Ch.115Snapshot (5)

I connected the camcorder to the laptop and opened the file.

There was only one file remaining. A video with a title composed of random numbers.

“Noona. Is this really going to be okay?” Jung Haewon asked nervously while looking at the screen.

“Yeah. Nothing bad will happen.”

“I trust only you, noona.”

Jung Haewon was acting nonchalant as if he hadn’t been anxious at all.

No matter if he’s my brother, talking like that is kind of creepy.

“But I hope something terrible happens to you.”

“What? Why?!”

“Just kidding.”

They say words can become reality.

Even though it was a joke, I took back my words just in case.

Click.

I dragged the mouse cursor over and clicked on the file.

After a brief loading period, the video began to play.

Shuffle.

Click.

A man in a white lab coat appeared.

It was Dr. Chen, whose face I’d already seen, sitting on a desk.

“Hello. I am Dr. Michael Chen, Senior Research Fellow at the Foundation.”

With this simple greeting, Dr. Chen turned over an hourglass on the table.

Black sand trapped in the glass began to fall downward.

“…Dr. Chen.”

“Do you recognize this place?”

“It’s probably his personal office. I don’t know it well.”

The video continued playing during my conversation with Robin.

The video was about 11 minutes long.

Dr. Chen wasn’t the only one in it.

Someone was holding a camcorder and filming.

“Then I’ll begin the interview now.”

The man speaking now.

Most likely the person doing the filming.

The video was in an interview format with the two people exchanging questions and answers.

The man would ask questions, and Dr. Chen would answer.

“What kind of organization is the Foundation?”

“In this world, there aren’t just things that are visible, that follow our common sense and laws of physics. There are also hyperreal and anomalous entities. To make a rough comparison, things like the occult, supernatural phenomena, monsters from urban legends and mysteries. Of course, not all of these actually exist. However, in the world we live in, there are things beyond our understanding that do exist.”

Dr. Chen opened a drawer and took out a sheet of paper.

The doctor folded the paper into a sailboat, which then floated around the study.

The camera briefly followed the paper boat.

As if directly demonstrating the “anomaly” that clearly exists in reality.

“We define these as anomalies or anomalous entities, and our purpose at the Foundation is to contain, secure, and protect them, ultimately ensuring the survival of humanity.”

“…Then the next question.”

His tone was stiff and unnatural, as if reading from a prepared script.

He moved straight to the next question without adding any comments or follow-up questions between them.

“Is the Foundation’s purpose being properly upheld?”

“Yes. But the means are wrong.”

Dr. Chen in the video made a firm conclusion.

I slightly shifted my gaze to look at the person beside me.

Robin’s eyes trembled slightly, if only for a moment.

The reactions from Riko and Yoon Daju were much more dramatic.

The two former Foundation researchers showed obvious signs of anxiety.

“What do you mean by ‘the means are wrong’?”

“I’m referring to the Foundation’s response to the ‘Fifth Apostle,’ which is a disaster itself, and ‘Seven’ lurking behind it.”

Dr. Chen took a deep breath.

Then continued his story.

“First, the ‘Fifth Apostle.’ It’s one of the anomalous entities I mentioned earlier. The ‘Fifth Apostle,’ a cosmic catastrophe by its mere existence, should be bound in chains and restrained, but for unknown reasons, it has been released. Now as it becomes active, various disasters are occurring. War, famine, disease, natural disasters. There is currently no way to recapture it once it’s been released.”

The sound of paper rustling.

Dr. Chen pulled out prepared materials and showed them to the screen.

“Wait. Can’t we pause the video and check it in more detail?”

“It’s just visual material. We can just skim through it.”

Yoon Daju suggested pausing the video briefly, but we didn’t.

What Chen picked up was just an A4 paper with printed images.

As if depicting scenes from hell, it showed burning villages, people suffering from disease, and soldiers from various countries holding rifles.

“Of course, the Foundation has prepared for such situations.”

Dr. Chen flipped the paper to show the other side.

This time it was a photo of what looked like a clean facility.

It was filled with white floors and sleek machine equipment, while on the other side, blue trees and crops were growing on artificial soil.

“This is the Foundation’s ‘Rebooting’ facility. The facility is equipped with cloning technology, civilization archives, and minimal purification systems to restore human history even if humanity becomes extinct.

Currently, the Foundation has decided to leave the Fifth Apostle alone, allowing humanity to perish, and instead use the rebooting facility afterward. The plan is to wait for a long time until the Fifth Apostle ceases its activity and falls back asleep, and then revive humanity.”

The doctor paused briefly.

It seemed like he needed more courage for what he was about to say next.

“The bigger problem is the entity called ‘Seven’ behind it.”

The doctor checked the hourglass.

“It ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■.”

The black sand falls downward.

The doctor repeats.

“It gives a massive trial to specific worldlines or narrative layers, and annihilates any narrative layer that fails to overcome it. Our narrative layer. All events in our world. Everything that can ultimately be tied together as one story is in danger of being permanently incinerated.”

