Chapter 43
Chapter 43
Dreaming (1)
“Yeon-seo.”
The child actor, Han Do-yul, reached out to Yu Yeon-seo with both hands. With his signature indifferent expression, Yeon-seo glanced down at the child before pretending not to notice and turning his head away.
“Hyuuung…”
Han Do-yul stomped his feet, urging him on.
Should I stop teasing him now? Yu Yeon-seo lifted the child in one swift motion. Han Do-yul squealed with delight.
Lee Tae-gyeom let out a dry laugh. Yu Yeon-seo being gentle with someone was something he’d never get used to, no matter how many times he saw it.
“You actually like kids, huh?”
“Kids are cute. You’re just gross.”
Lee Tae-gyeom’s face crumpled into a scowl.
The children he had seen in the year 2207 were born in the same district as Kang Jin-hu, their fates as soldiers already sealed. They cried and fussed at the beginning of their military training, but eventually, they had to suppress their emotions and focus solely on the drills they were ordered to perform.
That was why he found the innocent children of this era so fascinating and adorable. This is how it should be, in a peaceful time.
“How was filming today, Do-yul?”
“It was fun!”
The child grabbed a fistful of his silver hair, fascinated, but it didn’t bother him much. Behind them, the child’s guardian was gently chiding him not to pull on his hyung’s hair.
“Today is my last day with you. Aren’t you sad, Do-yul?”
“We can see each other again later!”
“Yeah, see you on TV. Bye.”
He didn’t even properly grasp the concept of meeting and parting yet, but he was a pretty good actor, which Yeon-seo liked.
“Yeon-seo.”
“Yes.”
After handing the child back to his guardian, Yu Yeon-seo turned his head at the call of Director Lee Su-ji.
“We’re all gathering at the writer’s studio to watch the first episode together. You’re coming, right?”
Today was the premiere of ‘Dreaming’. Yu Yeon-seo glanced at the people behind Lee Su-ji. Jin Su-ho, Lee Seon-ja, and Jo Yu-mi, who played Jin Su-ho’s supporter in the drama, were waving at him to join them.
Thankfully, since that day, Jin Su-ho had been acting as friendly as usual to everyone.
“Yeah, let’s go.”
Besides, who would believe it if he told them the guy had coughed up that much blood? Yu Yeon-seo nodded.
[Mom, where are you going?]
[Si-hwan. You’ll live in this house from now on.]
[What about you?]
[I’ll… come back for you later, when you’re a little older.]
In front of a house that was clearly more than just an ordinary mansion, a young Park Si-hwan clung to his mother’s trousers, refusing to let go.
[Can’t you not go? Don’t go! Mom!]
[Young master, let’s go inside.]
[Mom!]
Lee Seon-ja, who played Park Si-hwan’s mother, looked younger on screen, her wrinkles smoothed out in post-production. It pained her to see her son clinging to her, but she hardened her expression. As Kim Yun-hwa, she callously pushed her son away and disappeared into the distance.
[Mom!]
Young Park Si-hwan shouted. He shook off the man holding him and ran after Kim Yun-hwa. But suddenly, flames erupted from all sides, engulfing his surroundings.
“Gasp!”
Now a grown man, Park Si-hwan’s eyes flew open. It was a nightmare.
The camera focused on Park Si-hwan’s back as he sat up in bed, clutching his head.
After washing off the cold sweat, Park Si-hwan emerged from the bathroom, towel-drying his wet hair.
At the sight of his shirtless form, a few staff members let out playful hoots of admiration. Jin Su-ho smiled sheepishly before focusing back on the screen.
“Echo, what’s the weather like today?”
The camera panned to a black electronic device on the nightstand. It was product placement for Juseong Electronics’ AI speaker, ‘Ego.’
“Echo?”
He waited for an answer, but there was only silence. Park Si-hwan sighed softly. His expression seemed to say, ‘Here we go again.’
(Yes, how may I help you?)
Only after Park Si-hwan tapped the speaker a few times did Echo finally blink its blue light three times and activate. As expected, sometimes you just have to hit electronics to get them to work.
He gave Echo a pathetic look before turning around to put on a shirt.
“The weather.”
