Surviving Among the Entities

“You’re a child I’ve never seen before.”

Though the girl had her eyes closed, she looked up at me as if she could see.

“How curious. How did you avoid my gaze?”
“Who are you?”
“I am the one who observes all things.”

There was no information in the game or wiki about the girl speaking.

“The one who watches, gazes, and quietly spectates.”
“What do you watch, gaze at, and spectate?”
“The entire world.”

It’s not unreasonable. Her title is ‘The Girl with Closed Eyes’, not ‘The Girl with Sealed Lips’.

“Not just this place, but all other worlds too.”
“Parallel worlds?”
“What a vulgar concept.”

The girl laughed.

“Parallel worlds, multiverses, exoverses, multidimensions.”

Concepts I’m familiar with.

“The final lands of time and space beyond singularities, stars beyond exoverses, every dreaming world.”

Concepts I don’t know.

“The miracles fleetingly created by particles extinguishing in the darkness beyond death, entities breathing in budding flowers grown between dimensions and dimensions.”

Concepts difficult to comprehend.

“■■■■, ■■■ ■■■ ■■■■, ■■■■■, ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■.”

She was clearly speaking, but I couldn’t hear or remember what she said.

“And the worlds within the imaginations of all.”
“Imaginations?”
“The worlds inside every thought you living beings have. Even worlds blossoming for just a fleeting moment, I observe them all. Like the games where another world’s version of you may have witnessed my existence, for instance.”

A created existence recognized its own nature as a creation.

“What is creation, and what is reality? Is the world you live in truly reality? Reality and unreality have no meaning.”
“I think, therefore I am.”

The girl reached out and pointed at me.

“But in no world did you exist.”
“Did you not just mention another world’s version of me existing?”
“Yes, Seung-hoon Lee, such an existence does exist. In fact, immeasurably many – more than can be expressed by human numbers.”

The girl’s finger was pointing at my right eye.

“But in none of them was there one with eyes like those.”
“You know about my eyes?”
“Yes. That vagabond gave them to you. I don’t like him very much.”
“It seems you two don’t get along well.”

In response to my words, the girl puffed out her cheeks in displeasure.

“You won’t go on stage and change the content just because you dislike a play, will you?”
“No.”
“You won’t threaten a director to reshoot a movie just because you dislike it, will you?”
“Of course not.”
“You won’t take up the pen in place of the author just because you dislike the content of a comic, will you?”
“That would be ill-mannered.”

For the first time, the girl smiled.

“Me too. But I shamelessly do just that. Your eyes are proof of that.”
“But in the game, you always influenced things.”
“That was me made of 0s and 1s, not the real me.”

Her eyes remained closed.

“The true me is only this singular me standing before you right now, the sole existing me.”
“I see.”

Drat. If that’s the case, I can’t gain physical enhancements. From our conversation, it seems the girl dislikes influencing anyone.

“But I’ll make an exception for you.”
“…Can you read minds?”
“Thoughts are also a dimension.”
“Thoughts are a dimension, my knowledge grows.”
“It’s between the 8th and 9th dimensions. Anyway, won’t you make a deal with me? Allow me to keep watching over you from now on.”
“A deal is a contract for mutual benefit. What do you intend to offer me?”
“I’ll let you see my eyes.”
“What happens if I see your eyes?”

The girl spoke.

“You’ll come to know all phenomena.”

And I replied.

“I refuse.”
“Why? Don’t all the infinite versions of you in nearby universes pursue knowledge?”
“That’s precisely why I refuse.”

To know all phenomena – it sounded dreadful.

“For humans lose the potential for growth the moment they gain such knowledge, and simply wither away.”
“But will you be okay with failing to achieve the reason you came to find me? If you don’t accept the deal, I won’t grant you what you want either.”
“Is that the same as in the game?”
“Yes, exactly the same.”
“What principle governs that?”

The girl was kind. Though she could act strangely towards me or ignore me at any time, the mere fact that she kept answering my questions was a sage-level kindness among entities.

“A 2-dimensional being cannot perceive a 3-dimensional being. I am an existence that reigns over the highest dimension, and yet you are conversing with me nonetheless.”

Originally, it should be impossible.

“You’re right, the reason this is possible is because I’ve lowered my dimension to be here. To use an easy analogy, it’s like controlling a person drawn on paper. I’m conversing with you through that.”

I’m starting to understand.

“You could think that by indirectly contacting a higher-dimensional being, a lower-dimensional being takes on the higher power into their own. That manifests as physical power in the 3-dimensional world.”

And I realized.

“Is that what it is?”

That from the moment I conversed with the girl, I had been influenced by more than just contact.

“Advance payment before contract, is there such a concept among you? We have that too.”

I tried to speak to the girl, but faster than that, a mist enveloped me.

[“I’ll keep watching over you consistently from now on. Don’t worry too much, merely observing has no influence. And there won’t be any more encounters between you and I, unless you seek me out first.”]

When I regained my senses, I had already descended the mountain.

