Chapter 297: The Secret of Birth (3)
“Yes, let’s see each other tonight. Yes, yes. I have time. Take it easy on your studies until then. I’ll hang up first.”
Click.
Chairman Yoo pressed the end call button.
“How is the young lady?”
Secretary Oh asked, receiving Chairman Yoo’s smartphone.
“I guess I was just too nervous. As you followed her, nothing happened.”
“You mean…”
“She doesn’t have much to do with that bastard Kyung-joon yet. No, it’s more accurate to say that they’re connected, but she hasn’t completely fallen for him yet.”
The reason Chairman Yoo had Yoo Seol-ha followed was to see how far their connection had progressed.
However, after several days of following and investigating, the possibility of Yoo Seol-ha being completely smitten with Kyung-joon was mostly ruled out.
“She seems to have noticed to some extent that The World is not an ordinary game, and it seems that she approached Kyung-joon as a means to find out about it. Besides that, she seems to be somewhat attracted to him as a human being, and she seems to like him quite a bit, even though she doesn’t know it herself…… but that’s all.”
“Is that so? I see Kyung-joon failed to properly reel her in.”
“No matter how monstrous he’s become, he’s still a high school student. And even when he was on the verge of death, he refused our help and tried to do things on his own. Seolha probably doesn’t trust him completely either. She’s a suspicious girl by nature.”
Clench.
Chairman Yoo clenched his fist as if he was gripping the world.
“No matter how wildly he runs, he’s still in the palm of my hand.”
Chairman Yoo got up from his seat and prepared to leave.
He had a dinner appointment with his granddaughter, so he had to go to Silla Ribs.
Secretary Oh, while helping Chairman Yoo with his coat, asked,
“Is there any possibility that this dinner appointment itself is a trap set by Kyung-joon? Using Yoo Seol-ha to steal information about the Seolha Group…”
“That’s going too far, Secretary Oh. She’s not Y999… no, Seolha’s grandfather for nothing. No matter what that bastard does, he won’t be able to overturn 19 years of built-up affection at once.”
Of course, there is one possibility.
That is, if Yoo Seol-ha finds out that she is the experimental subject Y999.
However, this fact is known only to Chairman Yoo, Secretary Oh, and the researchers who have not been out of the underground for decades.
‘There’s no way that bastard would know unless he dissects and studies Seolha’s body himself.’
However, as a result of following her for several days after the new semester started, there was no sign of that at all.
In the past, his granddaughter, who always went back and forth between school and home, started going out frequently and hanging out with her friends from vacation, but that was all.
Ding. The sound of the elevator stopping.
Secretary Oh and Chairman Yoo went down to the basement of the building where the limousine was.
Secretary Oh went out first and checked the front as usual, and Chairman Yoo followed.
“Let’s use what he intends against him. It would be perfect to use Seolha to find out where Kyung-joon is, what he’s doing, and how far his research has progressed.”
“Chairman. It’s 10 minutes to Silla Ribs.”
Secretary Oh said, opening the back door of the limousine.
“It would be good to manage your expression. Miss is sensitive and sharp.”
“Haha, right, right. I got too excited. I almost ruined the affection I’ve built up over 19 years.”
Chairman Yoo closed his eyes and frowned and relaxed his face a few times.
Then, the face that had looked at people as tools a while ago changed into the face of a benevolent grandfather.
“Huh huh, it’s been a while since I’ve had dinner with my granddaughter. I’m looking forward to it.”
And so the limousine carrying Chairman Yoo headed towards Silla Ribs at the Shilla Hotel.
🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷
In front of Silla Ribs.
“Oh my, my granddaughter. This old man is so busy that it’s hard to even see her face.”
As always, Chairman Yoo greeted Yoo Seol-ha with the appearance of a benevolent grandfather.
“……..”
However, Yoo Seol-ha’s appearance was much different from before.
Normally, she would be a little blunt, but she would be unable to hide her true feelings, but this time it was completely different.
“… Grandfather.”
Yoo Seol-ha, as seen by Chairman Yoo, seemed to be greatly disappointed.
“What’s wrong, Seol-ha? Are you feeling unwell?”
Chairman Yoo asked with a truly worried expression.
He already had a rough idea of what Yoo Seol-ha was going to say.
