WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The World After the Fall ◈

Chapter 257: Episode 32. The World After the Fall (7)

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After graduating from college, Jaehwan found a job right away.

It was a small web novel company. Professor Sakamoto had recommended him for the position, and the reason behind that recommendation was quite absurd.

“I had a student who did nothing but read web novels even during class. He’ll surely become a fine asset to your company.”

The company that readily accepted such a recommendation was no less remarkable.

On his first day, Jaehwan was startled to learn who would be mentoring him.

“Ha ha, Mr. Jaehwan, was it? Nice to meet you. I’m Hwang Inchan, head editor of Team One.”

Jaehwan had been standing there blankly, off guard, and nearly screamed.

Sword Panic Hwang Inchan.

Even within his faded memories, this was one of the few people who had firmly retained their place.

The man who had organized 《Blade Walker》, the first selected raid party, when the 《Tower of Nightmares》 first opened.

The man considered the strongest Walker before reaching the Seventy-Seventh Floor.

That was Sword Panic Hwang Inchan. Yet Hwang Inchan was working here as the head editor of Team One.

Um...

Jaehwan’s lips moved on their own before he closed his mouth again.

There’s no point asking. He won’t remember anyway. It’s all just my delusion.

Hwang Inchan smiled affably at him.

“Is there something you want to ask?”

“No.”

“Hmm, really? You were staring at my face, so I thought there might be.”

“I’m sorry.”

“What are you sorry for?”

Hwang Inchan waved it off with a laugh, as if it were nothing.

Even that relaxed expression and smile were exactly like the Hwang Inchan Jaehwan remembered.

A headache surged through him for the first time in a while, and Jaehwan quietly bit the inside of his lip.

Even so, was the ‘world’ I experienced really fake? I remember this man so vividly.

Teacher had said something like that once.

His delusions operated through a system that manipulated itself in real time based on cognitive dissonance. He would think he already knew strangers he had never met, then use those people to reinforce his delusions.

“What kind of web novel do you like best?”

Jaehwan snapped back to his senses.

“Well... It’s difficult to name just one novel.”

He wondered if that was too timid an answer for a new employee, but Hwang Inchan instead looked pleased.

“You must’ve read quite a lot. Once you’ve read beyond a certain number of books, it becomes nearly impossible to pick just one.”

Jaehwan lowered his head with an awkward smile.

“Then do you have a favorite genre? Fantasy? Martial arts? Or games?”

After hesitating for a moment, Jaehwan answered.

“Regression.”

Hwang Inchan raised his eyebrows.

“Regression? You mean regression stories?”

“Yes.”

Of course, Jaehwan did not truly like regression stories. If anything, they were close to the genre he hated most. He had only answered that way to test Hwang Inchan.

Sure enough, Hwang Inchan brightened and took Jaehwan’s hand.

“Actually, I like regression stories too! Ha ha, they’re the most entertaining, aren’t they?”

“Yes...”

“No matter how much some readers whine that they’re tired of regression stories, they’re still the trend. Why? Because wanting to go back to the past and change your life is a universal human desire. Everyone wants an easy, convenient way to win at life.”

Jaehwan was a little surprised by Hwang Inchan’s view of regression stories. He had never thought of them that way.

Just what I’d expect from someone who left for the past the moment the 「Stone of Regression」 appeared.

As Jaehwan made that inward assessment, he realized he was slipping back into delusion again and fell silent.

Perhaps it was because he had met someone who reminded him of his memories after so long. His heart had grown unsettled once more.

Trying to calm himself, Jaehwan looked around the office as if he were simply taking it in. It was small. Even for a struggling company, the office was excessively cramped.

Three or four desks stood in a row between closely packed partitions. A wall-mounted smart TV, perhaps forty inches wide, hung on the wall by the windows.

The TV was tuned to the Yonhap News channel. Startup representatives ruined by the tyranny of major corporations were protesting in Gwanghwamun. Most looked to be around Jaehwan’s age. The report was about subcontracting, corruption, lobbying, and things of that sort.

“Your desk is over there. To be honest, there aren’t many employees, so our whole team only has about five people, including you and me. Still, don’t be too disappointed. This is all part of being young. Our company may not pay much, but...”

That was when the news broadcast was interrupted.

“Wait! What are you doing?!”

The camera shook wildly along with the reporter’s flustered voice, revealing a man.

“Everyone! You have to realize it! We all have to realize it!”

Though the TV was not particularly loud, the voice rang throughout the office. Hwang Inchan had initially looked irritated, but he was already staring at the TV.

“Everyone! Please, open your eyes!”

“Oh, here comes the 'wiretap in my ear' routine again.”

