[Joongdok] Omniscient Reader's Path to Nowhere

Part 1 - Chapter 10: Epilogue 1

'Chilly' was Kim Dokja's first impression of Seol as he stepped out of the airport. Behind him, Han Myung-Oh complained something about no one coming to pick them up as he pulled his luggage suitcase. A bit further on his left, Yoo Sang-ah was checking the map. From the outside, their group looked no different than a group of office workers who had just returned from a business trip.

It had been so long since the last time he stepped foot in Korea, his homeland.

Most of his memories had faded, but as the place containing the happiest times of his childhood, he still couldn't help but let the suppressed emotions in his heart rise, even if only for a moment.

The Europe-Asia supercontinent was far from DisCity, making Paradeiso reach here wasn't as strong. Even so, he could still be sure that there was no shortage of Paradeiso spies here, otherwise they would never have accepted him coming here with only two subordinates.

While they got into the taxi, Yoo Sang-ah said excitedly:

"Our appointment with the Meteorite Monitoring Department is the morning after tomorrow, during which time we will be free. What do you think about Yejiwon? It's a place offering traditional Korean etiquette education programs. They also serve to introduce the traditional cultures and living cultures of Korean etiquettes to foreigners."

"Is there a good place to go shopping? Women who study too much have a hard time getting married..."

"..."

They glanced at Kim Dokja nervously. This was in fact their first time meeting him. Before that, they knew nothing about the young man, just that one day, the high ups said they would go and protect this person on a business trip. During the whole time on the plane, he barely said anything, just focusing on reading something on his phone, causing their relationship to hardly progress at all.

Sensing their gaze, Kim Dokja just casually said:

"I will stay at the hotel, just choose wherever you want to go."

No matter where he goes, there will always be people watching. In that case, he would rather curl up in a blanket and read novels in comfort.

The following days, he did exactly as he said, to the point even Han Myung-Oh felt guilty, because all of their shopping and sightseeing expenses were all taken care of by him. When he saw the thin man wearing glasses handing him a huge bag of snacks, saying that Kim Dokja wasn't surprised was a lie. His impression of this man could not be said to be positive: paternalistic, cowardly, shameless,... but clearly, he was still a 'human', with all the aspects a normal human should have.

Kim Dokja politely received the bag and put it next to all the souvenirs Yoo Sang-ah had gifted him. Sprawled out on the table were all kinds of little things ranging from ornaments to tableware. He grabbed a bag of spicy fried Tteokbokki and started to eat with the pair of chopsticks provided by the hotel.

Those snacks were really good.

Two days went by quickly, and their meeting day came fast. In Korea, there were two observation stations for the dormant meteor, and they frequently exchange information, so they only need to meet one. At first, there were more than 10 stations scattered by the coast just to monitor the tiny piece of meteor. But gradually, they reduced and now, there are only 2 still active.

This meteor has been dormant since the day it entered the ocean, and produces no matter to mine, unlike the hypercube in DisCity. To put it simple, this meteor was useless.

Until a month ago, they received mysterious signals from it. Its frequency of occurrence was extremely low, and it wasn't until a few days ago that the second wave of signals was emitted. Thus, they were sent here to investigate.