The Beginning of Doubt 1
"Man, aliens sure have it easy. They took all the good jobs."
"Quit whining and go find a part-time job, then."
"The best I can do is dishwashing at some restaurant. Even part-time work is just dead-end crap with no future."
"Human beings should be grateful they even get that much."
"Whose side are you on, the aliens'? Are you with the Flowers? The Ants? The Reptilians?"
"...What are you even talking about?"
As I sat on the living room sofa, scratching my balls like I had all day to waste, my half-sister — not a drop of blood related to me — shot me a look of pure disgust and swept past me.
The world had been destroyed by an alien invasion.
Half of Europe and the United States had vanished, and most of Southeast Asia was underwater.
My father had died in the war, and this was a second marriage, so that was that.
Now the war was over and peace had finally come.
South Korea hadn't suffered the invasion directly, but since the world had ended, getting hired anywhere had become even harder, and the days I spent unemployed just kept stretching on and on.
I was nervous as hell about not finding a job, but what the fuck was I supposed to do?
If I stumbled into some half-assed little shithole company, I'd just be wasting my time anyway.
Part-time wages were better, if you thought about it.
I turned on the TV.
A lizard was sitting on a plush sofa, being interviewed.
A pretty announcer leaned forward and handed the microphone to the lizard-man with a coquettish smile.
By now, the pure-blooded Reptilians didn't even bother hiding their faces in human skin anymore.
Reptilians.
They were the ones who had stopped this latest alien invasion — self-proclaimed friends of humanity, and the very reason we were still alive.
The announcer parted her lips.
- Hello, Doctor. You said that 80 percent of the famous historical figures over the last ten thousand years were Reptilians. Is that true?
- Ha ha ha. It is true. Including the pure-blooded Reptilians, you could say they're all half-blood descendants with our blood in them.
The lizard's pronunciation of Korean was so good it was almost unnerving, and everyone was hanging on his every word.
- Albert Einsd was a quarter-Reptilian too, and the famous businessman Mark Jukebox is 1/16 Reptilian, as well. This isn't exactly news, is it? Just by looking at someone, you can usually tell whether they have Reptilian blood or not.
Those vertically slit eyes of his gleamed.
Even with that disgusting Reptilian face, the announcer squirmed in her seat and tried her best to curry favor with him.
- You mean the big-eyed, skinny, glasses-wearing... honor student look?
- Yes, that's right. That's what the top students in a class usually look like. Children with that kind of appearance are extremely likely to have Reptilian blood mixed in. For tens of thousands of years our blood has been woven into humanity, so naturally Reptilians have intermingled with humankind. It's the same principle as finding Black genes in White blood.
- Ahhh... I see!!
"No wonder. I always wanted to beat the hell out of the kids who studied too well."
I clicked my tongue.
- The so-called junk DNA, sometimes called noncoding DNA, is really just the genes of us Reptilians.
What a smug little lizard bastard.
And how had it come to this?
During the Third World War, that bastard American president, Robert Drum, had leaked all the UFO information... and aliens had used that as their excuse to invade.
And not just one alien race, either. Several of them had come at once.
Earth had been invaded by aliens and was on the verge of destruction.
And the ones who put a lid on the crisis were the Reptilians.
The Reptilians had been living among humans for tens of thousands of years, like cockroaches slipping in and out of the cracks of civilization.
And what made it even more fucked up was this: these Reptilian bastards, who behaved like patients with autism, had monopolized the positions of human genius and privilege.
All the famous company owners and chaebol heads were Reptilian hybrids.
At the very least, quarter-bloods or one-sixteenths.
It was fucking disgusting.
Basically, it meant all the people in power were either Reptilians or descended from Reptilians.
They had lived with humanity for so long that their genes had mixed in, making them impossible to tell apart by looks alone.
You could go through life and never even know you were a Reptilian hybrid.
Unless you had a Reptilian blood test, there was no way to know.
Honestly, once you thought of autism as the symptom of Reptilian genes misfiring, it wasn't all that surprising.
- If it weren't for us, humanity would have been destroyed. We mediated the war. Ha ha ha.
The lizard's long snout somehow made even that nonsense sound polished.
Reptilians who retained their full lizard-like appearance were royalty.
The pure-blood Reptilian royal family stood at the very top of this pyramid called Earth.
Reptilians, and the Reptilian hybrids carrying their blood, had somehow become humanity's ruling class, while ordinary people like us became wage slaves, grinding away at jobs.
It's been proven that the people who built the pyramids in ancient Egypt weren't slaves, but employees of the era.
Employee = slave.
Anyone who tried to deny that equation was no different from bragging about how big the iron ball chained to their ankle was.
"What? A Reptilian's being interviewed?"
My younger sister sat down beside me, crunching on potato chips.
She had a pretty strong grudge against Reptilians too.
"Those lizard bastards took all the good jobs, anyway."
"The investor who put money into Mom's company was a Reptilian too."
"Really?"
I stretched out my hand toward her chips, but she twisted her body away and guarded her snack like a dragon protecting treasure.
"Buy your own."
"Just one."
"...Fine."
A half-broken shard of potato chip.
