Ch 33
Episode 32 – The story after that.
The place where Jaejoo Kim first met the manager in the video is also on the 10th floor.
Right in this park.
At Jaejoo Kim’s words, the old man threw, threw, and threw the feed without saying a word.
A pigeon was quickly snatched away.
paddock.
The pigeons were startled and scattered all over the place, and the old man’s face was briefly covered.
“Did you enjoy playing up to the 10th floor?”
The helpless voice turned into the playfulness of a young man.
He grabbed the pigeon’s neck and pulled it to his face, then turned to Kim Jae-joo.
When the manager turned his wrist, the pigeon’s head also turned to Kim Jae-joo.
“Is it a joke?”
“It’s not for me, but isn’t it fun for users?”
“Not me.”
“You are a user too. A user who uses abilities and uses coins to climb towers.”
Jaejoo Kim pushed the backpack aside and leaned back on the bench.
Comfort came as if to appease the hard work of the past.
His gaze naturally turned to the clear sky.
“You’ve been watching, so you know.”
“Did you hear it?”
The corner of the manager’s lips twitched up.
“I am different from Jaejoo Kim in the video.”
hold on hold on hold on hold on hold on
The dove, which had become calm when it was caught by the manager, started to cry as if ridiculing Kim Jae-joo’s words.
“Do you know why the video was passed on to you?”
“I do not know.”
Even in the last video that Jaejoo Kim watched, the reason was not stated.
The last thing he remembers was Kim Jae-joo, who accepted the position of manager.
“If you want to know that, you have to know the story behind it.”
“If you’re curious about what happened after the last video, I’ll tell you.”
Jaejoo Kim pulled his arm back and hung it on the bench, feeling the cool and soft touch.
nevertheless.
My stomach was still churning, and the unknown anxiety had not been erased.
“If you don’t like it, don’t.”
The manager’s tone was light as if it was nothing special.
Jaejoo Kim taps his finger, then taps.
“Do it.”
decided.
“Okay. Do you have any regrets about that choice?”
“I think it’s better than not knowing.”
The manager got up.
He moved slowly, stood in front of Jaejoo Kim, looked down and met his gaze.
Contrary to his smirk, there was no emotion in his eyes.
“What is a manager? Have you ever thought about that?”
“······· Literally referring to the person who manages the tower.”
The manager shook his head.
“Then what about the world of Astro?”
“Do you think it was made just for the entertainment of users?”
Jaejoo Kim could not easily open his mouth at those words.
In the ordeal of the 5th floor, I never thought that the world was fake.
If that had been the case, Kim Jae-joo would have shot Lee Seon-jae’s head with a laugh, instead of playing the prince.
hold on hold on hold on hold on hold on hold on
The chirping of the pigeons got a little higher.
“I don’t think so. Actually, there were a few other users who said they would take over as administrator.”
“Are you talking about before I climbed the tower?”
“of course.”
“········ Are you saying that there are multiple administrators or not?”
“There can be only one manager.”
“It’s possible to retire, and it’s a comfortable place.”
“Are you a little attracted to me?”
Jaejoo Kim shook his head.
“Not at all.”
“I’m sorry. I’m sure you’ll do well.”
“What happened to the retired people?”
“They all took their own lives.”
The manager turned and raised his hand and flew away like a dove.
“It was a boring place.”
“Do you know Nandeul? It’s hard to know what the human heart is.”
The manager, who was watching the chased pigeons swimming in the distant sky, turned to Kim Jae-joo again.
“Build a tower, appoint a new manager, and try putting in the broadcasting system you’re familiar with. I’ve done everything I can.”
The manager’s mischievous smile disappeared.
“Still, this damn Astro world, no matter how many times I fix it, fix it, fix it.”
The manager’s speech became faster.
“It constantly breaks down. If you block one side, the other will break.”
thud.
When the manager lightly stomped one foot, the ground rumbled in waves.
Jaejoo Kim, feeling the sense of balance even while sitting, hurriedly lowered his arms and grabbed the bench.
“If you block another one, the other will.”
thud.
The trees visible at the end of the field of vision began to warp into an impossible shape.
As if everything were dancing, the space itself was distorted.
That kick was somehow full of annoyance.
“It was like pouring water into a drained poison, just like that mechanical glove you made.”
“Was it difficult to fix that broken part?”
At the words of Jaejoo Kim, the manager’s angry kicking stopped, and the dislocated spaces slowly began to return to their proper place.
“Hey, just looking at you makes me feel strangely excited.”
The manager straightened out the messy dressing, as if something had happened.
“A manager is a man, kind of like a pot. A pot for water.”
If the manager was a jar, he didn’t ask what water to put in it.
“The world of Astro is the water I have to contain.”
“So you’re saying you can’t fix your broken parts?”
The manager tapped his head with his index finger as if contemplating.
“Um. That’s right. As a Korean proverb, the middle ear can’t cut my hair. Isn’t there such a saying?”
“It’s hard to understand.”
“I didn’t mean to ask you to understand, I just wanted to hear it, so I’m just telling you.”
“I don’t think what I want to hear has come out at all.”
“You’re in a hurry. Then I’ll tell you quickly. Wake up.”
Jaejoo Kim flinched at the simple word of the manager to wake up, pondered, and eventually got up slowly.
“I’ve been playing the role of a jar for too long.”
The manager’s body changed into a woman’s curved line, and his face changed to a familiar figure he had seen somewhere.
A short short-sleeved t-shirt and skinny jeans suited her body.
“I can’t remember why I first took over as manager, and my ego became dull.”
The voice was innocent.
The slender hand that caressed Kim Jae-joo’s face was thickly covered with blood.
