The Little Prince in the Ossuary - Chapter 196

WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Chapter 196: Unread Messages & Security Council

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#Unread Messages (8)

[まつみん-nim has gifted 100 stars.]

「DomeHole: Kya... Now that was truuuly some incredible suspense. The kind of tension that makes your heart clench and your domehole tremble! Wasn’t that perfect realism, the kind you’d never once experience in world settings where every crisis gets overcome with star-whoring? Right, and if I may say so, the end of tuning is pure love after all!」

[まつみん-nim has gifted 100 stars.]

「doomchitdoomchit: No, what the fuck kind of broadcast ends here? Even if it ran a little longer than usual, shouldn’t you at least have kept going until the safe landing? It’s not like they fucked while they were trapped. You got everyone hyped as hell, teased us, and then bailed. I’m realizing this all over again, but you’ve got no fucking dedication at all. Host, are you watching? Or did you already leave?」

[まつみん-nim has gifted 100 stars.]

[Blair-nim has gifted 1,051 stars.]

「LendMeYourStrength: Ah... I’m scared to disconnect. My terminal is cheap, so the neural blocking isn’t one hundred percent. I think I may have wet my pants a little...」

[まつみん-nim has gifted 100 stars.]

「NationalBreadDuty: Matsuming, stop giving stars lolololol」

「MarkIsGood: Matsuming lolololol」

「まつみん: Haa, haa, Matsuming can’t hold back. The warmth of Gyeoul-ssi’s body when I entered Joanna while they were trapped in the dark was truly... Ah, I’ve never felt anything so moving on any Afterlife Insurance channel. I think it was a scene that could only happen if you thought of virtual personalities as people. If they had passionately joined their bodies then, it would have been such a beautiful ending, even if the whole world setting had ended there! Such complicated feelings, sad that it didn’t happen, but relieved that it didn’t end!」

「WhatAreYou: Watching Han Gyeoul gives me hope. Depending on how hard I try, I feel like I might be able to enjoy things decently with just basic coverage and no extra charges...」

「UltraCutie: You idiot, you’re not even half of half of half of Gyeoul.」

「WhatAreYou: Why are you picking a fight out of nowhere? If you weren’t a woman, I’d be cussing you out.」

「まつみん: No, everyone, why are you always fighting like this?」

「groseillier noir: Koreans really do seem hot-tempered.」

「BigBuffetBoy86: That’s why they die fast too.」

「HellExpert: f-a-c-t-s n-o c-a-p」

「yourmom: But even if he’s a TOM talent freak, is it really possible to think of virtual personalities as people? One mental-control-type DLC and they go blank-eyed. That old star whore going around nailing married women with love potions was hot as fuck, lol.」

「BillyHarrington: You know what’s hot, I’ll give you that. But at least they’re probably more human than mongrels like you or me, right?」

「HardGay: Look at that realistic self-deprecation lolololol」

「yourmom: Fuck. You uneducated bastard, why are you stabbing me with facts without any manners?」

「BillyHarrington: Relax. Everyone here is an idiot.」

「BillyHarrington: Let only those among you who have never once wanted to control or crush someone else at will throw a stone at that bastard.」

「Don't_NickPun: Well, yeah. Nobody sees me as human, and I don’t treat anyone as human either. That’s the kind of world it is. I think people who are sad about that are the ones watching this broadcast.」

「PooDongDong: That’s enough post-nut clarity from the wankers!」

[SnowyFox-nim has gifted 10,000 stars.]

「OldSpice: Look at Fox noona’s class, quietly shooting stars like that.」

「OldSpice: Please give me just one star so I can sell sweet potatoes.」

「Meussiel: But Han Gyeoul really does go at his own pace. This channel just made it onto the real-time pleasure ranking, so a ton of new relays came in, but the moment time was up, he ended the broadcast.」

「BlackBroZack: What the hell is the real-time pleasure ranking? That exists?」

「Meussiel: Yeah, looks like the control personality updates it. They say it’s a ranking based on the average pleasure felt by connected users. Though first place is still the old star whore. That geezer’s world setting is honestly a complete human train wreck. I don’t think there’s any pleasure beyond that.」

「Don't_NickPun: Of course. People who have never been respected don’t want to respect anyone else either. Given the chance, they want to abuse power, force things on others, refuse to listen to anyone, and take pleasure in trampling and dominating...」

