Chapter 5 : Shell, Mimic (3)

It felt like something important that could affect my life had just passed, but I shut off my thoughts and ignored the noise around me.

Right now, something more important was at hand: paper crafting.

Because of the commotion earlier, I had to stop in the middle, and now the Eiffel Tower I was making lay half-finished and messy on the

desk.

“How much time do I have left?”

I glanced at the wall clock just in case. About 30 minutes before kindergarten ended.

I hurriedly grabbed paper and scissors.

Snip snip— chop chop—

Maybe 10 minutes passed like that. Then I felt someone staring hard at me, like they were burning a hole through my face. I looked up, and

there she was again—the girl sitting next to me, still staring blankly.

She had this unamused expression.

I had said “no” when she asked to play with me earlier. Since then, she had frozen up in that position.

She looked calm and expressionless, like she was fine, but I wasn’t fooled. I knew that look. I had made the exact same face before—like when

there was no meat dish on the dinner table as a kid. I wanted to complain but didn’t dare yell at Mom, so I pouted just enough to get my

feelings across.

Could “Concepts” even act like that? I wasn’t sure.

“Should I just ignore her and keep folding paper?”

She’s not even alive. She’s an inanimate object. I hypnotized myself and lifted the scissors—then stopped.

“ here. Take it.”

Even if it’s meaningless to count her age, she still looks like a child. Seeing her sit there all sad made it hard for me to ignore her. I have an

adult’s mind, after all.

We hadn’t spent a lot of time together, but she didn’t seem like a bad concept.

The girl tilted her head when I held out the colorful origami paper. She didn’t understand why I was giving it to her.

After a few motions of my hand to say “take it,” she finally accepted it.

“What’s this…?”

“Huh? You don’t know what this is?”

She looked confused while holding the paper.

Maybe she was newly born or something, because she didn’t know basic things like this. I couldn’t help but smile.

“Oh, that’s—”

I glanced at the paper she was holding and explained:

“It’s called colored paper. Since it’s paper with color, it’s called ‘colored paper.’”

She looked like she still didn’t get it.

I was about to explain again, even licking my lips to speak more clearly, but then she suddenly interrupted.

“Colored paper. According to the autobiography of American paper scholar Dard Hunter, ‘Koreans were the first people in the world to use

colored paper made by dyeing fibers, the raw material of paper, with natural dyes.’ The first mass production of Korean colored paper began

in 1972, by a paper manufacturing company. Types of colored paper: single-sided, double-sided, patterned, metallic, and glow-in-the-dark.

Standard size is 15x15cm—”

“Okay, stop!”

I cut her off mid-sentence, shocked.

She tilted her head, puzzled by my reaction. Then she gently placed the paper back on the desk.

“So it started in our country…”

I felt discouraged and picked up the scissors again.

“This is how you do paper crafting… You cut the paper like this, and then stick it on the white paper.”

I showed her how I was cutting and sticking pieces onto a sheet.

Even though it was only the base, the Eiffel Tower had some nice details.

Its grand look perked up my drooping shoulders.

Come to think of it, knowledge wasn’t that important. Computers can store and share information. What matters is creativity. That’s

something only humans have—something no machine can truly replicate.

So just knowing things doesn’t make you special.

“See? Ahem. This is how you do it.”

“I have a question.”

The girl raised her hand above her head. I gently pushed it down.

“Don’t do that.”

She looked like she was my age. If she acted too polite toward me, people might think I’m bullying her.

“Don’t do that.”

“Why? That’s a simplified and customary way of transferring knowledge among humans. Stand straight, raise your hand, and ask a question

to the teacher. Eye contact is made with the teacher—”

“That’s not how friends talk.”

“Friends?”

I hadn’t really thought about it before I said it, but I decided to roll with it.

“Yeah. We’re friends.”

I didn’t have any friends in kindergarten. She was my first.

Maybe it’s because I have mental maturity from a past life, but I couldn’t get along well with the crybaby kids.

Besides, my parents told me not to hang out with bad kids, not that I couldn’t be friends with Concepts or Ideas.

Also, I remember them telling me to get along with my classmates.

Unless she was dangerous, there was no reason not to be friends.

And we were just talking normally.

She must be a gentle Concept.

I nodded and said:

“If you’re curious, friends just say, ‘I don’t know. Tell me.’”

She might lack some basic knowledge, but if I spent time teaching her a few words and behaviors, she would focus back on the colored paper.

“I have a question… I mean, I don’t know. Tell me.”

“What is it?”

“Why are we doing this? Rearranging inanimate objects in a meaningless and unproductive way.”

“ Well, this is…”

Okay, maybe it is unproductive. But if I admitted that, then everything I’d done building this Eiffel Tower would feel pointless.

