episode_0002
by fnovelpiaKorea was no longer the same as before.
The status of an advanced country was virtually abandoned, and the results of ignoring urgently needed problems due to excessive government corruption were disastrous.
The birth rate is the lowest in the world… No, it came in last place and was increasingly short of manpower, and many industries were collapsing and falling due to lack of manpower.
In the end, the province was on the verge of extinction and was barely able to manage it by creating a job called city manager to manage the infrastructure of the city where there were not many people left.
There is good news from Korea at a time when the population that was overly concentrated in Seoul is gradually decreasing and only the country’s important industries are maintained… It was news that a new technology had been developed in a research center that would shock the whole world.
By modifying the genes of a fetus to suit their tastes, they had developed a gene manipulation technology that could eliminate genetic diseases and ensure that the fetus is born with the talents desired by its parents or can live a healthy life without minor illnesses even before birth.
Everyone was happy.
Now, Gukbbong channels, which have disappeared due to hatred, have mushroomed on Mutube and cover these technologies.
It was good news after a long time of hearing only bad news, and the entire nation rejoiced.
At the same time, the birth rate, for which the new government is working hard, began to rise exponentially.
Just when it seemed like the country was finally recovering, a country appeared that poured cold water on it…
In this unfortunate situation, their eternal power, the United States, began to tackle them.
It was a very different atmosphere from the early days when people were interested in their technology and even requested collaborative research.
It is said that the genetic technology was a research that had already been attempted first in the United States, but it failed completely due to problems that could not be fundamentally solved, and the research was discarded under the judgment that it was right to conduct genetic manipulation research in a completely different direction.
We watched the direction in which Korea’s research was going, but as expected, it was going in the same direction that the United States had failed in, so American academics expressed serious concern.
It went beyond concern and was at the level of dissuasion.
Even the European Union expressed concerns.
But Korea did not stop.
Even if China’s greedy dictator died, China was divided into various factions and divided into several countries, relations with Japan improved, and North Korea was absorbed by one of the countries that were in fact China, a country needs people to gain power.
No matter how peaceful it was before, they had no intention or power to stop now that they were barely escaping the crisis of population extinction.
At the end of the safety experiment, the genes of the volunteer fetuses were manipulated to create superior genes. As the children were born and grew up, the differences between the children who had undergone genetic manipulation and those who had not were clearly revealed.
Children who underwent the procedure stood out as if it were natural, and with people saying that their children could be born with the talent to become the pinnacle of a field, the birth rate skyrocketed compared to before, and the image of genetic modification technology was raised. It has improved a lot.
Unconventional policies include finding partners for men and women of child-bearing age, introducing them to each other, giving them one of the overflowing empty houses when they get married, exempting them from some taxes if they have a child there, and supporting living expenses until the child becomes an adult. As soon as this occurred, predictions began to emerge that the birth rate might be able to recover to what it used to be in Korea if this momentum continues.
However, as time passed, the enthusiasm began to turn into madness, and as it became possible to change the child’s body shape and gender appearance, it began to gradually cross the line.
When human beings were able to fly without the help of machines or become as fast as animals by taking some of the genes of animals and creating things like animal ears, tails, or wings, this technology was applied to children as if it were natural.
A child wearing cheetah ears and a tail can now run at 60 to 100 km/h.
This child’s dream was to become a track and field athlete at the recommendation of his parents.
The child with cat ears and tail was very cute.
This child’s dream was to become an idol thanks to his parents’ recommendation.
The child who looked like a mermaid was a good swimmer like a fish.
This child’s dream was to become a swimmer at the recommendation of his parents.
All children in Korea were beauties with a bright future and geniuses who were coveted by other countries.
Each child had a distinct personality, but thanks to genetic manipulation, all were good children.
Forcibly, without caring about the child’s wishes…
But children wonder how wrong this is.
I didn’t know how scary adult madness was.
They just grow up happily in the love of adults.
This would have been enough for the kids.
How serious a sin was it to not know how a technology born of trashy desires could strangle one’s neck?
I tried some experiments and there were no side effects, so how many children should have died for the simple thought of being safe?
In this way, the children became adults with everyone’s attention and blessings, and when they became adults, their bodies collapsed and broke, turning into pieces of meat and dying in front of people’s eyes.
Side effects that were unknown in guinea pigs were revealed in adult humans.
Without anyone to say anything, the children lost their shape and melted.
Genes have collapsed and become irreversibly altered or distorted.
In just one day, hundreds of children died without even blooming, and the entire first generation that received the treatment died.
A catastrophe occurred in which hundreds of people died in one day.
The next disaster was planned and its target was obvious.
