Chapter 8
Aaaagh!!!
The moment I opened my eyes, I grabbed my head.
My brain.
Is my brain still attached properly?
Those fucking Bureau bastards ripped out my brain!
Huff! Huff!
Rough breaths burst out of me, and my heart pounded like crazy. I looked around. A room filled with crosses. It was my room from that very day—the day I had barely escaped the vampire.
My room...?
Is it really my room?
Is this really my room?
Those Bureau assholes extracted my brain!
My brain was pulled out!
It was literally yanked out in one smooth pull! I distinctly felt my consciousness peel away from my body and become enslaved to my brain!
Uooooooo!
Maybe I've become a brain in a vat!
You crazy scientist bastards!
Those fucking bastards might have pumped electricity into my brain and created this hallucination!
Ahahahaha!
For some reason, laughter suddenly burst out of me. Could the Bureau guys have sent a laughter signal to my brain? I rolled on the floor laughing like a madman, then before long I was bawling my eyes out.
Fuckkkkk!
I couldn't believe reality anymore.
The Bureau!
What the hell are these superhuman assholes even doing! This world had vampires, and suspicious secret organizations like the Bureau too!
Crazy Men in Black bastards...!
Could those Bureau bastards be the so-called 'Deep State'? So internet conspiracy theories really were the truth, not the ravings of lunatics?
My head felt like it was about to explode.
Those bastards seemed able to manipulate crypto and stocks however they wanted. They said they used that to set traps. In other words, they were the kind of people with terrifying, massive power who could even pull that kind of stunt to hunt down people who could see the future.
Never so much as look at crypto or stocks, and absolutely do not touch them!
The moment you use information from the future, they'll catch you.
There was a reason that scary clown man had turned into such a funny guy. With Bureau bastards scarier than tigers watching him like hawks, of course he'd have to behave.
Come to think of it, that clown guy was always hiding in graves. It was a little eccentric, sure, but if you wanted to protect your body from the Bureau, it was essential.
Huu, huu...!
Imagining the funny clown guy calmed me down a little, so I decided to open the status window.
ㅡFlash!
——————————
[●Status Window]
Name : Kim Geun-hong
Age : 24
.
.
.
Run : 2
Death Count : 5
[●Collected Endings]
——————————
The only thing that had changed was the death count.
"..."
Seeing this oddly calmed me down. It was weird to feel calm while a grotesque window floated before my eyes, but the more unreal it seemed, the calmer I got.
Me, a brain in a vat?
Anyway, the moment a status window shows up in front of my eyes, I'm already fucked. What does being a brain in a vat even matter? Besides, even if I really had become a brain in a vat, eventually the brain's lifespan would run out. Then, whether I regressed or whatever, it'd all be over.
Thanks, Taechang.
Taechang, Taechang, status window.
I finally calmed down.
I got up from my seat and stretched. But what the hell, why did my body smell so much like garlic?
Ah.
Well, I had gone back to the day I fled from the vampire and stayed up all night with my eyes open, so it made sense.
Back then, I was so crazed with fear that I rubbed garlic all over my body like a lunatic. Come to think of it, I did something similar in the previous run too, saying I was going to wage war on vampires.
...Thinking about it now, I realize I was out of my mind back then.
I seriously prepared for a holy war, draped crosses all over my body, and even got a ridiculous number of cross tattoos. I always carried garlic, silver, and stakes in my bag.
Looks like I lost my mind from living on the run. Maybe now that I've regressed, all that stress got reset and I'm finally back in my right mind?
I took a shower and scrubbed off the garlic smell.
"All right. Let's make a plan."
One thing was certain.
"Crypto and stocks are absolutely off-limits."
If I touch them for no reason, I could get royally fucked.
"The other one... well, vampires, I guess."
The Bureau.
I had just encountered those utterly inhuman bastards and gone through death, but that didn't make vampires a joke.
The need to run away while evading vampire pursuit hadn't changed. Of course, I also couldn't act like some obvious vampire hunter, like in the previous run.
"Those Bureau bastards... they kept mocking me, saying I was a vampire hunter."
The Bureau would have lots of information like that.
No. They're probably the kind of group that does exactly that sort of thing in the first place.
Like Men in Black.
They'd naturally seen plenty of people like me, tormented by vampires, going insane and turning into vampire hunters.
"As carefully as possible. I have to flee without showing my madness."
But this is the problem.
In the last run, I didn't have to worry about money. I duplicated money with crypto. So even while fleeing and doing all sorts of crazy bullshit, I never felt any financial shortage.
But I can't do that now... life on the run is going to be really rough.
"Hmm."
