Chapter 81
Chapter 81
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 81
Chapter Title: The Clock's Owner
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Too much information floods into my head.
It's that unpleasant feeling, like the teacher barreling ahead with the lesson while I grasp nothing.
No, it could be even more unpleasant than that.
The barcode reader sparks and belches heat, as if it's fulfilled its duty, but my head burns even hotter than the device.
"It's definitely talking to me."
But that narration, as if it's a message from me to myself, is hard to comprehend.
After all, didn't it say the experiment to revive the protagonist failed?
This game's protagonist is Shin Jin-seong, and Shin Jin-seong is me.
So maybe the message the narrator meant to send himself was the one I uncovered?
I hoped for just a little more information, but as it dragged on, the deteriorating mind probably made it impossible to provide enough.
"Shop, what do you make of it?"
It's tough for me to fully understand everything that machine said, but you should ditch that self-centered notion that you're the protagonist.
If you're not trapped in narcissistic thinking, you can spot the contradictions that crop up if you were the protagonist it mentioned.
I've only just started mulling it over, so a closer look will reveal tons of holes in my reasoning.
For now, let's assume you're the protagonist from that record.
First off, the record said the protagonist's revival failed.
So what are you?
The Shop laid out the current situation with crystal clarity.
And the record mentions the protagonist possessing a clock.
Do you have a clock in any form?
Hah!
You, who suffered without taking a clock to the library—what clock could you possibly have?
"...Yeah, that's true."
The Shop's point holds water.
Which means the protagonist in that record was never me to begin with.
Next, then.
Assume the protagonist refers to someone else.
Then most of the story lines up.
The protagonist failed to revive as a 'tale' due to the experiment's failure, so they wouldn't wield any special influence.
"Then we can't know what really happened to the protagonist."
Exactly.
If that account is true, it makes sense to view you as the narrator himself.
"Kinda feels that way."
I'd like to believe it, but inconsistencies with what I know keep popping up, so I can't say for sure.
Hell, I have no way to confirm if I even existed in that past history.
If this is a new history—if I was only possessed here now—then that message has zero connection to me.
But going by feel, I probably existed back then too.
"What the hell was I in that past history?"
Was the record's narrator me, or some other figure?
Who does the protagonist refer to, and did that experiment actually succeed?
Or is it all just the ravings of a completely unhinged mind?
Hmm, better not go there.
If so, everything I've investigated so far turns to dust.
Besides, the latter part seemed like sanity returning.
Roughly piecing it together, at least in that past history, I viewed someone else as the protagonist.
I knew that protagonist, spent time with them, and tried to turn them into a tale—probably the 'Merchant.'
And I was the one who altered history too.
"Why did I try to change history?"
From the record, it looks like the world teetered on the brink of annihilation.
Or maybe it already had.
"Agh, this is complicated."
Either way, no difference—we still need to track down that 'clock' from the record.
"Wall clock, grandfather clock, all sorts of types. But if the 'protagonist' has it, maybe a pocket watch?"
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Tae-jun's unstable condition brought on sudden fatigue, leaving him unable to leave A-ram's house.
With her permission and the kids warmly welcoming him, he had no choice but to claim the living room sofa.
The moment morning light broke, he stepped outside.
A faint echo of his old door phobia stirred an odd sensation.
Regardless, the sky stretched clear, as if every cloud had been swept away by the wind.
Sunlight filtered through the leaves, showering nutrients on the ground below, and Tae-jun set foot upon it.
A-ram trailed beside him.
He'd told her there was no need to follow, but she countered with his condition and tagged along anyway.
"The kids are at school anyway, and I've been off work lately."
A-ram smiled at his words, saying how could he possibly go into the office like this.
"So, where are we headed now?"
Tae-jun couldn't answer her question easily.
It wasn't some classified spot he couldn't share; even he lacked a clear destination.
He was simply putting into practice the proverb: the early bird catches the worm.
"I'm not entirely sure myself."
"...Pardon?"
"To be honest, there's no particular plan..."
