Chapter 179
Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Flower of the Lost Paradise
A museum dedicated to honoring dinosaurs has been completed.
It only took three weeks to finish.
It was completed at an unbelievably fast pace.
"Hey! Where's the time accelerator? The paint here hasn't dried yet!"
"Whoever used the high elf's crafting tool? We need to spray more in the flower beds."
"Turn on the miniature 3D printer. We need to make one more warehouse over there."
The secret to the rapid construction was thanks to the Foundation.
And the reason people weren't suspicious despite the world's largest museum appearing in just three weeks was thanks to the great writer's pen.
"Wow, a real museum's been built!"
"Amazing! It was made in less than a month!"
"No way a museum this size in just three weeks? Well, I guess it's natural since the world's top fixer got personally involved."
The completed museum had an exhibition area of 30,000 pyeong and a total area including the park and other facilities of 70,000 pyeong.
"Waaah! Dinosaurs!"
"King Dragon! King Dragon!"
"I'm gonna go see King Dragon!"
Thanks to the massive pre-construction promotion, crowds flocked in right from opening day.
"Yay! Hello! This is Kanda-mi from Kanda TV! Today, we're visiting the world's largest dinosaur museum, the Hall of Heroes! It's a dinosaur museum, so why's it called the Hall of Heroes? I don't know either!"
"With my 13 years of combined gaming experience, I think they call dinosaurs heroes because they're petroleum. What? The dinosaur-petroleum theory was debunked ten million years ago? How should I know! I'm just a gaming idiot!"
Since indoor broadcasting was allowed only for the first week after opening, there were plenty of personal streamers.
"Ttaeng-ttaeng-ttaeng!"
"Sohee, didn't you drop that concept?"
"I have to do it once in a while to feel at ease."
Afterward, they held an opening ceremony event for the crowds.
It was handing out dinosaur-themed merchandise directly made to random visitors (mostly kids) as gifts.
"Wow! A dinosaur doll! I want that dinosaur doll!"
"Alright, which dinosaur doll do you want?"
"Tyranno! It's the king of dinosaurs!"
I skipped past the bowl-cut kid who looked about seven and asked another child.
"What dinosaur do you like best?"
"Uh, uh, Spinosaurus! The back is so cool and mysterious!"
"You're passed too."
"Hiiiing! Mommy!"
The executives looked troubled and pleaded with me.
"Um, Chairman? Can't we just give them to the kids?"
"That's exactly why we can't. I hope kids don't come to like traitors."
"Ahaha, traitors... Yes, traitors... Then we'll go hand out the merchandise again."
"Please, don't give them to kids who like traitor dinosaurs."
The executives whispered behind me.
"Why does he hate only the popular dinosaurs? And exactly five of them?"
"He even made a special exhibit called The Inextinguishable Beings of Sin just for them."
"It'd be refreshing if he'd just tell us the reason, but he never does. It's frustrating as hell."
I want to tell them.
What crimes they committed.
If I were to give them epithets for their deeds, it would be like this.
Tyrannosaurus of Usurpation.
Velociraptor of Betrayal.
Iguanodon of Defying Heaven.
Ankylosaurus of Greed.
Spinosaurus of Cowardice.
But the moment I reveal it to everyone, invaders could revive due to memetic contamination, so I have no choice.
"It's a shame we can't record the sacrifices of the other heroes as well."
So all I can do is help them regain their popularity.
The world's largest dinosaur museum, the Hall of Heroes, was built, and tons of reviews and feedback poured in.
[Hall of Heroes Review Summary.txt][Size: Freaking huge. You won't see it all in a day if you're walking.][Layout: Divided by era, continent, size, carnivores, herbivores, omnivores. Tons of special exhibits too.][Fossil Variety: Every existing dinosaur fossil is there. Footprints, bones, skin, eggs—nothing's missing. That 1 trillion budget rumor seems legit?][Originality: Not just one special exhibit, but many. Events rotate daily in each (except Wednesdays off). You can get prizes, special dolls, stickers, keychains too.][Amenities: 5 rest areas, 15 convenience stores, 50 vending machines. Restrooms everywhere in the building and park. Food's so-so.][Fun: Not a boring museum—cartoons, movies, puppet shows, history via games. Surprise events everywhere. Total blast.][Overall: 100/100! Every Korean should go at least once!] It didn't perfectly achieve the original goal, but seeing everyone love it made my lips curl up involuntarily.
"The museum reviews seem good."
"Yes, thanks to everyone liking it. It's all thanks to the Foundation. Without you, we'd still be in the planning stage."
"What are you saying? You saved the world from destruction. This is nothing."
"Even so, my gratitude doesn't dilute."
I pocketed my phone and looked straight ahead at the familiar road home. Today, Dong-uk was driving instead of Sarang to express thanks for the previous incident. He seems to drive even better than Sarang—truly a man with driving skills I envy.
"Is everyone okay?"
"Yes, only injuries, no deaths. But physically fine doesn't mean mentally. Agent Kim Mi-ri's brainwashing was too perfect. Even after mental contamination treatment, lots of agents still believe the Earth is flat."
