Episode 163
When Lee Jae-heon succeeded in challenging his stereotype, Ha Seong-yoon was walking toward the statue and mentally preparing to tell Jeong In-ho the stories he knew. It took quite a while for him to get to the point.
After walking in silence for a while, Ha Seong-yoon began to talk in earnest.
“…I’m sure you’ve told me this before. “My friend told me a story about this world.”
“Yes, I remember. “It’s something I just brought up.”
“Through some kind of incident, I realized that what I wanted was in the other world.”
Ha Seong-yoon touched his earlobe once again, and Jeong In-ho thought that it was like a button to urge or encourage himself.
“It’s difficult to say exactly what the incident was.”
I thought that might be the case. Of course, Dr. Ha Seong-yoon was someone who always hovered around the group, pretending not to be there, so for Jeong In-ho, who knew the previous time period, the fact that he brought up his story like this was surprising and surprising in itself.
Ha Seong-yoon sighed without looking at Jeong In-ho.
“is it so. To get straight to the point, I had to come to the underworld. “I asked my friend for advice on what to do.”
“Did your friend tell you how to enter the underworld?”
“It’s really surprising, but yes. It was like that. My friend knew how to enter the underworld. “That guy entered the underworld the same way I did.”
“….”
“I just had to understand.”
When Jeong In-ho looked at the explanation that didn’t quite make sense, the smile that was always drawn on his neat face had disappeared. In-ho Jeong thought that the strange look of fatigue on his face might be similar to that of Manager Jae-heon Lee.
“…What kind of nonsense were you thinking?”
“Do you want to be humbled?”
“Oh my god, can’t that be true? It is difficult to bear in mind the humility and hypocrisy shown by a black friend who knows everything. “I’ve seen that enough in hospitals.”
Ha Seong-yoon, who was mumbling something stupid out of character, continued.
“Understanding the underworld is different from learning mathematical formulas or counting the number of fruits. “If I were to be specific, it’s closer to empathizing with the other person’s feelings.”
“Then, doctor, who did you sympathize with?”
“My friend and probably the underworld.”
“…aha.”
“I think so.”
Ha Seong-yoon’s eyes turned red once again. It was like someone whose eyes were briefly immersed in a beautiful jewel or a terrible curse, and it was a strange gaze that was difficult for Jeong In-ho to describe.
It was staring into space.
“Otherwise, there is no way that someone who hasn’t even visited the underworld would be able to encounter them.”
“What do you mean by ‘those’?”
“A monster.”
“….”
“Green algae, crows, dogs, and things we commonly see in everyday life, like vines and flowers…”
He muttered like a crazy person before finally spitting out the words.
“And people.”
“…is that a monster too?”
“It did look like a mannequin.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean it really looked closer to a mannequin in appearance… nothing special.”
After saying that, Ha Seong-yoon opened his mouth, measuring the area around his vocal cords with one hand and tracing the path to the statue with both eyes. A hazy tone came out.
“It’s a ridiculous and terrible story, Mr. Jeong In-ho. Even if we leave the underworld, we must eventually encounter monsters. “You have to struggle not to die from them.”
“…It’s a terrible story.”
“I talked to that friend every day. When I tried to understand and step forward, it happened. I have tried quite a bit to survive the monsters that suddenly appear in real life. Thanks to that, I think it wasn’t difficult for me to adapt even when I was dropped here…” “
….”
“But until that happened, I couldn’t even perform surgery on a single patient.”
Jeong In-ho nodded without realizing it.
‘Because even patients who can be saved will be killed.’
I don’t know how or in what form I saw monsters outside the other side of the world, but what was certain was that these monsters alone could drive people crazy. There was no way I could go into the operating room where caution was required while seeing and touching something like that.
Ha Seong-yoon glanced at Jeong In-ho, who nodded, and continued speaking.
“In the end, we moved to a location where there wouldn’t be any major problems. “For the time being, I will let go of major tasks and focus on seeing patients or providing simple treatments.”
