I’m a Young God, Won’t You Raise Me?

It took me a moment to remember, as if I had to retrieve that forgotten memory from the depths of my mind.

It had been far too long since I had last thought about it.

‘Maybe I really have seen him…’

To be more precise, it wasn’t that we had known each other, but that there was a possibility he knew me.

‘But that doesn’t make any sense.’

It had happened a very long time ago.

And I wasn’t someone who had left a memorable impression.

Someone like the Chairman of the Cheongang Group would be surrounded by extraordinary people.

He had no reason to remember me, nor the time to do so.

He was someone who stood at a height far beyond my reach.

“If that is your wish, Mr. Han Goyo, I will arrange a meeting with the Chairman of the Cheongang Group.”

“With… the Chairman?”

“Yes.”

Samra looked at me as though he didn’t understand what the problem was.

Could I really meet the Chairman of one of the country’s largest conglomerates simply because I wanted to?

I didn’t know whether it was thanks to the authority of the Trial Response Agency or Samra himself, but I was completely bewildered.

In any case, I needed Proper Appearance.

It was an item that would be tremendously helpful in Clean! Clean! Clean!

Back when I used to play that Trial, I had thought countless times,

‘I wish I had Proper Appearance.’

I finally made my decision.

“I want to meet him.”

“Understood.”

Samra stared into empty space for a few moments.

He seemed to be contacting someone.

The light in his holographic pupils glowed softly.

As I watched him, a question suddenly came to mind.

‘How does he go outside?’

He would probably cover himself up completely like Lieutenant Colonel Je did.

But even with protective goggles, there was still the problem of his hair.

To completely conceal the holographic light, he would have to wrap his head in something like a cloth.

While I wasted time on such pointless thoughts, Samra finished the call.

“In two days. Lunch at twelve.”

“…Can you really arrange an appointment with the Chairman that easily?”

“Why not?”

It seemed my reaction was what he didn’t understand.

“At this moment, there is no one in South Korea more important than Mr. Han Goyo.”

Hearing him naturally place me above the Chairman of the Cheongang Group, I could only smile awkwardly.

Samra was probably the only person who thought that way.

After confirming the meeting, he looked at me once again.

“How are you feeling physically?”

“I’m fine.”

Samra knew all of my biometric data.

He probably knew my condition better than I did.

As expected, the real question came next.

“I would like to know why you chose to approach the Trial in such a reckless manner.”

There was no point in lying to him, so I answered honestly.

“I wanted to become the greatest contributor. I wanted to prove to the Trial Response Agency that I’m necessary.”

“Was my testimony not enough?”

“No, that’s not it. Thanks to you, I was able to become a recruit… I just… wanted to make absolutely sure. It was purely my own ambition.”

As I hurriedly tried to justify myself, Samra watched me without blinking even once.

There was a silent reproach in that inhuman gaze.

Even before entering Dead Zone Delivery, Samra had made the priority perfectly clear to me.

“At this moment, Mr. Han Goyo is a unique and irreplaceable existence.”

Remembering those words, I put on the most remorseful expression I could manage.

“I’ll be more careful from now on.”

Samra continued looking at me for a few more seconds.

Fortunately, he decided to change the subject.

“There is something I need to confirm regarding the items you obtained.”

I waited attentively, ready to cooperate.

“It is not possible to extract the items you obtained. Is this an ability unique to you?”

“…Excuse me?”

It was a completely incomprehensible question.

Extract items?

I had never heard of such a thing.

Seeing my bewildered expression, Samra immediately realized I knew nothing about it and began explaining.

“The Trial Response Agency extracts the items obtained by its Awakened when they complete a Trial.”

It was completely new information.

‘Extract…?’

How exactly did they do that?

The word itself made me feel somewhat uncomfortable.

Although, if the items became state property because they belonged to military personnel, I could understand it.

‘Even so, if they obtain a good item, I suppose they receive some kind of reward.’

After all, Lieutenant Colonel Je and the Captains risked their lives every time they entered a Trial.

It would only be logical for there to be some kind of compensation.