"Isn't that a serious issue? I heard almost all B-grade and above Foundation agents were deployed."
"It's not just agents—senior researchers too. The researchers are futilely trying to scientifically prove the flat Earth theory."
For reference, Director Ella is leading it. Dong-uk's expression turned serious as he handled a sharp curve smoothly.
"While the agents are out, the Overseer's direct Special Task Force will fill in for them."
A familiar name. It was the unit that showed up to capture when the Foundation was at its strongest, and the player had been enhanced into a superhuman by all sorts of entities.
"Before the Munchkin Mary Sue Constellation attack, they had zero compromise with non-Foundation entities or superhumans—immediate containment or elimination. Not everyone, but most Overseers were like that."
"Director Sung Yu-ra must have been a moderate."
"Overseer Sung Yu-ra was an agent captain who became an Overseer after the Constellation incident."
The stronger the Foundation gets, the less flexible they become, increasing the chance they'll turn hostile to players too. That's why I can't fully trust the Foundation.
"After the Constellation incident, the hardliners are mostly gone. But some still carry that old mindset."
"And their Special Task Force is being deployed to Korea?"
"Yes, until the other agents return. The Korean branch only has Agent Kim Mi-ri left, and we need her help to fully lift the brainwashing, so she can't return yet. No one to hold them back."
Hearing this brings back game memories.
They won't be that inflexible now.
It's an organization that collapsed once and was rebuilt, so it should have at least some flexibility and reason.
"The Special Task Force deploying to the Korean branch belongs to an Overseer who strongly insists you're an uncontainable entity, so I came to warn you."
Nope.
Where else is there a human as human as me?
『Online, requests are flooding in for Mr. Lee Seung-hoon.』
"What does that mean?"
I stopped heading to the shower with Aeong-i and Rubber Rubber Duck in tow. Picking up Sarang showed community posts about me.
[Fixer Lee Seung-hoon T_T Please bring our Fu Bao back to Korea T_T][If you're spending that much on dead dinosaurs, spend some on living animals too!][So many cats starving and hunted in the wild—don't you feel sorry for them?] Everyone was clamoring for me to spend money on animals.
"Why the sudden fuss?" 『It seems they've been stimulated by your casual spending of huge sums and are hoping you'll invest in their causes.』 "If they really wanted it that badly, they'd have come to the office ages ago."
Especially problems they can't solve with their own power. The fact they haven't means it's something they could solve without me.
"Animal welfare doesn't need a fixer. Fundraisers and volunteering can be done easily with little money and manpower."
Animals, huh. Since it's fate, maybe I'll donate a bit?
"Sarang, donate to animal protection groups, please." 『Really?』 "Yeah, not just one—spread it across several. Send appropriate amounts based on their situations." 『Understood. What's today's schedule?』 Heading back to the shower with Rubber Rubber Duck and Aeong-i, I glanced at the window sill.
"Just showering, then looking into that bulb we got last time."
The blue tulip in the pot swayed in the breeze like it was waving hello.
When I returned from the Flat Earth to the North Pole, I planted the bulb from my pocket in a pot.
It looked like a tulip bulb, and since all the flowers in Ulysses' garden were tulips, I predicted it would grow into one—and sure enough, a blue tulip bloomed.
'Ulysses' garden had the singularity of materializing human beliefs. Does this flower have the same power?'
I experimented, but depending on the belief, it just changed colors—red, blue, yellow, gold, black, etc.—without manifesting the belief into reality.
"So that's why I got in the car for a light drive test. I believed 'My driving skills are average,' and the color changed, so I needed to check if it worked?"
『Are your excuses done?』
"Yeah."
Unfortunately, the experiment ended before I could try.
From observations so far, it's just a fresh, ordinary, fragrant tulip that doesn't wilt.
"Guess I need an expert appraisal."
I used the shady merchant's invitation while holding the pot.
"Long time no see, Mr. Lee Seung-hoon."
The shady merchant, somewhere between spider and human, greeted me with a curtsy.
Spider-human or human-spider? Hard to say, but aside from multiple single-lens eyes in her pupils, multiple tongues, three pairs of arms, and sharp teeth, she could be called a beauty—so spider-human it is.
"Why are you staring like that?"
"I was deciding if you're a spider-human or human-spider."
"Intriguing. And your conclusion?"
"Spider-human."
"You treat me as human. Thank you. What item did you bring today?"
"This."
I held out the pot.
Eight single-lens eyes—four on each side—swiveled to observe the tulip.
"This is...!"
Suddenly, she snatched the pot.
I'd never seen her like this—excitedly muttering "Is it real? Am I seeing this right?" nonstop.
"Is it that amazing?"
"Oh my, how rude before a guest. You brought something so incredible, I couldn't contain my excitement."
With her face flushed, she explained the tulip.
"This is the flower of the Lost Paradise."
Quite an interesting story.
"The primordial creator, in rage at the betrayal of his first child, destroyed three of the promised glories—one of them being this."