Chapter 546 – A Single Ticket, Ten Dreams, and the Train’s Ending Point (2)
—
User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 0
Current Location: Gateway Train
Sage’s Advice: 3
—
– Han Kain
The world we live in is truly a “strange place.”
This was the thought that arose as I listened to Ahri and Grandpa’s explanations.
Some parts I had suspected, but there were definitely things that caught me off guard.
After the long explanation, my colleagues naturally scattered throughout the train, lost in thought.
As hotels usually do, the Gateway Train also had an endless number of carriages, making such a thing possible.
Thankfully or unluckily, there was no rush to get off now that we had reached the terminus.
It was as if we were being urged to draw our own conclusions in this important moment.
—
While sitting by the window, someone came and sat next to me.
“What are you thinking about?”
“Just various thoughts. What about you, Elena?”
“Similar. The stories we heard today are some of the most fascinating I’ve encountered in life.”
“…”
“Did you know the world is repetitive?”
“…”
“Since Kain and Sanghyun have been outside…”
“I had a vague suspicion.”
This thing called ‘looping’ is often a popular theme in movies and other creations.
It wasn’t simply a figment of imagination; it was reality itself.
The world repeats endlessly.
Thus, birth and death are merely the two ends of that cycle.
“Do you remember when we first met? When I asked what the date was, everyone had different dates in mind.”
“I remember.”
The reason everyone recalled different dates for reality wasn’t just that it had been a matter of a few months or years apart.
It was because everyone had come from “different loops.”
“Ahri said it before. Hiding the truth about reality isn’t a matter of personal discretion; it’s the policy of the Administration Bureau. Because…”
“Knowing the truth could easily drive someone mad.”
“… Right.”
My parents and siblings were no longer in this world.
Furthermore, I was not the only one who lost family.
Other colleagues had also experienced the same.
In the flowing timeline of the repeating world, families had vanished.
“Ahri said… our families probably no longer exist in this world. It’s not as if someone killed them; they probably were never even born.”
“…”
“My parents were never born, my sister never existed… When I go back, only the person named ‘Elena’ will just drop from the sky.”
The painful thought of being the only one left in the world.
Such a fate would be hard for anyone to bear mentally.
That’s why the agents of the Administration Bureau, participating in the hotel, hide this fact from the participants.
“I always longed to be outside the hotel… But now that the time has come to go out, I don’t know what to do.”
“But you said you wanted to act, right?”
“Now, I’m not so sure anymore.”
She looked a bit anxious.
So, I pointed to the ‘dream’ she was tightly holding with her hands.
“Now we have the means to regain what we’ve lost.”
This seemed to uplift her spirits, as Elena smiled.
Just before she was about to leave, she muttered quietly.
“But, Kain…”
“Yes?”
“When does the loop start and end?”
“…”
If the world repeats, where is the start and end of that repetition?
Ahri’s answer was simple.
“Was the universe like this from the beginning?
Did the Administration Bureau figure it out too late?
It could be so, but no one knows the exact answer.
This question is similar to ‘What was there before creation?’ or ‘What happens after the end?’
No one can answer.”
—
Not everyone fell into sadness like Elena.
In fact, some remained hopeful.
“Your face looks good.”
“Of course! Fero, you feel great too, don’t you?”
— Beep!
With Fero’s beak squawking, Yu Songee looked bright as she fed him high-end nuts, macadamia.
“I’ve thought about how to use ‘dreams’ when we get outside.”
“…”
“There might be limitations, right? Like, making me the President of Earth! That seems impossible.”
“Well…”
“Honestly, I don’t have much in mind. I just want to ‘touch up’ my parents.”
“…”
“They’ll definitely love me now.”
Songee, who grew up with money but lacked affection, might see the ‘dream’ as a hope for a ‘more perfect family.’
“Oppa, don’t you have anything to say?”
“I do.”
“Yeah?”
“When you touch up, be sure to make a big cage for Fero. He’s picky and only wants to eat nuts, so prepare a sack of chili-flavored sunflower seeds too.”
— Beep!
“Cook! But oppa, birds can eat chili without feeling spicy, right?”
“I didn’t know that.”
—
Is a family ‘touched up’ with the power of ‘dreams’ a true family?
That’s quite a deep philosophical contemplation.
While some like Songee brushed it off, others had a completely different conclusion.
That would be Cha Jinchul.
“My mother has passed away.”
