The lump looks at the sparkling dream incubator.
At the liquid inside it.
DE 05002160
Over five million Dream Points ripple in a brilliant display of colors.
The lump continued to watch.
Even though it felt no meaning in it.
"Soleum. Just wait a moment, okay?"
Even as people took turns standing guard, like a fire watch.
Even as the Mascots outside would intermittently freeze mid-movement as if glitching.
Even when, at some point, he was left all alone.
He remained there, in the dark research facility, with the iridescently shimmering Dream Essence Liquid.
With the astronomical essence of dreams, gathered as a result of what Kim Soleum had done.
And then–
"Hello."
A person opened the door and stepped inside.
The brilliant light of the Dream Essence cast sparkling light and shadows across her face.
"…Soleum."
Go Youngeun.
This person, who is Kim Soleum's batchmate, was about to close the door, but then noticing Agent Haegeum following her, she left the door slightly open and walked in
And she looks at the lump in the tank.
Her face was hard to see in the shadows.
"I rescued my family safely."
The light rippled.
"Thank you. Thanks to you… I didn't get lost, and I was able to make it home."
The lump perceived the sketchbook paper in Go Youngeun's hand.
The map the Mascot had given her.
A map that guides one to their destination.
"You helped me."
....
"So… I came because I wanted to help with anything I could. I heard that you… needed me."
Go Youngeun took a deep breath, then cleared her throat, trying to adopt a more everyday tone.
"I saw all sorts of people at the Resort on my way here. And not just people…."
She hesitated slightly.
"At the Resort… I saw a bizarre entity with a TV for a head, who claimed to be a friend of Mr. Roe Deer."
....
"He said his name was Braun."
Go Youngeun's gaze drifted on the items placed beside the tank.
Kim Soleum's belongings.
Especially the pink Rabbit Doll placed on the neatly folded suit.
But her eyes soon return to the lump.
"He told me something. That he wanted to give me a hint."
The Host had apparently said:
"That this time, a specific sentence won't be needed to make a wish. That, simply, the wish will simply be granted."
....
"He said that was a truth Soleum had confirmed."
The truth Kim Soleum had discovered.
The traces left in the Cheerful Research Institute.
The confirmation of a product similar to the Children's Paradise Syrup among the pharmaceutical company's potions.
It is called a Wish Ticket.
The lump also perceived the words that had been deleted and unreadable at the time.
Because it was that kind of being.
"When I checked, the agents really were in possession of such a document."
Presumed to be a degraded version, with the incubator's cultivation function removed and the required liquid concentration for production arbitrarily lowered.
Degradation examples:
• Requires verbalized sentence expression.
• Deterioration of the world-line alteration function.
• Compromised wish fulfillment instead of the advent of paradise.
Daydream's 'Wish Ticket' is a degraded version.
And if the degraded version requires a 'verbalized sentence expression,' it means the original does not.
Meaning it grants the wish the user thinks of, exactly as it is, without distortion.
And the reason the Host of the Late-Night Talk Show gave Go Youngeun that hint was….
"Since Soleum can't make a wish right now… I will make the wish for him."
Someone who would not steal the chance to make a wish.
Someone who was sufficiently close to Kim Soleum.
And the most rational, wisest wisher among the people 'Kim Soleum' knew, the one with experience.
Go Youngeun looked at the lump with a hardened expression.
"Soleum."
Her hand griped the side of the tank.
The lump saw her fingers, pale and trembling.
"Honestly… I'm not as rational a person as you think I am, Soleum."
A desperate voice is heard.
"And I'm not a genius, either."
....
"This situation, too… I don't know if I can really make your wish for you, exactly as you want it. Because–"
A trembling voice spoke the truth.
That is....
"I only found my mom."
"My dad was out, and he couldn't make it back home…."
....
"I– I think I might wish for my dad to come back, without even realizing."
Her voice shook.
"But when I told Agent Choi that, he performed a divination ritual to check on my father's whereabouts. And then… he told me."
The trembling subsided.
"That my father had not passed away."
....
"He's just… receiving some heartfelt counseling from someone."
A sharp breath.
When Go Youngeun lifted her head, her eyes were firm.
