Surviving Among the Entities

“Dial-A-TV For You” was not a popular entity. A randomly appearing safety grade entity with a mere 1% chance per turn of being helpful – no one would favor such a thing.

[The first news: Dial-A-TV For You News is resuming broadcasts after 5 years. During that time, the main station was stored in an old rural warehouse with not a single viewer, but has now successfully returned to the world thanks to a Mr. Lee (25) living in Gyeonggi Province.]

Popularity and wiki scroll length are directly proportional – Dial-A-TV’s information was so pitiful that what was mentioned earlier was about all there was.

‘There are cases where the entity’s creator supplements the wiki content, but not for Dial-A-TV.’

Perhaps the creator made it without much thought and it got luckily featured.
Or maybe during their indie days, as a reward for sponsoring the game, the developer offered them a chance to propose an entity but they hastily made this with no good ideas.
Or perhaps the wiki really did cover everything there was to it.
However, once this entity too became reality, it was far more multidimensional than I had known.

[With this opportunity, the Dial-A-TV crew would like to express our gratitude to Mr. Lee (25).]

For example, there was no description of it directly having a self like right now.
The anchor’s face with only a mouth and ears beyond the screen looked eerie, but her voice and tone were as graceful as a real anchor’s.

‘The wiki and game only mentioned it making prophecies in news format, but it’s more intriguing than I expected.’

I sat on the sofa, brimming with anticipation as I watched the news.

[The second news: Tomorrow, a seven-headed serpent called the Childu-sa is scheduled to appear near Chunui Mountain. The Ssangdu-sa, born through mutation, has a 1 in 100,000 chance of being born and an extremely low survival rate due to its deformity. Needless to say, the probability of a Childu-sa being born and surviving is close to miraculous.]

The news naturally foresaw the future, like a weather forecast.

[However, this particular Childu-sa has valiantly overcome adversity, and for the past 3 years has made its den under an umbrella-shaped rock midway up Chunui Mountain. Despite being an albino disadvantaged for survival in nature, academics cannot help but be amazed that it has survived until now.]

Midway up Chunui Mountain, umbrella-shaped rock, albino Childu-sa.
I summarized the news content in notes within My Mind’s Notebook.

[The third news: Olden & Sweets Pharmaceuticals in the US has succeeded in developing a diabetes treatment. Having started development 10 years ago, they will complete their final clinical trial in a week and apply for FDA sales approval. One month later, they will receive final approval and begin supplying their diabetes treatment worldwide.]

Olden & Sweets Pharmaceuticals, successful diabetes treatment development in one week, sales start in one month.

[The fourth news: At a certain store in Seongnam, they plan to sell exceptionally delicious bbang-gwas in 2 weeks. We sent a reporter to get a taste in advance, so let’s go to the live scene now. Reporter on the scene?]

The screen switched to reveal a person with a microphone for a head.

[Yes, this is Reporter on the scene. I’ve come to this bbang-gwa store in Seongnam that’s supposed to sell an incredibly special bbang-gwa. Owner, what makes your bbang-gwa so special?]

The owner appeared on screen along with the bbang-gwa. Neither looked particularly special.

[Well, for our bbang-gwa, we start by not using ordinary glutinous rice! We grow the glutinous rice ourselves, and from the very beginning of its growth we use water melted from ice directly transported from Antarctica!]
[Wow! Really!?]
[Yes! Then we mill that rice into flour, and when making the dough we use melted water from Arctic ice!]

Footage of the Arctic and Antarctic appeared.

[But that’s not all! To add a rich nutty flavor to the rice flour, we mix in powdered flesh from the national monument elephant seal after properly drying it! But that’s not all! For health, we also add water that soaked dried ginseng! But that’s not all! For delicious and healthy frying, we add abalone, pufferfish, cod, and sea cucumber to the oil! Scrumptious and healthy fish oil, sizzle sizzle sizzle!]

Various seafood ingredients flashed across the screen.