“Can ordinary doctors just change positions like that?”
“Haha, it’s an abuse of power. “It’s a shame, but I asked for the director’s help.”
The voice cracked very faintly.
“Because you have a connection with my parents.”
“….”
Jeong In-ho wondered if Ha Seong-yoon’s ‘purpose’, which he could not say, was related to his parents. That said, I wouldn’t ask, but the doubts didn’t go away either.
“Also, my reputation wasn’t that bad… and I was well qualified. I didn’t want my hands to feel numb, so I couldn’t do anything more than leave the hospital. “In some ways, this would be disqualification as a doctor.”
“It’s true that the defective doctor was so stubborn that he stayed in the hospital.”
“Still, I was confident.”
“….”
Jeong In-ho closed his mouth due to the youthful obsession with the voice.
“I have no meaning unless I’m a doctor, Jeong In-ho.”
“…is that so.”
I was able to understand as well. Perhaps Jung In-ho also had no meaning unless he was a ‘good person’.
“…Well, the bottom line is… I ended up in this side world. I also have a notebook where I write down stories I heard from friends. How about that? Would you like to see it?”
“Oh, I want to take a closer look later. I think it will be helpful as it is like a game guide…”
“That is also true.”
Ha Seong-yoon burst into laughter once.
“I was convinced that there was something I wanted to know here and that I wouldn’t be able to find it just by dropping a body. How much of a difference would it make if you had a strategy book like this or a small scalpel? In fact, if the manager hadn’t helped me, I would have already died at the flower shop.”
“….”
“So I asked my friend if there was something unrealistic that could help me achieve what I want.”
“So.”
“There is something like that.”
he muttered.
“There was such a ridiculous thing….”
There was a clear sense of skepticism in his voice.
Would this be the voice of a born scientist who witnessed a miracle of God? It seemed like a reaction like, ‘Why have I worked so hard all this time?’ If not, is it just a matter of crying and thinking, ‘What kind of crazy world have I stepped into?’ He seemed to be aware that entering the secret world on his own was crazy.
“Mr. Jeong In-ho, do you know about the Tree of Good and Evil?”
“…I know at least that it gives you knowledge of good and evil and that eating it will lead you to sin.”
“You know the essentials.”
He laughed briefly and added.
“God says this. You may freely eat from any tree in this garden. But do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil….”
“….”
“The day you eat from it you will surely die.”
“Did you memorize that too?”
As I looked at Ha Seong-yoon with a strange expression, he suddenly turned to Jeong In-ho with his usual smile. Jeong In-ho suddenly felt his mood worsen due to the cheerful emotions in his eyes.
“My family was Catholic. “It means you are a religious person.”
“Aha indeed.”
“Even before the tree of knowledge of good and evil existed, there was no such thing as good and evil. It wasn’t without sin. Therefore, the sins that humans bear after eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil are no different.”
Ha Seong-yoon raised his head and looked up.
“It means that people deviate from His wisdom and judge good and evil arbitrarily, and the relationship with the most correct foundation is ruined.”
“Please summarize.”
“I thought it was a story with a deep lesson, didn’t I?”
“Because I am non-religious.”
“I thought so.”
Ha Seong-yoon looked down at the completely white sky and the leaves that covered it. Jeong In-ho also looked up at that action, but in the end he couldn’t find anything and just looked away in a bad mood.
Meanwhile, the doctor continued.
“If you receive the ‘tree of knowledge of good and evil,’ you commit a sin. It is a crime of recklessly breaking the rules of this world, defining good and evil according to one’s own standards, and destroying its fundamentals. Such sins are revealed in some form through the hands of the person who received the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil…”
There was something about his face that made him uncomfortable.
“Perhaps the murder spree I said I committed can be seen as being in the same context. “I would have judged him as evil and committed a sin by committing a murder that should not have been committed as a human being.”
“So what changes?”
“We can never go back to the way things were. “That’s what I heard.”
“….”
