TRPM 223

After the incident that took place in the basement of Core Earth’s building, once I’d recovered some of my internal energy, I returned to Korea on the back of Paphnir together with Sophia and Chairman Shin Hanji.

Sophia came because I had decided to protect her, so of course I brought her along, and Chairman Shin Hanji—after bringing a suitcase—said…

“Since we’re heading the same way anyway, could I come along?”

So I gave her a ride as well.

At first I thought she wanted to ride Paphnir because taking a plane back to Korea would take too long, but…

“Yah… ho…!”

After Paphnir rose above the clouds and began moving at high speed, she suddenly stood up on the dragon’s back on both feet and shouted like that—so it seemed she simply wanted to enjoy riding on a dragon’s back.

Anyway.

We arrived back in Korea at 4:00 PM. We had departed the U.S. at around 8:00 AM, so we finished everything and returned to Korea in eight hours.

‘There’s still cleanup to do, but the locals will handle that,’ I thought.

A few days passed.

“Ugh… I’m going to die.”

“I wish there were no tests in the world…”

Some kids were groaning as if they were dying. Of course, the ones making those dying noises were the kids who usually didn’t do well in school. The students who normally study hard were different.

“Question 17 was kind of ambiguous. What was the answer number for that?”

“Number 3. Did you by any chance mark number 5?”

“Ah, I marked number 5…”

“It’s an easy point of confusion; that can happen.”

The kids who actually study talked while trying to guess the answers. Some even pulled out their textbooks to compare with the questions on the test.

“Wow, Geonwoo got a perfect score again.”

“Ha-eun got a perfect score too, right?”

“Ha-eun missed one in another subject. Can’t be helped.”

I smiled as I watched the kids talk while looking at my and Lee Ha-eun’s exam papers.

‘Peaceful….’

There had been the emergence of an erosion-type dungeon and Oracle’s terrorism targeting it. Then Oracle’s lab attacks, a hijacking incident in the Mediterranean, Albatross PMC’s infiltration of the prison island and the doppelgängers’ assault. And a few days ago, the Chicago zombie incident and the battle that occurred beneath Core Earth.

‘Too much has happened in the past two months.’

Normally, even if something like this happened once a month it would be considered serious—but these kinds of big events were occurring far too often. I don’t shrink from fighting when necessary, but still, peace is preferable whenever possible.

‘At least for a while… it should be peaceful.’

One thing’s for sure: Oracle won’t be carrying out external operations for the time being. They’ll be too busy fighting among themselves to turn their attention outward. That’s the information Chairman Richard and Albatross PMC obtained while attacking Core Earth.

‘Oracle is issuing commands to Core Earth, but many of the orders they send are contradictory.’

Some orders say to kidnap awakened ones and send them to headquarters even if it risks being caught; other orders say to hide and never get noticed. Because of this, doppelgängers that couldn’t decide which orders to follow reportedly malfunctioned. It wasn’t only Core Earth’s doppelgängers—countless doppelgängers hiding within society experienced the same.

‘… Though the doppelgänger impersonating my uncle apparently remained fine.’

Thinking about that, it’s possible older doppelgängers are still hiding in society, but with so many doppelgängers exposed, one of Oracle’s resources has effectively been neutralized. Also, the fact that their command chain is confused means different people are issuing orders—implying Oracle’s leadership is undecided and their faction has split.

‘Judging from what Sophia said about their tendencies, deciding on a leader won’t be done by gentle means.’

According to Sophia, those people have a mad belief that everyone on Earth—even organization members—should die. Do you think they’d elect a leader by voting? No way.

“What are you thinking about so hard?” Elena asked.

“Nothing much, just some random thoughts,” I replied.

Elena, having noticed my preoccupation, had come over and asked. I cleared my mind of Oracle-related thoughts and looked at her.

“But why are you sitting next to me and doing that?” I asked.

“Not for any particular reason. Do you have time after midterms?” she asked.

After the midterms comes Friday… I wouldn’t be teaching then, so I’d be free in the afternoon. The weekend would be difficult because I planned to chaperone Yeon Mirae and Lee Ha-eun, but Friday had no appointments.

“Friday afternoon should be fine.”

“Then could you come with me somewhere?”

It wasn’t me who reacted to that. Lee Ha-eun, who had been comparing test papers with other kids while keeping an ear out, poked her head between me and Elena.

“… Is it a date?”

Lee Ha-eun asked Elena.

“A date? You could call it that,” Elena answered with a smile.