Once my initial discomfort faded, another question came to mind.

It was strange that I knew nothing about this.

While playing Archive World, I had gathered all kinds of information.

I even knew numerous secrets that could be considered classified.

It made no sense for me to be ignorant of something so basic that even an administrative employee of the Trial Response Agency would know.

Even assuming the Developer had deliberately hidden that information, the reason still wasn’t clear.

‘Hide it from the player because it was a negative aspect? But why?’

It didn’t seem sufficient as a strategy to keep players engaged.

“I knew absolutely nothing about extraction. Likewise, I don’t know why the items I obtained can’t be extracted.”

Samra’s pupils expanded before contracting again.

Based on my physical reactions, he seemed to have concluded that I was telling the truth.

“When (Happy Smile Factory) was completed, the extraction failed. We attempted a second extraction, but Director Han Jiwol requested that it be suspended in order to collect physiological data, and I agreed.”

And when they attempted to extract the items after completing (Dead Zone Delivery), it failed as well.

It was something I had been completely unaware of.

It had probably happened while I was still unconscious.

After finishing his explanation, Samra asked,

“Could you show me the items you obtained?”

Perfect.

I thought it was a good opportunity to ask him to listen to the music.

I took the small candy and the portable music player, with its wired earphones carefully wrapped around it, out of my inventory and handed them to him.

“Happy Smile Candy and a Portable Music Player.”

However, upon receiving them, Samra wore a strange expression.

“These…”

He looked at me as though he couldn’t believe it.

“They are bound items.”

Items obtained as rewards for completing a Trial would sometimes become bound to an Awakened.

When that happened, only that Awakened could use them.

However, such cases were extremely rare; only a handful had ever been documented worldwide.

And every item I had obtained belonged to that category.

Two in a row.

Unlike me, who was bewildered, Samra seemed to grow increasingly interested.

“There should be no connection between completing a True Ending and an item becoming bound. What kind of items are they?”

“Ah… well…”

Somewhat embarrassed, I read the descriptions aloud.

“A candy that makes the person who eats it feel happy and smile, and a music player containing a cassette with 666 cheerful songs. According to the description, listening to the music makes you feel happy.”

I was just about to try convincing him that the items could be useful, before he concluded that I had brought back nothing but useless junk.

But I stopped.

Samra’s eyes were shining intensely.

So intensely that the small room seemed to be completely illuminated.

“Samra, could you lower the brightness of your eyes a little…?”

I almost had to close my own because of the intensity of the light.

Samra blinked for the first time since entering the room, and the glow returned to normal.

“This is the first time an item capable of affecting emotions has appeared. It undoubtedly has some significance.”

After carefully examining both items for a while, he returned them to me.

After all, they were bound to me.

And there was also the possibility that I would have to use them inside a Trial.

In return, I promised to provide him with any information I discovered once I used them.

“Also, regarding the creator, we have located a user who watched his broadcasts and played the game.”

“…!”

That truly caught me by surprise.

If my eyes emitted light as well, they probably would have shone just as brightly.

“However, this person is extremely difficult to obtain testimony from, so we are exploring various methods.”

They could arrange a lunch with the Chairman of the Cheongang Group, yet they couldn’t manage to speak with this person?

Who in the world was this person for even Samra to say it was difficult?

Even so, I was convinced that even if I asked, he wouldn’t tell me.

‘If he could tell me, he would have already done so.’

So I decided not to press the matter.

Samra then asked whether I needed anything else.

I replied that I didn’t.

I simply took the opportunity to make one request.

When they gave me a mobile phone, I wanted him to prevent my MTube algorithm from recommending AI-generated videos.

I sometimes watched animal videos to pass the time, but lately almost all of them were fake.

After saying goodbye to him, I remained alone in the room, staring at the closed door.

‘Isn’t he going to ask about my eyes?’

Samra never once mentioned the change in my eye color that had occurred inside the Trial.

I didn’t know whether he had simply decided not to bring it up or whether those who had entered with me had never reported it.

As for me, I had no interest in stirring up a hornet’s nest.

So I remained silent.