"So, I might be able to do it."
....
"No, I will do it. Of course, I can't ignore the possibility that I might waver in the process, so Agent Haegeum will hold onto me. To make sure my resolve and sincerity don't falter."
The lump sensed the shadow of an Agent approaching.
"The others are… protecting the Resort to make sure no other problems arise in the process. …Because the Mascots have stopped. I'm just telling you in case you were curious."
The lump did not react.
Looking at the pile of flesh, Go Youngeun steadied her breath.
"Then… I'll begin."
Go Youngeun put on a pair of gloves.
They belonged to Ryu Jaegwan, an Item that blocks Corrupt infiltration from supernatural phenomena of fracture level and below.
But Ryu Jaegwan had calmly and quickly explained that it could withstand even higher grades for a moment….
"Young-eun. This is a ritual, so the one who will ingest it must be in charge from the beginning."
"…Yes."
Go Youngeun nods at Agent Haegeum's words.
And she plunged her gloved hand into the pile of the Yellow Dragon's flesh.
Splurch.
The lump knew.
The gloves are a ridiculously fleeting defense.
Her hand was already beginning to melt.
This thing is toxic.
But Go Youngeun grits her teeth and rummages through it, through the organs, flesh, and bone — until finally….
"Foun– d it."
She pulled out her half-melted hand.
In her grasp is a small, disc-shaped object, dripping with a dark golden liquid and bits of flesh.
A Pop-socket.
Go Youngeun hastily takes a mouthful of the regeneration potion Agent Haegeum holds out.
Then, without delay, she wipes the liquid off the Pop-socket and heads to the bottom panel of the dream incubator.
The traces where a button had once been torn off.
◎
There… she attaches the Pop-socket.
Just as Kim Soleum had done one day in front of Agent Choi.
…Click.
Kim Soleum's objective was achieved.
"...It's done. Now, we move on to the next step."
The voice of the Agent with the Belted Sword, the Four-Sided Divine Sword,[1] rings out.
"It will be more stable for the subject of the ritual to participate directly, so at this most opportune moment… Kim Soleum will participate."
Screeeak.
The lump perceived movement.
The tank was being pushed.
Someone was moving it — J3, who had quietly entered the room and gotten up at some point, was moving the tank.
The mangled pile of flesh inside the tank swayed, sloshing against the walls.
And when it arrives in front of the dream incubator….
"…Here."
J3 lifts the tank and tilts it forward, half-spilling its contents.
Splurch.
The lump slid out, colliding limply with the front of the incubator.
The liquid smeared across the bottom panel.
But it was also a decisive action.
As the weight of the flesh pressed down....
Click.
The lump, had pressed the button on the dream incubator.
The button to produce the 'Children's Paradise Potion.'
Whirrrrrr—
The sound of the machine activating rings out.
DE 05002160
The numbers on the panel fluctuate wildly.
And drop.
DE 04999999
The inside of the dream incubator's tank churns violently.
DE 03999999
The iridescent, hologram-like lights condense, and a golden light seeps out between them.
Within the massive liquid, points of condensed light flash.
The people stare blankly at the sight….
At the milky-way-like stream of light.
DE 02999999
It poured downward.
People who wish upon a shooting star.
People who imagine that paradise lies on a distant star.
Perception and symbolism.
All those dreams of wishes and paradise gather into a single point, as if pouring out all at once.
A brilliant star twinkles in the black universe.
And….
DE 00999999
It was sucked down to the bottom of the tank.
Whirrrrrr—
All of the overflowing, ecstatic liquid–
DE 00002160
DE 00002160[2]
disappeared.
"..."
Click.
The machine stopped operating.
And the sound of something popped out from the bottom.
"...!"
With a trembling hand, Go Youngeun picked up what had fallen into the dream incubator's dispenser.
Children's Paradise Syrup
(Grape Flavor)
★★★★★★★
A single glass bottle revealed itself.
Light scattered from beyond the crude font and standardized label.
There is no sketch of a famous painting of a cherub blowing a trumpet, no grapevines, and no beautiful, stylized border decorations.
And yet–
it was overwhelming.
It looked like a dream.
"..."
The clue Kim Soleum had found.
