Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes.

Chapter 285, Section 31: Eat More

Choi In-ho walked out of his office at the Blue House, a barely perceptible, stiff smile appearing on his tense face.

Outside the window in front of him was the bustling night view of Seoul, with neon lights flashing and cars flowing like a river.

As a neighboring country of Japan, the Southern Court has always been very concerned about Japanese affairs.

So, ever since the "Hibiya Subway Incident" broke out, they have been seeking confirmation from Ame whether a monster has really been born. After receiving a positive response through various channels, the president planned to establish a special department for dealing with supernatural phenomena belonging to the Southern Dynasty.

Like Japan, they also like to use the naming format of "XX Countermeasures Headquarters".

As a close confidant of the president, he was promoted to key positions.

They became even more excited after it was confirmed that the extraordinary traces were related to history.

Our Southern Dynasty has a history spanning tens of thousands of years, and even Japan has left extraordinary traces of it, so how could we not have any!
Therefore, when the department was first established, it was a grand affair, reporting directly to the president and possessing extremely high authority, seemingly poised to become a bridgehead for South Korea's discovery of supernatural phenomena.

Choi In-ho was full of ambition and ready to make a name for himself, but reality didn't cooperate.

Those reported unusual incidents, after being investigated at various levels, were basically just absurdities.

A haunted apartment in Seoul, where residents were terrified every night, was found to be caused by the eerie noise from the resonant outdoor unit of a faulty air conditioner in their neighbor's apartment.

An unidentified luminous object was discovered deep in the mountains of Gangwon Province. It was eventually identified as a group of university students who were rehearsing a drone light show, but things went wrong.
They could all sit at the same table as "Approaching Science".

Within the department, the previously high morale has gradually declined.

Many elites drawn from the intelligence agency, police department, and military have begun to feel uneasy in private.

Some have even begun to doubt whether the so-called extraordinary beings truly do not exist on this land. Do those extraordinary individuals only exist in neighboring countries?

Until today, when the bloodshed occurred at the Yangchuan District Court.

Choi In-ho, along with a group of experts, carefully reviewed the surveillance footage and the scene, bit by bit.

He broke free of his handcuffs with his bare hands, smashed his skull, displayed incredible agility, and possessed an unscientific, emaciated corpse.

It's here! It's finally here!
What heavy casualties? In his eyes, it was nothing. Only by confirming the existence of genuine supernatural forces within the country would his department have any value. Otherwise, the department would be a joke, and he, Cui Renhao, would be nothing more than the person in charge of that joke.

Of course, he was well aware that although his power came from the president, it was actually quite limited.

The official political system in the Southern Dynasties was even more distorted than that of neighboring Japan.

Japanese zaibatsu at least try to hide their activities, but the zaibatsu here are quite blatant about it.

Furthermore, Ami's will always hangs over him and cannot be disobeyed. As the minister, he may seem to hold a high position and great power, but in reality, he is hindered at every turn.

At the beginning of the department's establishment, various forces couldn't wait to stuff their own people in, ostensibly to assist, but in reality to monitor and divide power.

Often, the decisions he made as minister required him to consider the opinions of his nominal subordinates or wait for the approval of the forces behind them.

Choi In-ho gazed at the peaceful city, reviewed the thoughts he had just shared with the president, and without further delay, turned and left the Blue House to head to the laboratory.

In the time to come, Park Min-woo's body will be the key point of contention among various factions.

Around this time, detailed reports on the Park Min-woo incident had already been placed on the desks of Ami and key figures of several major domestic conglomerates through special channels.

Amei showed great concern about this matter.

Because they knew more inside information, and through background checks, they discovered that Park Min-woo had a key identity that would be largely ignored by those unaware of the situation: a high-ranking player in a certain RTS game.

This discovery, combined with the timeline of the recently concluded Silver Cup Manor game incident, almost definitively confirms that Park Min-woo was chosen by that mysterious game and became a newly minted extraordinary player.

The selection of players for the mystery game is finally no longer limited to Japan!
In the White House, the President felt a pang of heartache after reading the report, heartbroken that he wasn't the one chosen.
He has been making the most of his time to play games these days and considers himself a gaming master.

The entire party is busy forming guilds in the game, playing together every day, discussing game strategies in their meetings, and even squeezing in a few rounds of Angry Birds in their spare time.

He still managed to steal the peach (in his opinion).

"He just died like that? If he had displayed even the slightest bit of extraordinary ability in court, even if it was just breaking the handcuffs in front of everyone, who would have dared to judge him?"

The president's words were filled with regret for this lack of appreciation for extraordinary power.

Just give it to him.

He's right. As long as Park Min-woo displays extraordinary power in court, the entire country will quickly haile him as a hero fighting against evil.

Whether the case is true or false is completely irrelevant. The judicial system will definitely find new and compelling evidence to prove that he was framed. In order to please him, that woman will suffer even more thorough retribution, living a life worse than death.

The public will idolize him, and the tycoons will vie to win him over.

“Commander, he may not actually be dead,” Leon said upon seeing this. “It’s hard to believe that someone who has just gained superhuman powers would choose to die in court, but it’s still not very logical.”

"More likely, he dares to do this because he has some kind of reliance that we don't know about, which may be related to the power he has acquired. Maybe this is an avatar of his, or maybe he can resurrect. And if he is really still alive, then I think there are two things he would definitely do: take revenge on the woman who framed him, and pay homage to his father."

After learning about the incident in the Southern Dynasty, Leon immediately inquired with his cooperating players, such as Muramasa Takii, but the replies he received were basically the same: they all said they were unaware of the situation of the other players.

