Chapter 14
Chapter 14
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Dial TV for You
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Dial TV for You" wasn't a popular entity. No one liked this random safe entity that only had a 1% chance of being helpful each turn.
[First report: Dial TV News for You resumes broadcasting after five years. The main station had been stored away in an old rural warehouse with zero viewers, but it has successfully returned to the world thanks to Mr. Lee (25) from Gyeonggi Province.]
Popularity was directly proportional to wiki scroll length, and Dial TV's info was so pitiful it was basically just what had already been mentioned.
'Sometimes the entity creator supplements the wiki themselves, but that didn't happen with Dial TV.'
Maybe they made it on a whim and luckily got picked up.
Or during their indie days, they got offered entity creation as a reward for sponsoring a game, but had no ideas so whipped something up.
Or maybe that really was all there was on the wiki.
But once this entity became real, it was far more three-dimensional than I knew.
[Accordingly, Dial TV staff extends our thanks to Mr. Lee (25) on this occasion.]
For example, there was no direct description of it having a sense of self like this.
The announcer on the screen looked right at me and gave thanks. The face with only a mouth and ears was grotesque, but the voice and delivery were as polished as any real broadcaster.
'In the wiki or game, it was just mentioned as giving prophecies through news... way more interesting than I thought.'
I sat on the sofa, brimming with anticipation as I watched the news.
[Second report: Tomorrow, a seven-headed serpent known as a childu-sa will appear near Chunui Mountain. Double-headed serpents are born from mutations with a 1-in-100,000 chance, and their survival rate is extremely low due to the deformity. If doubles are rare, childu-sa go without saying—the odds of birth and survival are next to miraculous.]
The news predicted future events as casually as a weather forecast.
[But this childu-sa overcame the odds magnificently and has made its home under the umbrella-shaped rock midway up Chunui Mountain, living there for three years now. The academic world can't stop marveling that it's an albino, which is disadvantageous for survival in nature, yet it's still alive.]
Chunui Mountain midway, umbrella-shaped rock, albino childu-sa.
I jotted down a summary of the news in the notebook in my head.
[Third report: U.S. pharmaceutical company Olden & Switz has succeeded in developing a diabetes cure. They began development ten years ago and will complete final clinical trials in a week, applying for FDA sales approval, then receive final approval a month later and supply the cure worldwide.]
U.S. Olden & Switz Pharmaceuticals, diabetes cure success in one week, sales start in one month.
[Fourth report: In two weeks, a shop in Seongnam will sell some incredibly delicious donuts. We've sent a reporter to try them early—take a look. Reporter on site?]
The screen switched to a person with a microphone for a head.
[Yes, reporter here on site. I've come to this Bongcheon Donut shop in Seongnam because they're selling some incredibly special donuts. Boss, what makes these donuts special?]
The screen showed the donuts and the owner. Neither looked special.
[Well, for our donuts, we don't use ordinary glutinous rice! We grow our own glutinous rice, starting with water made from ice shipped directly from Antarctica!]
[Whoa! Really!?]
[Yes! We grind that rice into flour, and for the dough, we use water from melted Arctic ice!]
Footage of the Arctic and Antarctic appeared.
[But that's not all! To enhance the nutty flavor of the glutinous rice flour, we dry natural monument longhorn beetles into powder and mix them in! But that's not all! For health, we add water steeped with dried wild ginseng! But that's not all! For delicious and healthy frying, we throw in abalone, pufferfish, pollock, and sea cucumber in the oil! Fish oil that's good for taste and health, glug glug glug!]
Various seafood flashed by in footage.
[But that's not all! We dry plucked human fingernails and toenails into powder and dust them on the donuts! But that's not all! For the finishing touch, we finely chop human liver and coat it instead of sugar!]
[Whoa! Amazing! What's the meaning behind that?]
[Human nails and toenails represent the past that person has lived through. We dust them on like a garnish of memories, and human liver has symbolized life since ancient times, right? By garnishing with liver too, we catch both nostalgia and vitality!]
[Looks so tasty, but sadly I have no mouth to eat it with.]
[Hahaha!]
[Hahaha!]
"......"
Was this a prophecy? Or did Dial TV make people do that?
[Final report!]
I couldn't tell. For now, I just noted down the news.
[Mr. Lee (25) from Gyeonggi Province will be trapped in a horrific dream in one month. The producers staging a grand show in the dream plan to kidnap 99 ordinary people, including Mr. Lee, and host a battle royale where they fight to the death in the dream.]
Footage appeared again.
[Everyone bands together to resist the producers, but unfortunately, amnesia infused in the dream makes them forget who they are, turning into mere actors who slaughter each other in a gruesome spectacle.]
It was my ID photo.
[The winner is Mr. Lee (25), but the producers like him so much that he becomes a professional actor, forever trapped in the dream.]
One month from now.
[That's all from your announcer for Dial TV for You.]
I fall into an eternal dream.
There's a thing called a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The theory that hearing a prophecy and acting to avoid it ends up making the prophecy come true.
"Is Dial TV's prophecy a self-fulfilling one? Can it be avoided?"
To find out, I started verifying the news items one by one.
'Here it is.'
First, I climbed Chunui Mountain.
