Chapter 155
Chapter 155
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Foundation Research Institute
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html, body { margin:0; padding:0; } Foundation Research Institute
On a weekday afternoon, a call came in from Dong-wook.
-We've finished the check!
"How did it go?"
-Everyone's been resurrected! Sephirot even found traces of reality manipulation!
The day I returned from Happiness Apartments, I contacted the Foundation right away.
The reason was to confirm if people had truly come back to life.
I didn't know everyone, but I remembered the names of those I'd at least exchanged greetings with, along with the ages listed on the missing persons roster. The Foundation verified their existence.
-The manipulation was so seamless that even Sephirot had trouble spotting it at first. If the traces of reversal are this faint, no one would have noticed when they vanished. And indeed, no one did.
"It's no ordinary entity, after all. This sort of thing won't happen again."
-Oh, but we couldn't track down that one person you emphasized.
"You're talking about Moon Kwang-jo, right?"
-Yes.
Unfortunately, Moon Kwang-jo hadn't been resurrected.
The reason was unknown.
Was it because he'd been directly hit by Ando?
Or because his altered existence meant he wasn't treated as food material?
Or perhaps the price of that power had caused irreversible damage that even Ando couldn't reverse?
-His residence, ID, and past traces are all back... but the person himself is gone.
Then it must be something wrong with Moon Kwang-jo himself.
-Should we compile and send the remaining info?
"Please do. I want to figure out how he ended up with that power."
-Yes, we'll send it as soon as it's ready.
A few days later, the Foundation's investigation report arrived.
[Investigation Report on Moon Kwang-jo]
I downloaded and read the attached email file.
And there, I found the culprit.
"No Named."
It was a familiar name.
"We checked the target's memories from the day he received it, keyed to the phrase 'silver cross,' and the name No Named came up."
"You read his memories?"
"We have an agent who can use psychometry."
"The superpower to read objects' memories?"
"Yes, we used it to read the memories left in his home."
On the way to the Foundation.
I looked at Kim Dong-wook, who was driving from the passenger seat.
"But we only learned it's connected to No Named—we failed to locate the person themselves."
His smooth handling and natural pedaling were skills I always envied, no matter how many times I saw them.
"Tracking the package sender isn't easy?"
"We thought so too, but it was clean, like the sender doesn't exist."
I recalled his voice from what I'd seen and heard at school.
[My name isn't Lee Hyung-seok anymore. There are so many ghost stories about names, right? So I threw mine away.]
"What about the name Lee Hyung-seok? Can't you just track students from Deokcheon High School with that name?"
"We investigated that too, but no such person exists."
A truly elusive opponent.
"What's his goal?"
"We're looking into it, but we won't know until we find him. That said, our scientists have a rough idea of how he evaded our surveillance."
"How?"
"Our scientists will explain."
We arrived at the Foundation.
The car headed to a Foundation city I'd never visited before—one on another dimension.
"No unauthorized agent can enter this city. All the Foundation's research labs are here."
"What do they research?"
"Anything and everything."
We entered the largest building there—a single facility on the scale of a city.
"Of course, entities get the most research."
And I met the person in charge.
"Hello? I'm Ella Nova, director of the Foundation Research Institute."
A charming woman with blonde hair and blue eyes offered a handshake.
"Shall we have sex?"
"Director, no jokes."
Dong-wook stepped in front of me.
He didn't seem particularly flustered, as if this happened often.
"It's not a joke? Call it a noble sacrifice for scientific progress. Opportunities to test breeding viability and trait inheritance through intercourse with a safely guaranteed humanoid entity don't come often."
"Seung-hoon isn't an entity."
"Everyone who needs to know already does."
The director, Ella, turned her eyes toward me.
Her gaze, brimming with curiosity, scanned my body up and down.
"Physical abilities rivaling a superhuman, no mental corruption despite repeated encounters with powerful entities, frequent brushes with entities others might never see once in a lifetime. The perception alteration ability that imprinted you as the world's top fixer... and..."
I scanned her too.
Appearance in her early twenties.
Objectively beautiful features.
A women's sports tank top visible under her white coat.
Hips clutching loose black gym pants with one side slipping down.
Thin-framed glasses.
Long blonde hair with no waves.
Blue eyes and pale skin.
Slippers, no socks.
Height around 160 cm.
Dark circles under her eyes from apparent overwork.
Estimated G-cup.
"No reaction to a sexual proposition from an attractive woman—chastity mindset!"
"Even if the partner's attractive, without mental rapport, what's the difference from mere masturbation?"
