NOVEL NEXT chapter 399
399 – Scene 399# the Man’s Name
*
“Secretary Park… ?”
“Director…”
After Park Se-hee collected her body, we went to visit director Choi Jae-man, who was detained underground. In just a few days, Director Choi Jae-man’s wrinkles increased and his back became hunched, making him look like he had aged dramatically. He didn’t wash, so he became dirty and there were no homeless people there. Just looking at him, it was hard to imagine that he was once a rich man who drove a foreign car and casually spent more than 200,000 won on a single meal.
Choi Jae-man, who discovered Park Se-hee, stood up in joy.
“Oh oh… Are you here to get me out?”
“No…Director, I…”
“I guess I’ve completely adapted to life in detention.”
“?!”
Choi Jae-man, who discovered me late, was started and took a step back. Perhaps the fear remains because they saw me ‘angry’.
“W-what brought you here? No way… Are you planning to execute me?”
“No. “I came to convey the well-being of your subordinates.”
“While the director was here, I asked the employees about their intentions. They wanted to stay here rather than risk wandering around this world. So… The Count decided to protect them only until they adapt to this world.”
Since they were involved in Director Choi’s plan, it was honestly not a decision I was comfortable with. Part of me wanted to kick them out, but after talking to them for a while, I found out that they were ordinary people who got caught up in this purely to make money. It was obvious that they would have a hard time surviving if they were kicked out from here, and more than anything, Park Se-hee begged them not to kick them out, so he reluctantly decided to protect them.
“Then I…” ” ? Are you letting me out of here too?”
“… “Is Director Choi only worried about himself?”
“Then? “Why should I worry about others?”
“Under… That’s Okay. Even if I tell you the reason, Director Choi will never understand. Director Choi, do you really want to get out of here?”
“Can you even say that! “It’s obvious!”
Director Choi Jae-man, who shouted in excitement, recoiled as soon as he met my cold gaze.
“That… Look. I don’t ask for much. All you have to do is get me out of here. Huh? Don’t worry about me…”
“Director. What are you going to do when you get out of here?”
“Ah, nothing to worry about. I take care of that…”
“Are you planning on asking the players for help?”
“Haha… What is happening suddenly…”
“Don’t pretend not to know. The service will begin opening soon. Director, are you planning to ask for help from the influx of players at that time?”
“…”
Choi Jae-man’s expression hardened. It seems that Park Se-hee’s idea was correct.
At first, I thought Jaeman Choi might know a way out of this place. When he realized that he couldn’t get my help, he just asked me to get him out of the mansion, which gave me some confidence. However, after talking with Park Se-hee, I was able to understand what he was thinking.
Park Se-hee shook her head.
“Stop it. “They are not on your side.”
“… I don’t know. If I had money, I could at least attract them to my side. “How much money do I have?”
“The director is trapped here without any money.”
“So I’m going to ask the player. If you tell me what kind of person I am and help me, I’ll pay you enough…”
“No. They will know Director Choi as an NPC.”
“What… ? Where did I come from when I said I was an NPC? He’s a living person! In the first place, this is a world in another dimension and not a game!”
“That’s right. Not an NPC, but a real living person. But… “They don’t know that.”
That’s why players were able to kill people in this world without feeling guilty.
“For them, this world is just a game.”
Park Se-hee, who learned about the future of this world through me, said: Choi Jae-man’s complexion turned pale. Until recently, he treated me and the people in this world as NPCs even though he knew that I was alive. He never thought he would be in the same situation.
“No matter how much you or I claim to be alive, the players will still think we are crazy NPCs. Of course, if you don’t like it, you can just kill it.”
“Ooh, that’s funny! An NPC is like a program without emotions! We are people with feelings! “Is there any game in the world that uses real humans as NPCs?”
“Isn’t that what Director Choi and CEO Park were doing? “I was trying to create a program that was more like a real human than a human.”
“Uh-huh! Don’t get me involved with CEO Park! I’m like that…”
“Lemina Project.”
It was not Park Se-hee who interrupted Choi Jae-man.
“Hundred… Work… ?”
“It is known in the world as an artificial intelligence program that is more human than humans, but… The Remina project was actually about trapping the consciousness of patients who were in a vegetative state in a machine and tricking it into thinking it was artificial intelligence.”