"Excuse me, could I ask you something? Is there an umbrella-shaped rock midway up Chunui Mountain?"
"Yeah, just head up that way a bit and you'll see it."
"Thanks."
As I reached the midway point, sure enough, there was the umbrella-shaped rock just like the hikers said.
'Looks just like a parasol.'
I waited until the hikers thinned out, then checked under the rock.
"Found it."
There was a white snake with seven heads, flicking its tongue in rage at the intruder in its home.
"Come here."
I quickly grabbed it and put it in the sack I'd prepared.
'Albino childu-sa, huh. This'll make good material.'
On the way home, I stopped by a pet shop to buy a reptile case and food.
"You'll live with me for a while."
I fed it, chatted with Mr. Sin from the association, and passed the time until the text I'd been waiting for arrived.
"It's ready."
A message that my stock account for U.S. stocks was set up.
'Olden & Switz Pharmaceuticals.'
The company existed. Stock price: $1 per share. Unbelievably cheap for a pharma company.
'Need to look into this more.'
Checking overseas news, internet articles, and founder info revealed why it was so cheap.
[U.S. Powerball Winner Olden Garrison Takes $340 Billion Lump Sum.]
[Powerball Winner Olden Garrison Establishes Pharma Company.]
[Olden Garrison: 'My mother passed from diabetes. I want to be hope for diabetics.']
[Olden Pharma in Financial Straits, No Results in 3 Years.]
[Olden Pharma Merges with Switz Pharma, Renamed Olden & Switz.]
'No major achievements since founding.'
But in one month, everything changes.
I considered buying stock right away but held off since I had other things to do.
"I need to spend some money."
As a precaution, I broke up the gold bars in the basement and sold them at various gold dealers over days in small amounts—no one should notice.
"Next stop: Moran, Moran Station. Doors open on the left."
Finding Bongcheon Donuts wasn't hard.
[1/5 stars, tastes like absolute shit. Hard to make donuts this bad.]
[1/5 stars, ate this and succeeded at my diet! Lost my appetite for a month straight, couldn't eat anything else!]
[1/5 stars, was a bread lover but this turned me into a rice guy.]
It was famous for its Google and Naver ratings.
'Here it is.'
From afar, Bongcheon Donuts looked ordinary. But up close, a fight was breaking out inside.
"You old fart! You're not going!"
"I'm telling you, it's real! Don't you trust your husband?"
I hid by the shop window and eavesdropped on the argument.
"That's a load of crap! Going to Antarctica? Cut the crazy talk!"
"I had a stroke of genius! Inspiration for the ultimate donut! First step is getting Antarctic glacier ice!"
"What lunatic makes donuts with melted Antarctic ice?!"
"Me!"
Just as the news said.
'Still time before the predicted date, but they're already moving.'
Probably lots of prep for those special donuts.
'What if I leave it like this?'
Getting Antarctic ice, Arctic ice, or longhorn beetles is incredibly hard for an ordinary person. Logically, the Bongcheon Donuts owner has a high chance of failure.
'But that's only if things stay ordinary.'
He's currently under entity influence.
'He'll make it happen no matter what crazy lengths.'
He might even become an entity that pulls off the impossible, beyond human limits.
His wife tried stopping him directly, but no dice. Time for another approach.
One idea came to mind. I opened the shop door to try it.
"You hag! If I make that, the shop'll..."
"Excuse me."
"Y-Yes, come on in."
"I'm interested in buying the shop."
I set my bag on the counter and unzipped it.
"Is this enough?"
"Pardon?"
Korea is a law-abiding nation, but money can skip a lot of steps sometimes.
"Yes, final confirmation complete."
For example, reasons for buying the shop.
Or negotiating terms in the sale.
Or time to clear out the shop.
"The shop is now the property of Mr. Lee Seung-hoon."
"Thanks for your work."
"Oh, thank you, young man."
I bought the shop with a realtor and lawyer in tow.
Total cost including fees: 100 million won. Not much for the rundown building.
'I'll remodel it later when everything's done.'
Might as well use it when needed since I bought it.
"Take it down easy."
Outside, signboard guys I'd called during the contract were removing the donut shop sign. Once it was fully down, I checked the grumbling ex-owner.
"Aw, man, these donuts I was gonna make would've made way more money than this."
He resisted selling to the end, but I'd negotiated separately with his wife, and by the time he rushed back, the signatures were done.
"Tch, really didn't wanna sell."
I approached him.
"I overheard you planning donuts with Antarctic and Arctic ice?"
"You heard that?"
"Still wanna make them?"
"Of course!"
The shop owner's face twisted in confusion.
"Of cour... no, of course not. Why would I make something like that?"
The TV featured a shop making special donuts.
Not a person—the shop was the focus, so making it not a donut shop anymore nullified it.
"This guy? The one ranting about making them?"
"Did I say that?"
Now the news couldn't come true. Proof positive.
Dial TV's prophecies aren't self-fulfilling—they can be changed.
'Which means.'
The eternal dream in one month.
'I can fix it.'
I left the shop and headed home.
"Lots to prepare."
First thing to do.
"Acquire safe entities that spawn in fixed locations—ones I skipped because they seemed useless."
And...
"Meet the shady dealer."