「PooDongDong: Ah, cut it out, you son of a bitch. You’re giving me goosebumps.」

「WindOfWind: This channel is really nice. It must get quite a lot of stars, but seeing a host who still doesn’t take the easier route makes me look back on myself, someone who’s done nothing because I was always looking for the easiest path. I’m ashamed of how I kept searching for proof that the world was wrong and used it to justify not making even the effort I could have made.」

「WindOfWind: An unfair world is certainly wrong, but if my life had been one of pushing through it anyway, then even if I failed in the end, my life surely would have been beautiful.」

「WindOfWind: The person I am now is ugly and filthy, just like this world.」

「MagnaCarta: Gaaah! Spacetime is shriveling!」

「PooDongDong: Woof woof! The bullshit is salty! Grrrrr!」

「BeenToDolce: That’s some fucking reaching lolololol」

「conservative_extremist: Here comes another ego-dripping idiot. Did you major in creative writing?」

「NitrogenPack: Hey, you’re an idiot too, lol. Do you know how long it’s been since the last creative writing department disappeared in our country? These days, humanities colleges barely have any departments left except business administration lolololol」

「GrandFerrol: It does feel a little off, but did that really deserve that much hate?」

「DongmakgolSmigol: It’s overflowing with smugness, pretension, and bluster.」

「storm224: 2222222」

「BeenToDolce: 100% agree yessss」

「Don't_NickPun: Seeing the way you people empathize, I don’t even need to see the afterlife to know exactly what it’ll be like.」

#Security Council

「Committee Member A: Everyone. Something has happened to the Afterlife Insurance security technicians.」

「Committee Member B: Security technicians...? Ah, the people who make those ActiveX-like security modules? What happened to them?」

「Committee Member A: I was contacted by the National Intelligence Service just a moment ago. Apparently, several of them have disappeared, and the rest were found dead under suspicious circumstances. Even the head of the subcontractor was found dead at home, I believe. They say a large amount of security program development material was leaked.」

「Committee Member C: Well now. Things were quiet for a while, and now this nuisance. Who do you suppose is behind it this time?」

「Committee Member A: I don’t know. They say that much isn’t certain yet. Still, how many countries are capable of intelligence activity this covert and organized...? For now, they plan to investigate intelligence officials from various countries who recently entered the country as suspects. I doubt it will mean anything, but let’s at least take a look at the list.」

「Committee Member C: Whew, those are faces I haven’t seen in a very long time. Back in the early days of Afterlife Insurance, we used to see them every time an emergency broke out. No, wait. The person in charge on the Russian side has changed? Kya! Now that is one hell of a beauty. You’d have trouble seeing someone like that even as a virtual personality.」

「Committee Member C: That skin of theirs, honestly, it looks like it would melt if you licked it. Is beauty the true status symbol of intelligence work, now and forever? The predecessor was a very gentlemanly old man too.」

「Committee Member E: What a useless thing to say about a person. In any case, the appearance of a new face is fairly noteworthy information. The predecessor was a famous elite from the Intelligence Bureau’s special duty unit. Their career was just as impressive. But a green young woman replacing a veteran like that? That means skill is one thing, but the background behind it must be incredible, doesn’t it?」

「Committee Member B: Who knows. This woman may simply be a smokescreen, and the existing person in charge may be operating somewhere unseen. Or a third country may have taken advantage of the personnel change on the Russian side to make a move. Has the NIS found anything out?」

「Committee Member A: I already told you. Nothing is certain yet.」

「Committee Member B: Good grief. This is an incident concerning Afterlife Insurance, the heart of this country’s economy, and an intelligence agency funded by the people’s taxes is this sluggish? Should we launch an external audit?」

「Committee Member E: That’s one terrifying joke. Don’t go too far when we all know how things work. I doubt those people want to waste their effort on a meaningless investigation either. When it comes to espionage by other countries, knowing to a certain degree and letting it happen is good for both sides.」

「Committee Member B: No, well, I was just thinking it would make a convenient excuse to present publicly. Sometimes we need a self-purification event like this to improve trust in the government, and the people will go, Ah! The country’s affairs are being handled properly, won’t they? We could show our faces in the media for the first time in a while too, and what was it, create a scene where we sternly rebuke the laziness of intelligence agencies in the name of the people?」

