Chapter 207: Big Brother (1)

[Nobody knows what the Fall actually is. No one has lived to experience what it is like after the Fall. But why are you afraid of something you have not even experienced yet?]

-Runald the Naked Saint.

Episode. Big Brother.

A year had passed since the red star fell from the sky. People stopped talking about the ‘star’ and instead talked about the ‘eye’. It referred to the same thing in the end, but there was a difference. The star and the eye were very different after all.

What was Big Brother?

The Little Brother Network of <Depth> was bursting with these issues recently. From the debates on the existence of Big Brother to all kinds of testimonies relating to it. It was within this anonymous chatroom that people were debating most heatedly.

Guest15321: Big Brother exists! Did you forget about the Authentication?! It’s Big Brother who issued them!

Guest8264: What are you talking about? It was revealed that they were created by the Masters of the fortresses in <Chaos>.

Guest624124: Then what about the System? It’s the Setting of the Big Brother, remember?

Guest8264: There’s no proof of that either. It’s just a hoax.

Guest55243: What about the Adapters in the <Great Lands>? They are followers of Big Brother. How can you deny the existence of a God when there are Followers?

Guest8264: And those Adapters have never seen nor heard their Gods. What proof do they have?

Guest3581: What about Little Brother Network? It’s created by Big Brother!

Guest8264: OMG, if Big Brother really created it, then I would’ve been banned already.

Guest55243: Yeah. As a matter of fact, who are you to claim all that? Reveal your name if you want to back your claims.

Guest624124: I know. Stop blabbering unless if you don’t want your ass kicked outta here.

It was followed by insults. Soon, Guest8264’s message popped up in reply.

Guest8264: Ugh, that’s why I don’t talk with retards. I will prove that Big Brother does not exist.

Guest3581: ????

Guest55243: Gogogogo!

[Guest8264 has changed their nickname to ‘Slasherking’.]

The chatroom became silent. Slasherking? As far as they knew, there was only one person who used such a nickname.

Slasherking: Hey, Big Brother, you son of a b*tch! Fight me if you are alive! I’m here! Send down lightning or something!

And the chatroom exploded.

Guest3581: SH*T!!

Guest624124: Old man, are you crazy?!

Slasherking’s taunts continued for a while. It was so fierce and grand that the ‘guests’ even believed it was proof of Big Brother’s non-existence. And after a while…

[Slasherking is banned from chat for 10 minutes due to excessive use of violent language.]

Many followed up with words like ‘LOL’ or ‘LMAO’. Chunghuh looked at those messages for a while and turned off the network with a scoff.

“Hah, what a useless bunch.”

He then yawned in a relaxed manner as he laid back.

“It’s a good day.”

He was lying down on a net hammock installed outside of Edmunt fortress to enjoy surfing through the Little Brother network. He then smiled as he heard Followers walking below the fortress. Chunghuh was killing time while glancing at the female followers passing by.

He did not look for anyone, nor did anyone come for him.

It had been three months since he killed time like this. Three months. It didn’t feel too long for him. Maybe it was because it was peace found after a long time.

He wanted to stay lazy for a while. People wanted time to themselves.

Maybe it was okay to say that he had lost his purpose. Chunghuh now was very different from the Chunghuh when he had reached the <Depth>. The Depth Expedition Team had lost its purpose. They did not have to gain access to the [Fruits].

He could always return to <Chaos> with the [Fruits], but the problem was after that. The [Fruits] the people used to know about wasn’t the key to bring back life. It was only a guaranteed passageway to the <Great Lands>. With the <Great Lands> revealed as one of the sites, there were no more fantasies towards ‘real life’. And Chunghuh had the duty to explain this to the people in <Chaos>.

But how could he? How could he tell them that the life they had longed for was all but a lie and their miserable life was actually real?

The truth was always right. But if that truth would destroy the people, maybe it needed to be hidden. It was better for them to live without knowing the truth, yearning for a ‘real life’ that did not exist. And besides, <Chaos> was a much better place to live in now.

“Ugh, it’s giving me a headache.”

Chunghuh frowned as he looked up into the sky. Then he noticed a small white bird flying toward him. It was a message sent by the Council. He received the message and read it.

“…What are they up to?”

The Council was the governing organization of the <Depth> now. It was an organization that Surha created after Rupture fell. However, it wasn’t an organization to create a new form of power.

A year after the ‘Fall of a star’-

There had been many changes in <Depth>. The largest change was the ranking of the Gods. The Council implemented mandatory participation of work for Followers, which changed the ranking of the Gods. The former rank was due to the world power of each God, and now they were ranked according to the rating of happiness of the Followers. If Followers were given better lives and became happier, it raised the rank of that God.

And that was not the end.

Followers were no longer bound by one unique world. They were given the choice of any unique world and were able to leave at will. There were people who were now developing unique [Settings] together with their Gods.

It was a success of the ‘Follower-based’ system.

Some Gods were opposed to such a decision, but the Council’s enforcement made all the Gods of <Depth> agree to the new system. And this included the Gods within the Council as well.

“Nngh. So, it’s evaluation time already.”

Chunghuh frowned.

Rank Evaluation.

It was a bi-yearly event after it started a year ago. If a happiness rating fell beneath the required level, the God was penalized. And Chunghuh was one who was penalized last time because of it. The female Followers of Chunghuh’s [Moorim] had reported him for his [Setting].

-How can you have such a world now?! A [Polygamy] setting?! Are you out of your mind? Your world power increases the more wives you have?!

And because of that incident, Chunghuh lost many female Followers and now his male Followers were complaining. He might even be pushed down to middle-ranking God after this evaluation.

‘Ugh, damn Surha and her policies… Well, I guess I can pay her a visit anyway.’

Chunghuh stretched as he got up from the hammock. As he looked at the clear empty sky, he remembered Jaehwan. It has been months since he had seen Jaehwan.

‘I wonder where he went off to?’

Jaehwan was still in <Depth> even after a year. Chunghuh didn’t know what made Jaehwan stay when he was always moving. He couldn’t ask. Maybe Chunghuh was afraid to ask.

They were tired.

They still knew that Big Brother was out there. But as Myad and Gerome spoke, Big Brother was a being with no certainty. No one knew about Big Brother even when everyone talked about it.

And maybe because of that, Chunghuh thought it might be better for Jaehwan to give up