Soon the second generation would die.
The whole world became aware of this catastrophe.
All the geneticists who came to Korea to learn about gene manipulation technology returned urgently.
Thousands of people complained of mental disorders after seeing their children die horribly before their eyes, and the suicide rate of parents who lost their children in vain rose sharply.
Special cleaning companies cleaned apartments and houses day after day, and only the smell of death began to waft across Korea, which was full of vitality.
The children could not remain calm in the shadow of death.
On the Internet, a topic of interest to teenagers, such as how to die without pain, ranked first in real-time searches.
With shock and fear, the public searched for the culprit of this incident and pointed to the research institute that created this technology.
But how funny is this?
Actually, everyone is a culprit.
I recalled the memories of that day.
“Dad! I told you not to do this!”
At the time, I opposed my father’s technique of manipulating the fetus’s genes to his liking.
It was simple rejection.
“What do you say you know? Now that you’re studying in college, shout out to your dad about how much you know!”
“Still, I don’t think this is right. Dad, please stop. The research that my dad smiles and boasts about when we eat together is so scary to me!”
“No. Yeran. listen carefully. How does the world speak of this dad?”
A genius who will change the world.
A wingless angel who donated most of his fortune to a children’s rehabilitation hospital.
A great genius who gives birth to geniuses.
These were words that came out as the children grew up and stood out.
“Only I can save this dangerous country!”
I was afraid of my father’s eyes shining with greed.
“But!”
I wasn’t a good person to begin with, but…
“How dare you!”
The nostrils flaring ugly with excitement were terrible.
“To me! Discipline me with the same words as that damn nose!”
My father was already so blinded by his praise that he could not accept legitimate criticism.
My father confidently said there was nothing wrong with his technology and talked about how great it was.
I haven’t spoken to my father since that day, when he was drunk or excited and was hitting me with a knife and throwing things at me.
It was the same for my father too.
From the beginning, he was a person who had a habit of yelling and throwing things since he was young.
As he became famous and started making money, he became more comfortable with his life and was kind to me.
That daily routine continued.
The day my children melted down and died, I returned home and saw that the proud father had disappeared everywhere and all I saw was a helpless middle-aged man sitting on the living room floor in despair.
During that short period of time, he suffered so much that his forehead was wrinkled and gray hairs were visible here and there among his black hair.
The resentment that remained toward my father did not disappear, but I worried about him like that.
What were you worried about at that time?
I couldn’t remember now what exactly I was worried about.
Was it a death wish?
Was it pity?
Or is it just resentment?
My father and I didn’t say anything to each other.
Their relationship had already widened as quickly as it could.
It’s uncomfortable even when we’re at home…
Maybe my father was like that too, but he only showed up at home occasionally, but most of the time he slept in a dormitory near the research institute.
I buried my face in the bed in my room and tried to sleep.
My cell phone rang constantly with calls from classmates and seniors I was pretending to be friends with, but I didn’t pay any attention.
No, I didn’t want to care.
I opened my eyes, not knowing when they had closed, and stood up with a heavy body.
I don’t want to wake up, but… I had to go to school.
It was obvious what was going to happen, but…
When I came out of the living room to grab a quick meal, I saw my father hanging from a rope on the ceiling and swaying wildly.
As black and stiff as a rotten old tree.
I stared at the long sticking out tongue and the black, dead eyeballs.
“Father. The greed has finally disappeared from those eyes.”
I chuckled.
He was always a noisy man, but now he was quiet enough to feel at ease.
It was a fitting end for a man who had no sense of responsibility.
He passed away without even thinking about cleaning up the shit he had made.
“Damn father. I still expected you to change.”
“But you didn’t mean to do that at all.”
Genetic manipulation technology was abandoned and the last generation that underwent the treatment died out.
When it was revealed that the corruption of the new government, which was thought to have succeeded in eradicating corruption, was linked to this technology, the few remaining citizens stood up, but they had already fled to another country.
Now, no one was sure whether this country would be able to get back on its feet like before.
*****
I woke up early in the morning as usual and left the house.
The name was changed.
Jihye Lee.
That was my new name.
At that time, I needed to do something, so I passed the job as a city manager, a job that no one wanted to do, and started working on my own.
The management of the large city, which there were not many people left, was entrusted to a few people under the name of city managers, so there were many places that were not running properly.
There are very few city managers who tell machines to do everything, but they do exist.
Still, the place where I work was managed in its own way by people.
It wasn’t a job created because the government really needed it in the first place… Well, it doesn’t matter, right?
Anyway, this city only had three city managers, including me.
