Chapter 239
Chapter 239
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 239
Chapter Title: The First Monad
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1
Today's episode will unusually take the form of lining up several riddles.
No, in fact, from a distance, my tales have always been close to that form of enumeration.
Not a perfect omnibus, but something like a half-omnibus format.
In that sense, this episode could be likened to an 'omnibus within an omnibus,' a story within a story, an epilogue within an epilogue— a monad reflected in a monad.
So please enjoy the riddles to the fullest.
2
The first monad.
First, I'd like to tell you a ghost story related to the 'Ice Age.'
As you all know, the Ice Age monster was quarantined on the internet.
We filmed it with a video and sealed it away in a secret post on SG Net.
But with monsters, you can never relax just because 'the seal is complete! We've defeated it!' In the classic anime School Ghost Stories, the mother-daughter exorcists had to keep rolling generation after generation because they didn't know this lesson.
On the other hand, I, the Undertaker, a self-proclaimed professional, the world's top monster expert.
I always kept in mind that maintaining sustainable quarantine after sealing was the truly important part.
"Hey. Bro."
Therefore, I had long ago ordered Seo-gyu to continuously monitor the Ice Age's secret post.
Seo-gyu, who had received that mission, came to me one day with a slightly troubled look on his face.
"What's up?"
"It's not anything major, but didn't you lock up that Ice Age thing or whatever on SG Net last time? The one where you filmed a romance with the Management Corps Leader..."
"For starters, the Management Corps Leader and I didn't film any romance—it was all just the monster distorting and editing the footage. But yeah. We locked it up. So what?"
"Well, this... I think you need to come see it yourself, bro."
I went to check.
I haven't really talked about Seo-gyu's work environment before. So let me explain it now.
Seo-gyu's workshop was, in a word, identical to a 'Chinese knockoff factory.'
Hundreds of smartphones were scattered across the table. All logged into SG Net.
Each smartphone screen displayed a monster subjected to 'secret post quarantine.'
The volume was turned down as low as possible, so faint that ordinary people might not even notice, as the monsters let out their death cries.
-Ah ah ah ah ah.
-Hero, if you're reading this now, it means you've safely returned home. Even if you lose all your memories, we are impressed by your noble wish to go back to your original world...
-This is a photo of a cat lying on a white bed.
-Anyone want to talk Three Kingdoms with me?
No need to hide it.
This tiny workshop was none other than the cyber monster prison.
Monsters that needed physical sealing were transferred to the prison in the basement of the National Highway Management Corps headquarters, but otaku monsters that couldn't distinguish reality from fiction were all imprisoned on SG Net.
In some sense, the nickname 'Special Warden' suited Seo-gyu better than 'Fucking Bullshit Guy.'
After all, as the owner of SG Net, Seo-gyu was the warden supervising more monsters than anyone else in the world.
(There was a reason he stayed holed up in his base like a totem instead of wandering around outside.)
"Hmm."
I glanced around the cyber prison. Each smartphone was like a solitary cell for the monsters.
"Is this the feeling of a scientist gazing upon the brains of the masses?"
"Pardon?"
"Just mumbling to myself. So, did the Ice Age cause some problem?"
"Ah. Look here..."
Seo-gyu picked up one smartphone and showed it to me. On the screen tagged 668-711, the familiar [Surviving the Ice Age] documentary was playing.
It happened to be the scene where No Do-ha, the Management Corps Leader, and I were kissing.
It was utterly embarrassing, but it was just malicious editing anyway.
Since the people appearing in the video were mere actors in the monster's play, not real individuals, I ignored it calmly.
"What's the issue?"
"No, don't just glance over it casually—look closely, bro."
"……?"
I was a bit flustered. Had this guy lost his mind? Was he telling me to focus on watching the kiss scene between the Management Corps Leader and me?
"Not the content. The video length. Doesn't something seem off?"
Thankfully, black幕 syndrome was still far off, and Seo-gyu hadn't gone mad.
He was actually spot on.
The length of the video playing in the SG Net secret post was, as Seo-gyu said... a little strange.
"Hmm?"
I furrowed my brow.
'Was the kiss scene... originally this long?'
The flow of time was different.
The original [Surviving the Ice Age] was a series consisting of Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, each about 20 minutes long.
A total of 1 hour of footage.
Within that, the kiss scene between the Management Corps Leader and me was at the very end, a finale barely under 30 seconds.
But what was this? In [Surviving the Ice Age. Monster Edition], no matter how long I waited, the kiss scene wouldn't end.
"...Did the video get longer?"
"Yeah. I checked it multiple times. See, the timestamp on the video says 20 minutes?"
Seo-gyu pointed to the screen.
"But when I actually played it, it was 24 hours, not 20 minutes."
"What? 24 hours?"
"Yup. It ran non-stop for a full day. I confirmed it twice before coming to consult you, so it's definite."
"……."
I rested my chin on my hand.
'24 hours is 1,440 minutes. The original 20-minute video length ballooned to 1,440 minutes—72 times longer?'
