CHAPTER 3

I Am Kwan Dae-ha (1)

Do you know the movie The Matrix?

Neo, the protagonist of The Matrix, was on the search for Morpheus, the legendary hacker. Upon meeting a mysterious force, he realized that the world he was living in wasn't real and was actually a virtual reality created by machines.

A fake world created to control and rule over humans.

In fact, The Matrix is just one of many examples that everyone would have pondered over at least once.

Is this world real?

Do 'I' really exist?

Was it possible that the world was the result of someone's program and our memories part of a scenario?

Is there any guarantee that the world was not created just a day, an hour, or even three seconds ago?

Wasn't it under such doubts that philosopher R. Descartes arrived at the first principle of philosophy - 'I think, therefore I am'?

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Of course, questions like these have no meaning. There will be no end to it if you start to doubt reality.

If you doubt the world in itself, any evidence or theories derived from within it would therefore be meaningless as well.

On the other hand, if there are no other external factors beyond this world, there is nothing that could prove these suspicions, so this idea is merely a fallacy.

Therefore, it is alright to have such thoughts at least once, but they will swiftly fade away.

Survival in this world was already tough enough without worrying over such unwholesome conspiracy theories.

But regardless…

"Is this world truly real?"

I had always been giving serious thought to this. This concern started when I was in middle school and had always been at the back of my mind up till now when I entered my second year in high school.

Casanova Bae Jae-seok, Grades deteriorated, Kim Wan-rae, Hasn't slept a wink, Lee Hyung-wook, Struggling with a hangover, Park Jung-shik...

All sorts of titles were written on the heads of the people passing by outside the window.

This is my ability.

I can figure out their Affiliation, characteristics, current state and name just by looking at them.

The important thing is that this is all there is to it.

"This is such a peaceful superpower."

I don't have the ability to fly around using psychokinesis, create flames or teleport.

My ability is thoroughly non-combative. In addition, I know nothing about the principle or theory behind this ability at all.

I mean, leaving all of that aside, isn't this a strange ability?

I'm not joking; it's to the point where I don't think it is wrong for me to doubt reality every single day.

I have done a lot of research on anything and everything I could find on this ability that I've had since I was young.

If I was able to create a spark, I would have thought I was a pyrokineticist. If I could draw out energy from my dantian to strengthen my body, I would have assumed that I had cultivated internal energy.

But what is this? Seeing words above people's heads?

From any point of view, this was an ability that was incomprehensible.

In the end, the only explanation left was…

"This world is fake."

It's lucky that I didn't suffer from depression. If I weren't a naturally optimistic and self-centered person, I would have become quite despondent.

"Huh?"

As I looked out of the window, I suddenly saw a bag of trash leaning against the wall. It wasn't the standard plastic bag, neither was the contents sorted for recycling; everything was just bundled together and thrown there.

Ah, damn. Who was this inconsiderate person? It was even written on the wall that rubbish shouldn't be thrown here and they still left it right under the sign!

I stared at the trash bag and the words Casually discarded, Trash were written above it.

"It's not as if I am going to impose any disciplinary action on the person… but let's find out who threw it."

Concentrate.

Yes, not only can I see titles on people's head, I can also see them above animals, bugs, and even inanimate objects.

This wasn't the case since the very beginning. Initially, I could only see the titles above people's heads.

However, it was a pity to let such a strange ability just rot away, so after some training and practice, I could see titles on everything excluding minute things like dust or grains of sand.

I concentrated as I stared at the title Casually discarded, Trash and initiated 'Classification'.