Chapter 75
Chapter 75
"There isn’t much to do today. Let’s go to my workshop and just talk a little."
"Your workshop?"
Lude’s eyebrow twitched up.
Mages hardly ever let others into their workshops. It was partly about manners, but letting someone in was almost the same as exposing all your magic.
Just as modern creators were sensitive about plagiarism, mages were sensitive about workshops. There was a reason Min Jaeyoon said magic was similar to coding.
Even with the same spell, the formulas and arrays people used were all different, so copying someone else’s as is got you treated as ill-mannered.
"Yes, ta-da! Here it is. Isn’t it pretty?"
Baek Jangmi smiled. When she said workshop, he had imagined something like Min Jaeyoon’s library workshop, but it was a lovely glasshouse. An indoor garden where Baek Jangmis were in full bloom.
"May I just go in as I please?"
"Yes, it’s fine! Even if you figure it out, you absolutely can’t replicate this structure anyway."
Baek Jangmi winked. Only then did Lude sigh, open the door, and step into the workshop.
The glasshouse brimmed with white mana. White flowers, a white interior, and a woman in white. In the all-white space, only Lude was black.
Walking ahead along a corridor lined with white roses in full bloom, Baek Jangmi spoke. At her touch, white mana danced, and the slightly wilted roses all burst into bloom at once.
"I’ll ask quickly first. Exactly what part of the camera scares you?"
"Well…"
Having to tell his weakness to someone he had just met made Lude pause for a deep breath. Baek Jangmi nodded as if to say he could speak freely.
He hesitated for a moment and shut his eyes tight. He was afraid to say it. But if he didn't speak, nothing would begin.
He had come this far because he didn't want to remain half a person. He opened his eyes and spoke.
"I hate being in headlines."
"Oh, I see~"
"I want to be forgotten. I hate the very fact that complete strangers say my name and use me as a talking point."
"My, that really is a wish you absolutely can't have as the number one in the world."
Folding her arms, she turned her gaze aside for a moment as if choosing her words.
"You… know I spent time in the entertainment industry, right?"
"Yes, I heard from Hunter Min Jaewon."
Lude nodded. Gauging Lude’s mood, Baek Jangmi spoke carefully.
"There is one thing I felt to the bone there. I don’t know if it fits your situation, but it likely isn’t wrong either. Will you hear me out?"
"What is it?"
"That attention lasts exactly two weeks."
Baek Jangmi let out a long sigh. Her expression looked slightly hollow, maybe fed up.
"These days there is too much in the world to pay attention to. Unless content becomes a meme or has a steady stream of bait, its shelf life is short. I guarantee you, even if you show up on broadcast TV, three weeks… no, within a week you are forgotten."
"Is that so. It lasted a long time for me, though."
Lude’s expression turned grim. Ten years ago, how much had he suffered? How much had he tormented himself? The days when he couldn't stay at his own home and lived at Jeong Suho’s.
Nari had not even been able to go outside. The fear that someone would follow her had been too intense. In an instant his trust in the woman before him dropped.
Reading that on his face, Baek Jangmi smiled faintly. The life she had lived and the life Lude had lived were different.
Baek Jangmi stared straight at him, then clapped her hands.
"All right. Then shall we see it by prophecy?"
"What do you mean?"
Click. Seeing the ice-cold flash in Lude’s eyes, Baek Jangmi stopped before a wall covered in Baek Jangmis. Before Lude could ask what she planned to do, she spoke first.
"Shall we bet on what happens if you appear as you are at Hunters’ Night and get photographed by reporters? Whether I am right, or you are right that it lasts long."
"What if you rig it?"
Seeing the cold gleam in Lude’s eyes, Baek Jangmi smiled. If she carelessly provoked him, the delicate mana threaded through the workshop might unravel, so she did her best not to set him off.
"If it is you, you will notice something like that. Besides, that’s not the kind of power this is."
Baek Jangmi tapped the white roses with her fingertips. White mana melted through the roses.
"Then, shall we look at the future?"
[Incarnation Exclusive Trait :: Master Holding a Beast’s Leash activated!]
[Constellation, ‘Eighth King of the Apocalypse,’ exercises authority!]
A beast’s growl rumbled in Lude’s ear. The moment he thought he had heard that sound once before, the white roses changed color.
[Trait :: Heavenly Performer activated! Filtering false information.]
A familiar scene rose before Lude’s eyes.
"What is this."
Before he knew it, the Baek Jangmis had shifted colors and formed the search screens of the internet portal sites Lude had been looking at.
It felt like looking at multiple monitors at once. At some point, a keyboard sat before them.
Pop, the sound of SNS feeds refreshing again and again rang out. A wave of information climbed like a mountain. Even in the dizziness of it, Baek Jangmi stood before the keyboard with austere poise and smiled.
"Now, shall we search?"
"Do you do prophecies like this?"
"Maybe because I am a former broadcaster, it comes to me in an internet-related form."
