The one waiting for me in front of the elevator.
The new hire, Kim Heowoon.
"Mr. Employee?"
I cannot distinguish people's faces.
They appear like melting mosaics, and their voices are as difficult to discern as old radio recordings.
Thus, I cannot know how much the 'new employee Kim Heowoon' standing before the elevator now resembles Jang Heowoon whom I once knew… but I can be sure of one thing.
'…This is strange.'
This is a strange situation.
And standing beside me is someone who knows that better than I do.
One of the company's directors.
"Hello. You must be the new employee for the Field Exploration Team."
"Ah. Yes…! My name is Kim Heowoon."
"I see. …But how did you get in here?"
"...Pardon?"
"You're with the Field Exploration Team, right? Then you shouldn't be able to enter this Security Team area arbitrarily… I was wondering how you ended up here."
Silence.
"And how did you find this elevator? And that this Mr. Employee would be here"
Ho Yuwon pointed at me.
"How did you know?"
"..."
His lips parted.
"I imitated."
…What?
"I imitated the Security Team to get in, and I imitated the Research Team to know your location."
'Imitated…?'
At that moment a bad premonition struck.
A smile spread across Kim Heowoon's unseen face.
"But I've already achieved my purpose for joining, so I don't mind being fired for this."
And he looked at me.
"Mr. Employee."
-My purpose for joining this company.
-It’s because there was something I had to find.
It was me.
"You don't need to worry. I didn't cause any disturbance. I just came to seize an opportunity for a formal introduction... I wanted to express my gratitude."
Then Kim Heowoon bowed deeply to me.
"Thank you for saving us. Thanks to you, everyone at the facility is alive."
...
Wait a moment.
"Because Jang Heowoon's wish came true thanks to you, Mr. Employee."
The meaning of those words...
"Ah. Unfortunately, my guess was wrong. Roe deer-nim."
I realized.
That the two Wish Tickets delivered to Go Yeongeun were both used...
'She didn't use the Wish Tokens to save Jang Heowoon…!'
After all, it's unlikely that such an intelligent and composed person would suddenly make a careless wish on a Wish Ticket.
If anything…
'She would have been more anxious about the Wish Tickets remaining in her possession.'
Because someone might notice and steal them.
Furthermore, she might have heard news that the Disaster Management Bureau was doing its best for Jang Heowoon's recovery, but it was uncertain when he would fully recover.
In that case, it would be more logical to use one Ticket on behalf of Jang Heowoon before any misfortune occurred while holding onto the Wish Tickets indefinitely…
She entrusted the recovery from contamination to the Disaster Management Bureau, as there were precedents like the Security Team.
Instead, she must have made a real wish.
Something like.
‘Please grant Jang Heowoon's wish.’
And Jang Heowoon's wish was...
-“I wanted to save my precious family.”
...
I saw Jang Heowoon's wish come true before my eyes.
One of his family members, under the name Kim Heowoon.
The people at the religious social welfare facility in the countryside where the orphan Jang Heowoon grew up, which had been completely destroyed by a fire.
[An interesting situation. Friend.]
[Moreover. How does this person know that it was you, friend, who was the one who handed over the Wish Ticket?]
[And doesn't the vague explanation of 'I imitated,' bother you?]
…That.
'I have a guess…'
The chill crawling up my spine tells me. A conjecture that strikes my mind like a shock.
…It narrows down to a Q&A.
>Question: Relationship with Jang Heowoon
"Ah. We are family who grew up in the same facility. Seven out of eight of us died in a fire, though."
>Question: Reason for sharing the same name
"At the facility, people who live together are given the same name. Our surnames were different, but we shared the given name. Because we’re family."
>Question: Rules shared by the family
"There aren't really rules… but we received the same education, ate the same food, and slept in the same place to live up to the name 'Heowoon.' So that we can have the same experiences, fairly."
>Question: Example of living up to the name Heowoon'
"Ah. It wasn't difficult. For example… sleeping late and waking up late."
...
"Reading poetry at least twice a week, becoming afraid of blood, starting middle school a year early, and dropping out of high school."
And.
"When meeting shamans or people of other religions, we don't introduce ourselves by our own names."
...
The last question.
>Question: Name of the facility
"Ah, that place is..."
And I already knew the answer.
There were countless strange organizations in this world, but there was only one crazy organization that operated an orphanage in this manner...
"…It's a facility called Paradise of Love Shelter."
...
Paradise of Love
"Do you know it?"
I know it.
A rather famous cult in Korea in this world setting.
I had seen its name once at the Disaster Management Bureau.
-“Human life is filled with fear. A Lover of Paradise awaits you to protect you and love you so that you are no longer afraid. Come to the Paradise of Love.”
That was the phrase the agents used when impersonating cult recruiters while handling the ghost story of ‘Red Clothes at Exit 4' at Team Baekho, based on my suggestion.
However, more comes to my mind than that.
Because the facility was registered on the <Dark Exploration Record> wiki with its own page.
Paradise of Love
One of the new religions that became popular in Korea in the early 2000s in the world of <Dark Exploration Record>.
It gained fame on the early internet by recruiting young people with slogans like 'You can meet your ideal type,' or 'We will make you into your imagined ideal type.'
However, in reality, it was an unethical, shamanistic cult that forced its followers to undergo bizarre rituals to become something suitable for a specific being called the 'Lover of Paradise' by remodeling their lives.
The hypothesis is that It was influenced by the Church of the Luminous Unknown's Mimicry Sect, and it was eventually established as one of the affiliated organizations of the church.
That facility belongs to the Church of Luminous Unknown.
Jang Heowoon grew up in a Church of Luminous Unknown facility.
And he joined Daydream Inc. to save the fellow cult members he grew up with...The orphans from the facility he called 'family,' who were also subjects of the same rituals.
