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Chapter 304:
Chapter 304:
Chapter 304:
Even though there were various opinions and most of them had the same idea, the final decision maker for the most important issue was the president, Lotfiout.
It was the rule of the headquarters that if Lotfiout said he would do it, it would be done regardless of everyone else’s opposition.
That’s why all the tellers who had been arguing fiercely until now were nervous about what the president would say.
Lotfiout opened his mouth with a staff in his hand.
“According to the strict law of the headquarters, anyone who makes up a story with lies should be thrown into the disposal bin.”
“That’s…!”
Celestina tried to stand up and shout something, but Lotfiout silenced her with a light glance.
Celestina sat down on her seat as if she collapsed.
She felt her heart being squeezed just by meeting the president’s eyes for a moment.
“Listen to the end. It was indeed a matter that deserved to be thrown into the disposal bin. But I want to ask this. Is the legend of success that Deputy Director Kang Yu-hyun has achieved so far, something that can be made by manipulation?”“…”
“…”
No one could answer rashly.
The president’s words had absolute power in this place, and no one even thought of contradicting him.
“I have doubts. There is also evidence that he used Laplace’s power. But that’s not enough. Yes. It’s not enough. If he came this far with just that, it would be a problem for all of us, not just Deputy Director Kang Yu-hyun.”
“Ch, Chairman…”
“We should have banned Laplace from the beginning, or imposed some restrictions on it. Or we should have prohibited or added some clauses to receiving gifts from other Divine Spirits. After all, succeeding with Laplace’s power is also close to Deputy Director Kang Yu-hyun’s own ability.”
“…”
“So listen. I, Lotfiout, declare this here.”
The atmosphere changed.
All the arrows of language that were aimed at Yu-hyun were sucked into one side as if the space was twisted.
They were all directed at the one who had the most gigantic presence in this place.
Words and language, all the power was controlled and moved by one person.
Its essence changed.
“I will give Deputy Director Kang Yu-hyun one more chance.”
Some tellers gasped at his words.
Giving him a chance was tantamount to forgiving him.
Demiarios’ expression was about to crumple mercilessly, but his complexion changed at the president’s next words.
“He has to prove whether his success was fabricated or achieved by his own power. On the planet ‘Glacalis’, that is.”
As soon as Glacalis came out of the president’s mouth, the storm that had been swirling changed its direction.
Demiarios smiled and relaxed his scowling expression, and Galiaz kicked his chair and stood up from his seat.
“Chairman! Isn’t that practically exile!”
No one in this place didn’t know the weight of Glacalis’ name.
Lotfiout said he would give Yu-hyun a chance, but Glacalis was far from a land of opportunity.
The other name for Glacalis in Celestial Corporation was exile.
A world of extreme cold where even stories were frozen and no emotion could be shown.
That was where Yu-hyun had to go.
Not just going there, but to go to Glacalis, a teller had to put down most of the stories he had.
Yu-hyun’s pride, Laplace’s power, could not be used there either.
The only things he could take were a very few stories and some stories that were given to him as he went there.
Galiaz shouted that it was unfair because of that.
Glacalis was no different from sending him to die.
It was more painful to die slowly in that frozen world than to die quickly in the disposal bin.
“There is no change in the decision.”
Lotfiout’s eyes turned to Yu-hyun.
“If you really achieved everything with your own ability so far, you will surely succeed in Glacalis as well. So this is not a punishment. It’s giving you one more chance. Deputy Director Kang Yu-hyun. Can you prove your worth there?”
Everyone’s eyes turned to Yu-hyun.
Galiaz sent him a desperate look, begging him not to answer.
He should kneel down and beg instead, because once he went to Glacalis, there was no turning back.
Yu-hyun read his mind of worrying about him.
That’s why.
“I will.”
He answered with an unwavering and confident voice.
Exclamations popped up everywhere.
Most of the emotions mixed in them were negative.
“Huh. I thought he was a smart guy.”
“Is he intoxicated by his success? He’s delusional that he can do anything in that exile.”
“Tsk tsk. In the end, this was all he could do.”
They all scoffed at Yu-hyun’s choice.
He shouted that he would do it bravely, but Glacalis was not an easy place.
Even if they sent the executive-level tellers who were gathered here to that place, they would not last long and die there.
It didn’t matter how many stories they had collected so far.
They had to let go of everything they had. No matter how amazing those stories were.
