Chapter 201 – Episode 201: Revelation (2)
—Click.
Inside a room filled with the glow of a monitor.
—Click.
Takuya was diligently spinning the mouse wheel in that room.
The reason for spinning the mouse wheel was, of course:
‘I can’t stop the earthquake itself. So, I need to prepare for the collateral damage.’
It was to research the earthquake.
The Great East Japan Earthquake, also well-known to Koreans as the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Of course, it was something that had been gradually fading in the 2020s, but was reignited by the discharge of contaminated water.
For reference, this wasn’t from a class, but a story that came up by chance when an older guy in the military was talking about his trip to Japan.
Anyway, after looking at documents about the Great East Japan Earthquake for a while, Takuya closed his tired eyes and suddenly had this thought.
‘But even if I look at these documents, what can I do?’
Of course, he could do something if he wanted to.
He had some power in Miyagi Prefecture, although it was very small compared to the whole of Japan.
But that was it.
Even if I went to Fukushima right now and hypnotized everyone, I probably wouldn’t be able to prevent something like the Fukushima nuclear accident that was mentioned there.
That’s because I would have to manipulate the higher-ups.
Not just the nuclear power plant officials, but even the government.
It’s not a problem that can be solved by just the nuclear power plant officials.
Of course, I could do that too if I wanted to.
I could just work my ass off for a year.
But I didn’t want to.
As I said before, I was neither a saint nor a hero.
Rather, I was more of a villain.
Why should I bother with such a troublesome task?
Of course, from a humanitarian point of view, I should…
‘But I’m not exactly a humanitarian.’
I’m the kind of person who’s content if only the people around me are doing well.
Such a huge task is too much of a burden for someone like me.
‘Isn’t it just because you’re lazy?’
Yes. I’ll be blunt. The things I have to do to resolve this situation are annoying.
So, let’s say I overcome my laziness and somehow peace is achieved.
But since it’s still hypnosis that I’ve used, what if someone breaks free from the hypnosis and acts out?
First of all, they definitely won’t let it go easily.
I was actually more afraid of that than resolving the situation.
The thought of my peaceful daily life being shattered. More than anything else.
“Haa… I don’t know.”
Why is this kind of story being told to a guy like me?
They should have told it to someone with more responsibility and patriotism than me.
Takuya thought that to himself, but he didn’t put down the wheel and kept scrolling up and down.
Since he had been shown it, he had to know the content.
***
How long had it been since he started looking at the contents of the earthquake while moving the wheel?
After reading all the documents, Takuya thought to himself.
‘It’s a mess…’
That was my assessment of the Great East Japan Earthquake.
It was a mess.
The response was a mess, the follow-up measures were a mess.
In short, it was a mess.
Honestly, I was so conflicted about whether to just not get involved and just save the people around me that I was considering getting involved.
Well, disaster response is such a huge task that it can be a mess.
If I had been there, I would have understood the mess.
But the problem was the response afterward.
Regarding the Fukushima nuclear power plant, the bureaucratic self-preservation, avoidance of responsibility, and secrecy combined to create a huge mess.
Seeing that, Takuya gritted his teeth.
‘Even Korea wasn’t this bad!’
No matter how messed up Korea was in the future, it responded better to such disasters than Japan.
Of course, it was because Japan was so messed up, and Korea wasn’t that good either, but anyway, Takuya was lost in thought about what to do while looking at the documents.
At first, he was just going to take care of the people around him and escape overseas, but it seemed like that wouldn’t work.
‘Even I can’t stand this kind of fucked up situation.’
If it was purely a natural disaster, I wouldn’t say this, but this time, the government’s incompetence was the biggest factor.
And the government’s incompetence was what Takuya hated the most.
It’s okay if the government does a bad job. It’s okay if they can’t achieve growth. It’s even okay if they get criticized for their poor diplomacy.
But the incompetence of not being able to solve a crisis when their own country is in danger was, in a word, a sin for Takuya.
And the follow-up response that didn’t even realize that was even worse.