“The World… Did you know about it, Grandfather?”
Chairman Yoo smiled inwardly at those words.
Still, Chairman Yoo asked this question to confirm.
“Yes, it seems Lee Kyung-joon told you something.”
“He didn’t really tell me anything. I saw it myself and made my own judgment.”
Just as he expected.
Given Kyung-joon’s suspicious personality, he would never have told her first.
She must have seen and felt many things while being next to him, and with that best brain in the world, she would have come to a unique conclusion.
“Why did you keep it a secret from me?”
Yoo Seol-ha looked at Chairman Yoo with a slightly angry face.
He didn’t answer right away, but stroked his granddaughter’s hair and spoke in a benevolent voice as if to comfort her.
“This is not the place to talk about it. I knew you’d say that, so I made a reservation. Let’s talk more while we eat the ribs that this old man grilled himself.”
“……Yes.”
Yoo Seol-ha and Chairman Yoo went deep inside the second floor of the Silla Ribs building.
There was no one around them, and Secretary Oh, who didn’t mind listening to their conversation, personally served the side dishes and Korean beef.
Before Chairman Yoo could speak, Yoo Seol-ha opened her mouth first.
“Grandfather, The World is……”
“Yes, as you guessed, it’s definitely not just a game.”
Sizzle.
Chairman Yoo skillfully grilled the meat and continued talking.
“Perhaps another world, yes, it’s right to call it another world. As another hypothesis, some researchers call it a parallel world, and others say it’s a world created by chance.”
“A world created by chance……? The World?”
To Yoo Seol-ha’s question, Chairman Yoo answered with a question.
“Seolha, you know roughly where our Seolha Group was investing heavily about 10 years ago, right?”
“Yes. I heard you were investing heavily in ITER, CERN, nuclear fusion and accelerator research, and then you pulled out because it wasn’t economically viable……”
“That was it.”
“Yes?”
“That’s when our Seolha Group uniquely confirmed the connection with The World and started research.”
“So the fact that you withdrew your investment wasn’t actually a withdrawal……”
“That’s right. We just hid it. We were wary of it spreading to the public.”
Sizzle.
Chairman Yoo flipped the meat.
It was cooked to perfection, and it was ready to eat as soon as the other side was cooked.
“You could even call it a monopoly. In fact, I didn’t want everyone in the world to know about it.”
The existence of another world besides Earth.
The Seolha Group kept the existence of The World a secret from all other countries and groups and monopolized it.
“Too many cooks spoil the broth. Europe, the United States, China, Russia, etc…. I decided it would be better to do it ourselves rather than miss the timing of research while all these countries argue about their interests and sovereignty. Our Seolha Group had the power, capital, and ability to do so.”
“Then, as expected, the BIVS monster incident before was also like that?”
“That’s right. It’s just that a very small part of the research got out. Originally, it wasn’t supposed to be like that, but we were too hasty and ended up causing the incident.”
“Aha, so that’s why that monster…”
“Yes, it completely overcame aging, but it had to constantly absorb the surrounding life and became a disgusting monster. Other minor things were sufficient, but the most important thing was missing.”
“The most important thing?”
“Mana.”
Slice. Slice.
Chairman Yoo cut the meat into bite-sized pieces and placed them on top of the potatoes and onions so they wouldn’t burn.
“Here, eat first. Seolha.”
“Yes… Thank you for the food.”
Yoo Seol-ha started to eat the meat with a crunching sound.
Chairman Yoo smiled benevolently at the sight, as if he was looking at his cute granddaughter.
Someone thought that look was too creepy and disgusting.
Sizzle.
As new ribs were placed on the charcoal fire, the story resumed.
This time, it was not about The World itself, but about the players.
“So we continued our research to implement mana in reality, and we continued to fail. In addition to BIVS, there were many other visible achievements. But that was all. We had no choice but to conclude that there were limits to conducting research only in reality, as in the case of BIVS, which you know.”
So the Seolha Group changed the direction of their research slightly.
The ‘login’ technology, a result of painstaking research.
It enabled the ‘mind’ to connect to The World, and they decided to use it to give new impetus to their research.
“That’s what administrators and players are all about.”