Crunch.
Salty. Pretty good.
My sister was watching the TV with laser focus.
She'd come back recently after getting plastic surgery, and she'd gotten ridiculously pretty.
She used to hate shows like this. What the hell's gotten into her?
I turned my eyes back to the TV too.
The announcer smiled brightly and asked another question.
- How exactly did you mediate the alien invasion? Could you explain that part in detail?
The lizard eyes staring into the camera widened and flashed.
- The war between the hive species and parasitic species, the Flowers and the Ants, wasn't a war to invade humanity. It was a civil war they fought using Earth as their stage.
- Wh-what? You mean it wasn't an invasion, but their civil war?
The announcer looked genuinely shocked.
It was news to me too, so my ears perked up.
- Both the Flowers and the Ants are parasitic species. Without human hosts, they're nothing. If you look closely, it was the hosts — the humans — who were the real participants in that war. Humanity nearly got wiped out because of their stupid fighting. If it weren't for our intervention, humans would no longer exist.
The lizard leaned back into the sofa and smirked with all the smugness in the world.
His face twisted into something that might have been a smile.
- The Flowers and the Ants agreed to a cease-fire and decided to live quietly, mixed in among humans. The two parasitic species agreed not to reveal their identities to one another and, just as we Reptilians have hidden quietly alongside human history, they would respect human culture and live among us.
"Then why the hell are you deciding that? Since when did you get to hold a gun to their heads and make the call? Tch."
The Flower and Ant species were body-snatching alien parasites that lived by stealing human bodies.
Since they were born enemies, they fought wars using human bodies as vessels, and in the end they started a nuclear war.
Two in Europe, two in the United States, one in China, five in Southeast Asia.
That was when the Reptilians stepped in.
With their superior science, they neutralized intercontinental ballistic missiles and prevented nuclear war, all while acting like the saviors of humanity — and then, after all that, they stopped hiding their identities and took their seats among the ruling class.
But the problem was—
"How the hell are we supposed to know if some Flower or Ant is sneaking around in a human body and stealing it? Jesus."
- What happens if they subtly body-snatch a human? That's the thing we humans fear most.
The gorgeous announcer asked the Reptilian doctor the exact question I'd wanted to ask.
- As you know, both species are hive minds. A hive mind is a collective that shares the same information, like ants or bees. Think of it as a kind of hive-mind structure where the mind is one, but the bodies are many.
- Ahhh... I see. A hive mind...
- Just a moment. Let me show you actual Flowers and Ants.
With a gesture from the Reptilian lizard, two beautiful women stood side by side at his feet.
Each of them wore something like a helmet on her head.
Other than the helmets, they looked like ordinary human women — extremely pretty ones, at that.
- This one here, Miss Ayoung, is a Flower. And this one beside her, Miss Jiyoung, is an Ant. They're sisters, but unfortunately, they're already dead. What you see now are alien parasites living inside their bodies. On the outside, they're indistinguishable from perfectly normal humans.
As the lizard introduced them with a sweeping motion, the beauty wearing the helmet parted her lips.
- Hello. My name is Kang Ayoung. I am a hive of the species called "Flower," or "@#!@#@!###."
- Hello. My name is Kang Jiyoung, the biological younger sister of Kang Ayoung. I am a hive of the species called "Ant," or "@##!!!!!@##."
"Jesus fucking Christ, even their pronunciation is impossible. Those alien bastards."
The high-pitched noise they made when introducing themselves grated on my ears.
There was no way to render the names of their species in human language.
So they were called Flowers and Ants.
Monsters who killed humans, ate through their bodies, and lived that way.
Crunch.
My sister kept eating potato chips next to me, watching with absolute focus.
The Reptilian's eyes flicked around and he went on.
- You can see the machine worn over their heads, can't you? See the numbers here?
When the Reptilian in the white coat pointed at the helmets, the beautiful announcer stood up to check the numbers.
- Yes, it says 999,900? And the Ant side says 999,912.
- That's right. Those are the numbers of human bodies they've stolen. We built the machine to calculate that total. Each species has agreed not to exceed one million.
The announcer nodded.
- One million humans... so the Flower and Ant species each have access to a total of two million human bodies?
- Exactly. That's only 0.2 percent of the surviving human population.
- And if they go over that number?
- We're monitoring them. The moment they exceed it, that species will no longer be allowed to live on Earth. We have a hold on their weakness.
The sight of the lizard laughing heartily sent a chill through me.
At some point, Earth had become a planet ruled by Reptilians.
Knowing the Flowers and Ants' weakness, but still choosing not to wipe them out and live alongside them — that was practically a complete disregard for human beings.
"Damn it. Those Reptilian bastards. Who the hell decides which human gets their body stolen?"
That was the problem.
There was no separate way to stop yourself from being taken over.
"Whether it's Reptilians, Flowers, or Ants, you can tell they all look down on humans."
- Doctor, is there any way to tell if a human has had their body stolen?
It was the question I'd been wondering about too.
The lizard gave a snort and rolled one shoulder.