It was not like being dropped in the middle of a deserted island with only a dagger and some emergency rations.
It was more like being thrown into a hell of scorching heat with just an ice pack.
And they expected him to show them a story in that place.
How could he show them a story when he was barely surviving in that horrible world? And who would want to see the story of such a remote world?
But Yu-hyun did not refuse. He said he had been waiting for that offer and agreed to do it.
The other tellers might not know, but Lotfiut could feel it.
‘Arrogance? No. He is different from those fools who are intoxicated by their own abilities.’
Is it just a bluff? Or does he really have the confidence to do it?
Lotfiut tried to read Yu-hyun’s mind, but soon shook his head and realized there was no need.
He had made his choice, and now he had no choice but to head to Glacalis.
The decision that had been made could not be reversed.
***
The news of Kang Yu-hyun’s exile shook the Celestial Corporation.
“What? Why did that kid go to the exile planet? Don’t make me laugh!”
Alisha, who considered Yu-hyun as her rival, shouted angrily at her colleague who brought her the news.
She had only heard that Yu-hyun was promoted to deputy manager today, but she didn’t know what happened after that.
What’s the problem? And why did he go to Glacalis, the planet that everyone shunned?
This was a frame-up.
It had to be a frame-up.
He couldn’t have done anything wrong. Because she acknowledged him as her rival. Because he was the goal she vowed to surpass.
‘Damn it. Kang Yu-hyun. What the hell happened?’
Alisha bit her lip as she faced all kinds of absurd rumors around her.
***
“What?! Yu, Yu-hyun?”
“Say that again!”
The news that Celine brought turned White Flower Management upside down.
Seo Su Min glared at Celine with wide eyes. An uncontrollable rage emanated from her body.
Celine said calmly without changing her expression.
“Senior. Deputy Director Kang Yu-hyun was exiled after the headquarters meeting.”
“Why on earth!”
“I don’t know. I wasn’t there, so I didn’t hear what happened. I can’t know either. It was a meeting room where only managers and above were gathered. There were several directors, and even the chairman showed up.”
Everyone closed their mouths at the mention of the chairman.
“The chairman is the absolute authority of the company. He made that decision, and the deputy director accepted it.”
“The details are… unknown?”
“We were ordered not to mention this matter. We can only guess what happened, but no one knows the truth except those who were there.”
“Why, why…”
Kang Hye-rim’s eyes lost their light.
She couldn’t finish her sentence, and Kwon Jia held her hand as if she was worried about her.
“He’ll come back, right? If it’s Yu-hyun, he’ll come back, right?”
“I can’t be sure of that either.”
“Why? Why can’t he come back?”
“Do you know what kind of place Glacalis is?”
No one could answer that question.
Kwon Jia didn’t know exactly what kind of place Glacalis was either.
It was a world that had nothing to do with her unless she was a teller.
Seo Sumin and Yu Young Min had nothing to say either.
“Glacalis is a frozen world. Everything is covered under cold snow. Even stories.”
“There’s such a world?”
“They say it wasn’t like that originally. I don’t know the details either, but something happened and the world was literally covered with ice. Almost all the living creatures in that world died too. But still, the lifeline hasn’t been cut off, and there are a few survivors left.”
“What does Celestial Corporation want from that world…?”
“What we tellers want from there is one thing: story-showing. They want us to show them stories somehow in that place. The company should have given up on that place and let go of it, but strangely, the chairman keeps holding on to it for some reason…”
“Story-showing in such a place? Is that possible?”
“Of course not. That’s why it’s called an exile planet. There’s no teller who went there and came back. It’s not just because it’s a difficult environment for story-showing. The headquarters gave up on Glacalis from the start. To go there, you have to leave most of the stories you have and go with just your body.”
That’s why it was called an exile planet.
You had to give up everything you had, and go there naked and survive to show them stories.
But if you can’t show them a proper story, you end up dying as a price for losing the stories you need to survive.
The word exile was just a nice way of wrapping it up.
It was practically hell.
“He went to that place…”
“Why did you bother to tell us that? You’re not trying to make fun of us, are you?”
Kwon Jia was the only one who judged the situation rationally in this situation.
No. She said that, but she was also on the verge of exploding.
She was just desperately suppressing her emotions.
‘I can’t break down here.’
More than anything, Kwon Jia had a vague feeling that something like this would happen from Yu-hyun’s attitude when he gave her the bracelet.