(Today’s weather in Seoul is…)
Echo recited the weather in a monotone voice.
“Clear…”
But he didn’t need to listen. Park Si-hwan, who had already opened the curtains, stared blankly out the window. Contrary to his own troubled mind from the nightmare, the sky was cloudless and clear.
The scene changed to show Park Si-hwan in a luxury sedan.
(The medical virtual reality system ‘Utopia’ is all the rage these days, isn’t it?)
(It sure is. Recently, it was used to bid a final farewell to a brain-dead patient. The family was saddened by the unexpected parting but expressed their joy at being able to hear their last words.)
Medical virtual reality ‘Utopia.’
Initially started to awaken coma patients, ‘Utopia’ had recently been gaining attention. It was being introduced not only for coma patients but also for those who were brain-dead or had full-body paralysis, and thanks to it, quite a few people had been able to leave their sickbeds.
(However, we can’t ignore the resulting social side effects. ‘Utopia’ brokers have even emerged, exploiting the psychology of people who want to escape their difficult real lives by fleeing to virtual reality.)
(That’s why some gamers are calling for the creation of a virtual reality game using ‘Utopia’s’ technology. The response has been positive.)
(But wouldn’t a game have side effects too? What if you can never wake up?)
(The government needs to establish clear guidelines…)
Park Si-hwan turned off the radio and played some music. As the drama’s main OST began to play, the camera showed his car speeding across a bridge over the Han River under a vast blue sky.
Dreaming
The drama’s logo, rendered in stylish calligraphy, appeared as the scene transitioned.
“I heard Chairman Lee’s mother isn’t waking up.”
In a stately office decorated with black and mahogany wood, Chairman Park, seated at the head of the table, looked at his illegitimate son, Park Si-hwan, who stood ramrod straight before him, and spoke as if giving an order.
“You’ll have to take care of it again.”
“Was Chairman Lee’s mother in a coma?”
“Why do you need to know?”
Park Si-hwan narrowed one eye. There was no one in Chairman Lee’s circle who would need to enter ‘Utopia’…
“Tsk, that damned dementia.”
Chairman Lee didn’t want to care for his elderly mother with dementia, so he had asked his friend, Chairman Park, to dump her in the virtual world. Hearing Chairman Park’s mutterings, Park Si-hwan’s expression twisted in disgust.
“Anyway, you handle it. I have to get to my tee time.”
“Don’t get the wrong idea, Chairman.”
“What?”
At Park Si-hwan’s low voice, Chairman Park looked up.
“The reason I took charge of ‘Utopia’s’ Risk Management Team was not because of you. Therefore, I have no reason to handle your personal affairs.”
“You little bastard!”
The hot-tempered Chairman Park bellowed. But Park Si-hwan’s expression didn’t change an inch as he delivered his threat.
“I will not end up like Si-u.”
“Park Si-hwan!”
His younger brother, Park Si-u, was a sore spot for Chairman Park. Park Si-u had ended up in a coma after a motorcycle accident and was used as a test subject for the development of ‘Utopia.’
But Park Si-u never woke up, and his life came to an end. However, his experiment data remained, contributing to the success of the Utopia project and putting Chairman Park on a pile of money.
“Did you know that today is the anniversary of Si-u’s death?”
Unlike Park Si-hwan, the illegitimate son, Park Si-u had been the youngest son whom Chairman Park had doted on. And yet, he had forgotten the anniversary of his own son’s death to go play golf.
The irony was that the only person who remembered the anniversary was his illegitimate son, Park Si-hwan.
“I’ll do it this one time out of pity for the old woman. But there won’t be a second time.”
Park Si-hwan slammed the door shut.
As the formidable figure of Park Si-hwan disappeared down the hall, the secretaries sitting in front of the chairman’s office exchanged wary glances.
“Who was that?”
“Oh, you’re new today, so you wouldn’t know. That’s Park Si-hwan, the Chairman’s son. Head of the ‘Utopia’ Risk Management Team.”
The new secretary’s eyes widened in surprise. The ‘Utopia’ Risk Management Team was responsible for bringing people back to reality—those who refused to return even after their physical bodies had recovered, those lost deep in a dream.
“He’s the Chairman’s son?”
“He’s illegitimate.”
