as his successor who surpassed him, remembered his heir.
And Hyeok Tae-jun, the only one who'd witnessed the end...
"Hahaha! Jin-seong, you did it!"
Remembered his friend, who ceaselessly strove to fulfill his duty.
Then came the elevator's mechanical chime.
I thought it might be the response team arriving after sensing something, but no.
Stepping out was the Tale Management Bureau's headquarters chief, Seo Kyung-sik.
"..."
The chief was hard to read at the best of times, but now his emotions were nakedly obvious—even a child could tell.
He was crying.
It didn't suit the man who'd steadfastly guarded the bureau.
Seeing that human side left Park Se-jin merely bewildered.
Mun Woo-seok grappled with the rift between past and present; the chief's arrival only deepened it.
Only Hyeok Tae-jun approached him.
"Headquarters Chief... no injuries, I hope?"
"I'm fine, not a single ache."
The chief smiled as he spoke.
"Let's go help Jin-seong."