Chapter 586 – The Stolen World (1)
—
– Lee Eunsol
An incomprehensible force seized my body and pulled me towards the sky.
Here I am, in this dire situation, rising along with Jinchul who’s trying to prevent my rapture!
In the midst of this absolute crisis, I couldn’t help but chuckle.
Grandpa, you’re not seriously trying to pull a skit here, are you?
You pulled out the hourglass with impressive quickness. But then, to suddenly lose balance and drop it?
In a panic, you stumbled towards the hourglass, and then the vase on the table fell, sending the hourglass even farther away!
It felt so absurdly unlucky that lightning-like realization struck everyone’s minds.
Park Seungyub: “Good fortune! Good fortune!”
As soon as we tried to stop the rapture with the hourglass, fate immediately interfered with Grandpa!
It’s not misfortune stacked upon misfortune; it’s good luck stacked on good luck!
Lee Eunsol: “Stop! Stay still—”
Kim Mooksung: “I get it!”
In that moment, luck whispered to us.
Getting caught might actually be beneficial!
Why? Who knows. Luck doesn’t bother explaining itself!
As I didn’t resist, the window shattered, and in an instant, four bodies flew into the void.
Were we enduring this situation too much?
In a fleeting moment, Elena’s eyes glowed an eerie blue.
Is it a foreboding imagination? Did her eyes change color when she used that power?
Rather, what are you trying to do? Don’t tell me you’re summoning some flying monster to follow us?
Miro: “No need to come! If I need you, I can just call you!”
Miro can call Elena?
Ah, it seems like Miro exists in a different timeline where Elena is available?
In that case, according to Miro, Elena doesn’t need to follow us after all.
Miro’s words were our last communication with our comrades left on the ground since the rapture had taken us out of reach of the chat tab.
“Ugh…!”
The people on the ground looked like squirming ants.
I’m not afraid of heights, yet I feel dizzy enough to throw up.
Somehow holding onto my flute and trying to blow into it has kept my mind just barely intact…
But the three comrades being dragged along with me are already too far out of sight.
At this distance, they’ve long since left the flute’s protective field.
“Ugh…”
Suddenly, I realized the commonality among the four being taken.
Lee Eunsol, Park Seungyub, Miro, Cha Jinchul.
These four were all people associated with the Administration Bureau.
Is that the selection condition?
*
User: Han Kain
Date: Day 181
Current Location: Delight Hotel, Yeongdeungpo, Seoul
Sage’s Advice: 3
—
– Han Kain
…!
My constant daze abruptly breaks, and my heavy body, akin to soaked cotton, starts moving freely!
“Participant Han Kain’s discipline has been lifted!”
That took way too long!
Now that it’s over, I can say that suffering like this is totally the owl’s fault!
I wished it would stay still, but since I kept moving around, it forcibly laid me down, right?
If you’re going to do that, just tell me to stay put!
Cursing inwardly, I focused my mind, and finally, the understanding of the scenario began to make sense.
Scenario: The Stolen World
The end is approaching.
This tragedy stems from everyone’s original sin.
Those who long for eternity have desperately molded an ark.
The awakened ark has begun its selection, and four participants have been chosen.
You have not been selected.
Check the next details outside the hospital!
“…”
The end.
Everyone’s original sin.
The ark and selection.
Four have been chosen, and I have not.
Is this the keyword?
Let’s get out of here.
*
It didn’t take long to reunite with my panicked comrades.
“Kain!”
“Brother!”
“Hey! Have you finally woken up?”
“There’s so much to discuss.”
Eunsol noona, Jinchul hyung, Seungyub, and Miro—all four were dragged away.
Interestingly, fate interrupted Grandpa as he was trying to spin the hourglass.
Grandpa and Elena discussed something.
“Are you saying being dragged away is advantageous?”
“Seems like it. Maybe because of the Dream Kingdom? If we, um, use the Dream Kingdom, we can reunite with our abducted comrades?”