The original version of the Wish Ticket, finally created.
Go Youngeun stared blankly at it, now that it had finally taken form.
Inside the glass, a syrup as dark as the universe swirls and glittered on its own.
Light seemed ready to pierce through it.
As if filled with stars, the syrup shimmered and flashed with a different luster each moment.
As if she were holding midnight starlight in her hand.
"..."
"..."
Just then, a humming sound rose from the Agent with the Four-Sided Divine Sword.
The Goblin Fire, riding the melody, snapped Go Youngeun back to herself.
"…!"
A tuning that lead the way.
Go Youngeun comes to her senses, takes a deep breath, then unseals the bottle and swallows it.
The brilliant liquid disappears past her lips….
And she wishes.
The promised wish.
Please let what Kim Soleum wants come true.[3]
It could perhaps be summarized in such a sentence.
And this is a sentence with far too many loopholes to be used for a Daydream Inc. Wish Ticket.
Because there are ways to escape the timing, the subject, and even the scope of what 'what he wants' means.
Saying such a sentence to a Wish Ticket would have been treated as an act of foolishness.
So, just in case, Go Youngeun did not think of the sentence.
She only thinks of the emotion and the desire.
And the Children's Paradise Syrup accurately discerned the context and essential meaning of that 'wish.'
Gulp.
The person named Kim Soleum as she knew him.
The new employee of Daydream, who worked for Team Hyumoo 1 of the Disaster Management Bureau, and who does his best to get through ghost stories.
A coward.
A person who tried not to get lost in the midst of fear.
The thing that person had constantly wished for.
The thing he wanted….
The Dream Essence Liquid, pouring toward it's goal, read the implications and gives the wish a concrete form….
I want to go home.
And for someone to go home, a prerequisite was needed:
That subject had to exist in this moment.
Therefore….
Kim Soleum.
Now exists.
"…!!"
I blinked.
I could see a hand inside the lump.
No, the lump is coalescing, and I was being revealed from within it.
Kim Soleum's body finds its form.
Hands, feet, legs, torso – my vocal cords and mouth returned to their proper places. It was possible. Like a shipwreck washed ashore by the tide, I found the strength to reassemble myself.
The first thing I felt was discomfort.
Fear, panic, dread, anxiety, worry, pity— thick, overwhelming sensations came first.
And then they sharpened.
The terror of seeing someone die, the unease of lying to an Agent, the queasiness of seeing long-term missing persons, pity, fear, anxiety—I can now perceive everything in between.
And the good things, too.
Yes, the good things….
Joy, pleasure, thrill, relief, the exhilaration of high-fiving a teammate after a narrow escape, the overwhelming emotion of safely rescuing someone and getting out unscathed myself, the delight of meeting someone I was happy to see.
Longing.
....
Gratitude.
'That's right.'
Thanks to the people who unsparingly poured out the Dream Essence Liquid, who drank the Paradise Syrup and made a wish for me, who went to such lengths to do all that, I returned to being human.
'The situation right now must be crazy.'
I hurriedly lifted my head.
I wanted to thank them first. Then I had to quickly help get the situation under control….
....
There was no one around.
No, to be precise, I couldn't see anyone.
Something rather cozy and opaque was surrounding me….
"…?"
I reached out my hand.
I touched something.
'…A membrane?'
A round shape.
Egg-shaped.
It felt as if I were inside an egg.
'What is this?'
Feeling flustered , I moved my body with the intention of tearing the membrane and getting out….
Tuk.
"..."
Something caught my foot.
I looked down.
At the bottom of the tank I had been in, something that wasn't there before had appeared.
A black box.
A familiar shape. It's…
The Dark Exploration Record Merch Box.
The beginning of all this.
The Item box I had received after winning first place on the roulette wheel at the Pop-up store was there.
"..."
I bent down and opened the box.
Inside it, there are stairs.
Stairs that, even at a glance, are far deeper and longer than the depth of the box.
A single sheet of paper, a notice printed on A4, is stuck to the top, fluttering.
->
The Way Back
.
.
.
.
Ah.
[1] it’s actually: Sainchamsageom (Haegeum's sword)
[2] Turned from gold to gray
[3] not spoken