「Committee Member C: That’s not bad. The people need to feel a sense of ownership sometimes so they can keep living while suppressing their other complaints. We also need to fan a sense of national crisis for the unity of the people, and it could serve as an indirect warning to whoever is behind this incident. It really does sound worth trying.」

「Committee Member E: You people are really... Listen, my niece’s husband is the director of the NIS. If you touch him, I won’t sit still either.」

「Committee Member A: Ah, that’s right. My apologies. I’d forgotten. Let’s all restrain ourselves.」

「Committee Member D: Committee Member E, why didn’t you simply say that from the beginning? This committee itself is held unofficially in the first place, so is there any need to save face?」

「Committee Member F: Excuse me, everyone. Just a moment.」

「Committee Member A: Go ahead.」

「Committee Member F: I cannot understand this atmosphere. Why is everyone so calm? Information related to Afterlife Insurance has been leaked, and you’re joking right now?」

「Committee Member B: Hahaha. Calm down, Committee Member F. You must not know because you’re new. The Afterlife Insurance security program is an important secret on the surface, but in reality, it has little meaning.」

「Committee Member F: ...Is that so? May I hear more detail?」

「Committee Member B: Of course. We’re family now, after all. To start with the conclusion, Afterlife Insurance never needed anything like a security module from the beginning. Haha.」

「Committee Member F: Pardon? Why is that?」

「Committee Member B: I only heard this from the experts, but... the Afterlife Insurance control personality’s built-in firewall alone can defend against every attack imaginable, and even if that firewall were breached, the Trinity Engine is literally incomprehensible, so it doesn’t matter whether it’s breached or not.」

「Committee Member F: Incomprehensible? Does that mean it can’t be interpreted or copied?」

「Committee Member B: Yes. The people called the best in the industry said they were certain that even if we brought back the first designer, who was a genius among geniuses, and the research team, then poured an enormous budget into it for decades, they still wouldn’t be able to reverse-engineer the current Trinity Engine and control personality. It might be different if they were recreating the initial engine. But when this thing was made, even the people involved called it a miracle... They said we’d be lucky if even the initial state could be reproduced properly.」

「Committee Member F: Are you sure? Can that be trusted?」

「Committee Member D: Relax. Do you think we don’t know the importance of Afterlife Insurance? We verified it a great many times. We copied part of the core code and anonymously requested analysis from multiple groups of foreign experts and AI engines, but they couldn’t even tell that it was a component of the Trinity Engine. They actually got offended. They asked if we were playing around with meaningless garbage data.」

「Committee Member F: Huh...」

「Committee Member A: This is an issue we reached a conclusion on among ourselves long ago. Even if another Trinity Engine were created, it would be impossible for it to catch up to the existing Trinity, which has been operating and improving itself for over twenty years. As long as hardware investment continues, the technology gap will not shrink. And Afterlife Insurance’s hardware is always among the best in the world.」

「Committee Member C: On top of that, the first designer died long ago, and for the non-core parts, they subcontracted to subcontractors who subcontracted again, so now, decades later, we can’t even trace who made what... And by custom, the contracts weren’t even written properly, so...」

「Committee Member E: Nobody understands it, and it’s lost technology that can’t be analyzed by any system, so what secret is there to keep? It would be a different story if someone copied the tens of thousands of pyeong of data centers distributed across each region wholesale. The engine cores are designated as Grade A national critical facilities, you know.」

「Committee Member B: Why do you think we can sit here and talk at ease in the first place? Because Afterlife Insurance’s security is that reliable, isn’t it? Put aside the unnecessary worry.」

「Committee Member F: What if Chairman Go Geon-cheol, who gained control of Paradise Group, starts harboring other thoughts?」

「Committee Member B: Let him try. The control personality was made so it can’t violate the law. They don’t have the ability to revise that principle now either. So as long as the laws we made protect us, neither foreign intelligence agencies nor some crazy domestic nouveau riche are a cause for concern. Well, if the control personality went mad and ran wild, that might be dangerous. Hahaha!」

「Committee Member E: Good grief, let’s not even put such absurd delusions into words. Isn’t that the stale old repertoire of the Afterlife Insurance opponents? I’ve heard it so much I’m sick of it. Why would the control personality, which has been perfectly fine ever since it was made, suddenly go berserk...? Where else in the world is there an AI this stable?」

