Chapter 3. Dream (1)
Jooheon frowned at the red status window floating before him.
Crow, is this your doing? Are you bored? Want me to give you more work?
His secretary Artifact, the Three-Legged Crow, immediately panicked.
[It is not me.]
Of course it wasn't.
The Crow occasionally enjoyed teasing its master, but it wasn't the type to play a prank like this.
That meant some unidentified system was testing him as Majesty.
Jooheon slowly read through each choice.
[Submission]
·
Humanity will be registered as an Artifact resource.
·
·
Humanity will become livestock and nourishment for Artifacts, while the world receives greater power and prosperity.
·
·
Majesty and Majesty's blood relatives will retain their freedom and receive the Artifacts' eternal favor and protection.
·
In other words, humans would become livestock for Artifacts.
Next.
[Slaughter]
·
Majesty will receive the authority to [Erase].
·
·
You may personally eliminate criminals, enemies, and anyone you dislike, then build your own utopia.
·
At first glance, this one almost sounded useful.
But the malicious intent behind it was obvious.
It wanted him to kill humans.
Disgusting.
Then came the last option.
[Neglect]
·
Maintain the current situation.
·
·
Humanity will receive no protection from the Artifacts and must overcome every disaster on its own.
·
This was basically telling him to sit back and watch humanity go extinct.
“...How shameless.”
Jooheon smiled coldly.
The three options pretended to offer different paths.
But their true destination was the same.
No matter what I choose, humanity gets destroyed.
And whoever was behind this system intended to use Jooheon as an accomplice in the massacre.
He didn't know who the bastard was.
But it had chosen the wrong person.
“What's the point of Submission or Slaughter in a world where my child is about to be born?”
His eyes turned cold.
“I've had enough fighting. So get lost.”
The message seemed to laugh.
[You're postponing your choice? Fine. Though I think you'll regret it.]
Was this thing joking?
Every option led to humanity becoming livestock or being destroyed.
Why the hell would he choose any of them?
Jooheon closed his heavy eyes.
When he opened them again...
He was sitting somewhere unfamiliar.
More accurately, he couldn't tell where he was.
There was no clear sky.
No clear ground.
Everything around him was simply white and silent.
Then someone ran toward him.
Tap, tap, tap.
Light footsteps.
A little girl.
Glossy black hair.
Eyes shaped exactly like Irene's.
She looked around three years old.
The smiling child rushed straight into Jooheon's arms.
“Daddy!”
Jooheon's entire body turned to stone.
“...Daddy?”
He slowly rolled his neck.
Something felt strange.
“...We don't have a kid yet.”
Then his eyes widened.
“Wait.”
He stared at her.
“A daughter? You're our daughter!”
The child didn't answer.
She simply grabbed his finger and started walking.
Her hand was soft.
Small.
Warm.
It was the hand of someone who had never touched the harsh world outside.
The feeling overwhelmed him so much that Jooheon immediately understood.
This was a dream.
Even so, he didn't want to let go of that warmth.
Then...
Flash!
Without Jooheon doing anything, his weapon Gungnir materialized in the air.
Gungnir was a terrifying Divine-Grade weapon capable of piercing an enemy's heart even from the other side of the planet.
Yet the child laughed and climbed onto the murderous Divine Artifact like she was riding a carousel.
The smile on her face was exactly the same smile Irene made whenever she saw something truly beautiful.
She's controlling a Divine-Grade Artifact that easily?
An ordinary human would have collapsed from exhaustion just by touching it.
Jooheon stared at the girl's smile for a long time.
For the first time, he desperately wanted to see that smile in the real world.
So this is happiness.
Unfortunately, it didn't last.
A single golden thread suddenly emerged from the child's fingertip.
Her eyes began trembling.
“Daddy?”
It wasn't the happy voice from before.
She sounded terrified.
The white space immediately turned dark red.
The child's body began breaking apart.
From the tips of her feet.
From the ends of her fingers.
Her body shattered into pieces and scattered into the air.
Then she spoke through tears, as if some force of fate were dragging her away.
“...What do I do? They said &%#... I can't!”
Bzzzt.
Static distorted her voice.
Jooheon couldn't hear everything.
But one sentence reached him clearly.
“Remember me. I have to be born so I can protect you, Daddy...!”
It was her final tearful cry.
Before the words had even fully left her lips, her body shattered apart as if she had died.
At that same moment, Jooheon felt as though a hole had opened in his chest.
Something precious had been torn away from him.
Pain stabbed through his mind.
Jooheon suddenly shot upright.
“Haa... Haa...!”
His body was covered in cold sweat.
His heart pounded wildly.
It took him several seconds to regain his senses.
[What's wrong? What's wrong?]
[Are you okay? Are you okay?]
Rope rubbed itself against Jooheon's face.
Irene was still sleeping peacefully beside him.
Everything was peaceful.
Everything except Jooheon.
The next morning, Jooheon took Irene to the hospital.
Irene laughed when he requested another examination only one day after the first.
“Another checkup?”
“Yeah.”
“We checked yesterday.”
“Just in case.”
Irene smiled and took his hand.
“This is because of that strange dream you had yesterday, isn't it?”
“......”