'...'
Reaching this point, I understood how Lee Heowoon of the Cheerful Research Institute was connected...
'That Heowoon was the target of the ritual.'
In cases where the 'Lover of Paradise' is a real, existing person, an attempt may be made to steal narratives of the individual through ritualistic processes that imitate that person.
Thus, this is an act that follows the doctrine of the Church of Luminous Unknown, which seeks to become a meaningful existence in this world.
'They were raising someone in order to imitate Lee Heowoon of the Cheerful Research Institute, to steal that researcher’s role?’
Details not recorded in the <Dark Exploration Record>, which I didn't know, are now reaching me through the words of those around me.
The cold sweat that cannot flow down feels like an illusion, as if it's trickling down my spine...
[Ah, imitating someone's life trajectory one by one, creating a role that resembles their story...]
[Perhaps inheriting the spirit of industrial capitalism, they treat stories as if they were processing machine parts...]
[As if expecting the same product if the same process is followed!]
And one of those products stood before us.
A replica made after 'Lee Heowoon.'
Kim Heowoon bowed his head deeply.
"Pardon, um. Actually, saying I came just for an introduction was a lie."
...
"I have something I desperately need to ask of you, Mr. Employee."
He said with extreme politeness.
A preposterous statement.
"Just as you took in Jang Heowoon, could you take all of us in as well?"
…!!
"We can tell. Because we are the same ‘Heowoon’. …Isn't Jang Heowoon happy under your care now?"
My head started to ache.
>Reason for the request
"…We cannot return anywhere else."
His voice lowered.
"The facility where we were burned down, and to other Paradise of Love Shelters… we cannot go there. ...We cannot live as we did before."
I didn't need him to tell me why.
'The fire.'
That fire was also part of the ritual to imitate the narrative of a researcher from Cheerful Research Institute...
And Jang Heowoon, who survived that fire and had the narrative of 'survived a major fire at the facility of residence,' was the finished product.
But this person… was one of the people culled and used as material in that process.
"Please, give us the same name that Jang Heowoon received." [1]
...
"Then, we can exist as the same person. Because that's how we grew up!"
His voice became desperate.
"…It seems meaningful that Jang Heowoon went first. Like the eldest son, the firstborn, receiving the surname 'Jang,' doesn't it? Then we will continue to..."
I raised my hand.
Kim Heowoon hastily bowed his head, assuming a posture as if expecting to be touched by my hand...but.
Smoke rose from my hand.
>Rejection
"…Pardon?"
>Other choices
>Leave behind Lee Heowoon's life
>Live your own life
"What? But… I…"
Hmph, I heard Ho Yuwon chuckle softly beside the elevator. As if hearing a preposterous suggestion.
And then.
"I have already received the Mimicry's Divine authority, so, in order to come here... Therefore, if it continues like this, I won't be able to escape–"
"You've become unhappy, haven't you?"
Screech.
Kim Heowoon is split in two.
Before my eyes, the upper body of the bisected body falls askew, splashing onto the floor with a thud.
Blood spreads.
Blood wets the tips of my feet.
And so, for the first time, I could see Kim Heowoon's face.
Because he had died and ceased to be human.
The dead face of the young man in his twenties, with a somewhat dark and gentle impression, quite similar to Jang Heowoon, was frozen, stained with expectation and despair.
"Now you will be happy forever, congratulations."
And I realized.
Wish Tickets are personally omnipotent.
Therefore, the fact that seven people simply came back to life, instead of Go Yeongeun or Heowoon being transported to another world during the process of Jang Heowoon's wish coming true, says it all.
It was judged that this wish could not have a significant impact on the world.
Because.
—They would die again soon.
"Hello?"
I raised my head.
Covered in Kim Heowoon's blood, the one smiling so sincerely was a delicate-looking adolescent girl.
She was even wearing a worn-out old school uniform.
But the emergency broadcast of the company that began to sound made me guess her true identity...
[Evacuation Alert. High-Risk Intruder Containment Failure. Evacuation Alert. High-Risk Intruder Containment Failure. Evacuation Alert. High-Risk Intruder Containment Failure...]
…So I thought.
'Kim Heowoon said he entered by imitating.'
That he received the Mimicry sect’s Divine authority.
That's not something one could obtain unless they grew up in the ritualistic facilities disguised as new religions, deep within the Church of Luminous Unknown...
Which meant one thing.
Someone had helped him.
"Wow, you look pretty cool."
The one who swallowed dozens of fragments of the Sacred Law Scriptures, who had become more like a ghost story than a person, willingly and fanatically.
A follower of Ireum-nim.
"Do you, by any chance, know Ireum-nim?"
A high-ranking member of the Church of Luminous Unknown stood before me.
And from her speech and actions, I could infer… a denomination of the church.
Not the Mimicry sect. This was...
The Happy Ending Sect.
The sect within the Church of the Luminous Unknown that pursues the most altruistic values. To those whom Ireum-nim does not look upon, to those who have no chance of surviving the end, to those considered meaningless in this world, the sect strives to grant the gift of a true happy ending.
And the path is simple. Death.
For the dead cannot fall into unhappiness ever again.
"It's okay if you don't know. Well, both Fox and Dragon are cool… Let's go together."
The elevator we rode in...
…twisted.
"Let us all serve Ireum-nim together."
TL Note:
[1]: Name here is also Ireum ↩
Church of Luminous Unknown: is divided into 6 sects (not all are known yet) this includes: Mimicry sect also known as Imitation sect/cult and affiliated with it is Paradise of Love. And the other known sect is Happy Ending Sect.
Ireum-nim is the God they serve, other translations might have called it "Lord name" but Ireum is directly translated into Name.
I'm trying to be as consistent as possible with the names and titles but if I screw up let me know.
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