Chapter 4. Dream (2)
[A fourth option? There is no such—]
The red window suddenly paused.
Then it spoke as if it had remembered something.
[Ah. Do you already know about the hidden option?]
[As expected, the Majesty of this world is different.]
The red window began shining more brightly.
[A special route visible only to the 187,487th Majesty is being offered.]
[Negotiation]
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Qualification as one of the 'Twelve Executors' will be granted.
·
·
Take a seat among the 'Twelve Executors,' who manage the Artifacts of every worldline.
·
·
Negotiate with Artifacts and trade wealth and value. You will no longer be attacked by Artifacts and will rule under the protection of the System.
·
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You and your family will live in eternal prosperity within a protected sanctuary for generations.
·
The red message was confident.
No human could possibly refuse status and authority.
Who would turn down the chance to live like a king under the protection of the System?
Unfortunately for it...
Jooheon's lips curled into a cold smile.
Negotiation? Twelve Executors?
He had heard that name before.
Not clearly.
But hadn't Isis's Poison Fang mentioned it?
[The <Twelve Executors> will judge your worth...!]
Jooheon snorted.
These bastards.
This was the so-called hidden option?
What a joke.
Do I look like the kind of guy who'd work as some maintenance manager under somebody else?
To Jooheon, this wasn't an offer to become king.
It looked more like a recruitment notice for a subcontractor working under the System.
So he answered.
“I'll think about it a little longer.”
[You need more time.]
[Understood.]
The message disappeared.
Jooheon picked up his phone.
Thirty minutes should be enough.
Exactly thirty minutes later, Jooheon sat inside his office with his hands clasped together.
“I saw my child.”
“Yes.”
Yoo Jaeha stared at him.
“And I can see a lunatic standing right in front of me too.”
Jaeha immediately grabbed his head after Jooheon smacked him.
He had been summoned out of nowhere and felt extremely wronged.
“No! You bastard! Do you even know what time it is?! It's three in the morning! Three—”
“My child was kidnapped.”
“A child that hasn't even been born yet can't get kidnapp— Gack!”
Jooheon threw something at Jaeha's forehead before he could finish.
A cute children's pillow.
“What the hell is this?!”
Jooheon's eyes flashed.
“What do you mean, what is it?”
He glared.
“You're my restoration specialist. Did you already forget what an Artifact looks like? Were you sleeping? Want me to wake you up properly?”
What a terrible temper.
“I know it's a Greek Artifact, but why did you suddenly bring these things out...?”
“Someone provoked me.”
Jaeha froze.
Someone had actually dared provoke their Captain?
“So I'm dragging that bastard out.”
Jaeha became cautious when he saw Jooheon's expression.
“Captain...”
“Don't worry.”
Jooheon waved him off.
“I'm not crazy.”
“...That's not what I meant.”
Jaeha pointed at the items.
“These Artifacts are broken.”
Jooheon stared at his personal restoration specialist as if that were precisely why he'd called him.
“Fix them.”
Jaeha swallowed.
“You have one minute.”
Jaeha screamed.
Jooheon didn't even blink.
“It's an emergency, so I'll give you ten won as a nighttime bonus.”
“What?! Ten won?”
Jaeha exploded.
“Are you joking?! At least make it twenty! This is an insult to skilled labor!”
The other team members stared at him in disbelief.
...That's enough for you?
He really had become a perfect slave.
Jooheon, however, stared at the Artifacts with tense eyes.
<Morpheus's Pillow>.
And the <Oneirocritica Mini Notebook>.
Morpheus was the god of dreams in ancient Greek mythology.
His name was even the origin of the word morphine.
If I use this pillow, I can replay a dream I've had.
Then there was the miniature book.
Oneirocritica was considered the oldest surviving work on dream interpretation.
Modern psychologist Freud had shaken the academic world with his theories on dream analysis, but the roots of dream interpretation already existed in ancient times.
The Artifact derived from that book could interpret dreams.
That was why Jooheon's eyes narrowed.
That dream will definitely lead me to my daughter.
Then...
“Restoration complete!”
Jooheon immediately dropped onto the pillow.
Light began forming above his head.
The others could now see the dream from a third-person perspective.