“Ah, I get it now. The reason why there were so many monitoring teams in The World was because that was the most important thing?”
“Chuckle, as expected of my granddaughter. You know two or three things when I tell you one. As a reward, I’ll give you the meat that this old man has been eyeing.”
Chairman Yoo placed the largest and most delicious-looking rib on Yoo Seol-ha’s plate.
“Yes, monitoring. It was almost impossible for us to investigate and understand that vast world all by ourselves in secret. So we released it to the world in the form of a game, hiding the truth.”
Thanks to this, the research results over the past two years since the launch of The World have been dozens of times greater than what we have achieved so far, both in quality and quantity.
It’s been great so far.
But the Seolha Group made one big mistake.
That is……
“Kyung-joon. That friend ate the Mythical Job before we did.”
“Was it…… Infinite Knowledge Seeker?”
“Oh, it seems you already know something.”
“I’ve heard it from him sometimes.”
“Chuckle. My granddaughter is indeed beautiful and attractive. That picky friend of yours even talks about such things in front of you.”
Chairman Yoo, speaking like a grandfather, added to what he had been saying.
“Originally, we were trying to get the Mythical Job from our administrator side. But by the time we figured out the hidden piece conditions, Kyung-joon was already about to eat it. I mean, who would have thought that he would be studying in the game as soon as it was released? Even this old man didn’t expect that! Hahaha!”
Chairman Yoo wanted to spit, but he kept a nonchalant expression on his face.
“Well, that’s all good, but the problem was after that. Kyung-joon soon realized what The World was, and we tried to win him over to our side so that we could help each other. But that friend is so suspicious and stubborn. He said he would figure it out on his own, didn’t he?”
“Well, he’s kind of like that.”
“Isn’t he?”
Chairman Yoo’s mouth curled up slightly as if he was pleased with his granddaughter’s sympathy.
“But it’s a relief. Honestly, this old man was wondering if it was right to involve my young granddaughter so early on, but I underestimated my granddaughter too much. I never imagined you would bring this up first.”
“……I know everything I need to know now.”
“Yes, my granddaughter is truly amazing. I’m so proud of you, my granddaughter.”
“……Is that so?”
“Of course it is.”
Slice. Slice.
Chairman Yoo cut the second rib and finally brought up the part he had been wanting to say.
“Then can you convey this old man’s intentions to Kyung-joon? He’s a smart friend, though not as much as my granddaughter, so if you talk to him well, Seolha, his stubborn heart will be relieved a little.”
“……..”
“Why don’t you two study together while you’re at it? Now that things have turned out this way, this old man will give you all my support. Didn’t you lose to him in the last sophomore final exam, Seolha? Remember the bet?”
Yoo Seol-ha nodded silently.
Chairman Yoo thought that her uncomfortable expression was because he had brought up the story of the final exam that she had clearly lost.
“It was a verbal promise, but a promise is a promise. If that’s the case, I have no choice but to give you my full support. So, persuade that friend of yours well, and next time, instead of just the two of you, the three of us can enjoy delicious ribs like last time…”
It was at that moment when Chairman Yoo said that.
“Ah, then I can eat this meat, right?”
It wasn’t Yoo Seol-ha’s clear voice, nor Chairman Yoo’s benevolent voice disguised as kindness.
It was the voice of a high school boy whose voice was breaking.
“Then I’ll enjoy this.”
The most delicious-looking piece of meat on Yoo Seol-ha’s plate suddenly floated up into the air.
It then moved next to Yoo Seol-ha and disappeared as if swallowed by the air.
Chew, chew, chew.
The sound of delicious chewing could be heard from next to Yoo Seol-ha, where there was nothing.
“……!”
Chairman Yoo’s benevolent face disappeared as if it were a lie, and his eyes bulged out as if they were about to pop out.
“Ah, delicious. As expected, ribs are the best at Silla Ribs, just like Chairman Yoo said.”
“You…!!”
The gaze, which had been benevolent, quickly changed to one filled with hostility.
“So, where were we? Were you saying that you would like me to work with Yoo Seol-ha? Ah, no. You were saying that it would be nice for the two of us to become lab rats together~ Right?”
Before he knew it, Kyung-joon, who had released Isolated System, was sitting next to Yoo Seol-ha.
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