The man holding the camera handed something to the doctor.

A brass Zippo lighter.

The doctor flipped open the lighter cap, tested the flame a few times, and then brought the lighter under the paper.

“And the trial that Seven has given to our narrative layer is the ‘Fifth Apostle’ itself.”

Whoosh.

Fire catches on the paper.

Both the disasters brought by the Fifth Apostle and the Foundation’s final ark for humanity are engulfed in flames.

“If we don’t stop the Fifth Apostle right now, even the rebooting facility will be meaningless.”

A story turns to ashes and falls at his feet.

“This is insane.”

Someone muttered quietly.

It was Robin, who was watching the video beside me.

“Finally, April 11, 2011. You will know.”

“Robin.”

With those final words, the doctor said nothing more and just stared at the screen.

As if giving time to make a decision.

“…How.”

Robin was shocked, still staring at the screen.

I didn’t leave her alone.

“So. What happened?”

“You. What exactly are you hiding?”

When Heo Yoon joined in, Robin could no longer hold out.

“April 11, 2011. There was an incident where numerous weapons were stolen from a secret Foundation facility located in this very area.”

“Was there a reason to hide that?”

Heo Yoon asked accusingly.

Robin hesitated briefly before speaking again.

“Because the cleanup process wasn’t so smooth. The Foundation’s technology is at least a century ahead of what’s available to the public. Especially in fields like medicine and weapons. If that were to leak to the world, it would become uncontrollable.”

“So, what did you do?”

“No way! That’s not it, right, Robin?”

Even Dan, who had been quietly listening, seemed to guess what had happened, not just Heo Yoon.

But Robin shook her head.

“Of course not. We didn’t go that far. Since we couldn’t trace the leak path, we conducted forced comprehensive investigations on nearby facility personnel, citizens, and local government officials. We don’t kill innocent people just because they know too much.”

“Then Robin. What did you tell me? Didn’t you say that if a mere driver tried to know too much, they’d be disposed of?”

“I was just trying to scare you. If you had gone around talking about the Foundation, nothing good would have come of it.”

After finishing her argument with Dan, Robin returned to the main topic.

“So. Despite all the investigations, we never found the leak source. Innocent people got caught up in the Foundation’s mistake.”

Rounding up all the people in the area and examining their memories…

It must have been a major incident, but I don’t remember seeing such news.

They probably used amnestics.

“But you could erase their memories with amnestics, right? It should be simple to erase memories of being investigated.”

“Yes. But at that time, the performance of amnestics wasn’t perfect, so we had to use excessive amounts to completely erase memories. As a result, side effects occurred here and there. It was one of the Foundation’s mistakes.”

I had imagined some massive murder case and cover-up.

It turned out to be less serious than I thought.

“From now on, don’t hide things like that. This time it was just some side effects, right?”

“I didn’t think it was necessary to mention. I’ll do so in the future.”

Just as I was about to turn my attention back to the camcorder.

“Noona, wait a second.”

Jung Haewon suddenly started drawing attention.

“Ah. So that’s how it works? Wow… This is insane.”

“What? Did you figure something out?”

“Yes! It’s that thing! That! Now I understand everything.”

Even Robin couldn’t help but ask.

“I don’t understand at all. Haewon. What did we miss?”

“What Ichinose said before.”

“Ichinose… Oh, you mean Riko?”

“Huh? Something I said?”

Even Riko herself seemed confused.

Haewon was the only one who seemed to have figured something out.

“Yes. You said there was someone called ‘Professor’ who built a research facility in this apartment. And that his research goal was to release the ‘Fifth Apostle.'”

“Yes! That’s right.”

Riko nodded.

I quietly listened to what Haewon was saying.

“You said then that we shouldn’t just barge into the lab, that we needed to prepare. So here’s the question. What was the first thing we needed?”

“Hmm? I can’t remember.”

I answered instead of Riko.

“Weapons. You said there were armed guards in the lab, so we shouldn’t go in without proper preparation.”

“Yes. Weapons, right? It was weapons?”

Haewon continued excitedly.

“And today. What did Robin say disappeared from the Foundation’s secret facility?”

“Weapons… Advanced ones.”

I was genuinely surprised.

I’d seen him use his wits occasionally, but he never seemed particularly intelligent.

This time, Haewon had definitely made a breakthrough.

“Now it’s starting to make sense.”

“It was us. We were the ones who stole the weapons from the Foundation.”

Us stealing the weapons, and weapons being stolen from the Foundation facility on April 11, 2011.

Dr. Chen entering this place and pasting the same date’s space-time, and us coming here.

It’s impossible to know which came first.

What’s certain is that all these events are intertwined, creating a powerful causality.

‘It had to be this way.’

‘It could only happen like this.’

If fate really exists, this must be it.

Shock gradually spread among the survivors gathered in Heo Yoon’s apartment.

No one said anything more.

But everyone now knew what needed to be done.

Just as we were waiting for someone to step forward.

Click.

The video, which we thought had stopped, began moving again.