Chapter 123 - The Dreamer III

“But before we could even break ground on our revolution, we were caught by that unparalleled reactionary, the Undertaker...”

“Waaah. Tears, so many tears...”

The fairies sagged limply.

Let me reiterate: fairies were anomalies that directly challenged humanity’s laws of physics. They didn’t merely slump their shoulders like humans. Their entire bodies melted into quivering slime and stuck to the floor.

“Why must the endeavors of those who dream of world revolution always end in such devastation?”

“Failure, yet another failure...”

“I abandoned wealth and glory the moment I left my homeland, but even I grow weary of watching every flower seed of the revolution turn to ash...”

Dark clouds began gathering over the fairies’ slime bodies.

Hmm.

There were any number of things I wanted to object to, but I felt I should address the crucial misunderstanding first.

“Listen. There’s something I really don’t understand, so let me ask you one question.”

“Huh...?”

“Why am I a reactionary?”

The fairies blinked and tilted their heads.

“Because you wreaked havoc at Busan Station and made a mess of Hundred Flowers Girls’ High School, so of course you’re our enemy. And our enemies are enemies of the revolution.”

“That black-and-white thinking certainly suits the sort who throw themselves into revolution, but look at it the other way around. Didn’t I help you?”

“Huh?”

At that moment, I sensed what gamers called an opening for the kill.

You could also say I sensed limitless possibilities.

The first blade humanity ever fashioned was made not of stone, but of the tongue. I swung my formless sword.

“At Busan Station, you were the ones oppressing humans first. You should thank me for stopping you before you could commit more evil. Isn’t that right?”

“... Is it?”

“Of course. And when I defeated Gapless at Hundred Flowers Girls’ High School, the Fairy Monarch perished. That freed you from your shackles. If anything, doesn’t that make me your liberator?”

“...”

“...”

The fairies looked at one another.

“Huh?”

“Now that you put it that way, it does sound plausible...?”

“If we cannot save ourselves, we seek salvation from outside. That is an acceptable revolutionary methodology.”

“But doesn’t that merely mean accepting yet another oppressor?”

They whispered among themselves.

A revolutionary debate suddenly erupted. For revolutionary theorists, argument was a kind of coliseum. Defeat meant nothing awaited you but a purge. I joined the debate with equal fervor.

“No, it doesn’t. Did I try to rule you fairies after defeating Gapless? I left you alone.”

“Oh.”

In truth, I’d left them alone because I thought they’d been wiped out along with Gapless, but petty details meant nothing before the great cause of revolution. Only the linear progression of history mattered.

“Even when you banded together and built this casino, I never interfered. How does that make me a reactionary or an oppressor?”

“That’s certainly true...”

“You... have a point!”

“Wait! Then why did you just smash our casino to bits with your sword?”

A sharp question, but far too feeble to damage my shamelessness.

“I attacked because you kidnapped our Corps members first.”

“Huh? Kidnapped? We never...”

“More importantly, the ends may justify the means, but how can you call yourselves a revolutionary army when you’re running an illegal gambling den? Why not sell drugs while you’re at it? What a fine mafia-gang cartel we have here.”

“Waaah...”

“Then... Undertaker, were you really the savior of our race?”

The fairies gazed up at me with sparkling eyes. Suspicion. Hope. That look, mingling every emotion, proved the time had come to deliver the finishing blow.

I gave them a smile of boundless benevolence.

“‘You’? Dispense with such cold forms of address, Comrades. Though we were born on different days, are we not revolutionary Comrades who have sworn to die together?”

“Gaaasp!”

“Comrade Undertaker...!”

The fairies sprang to their feet.

“Unbelievable! We’ve misunderstood Comrade Undertaker’s true intentions all this time!”

“Now that we hear it, not a single word is wrong! Our Comrade destroyed the Fairy Monarch and its loathsome master, and asked nothing of us afterward!”

“Liberator!”

“Torch of freedom! Our savior!”

