Chapter 34
Chapter 34
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 34
Chapter Title: The Divine Oracle
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Chocolate Enter had followed the same path as all the other entertainment agencies.
That was the original history.
But someone had changed that flow.
It was Joo-hyuk, the leader of Hae-jin's party and the sole regressor in the past.
Seeing this coming, Joo-hyuk had invested the funds he'd earned from defense stocks into Chocolate Enter.
After all, the Trials' Arena only happened once a month.
Players had to live in the real world on all the other days except that one.
Money was inevitably necessary.
Raffaello da Vinci had once asked Joo-hyuk about it.
"Leader bro, do we really need to make that much money? If we don't survive the Survival Game, it's all just worthless scraps of paper anyway."
Joo-hyuk had answered Raffaello's question.
"Well, yeah, if we die, it's worthless scraps. But we're doing this to survive, right? So it's not worthless. We're going to live."
Recalling that moment, Hae-jin fell silent for a bit.
In the end, Joo-hyuk hadn't survived.
He had died by Hae-jin's own hand.
If Hae-jin could fully obtain the Rune of Regression, he could regress and try again with Joo-hyuk.
'This is the last chance, and there's no more Joo-hyuk.'
Hae-jin simply had to see the Survival Game through to the end, as promised to Joo-hyuk.
By clearing the damn Trials' Arena until the very end.
With that thought, Hae-jin spoke to Kim Min-su just as Joo-hyuk had instructed.
"From now on, I hope Chocolate Enter keeps contracting celebrities who have awakened as players and whom you've been neglecting."
"Pardon?"
Kim Min-su was visibly taken aback by Hae-jin's proposal.
He had no choice.
They were already struggling with what to do about the celebrities under their agency who had awakened as players.
They saw them as people who would die off in the Survival Game anyway.
Yet here was Hae-jin, now the largest shareholder, telling him to contract them.
Kim Min-su wondered what was going on.
Hae-jin smirked at his reaction.
He knew it was the most natural response.
Hae-jin explained to Kim Min-su.
"Probably from now on..."
Kim Min-su's expression grew quite serious as he listened to Hae-jin's explanation.
At first, he thought it sounded absurd.
But the more he heard, the more convincing Hae-jin's words became.
He started thinking it might really happen.
After taking a sip of the tea his secretary had brought in midway through, Kim Min-su spoke.
"Even so, Hae-jin, no matter that you're the largest shareholder, it's not easy to casually proceed with a project of this scale."
Hearing Kim Min-su, Hae-jin recalled what Joo-hyuk had said.
"Kim Min-su will probably already look convinced, but he'll say it's hard to move funds arbitrarily."
Hae-jin had asked Joo-hyuk what to do then.
Joo-hyuk had smirked and replied.
"One of the abilities I gained upon becoming a player is called 'Oracle.'"
Oracle.
It referred to a god manifesting its will through a person.
Since he was already recognized as the Messiah through the Papal Court, he could claim it was the ability to see the future in dreams.
Joo-hyuk said that would convince Kim Min-su.
Hae-jin told Kim Min-su exactly that.
"Actually, I have an ability."
"An ability?"
"Yes."
"What kind...?"
Kim Min-su had been asking why he, Park Hae-jin—the largest shareholder alongside Chocolate Enter—should contract players.
But suddenly Hae-jin was talking about his own ability. What kind of twist was this?
Hae-jin spoke to the puzzled Kim Min-su.
"It's that I have an ability called 'Oracle.'"
"Prophetic dreams?"
"Yes."
For a moment, Kim Min-su looked skeptical at Hae-jin's words.
Then he asked if he'd heard wrong.
"The kind where you receive divination from a god...?"
"Yes, that's the Oracle."
Hae-jin nodded, confirming it was exactly what Kim Min-su was thinking.
From Kim Min-su's perspective, it was mind-blowing.
A human receiving an oracle.
And calling it an ability, no less.
It seemed ridiculous.
Yet he couldn't outright say it was impossible.
The Survival Game itself was an absurd phenomenon happening in reality.
Moreover, players had already demonstrated their abilities through the media.
So an ability like prophetic dreams wasn't entirely unrealistic.
"Then, you learned about your proposal to me through the Oracle?"
"Yes. But you probably won't believe me just from words, right?"
"Well..."
Kim Min-su's face said, "Isn't that obvious?"
Gaining an Oracle as an ability?
Fine, he's a player, so possible.
But separately, would Hae-jin's Oracle truly help Chocolate Enter's business?
At that, Hae-jin named three people.
"Han Jin-seo, Kim Ki-su, Baek Chang-su."
"Hm?"
Kim Min-su tilted his head at the sudden names.
The three Hae-jin mentioned were celebrities under Chocolate Enter who had awakened as players.
Hae-jin spoke to Kim Min-su, who looked puzzled about why he mentioned them.