“Still. How could he make his own flesh and blood do such a dangerous job? One wrong move and you could end up in a coma yourself.”
And the Risk Management Team had very few members despite the high salary. That was because one could easily get their consciousness trapped in ‘Utopia’ and never return to reality.
“I heard he’s looking for someone in ‘Utopia’.”
“Really? Did the person he’s looking for become a ‘Drifter’?”
“I guess so.”
“Who is it?”
Those trapped in ‘Utopia,’ unable to return to reality, were called ‘Drifters.’
“His mother, from when he was a child. His biological mother.”
“Si-hwan!”
“Ju-hui.”
“Going into a dream again today? I didn’t think we had any cases.”
“One just came up.”
Ah, an order from the Chairman. Yang Ju-hui winked as if she understood.
Yang Ju-hui was played by Jo Yu-mi, an actress in her third year.
“Then I’ll use this in today’s dream.”
Yang Ju-hui tapped the screen in front of her. Park Si-hwan stood behind her and looked at the screen.
“What’s this?”
“A newly developed AI. It’s dangerous for you to go in alone anyway. You should take a partner. You almost didn’t wake up last time, remember?”
Park Si-hwan smiled playfully. His demeanor was completely different from when he was with Chairman Park.
“You developed a new AI? In such a short time?”
“I looked around and found one someone had already started. I just touched it up a bit.”
Still, that was quite a feat—taking someone else’s source code and finishing it. Park Si-hwan chuckled softly and tapped his smartwatch a few times.
“I feel secure with you around, Ju-hui.”
“Without me, you’d be a ‘Drifter’ by now.”
“True.”
Park Si-hwan lay down on a bed set up in a corner of the lab. Yang Ju-hui and other staff members moved busily, attaching biometric sensors to his forehead and chest.
“Connecting now.”
“Confirmed. Si-hwan, wake up safely this time too.”
Park Si-hwan nodded.
He arrived in the Memory Room. A long corridor stretched before him, lined with tightly packed doors of various shapes and sizes.
He opened a few doors, gathering clues. They were the memories of the subject, Chairman Lee’s mother.
Childhood, marriage, childbirth, memories of happily smiling while holding her young son… She probably never imagined that the son she cherished so much would be the one to dump her in this place.
(Warning. Defense mechanism has been activated.)
What, already?
Park Si-hwan quickly hid behind a door. The defense mechanism was a signal sent by the subject’s brain, attacking to expel any detected anomaly. And the target of these attacks was usually the ‘Utopia’ Risk Management Team.
(The defense mechanism is too fast. Si-hwan, I’m sending in the AI.)
“Okay.”
Nodding at Yang Ju-hui’s words, Park Si-hwan watched as a human-shaped form slowly materialized beside him.
“Hello, Master.”
The human shape solidified into a silver-haired man. Park Si-hwan stared at his form for a moment. Why is an AI this handsome? Did Yang Ju-hui add her own preferences?
The silver-haired man opened and closed his hands, examining his own body with a look of wonder.
“So this is what a human body is like.”
“What’s your name?”
“I don’t have one. I was developed only a short time ago.”
He spoke in a flat, calm voice, blinking his eyes. His movements were exaggerated and unnatural.
After a moment of thought, Park Si-hwan gave the AI a name.
“Chunbaek, is it?”
“Hey, they say the more old-fashioned the name, the longer you live, right?”
“Unless the data hub is destroyed, I am designed to live for a long time.”
Longer than you, Master.
As expected of an artificial intelligence, it couldn’t take a joke. Park Si-hwan ignored Chunbaek’s comment and gestured toward the outside. The defense mechanism had possessed people from the subject’s past memories and was now searching for the intruder.
“So, how are you going to deal with them?”
“I will resolve the situation. You must not be harmed, Master.”
If a healthy person was injured within ‘Utopia,’ it would inflict significant trauma on their real-world consciousness. And if this damage exceeded a certain threshold, they would immediately become a ‘Drifter.’
“Please hide here.”
When Chunbaek reached into the air, a gun materialized in his hand.
“Initiating debugging.”
The silver-haired Yu Yeon-seo, Chunbaek, gave a faint smile as he shouldered the weapon.