Artificial intelligence idol, Remina. What was recreated as a hologram like a live-action idol was actually a living human being. I know the inside story of the ugly truth that CEO Park Jun-hyuk has been hiding. Not only that, but also the past of Director Choi Jae-man, who participated in that atrocity.
“How did you… No…”
For a moment, Choi Jae-man looked at Park Se-hee as if he was shocked.
“Her… Indeed, it was so. Secretary Park. Did you investigate this and report it to the Count? This is absurd. By bringing in an outsider who didn’t matter, did you want to increase your side by at least one person?”
“You’re an outsider. This person is…”
“I gave it to you just because you had a nice face, but you ungrateful b*tch! “Are you going to stab me in the back like this?”
“No. What do you mean by that? At one point, I said they brought me here because of my experience as a game tester…”
“Noisy! “You vile traitor!”
Choi Jae-man, who was showing blatant hostility toward Park Se-hee, turned his head and said to me.
“Look. Count. I don’t know what she heard, but I guess I’m not that bad of a person. I did that project purely for money. Don’t you know? Huh? “I didn’t sell out my friends or family, I just made money from patients I never knew.”
Stellar, which gained attention through the Remina project, received enormous amounts of money from various sources. The money soon became the fund to invent Milky Way, the machine that created this world, but some of it ended up in the hands of Director Choi Jae-man. This was a fact that Park Se-hee discovered through research while working as his secretary
“Well, of course I also have remorse. But that was all something I had to do because of money. “Please, like a great man, forget the past generously.”
“Director Choi… No, Mr. Choi Jae-man… The person you are is really…”
Park Se-hee glared at Choi Jae-man with an expression of boredom. However, Choi Jae-man was rather confident.
“Count. That woman next to you is a cunning fox. “She’s under you now, but you never know when she’ll see an opportunity and stab her in the back.”
“Under! Me?”
“How can someone who betrayed once not betrayed again? Huh? Oh yeah. I dare suggest, why not throw that cunning woman away and join hands with me? I promise to give it my all. “I will make you more money than that woman.”
“It’s amazing… Don’t talk nonsense. Do you think players will listen to you?”
“Well, it’s probably more likely that they’ll listen to me than you. Just leave it somewhere. If you look for it, there will be at least one player who can help you.”
“Okay. As you said, there were players who felt sorry for ‘us’.”
“… Count… ?”
“But they weren’t enough. “It was ridiculously insufficient to counter the madness of the players.”
No matter what I did, it was useless. Neither appeals nor screams worked for the players. They burned everything and devastated this world. That was a fact that I confirmed with painful regret through 526 regressions. A look of puzzle appeared on Choi Jae-man’s face as he had no knowledge of his past. Especially since an ordinary human would not think that there was a return.
“How can you determine that when you haven’t even tried it yet?”
“Aren’t you trusting the players too easily?”
“They are from the same world as me. I can convince them. Ah… But what if I feel untrustworthy because of what I heard from that woman? Don’t worry. As I said before, the Remina project…”
“Stop.”
I cut him off in a calm voice.
“There is no need to try to disguise what you have done. Through the Remina project, you and CEO Park must have realized how difficult it is to create a program that is more human than a human. So, he must have realized that ‘it is easier to just present a new dimensional world as a game than to make a game that is more realistic than reality.’ Of course it’s a ridiculous idea. But CEO Park Jun-hyuk made it happen. Through Jeong So-ra’s imagination.”
Choi Jae-man’s pupils got bigger. Even though it was a story I heard from Park Se-hee, it wasn’t enough to tell such a detailed story, and even CEO Park and So-ra’s names came out of my mouth.
“Uh, how could something like that… ? Did you hear it from Park Se-hee?!”
“I’ll tell you an interesting story. “A year ago, a man was working under CEO Park Jun-hyuk.”
“… “What?”
“He was possessed by Park Jun-hyuk in this world. That too, the cursed pig, Count Tristan Ruelvertaro.”
“That… For a moment…”
Choi Jae-man sat down in his seat as if his legs had lost their strength.
“Oh, no. It can’t be…”
“Thanks to him, he had to be trapped in this world for a year, leaving behind his only sister.”
“Nonsense… Could it be that you… You… !”
Why did I know Park Se-hee?
Did you know the inside story well?
Choi Jae-man, who realized everything, spit out the man’s name in an ecstatic voice.
“Jeong Ji-hwan… !”