Chapter 38
Andrei was in the hallway outside the door, sipping on a dark beer.
“… Were you listening?”
“It’s not my fault the boss has a loud voice.”
Andrei shrugged.
“Though it is my fault that I have good hearing.”
“… So, what do you think?”
“Seo Yeonhee makes a good point.”
“You think we should follow her?”
“It would be better for the boss, too.”
Andrei took a sip of his beer.
“We’re hiding too, because we think it’s the best thing to do.”
“… Until when?”
“Until the world changes?”
Andrei laughed.
It was a bitter smile, like the beer.
“Well, I don’t know when the world will change.”
“…”
Mason held out his hand.
Andrei handed him the beer.
Mason took a small sip, just enough to wet his mouth, and swallowed.
It wasn’t enough to get him drunk, only to spread the bitterness.
“Thanks.”
Mason returned the beer.
Andrei grinned.
“Don’t mention it.”
Mason smiled.
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That evening.
A press conference, combined with an official raid briefing, was held at the Revengers’ guild hall.
Even in a world where Players held celebrity-like status, a press conference this intense was rare.
Both the organizers and the participants knew the reason.
It was because of Mason.
“The outcome of this raid is…”
The brief briefing passed by dully, and then Mason took the stage.
At that moment, flashes erupted simultaneously.
Mason smiled, surrendering himself to the flashes and lenses.
A tense moment.
Seo Yeonhee pointed at several reporters.
It meant they were the pre-arranged reporters.
“Before the press conference, I have something to tell you all.”
Mason smiled.
Seo Yeonhee was startled by that relaxed smile.
Something, something was going wrong.
Something that should be stopped right now… was beginning.
“I am not a person of this time, of this world.”
Mason smiled.
“I… am a superhuman from the future.”
It was the moment Mason slipped from Seo Yeonhee’s control.
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The briefing was long, and there were many questions.
This press conference hall, both large and small, was becoming the epicenter of a world-shaking event.
Many believed, even more doubted. And more than the sum of the two were skeptical.
Like a stone thrown into a pond creating ripples, Mason, the stone, was causing ripples in this world.
The press conference, which was longer than expected, ended late at night.
“Phew…”
The heat from the camera flashes and lighting had dried his sweat. His face was shiny with the sebum left behind as the sweat dried.
He would have to get used to this discomfort, too.
Just like he would have to get used to the lights and the cameras.
Wiping his face with his sleeve, Mason walked down the empty hallway.
No, he walked down the hallway that had been empty.
“A big storm is coming.”
It was Seo Yeonhee.
She spoke calmly and composedly, with an expressionless face that hid a mixture of worry and anger.
“A weight you may not be able to handle, even you, Mason, is coming.”
“I know.”
“People’s common sense, an unbearable shock, will rush in.”
“I… know that too.”
“Why?”
Seo Yeonhee asked.
“Then… why did you do that?”
“Because I have to handle it.”
Mason said calmly.
“The weight I have to bear… will be the weight of the hopes people place in me. The shock that will rush in on people… will be the shock of the world expanding.”
“Why do you have to carry that burden?”
“Because I can change the world.”
“Why do you have to change the world?”
“Because I want to.”
Mason said quietly, but firmly.
“Because I… want to be hope.”
“But…”
Seo Yeonhee’s eyes, which had been holding back her emotions, wavered.
The silhouette of a person overlapped with Mason’s massive figure.
A person she could never forget, and would never be able to forget.
“…”
She was about to say something, but then closed her mouth with a bitter expression.
The conversation was over.
Mason had nothing more to say, and Seo Yeonhee could say no more.
Mason passed by Seo Yeonhee.
The moment the two of them passed each other.
Mason looked up at the moonlit night through the window.
He faced the future, thinking about what was to come.
And, Seo Yeonhee lowered her head and looked at the tiles.
She looked at the past, thinking about what had passed.
The man who had left the future and the woman tied to the past thought.
This night would surely be a long one.
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It was an old memory.
On the day of Mason’s coming-of-age ceremony, his uncle, Robert Park, was with him instead of his father who was on Mars.
A place where he was no longer someone’s ward, but an a*ult.
And… a place where he decided what kind of life he wanted to live.
A small occasion if it was small, and a momentous one if it was momentous.
“Mason.”
Robert Park, the G*d-King of Science and the head of the Council of Sages, asked gently as always.
“Now… you’ve become an a*ult.”
“Yes, Uncle.”
With a gentle smile, Robert Park asked,
“What kind of person do you want to be?”
“I…”
Sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic, and a scientist who has surpassed the horizon of knowledge is indistinguishable from a g*d.
Robert Park could grant any wish.
Mason looked at Robert Park.
His uncle, Robert Park, achieved his wish of becoming a person who grants people’s wishes.