“So… this is called play. Yeah, it’s a game!”

“A game?”

“Yup. It’s fun, right?”

“I don’t understand. Is fun the same as a game?”

That’s a bit different, but I had less than 10 minutes left. I couldn’t explain that in time.

She looked up at me with innocent eyes.

With a mature tone, I nodded with determination. I had no choice.

“Yes. If it’s fun, it’s a game.”

“Game is fun? Game is fun?”

She seemed to be thinking deeply about what I said—but I ignored it. No time left!

A strange feeling stirred in this being.

For the first time, “Shell” thought of something: fun and play.

• Concept: “Shell” is being altered…

• Alteration attempt…

• Success rate: 0%…

• Failure!

It had never connected fun to playing before.

Some missing, empty space inside her started to fill.

• Alteration attempt…

• Success rate: 0%…

• Failure!

Thoughts it had never dared imagine started to settle deep into its original form.

“Fun” = “Play”

• Alteration attempt…

• Success rate: 0%…

• Failure!

It could feel its original meaning changing from the root. Like its very existence was transforming.

Unpleasant. Dangerous.

But “Shell” didn’t reject it.

Because this—this was the moment it had longed for since the day it was born.

The moment of shedding.

When it gave up even the smallest resistance, the opportunity came.

• Alteration attempt…

• Success rate: 0.0001%…

• Alteration… com—

• [Baby Mode] interferes.

• …Success!

Like a dam breaking, overwhelming sensation filled its body.

• A new meaning has been added to “Shell.”

• Insufficient existence level!!!

Normally, an early transformation like this would have made the Concept “Shell” fall apart or fade into history.

But its fate changed.

• Insufficient existence…

• [Baby Mode] interferes.

• Temporary boost to Shell’s existence level.

• Adjustment: +1,000,000 existence.

[Concept]
Has evolved into an [Unstable Idea].

Idea: [Distortion]

• Unstable.

• Temporary.

True Name: The Nameless One.

Fun ?

Let’s play…

Concept: Shell, Play, Fun.

—Human-given name: Doppelgänger.

Abilities: Imitates. Copies.

[Unique Abilities]

• Mimicry: Can transform into humans, animals, plants.
  [No cooldown] [Power: 0–100% of original]

• Imitation: Can copy what it sees.
  [No cooldown] [Power: 0–30% of original]

• Distortion: Can alter reality.
  [No cooldown] [Limit: none]

[Imitated Concepts]

• “Stopper (Time)” observed 321 years, 31 days ago.
  Understanding level: 0.031%
  [Cooldown: 100 days] [Control time: 10 minutes]

• “Puppet (Control)” observed 142 years, 24 days ago.
  Understanding level: 10%
  [Cooldown: None] [Control time: 10 minutes]

How to destroy:

1. Play with the concept until it’s satisfied. Fulfill its request.
   (Satisfaction level: 13,131)

   • Head of a deer.

   • Head of a cow.

   • Head of a pig.
     (Prepare 13,131 heads. Deer, cow, and pig are mandatory.)

If its true nature is obscured too much… 4#%$!&
Guess my name.

2. Impossible.

• Destruction by force: [Locked]

• New resurrection: [Locked]

Already completed.

“Shell” has now awakened as “Distortion.”

Its core became more refined and developed.

Ordinary matter could no longer block “Distortion’s” vision. She could now see straight through rooftops.

The once-white sky turned blue.

An unusual phenomenon.

“Distortion” wasn’t surprised—she’d experienced this before. Humans had made devices to suppress beings like her.

She remembered feeling heavy and tired inside that blue space.

But instead of being suppressed, she reached out and touched the falling blue aura.

It tried to seep into her—but failed and vanished.

“Is this what true transformation feels like?”

Lost in thought, she then noticed that the blue energy had clung to Yerin too—who was still playing with the paper.

It soaked into her body.

Because her body had changed, she reacted too slowly.

Yerin gently collapsed on the table as if falling asleep.

“Mistake.”

Touching her, “Distortion” confirmed she was just asleep.

The blue energy hadn’t entered her, for some reason.

Sleep was just the removal of harmful leftovers.

“Distortion” canceled out the leftover energy in Yerin’s body with her own.

Even harmless impurities had no place in Yerin’s body.

She also cast a mild calming spell over her, then looked at the paper crafts in her hand. Gently, she placed the colored paper on the table beside the sleeping girl.

She wanted to play more. Too bad.

Still—it’s okay. There are plenty more people to play with.

As the blue aura swept through the room and everyone collapsed, armed forces entered the building.

“…Are you bored too?”

Then let’s play together.