Chapter 45: “……You should’ve done better when you were alive, you damn bastards!!!”

“…You should’ve treated me better while I was alive, you bastards!!!”

It’s unexpectedly heartwarming to know that people still remember me even after I’m dead.

Normally, this kind of thing is something you can only imagine, right?

Once you die, you just cease to exist.
No one would ever get to see the future after a bad ending, let alone experience something like TS and witness what happens next, like I have.

If someone else out there has gone through the same thing as me, I believe they’ll reach out after watching my stream someday.

And if that ever happens, I’d love to have a deep discussion with them about what I’m feeling right now.

Because honestly, I can’t even put it into words.
This feeling.

When I visited my old home—my former family house, which isn’t my home anymore—during the weekdays this week.
And when I laid Ilyna down in my old room after she got knocked out from a gut punch.

There wasn’t a single speck of dust in that room.
Even though two months had passed since that day.

It was as if someone had been cleaning it every single day, without fail.
As if they were firmly convinced that I would return one day.

Even though they had seen my body with their own eyes at the funeral.
I wonder what kind of thoughts they had while doing that.

That was the moment when I felt the most unsettled.
That’s why I left immediately that day.

Honestly,
I didn’t want to leave Ilyna behind at my old home, where only my parents remained without their son or daughter.
Especially when she insisted on staying until the weekend.

But I had no choice.
Ever since I TS’d, my tear ducts have become ridiculously weak.

Not that I spent the whole time quietly sniffling or anything.

It was reassuring to see my parents still doing well,
Still being themselves,
And not falling into the same kind of despair as Ilyna, who’s been tormented by nightmares of regret every night.

If anything, I felt relieved.

Yeah.

Honestly, it was the same with my little sister and Ilyna.
Even when they looked like they were struggling,
I couldn’t deny that part of me was happy about it.

Because being remembered is something to be happy about.

Though, unlike my parents, most of my thoughts were just,
“You should’ve treated me better while I was around~!”

But still, just the fact that they remember me makes me happy. ♡

“Huh? Really? Didn’t you say not much was coming in, sis?”
“Well… Looks like a lot of women couldn’t come to terms with the fact that he died, so they struggled to move on… But after two months, it seems like they’ve finally started accepting it.”
“Ugh…!! You lucky bastard…! He’s dead!! If he weren’t, I’d have killed him myself!!”

Except for that goddamn statue.

“…Damn it. I was supposed to kill you… I wanted to kill you myself, you bastard… Why’d you have to go first… You little shit… The macro you made to farm in-game currency is still running because no one knows how to turn it off… The devs have tried everything, but they can’t fix it, so they just gave up… Haaah~.”
“Hyung… We all know you were born and raised in Seoul, so stop with the cringe fake dialect… Without senpai around… Who’s gonna stop Kwak Youngjin from losing his shit now…? sniff… Haaah~.”
“Hyunah, are you crying? Wow… You didn’t even shed a tear in front of others… You held it in even at the funeral… And now you’re finally breaking down… Haaah~.”

Why the hell are they all looking up at my statue with such bittersweet expressions while chain-smoking?!!

Why are you smoking non-stop?!!

Get back inside and do your research, you dumbasses!!!

And you three—
You guys always gave me crap for barely doing any real research!!

You always teamed up against me because you knew you couldn’t win in an argument one-on-one,
And made fun of me for being a “smoker trash”!!

I was already half-worried and half-doubtful about how the lab was running in the two months since I died…!

But a statue?! That never even crossed my mind!!

And it doesn’t even look like me…!
I wasn’t that good-looking!!
Just how much did they beautify it?!

On top of that, putting a smoking area right under my statue…

No, you absolute dipshits, I really wasn’t planning on saying something this political,
But what am I, the freaking president?!

You all treated me like trash while I was alive,
But the moment I die, you’re showering me with respect—just like that?!

“…You should’ve treated me better while I was alive, you bastards!!!”

In the end, I couldn’t hold it in and shouted at my own statue in my full-on middle school girl voice.

Because if I didn’t let out this ridiculous feeling somehow,
I felt like I was going to explode from sheer frustration.

“Huh?”
“Hm?”
“…Eh?”

―Rustle!