All the miracles that he had shown so far were not just due to luck.
Kang Yu-hyun had acted meticulously, thinking of all the possible scenarios and preparing for any unforeseen events.
Maybe even now, he was doing the same.
“You’re sharp. As Collector Kwon Jia said, I came here not because I saw the situation in a bad light. Actually, I was also shocked at first, but when I thought about how you had acted before, something bothered me.”
“What bothered you?”
“I got promoted to assistant manager. And I had a chance to move to the art department. You even supported me in that. But, ever since I was in the support department, you refused to give back some of the authority of the library that you had transferred to me. As if you knew this would happen.”
“What?”
“You have to give up most of the stories and the authority of the library because of this incident. And the stories and the authority of the library that have no owner will be retrieved by the headquarters. Yes. If there is no owner, that is.”
Celine had Yu-hyun’s library authority now.
That meant that Celine was the second owner of the library now that Yu-hyun was gone.
“You knew this would happen and you did it? The library is one thing, but what about the stories?”
“You gave me the authority of the library, but I don’t think you would leave the stories alone.”
“Could it be…!”
Kwon Jiah felt her bracelet on her right wrist.
Kang Hye-rim, Seo Sumin, and Yoo Young-min did the same.
At the same time, a bright light flowed from their bracelets and white stories popped out and filled the space.
“Oh my.”
Kang Hye-rim couldn’t close her mouth as she saw those stories.
The others were no different.
Yu-hyun had given them all the bracelets that were made into fragments, along with the stories he had.
As if he had arranged it for this situation.
***
“You’re saying there’s not a single story to retrieve?”
“As you can see.”
Yu-hyun raised his arms and claimed that he was penniless.
The inspectors who were escorting him to exile looked embarrassed.
The field leader, Garas, who belonged to the inspection department, frowned.
He looked at Yu-hyun as if he wanted to eat him alive with his crocodile head.
“Don’t lie! You’re saying you don’t have any stories or points right now? You want me to believe that?”
“Why don’t you check it yourself?”
“You…you can’t get away with that.”
“I didn’t get away with anything. I just transferred the ownership.”
“Transferred…? Don’t tell me, you gave them all to the collectors?”
Garas clenched his fist as if he couldn’t believe it.
Normally, he should have retrieved the stories and points that Yu-hyun had before sending him to exile.
He also planned to ‘discreetly’ take some of them for himself as the field leader.
But Yu-hyun was empty-handed now.
No, not empty-handed.
‘He has one thing: a worthless story like concentration of will? Are you kidding me?’
It was like a millionaire carrying a 10-cent coin in his wallet.
If he had secretly hidden them somewhere else, he could have retrieved them through the system’s tracking, but if he had transferred the ownership itself, it was impossible.
Even taking that pathetic story that Yu-hyun had would not be worth it.
It would only make his image worse.
“Fine. Whatever. It doesn’t matter anyway. You’re going to die there.”
Yu-hyun only smiled and said nothing.
Garas thought he was bluffing.
He thought he must be scared to death and want to cry inside.
He was sorry that he couldn’t take Yu-hyun’s stories, but he decided to be satisfied with seeing him die.
“Go ahead, live well.”
As soon as he said that, a huge system power pulled Yu-hyun into another world.
[You are moving to Glacalis.]
[Analyzing your stories. There are no stories to filter out. Your status remains unchanged.]
[You are given a ‘body’. A story suitable for your body is given.]
‘Body?’
Yu-hyun felt his body being pulled and focused on the word ‘body’.
Glacalis didn’t just send him away.
It also gave him some minimal benefits so that he could adapt there somehow.
It wasn’t really a benefit, but it was better than nothing.
But since no one who left here ever came back, no one knew what those benefits were.
‘It doesn’t matter anyway. What’s important to me right now is not what my body is.’
[You have arrived at Glacalis.]
After crossing several dimensions and floating in the air, his flesh landed on the ground.
‘This is…’
Yu-hyun couldn’t finish his sentence as he saw the scenery around him.
Everything was frozen and cold, blue and white.
As if that wasn’t enough, the sky was full of dark clouds and snow was pouring down endlessly.
He had expected something like this for a frozen world, but he was still surprised when he checked his body condition.
“Wha, what?”
His voice was thin and his hair flowed over his shoulders.
He looked at his right hand and saw not his usual rough hand, but a white and slender jade-like hand.
“My body is…a woman?”