Chapter 4: Lens of Fate

[Special missions are unique quests granted by your patron god or a subscribing god who has donated a certain amount. These special missions are mandatory, depending on the patron god or subscribing god’s choice.]

At this point, my suspicion turned into certainty. 

All of this was a kind of game. 

For the gods of the Transcendental Realm.

Regardless of how I felt, the tutorial continued.

 ‘Shop,’ ‘Status Window,’ ‘Channel,’ and other things I’d seen somewhere before materialized and disappeared before my eyes. 

When the tutorial ended, no more icons or message windows popped up.

‘Is that it?’

I muttered very softly, looking around my empty studio apartment.

“…Channel.”

For a brief moment, I worried that nothing would appear, but thankfully, the channel window popped up.

[Respawner Kim Jae-ha’s Channel]

At the top was a randomly assigned channel name. 

Below that was a familiar layout that seemed to be modeled after MEtube. 

It was empty because there were no uploaded videos yet. 

Then, a pop-up notification appeared.

[This channel is currently private. Channel administrator approval is required to unlock the private status. Channel Administrator: Nameless]

Right, this channel administrator. 

If my memory is correct, I’m sure this message appeared when I left the Transcendental Realm. 

[God, ‘Butterfly Wingbeat, urgently reveals a surprise gift!]

[Congratulations! God’s proxy, Nameless, has been appointed as your video editor!]

I think it’s the same person I met in the Transcendental Realm, but where is he?

At that moment, the phone rang.

Rrrrr

“…!”

I was startled by the sudden ringing, but with a hopeful expectation at the perfect timing, I checked my phone. 

Sadly, it was my aunt.

“Hello?”

[Son- what are you doing?]

A bubbly voice. 

Hearing my aunt’s voice cleared my head, which had been complicated by various thoughts until just now. 

And suddenly, something welled up inside me.

“…Aunt.”

After the bullying scandal broke out, calls poured in from numbers I didn’t know and names I didn’t remember saving. 

In that flow, a name that popped up every now and then. 

It was my aunt. 

But I couldn’t bring myself to answer. 

I felt like I couldn’t bear it if even my aunt asked me, ‘Is it true?’ 

No, I was just ashamed. 

She was the only adult who believed in my path, which even my mother opposed.

“Aunt.”

[Oh my? Why are you calling me so wistfully? It’s scary.]

She seemed to brush off my words playfully, but then.

[Is something really wrong?]

She asked me again seriously. 

I had died and come back to life, going back in time, but my aunt was the same. 

A sense of relief spread. 

I swallowed the hot lump that had come up my throat with effort.

“No, it’s nothing. Nothing’s wrong. But what’s up?”

[Nothing~ I just, Jiwon said he was going to see you earlier. But….. I suddenly wanted to hear my son’s voice? So I called.]

“Huh? Who?”

Jiwon. 

My aunt called the name as if she was very close to him, but I didn’t know the name at all. 

There’s no one in my family with the name Jiwon.

[Huh? Jiwon, Yoon Jiwon. Your cousin!]

“What…”

I don’t have a cousin named Jiwon.

[Oh my, did you two fight or something? Did Jiwon do something wrong? What’s wrong, you two are fighting? I don’t know what it’s about, but please take care of my absent aunt’s son, our kind Jae-ha.]

“…Ah, I see?”

My aunt… doesn’t have a son, a child.

I wondered if my memory was wrong, so I thought about it again several times, but the conclusion was the same. 

My aunt didn’t have any children. 

She had a difficult pregnancy and miscarried, and after learning about my uncle’s affair, she divorced and lived alone ever since.

‘What the hell is this?’

The question I had already concluded resurfaced. 

Actually, isn’t all of this just a dream? 

I clearly knew it wasn’t a dream, but it was so absurd that I couldn’t help but doubt it.

[Anyway, I feel a little better now that I’ve heard your voice. Meet Jiwon and work things out, see you soon, son!]

“Ah, yes. Yes. Goodbye, Aunt.”

Even after ending the call, I just stared blankly at my phone.

‘Jiwon, Yoon Jiwon.’

My aunt’s son, my cousin, who suddenly appeared. 

And he’s even close to me. 

I quickly searched my phone contacts. 

As I scrolled down the page, a name came into view.

‘Jiwon brother.’

Fuckkk. 

He’s really there. 

It’s a common name, so he might be an acquaintance I don’t remember.

I wanted to think that way, but…

‘I save acquaintances of that level with their title or full name, I do.’

So this ‘Jiwon’ is likely to be quite close to me. 

He might really be my cousin.

Ding-dong, ding-dong-

Then, the doorbell rang.

I stroked the goosebumps on my neck and slowly walked to the front door. 

The intercom attached to the wall came into view. 

The face filling the small screen was the man who had grabbed my neck in the Transcendental Realm.

Nameless.

“Who is it?”

As I asked, holding the receiver, the man on the screen, like a work of art painstakingly created by an artist, smiled brightly.

His appearance was so different from what I had seen in the Transcendental Realm that I was instantly chilled to the bone.

[It’s your Jiwon, Jae-ha.]

I died and temporarily came back to life, and even regressed. 

Okay, let’s say that’s possible. 

But isn’t it a bit much to have a family that didn’t exist before?

“Jiwon…?”

As I asked back, the smile disappeared from the man’s face on the intercom screen. 

He now looked like the man I had faced in the Transcendental Realm.

[Is this more familiar to you yet?]

He’s asking something obvious. 

Instead of answering, I glared at the man, and he tapped on the front door.

[Open the door first. You must have a lot of questions to ask.]

It doesn’t seem like he’s going to answer everything I ask. 

But I didn’t want to start an unnecessary argument, so I opened the front door.