Hwang Inchan snickered at the man fighting the reporter for the microphone.

“Mr. Jaehwan, watch this carefully. If you want to become a good editor, you need to see things like this too. It all helps.”

Before Jaehwan could answer, the man snatched back the microphone and kept shouting.

“Everyone, we are trapped inside a Tower! We are trapped within the 《Tower of Nightmares》, being cultivated!”

Hwang Inchan burst into louder laughter.

“Ha ha ha! The 《Tower of Nightmares》? Has this old man read too much fantasy?”

The man cried out in a desperate voice. Perhaps this was what the voice of someone facing destruction sounded like. His expression was terribly earnest and grief-stricken. Though everyone in the world laughed at him, he was still there, refusing to bow his head.

“Everyone, the place where you live is... No... This is not a proper... life... You can see the Tower... Destruction...!”

The screen changed after those final words. An anchor’s voice apologized to viewers for the sudden broadcast accident.

Hwang Inchan was still laughing.

“Really, the world these days is more entertaining than fantasy. Come on, we should make something even more entertaining than that.”

Hwang Inchan lightly patted Jaehwan’s shoulder.

Jaehwan’s eyes remained fixed on the screen. The man was no longer there, yet he could not look away from the news broadcast. It was as if he were waiting for the man to appear on screen once more.

After a brief silence, Jaehwan finally answered.

“Yes. Let’s do that.”

“Good! Then let’s work hard!”

With Hwang Inchan’s hand still patting his shoulder, Jaehwan sat at his desk. The handover files left by his predecessor filled the monitor. Yet he could not focus on a single word.

The image of the man who had appeared on the screen passed over his empty retinas.

An overgrown beard. A stained white coat.

White hair gone hoary, as though he had suffered greatly over the years.

Jaehwan knew that man. Even after all this time, it was a face he could never forget. How could he forget that face?

That can’t be. Why are you...

The last thing the man had said to him returned with startling clarity.

“Even if the Tower never appeared, I think Jaehwan-gun’s world truly existed. No, I think it still exists.”

After Jaehwan had come to ‘reality,’ Teacher had spent more time with him than anyone else.

Perhaps Teacher understood Jaehwan better than anyone in this world.

And Teacher had diagnosed Jaehwan’s world as a ‘delusion’ in more precise words than anyone else.

The man on the TV was Teacher.

* * *

Teacher continued appearing on television. Whenever cameras showed different protests, his face was there. He could always be found among the poor, at places exposing conglomerates or all manner of corruption.

Teacher was more socially prominent than Jaehwan had realized.

He had studied under renowned scholars while moving between Germany and France, but was a fraud who had also practiced illegal counseling and treatment. Even political and business figures who had once sought him out turned away from Teacher because of his bizarre behavior.

The media quickly investigated Teacher’s identity and stirred up every possible scandal, turning all his statements into a joke.

The fall of a genius.

Teacher, who had once diagnosed Jaehwan with delusional disorder, was now being made into a delusional patient by the media.

“Everyone! We have to realize it! We, we are trapped inside a Tower!”

Jaehwan could not understand Teacher’s true intentions.

Why was he behaving like that now?

Was Teacher not the one who had argued in every way possible over the past ten years, saying that money was everything in this world and that Jaehwan had to accept it for his family’s sake?

“Lately, I often wonder whether my treatment was wrong. If one is not a god, who could dare treat or correct another person’s world?”

Had something changed in the meantime?

Or did Teacher have some other purpose?

“Perhaps it is because of Jaehwan-gun’s influence.”

“My influence?”

“Yes. Jaehwan-gun, perhaps it was not you who were persuaded by ten years of time, but me.”

Jaehwan occasionally opened the latest literary magazines and searched through the debut works to see whether a novel Teacher had written had been published. Yet he found neither Teacher’s name nor the novel he had read back then.

Several times, he considered going to find Teacher. Once, he even saw Teacher while passing through Gwanghwamun by chance. But he never spoke to him.

Maybe he was afraid.

Afraid he would find a feeling he had barely managed to suppress. Afraid that feeling would plunge him into profound despair again.

“Please, please open your eyes!”

Fortunately or unfortunately, the talk surrounding Teacher soon quietly disappeared beneath other gossip.

It was because of Teacher’s unwavering attitude.

Teacher was always at protest sites, but never expressed support for any particular person or formed alliances with any particular group. Before long, the groups naturally lost interest and drifted away from him.

“Ugh, it’s that man again. It stops being interesting when he just repeats the same thing.”

Hwang Inchan, who was watching Yonhap News with him, groaned as he spoke.

Footnotes:

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