‘I’d better get some rest.’

Right now, recovering was the most important thing.

***

Until the day of my lunch with the Chairman of the Cheongang Group, Han Jiwol appeared in my room several times.

Fortunately, every time, Samra found a different and surprisingly effective way to drive her away.

Sometimes the door would lock automatically.

Other times, an urgent call for the Director would come over the speakers.

Thanks to that, I was able to focus on recovering without losing a single additional gram of fingernails.

On the day of the appointment, Samra came to pick me up.

I had already changed into the civilian clothes they had provided.

The moment I saw him, my eyes widened.

He was wearing a light-colored suit.

Both his hair and his eyes were beige.

Even now he still stood out, but compared to the usual colors of his hologram, he looked like a model student.

“How did you do that?”

Samra smiled faintly at my reaction.

“I used an item.”

“Wow…”

I had an overwhelming urge to ask him which Trial he had obtained it from and exactly what kind of item it was.

But I restrained myself.

“Lieutenant Colonel Je also possesses a similar item.”

That only made me even more curious.

Even so, I didn’t ask.

There was another person from the Trial Response Agency accompanying us.

It could have been classified information.

We arrived in a black sedan at a place that made me feel an overwhelming sense of pressure.

“Uh… are we having lunch… at the Chairman of the Cheongang Group’s residence?”

“That’s right.”

While Samra saw no problem with it, I stared at the enormous mansion in Hannam-dong.

I had imagined something much simpler.

I thought we would eat in a private room at a traditional restaurant, like in TV dramas.

I had never imagined a situation that was far more intimidating.

As I stood frozen in front of the gate.

A large van, the kind celebrities usually rode in, came to a smooth stop.

The door opened.

And the first thing I heard was an irritated voice.

“What kind of charity event is Grandma trying to put together this time?”

A woman in a suit stepped out first.

Then another strikingly beautiful woman got out, frowning in obvious annoyance.

It was Kang Byeokrin.

The great-granddaughter of the Chairman of the Cheongang Group.

She was well known even among ordinary people.

Her extraordinary beauty had made her a genuine social media celebrity.

Although I also knew she wasn’t exactly kind-hearted.

“I already told you I’m not going to associate with ordinary people!”

…That definitely seemed to be true.

“If you hire mediocre people, you’ll get mediocre results. I’m already in a bad enough mood lately without Grandma making me…”

Suddenly, Kang Byeokrin stopped mid-sentence.

She had just noticed Samra and me standing in front of the gate.

I tried to greet her first.

But I never got the chance.

For some reason, Kang Byeokrin was staring at me as if she had just suffered a devastating shock.

Not even running into Lieutenant Colonel Je in the middle of the night would have produced such a stunned expression.

She stood frozen, staring at me as though she had lost her soul.

Then she suddenly shouted,

“W-wait! Just a moment! My clothes! I’m going to change! I’ll be right back! No, actually, come in! Director Woo, please escort them!”

The next instant, she ran into the house.

I stood there motionless and looked at Samra.

I tried to convey with my eyes,

‘This hasn’t all fallen apart, has it?’

But Samra simply replied with a meaningful smile.

“Everything is proceeding as planned.”

***

Kang Byeokrin raced up the stairs.

Normally, she took the elevator to the third floor, where her room was.

But the thought never even crossed her mind.

She sprinted up all three flights in one go.

Breathing heavily, she reached the door of the room at the very end of the hallway.

Neither the cleaning staff nor even Director Woo were allowed to enter it freely.

With trembling hands, she grasped the doorknob.

The door slowly opened.

The room inside was revealed.

It was filled with posters, photographs, photocards, plush dolls, and all kinds of official and unofficial merchandise.

Every single item belonged to one person.

Although there weren’t many different kinds of merchandise, there were enough duplicates to completely fill the enormous room.

Standing before a display case where the same item was repeated dozens of times, Kang Byeokrin staggered closer.

“M-my goodness…”

Her face completely red, she murmured,

“What is Goyo doing in my house…?”

Kang Byeokrin was a fan of the professional gamer Goyo.