“…”
“Phew… She’s really gone. She probably thought her suddenly missing son was just a big loaf of bread.”
“…”
“I’m just sorry.”
“It’s not your fault, hyung.”
“What does right or wrong matter?”
In Jinchul’s eyes, his mother had long ago passed on.
“To touch up my mother through dreams? I wouldn’t dream of it. That would be a desecration to her memory.”
“Hyung, just to be sure –”
“I don’t plan on saying this to Songee. Do I look like an idiot to you?”
“Glad to hear that.”
“I used to dream of being a martial artist.”
“I heard.”
“This time around, well, I thought I might try working with the Bureau?”
“They’ll definitely take an interest in us anyway.”
“That’s true.”
A moment of silence ensued.
Then hyung cautiously asked,
“Kain, are you considering going to the third floor?”
“I don’t think that’s something to decide right now. First, we need to step into reality.”
“I’m a bit anxious.”
“What are you anxious about?”
“Look, many of us have already gained immense strength and treasures.”
“We need to see how useful that will be outside.”
For instance, if Jinchul loses his blessings and regeneration, his inheritance would essentially go to waste.
Elena’s ominous imaginings would just be useless boom tools without clarity.
In the past, I also couldn’t use the Book of Incarnation without the Status Window.
In my case, I’ve long overcome a lot of those limits, but other colleagues have not.
Will we be able to use blessings in reality?
According to Ahri, there were some who could.
“What I mean is this. If we come back and lose, it’s hell assured, so why come back to this perilous place in the first place?”
“Right.”
No matter how lucrative the treasures may be, the hotel is undeniably hell.
We already know how terrible the fate is after failing.
Why on earth would anyone come back to a place like this?
“But there are those who return. And there’s a third floor prepared for them.”
“… That’s right.”
“Which is why I feel anxious. Reality….”
“Seems worse than the hotel.”
“It feels like there might be a reason for returning.”
After all, didn’t the Bureau’s duo say?
“Even in reality, there is a ‘light that brings about the end.’”
—
Some, like Eunsol, showed a cynical attitude.
“It’s funny.”
“…”
“The grandiosity of the world’s looping phenomenon didn’t really resonate with me; it felt too big-scale to comprehend.”
“…”
“The fact that my family vanished hit me much harder.”
“That’s understandable.”
“Kain, here’s the kicker. What do you think I felt?”
“…”
“I thought, ‘What a relief!’ I was trying to think about how to deal with my greedy brother and hungry oppa when I get outside….”
“…”
“Wait? I don’t need to lift a finger? They’ve already vanished from the world? What’s up with that!”
Faint memories of room 101 come to mind.
The chaebol daughter, Eunsol, seemed to have had a rocky relationship with her family.
Considering the severity of her words, it seems it was not just a distant relationship, but rather an outright grudge.
“What’s this? Dreams? Fulfill your wishes? Bring back your beloved? None of that, huh? Kain, do you want it?”
“Sister, let’s take a breather.”
The expression of the sister who casually declared she was relieved her family disappeared looked anything but pleasant.
No matter how distant the relationship, it’s just not something you can casually joke about.
“… I’m sorry. I got carried away while speaking.”
“It’s okay. The atmosphere has seemed to gravitate towards me since earlier. I feel like a counselor now.”
“Pfft!”
Taking her words lightly, she answered simply.
“I get it. You seem like you might give decent advice. This feeling is common for everyone. So, do you have anything to say to me?”
“About dreams? You don’t have to just ‘touch up’ your loved ones.”
“…”
“If you’re not thinking about restoring your family, use it somewhere else. Didn’t you have something you loved?”
“…”
“If this has helped –”
“Thanks. I think I know where to use it.”
—
There was also someone who was utterly aimless.
“I’m not sure about anything~!”
“Really?”
“Stuff like the world’s cycle, it’s grand and all, but it feels overly grand to the point of being unfathomable.”
Others reacted similarly to this part.
The sheer scale made it hard to relate, and they were much more shocked by the notion that “all family members have vanished.”
Miro didn’t even have that part as an issue.
For she’d known even before hearing Ahri’s words that she had skipped at least a few decades.
The shock and fear from her parents’ deaths was something Miro had “experienced long ago.”
So, she got curious about something else.
“Look at this. Can you see my hand mirror?”