"Have them switch agencies to ones looking to contract non-player celebrities, or terminate their contracts."
"You mean..."
Hae-jin had said Chocolate Enter should contract and not neglect player-awakened celebrities.
But now he was telling them to terminate contracts or swap for other celebrities.
Kim Min-su understood what that meant.
Seeing his expression, Hae-jin nodded.
"Yes, those three won't survive the next Trials' Arena."
"Ah..."
"But since Representative Kim Min-su needs to know if I'm telling the truth, you can watch the results without terminating for now."
Hae-jin said that if Kim Min-su truly didn't believe him, he could just keep the three.
Truthfully, from Kim Min-su's standpoint, terminating based solely on Hae-jin's words was too much.
All three were fairly established celebrities at Chocolate Enter.
Though their popularity had dipped due to the Survival Game, they had carved out positions, so he couldn't just release them recklessly.
Kim Min-su pondered Hae-jin's words.
"Hm, if what you say is true..."
"If it's true?"
"Instead of terminating their contracts, I'll take out some insurance on the three."
"Insurance?"
Hae-jin had proposed terminating the three or swapping their contracts.
But Kim Min-su chose neither—instead, insurance on the three.
Hae-jin had known this would happen but pretended to be surprised.
He had heard every detail of this meeting from Joo-hyuk.
Anyway, feigning ignorance, Hae-jin asked, and Kim Min-su explained.
What kind of insurance?
"There's insurance that pays out if an affiliated celebrity dies. I'll raise the coverage on that."
If Hae-jin's words were true, he'd get insurance payout through them first.
Releasing three celebrities based on unverified words made no sense.
So Kim Min-su opted for the safest move he could make.
As Hae-jin said, if the three died, the death benefits would be substantial.
If they survived, even if Hae-jin was the largest shareholder, he wouldn't interfere in business anymore.
Hae-jin smirked at Kim Min-su's decision.
"You've got quick calculations."
He'd known this was coming but still praised Kim Min-su.
Kim Min-su gave an awkward laugh.
"Haha... Can't do losing business."
"Then after the next Trials' Arena ends, Representative Kim Min-su will decide your firm path. Whether to follow my words or ignore them."
"Probably so, right?"
The insurance was taken out precisely because it wasn't confirmed if Hae-jin truly had prophetic dream abilities.
In a way, it was insurance against the deaths of the three Hae-jin predicted, but also insurance on whether to heed Hae-jin or not.
Hae-jin shrugged at Kim Min-su, who didn't fully trust his words yet and opted for insurance.
"Then do that."
"Yes."
"I'll head out now. See you next month."
Next month made sense.
To confirm if the three celebrities Hae-jin mentioned would die, they had to wait until the fourth Trials' Arena ended.
At Hae-jin's farewell for next month, Kim Min-su replied.
"Understood."
"Then, I'm off."
With that, Hae-jin ended the meeting with Kim Min-su and headed home.
Whoosh-!
Watching Hae-jin vanish with Shadow Blink, Kim Min-su was left alone in the representative's office.
He let out a hollow laugh.
"Haha..."
Even seeing it with his own eyes, he couldn't believe it.
Teleportation happening in reality.
Moreover, Hae-jin himself was shrouded in mystery.
The casual teleporting was shocking enough, but he also had prophetic dreams and even pointed out the direction for Chocolate Enter, the company Kim Min-su ran.
Then, Kim Min-su voiced one curious point.
"By the way, they called him Massacre... but he doesn't seem like a bad guy?"
It was an assessment Kim Min-su could never have made if he'd seen Hae-jin during the first Trials' Arena.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
March 31, 2030.
The day had finally arrived.
After midnight, all players would transfer to the fourth Trials' Arena.
Hae-jin wasn't in his room as usual—he was in the living room.
Not just him.
Kwon Na-ye, Lee Sang, Anna Fascia, Raffaello da Vinci.
All four were gathered in Hae-jin's living room.
Since they'd eat together if they all returned safely, Hae-jin had gathered them.
As midnight approached and they'd soon transfer to their current zones for the fourth Trials' Arena, the youngest, Raffaello, spoke up.
"Then, bros and sis, fighting for this Trials' Arena too!"
"Yeah, you too, Raffaello."
"Mm."
"Let's all survive and meet again. We just have to follow what Hae-jin told us anyway."
The four excluding Hae-jin exchanged cheerful goodbyes.
Hae-jin just watched quietly amid it all.
Two emotions stirred in him at the sight.
One was the good feeling of reuniting with his party members.
The other was regret over the absence of their leader, Joo-hyuk.
Midnight passed, and the date changed to April 1, 2030.
Immediately, the vision of the five gathered in Hae-jin's living room shifted.
Everyone saw the same thing, but could no longer see each other.
However, beyond the scene, all five could see one more thing.
No, it was a message every player had no choice but to see.
[The Fourth Trial Begins.]