Chapter 32
Chapter 32
It Wasn’t About That
***
“It was probably the original plan to suppress everything quickly the moment Allen and Ito took action. Right?”
“You noticed that too?”
By the time they escaped the mansion, they had already figured out that there were more people than necessary.
Only then did they think everyone swarming them from all sides was one of Norman’s colleagues.
“If no one had rushed out, it would have ended quietly.”
“Well, I’m sorry about that.”
“Still, it puts me at ease. It seems Dobby has made proper friends. It’s different from the original plan, but I won’t be stingy with the reward.”
Up to that point, Koln finished speaking and let out a dry cough.
“Cough, cough.”
The sound of his breathing did not stop no matter how many times it repeated.
When Koln failed to steady himself and nearly collapsed, Sera quickly stepped forward and supported him.
“So it looks like you weren’t completely free of chronic illness.”
“If it’s managed well, it doesn’t interfere with daily life.”
“Don’t tell me Dobby was affected too?”
“It’s sad that I can’t deny that.”
It meant it was a hereditary disease. One that ran in the family.
However, compared to Koln, who was relatively fine, Dobby was in a state where he couldn’t even step outside.
“Why didn’t you modify Dobby’s genes?”
That was also a question I had been holding ever since meeting Dobby.
The fifth-generation gene scissors, ‘Gaius,’ discovered after the fourth-generation gene scissors ‘Prime Editor,’ were advanced enough to allow even heterozygous combinations.
The gene modification technology distributed in modern society could be said to rival alchemy.
Of course, difficulty and cost were proportional, but Koln was the head of a megacorp. It would not have been an exaggeration to say that there was almost nothing he couldn’t achieve if he wished.
“It’s not that I didn’t do it. It’s because I did.”
“Because you did?”
“You know that the human gene pool has its limits, don’t you?”
“Roughly.”
For example, let’s say someone wanted to fly in the sky.
If they reached that goal through gene modification, they would naturally end up with a structure similar to that of birds.
Their bone density would decrease to make flight easier, and only the muscle density of the upper body would become enlarged, going through such an evolutionary process.
They couldn’t change while retaining human characteristics. To begin with, the human body structure wasn’t suited for flight.
These kinds of side effects appeared most commonly even in muscle and skeletal enhancement, which was the most frequently performed.
To maintain the heightened metabolism, they had to consume calories several times that of an ordinary person.
If the technological level had remained at an agrarian society, they would have had to eat all day, but in modern society where food engineering had prevailed, it ended with consuming calorie bars.
In other words, it meant they had exceeded the limits of being human, but not escaped the limits of being a living organism.
“Dobby was a similar case.”
“What on earth were you aiming for? Did you want to create some kind of superhuman that went beyond enhanced humans?”
“If only that were the case. I merely wished for Dobby to be born ordinary.”
“It sounds as though you castrated a single genius-level ability.”
“That isn’t wrong. Yes, since you’ll be staying with that child from now on, you at least have the right to hear it.”
After steadying his breathing, Koln met Ga-on’s eyes as if he had made up his mind.
“Can you confidently say that all of humanity in this world belongs to a single species?”
“That’s an absurd question all of a sudden.”
Answering calmly, Ga-on scratched his chin. After all, he himself was immortal.
“You may not know this, but the evolution of humanity already began several hundred years ago.”
Somehow, Koln’s words carried a weight that couldn’t be dismissed. They even touched upon the answer Ga-on had pursued countless times.
“Dr. Lindermann, who invented the ion drive, and Dr. Isabella, called the mother of artificial intelligence. Each of them possessed their own special abilities.”
“No, wouldn’t it be stranger if people of that caliber didn’t have something like that?”
“I’m referring to abilities that are not innately permitted to the human species.”
“Are you saying they had supernatural abilities or something?”
“Yes. Individuals with manifested abilities, or Meta-humans. That’s what we’re called.”
Judging from the explanation, the ‘meta’ in Meta-human likely meant transcendence.
“That’s quite an interesting claim. If it’s true, that is.”
Though he spoke as if uninterested, Ga-on’s heart was secretly pounding. At the thought that others of his kind, whom he had never discovered before, might exist nearby.
“It’s not a lie, but a clear truth. At one time, I too belonged to that category.”
“Fine, let’s say they exist. Let’s say there’s some kind of inherited ability passed down through the family. But there’s no reason to eliminate it even at the cost of severe side effects, is there?”
If one were born with a truly special ability, wouldn’t preserving and maintaining it be the top priority rather than erasing it?
As if he had read Ga-on’s thoughts, Koln smiled bitterly. It wasn’t as though he had wanted to forcibly manipulate genes either.
However—
“If it came with dissociative identity disorder accompanied by chronic headaches, and unexplained nervous breakdowns, the story would be different.”
“If normal life was impossible, then it might be worth attempting. But then why did Dobby fail?”
That was despite Koln himself being a successful case.
“At the time, I believe my father borrowed the help of a certain Meta-human.”
“Then……”
Ga-on, who had been about to ask why they didn’t seek that help again, closed his mouth. He had already heard the answer just moments before.
“Dissociative identity disorder.”
“Yes. By the time I reached adulthood, my father had already become someone else. And he never returned, not even until the day he passed away.”