“It’s our talent. My sister told me not to do it, so did you have to do that… to make me die?”
That face was Jin Ha-yeon, whoever looked at it.
Blood was pouring from his stomach, his eyes bulging as if he was about to die at any moment.
“·················You are too joking.”
“Haha, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. But this is a quick explanation.”
The appearance of the manager who burst out laughing as if it was funny and stepped back.
All of a sudden, he was wearing a suit and turned into a man with a gloomy expression.
“Jaejoo Kim.”
“That year was a damn year. For his own life, he put dozens of his colleagues on the brink of death. It was a time when he needed a paycheck.”
“stop.”
saa
Jaejoo Kim closed his eyes and didn’t hear anything.
There was only the sound of the wind blowing through the forest.
What I saw when Jaejoo Kim opened his eyes again.
“Heh. Heh. Heh. Heh.”
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It was a manager who was lying on the floor in the form of an old man, with both hands and feet folded like a dog.
“·······What are you doing?”
“Waah … wah wah!”
The manager, who prostrated himself on all fours as if bouncing at Kim Jae-joo’s words, walked like a dog and rubbed his head on Kim Jae-joo’s leg.
Kim Jae-joo unknowingly took a step backwards at the intrinsic disgust felt different from that human.
The manager, who was sticking out his tongue and staring at him, got up slowly.
“…I’m already broken. No love, no hatred, no sorrow for humans.”
He came back with an expressionless face.
“All that’s left is a sense of duty to fill the jar with water just right.”
Jaejoo Kim was speechless for a moment at the incomprehensible madness, and then slowly opened his mouth.
“Are the other managers crazy like you?”
“No, as if everyone were possessed by something when they took on a managerial position. They had the same sense of duty as me.”
As if the manager loosened his stiff body, he turned his back and stretched.
“It’s like I have an obsessive-compulsive disorder trying to fill the jar I made with water just right.”
“Did everyone fail?”
“Yes. The jar was too small and overflowed with water. I didn’t think about the strength and just enlarged the size…”
The manager put his palms together as if they were clasping each other to create a small, thin gap.
“When it got thinner, it couldn’t withstand the weight of water and sometimes broke.”
“So, did you break those jars yourself?”
“no!”
The manager’s eyebrows contorted for the first time.
The relaxed gesture disappeared, and the fixed gaze on Kim Jae-joo burned as if angry.
“I only said one word. ‘Is it difficult?’
The manager’s mouth ripped open.
“Except for one of you.”
Jaejoo Kim had an intuition that the story had entered the main point.
I mean, it’s after the video.
“You alone were different. You played the role of a manager better than anyone else. Seeing the water at the end of the water and the horizon line at the end of the jar, neither too much nor too short.”
The manager’s eyes were not looking here.
spitting out words incessantly.
Even though he made an ecstatic expression as if he was thinking of something, he had a vain expression like a traveler who had seen a mirage.
“I finally thought that it would be okay to die. It felt like I saw a tiny baby being born among humans who only felt like bugs.”
The manager’s tone was similar to that of a father who treated his child.
Jaejoo Kim thought and thought and carefully opened his mouth.
“·······Then what is that video?”
“The child must have reached puberty. The human mind is the only quality I can’t understand.”
“I mean, the video was sent…”
“Yeah. It’s the future of the manager, no, it’s the past. It’d be better to say you in the video.”
Jaejoo Kim couldn’t understand.
“Do you know what the reason is?”
“I don’t know. It’s just a whim. It’s because I’m tired of being a manager.”
The manager shrugged his shoulders as if he really didn’t know, and made a firm expression.
“Looking into memories is the same thing. It’s about reaching the soul. If that was possible, I wouldn’t have thought about it with a jar.”
“After all, the fact that the future me sent the video to the present me, and that’s why the manager didn’t even know about it,” he said.
The manager laughed at Kim Jae-joo’s provocative tone.
“Is that important? The future you who became administrators, the you before entering the tower, and the present you. The fact that everyone is Jaejoo Kim remains the same.”
“I’m not saying it’s wrong, but I want to say it’s different.”
“Future you became the manager by your promise to me.”
“I should have said it. I don’t remember making that promise.”
“It must be difficult to understand yet. It will take time….”
The manager mumbled to himself, then nodded and clapped his hands.
“Yes! I think the question has been resolved to some extent now, do you have any more questions?”
The manager saw Jaejoo Kim as something different from other people.
His purpose is to somehow entrust Kim Jae-joo as the manager.
“I will ask you one last time.”
The peace zone on the 10th floor is built on the ordeal of the 5th floor.
“After the ordeal on the 5th floor, the scenery on the 10th floor that I knew has changed… Is there any reason?”
“Hahaha! Let’s see if that’s what Woomunhyeondap is like!”
The manager laughed out loud at what was funny, then shed tears and opened his mouth.
“Do you remember when you in the future who took on the manager’s position said that you filled the jar with water properly?”
“·········yes.”
“Now, the consequences of the actions you have been through in the ordeal are similar to the process of fitting water in a jar.”
Jaejoo Kim was speechless.
All those actions that were simply self-satisfaction on the 5th floor sounded like a story about imitating the future self.
“······ So did you change it?”
“Yeah. Watching the twisted world one by one properly fix it, in the end, you, Kim Jaejoo.”
The manager’s voice lowered.
“I realized that I am an immutable being.”
In a way, it is a sophistry, and in a way it is a word that stabs the truth.
Jaejoo Kim didn’t say anything.
In such a suffocating silence, Jaejoo Kim finally got up from his seat and looked at the manager.
opened his mouth.
“Have some shit.”
Raising your middle finger.