"Are you a Puritan by any chance?"
"I'm agnostic."
And a personality that would throw her own body into experiments to satisfy intellectual curiosity.
Impressive academic zeal.
"And to correct you, I'm not an entity—I'm human."
"Humanoid entities all say that. That they're just a bit special humans."
"Director? Can we talk for a sec...?"
Dong-wook and Ella stepped into a room off the corridor.
-No, didn't you hear the warnings? Tell Lee Seung-hoon he's definitely human! Don't treat him like an entity! It was Sephirot's warning!
-That was part of the experiment too. How would he react if treated like a non-human entity? I was curious.
-No matter how curious, stop breaking protocol!
After their talk, Ella finally got to the point.
"You came about No Named, right? I'll share our investigation and research. Not that there's much to call research since we found nothing."
The conclusion was ridiculously simple.
"He's hiding using an entity!"
"...Director, that's it?"
Dong-wook asked with a shit-eating expression.
"Yes! What more do you want? How else do you explain how someone with no face, no name escapes the Foundation's eyes?"
Fair point—no other explanation fit.
"To elaborate a bit: he either became an entity himself, found a way to control one, acquired knowledge like spells or magic, or got help from a friendly entity. Per the external consultant's info, he's had an entity since birth, so entity involvement is 100%."
"You could've emailed that!"
"Hehe! I wanted to meet the man of the rumors myself!"
She summoned me on purpose.
Well, I got to see this facility, so no complaints.
"Mind if I tour the place since I'm here?"
"Of course!"
Disappointing.
No Named's goal.
Why he gave Moon Kwang-jo the silver cross.
I wondered if he was aiming for another parallel world collision.
"I'll give you the tour!"
Ella hooked her arm in mine.
At that moment, her smartphone vibrated.
"Huh? What message... Oh? Ohhh?"
"What's up?"
"N-No! It's a thank-you from UNICEF for a 10 billion donation!?"
"Big spender."
"Who donates half their fortune!? Not me! Oh? Another message?"
I sneaked a peek at her screen.
[Seong Yu-ra, Site Director: Director? What does it mean that my email about purging incompetent directors and straightening out the Foundation with the power of science got leaked?]
[Kim Mi-ri, B-Grade Agent: Director, wanna die? Your brain's senile, so your body's next. Not picking up? I'm coming over—wait there.]
[Shin Young-moon, B-Grade Agent: What the hell? Making me masturbate in the lab soon to study ectoplasm? And I'm not gay! Why make me choose between the muscled guy and the hairy one? Pick up! Other agents are giving me weird looks! If you're sending messages, send to me only! Why group chat!?]
A familiar name caught my eye.
Ella panicked and pulled away from me.
"T-The tour... Dong-wook can do it! I have urgent business!"
Her phone kept vibrating as she left.
"Excuse me, where's the bathroom? I need to go."
"Over there."
I entered the bathroom alone.
"Love, was that you?"
Lee Seung-hoon, sexual contact with a woman recklessly abusing "science" as an excuse for love is morally wrong.
"Fair enough."
Breasts are merely fat. While there's a slight correlation between breast size and lactation, what matters is mammary function and nursing habits. Large breasts cause inconvenience in daily life and increase breast cancer risk due to more cells.
"Scientific."
Women with large breasts are sluggish, struggle to find fitting clothes so change less often, leading to poor hygiene. They often miss folds when showering, causing odor. Ligaments stretch easily, ruining aesthetics with age. In emergencies, large breasts hinder escape from tight spaces, raising death risk. In war, they increase surface area, making easy targets.
Love went on a tirade about large breasts.
"You hate big breasts, Love."
I merely stated scientific facts.
"Is it because your chest is flat?"
What nonsense is this!?
I swiped my palm over the smartphone.
"A flat body with no curves. And if breast size didn't matter to you, you wouldn't be pissed at my words."
…….
"Just kidding. Big or small, I don't care."
Please elaborate from a physiological perspective.
"Small breasts have their own charm, and big ones have theirs."
What charm do small breasts have!?
"When running, they're light, so you can sprint faster. No snags mean you can sleep in any position for better quality rest. Fashion freedom—women's or men's clothes, no issue. In emergencies, you can prone like a soldier for stealth movement. No neck/shoulder pain in old age, slip through any gap, higher survival in war. All charms, right?"
…….
"Love?"
No response.
She seemed sulky.
"You're out? Shall we go then?"
"Please lead the way."
I'd have to make it up to her later.