Other kids, having noticed, started popping popcorn into their mouths. If I were in their position I’d be munching popcorn too, but being the person involved made it awkward.

Then Elena asked, “Oh, Ha-eun, do you have time on Friday too?”

“Uh?”

“If you do, the three of us can go together.”

Hmm… The conversation wasn’t aligning properly. The kids who had been chewing popcorn seemed to sense something was off and paused, but Lee Ha-eun, oblivious to that, spoke with strong tremors in her voice.

“Th—this is still… my… f-first… date… with… th—three… people…”

It looked like Lee Ha-eun had taken Elena’s comment as an invitation for the three of them to go on a date together.

“Elena.”

“Yes?”

“Where are you thinking of going on Friday?”

“Oh, that?”

A dungeon.

“What?” I said.

“A dungeon. I somehow got permission to enter a dungeon in Korea, but they assigned a dungeon that seems too dangerous for my skill. So I was asking Geonwoo if he could go with me.”

“Oh… ah… a dungeon…? I thought—well, never mind… you two go together…”

Only then did Lee Ha-eun blush, realizing she had misunderstood, and back away. The other kids, bored, made a clicking sound with their tongues and dispersed. I leaned close to Elena in a voice low enough that other kids couldn’t hear and asked:

“You used a word that would make them misunderstand on purpose, didn’t you?”

“Yes. It’s fun, isn’t it?”

You might find it fun, but I don’t. I glared at Elena, but then—

Clatter.

“Everyone, take your seats and get ready to receive the test papers.”

Of all the times—recess ended and the next exam period began, so I had no choice but to let her go.

At the same time Han Geonwoo was taking the midterms, an Oracle shuttle arrived in a remote desert. Normally it should have landed at a landing site Oracle had hidden somewhere, but for some reason it had descended to a less suitable place.

There was a reason for this.

Pushui….

The shuttle had landed in the middle of the desert. The door opened, and a woman emerged.

“(Ugh… finally outside…)”

She was a member of Oracle—the leader who had betrayed them. It had taken her a week after departing Mars to finally reach Earth. Considering the distance between Earth and Mars, it was natural that it took a while. In fact, the fact she covered that distance in just about a week was a sign of Oracle’s advanced technology.

‘(… Luckily there doesn’t seem to be a tracker…)’

If she had brought the shuttle to Oracle’s hidden landing site, she would probably already be surrounded by Oracle members. Knowing that, she had intentionally risked landing in the desert instead.

“(How many years has it been since I came back to Earth?)”

She muttered that and looked around. Of course, there was only sand in this remote desert.

“(Get a grip on yourself.)”

After checking her surroundings, she went back into the shuttle. She pulled out special gloves, put them on, removed something from the shuttle’s engine, and placed it into a small box.

It was a power source imbued with Oracle’s latest technology. Considering its value, she couldn’t just leave it behind—and it had many potential uses—so she decided to take it. She loaded the box containing the power source into a nearby small vehicle. The vehicle was already packed with supplies everywhere except the driver’s seat.

“(Ugh… did I pack everything I needed?)”

She would have liked to take the shuttle itself, but that was physically impossible. She could carry an extra-dimensional artifact, but its inner space wasn’t large enough to hold the shuttle. Fortunately she could take all the materials that had been inside the shuttle.

‘(With these supplies and the documents I secretly took from headquarters, I can probably lay the foundation to build a new organization.)’

And to form an organization, you need people. She had also thought ahead about how to recruit those people. The future had become harder to see recently, but the future she had once seen hadn’t disappeared. That future had changed a bit, but—

‘(People don’t change that much.)’

The powerful people she had seen in the past: some may have died due to the butterfly effects caused by her and the Artist, and new powerful individuals may have emerged. But that was sufficient. She hadn’t been idle even while heading Oracle.

‘(I’ve already investigated where those people live and what kind of lives they lead. I also know how to draw them to be my subordinates.)’

Thinking that, the Oracle got into the driver’s seat and started the engine. By now Oracle members on Earth would be rushing to this location to capture her. The shuttle’s landing here had surely been confirmed; she needed to leave before they arrived.

‘(And …)’

Until now, she had not thought to increase her own combat power. It’s not that she hadn’t wanted to, but she didn’t have the time to train while avoiding the hardliners’ scrutiny. But now that she was free, things were different.

‘(My ability isn’t precognition. Precognition itself is derived from my spacetime power.)’

If she could properly master this spacetime ability, how strong would she become? With that thought, the Oracle pressed the accelerator.