“So, you can gain the ability to know what you want, but… you won’t even know if it’s true or false.”
“…Are you losing your judgment?”
“If I had to be honest, it could be similar to schizophrenia.”
Even after saying the scary words, Ha Seong-yoon’s face remained the same.
“To summarize, it is said that when you obtain the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, you inherit one of the five senses in some way. “No matter what it is, the person who received the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil cannot control that ability, and the ability always tells me ‘what I want.’”
“….”
“Did I say I changed my eyes? Then I have to keep accepting two or more perspectives at the same time. However, you cannot completely trust this world, so you will constantly doubt and worry. “With your judgment becoming distorted, you cannot tell what is true and what is false.”
“…Then what if you don’t sin? “If Song In-myeong doesn’t kill anyone else, wouldn’t his judgment have deteriorated to the level of schizophrenia?”
“I guess you didn’t understand very well. You have already committed enough sins just by eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The phrase ‘such a sin is revealed in some form’ meant that the sin gave birth to another sin.”
“….”
“Of course, if you do nothing while committing the sin of ‘eating the tree of knowledge of good and evil,’ your mind will not be further damaged, but I don’t know. While human beings are alive, they tend to commit sins that they are unaware of. Especially in this hidden world, there is no way to tell what is not a sin. In the end, you will go crazy anyway and commit another sin. “It is unavoidable.”
“…Then isn’t that actually a bad thing?”
“no.”
The voice was firm.
Ha Seong-yoon’s bright red gaze was staring at Jeong In-ho, just like ‘Ha Seong-yoon’ from the previous time. The soft smile cannot be erased.
“Didn’t I just say that you would abandon me? “I gain the qualifications and power to destroy the fundamentals and relationships of the world that no one can touch.”
“…How important is that?”
“At least I can get what I want.”
“….”
“If possible….”
he murmurs.
“I want to stop this world.”
“…this place.”
“The name ‘Tree of Good and Evil’ comes from the history of this world. I heard this from a friend and another survivor whose friend was already dead. Hasn’t the behind-the-scenes world been steadily changing along with reality? It is full of extremely unrealistic beings and concepts…”
“What is the conclusion?”
“Is there a God here?”
“….”
“If there is a God.”
The voice was filled with hatred.
“Why did I have to kill my people so badly?”
Jeong In-ho instinctively realized that the ‘my people’ he mentioned were Ha Seong-yoon’s unspeakable purposes. It was a guess based on intuition without any basis.
Of course, Jung In-ho doesn’t know exactly what the purpose is, but still…
‘I have more to tell the manager.’
That was all I felt.
I no longer wanted to waste my energy empathizing with others.
“…I’m sorry if I start going crazy after receiving the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, but please take care of it yourself.”
“You become more shameless by the day.”
“No matter how shameless I am, can I be more shameless than my long-time patient? “It’s such a stupid thing to do with a doctor who has all the right limbs in front of you…”
“I don’t have anything to say about him.”
“It won’t be as big of a deal as you think. “Whether I do this or not, in the end, unless I can live as a doctor, I will go crazy one day, and if that’s going to happen anyway, I need to increase the things I can get my hands on.” It was only after arriving at
the pure
white space that Jeong In-ho frowned.
“…I am sure I will be of help to you.”
Ha Seong-yoon had already arrived in front of the statue.
Jeong In-ho thought that Ha Seong-yoon would not stop even if I came forward. Even if I could do that, I didn’t have much stamina left. It was probably partly because I was persuaded by his words. I thought that if I was going to go crazy anyway, it would be better to get something and go crazy.
Ha Seong-yoon, who was looking at the sparkling statue, opened his mouth without turning around.
“…Do you know that?”
“What?”
“This statue is a husk. The real body is in a small lake. The monster hates humans so much that it couldn’t even bear to see its face…” “….” “
So
they say it escaped into the water.”
I felt uncomfortable.
He looked like he didn’t know what he was talking about.
“Isn’t it fun?”
Jeong In-ho could not understand the meaning of those words.