[“So I’ll always be here.”]

It felt like being possessed by a spirit.

The first thing I did after descending was visit a hardware store.

“What will you be using this for?”
“I want to make a signboard.”

After purchasing a hammer, nails, brush, paint, and a wooden plank, I made a signboard and returned to the mountain.

‘I should hang it here.’

I returned to the midpoint junction and installed the signboard in the direction leading to where the girl was.

[Warning – This is an extremely dangerous area with safety accidents occurring every year. Risking your life on a mountain hike will only bring misfortune to your family. Please use the official hiking trails.]

I don’t know if this will deter everyone, but it’s the best I can do.

“Hopefully only those who heed warning signs will come hiking here.”

Of course, taking this path doesn’t necessarily mean certain death. The Girl with Closed Eyes wasn’t aggressive, and if you encountered her, you could gain a kind of talent.

‘But true safety is….’

Never contacting entities in the first place.
And being completely unaware of their existence.

“But it’s too late for me.”

After descending, I stayed another day before returning home.

‘The girl said she would watch over me.’

The girl introduced herself as one who observes all things. So even without my permission, she can watch me, and had been watching me all along. But then why did she say she would watch me?

“Does she mean she’ll pay more attention and be more mindful?”

Thinking that the girl is watching my every word, action and thought right now gives me an odd feeling.

‘More importantly, I should look into the physical enhancements.’

Since I was influenced by the girl, there should be some changes.
I changed into light exercise clothes and headed to a sports complex. With the pleasant early autumn weather, there were many people around.

‘From over there to over there is 100 meters.’

After some light warm-up exercises, I took my position on the track. The moment I pressed the stopwatch on my phone, I sprinted.

“Whew.”

Despite running that 100m track at full power, I wasn’t out of breath. Checking the stopwatch revealed an astonishing record.

[4.79]

Over 5 seconds faster than the world record. The people around me who saw my sprint whispered:

-What? Is he a track athlete?
-He’s not even wearing running gear, but he can run that fast?
-Wow, that’s insane. He must be a national representative.
-Eh, what’s so fast about that? Looked to me like around 11 seconds or so? Any guy could do that much.

The voices of people at least 50 meters away were crystal clear.

‘Not just physical strength, my hearing has improved too?’

I stared intently at a woman reading a book far away in the stands. Despite being hundreds of meters apart, I could read not just the book’s title on the cover, but even the tiny text.

“The Age of Loss.”

Next, I ran along the track without any particular thought, at a relaxed 50% effort rather than full power like before.

“Ughh, I’m dying.”
“Wow, that person is insanely fast.”

Even at that pace, I left everyone else behind. I kept running without stopping until I was out of breath and panting heavily, then checked the stopwatch.

[2:35:17.05]

With stamina at this level too, I’ve surpassed ordinary humans.

‘But I’m not superhuman.’

For true superhumans – those born human but become known as entities – the abilities I’ve displayed would be mere child’s play.

‘Still, I’ve raised my survival chances somewhat.’

The next day, I visited an archery range.

‘Archery, huh.’

I’ve only experienced it a few times before. At most, I only learned up to the point of being able to stick arrows into the target.

‘But now it’s too easy.’

Every arrow I fired struck the absolute center of the target. Later, I even tried firing with my eyes closed, relying solely on feeling, and the arrows still hit dead center.

“Wow, are you perhaps a national archery representative?”
“No, I’m just doing it as a hobby.”

It seems my dexterity has improved as well. At this point, it was easy to guess the nature of the influence I received.

‘All three choices from the game have been applied.’

And more potently than in the game, it seems.
However, if that’s the case, there is still one more thing I should confirm.

‘The reward choices were dexterity, physical abilities, and intuition.’

Until now, I haven’t encountered any spirits.

‘I should directly visit a place with many spirits.’

Such a place would naturally be a cemetery, but when I went, I couldn’t see any spirits.

‘Since there is a cemetery, it means they’re already receiving ancestor rites and being tended to by their families, so they likely passed on without regrets.’

Information about spirits was too contradictory depending on religion and region, making it difficult to make hasty judgments.

‘Then I should wander around as much as possible.’

For the first time in a while, I roamed aimlessly around the city. I visited places I had never been, eerie places, not stopping even late into the night.

[“Huhuhu….”]

And finally, I was able to find one. A translucent entity crouched down weeping in front of the entrance to some building.

‘A spirit.’

Its translucent body allowed the sign [Daebak Pawnshop] behind it to show through. Despite being a full-grown adult weeping, none of the passersby reacted, and people entering and exiting the building passed right through it.

‘There are many tales saying you shouldn’t carelessly speak to spirits.’

But I’m curious. What would happen if I spoke to it? Since it remained in this world due to deep resentment, will I be cursed? Or will it try to kill me? Or perhaps it will plead for me to resolve its resentment?

Ordinarily I wouldn’t have approached it, but trusting in my enhanced intuition, I stepped forward.

“Hello there?”

The spirit raised its head.

“Can you hear my voice?”