“Ah, révolution! A leader to guide the ignorant masses! Comrade Undertaker is the avant-garde of this world!”

That settled it.

Why conceal the truth? From that moment on, I used my defeat of Gapless as a pretext to ascend to the position of the fairies’ General Secretary.

That status was precisely what allowed me to mobilize fairies on a massive scale when I established the Canned-Author Hotel to train writers in run 560.

“Still, even if this accident arose from a mutual misunderstanding, I apologize for destroying your hideout, Comrades.”

“It’s quite all right, Comrade Undertaker!”

“We’re the ones who should apologize for enticing your subordinates here and dragging them to the baccarat tables!”

“Hmm. No, no. Knowing how admirable your devotion to the revolution is, I can’t simply pretend nothing happened. So, about that...”

I smiled broadly.

“If you truly wish to complete the revolution, you ought to move to the city instead of hanging around this backwater. What do you say, Comrades? Care to experience city life with me?”

“... Huh?”

5

One month later.

Colorful banners hung at the entrance to Inunaki Tunnel, which opened onto the sea off Busan.

[Café Hideout Event!]

[New Entertainment Venue: Dream Casino Opens!]

[A Grand Amusement Hall Run by Dream Demons! Welcome to the Dream Journey to the Peach Blossom Paradise!]

The modern age could rightly be called the age of advertising. Naturally, banners alone weren’t enough to draw customers.

“Huh? What’s this?”

“Was there always an ad panel here...?”

For the first time, SG Net featured advertisements. Whether you were browsing the website or posting, a flashing Dream Casino ad constantly appeared on one side of the screen.

It was effectively an advertising monopoly.

Anyone who clicked the ad received a one-time gift of 100 coins. We also established an online casino so people could enjoy simple games over the internet, though it wouldn’t be as entertaining as playing in person.

Of course, these were only little diversions to pass the time. Bait products, you might call them.

Eventually, curiosity alone would compel people to visit the main establishment—the real casino now housed in Busan.

And that wasn’t all.

“Undertaker, do we really need to go this far?”

“Trust me, Saintess. This casino venture is guaranteed to be a huge success.”

“... All right.”

With a sigh, the Saintess reluctantly went along with my argument.

Soon, a constellation message reached every awakened active on the Korean Peninsula.

[The ‘Dream Demon of the Grand Amusement Hall’ manages the casino.]

That’s right.

A new constellation’s debut!

Previously, when I created the Library Society Anomaly Encyclopedia board, I’d also created a new constellation called the Librarian of the Great Library, then put Sim Aryeon in charge.

This time, as I established a casino inside Inunaki Tunnel, I fabricated a constellation called the Dream Demon of the Grand Amusement Hall.

[The ‘Dream Demon of the Grand Amusement Hall’ is the monarch who rules all fairies.]

[The ‘Dream Demon of the Grand Amusement Hall’ wishes you to become intoxicated with dreams. Play. That is how you praise and glorify the ‘Dream Demon of the Grand Amusement Hall.’]

[The deeper your faith in the ‘Dream Demon of the Grand Amusement Hall,’ the greater the variety of amusements you will be able to enjoy at the casino.]

The Librarian of the Great Library. The Dream Demon of the Grand Amusement Hall.

Little by little, the website was expanding into something worthy of the name SG Net—Constellation Net.

Constellations that had merely borrowed the names of historical luminaries were beginning to approach the awakened with actual substance and content.

When Noh Doha heard my plan beforehand, she furrowed her brow.

“Awakened Undertaker. Is there any pressing reason to pursue this casino venture? Even if the only things exchanged there are time and dreams, a casino is still a casino. Surely it will have some harmful consequences...?”

“It will.”

I didn’t deny it.

“Some awakened may become consumed by gambling. As a result, they may end up mortgaging their entire lifetimes to the fairies.”

“And yet...?”

“And yet we must proceed. And not simply because there are so few entertainment venues these days. Commander Noh Doha. Look at this.”

“Hmm...?”