Unfortunately, Dobby had no choice but to receive incomplete treatment. The fact that Koln cherished him so much might also have been a defensive mechanism born from guilt.
“Judging by how long-winded your explanation is, you must want something, right?”
“It’s good that we understand each other. Yes, the reason I spoke so frankly about my circumstances is because I have one request to make.”
Baek Ga-on.
In Sera’s reports, he was no different from a talking beast. If what she had seen and heard was accurate, he was someone who could be compared to famous fixers.
And on top of that, he was Dobby’s friend.
There could be no better candidate than this.
“Find a Meta-human who can treat Dobby.”
“What’s the deadline?”
“I won’t set one.”
“I can’t guarantee anything.”
Meta-human.
Even Ga-on, who had lived for over three hundred years, was hearing the term for the first time. It was obvious that the municipal government, or a group even above it, was personally controlling the information.
“I’m not asking you to do it right away. If it’s a fixer of your caliber, you’ll eventually have a chance to come into contact with them. I’m just asking you to remember it.”
“You’re entrusting me with a heavy responsibility quite casually. I’ll accept it for now.”
From Ga-on’s perspective as well, Dobby being confined to lying down all the time wasn’t a pleasant situation.
Besides, whether sooner or later, having to make contact amounted to the same thing. It was an opportunity to learn about his own origins.
“And tell Allen to pick it up from Miss Siri. If we’re going to clean this up quietly, we’ll need him.”
“Siri?”
Koln made a foolish expression for a moment, but Ga-on answered by waving his hand.
“Then I’ll be on my way. Take care of the aftermath yourselves.”
***
Not long after, Allen Howard, the chief head of technology development at Maximum Noise, lost all his positions and was subjected to the severe punishment of the judicial system.
The death of Miyata Ito, who could be called his close associate, could be found as a single line even if only in gossip magazines.
It was an incident that could have shaken the main pillar of a megacorp, yet there were no outlets that covered it in depth.
The Seed Colony simply had far too many other incidents and accidents to deal with.
To Dobby, the person involved, it probably felt like a storm had passed, but from the outside, it was nothing more than a trivial happening.
The prevailing opinion was that it was an extension of internal housecleaning. There was nothing surprising about it. Koln had stepped in personally. Some people didn’t even realize that a series of disturbances had occurred at all.
In a way, it felt bitter.
Because it meant that the truths of the world were being buried like this as well. Just as the facts about Meta-humans had never surfaced until now.
‘It’s not something I should be worrying about.’
From the start, it wasn’t a problem that could be solved by brooding over it. If something festered, it festered, and if it burst, it burst. That was simply how the world worked.
What I needed to focus on was what came next.
Yes, it was time to pour my efforts into gathering technical grounds to conceal the fact that I was immortal.
It seemed that the same applied to Dobby as well.
“Thank you so much, Shinsin. Thanks to you, both Sera and I were able to come out unharmed.”
“Save your thanks. I did it for the money.”
“I realized a lot from this incident. No, saying that I had forgotten might be more accurate. Even if my father is the chairman of a megacorp, in the end, the only one who can protect me is myself.”
Dobby, who had returned to Lost Saga, wore a serious expression that felt somewhat different than usual.
“Your resolve is admirable, but there’s not much choice, is there?”
“Even with a body like this, there’s still something I can do, right?”
“Don’t tell me…….”
“I think I can be a Diver too. I even had a Slot inserted. Fortunately, the rejection response was minimal.”
A group that used their brains as computational devices to swim through a raging sea of information, Divers.
Peeking into secrets that others wanted to hide was an act that created both danger and value at the same time. It wasn’t a field a third-generation chaebol heir should recklessly jump into.
“Chairman Koln actually allowed that.”
“Maybe because I’ve never really gone outside before, this actually feels more comfortable. It’s not all that different from when I’m logged into Lost Saga.”
Unfortunately, being a Diver was an occupation where talent mattered greatly.
Disabling protections, designing bypass routes, and decrypting data weren’t things one could master just because someone taught them.
Whether Dobby’s impressions would end as a fleeting delusion or turn into a lasting reality in the future was something that needed more observation, but—
“Don’t overdo it.”
If what Koln said was true, Dobby was practically hanging off a cliff. If mental illness were added on top of physical ailments, it would become uncontrollable.
“Of course. Lost Saga always comes first for me.”
“That’s not what I meant, though.”
Even after going through a crisis, was Dobby still just Dobby? Watching his calm and composed demeanor made it feel like my worries had been unnecessary.
“Let’s enjoy the present. Life only comes once, after all.”
***
After logging out of Lost Saga, I removed the Connector. Having confirmed that Dobby was doing well, it was time to attend to my personal business.
This request was tangled enough that I had to take a long, roundabout path, but it wasn’t all disadvantages. Dobby, Sera, and even Koln, the clients involved were diverse and interconnected.
Thanks to that, the efficiency was considerable. It naturally allowed me to skip several stages of my original plans.
Just then, a new message arrived on my device.
The sender was the capsule hotel.
According to the contents, an android named Sera was waiting at the entrance.
At the unexpected summons, I went outside, and blue-green hair blossomed messily before my eyes.
“You’ve arrived.”
“Miss Siri.”