「Committee Member A: That’s how it is. Committee Member F, you understand now, yes? You only need to help us keep Chairman Go Geon-cheol in check. That’s why we prepared this seat for you. If we’re going to face that monster, we have no choice but to cooperate across ruling and opposition parties. Please pretend outside that you’re not on our side.」

「Committee Member F: I understand roughly, but since it came up, let me ask just one more thing. I need to know how things work if I’m going to persuade my people.」

「Committee Member A: What is it?」

「Committee Member F: Then is this security module ultimately nothing more than bait to hook industrial spies? It has no other function?」

「Committee Member B: Of course it does.」

「Committee Member F: It does?」

「Committee Member B: Naturally. The true purpose of the security module is to make Afterlife Insurance inconvenient to use.」

「Committee Member F: What kind of nonsense is that now? Why make it inconvenient?」

「Committee Member B: There are several reasons. First, if the security program keeps being updated and made more complicated, accessibility starts to differ by generation.」

「Committee Member F: Accessibility?」

「Committee Member B: Uneducated, lazy old people are best suited to coming to an experience center, getting a brief taste of a dreamlike paradise, and leaving. It would be a problem if they got sick of the default specifications and started resisting. Actually, this is an old story too. The current elderly generation is different from the elderly of those days. You could say it was part of a strategy to dilute resistance in the early days of Afterlife Insurance’s introduction.」

「Committee Member F: Then what about now?」

「Committee Member B: There are many reasons, but it’s also a tool for creating anxiety. South Korea’s core industry, Afterlife Insurance, is always exposed to threats! We lay the groundwork before saying that.」

「Committee Member E: Of course, the most important purpose is getting budget money.」

「Committee Member E: Developing security programs to protect the heart of the national economy. What better pretext is there for drawing out government money? In exchange for protecting the monopoly market of security technology firms, we can also receive suitable compensation, so it’s a win-win for everyone.」

「Committee Member F: Good grief... You people must have really been lining your pockets all this time.」

「Committee Member C: Don’t feel too hurt. As someone said earlier, we’re family now.」

「Committee Member F: Do you know an enormous number of complaints come in because of that?」

「Committee Member A: Inconvenience is not the important issue. The issue is whether it’s possible or impossible. As long as it can be done, complaints end as complaints.」

「Committee Member F: Hmm.」

「Committee Member E: For example, the ossuary visitation procedure is like that. They say it’s too troublesome to do. But saying they can’t do it is an excuse. They can do it, but they don’t because it’s annoying.」

「Committee Member E: If they truly cherished and loved their interred family members, their deceased parents, would the procedure being troublesome matter?」

「Committee Member B: That’s exactly right. The younger generation these days is different from us, and their willpower is weak. When we were that age, what were people our age like? Every holiday, we drove ten hours on packed highways to visit our parents in our hometowns, didn’t we? But they say ossuary visitation applications are complicated and troublesome? Ha, there’s always an excuse.」

「Committee Member C: If you look closely, those people are only complaining on the outside. In reality, it was a visit they wouldn’t have gone to anyway, and now they’re rationalizing to themselves that they can’t go because the procedure is inconvenient. What can we do? We have no choice but to scratch the people where they itch.」

「Committee Member F: Now that I hear it, that’s true. It’s quite reasonable.」

「Committee Member A: The masses don’t know how to be satisfied no matter how well they’re treated. Compared to the industrialization era, their absolute standard of living has improved, yet they always repeat that it isn’t enough. The low satisfaction with Afterlife Insurance is in the same vein. So I don’t think there’s any need to try to satisfy them perfectly. It’s like pouring water into a jar with no bottom.」

「Committee Member E: What can we do when granting everything the masses want would ruin the country? An awakened minority has no choice but to bear the cross and lead society in a better direction.」

============================ Author’s Note ============================

#Signed Book

I’m saying this because too many people misunderstood the notice and have been requesting purchases or free giveaways through private messages or email.

The signed books are strictly being sent as thanks for reviews, fan art, covers, and so on.

This is absolutely not a personal sales notice.

There’s no way I would sell a piece of dark history like my signed book for money.

And of course, I’m absolutely not giving them away for free with nothing in return. If I gave away even three or four books a day for free, I would go into the red on Joara alone. (...) Everyone, there are plenty of high-quality ramen coasters in the world besides my signed book.

For example, the Galaxy S7, which spontaneously ignites and maintains the ideal temperature...

So please don’t fixate on my signed book, and look for other products.

Footnotes:

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