I lifted a transparent box. Coinlike objects sat in rows inside the glass case.

Casino chips.

“We’ve finally found it. What do these look like to you, Commander?”

“Uh. Casino chips...?”

“Yes. Money.”

CLATTER

I grabbed a handful of casino chips and dropped them onto the table.

“Currency. Legal tender. Think about it, Commander. If we make Dream Casino a success, we can finally circulate secure money even in this goddamned apocalypse.”

“...!”

Noh Doha’s eyes widened behind her glasses.

Our gazes met with an electric jolt.

“Until now, we’ve only been able to maintain exchange vouchers in an extremely limited fashion, backed at best by food. But this is different. Fairy Coins—the casino chips usable at Dream Casino—can literally be exchanged for any product.”

“In dreams...”

“Yes, albeit in dreams. But dreams you can customize aren’t very different from reality. Look at the final products. With ten billion coins, you can turn all those dreams into flawless lucid dreams. And with a hundred billion? You can even control time within them.”

“Aha. Aha...”

“Only a tiny number of people will ever actually acquire ten billion or a hundred billion coins. But that doesn’t matter. Money is, in essence, nothing but an illusion, a fantasy, a fetish. But what distinguishes it from one individual’s delusion is—”

“A dream that all humanity wishes to share, rather than one person’s dream... A fantasy that thereby acquires the same weight as physical things in reality...”

“Exactly.”

“Hmm. Dream Casino in the most literal sense. The dream demons’ amusement, is it...?”

Noh Doha picked up one of the casino chips I’d dropped on the desk with her slender fingers.

“Excellent...”

Her monocle gleamed. Breath escaped her slightly parted lips.

“Neither the gold standard, nor the petrodollar, nor Bitcoin. In short, a ‘dream standard’... Aha. Money, which began as civilization’s dream at the dawn of time, has returned to its original form at the end. What a paradox...”

“What do you think?”

“Hmm...”

Noh Doha adjusted her monocle and stared straight at me.

“Just like you...”

“Pardon?”

“I mean, it’s just like you. Ultimately, isn’t this an evolved form of your ability? Time Seal, or whatever it’s called...”

“...”

“I know you regard Time Seal as a curse rather than an ability. But from my perspective, you too are a kind of dream demon, Awakened Undertaker. And one could say that you’ve just brought in dream demons to serve under you, strengthening your power base...”

Noh Doha pressed down firmly on the casino chip with her fingertip.

“I’m told there are several paths by which awakened can develop their abilities. Then perhaps you’ve grown stronger this time by subjugating anomalies? Hmm, congratulations. What do you call this sort of thing? An ability upgrade...?”

“All I do is repeat a day that truly existed, endlessly. The fairies’ dreams are only simulations. However much they exert their abilities, they won’t be able to create dreams that account for every variable in reality.”

I looked at Noh Doha in turn.

We searched each other’s eyes.

“Workshop Master Noh Doha. Just as Gapless, a God of Alienation, failed to account for Doha, the sword you made for me.”

“...”

“I will turn toward reality. As I always have. In the future, too. Forever.”

Silence settled over us.

With a long, contemplative hum, Noh Doha nodded.

“... Good. Then there’s nothing to worry about. It’s a fucking brilliant plan, so let’s get started on currency reform immediately...”

That was the highest praise Noh Doha could offer.

“Oh, right. What will you call this new reserve currency circulating in our world? Fairy Coins...?”

“No. I considered ‘dream money,’ but I think we should simply call it ‘won.’”

“Oh? Why is that...?”

“Giving people something familiar will make things easier in all sorts of ways.”

I picked up a casino chip... No.

I picked up the money that would become the currency of a new world and flicked it to Noh Doha.

She deftly caught my money.

“Won as in ‘circle,’ because it is a dream flowing through this circular world that repeats endlessly. Won as in ‘wish,’ because it is a currency that feeds on human hopes and dreams. And won as in ‘resentment,’ because it will attract just as many curses and laments. As it happens, China and Japan also use the characters for yuan and yen, both read as won in Korean. It can be interpreted in any of those ways. A powerful spell must have many names to conceal itself.”