"Then let's just wander around for now!"
"Huh?"
Before Tae-jun could respond, A-ram grabbed his arm and plunged into the commercial district.
"If there's no plan, isn't checking out a bunch of places better?"
The streets brimmed with shops—more than stray pebbles on the roadside—buzzing even on a weekday morning.
Surrounded by crowds already, the atmosphere thrummed with energy.
"How about we try that one?"
A-ram's fingertip pointed to a modest fortune-telling shop squeezed between larger stores.
"A fortune teller?"
"Yeah, I've always wanted to give it a shot. Nothing else to do anyway—maybe it'll turn up something."
After a moment's hesitation, Tae-jun decided to go along with her suggestion.
He'd been curious to try it himself once, and as she said, who knew what they might glean.
Inside the shop's eerie ambiance sat a grandmother with snow-white hair and a face etched deep with wrinkles.
Beneath her gleamed a crystal ball straight out of fiction, refracting blue light and conjuring illusions of a fantasy realm.
Tae-jun, who had pictured tarot cards, couldn't help but feel thrown.
"Um...?"
As A-ram broke the ice, the fortune teller slowly raised her head.
"Hoo..."
A warm, kindly voice filled the shop.
"What fortune brings you two young folks here?"
Caught off guard and without a ready answer, the pair hesitated, prompting the fortune teller to chuckle mischievously.
"Shall I read your love fortunes?"
"Ah, no!"
A-ram flailed her hands in surprise, and the fortune teller's grin stretched ear to ear.
"Hoho, that was a bit much. So, what fortunes do you want?"
As A-ram floundered, Tae-jun found himself speaking unbidden.
"I want to find the owner of the clock... Wait, what did I just say?!"
Tae-jun recoiled in shock, backpedaling to ask something else, but the fortune teller brushed it off.
"Clock... you mean the wristwatch in your pocket, angel? What a bizarre ordeal you've endured."
"H-How do you...!"
Tae-jun was too stunned to close his mouth.
As profound doubts swirled about whether fortune shops were truly this uncanny, he caught A-ram's equally aghast expression and realized just how abnormal this was.
This has to be a tale.
That was Tae-jun's verdict.
Yet he had zero gear on him to handle a tale right now.
"That's why you had to seek out a fortune teller... Hey? What're you standing around for? Sit down already."
Wooden chairs sprouted abruptly from the floor.
Tae-jun grappled with how to handle this.
Even solo, the outcome was uncertain—and now with a civilian like A-ram in tow.
"A-ram-ssi, let's sit for now."
"Okay..."
One key lesson from the Tale Management Bureau:
When you can't accurately assess a tale, follow its lead first.
Tae-jun had no options.
"Now, place your hand on this crystal ball. Just the young man."
Tae-jun couldn't shake his wariness.
What if touching it sucked him straight into the orb?
But for a man unacquainted with fear, dread was a fleeting thing, like a breeze passing by. Slowly, he extended his hand over the crystal.
"What I'll show you is your future, young man. So pay close attention."
The crystal ball emitted a faint glow, then drew Tae-jun inside.
Not just his mind—his physical body was pulled in.
An end that matched his fears all too perfectly.
"Tae-jun-ssi! N-No!"
The last thing he heard was A-ram's scream.
Eons seemed to pass, his mind's edges blurring into haze.
When his consciousness formed a vast sea, a tiny ripple stirred its surface.
"Tae-jun-ah, I'm... sorry."
"I've never believed a word you said from the start? How long are you gonna keep apologizing?"
"The world turned out like this because I stole your place. If I hadn't been there... that messed-up sky wouldn't exist either."
"You're out of your mind. Protagonists don't exist in the real world."
"..."
"Snap out of it. I don't know how long we can hold out, but we have to live as long as we can."
"Yeah..."
The two walked beneath a blood-red sky.
And a single phrase whipped waves across the sea of his mind.
"Jin-seong-ah, let's live. Survive—and use your knowledge to turn the world back."