How to Live as an Immortal Chapter 32

Chapter 32

It Wasn’t About That

***

“It was probably the original plan to suppress everything quickly the mont Allen and Ito took action. Right?”

“You noticed that too?”

By the ti they escaped the mansion, they had already figured out that there were more people than necessary.

Only then did they think everyone swarming them from all sides was one of Norman’s colleagues.

“If no one had rushed out, it would have ended quietly.”

“Well, I’m sorry about that.”

“Still, it puts at ease. It seems Dobby has made proper friends. It’s different from the original plan, but I won’t be stingy with the reward.”

Up to that point, Koln finished speaking and let out a dry cough.

“Cough, cough.”

The sound of his breathing did not stop no matter how many tis it repeated.

When Koln failed to steady himself and nearly collapsed, Sera quickly stepped forward and supported him.

“So it looks like you weren’t completely free of chronic illness.”

“If it’s managed well, it doesn’t interfere with daily life.”

“Don’t tell Dobby was affected too?”

“It’s sad that I can’t deny that.”

It ant it was a hereditary disease. One that ran in the family.

However, compared to Koln, who was relatively fine, Dobby was in a state where he couldn’t even step outside.

“Why didn’t you modify Dobby’s genes?”

That was also a question I had been holding ever since eting Dobby.

The fifth-generation gene scissors, ‘Gaius,’ discovered after the fourth-generation gene scissors ‘Pri Editor,’ were advanced enough to allow even heterozygous combinations.

The gene modification technology distributed in modern society could be said to rival alchemy.

Of course, difficulty and cost were proportional, but Koln was the head of a gacorp. It would not have been an exaggeration to say that there was almost nothing he couldn’t achieve if he wished.

“It’s not that I didn’t do it. It’s because I did.”

“Because you did?”

“You know that the human gene pool has its limits, don’t you?”

“Roughly.”

For example, let’s say soone wanted to fly in the sky.

If they reached that goal through gene modification, they would naturally end up with a structure similar to that of birds.

Their bone density would decrease to make flight easier, and only the muscle density of the upper body would beco enlarged, going through such an evolutionary process.

They couldn’t change while retaining human characteristics. To begin with, the human body structure wasn’t suited for flight.

These kinds of side effects appeared most commonly even in muscle and skeletal enhancent, which was the most frequently perford.

To maintain the heightened tabolism, they had to consu calories several tis that of an ordinary person.

If the technological level had remained at an agrarian society, they would have had to eat all day, but in modern society where food engineering had prevailed, it ended with consuming calorie bars.

In other words, it ant they had exceeded the limits of being human, but not escaped the limits of being a living organism.

“Dobby was a similar case.”

“What on earth were you aiming for? Did you want to create so kind of superhuman that went beyond enhanced humans?”

“If only that were the case. I rely wished for Dobby to be born ordinary.”

“It sounds as though you castrated a single genius-level ability.”

“That isn’t wrong. Yes, since you’ll be staying with that child from now on, you at least have the right to hear it.”

After steadying his breathing, Koln t Ga-on’s eyes as if he had made up his mind.

“Can you confidently say that all of humanity in this world belongs to a single species?”

“That’s an absurd question all of a sudden.”

Answering calmly, Ga-on scratched his chin. After all, he himself was immortal.

“You may not know this, but the evolution of humanity already began several hundred years ago.”

Sohow, Koln’s words carried a weight that couldn’t be dismissed. They even touched upon the answer Ga-on had pursued countless tis.

“Dr. Lindermann, who invented the ion drive, and Dr. Isabella, called the mother of artificial intelligence. Each of them possessed their own special abilities.”

“No, wouldn’t it be stranger if people of that caliber didn’t have sothing like that?”

“I’m referring to abilities that are not innately permitted to the human species.”

“Are you saying they had supernatural abilities or sothing?”

“Yes. Individuals with manifested abilities, or ta-humans. That’s what we’re called.”

Judging from the explanation, the ‘ta’ in ta-human likely ant transcendence.

“That’s quite an interesting claim. If it’s true, that is.”

Though he spoke as if uninterested, Ga-on’s heart was secretly pounding. At the thought that others of his kind, whom he had never discovered before, might exist nearby.

“It’s not a lie, but a clear truth. At one ti, I too belonged to that category.”

“Fine, let’s say they exist. Let’s say there’s so kind of inherited ability passed down through the family. But there’s no reason to eliminate it even at the cost of severe side effects, is there?”

If one were born with a truly special ability, wouldn’t preserving and maintaining it be the top priority rather than erasing it?

As if he had read Ga-on’s thoughts, Koln smiled bitterly. It wasn’t as though he had wanted to forcibly manipulate genes either.

However—

“If it ca with dissociative identity disorder accompanied by chronic headaches, and unexplained nervous breakdowns, the story would be different.”

“If normal life was impossible, then it might be worth attempting. But then why did Dobby fail?”

That was despite Koln himself being a successful case.

“At the ti, I believe my father borrowed the help of a certain ta-human.”

“Then……”

Ga-on, who had been about to ask why they didn’t seek that help again, closed his mouth. He had already heard the answer just monts before.

“Dissociative identity disorder.”

“Yes. By the ti I reached adulthood, my father had already beco soone else. And he never returned, not even until the day he passed away.”