The man looked at me for a moment and then entered the house. 

As I opened the door, a gust of still-cold air rushed in, and my fine hairs stood on end. 

After closing the door and turning around, I met the man’s eyes as he looked at me.

A man with a still-formidable appearance. 

Just as I had seen him in the Transcendental Realm. 

And my aunt calls that person her son. 

I clenched my fist without realizing it.

The man, Nameless, stared at Jae-ha in front of him. 

Jae-ha in his view was quite different from what he had seen in the Transcendental Realm. 

His tightly clenched fist was like that, and his eyes, mixed with suspicion and wariness, were still there, but they were mixed with fierce anger. 

It was such a clear and vivid emotion that he couldn’t mistake it. 

Feeling it again, for someone who had been ignored and suppressed for a long time because he hadn’t gained fame, he expressed his emotions without exaggeration.

‘Is it because he’s an actor?’

Even though he knew why Jae-ha was expressing his anger at him now, Nameless’s impression of him was that was all. 

He was just curious. 

How would Kim Jae-ha react to his upcoming words and actions?

“I’ll ask only three things. I’ll answer them.”

Jae-ha frowned at his nonchalant attitude. 

His clenched hand trembled. 

The man’s lips curled up slightly. 

Was he going to hit him? 

He was willing to take a hit or two.

Kim Jae-ha. 

The conclusion Nameless came to after briefly reviewing his life was that Jae-ha was a human being who was proud, emotional, and never gave up. 

He was terribly unlucky, but he was so proud that he didn’t know how to give up. 

At the same time, he was easily moved by small affections, and he clung to the job of being an actor because he wanted to repay those who believed in and loved him. 

But he was so emotional that he took the wounds as they were, but he tried to protect his pride and eventually burst out.

Even if it had a negative impact on him as a result.

He was really a respawner perfect for the Resurrection Project.

So, Nameless hated Kim Jae-ha. 

He wondered if even such a human being would realize that everything was futile after experiencing repeated lives a few times. 

He wanted to see what kind of expression Kim Jae-ha would make then. 

That’s why he accepted the ridiculous position of Kim Jae-ha’s video editor, Yoon Jiwon’s identity, without complaint, as God ordered. 

Even though what was originally required of Nameless was not the position of Yoon Jiwon, the older brother, but the simple position of channel administrator.

But, the words that flowed from Jae-ha’s mouth, who had pressed his lips tightly and then released them, were beyond Nameless’s expectations.

“Are the answers to the three questions all true?”

Then he asks back, ‘I hope you don’t count this as a question?’ 

The man lowered his gaze, feeling like he would laugh for no reason.

“I won’t count that last one as a question, and the answers to the three questions are all true. However, I cannot answer questions that I cannot answer, and that question will also be deducted from the number of questions.”

That’s how it was originally decided, but the man didn’t say it because Jae-ha didn’t need to know.

Jae-ha clenched and unclenched his fists several times, lost in thought. 

Unlike Jae-ha, who looked somewhat anxious, Nameless waited leisurely for his next words. 

Soon, his closed lips opened.

“Then…”

Before the words could continue, Nameless snapped his fingers.

[‘Truth’s Mouth Interrogation’ begins.

Questioner: Kim Jae-ha / Respondent: Nameless.

Judge: God ‘Butterfly Wingbeat’

The truthfulness of this interrogation is guaranteed by God ‘Butterfly Wingbeat’.]

[Would you like to start ‘Truth’s Mouth Interrogation’?]

Jae-ha carefully read the message window that appeared in front of him and answered ‘Yes’ softly. 

Nameless also answered in succession.

[‘Truth’s Mouth Interrogation’ has begun!]

“First question.”

Gulp, Jae-ha’s Adam’s apple, moved greatly.

“What is a channel administrator?”

[This is an answerable question. The respondent must answer within 2 minutes.]

Now it was Nameless’s turn.

“A channel administrator is an administrator affiliated with IdeaTV, limited to the Resurrection Project. You can think of it as an intermediary between the respawner and IdeaTV, but the purpose is the same as that of IdeaTV.”

“Therefore, they work to increase the buzz of the Resurrection Project within the Transcendental Realm. A channel administrator can be in charge of multiple channels, and if the channels they are in charge of are numerous or the channel they are in charge of becomes famous, they receive rewards.”

To be exact, it’s the level of the soul. 

That’s why souls who wanted to be promoted to gods mainly applied to be channel administrators. 

Of course, Nameless naturally glossed over this with the word ‘rewards’ because it was information that Jae-ha, who was just a participant, didn’t need to know.

“The operating method is up to the channel administrator, but if they violate the management method, they may be sanctioned. That’s all.”

[The judge has recognized the answer as ‘True’.]

Nameless, who had finished speaking, glanced at Jae-ha. 

His face was lost in thought. 

He nodded lightly as if he had finished organizing his thoughts in his own way.

“Then, I’ll ask the next question. You are…”

Jae-ha gritted his teeth.

“Who are you?”

[This is an answerable question. The respondent must answer within 2 minutes.]

Nameless swallowed a hollow laugh at the message window that popped up as soon as the words were finished. 

He could easily imagine the god’s delighted appearance at the thought of making him difficult. 

He didn’t care because he had been tricked by the god’s pranks more than once or twice.

“Nameless, channel administrator, video editor, Yoon Jiwon, Kim Jae-ha’s cousin depending on the situation.”

“Are you calling that an answer now…!”

As expected, he exploded. 

The man gazed at Jae-ha, who was rushing at him, as if he were pathetic. 

Again, he was willing to take a hit if he hit him. 

It wouldn’t even tickle anyway. 

But Jae-ha came right up to his nose and sighed deeply, ruffling his hair.