“The Dream Kingdom doesn’t currently exist…”
The Dream Kingdom originally belonged to Ahri, but she vanished after visiting my dream.
“So we just need to rescue Ahri and reclaim the Dream Kingdom?”
Hearing Elena’s words, Sanghyun answered.
“It seems those who were taken aren’t in immediate danger.”
“Exactly!”
I think similarly.
‘The awakened ark has started its selection, and four participants have been chosen.’
That phrase certainly doesn’t feel like they were taken to be killed!
Lastly, to reassure my comrades, I wrote down a piece of advice.
Advice: 3 -> 2
“Are the abducted comrades safe?”
“There’s no urgency, so act calmly.”
I guess it’s being nice since I haven’t used it in a while?
After all, I had half confidence from other sources when asking.
“Everyone, please calm down. The patron isn’t facing a big crisis.”
Thanks to this, it seemed there wasn’t an immediate threat, so everyone sighed with relief.
After conveying the scenario’s details to my comrades, I threw out a question.
“Is the ark creator from the Administration Bureau?”
“What?”
“If you think about it, all the abducted people are somehow related to the Administration Bureau.”
The agent, Jinchul, Eunsol the nominal agent, Miro who’s treated like an agent without memories.
Plus, there’s Seungyub who’s been next to Miro since the beginning—in other words, they all have ties to the Administration Bureau.
Sanghyun nodded.
“When the crisis of the end is looming, the Administration Bureau made the ark and took four people they consider ‘allied’?”
“The crisis of the end. When I think of the end, two major things come to mind.”
“Two? One refers to the Moon Demon deep within the Earth, right?”
That’s the information Ahri provided.
“What’s the other?”
“Brother, did you forget? For reality, it was the ‘Light that summons the end’?”
The greatest risk factor in reality that Ahri and Grandpa had persistently spoken about.
According to what was revealed in Room 207, ‘the light that summons the end’ is deeply connected to mirrors.
“The Moon Demon, the Light that summons the end, the ark… It all gets tangled up, and I feel confused. It’s like there are many fragments, but I can’t find the link.”
At that moment, Grandpa sighed as if muttering.
“Listening to you makes me want to sigh.”
“Grandpa?”
“If what you two say is correct, then the Administration Bureau made the ark to avoid the Light that summons the end or the Moon Demon… But why am I, an agent, completely unaware of this?”
The information must’ve been out of reach for an average agent.
Ahri, who was promoted to the Silent One, certainly knew about the ark.
However, after hearing Grandpa, one question crossed my mind.
“I’ve heard that you and Ahri have experienced the Light that summons the end multiple times.”
“Once for me, and more for Ahri.”
“Was there no rapture back then?”
“If there was, I would have mentioned it.”
“….”
Could it be that the past and the developments remembered by Ahri and Grandpa differ?
With that thought, our comrades naturally glanced at one another.
“Hey -”
“It seems like -”
“It’s probably our fault.”
“….”
After abandoning ten participants in the hotel and intervening in various ways in this world, did something change?
Then, without a word, Songi, who had been tapping on her phone, spoke up.
“The internet is in chaos right now. It is said that the end has begun, and only good people are being taken by God. The rapture phenomenon seems to have paused for a moment.”
“Paused for a moment….”
“It looks like it’s going to start again soon?”
“I feel that way too.”
The phenomenon of the ark taking selected people seems to be stretching longer than expected.
“More accurately, it feels like it’s going to last for about six months.”
“The merchant said information would start gathering six months later, and in a year, there’d be chaos?”
“That’s right.”
Gathering all the information gathered leads to the following conclusion.
The end is approaching, and the Administration Bureau has built an ark.
The ark is in the process of selecting those who deserve salvation, and this process will happen periodically over the next six months.
At that moment, the next content for understanding the scenario popped up!
Scenario: The Stolen World
The first selection has ended!
The entire world, welcomed by a genuine miracle, is in turmoil.
Greedy thieves are approaching you!
The next details will be revealed after the ‘negotiation.’
“Greedy thieves?”
“Brother?”