What should I do?
I need money to stay on the run. Besides, I can't work at one place for long, and I can't get a job around here either.
"Then I guess I'll have to head down to the provinces."
Right.
I could go down to the provinces and look for a job that provides room and board. A room-and-board labor job, maybe? Since labor jobs can be short-term too, I should be able to find something somehow.
"The part-time job site."
It's been a long time since I went into a part-time job site. As I was thinking that and about to look for work, a thought suddenly crossed my mind.
Now.
What would happen if I searched the internet for information about the Bureau?
Wouldn't they detect my search history and come after me?
ㅡThump-thump!
My heart started pounding fast, and cold sweat trickled down. Just the thought of looking into the Bureau had me insanely on edge.
"They'll... track me, right?"
It really feels like I'm going to get tracked.
But I really do want to find out whatever I can about the Bureau. Of course, there's probably no way information about a secret organization like that would be up on the internet... no.
"No. No, wait. There is. There's information. And the kind I can look up."
The world of the internet is infinite.
Among them were some truly strange sites. Bulletin boards occupied by crazy lunatics, where they talk all day about the Deep State and aliens.
What if it's real?
It's worth investigating.
Thinking that, I accessed the site.
[World Politics Bulletin Board]
This site literally deals with 'world politics.'
The problem is that this 'world politics' is riddled with all kinds of extradimensional conspiracy theories, so in the public eye it's seen as little more than a fairy-tale village for lunatics.
It's a cesspool where true hardcore nutjobs stay on all day spouting grotesque stories, and outsiders visit either to mock them or enjoy the spectacle, then leave after playing along with the bullshit.
Forget all those preconceptions.
I read through the posts on the board more seriously than anyone else. More seriously than the lunatics here, in fact.
No.
These people here are by no means ridiculous. They're just like me—people who learned the hidden side of the world and are tormented by pain and madness.
-Lately parasites keep coming out of my brain. Any advice?
-In my view, the office of the U.S. president has never once in history
-This Gulf War UFO thing I found on the deep web
-These days. The situation. Is not. Good.
-You guys know your agents are wiretapping this board, right?
-I keep telling you there's a bug in my ear, but nobody believes me.
Every single title is provocative.
If this were any other time, I'd have simply enjoyed the world they built out of curiosity. Maybe I would even have shaken my head and run away.
"Because I hadn't opened my eyes..."
Now I know.
That the truth is hidden here.
There's no need to even search for the Bureau. They hid their existence among lunatics. They won't be able to track me just for looking at this board.
I opened every post on the board in a new tab. Individually, they weren't very meaningful—just the sort of common conspiracy theories you can see anywhere.
But among them, there were some that strongly caught my attention.
-Recently, men in black have been tailing me
-I'm telling you, agents are watching me?
It was none other than...!
Strange men in black suits and sunglasses!
Of course, the information itself wasn't very reliable. There were only rumors that those black-clad men dragged people off somewhere, or erased someone's identity without a trace.
"This is real."
Bureau agents really do exist. Maybe some of these people have been harassed by those agents too.
I kept flipping through the pages, focusing on posts that included keywords like agents or men in black.
Every post, read in full.
I searched with burning eyes, trying to collect even the slightest scrap of information.
How much time passed like that?
ㅡKnock, knock.
I heard a knock.
"Are you there?"
"What the...?"
When I checked the time, it was already late morning. I had been staring at the board all through the dawn. The board was so gripping that I couldn't take my eyes off it...
"Are you there?"
But who came looking for me?
I hadn't ordered any delivery.
ㅡScrape.
The moment I stood up.
I felt as if some kind of ominous premonition was rising from my toes.
"Ha, haha..."
No way.
No, right?
"Are you there?"
I cautiously approached the door. Who was out there? Please let it be a normal person.
Thinking that, slowly...
I peered through the peephole in the door.
"..."
It's pitch-black.
I couldn't see anything.
"I know you're in there."
"Gasp!"
ㅡBoom!
The door was shoved open roughly. The chain was on it, but a rough hand reached in and scraped at it with something like a steel plate, and it snapped with a crack.
"A-Aaaagh!"
The Bureau!
It's the Bureau!
No way—did they track me down just because I stared at the board all night?!
"No!"
Coming to my senses, I immediately ran to the kitchen and grabbed a kitchen knife. In the meantime, the men in black broke in.
"Get the fuck out, you bastards!!!"
ㅡPew!
Ah.
My body...
is falling...
My heart...
"Target eliminated."
.
.
.
[You were shot dead.]
[Death Count 5 -> 6]
.
.
.
[Restarting.]