[But that’s not all! We take freshly plucked human nails and toe nails, dry them into powder, and coat the bbang-gwa with it! But that’s not all! As the final essential touch, we finely chop human livers and use them to coat the bbang-gwa instead of sugar!]
[Wow! Amazing! What’s the meaning behind this?]
[Human nails and toenails represent that person’s past journey. Powdering them on is like coating the bbang-gwa with nostalgia. And the human liver has long represented life itself, right? So coating it with liver too allows us to capture both nostalgia and vitality, two birds with one stone!]
[It certainly looks delicious, but alas, since I have no mouth I cannot eat it.]
[Hahaha!]
[Hahaha!]

“……”

Was this a prophecy? Or was Dial-A-TV turning people into that?

[The final news!]

I couldn’t tell. For now, I could only take notes on the news content.

[Mr. Lee (25) living in Gyeonggi Province is scheduled to become trapped in a terrible dream one month from now. Production staff using dreams as their stage plan to kidnap 99 ordinary people including Mr. Lee and force them to fight to the death in a battle royale inside the dream.]

There was accompanying footage this time too.

[Despite everyone banding together to resist the producers, they unfortunately all forget who they are due to the dream’s innate obliviousness, becoming mere actors killing each other in a horrific spectacle.]

It was my ID photo.

[The winner will be Mr. Lee (25), but the producers will grow so fond of him that he becomes an eternal professional actor, never able to escape the dream world.]

One month from now.

[That was the news anchor for Dial-A-TV For You News.]

I will become trapped in an eternal dream.

There is a theory called self-fulfilling prophecy.
Upon hearing a prophecy, the actions you take to avoid it end up causing that prophecy to be fulfilled.

“Is Dial-A-TV’s prophecy a self-fulfilling one? Or a prophecy that can be avoided?”

To find out, I checked each part of the news one by one.

‘This way.’

The first place I visited was Chunui Mountain.

“Excuse me, may I ask you something? Is there an umbrella-shaped rock midway up Chunui Mountain?”
“Yes, if you go up a bit further you’ll see it.”
“Thank you.”

True to the hikers’ words, there was an umbrella-shaped rock at the midpoint.

‘A mushroom-shaped rock.’

After waiting for the hikers to disperse, I checked under the rock.

“Found it.”

There was a white seven-headed snake, angrily flicking its tongue in outrage at having its den intruded upon.

“Come here.”

I swiftly grabbed the snake and stuffed it into a prepared sack.

‘An albino Childu-sa, this will make good material.’

On my way home, I stopped by a pet store to purchase a terrarium for reptiles and food.

“You’ll be staying at our place for a while.”

After feeding it and chatting with Singu Hwerang for a while, the message I had been waiting for arrived.

“It’s been created.”

A message saying my US stock trading account had been created.

‘Olden & Sweets Pharmaceuticals.’

The pharmaceutical company did exist. With a price of just $1 per share, an unbelievably low price for a pharmaceutical company.

“I should investigate further.”

By checking foreign newspapers, online articles, and information about the company’s founder, I could understand why the price was so low.

[Powerball winner is Olden Garrison, lump sum of $3.4 billion received.]
[Powerball winner Olden Garrison establishes pharmaceutical company.]
[Olden Garrison: “My mother passed away from diabetes, I want to become a hope for diabetics.”]
[Olden Pharmaceuticals in financial trouble, no results for 3 years.]
[Olden Pharmaceuticals merges with Sweets Pharmaceuticals, renamed Olden & Sweets Pharmaceuticals.]

‘They haven’t produced any major results since being established.’

But in one month, everything will change.
I considered purchasing stocks right away, but had something else to do first, so I put it on hold for now.

“I need to spend some money first.”

To prepare for any contingencies, I broke off pieces from the basement’s gold ingots and sold them at various gold exchanges in small amounts over several days, so it would be difficult to get caught.

“We’re here.”

[Next stop is Moran, Moran Station. Exit on the left.]

It wasn’t hard to find the Bongcheon Bbang-gwa store.