Unfortunately, Dobby had no choice but to receive incomplete treatnt. The fact that Koln cherished him so much might also have been a defensive chanism born from guilt.

“Judging by how long-winded your explanation is, you must want sothing, right?”

“It’s good that we understand each other. Yes, the reason I spoke so frankly about my circumstances is because I have one request to make.”

Baek Ga-on.

In Sera’s reports, he was no different from a talking beast. If what she had seen and heard was accurate, he was soone who could be compared to famous fixers.

And on top of that, he was Dobby’s friend.

There could be no better candidate than this.

“Find a ta-human who can treat Dobby.”

“What’s the deadline?”

“I won’t set one.”

“I can’t guarantee anything.”

ta-human.

Even Ga-on, who had lived for over three hundred years, was hearing the term for the first ti. It was obvious that the municipal governnt, or a group even above it, was personally controlling the information.

“I’m not asking you to do it right away. If it’s a fixer of your caliber, you’ll eventually have a chance to co into contact with them. I’m just asking you to rember it.”

“You’re entrusting with a heavy responsibility quite casually. I’ll accept it for now.”

From Ga-on’s perspective as well, Dobby being confined to lying down all the ti wasn’t a pleasant situation.

Besides, whether sooner or later, having to make contact amounted to the sa thing. It was an opportunity to learn about his own origins.

“And tell Allen to pick it up from Miss Siri. If we’re going to clean this up quietly, we’ll need him.”

“Siri?”

Koln made a foolish expression for a mont, but Ga-on answered by waving his hand.

“Then I’ll be on my way. Take care of the aftermath yourselves.”

***

Not long after, Allen Howard, the chief head of technology developnt at Maximum Noise, lost all his positions and was subjected to the severe punishnt of the judicial system.

The death of Miyata Ito, who could be called his close associate, could be found as a single line even if only in gossip magazines.

It was an incident that could have shaken the main pillar of a gacorp, yet there were no outlets that covered it in depth.

The Seed Colony simply had far too many other incidents and accidents to deal with.

To Dobby, the person involved, it probably felt like a storm had passed, but from the outside, it was nothing more than a trivial happening.

The prevailing opinion was that it was an extension of internal housecleaning. There was nothing surprising about it. Koln had stepped in personally. So people didn’t even realize that a series of disturbances had occurred at all.

In a way, it felt bitter.

Because it ant that the truths of the world were being buried like this as well. Just as the facts about ta-humans had never surfaced until now.

‘It’s not sothing I should be worrying about.’

From the start, it wasn’t a problem that could be solved by brooding over it. If sothing festered, it festered, and if it burst, it burst. That was simply how the world worked.

What I needed to focus on was what ca next.

Yes, it was ti to pour my efforts into gathering technical grounds to conceal the fact that I was immortal.

It seed that the sa applied to Dobby as well.

“Thank you so much, Shinsin. Thanks to you, both Sera and I were able to co out unhard.”

“Save your thanks. I did it for the money.”

“I realized a lot from this incident. No, saying that I had forgotten might be more accurate. Even if my father is the chairman of a gacorp, in the end, the only one who can protect is myself.”

Dobby, who had returned to Lost Saga, wore a serious expression that felt sowhat different than usual.

“Your resolve is admirable, but there’s not much choice, is there?”

“Even with a body like this, there’s still sothing I can do, right?”

“Don’t tell …….”

“I think I can be a Diver too. I even had a Slot inserted. Fortunately, the rejection response was minimal.”

A group that used their brains as computational devices to swim through a raging sea of information, Divers.

Peeking into secrets that others wanted to hide was an act that created both danger and value at the sa ti. It wasn’t a field a third-generation chaebol heir should recklessly jump into.

“Chairman Koln actually allowed that.”

“Maybe because I’ve never really gone outside before, this actually feels more comfortable. It’s not all that different from when I’m logged into Lost Saga.”

Unfortunately, being a Diver was an occupation where talent mattered greatly.

Disabling protections, designing bypass routes, and decrypting data weren’t things one could master just because soone taught them.

Whether Dobby’s impressions would end as a fleeting delusion or turn into a lasting reality in the future was sothing that needed more observation, but—

“Don’t overdo it.”

If what Koln said was true, Dobby was practically hanging off a cliff. If ntal illness were added on top of physical ailnts, it would beco uncontrollable.

“Of course. Lost Saga always cos first for .”

“That’s not what I ant, though.”

Even after going through a crisis, was Dobby still just Dobby? Watching his calm and composed deanor made it feel like my worries had been unnecessary.

“Let’s enjoy the present. Life only cos once, after all.”

***

After logging out of Lost Saga, I removed the Connector. Having confird that Dobby was doing well, it was ti to attend to my personal business.

This request was tangled enough that I had to take a long, roundabout path, but it wasn’t all disadvantages. Dobby, Sera, and even Koln, the clients involved were diverse and interconnected.

Thanks to that, the efficiency was considerable. It naturally allowed to skip several stages of my original plans.

Just then, a new ssage arrived on my device.

The sender was the capsule hotel.

According to the contents, an android nad Sera was waiting at the entrance.

At the unexpected summons, I went outside, and blue-green hair blossod ssily before my eyes.

“You’ve arrived.”

“Miss Siri.”