His father, Winston Park, was working towards his wish of terraforming Mars.
Great dreams, beautiful lives.
But big dreams weren’t always good.
Because once embraced, dreams could consume a person’s life all too easily.
His uncle and his father had achieved their dreams, and were achieving them, but from a different perspective, they had to throw their entire lives into those dreams.
An ordinary life wasn’t bad either. A life without want, enjoying the fruits of civilization and the power of science.
After all, wasn’t abundance and safety the instinct of all living things?
Mason closed his eyes slowly.
There was no need for lies or hypocrisy.
The dream he held in this moment was the only truth.
‘What kind of person do I want to be?’
Mason asked himself, and answered himself.
“… A friend.”
“Hm?”
“I want to be a person who can make friends.”
Once embraced, the dream began to swell like a bursting dam.
“I want to make new friends in a new place.”
“Within the scope of our awareness, we are the only intelligent life in the universe.”
“Then I have to go beyond that.”
Mason put his hand on his chest.
“I want to meet those whom I could not meet because they are far away. I want to be friends with those who cannot be friends because we cannot meet. That is my wish, and the way of life I desire.”
“You want to be a deep space explorer.”
“Yes.”
Having embraced his dream, Mason felt a sense of unease.
Robert Park was the head of the Council of Sages. He was the one who granted everyone’s wishes.
Conversely, it meant he was the one who had heard everyone’s wishes.
‘How will my uncle evaluate my dream?’
As if reading his anxious curiosity, Robert Park said with a gentle smile,
“It’s not an easy dream. You’ll need a lot of help.”
“Yes.”
Robert fell into thought.
“It will be a long journey, so you’ll need a very efficient spaceship and body. If something unexpected happens, you’ll need to be able to survive in extreme environments. And above all… since you want to meet as a human, you shouldn’t have any body modifications that go beyond the human form.”
“Will it be difficult?”
“It seems like it will be an interesting challenge.”
Robert smiled gently.
It was the softest way to put it, but it meant it wouldn’t be easy or simple.
Mason hesitated, then asked,
“Will it be worth it?”
“Hm?”
Mason looked at Robert.
“Will my dream… be worth it?”
“As the head of the Council of Sages, I believe that every dream is worth dreaming. And as your uncle… I like your dream.”
Robert looked up at the night sky.
“It would be a very sad thing if we were the only ones in this universe. I’m sure those out there feel the same way. Wouldn’t it be rewarding to alleviate our loneliness and theirs? If the darkness between the stars, the darkness of the night sky, were colored with the mystery of the unknown instead of the emptiness of nothingness, wouldn’t that be a beautiful thing?”
Robert looked at Mason.
“Achieve your dream, Mason. For that dream will paint our universe anew…”
“Uncle…”
His heart swelled.
Even if he had to wander alone for decades, hundreds of years, or even thousands of years, he would never forget this moment of emotion.
This feeling of having his dream recognized by the person he respected most.
Mason looked up at the night sky.
“Uncle.”
“What is it?”
“But… what if, when I meet someone like that, they don’t want to be my friend?”
“…”
“What should I do if they don’t accept me, saying I’m an intruder, that I can’t be their friend?”
Robert’s face grew darker and darker.
With a lonely expression that Mason had never seen before, an expression he had never seen since he was born, Robert said,
“…I hope that doesn’t happen.”
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Mason woke up when he arrived home.
“We’ve arrived, Guild Leader-nim.”
The driver assigned by the Revengers woke Mason.
“…”
The driver looked puzzled when Mason, still lost in the afterglow of his dream, remained silent.
“Is something wrong?”
“No… No, I’m sorry.”
Mason got up from his seat.
Despite the deep night, even before dawn, paparazzi who seemed to have no intention of hiding were pointing their cameras at him around the front gate.
Mason sighed and went into the house.
As he closed the front door, he spoke quietly.
“…Who is it?”
In his familiar room, there was an unfamiliar presence.
As he looked around, he saw a woman sitting on the couch.
A woman who looked like a girl sitting on a throne fit for an a*ult, because it was custom-ordered for his massive frame.
“Yekaterina.”
“Didn’t we agree to call me Kacha?”
“Yeah, Kacha.”
Mason grumbled.
“Didn’t it occur to you to wait for the owner before entering an empty house?”
“I couldn’t bring myself to linger at the front door.”
Yekaterina said in a calm voice.
“There were too many paparazzi with cameras.”
“…Well, that’s true.”
Mason’s interview was shaking the world.
It was still too early for the repercussions to come back, but the reverberations themselves were certainly racing across the globe.
He would soon be the most famous person in the world.
And Mason’s declaration of being a superhuman would become one of the most famous sayings in the world.
Perhaps even words that changed history.