- Would there really be any need to tell? They'll use the host's memories to live as if they were the host. Perfectly. Even their own family won't be able to tell. Just as we Reptilians have lived among humans for over ten thousand years and made their lives better, these hive species could connect the brains of a million hosts and create new innovations. They could make something that surpasses AI.
The announcer looked shocked.
So did I.
These Reptilian bastards wanted to use the hive species to create something.
Have they gone insane?
Just as the Reptilians had lived among humans for tens of thousands of years and raised Earth's scientific level, they wanted to use the Flowers and Ants to create new innovation.
They're saying they want to use humans as multi-thread CPUs, aren't they?
- And the new innovations they create will make life even better for humanity. Humans are, after all, endlessly fragile. Humanity itself is just another kind of hive that can't survive without microorganisms. It was us Reptilians who made the heads of Neanderthals, Homo sapiens, and Denisovans smart. Just as our genes mixed to give rise to modern humanity... humans, too, will live in a new age of evolution with the Flowers and Ants.
"Evolution my ass."
I shot to my feet.
Weak humans.
It was just the fate of humans being used as hosts that enraged me.
And since there was no way to tell who was a host, they were basically telling us to go on living like nothing was wrong.
"Oppa, don't go outside and curse out the Reptilians. You'll get arrested. And don't leave nasty comments on message boards either. People get arrested for that stuff these days."
"I know. Jesus. I'm pissed. And I still can't even get a job."
What really screwed with my head was the fact that I had no way of knowing who was a Flower and who was an Ant.
Monsters that ate through people's insides.
On the outside, they were completely human, and they lived by thoroughly acting out the role of the person whose body they'd taken, using the host's memories as their script.
Whirr—
I was in the bathroom pissing.
"Close the door when you piss! Jesus!"
My sister's shouting voice.
"Hey! Sit down when you piss, you splash all over the place and it stinks!"
"I'm the one who cleans the bathroom anyway. Jesus. Have you ever even cleaned with bleach once?"
I stuck my middle finger out through the bathroom door.
Black mold was already blooming again between the tiles in the bathroom.
"Fuck, mold is such a pain in the ass. Ever since those Flower bastards showed up, it keeps coming back way too often."
Grumbling, I cleaned the bathroom with bleach.
Cleaning the mold was entirely my job.
Whether there was mold or not, my stepmother and my sister never seemed interested in cleaning at all.
"Can't you see this filthy crap? God, this is so annoying. Why does mold keep coming back so often?"
After scrubbing it down with bleach, I searched for it on a community board.
How the hell was I getting mold every two days?
It was suspicious beyond suspicious.
Maybe after the Flower invasion, everyone was dealing with this sort of thing?
[bathroom, mold, every two days.]
One result caught my eye.
A post asking the exact same question I was asking.
[Title: Mold keeps appearing in my bathroom every two days.]
I clicked it, and it said, "This post has been deleted by the administrator."
Why the hell would the admin delete it?
Something was off.
This board was a den of evil where they let you freely insult your own parents, so why would this be removed?
Suspicious.
I knew how to recover deleted posts.
What kind of place is the internet? It's a terrifying place where every post is saved somewhere.
There was a site called the Wayback Machine.
That site backed up every piece of internet information uploaded, day after day.
Using the Wayback Machine, I checked the link to the post again.
[Title: Mold keeps appearing in my bathroom.]
[Content: There isn't even enough moisture for mold to grow, and I keep cleaning with bleach, but mold still shows up every two days. Is there anyone else with a similar problem? I have one theory, though. Back when the Flower invasion happened, stuff like this was happening a lot, right? Could it be because of the Flowers? I'm starting to suspect my family.]
yep (191.12): Flowers grow in moldy environments. Something similar happened to me too. But posts like this get deleted right away.
yep (55.21): The reason mold appears is obvious. Something is spraying mold around, so of course it shows up, idiot.
yep (68.32): If there's a Flower in your family, stuff like that happens.
Original poster: Fuck... that's what I was suspecting too. I think there might be a Flower in my family. My mom. She suddenly got so nice!
yep (68.32): Act like you don't know. You'll get killed.
Original poster: Wait... killed? Even if it's family?
yep (68.32): My friend had something similar happen and told me about it, then suddenly jumped off a building. He had no reason to die either. If there's a Flower or an Ant in your family, just pretend you don't know. You'll end up dead.
yep (211.23): Have you ever seen an Ant or a Flower eat bugs? They fucking gobble up cockroaches and eat them, I swear. Crazy bastards.
Thud.
My heart felt like it might burst.
The comments and all the information from the deleted post had been backed up on the Wayback Machine.
"If there's a Flower in your family, stuff like that happens."
That line stuck in my mind.
To be honest, I had already been wondering if my stepmother and younger sister had changed.
It sounded ridiculous, but...
My stepmother, who used to give me nothing but cold leftovers, had started making warm meals and eating at the same table with me...
And my sister, who had always treated me like shit, seemed a little kinder lately.
"Could this shit... be real?"
I started checking the deleted posts one by one on the Wayback Machine.
There were quite a few interesting deleted posts.
[Title: I think my family is Ants.]
[Content: KOSPI to 10,000, let's go! Ants, let's go!]
I skipped over garbage troll posts like that.