One guy and two girls.
All three of my former colleagues turned their heads toward me at the same time.

It was eerily similar to when my little sister looked at me in the apartment garden back at my old home.

Even though my voice and gender were different,
It was as if they recognized me just from my speech patterns and tone…

“Wait…? Gasp!!”
“Whoa! Wh-What the hell?!!”
“Holy shit, is… is that really her?!!”

…No, that wasn’t it.

“Sh-Shizuko-chan?!!”
“Wait, is that really the Shizuko…?!”
“Didn’t she say on stream that she got into KAIST…?! She actually came here?!!”

It was just because they were all avid viewers of my stream…

…Those assholes definitely spent more time watching my broadcasts than doing actual research.

—I’m screwed… —I definitely failed this… —I hate stress interviews…

All that remained in my mind were the backs of numerous test-takers muttering their despair.

“Hmph… Even when ripened, I am still a cho☆genius♡middle school girl…”

At that moment, Professor Jin Joong-Geon’s mind was filled only with the real-life image of Amae Shizuko.

“…And to think she made a woman who’s obviously older than her call her ‘oppa’… I never saw that coming. For this alone, I must acknowledge her as a cho☆genius♡middle school girl—”

—Ring, ring!

Just then, Professor Jin Joong-Geon’s smartphone rang. A phone covered in Amae Shizuko stickers, plastered all over it.

The screen displayed an incoming call from “Nicola Trapson (Imperial College)” in English.

Reading it out loud, “Nicola Trapson.” A perverted gentleman professor from Imperial College London, specializing in quantum information theory.

“…Hmph, it’s that LoliQuantum guy.”

If “LoliQuantum” existed in Imperial College London, Then KAIST in Korea had “WakyaPyahakNongJjukBangTn Professor.”

“What’s the matter, Professor Nicola Trapson?”

Professor Jin Joong-Geon answered the call immediately, responding in flawless English without hesitation.

—Kuhuhu, so here’s the thing. I’ll be heading to Korea soon… to KAIST, actually, for a seminar.

As expected, he skipped introductions and pleasantries, jumping straight into the main topic. That guy had a bizarre rule—he never exchanged greetings unless he truly acknowledged the other person.

Apparently, that was what he called the “dignity of a gentleman.”

—Even though the sun has now set, and we have handed over global hegemony to America, —I hope you won’t forget that the great British Empire’s achievements still remain all over the world… Kuhuhu… —…Yes! The absurdities of this world…! If you trace them back far enough, they all inevitably lead to the British Empire! Khahahaha!

“Haaah…”

Dignity, my ass.

Professor Jin Joong-Geon knew very well that Nicola Trapson was an idiot. It wasn’t a recent revelation.

“…If you’re just going to keep rambling on about the British Empire, why don’t you go to Africa and do it there? I’m busy, Nicola Trapson.”

He wasn’t lying. He had just finished conducting the morning interview session for Group A.

As soon as this lunch break ended, he had to continue with Group B’s interviews until evening. And after that, he had a so-called “interview” with none other than that cho☆genius♡middle school girl.

‘…She already passed the first-round document screening in an instant, so what exactly does she want to talk about that she summoned all the quantum professors and made it mandatory for us to attend?’

There were a few possible answers.

It was either about her, Or about the person she referred to as her “master.”

…The physics graduate student from this school who had tragically passed away two months ago.

Her connection with him.

‘…But knowing her personality—something I have analyzed, dissected, and modeled from every possible angle, whether awake or dreaming, for 24 hours a day, 1080 degrees around—’

There was at least a 69% to 74% probability that she would deliberately bring up a completely unrelated topic instead. If it was Amae Shizuko, she would absolutely do that.

—Hey~ hey, Professor Jin. Kuhuhu… —I can tell exactly what you’re thinking and who you’re thinking about… It’s written all over your obvious face.

“…This is just a phone call, Professor Nicola Trapson.”

Not a video call.

—Kuhuhu…

But that didn’t matter in the slightest to the LoliQuantum professor. Rather, he seemed to have been waiting for Jin Joong-Geon to say that, as he blatantly declared:

—…My Lovely Loli Jap! Amae Shizuko! I’ve already acquired information that she is near the KAIST main campus interview site today…! Kuhuhu…!”