“Hmm... Well.”

With her customary crooked smile, Noh Doha pocketed the money.

“Not bad. Spells are your area of expertise, Awakened Undertaker, so I’ll leave that to you...”

6

There is an epilogue.

Before long, the National Road Management Corps came to function as a bank as well.

We supplied the influential guilds of various cities with nine billion won apiece, free of charge. Without any interest.

Each guild leader visited the casino when they stopped in Busan, then left glowing reviews both in person and on SG Net.

-[Three Thousand]WitchTrialJudge: It was a midsummer night’s dream. How long had it been since I last experienced a fine omakase restaurant? A glass of wine. A warm partner. A time that reminded me of the truth that these alone are enough for a fulfilling life... Though I could not preserve it in photographs, might that too be a kind of beauty? Today’s words: Stay, moment. You are so beautiful.

-[Hundred Flowers]HighSchoolSeventhYear: Highly recommend!! I got to enjoy an ordinary school life! Checked “walk home from school holding hands under the cherry blossoms” off my bucket list! >_<);;

Rave reviews, through and through.

Naturally, the guild leaders’ reviews piqued their members’ interest, and then the interest of awakened throughout the Korean Peninsula.

Ultimately, in less than two years, the won was circulating as the official reserve currency.

For a start, across the Korean Peninsula–Japanese archipelago–Chinese mainland, the Japanese archipelago–Chinese mainland–Korean Peninsula, and the Chinese mainland–Korean Peninsula–Japanese archipelago (I varied the order evenly out of consideration for those who still cared about the ordering of names of fallen countries), it became possible to exchange goods with virtually no difficulty using won alone.

In a sense, run 205 may have been an extremely important turning point.

Of course, Dream Casino and the won would cause all sorts of incidents... But those can be recounted at leisure later.

So let’s finish this episode with a brief glimpse of a dream I once purchased at the casino.

“Brother Xuande!”

“Oh! My brother Undertaker! You—you, a sworn brother of Liu Xuande—have truly accomplished a great deed!”

“How could the credit be mine alone? It is thanks to Brother Yunchang, who led the troops alongside me, and beyond that, to the traitor Cao, who forfeited the people’s trust. Ultimately, the credit belongs to you, Brother Xuande, for gathering together the people scattered like fragments across the realm.”

“Hohoho. I cannot compete with my brother Undertaker’s eloquence.”

I—no, the four sworn brothers of the Peach Garden, Liu Bei, Zhang Fei, Guan Yu, and the Undertaker—founded Shu Han in my dream. Naturally, we sliced off that bastard Cao Cao’s head and dunked it in a river in Xu Province.

Justice incarnate. The proper, authentic history. A truly moving Romance of the Three Kingdoms that no one could watch without tears.

I was overcome with emotion.

How could I shamelessly keep such a thrill all to myself?

Immediately after waking, I began hammering away at the keyboard—on that reincarnation laptop the God of Alienation had given me. Within a few days, I’d completed a full-length Three Kingdoms novel.

I handed this masterpiece to my self-proclaimed editor.

“Dokseo. You absolutely must include this novel in the main text. Wow, even I think it’s a masterpiece. A landmark that will leave its mark on Three Kingdoms fan fiction, you might say. I’m planning to serialize it on SG Net too. So in the main text...”

“Wait. By ‘main text,’ you mean your story, Mister? You want me to insert a six-hundred-chapter Three Kingdoms fanfic right in the middle of the novel I’m editing?”

“Exactly. That will completely solve the length problem you mentioned, too. The readers will cheer with tears of emotion streaming down their faces.”

“Mister, are you seriously a fucking lunatic?”

“...?”

... Unfortunately, thanks to a certain ignoramus who knows nothing about novels or the Three Kingdoms, it appears my masterpiece will not be included in the main text. The end.

-The Dreamer. End.