[1/5 stars, really terribly inedible. It’s hard to make bbang-gwa this disgusting.]
[1/5 stars, eating this helped me succeed at dieting! After taking a bite, I completely lost my appetite for a month and didn’t want to eat anything else!]
[1/5 stars, I used to be a bread lover, but after this I became a rice fanatic.]

It was a famous store with awful Google and Naver ratings.

‘This must be it.’

From afar, Bongcheon Bbang-gwa looked ordinary. But as I approached, it seemed there had been a major argument inside.

“Sir! You can’t do this!”
“But I’m telling the truth! Don’t you believe your husband?”

I secretly hid beside the store window and eavesdropped on the fight inside.

“That’s just passing gas! Going to Antarctica, are you out of your mind? Cut that crazy shit out!”
“I had an inspiration! An inspiration to make an amazing bbang-gwa! And the first step is to bring Antarctic glacier ice!”
“What kind of lunatic would melt Antarctic ice to make bbang-gwa!”
“Me, that’s who!”

It was just as the news had reported.

‘There’s still time until the prophesied date, yet he’s already making moves.’

Perhaps there was a lot of preparation needed to make that special bbang-gwa.

‘What would happen if I left it be?’

For an ordinary person, obtaining things like Antarctic ice, Arctic ice, or elephant seals would be extremely difficult. So from a normal perspective, the owner of Bongcheon Bbang-gwa would likely fail.

‘But that’s only if he were ordinary.’

Right now, he is under an entity’s influence.

‘He’ll definitely accomplish it by any means necessary.’

Perhaps he might even transcend human boundaries and cause unthinkable events as an entity.
His wife was directly trying to dissuade him, but to no avail. So I would have to use another method.

One approach came to mind. Intending to try it, I opened the store door and entered.

“You dimwit! If you just make that bbang-gwa, the store will…..”
“Pardon me.”
“Yes, welcome.”
“I’d like to purchase this store.”

I set the bag I had brought onto the counter and unzipped it.

“Will this amount suffice?”
“Huh?”

While South Korea is a nation ruled by law, money can often circumvent many things.

“Yes, then the final confirmation is complete.”

For instance, the reason for wanting to purchase the store.
Or having to coordinate perspectives between the involved parties regarding the store transaction.
Or needing time to handle the store.

“With this, the store now belongs to Mr. Seung-hoon Lee.”
“Thank you for your work.”
“Oh, thank you, young man.”

I purchased the store by hiring a real estate agent and lawyer.
Including the realtor and legal fees, the total cost was 100 million won – not too much for the dilapidated building.

‘I should remodel it later once everything is settled.’

Since I bought it, I might as well put it to use when needed.

“Bring it down slowly.”

Outside, the signboard workers I had called were taking down the bbang-gwa store’s signboard while the contract was being handled. After confirming the signboard had been fully removed, I checked on the grumbling store owner.

“Ah, I could have made so much more money with the bbang-gwa I was going to make this time.”

He had refused to sell until the very end, but I met separately with his wife to coordinate the contract, and by the time he rushed over belatedly, the signatures had already been completed.

“Tch, I really didn’t want to sell.”

I approached and asked him:

“I heard before that you intended to make bbang-gwa using Antarctic and Arctic ice?”
“You heard about that?”
“Do you still want to make it?”
“Of course!”

The store owner’s expression became perplexed.

“Of course…No, of course not. Why would I make something like that?”

The TV had introduced a store making a special bbang-gwa.
Since it centered on the store itself rather than the person, by making it no longer a bbang-gwa store, the news content could no longer be fulfilled.

“This guy? He was ranting and raving about wanting to make that?”
“No, did I really say that?”

This definitively proved that Dial-A-TV’s prophecies are not self-fulfilling, but prophecies that can be altered.

‘In other words.’

The eternal dream I was supposed to fall into in one month.

‘Can be resolved.’

Leaving the store behind, I headed home.

“There’s a lot to prepare.”

And the first thing I need to do for that:

“Acquire the safety grade entities that appear in fixed locations, which I had dismissed as useless before.”

And…..

“Meet the Suspicious Merchant.”