As someone comes to mind, at that moment, pop! Someone appears out of thin air.
“Hey! Long time no see, young fella!”
“… Ryan.”
Surprised faces from Songi and Elena certainly met the grave mask of Sanghyun, ready to unleash a flash attack at any moment.
Even Grandpa’s expression darkened as he stuck his hand in his pocket.
“Ha ha~! Calm down, everyone. If you think about it, I’m the senior here, right? Not that I expect respect, but we can at least exchange words, can’t we?”
“…”
“That there, Mooksung, right? I apologize for what happened previously.”
“Shut it.”
“Don’t be so harsh. After all, that terrifying girl carved my body up; the damage I suffered was far worse, wasn’t it?”
Since we had clashed once, it wasn’t easy to engage in friendly banter.
“Ryan, let’s get to the point.”
“Straight to the point, friends! Didn’t that Old Man say we’d meet again in five months? Well, here we are.”
“If you have something to say, just say it.”
As the conversation began, Elena discreetly activated her lie detector, her eyes shining as she hid behind Grandpa, while Ryan opened his mouth.
“Great! Let’s cut to the chase. Do you all know what’s going on right now?”
“The Administration Bureau is creating an ark to avoid the end.”
Ryan showed a slightly flustered look.
“Ah… Hmmm, well, I see you already knew the most critical part. In that case, do you know why they are making the ark?”
“To survive the end?”
“Don’t forget! Agents have their next lives even without an ark.”
A conversation I had with Grandpa long ago flashed through my mind.
“If agents survive, it’s hard to rebuild the Administration Bureau.”
Can a thousand agents gather in one spot and even build a car?
Even under this assumption, it’s based on agents waking up in the same timeline, but in reality, they awake at different times, making it even harder.
“You already know quite a bit! I like talking to someone informed. As you said, you can’t rebuild the Administration Bureau with just agents. You need a lot of facilities and many experts’ survival.”
“…”
“To this end, the Administration Bureau has some otherworlds for information preservation; however, most are quite unstable. The ark is the perfect answer for this.”
A tiny number of agents, a few hidden texts from other worlds, that’s not enough.
To ensure the Administration Bureau’s longevity, it’s necessary to preserve countless people and large-scale production facilities.
The ark exists for this reason.
“If they fail in making the ark for some reason, they’ll lose nearly all the civilization from the past. In the worst-case scenario, humans might arrive in the 21st century after looping, but still live in the medieval era.”
“Has that ever happened?”
“Yeah. More than a few times. Thanks to that, the current civilization is significantly declined compared to its peak, you know?”
“…”
I gathered quite a bit of meaningful information about the ark.
However, aside from that information, I had no clue why this person came to us.
“I get the ark talk. But one thing is puzzling. Ryan, what’s your reason for coming to us?”
“Let’s get straight to it. Friends! We have been forsaken. You do know, right?”
The scenario told me, ‘You have not been selected.’
“What does it matter? In the first place, we can maintain our consciousness without the ark.”
“You and I, the people here can.”
“Then—”
And Ryan Reynolds shook the hearts of my comrades.
“Let me ask you one thing. Here, who has revived their family through dreams?”
In the silence that enveloped us, Ryan whispered again.
“Try reaching out. Who knows? Maybe they were selected for the ark? But… What if they weren’t lucky? The end is already looming on the horizon.”
“…”
“There, doctor friend! You mentioned a wife and child, right?”
“…”
“You, communication trainee! I apologize again for what happened previously. But, how are your son, daughter-in-law, and grandson doing now?”
“…”
“To you, pretty miss! Have you contacted your parents?”
I understood why Ryan had come to us!
“Your unspoken true feelings, I’ll express them. I’m determined to save my son, daughter-in-law, and grandson.”
“…”
“To do that, I need to secure a spot in the ark.”
If there’s no spot, I’ll kick someone out to take their place!
“How absurd! If you don’t care about some fake family made through dreams, you’re welcome to take their spot.”
None of my comrades replied.
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