It didn't make sense.
"...You said you checked it twice. Any other changes?"
"Well, since the video got longer, the content changed in places too. Hold on. Let me turn up the sound a bit. Ah, here. Bro, play this part..."
Seo-gyu rewound the video.
In that section, Yoo Ji-won had No Do-ha cornered in a wall slam pose.
It might be surprising, but Yoo Ji-won was much taller than No Do-ha. So on the surface, it looked quite intimidating.
-Management Corps Leader, ma'am. That last operation was my sole decision, but it was an unavoidable sacrifice.
The Yoo Ji-won in the video... that is, the role played, directed, filmed, and edited by the Ice Age monster, spoke.
-If you had given the order, ma'am, it would have weakened the survivor group's leadership. So I took on the bad cop role myself. No regrets anywhere.
-Hmph. A human full of regrets says that so glibly. If that's the case, shouldn't the operation team leader lead by example and join the mission first...?
-I am irreplaceable personnel.
-I don't see it that way...
-……
A chilling atmosphere somehow formed between the two roles.
I blinked.
"...There was no scene like this originally, right?"
"Nope."
Seo-gyu nodded with a tired expression.
"For reference, there's also a scene where the Saintess and the Management Corps Leader fight. Bro, I didn't show you that one because the vibe was way too intense. My stomach's been upset for the last couple days."
"No, what the... This isn't just edited footage—it's like they straight-up recreated it from scratch with CG?"
"In this video, the days spent trapped in the Ice Age seem to have stretched from 3 days to dozens."
I pressed my forehead.
'The video length extended arbitrarily. And to make it feel [natural] with the new length, the content edited itself automatically.'
Why?
I couldn't figure out the cause.
It had happened simply because the video was placed in SG Net, a 'virtual reality.'
"...Excluding the weird video length and content, no adverse effects on reality, right?"
"Yes. Definitely."
"Then let's put it on hold for now."
It felt a bit off, but emotions weren't important.
Either way, what mattered to me and us was reality, not some video trapped in a secret SG Net post.
――But even after that, the bizarre incidents related to the documentary didn't stop.
"Bro."
"What?"
"That... video. It's gotten weird again."
A while later.
The video [Surviving the Ice Age. Monster Edition] had evolved into [Surviving the Ice Age. Monster Director's Cut].
"This time... the length is a whopping 72 days each. All three combined exceed 200 days."
"……."
"The quality's gotten a bit hazier too. Look at the video border here, bro. The smartphone screen has doubled up."
It seemed like every time the video within the video expanded, the total footage length increased by 72 times.
"...Like I said last time, as long as it doesn't affect reality, it's not our concern. From now on, no need to check the content specifically, Seo-gyu."
"Yessir……."
Seo-gyu looked somehow guilty.
"But now Dok-seo and Sim A-ryeon appear in the video too. Like, since the isolation at the Statue of Liberty dragged on so long, external aid arrived or something?"
"Hmm."
"I didn't watch it all, just skimmed parts, but apparently the Ice Age spread beyond Sinuiju, wiping out the whole Korean Peninsula. Other places started freezing too."
"……."
"Hearing it makes it feel like real events from reality, which is creepy. Anyway, like you said, bro, I won't watch anymore."
I didn't know the principle, but the Ice Age monster quarantined on SG Net was truly conquering the world within the video.
The time scale of the world being overtaken by the Ice Age expanded rapidly. From 60 minutes to 3 days, from 3 days to 216 days.
So what if it filmed one more [expanded edition]?
'...Over 15,000 days.'
About 42 years.
In the world blanketed by the Ice Age, my party, including me and No Do-ha, would have to survive over 40 years.
Even if we survived that, what next?
Only time bloated to 3,000 years awaited. It was nothing short of despair.
'I don't know the cause.'
But I could predict the outcome.
'The Ice Age monster isn't satisfied with the size of a mere [60-minute world].'
The virtual reality was approaching true reality. At an alarmingly fast pace.
'...From 3,000 years, times 72 again. Then 72 more times. If it keeps multiplying by 72, eventually it'll approach a timescale worthy of calling itself a world.'
And sure enough.
When I secretly visited the monster prison next and peeked at the smartphone holding the Ice Age.
-Whiiiii.
No more human voices played on the smartphone screen.
The Statue of Liberty buried in snow, rotting away.
My corpse, eyes wide open in death. No Do-ha's body, hands overlapped with mine, quietly reflected in the camera lens.
-Whiiiii.
The camera didn't move an inch anymore.
It simply filmed the two long-frozen dead bodies. Only the white noise of a blizzard poured from the speaker.
That was the scenery of annihilation.
"...I quarantined it for mistaking the virtual world for reality, and it ended up conquering the virtual."
-Whiiiii, th, th, th.
My mutter was soon buried in the snow noise and faded away.
The pure white noise faintly sounded like the monster's mad laughter.
-Human, I am satisfied with this.
This was the first piece of the puzzle.