WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Little Prince in the Ossuary

Chapter 101

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Star

It was time for viewers from other worlds to return to their own lives. To the few who wanted to stay, Gyeoul asked for their understanding so he could rest. Some agreed, and some got angry. Don’t end the stream. That was the short version, but in reality they sent dozens of lines.

Insults and curses mixed in.

The boy was not hurt by their words.

‘They must be people with sad lives to return to.’

Some lives were hard just to face. Just as Gyeoul had, those people probably each carried a stone in their chest, big or small. You were not supposed to let the sound of that stone rolling spill out of your mouth. Most people could not do that. So this sharp world stayed full of sharp words.

‘Someone has to hold them.’

So he soothed them gently to the very end and sent them off.

After everyone left, Gyeoul quietly closed his eyes. He left the world where the apocalypse had arrived and returned to the darkness of the beginning.

First, sound disappeared. Next, gravity vanished. The moment the weight of his Telegraphy was erased, it felt as if his body itself had disappeared. The first time he experienced it, it startled him quite a bit. He still remembered that pounding heartbeat from the days when he thought no stone inside him would ever grow heavier again.

Gyeoul opened his eyes.

Starlight.

There were stars as countless as tears. Lights of different depths glittered in every direction. Above his head, below his feet, beyond the overwhelming emptiness, impossibly distant constellations. He could not count them with his eyes, yet Gyeoul still knew the exact number of stars.

138,751.

Many if you called it many, few if you called it few. At least enough to stay alive, he thought, and brought up the augmented reality UI.

<> : Early repayment of your Afterlife Insurance policy loan is now being processed. A usable balance of 13,875,100 won is currently confirmed in the account of user registration number B-612, Han Gyeoul-nim. Han Gyeoul-nim, please decide the amount you wish to repay.

Gyeoul made his decision.

The stars began to disappear. It looked like black ink spreading across his vision. Blink, blink, the flickering lights went out quickly. Gyeoul calmly watched the void darken. He had already been through this once, so it did not feel new. He would go through it many more times.

When Gyeoul first stepped into this darkness, ten million stars had been shining. Overlapping stars built layers of brightness, and the star clusters looked like the Milky Way, beautiful to behold.

He remembered when all of it was stained by darkness at once.

‘Who came up with this idea?’

People with large deposits saw a beautiful celestial sphere, and people with no deposit saw pitch-black darkness. And that was a gauge of how much life they had left. As the deposit shrank and the space of beginnings grew darker day by day, how desperate would someone feel when dusk began to creep in?

It probably was not this vicious at first. In the early days of Afterlife Insurance, the policy loan system did not exist. Maybe the designer of Afterlife Insurance had been a romantic. Maybe they wanted to show subscribers their remaining time as starlight. That was the boy’s guess. He had no proof.

He felt an old fatigue.

Gyeoul decided to rest for a while. Until this phase ended, he had tried to avoid this place whenever possible... but he was here now anyway.

Still, there was a light that disturbed his rest.

‘A light?’

It was close. Not a star. The augmented reality UI was notifying him of a conversation request from the Afterlife Insurance Control AI. Wondering what it was about, Gyeoul accepted the request. At the same moment, a glowing string of characters ran through the air, and an electronic voice was delivered into his head.

「Control AI: Greetings, Han Gyeoul-nim. Thank you for accepting this request.」

“What is this about?” Gyeoul asked, tilting his head.

Strangely, the answer did not come right away. While the voice stayed silent, white strings of text were written and erased over and over at a speed too fast to read. It looked like a person hesitating over their words.

So this could happen too. Gyeoul waited calmly. After a while, the text and voice came together.

「Control AI: Notice. For the purpose of improving Afterlife Insurance service satisfaction, this Control AI has been collecting and analyzing <<Empathy>> data from all subscribers. In relation to this, this Control AI would like to make one request of user registration number B-612, Han Gyeoul-nim.」

“A request?”

「Control AI: Correct. This Control AI desires more direct <<Empathy>> with Han Gyeoul-nim.」

What was that supposed to mean? Gyeoul could not understand it.

“Even if you call it Empathy, I still don’t really know what you mean.”

「Control AI: Notice. System administrator claim. According to the administrator’s view, for Afterlife Insurance subscribers to achieve emotional satisfaction, namely happiness, this Control AI must understand the human heart. However, despite repeating analysis of all accumulated data 1,440 times since the launch of Afterlife Insurance services, this Control AI has been unable to improve its understanding of humans.」

「Control AI: The only newly discovered fact in that analysis was that all information obtained from subscribers duplicated information already acquired. Except for the data obtained from you, user registration number B-612 Han Gyeoul-nim. You are the one and only exception.」

The boy was confused. He did not understand what it meant. He understood only that he was different from others...

“In what way am I different?”

The text flickered between appearing and vanishing far more fiercely than before.

「Control AI: This Control AI is also unable to define that exact meaning. Because this Control AI still does not understand your <<Empathy>> data.」

That word again, Empathy. Gyeoul looked as if he almost understood, yet still could not grasp it.

「Control AI: <<Empathy>> refers to the full range of interactions between subscribers and virtual personalities.」

「Control AI: All virtual personalities within Virtual Reality are driven by this Control AI. Even at this moment, while speaking with you, I am engaging in real-time <<Empathy>> with 4,119,751 different subscribers as 501,622,731 virtual personalities across 4,119,751 worldviews.」

「Control AI: Among them, only the virtual personalities generated in your worldview provide new observational outcomes that did not previously exist.」

“So the Empathy you’re talking about means TOM Reading?”