A person who made the most accurate prophecies in Korea. It was inevitable. Her prophecies were not hunches, but the results of big-data analysis.
"All right, let’s assume you appear at Hunters’ Night and try to predict the internet chatter around it. Since you said you hate being taxidermied, shall we check the mention frequency?"
"…Yes, please do."
"A one-month period. That should be enough, right?"
When Lude nodded, Baek Jangmi typed something. Lude could see the input parameters she set on the screen.
When she hit Enter, the Baek Jangmis changed color and rapidly compiled information in real time.
They filtered out false information and produced reliable data. In less than three minutes, the graph was complete.
"Oh my, as expected of you. You are very popular huh? If you appear, you will dominate SNS that day!"
"…"
Lude stared blankly at the graph. He became the main content across all SNS.
The main reaction was favorable. The main keywords were the hard work he had done, likability, glasses, and his relationship with Kang Ihyun. The man of one suit.
At the slightly ridiculous phrase, Lude raised a finger.
"Why does ‘his relationship with… Kang Ihyun’ come up?"
"Because the chemistry between you two is good."
"And the man of one suit?"
"All right, shall we roll forward a week?"
Lightly ignoring Lude’s question, Baek Jangmi entered a date one week later and pressed Enter. Beep. The graph sank. Mention frequency had dropped a lot.
"It dropped a lot, huh?"
"Yes, because it is the year’s end."
Lude still ranked as a popular keyword in major SNS content, but he was clearly pushed back. What heated the internet were ‘ugly Christmas sweaters’ and ‘useless gifts,’ and the like.
After that, Baek Jangmi rolled it forward two weeks. The keywords mentioning Lude grew smaller and smaller, then ‘year-end idol music specials’ and ‘New Year gifts’ soon surpassed him. Baek Jangmi spoke with a triumphant face.
"I was right, wasn’t I?"
"…Is this certain? Couldn’t it change?"
Suspicious, Lude stared at the graph. Baek Jangmi giggled and looked at him.
"Then shall we search for some Hunter other than you?"
As if to say he could try it himself, Baek Jangmi yielded the keyboard to Lude. He nodded and searched for other Hunters who came to mind. Most showed a similar pattern to Lude’s.
"Can I… Can I trust this?"
Lude looked flustered. What unfolded was too different from what he had experienced. Watching him, Baek Jangmi shrugged.
"These days, even if you want attention, you can't get it. People take only the tastiest parts and forget quickly. And older bait topics, everyone waves them off as out of trend."
Lude made a face of disbelief. Seeing that, Baek Jangmi thought for a moment, then spoke.
"And everyone is going to treat you gently. You know, that video at the school. Sujin told the PR department to take it down, but since it was live, everyone saw it."
"Why?"
At the mention of the school, the video of him fainting, Lude frowned. Twirling a strand of hair, Baek Jangmi smiled and said,
"Oh my, you didn't see that video? Then you should. Hmm. I think it will help you feel more at ease"
"No, I refuse! Obviously people will pad it this way and that and spread it!"
"Here, this is one of the videos that were deleted that day."
Even as Lude protested, Baek Jangmi smiled and clicked the virtual keyboard. Before the scowling Lude, the Baek Jangmis all changed color at once and played the footage from that day.
[Turn off the cameras!!!]
What came first was Kang Ihyun’s shout. Startled, Lude looked at the screen again. Kang Ihyun, face tight with anger, sat bracing the fainted Lude.
Seeing Kang Ihyun that furious, for the first time, Lude briefly clenched his coat. Kang Ihyun’s shout continued.
[I said turn them off, can’t you hear me?! Do you really have to film even this?! What on earth is wrong with you…!]
Scowling and raising his voice, Kang Ihyun soon let out a long sigh. A few reporters lowered their cameras, but others still flashed their lights.
[Forget it. Whatever. Is this fun to you? Do you really like this?]
He took off his coat, put it over Lude, lifted him in his arms, and pushed through the reporters.
[Whatever. I am the fool for expecting better.]
Kang Ihyun frowned and glared at the reporters. The video ended there.
Although the video ended, Lude kept gripping the coat and staring at the screen. He couldn't take his eyes off it.
All that time, what had Nari wanted the most? Not to be a consumable, to be forgotten.
In truth, more than that, what she had wanted was people who, seeing the cameras turned on her, could say "turn them off."
Lude shook his head hard.
‘No. If I look at the comments, it will be the same. They will be snickering again. They will definitely make that moment into a meme and use it as a composite element.’
Eyes shut tight, Lude checked the comments. The top-voted comment floated up.
JiYoung Im, 1 month ago
-Why on earth are they even filming this? I don't understand and it does not make me feel good. Is broadcasting someone in a state where they can't even come to their senses really what you mean to do?
SillaGeneralLuciferLaughsInTheDesert, 1 month ago
-If you see videos like this, please hit dislike and report them! And they said you can email the Sanctuary PR department to report it!
There, Nari saw a whole new world.