If there was a lot of work for a city manager, there was a lot to do, but if there wasn’t a lot of work, there was none.
If the city manager did not work, the machine would take care of it, so everyone worked reasonably well.
Now that robots are doing work instead of humans, there is no problem even if, to put it in the extreme, city managers give up their work.
I drove into the Happy Apartment complex, one of the most crowded places in this city.
The parking lot inside the complex was deserted.
There aren’t many people, so there can’t be many cars.
In the past, Korea had less land than people, but now the land is so much bigger than people that people tend to use the space widely to avoid inconvenience.
I parked my car somewhere, entered my password, and went in.
[hello. good morning.]
I kicked the cylindrical robot that was diligently moving around and clearing away leaves and trash.
It was a meaningless action.
Ding dong
“Wait a minute!”
I greeted the person inside who opened the door without even asking who he was.
Then, as always, he greeted me very warmly.
I’m the only one visiting during this time.
Take out the survival report and record it.
Oh Young survives
“What is your current job?”
“Ah… There’s nothing much going on other than the fuss about making a game that’s popular overseas.”
“How are you these days?”
“I live alone with a friend because I haven’t had anyone recently.”
“What is his name?”
“This is Ah-eun Lee.”
Living with a friend.
In good mental condition.
There are no signs of suicide.
My friend Lee Ah-eun.
It was a meaningless record.
I just need to check if it’s alive, and if I don’t do that, the machine will come to check.
“There is no problem at home, right?”
“They fixed the water supply last time and I don’t think there are any problems!”
After saying hello, she turned around and Ms. Oh Young-eun let out a sigh with a very disappointed expression. Then she said hello and went back inside.
Did you say that humans are social animals?
Because there were so few people in the city, the Korean people missed people.
I hope the city will be bustling with people like it used to be.
So there were many people complaining of depression, and ironically, the best job in this situation was a psychiatric hospital.
With patients pouring in, business is bound to do well.
At the government level, psychiatry was also made mandatory for citizens’ health checkups.
I was lonely because there was no one there, I was disturbed by criticism of Korea from all over the world, and I was mentally shocked when my children were brutally slaughtered.
Anyone who doesn’t have a mental problem in this situation is just crazy.
Therefore, people often tried to add a word to the manager who came to visit them because they could not see many people no matter what time they rented.
No, actually it wasn’t a lot, it was most of it.
I, too, sometimes felt lonely and tried to relieve my loneliness with people here, so I don’t think it’s particularly a nuisance to try to hold on like this.
Walk around the apartment, talk to people, check out the facilities, and then take a look at the city streets and stores.
After checking the condition of gas, water, street lights, and parks, the day’s work is over.
In fact, being a city manager was not a particularly necessary job.
People lost their jobs due to being overtaken by machines and people made extreme choices, so they gave them money or created unnecessary jobs and entrusted them to people.
The city manager’s main job was to check on people’s health and tell them to talk to each other rather than die.
If we had really thought about efficiency, we would not have entrusted city management to robots or entrusted such tasks to ordinary people with such low expertise.
In this damn country, when there are a lot of people, give them some attention and treat them well when they are all dead and gone.
I was planning to suppress the cursing boiling inside me and look around, take a final look at the park, and then return home.
No one cared whether I worked or not anyway.
It was just a job created so that people wouldn’t die.
Most people live like that.
An even stranger job than city manager was that of a cafe beverage server.
Although it is not particularly necessary, it is the most popular job. You serve drinks to people who visit a cafe and sit on chairs and talk to each other.
That was it.
I thought about doing it too, but I couldn’t do it because I’m an asshole.
I don’t really want to do it.
“Is it a park?”
The park was still the same.
The last time I checked here was a week ago, but there didn’t seem to be any problems.
It would be natural since there were only a few people visiting in the first place.
I checked to see if the robot in the park’s restroom was disposing of the trash without error, and watched the lakeside by leaning against a streetlight.
Ah, it’s always the same.
Meanwhile, I felt a presence coming from somewhere and heard a sound.
It’s been a while since I saw anyone here.
I usually work out during my working hours, so it was hard to meet him in the evenings like this.
Has there ever been a passionate person who works out even during dinner hours like this?
I looked towards the direction from which I heard the sound.
“Uh… ?”
It was an unbelievable sight.
A very cute child with black wings was sitting on a bench watching squirrels.
Now, five years after the death of the ‘last survivor’, a child who underwent the cursed procedure has emerged.
It was impossible.
But the impossible came true before my eyes.
I rubbed my eyes vigorously to see if I was seeing something, but the child in front of me did not disappear.
The child who was watching the squirrels was looking this way while I was rubbing my eyes.
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