In the end, Takuya’s response plan, which had been to not respond at all, changed.
From not getting involved at all to getting involved to some extent.
You might say, what can Takuya do even if he gets involved, but at least it would be better than what’s written in those documents.
Of course, Takuya had no intention of getting involved in this for free.
Takuya was planning to make a definite profit from this.
Having finished his thoughts, Takuya got up from in front of the monitor.
Well, now that I’ve finished looking into things.
‘I should start by checking where this is.’
It was time to find other information.
***
Takuya first searched the refrigerator.
That’s because the refrigerator was what he remembered best.
—Squeak.
With the sound of the refrigerator opening, what was inside was.
‘Chicken breast, meat, salad, cake, various drinks… It’s the refrigerator I remember.’
It was the very familiar refrigerator from when he was Takuya, no, Lee Seungwoo.
Seeing the messy state, it was certain.
After checking the refrigerator, Takuya didn’t close it right away.
He first took out a drink from the refrigerator.
It was a zero-calorie drink that didn’t exist in the era Takuya was in now.
He opened the lid and gulped it down, and along with the feeling of carbonation filling his mouth, he felt a clean aftertaste.
‘I believe it. This is definitely zero cola.’
Takuya was satisfied with the taste he hadn’t had in a long time and put the drink back in the refrigerator.
After closing the refrigerator, Takuya immediately.
—Crack.
Cracked all his fingers.
The reason Takuya cracked all his fingers was simple.
‘It’s too vivid.’
Everything was too vivid.
You might think it’s a good thing if it’s vivid, but if this was reality, something was wrong.
Takuya was thinking that this situation was either an out-of-body experience or a dream.
I mean, suddenly waking up in mid-air, being in my old house, everything was strange unless it was a dream.
But after drinking the zero cola, he changed his assessment a little.
Because when he drank the zero cola, he felt the taste of the zero cola so clearly, even the parts that he hadn’t felt when he was Lee Seungwoo.
In short.
‘Not a dream, but reality?’
He thought that this could be reality.
That’s why he did the RC check that he had heard from the chatterbox before.
And the result of the RC check was surprisingly.
‘It’s a dream.’
It was telling him that this was a dream.
He didn’t feel any pain. No. Not only did he not feel any pain.
‘Is this even my hand?’
His hand was so flexible that he thought that.
It was like he had become some kind of invertebrate.
After concluding that this was a dream, Takuya thought to himself.
‘Okay, then how do I get out of this dream?’
Should I hurt myself?
Then I might wake up, but Takuya’s gut feeling was telling him that wasn’t the answer.
Takuya pondered and walked to the window.
The scenery outside was the scenery he knew well.
There were a lot of soldiers on the street.
No. Not just a lot, but they were being controlled.
‘Certainly, this is when… Ah, right. It’s when the dictatorship disease was at its worst.’
It was when our proud President Lee Seungmoon was so paranoid that he tried to control all of Seoul.
Of course, it was something that disappeared in less than a week, but it was the point when his downfall accelerated.
And it just had to be this scenery…
It wasn’t a particularly memorable time.
But even so, it’s this time.
‘It’s strange.’
Takuya thought to himself and unconsciously searched his pockets.
‘Ah, right. I don’t have cigarettes, do I?’
When he was Lee Seungwoo, he had a habit of smoking while looking at the scenery from the window, so he unconsciously did that.
Even though I’ve been living as someone else for a few months, am I still me inside?
Takuya thought to himself, put aside the thought of cigarettes, and tried to take his hand out of his pocket.
“Cigarettes, here you go♪”
—Click.
“…?”
That was until someone suddenly took out a cigarette and put it in my hand.
Takuya turned around with a startled expression.
After turning around, there was a beautiful black-haired, black-eyed woman standing there, so beautiful that Takuya, who had high standards due to the women he had met so far, was thrilled.
“Wh, who are you?”
Takuya looked at the person and asked, and to Takuya’s question, she replied.
“Hehe, young Papa is cute♥”
“What.”
And just like that, Takuya, who had never even had a child, became a father.