“…”
“When I looked in the mirror in the bathroom… someone spoke to me. At first, I was startled and wanted to call Ahri, but at some moment I realized!”
“…”
“It was my voice. In the mirror, there was another me who wasn’t me! Is this what you and Ahri spoke of…?”
“Urban Legend Miro.”
“Legend! Scary! Kain, can you get rid of this?”
“I don’t know.”
I really had no clue.
There was something even more mysterious than a shapeless ghost, which was what Miro seemed to be right now.
“Ugh, I heard this from Eunsol!”
“…”
“They said something vague is overlaying me! Am I, like, possessed?”
“To my eyes, yes.”
“AAAaaah!”
“It’s okay. Nothing’s going to happen.”
“For real? Do you say that in confidence, or is it just pure deceit to fool me?!”
“Seriously. Nothing’s going to happen.”
This is the truth too.
“You’re going to be fine.”
“Yeah?”
“Miro, when you return to reality, stick by Ahri’s side.”
“I already do!”
“Just keep doing that.”
“Pfft! I just thought of another way.”
Hmm?
“Couldn’t Kain stick by me?”
Miro often knows just how to make people flustered.
—
Of course, there were those who sank into deep contemplation.
Sanghyun fit right into this category.
“A big riddle has been solved.”
“What is it?”
“About Mama, do you remember?”
Sanghyun grew up in somewhat of a troubled environment and received help from a woman in the village who played the role of MATRIARCH.
Back in the summer evenings, Sanghyun returned to reality, just like I did.
“Mama recognized Sanghyun.”
Not just recognized him but also recalled memories of the school he attended that had disappeared over the looping.
“I never thought Mama would have the talent of an agent…”
“More precisely, she said it was ‘clumsy talent.’ Likely around 3-4 out of the needed 10.”
What skills are required to become an agent?
High intelligence suitable for graduating from a prestigious school?
Physical ability on par with an athlete?
Or maybe a supernatural power that could toss a car with just a flick?
None of that.
Those are just necessary to become a ‘staff member’ of the Bureau, and the talent required for an ‘agent’ is just one.
“Recognition of the loop.”
An agent is essentially someone who can retain their sense of self in the world’s repetitions.
“According to Ahri, we’ll also gain agent-like abilities.”
“Seems that way.”
“They say you’ll be able to retain continuity of self even after looping. But the story afterward was even more bizarre.”
What’s even stranger than the world’s story might be the one regarding ‘agents.’
“You live while working for the Bureau, encounter a terrifying creature of chaos, and die. Then you lose consciousness, and suddenly you regain awareness.”
“…”
“The time of waking is always different. Sometimes in the 1900s, sometimes in the 1980s. It could very much be in the 2000s as well.”
“That’s quite the story.”
“Forget the amazing part; does this even make sense?”
“…”
“For ‘me’ to exist, my parents’ genes are needed. That’s science. If the parents have vanished, I shouldn’t even exist.”
“That’s quite true.”
“This agent is something that breaks free from this natural law. The parents have disappeared, yet I am reborn. With the same body and same mind!”
An agent is someone who stands firm like solid glass amidst a continuously crumbling sandcastle.
“It makes no sense.”
“Hyung, if we start questioning sense, the hotel setup doesn’t make sense either.”
“That too is valid.”
After a moment of silence and the final question.
“… Getting a dream, this thought crossed my mind.”
“Go on.”
“Can I call out my wife and child into reality?”
“I believe it’s possible. Since that’s basically its purpose.”
“Do you think a family called out via dreams is a true family?”
“Is there an answer to this question? But this thought did cross my mind.”
“Tell me.”
“If we judge identity based on genetic identity, then a family called out through a dream would be authentic.”
“…”
The hotel would likely have such capabilities.
Nothing more remained to say.
It’s merely about one’s choice from here on out.
—
Just as I was about to wrap up ‘Han Kain’s Counseling Classroom,’ two people appeared.
“Wow~ Kain, you’ve worked hard today!”
“There are still consultations left!”
“Oh, we’re not done yet?”
“What?”
“Next up is Seungyub!”
Looks like we need to extend the counseling class.
“I’ll skip the idle chatter and get to the point. You see this?”
Ahri pulled out a ‘thermos.’
“Do you know what I put in here?”
“It looks like a strange object mixed with machines and flesh.”
“It’s a camera. A ‘living camera.’”
“…”
“I want to take your picture with this. What do you think?”
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