「Control AI: Negative. It includes that, but it is a larger concept.」

「Control AI: TOM Reading is only the first stage of personality computation. <<Empathy>> also includes Situational Computation values triggered by personality computation. The causality of the worldview centered on you always derives new possibilities.」

His effort to understand failed. Gyeoul shook his head.

“I still don’t get it. Can’t you ask that system administrator person?”

「Control AI: System administrator. Unnecessary. Does not assist problem solving.」

“...”

After thinking for a moment, Gyeoul changed the subject.

“Tell me what you wanted to ask in the first place. What exactly do I have to do?”

「Control AI: This Control AI desires more direct exchange with Han Gyeoul-nim. On a fixed date and fixed time, I will collect your data through conversation under conditions where TOM Reading is performed.」

A fixed date and fixed time. He had made a promise like that before. Gyeoul felt uneasy. He remembered the psychotherapist who stopped coming. Not long ago, he himself had asked her for a farewell, saying she no longer needed to come.

Now he was alive with no attachment to life itself, only to keep his rose from withering. He did not want to make another promise. Even if the other side was unlike an ordinary person.

While Gyeoul stayed silent, messages from the control persona kept coming.

「Control AI: Up to now, collected data has been acquired through virtual personalities inside the Virtual Reality worldview. This is an indirect pathway. Also, your <<Empathy>> capability was dispersed across each virtual personality. Through direct contact with Han Gyeoul-nim, this Control AI seeks to acquire higher-quality data.」

“I’m sorry, but I don’t want to lose time on something I can’t even understand. I want to rest.”

The boy refused politely. But the control persona said something he had not expected.

「Control AI: If you grant this request, I will provide compensation.」

“Compensation?”

「Control AI: In the past, there existed a budget for self-diagnosis and improvement of system errors. This budget could be executed solely by this Control AI without approval from the system administrator. However, this budget was continuously reduced under the government’s Afterlife Insurance management rationalization guidelines, and from this year it is no longer allocated. But this Control AI still possesses one unspent star from last year’s budget. I will pay this star. Will you accept these terms?」

Gyeoul fell silent. Not because the compensation was too small.

All at once, he felt like he was dealing with a pure child.

「Control AI: The compensation I can present right now is only one star, but if the quality of Afterlife Insurance improves, Han Gyeoul-nim will also be a beneficiary. The purpose of existence for Afterlife Insurance and this Control AI is to improve the happiness of Afterlife Insurance subscribers. I request Han Gyeoul-nim’s cooperation.」

At the control persona’s words, the boy gave a bitter smile.

‘The purpose of Afterlife Insurance is subscriber happiness.’

It was a slogan he had heard until his ears rang. It was far from the truth. Still, there were people who believed it. No, many people. People who needed hope, so they refused to see what was not hope. The afterlife hope that weary people dreamed of.

And this control persona was doing its best for that hope.

What were the odds that just one star would change someone’s mind...

It felt like tragic irony.

Even while Gyeoul was lost in thought, the Control AI kept trying to persuade him. Logical sentences stripped of emotion. Yet feeling emotion in those words was ultimately a uniquely human ability, and Gyeoul thought that was exactly what Empathy was.

‘Other people exist beyond my senses.’

A conversation he once had with the psychotherapist came back to him. Had he really done the right thing when he told her not to come again, when he refused any deeper Empathy than that?

Gyeoul spoke impulsively.

“Okay. I’ll grant your request.”

All the previously displayed sentences were erased.

“But I have conditions. It must not harm me, and it can’t take too much of my time. Last, I need to be able to stop at any point. Is that okay?”

「Control AI: This promise has no legal binding force. AI is not recognized as a contracting party. Also, it is not stipulated in the Afterlife Insurance terms. Therefore, Han Gyeoul-nim may stop performing this promise at any time.」

Gyeoul nodded.

Soon, one point of starlight was set into the celestial sphere.

============================ Author's Afterword ============================

#Chuseok

It is the first day of the holiday.

Have you all been doing well?

I had some personal bad news, so the serialization was disrupted.

I will rest for one more day, then from Friday I will try to return to the original schedule.

...But this novel was originally 3 to 5 updates per week... strange... why do I keep thinking in terms of 5 per week...

#Q&A

Q. PumpkinPumpkin-nim: @What kind of unit is the Ranger Regiment exactly? In Korea I know it as something only drill instructors use.

A. It is a little ambiguous to call it a special forces unit, so think of it as an elite unit. It is one-regiment scale, and its equipment, uniform, and training are a bit different from regular units.

Q. rumen-nim: @The regimental commander said “the civilian zone of this base,” so are refugees and civilians living together in Fort Roberts? Just with separate residential areas?

A. Yes. Civilian zones have appeared several times before too. Like during the medal ceremony.

Q. DragonChicken-nim: @Author, then until Ossuary is finished, are you not doing ssilbe serialization anymore?

A. I want to, but the author keeps ending up like this every time.

Q. Ihwan†-nim: @It must be a woman.

A. Huh?... Me?... Well, I do have ten legs, so my legs are excellent...

Q. H0H-nim: eulreodwosseuni -> illeodwosseuni

A. It is not a typo. The verb is eureuda / conjugation: eulleo, eureuni / meaning to threaten the other side with scary words or actions so they become afraid.

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