Whether it's true or false, since they've said so, he currently has no way to expose or investigate it further, so he can only assume it's true.

They must rely on their own methods to verify whether Park Min-woo is still alive and what his abilities are.

But he can't leave Amei for the time being. After all, the manor in the game still hasn't been found. It must have been destroyed long ago in some unknown period of history, and that era was chaotic with very vague records.

In the end, all that could be done was to define the scope of the Southern states and strengthen the monitoring of anomalies in the region.

Today it's a crocodile biting someone, tomorrow it's an unidentified flying object. Every little thing has to be investigated by elites, for fear that even the slightest oversight could lead to serious consequences.

Based on security considerations and his exceptional initiative, Taki will soon be relocated from Japan to Georgia.

After that, she would accompany the investigators around, so that she could quickly get to the scene in case of any emergencies.

Leon now regrets it. He should have stayed in Tokyo; his job might have been easier then, as he would only have needed to handle matters concerning the Southern Dynasty.

In the Southern Dynasty, based on the instructions conveyed by Ame, local troops and special agents began to be mobilized.

Park Min-woo's interpersonal relationships are being monitored, and his father's columbarium is under close surveillance 24 hours a day. Even a suspicious bird is being recorded.

The senior who sued Park Min-woo was surrounded by both overt and covert sentries.

No one told him the truth about Park Min-woo; she only learned through the court that Park Min-woo had attempted to assault a police officer and was shot dead.

The real incident was suppressed by a joint effort between the government, the conglomerates, and Aramco.

People from all the major powers have used her as bait.

The government and local tycoons were quite dissatisfied with her.

A young man of ordinary background, with a simple resume, who has just gained supernatural powers and is theoretically at the stage where he is most easily bought or controlled!

A potential superhuman fighting force belonging to the country was forced to rebel and even killed by its own people.

Fortunately, the on-site report showed that Park Min-woo did show mercy to many innocent bystanders during the killing spree, and it was not an indiscriminate massacre.

This might suggest that he still has reason and goals. If he is truly still alive, negotiation might still be possible.

Of course, that requires a chat window.

However, time passed day by day.

Park Min-woo's body was sent to a secret research institute.

The most advanced equipment was used to repeatedly scan and dissect the specimen, and the results were quite unsatisfactory.

Aside from its unusual emaciation, the corpse had nothing unusual about it. There was no residual unknown energy, no signs of genetic mutation, and all the wounds were consistent with those caused by pure physical force.

He is completely dead, and physiologically there is no possibility of him being resurrected.

Even groups of occultists came, but to no avail. Someone even tried to bite into the corpse to steal some meat, but was stopped in time.

The people coming and going in the cemetery all seemed normal. Senior Park Min-woo lived a peaceful life, unaware that most of the passersby around her were actually people in disguise.

Other injured people, including passersby who were spared by Park Min-woo, began to be discharged after several days of hospitalization and psychological counseling, except for a few with more serious injuries or post-traumatic stress disorder. They also received a considerable confidentiality fee.

Ms. Park was the one with the lightest injuries, the fastest recovery, and the most mischievous.

The bruises on her face have mostly subsided, and the issue with the fillers could be resolved at a plastic surgery clinic; there was no need for a long-term hospitalization.

However, she insisted on staying at the hospital for a few days, claiming that she was extremely frightened and needed official assistance for subsequent cosmetic repairs. She also took the opportunity to undergo a full set of officially reimbursed medical examinations.

But that was the end of it. Those who forced her to sign the confidentiality agreement seemed like troublemakers, and after signing it, she didn't plan to linger any longer.

On her first day in the hospital, she was so overcome by an inexplicable and uncontrollable hunger that she ate three meals of hospital food, which startled even herself.

But the next day, the terrible hunger disappeared, and her appetite returned to normal, which greatly relieved her. She attributed the previous abnormality to being too frightened.

As soon as she was discharged from the hospital, she rushed to the plastic surgery hospital she usually went to. What she wanted was not a simple repair, but a complete set of the most expensive and comprehensive facial care and enhancement.

The government will foot the bill.

Unbeknownst to her, the moment she left the hospital, she was placed on a watch list.

The level of surveillance was much lower, at least lower than that of Park Min-woo's relatives, or even his cellmates in the detention center.

"Ms. Park, it's been two weeks, and you've gotten much better in figure. Did you sign up for some kind of training class?" The attending physician looked at her physique with some surprise. "Your facial contours are even more beautiful."

Upon hearing this, Ms. Park was secretly delighted and subconsciously touched her side.

Indeed, the original swimming ring seems to have shrunk a size.

She immediately straightened her back, a reserved yet smug smile on her face: "Really? Maybe it's because I've been paying more attention to my diet lately, and I've also been doing some yoga."

"You might not know this, but I usually go to the gym for three hours after I finish working overtime."

She made up a story on the spot, portraying herself as a sophisticated woman who worked hard to maintain her figure, when in reality she didn't have a proper job and rarely went to the gym.

After completing an expensive skincare routine, Ms. Park felt radiant. She declined the hospital's suggestion of a short observation period and couldn't wait to return to her studio apartment.

"Finally back! Luckily, I made a lot of money. I won't have to work for six months. Best friend, you're so lucky to be dead."

Back home, she lazily lay on the sofa, looking at the payment confirmation message on her cracked phone screen with a happy smile.

She has no family, or rather, she has lost contact with her biological parents and has become a person and soul who completely embraces freedom.

Perhaps because she was familiar with the area, she scrolled through her phone for a while and then felt a little hungry, even though she hadn't had lunch yet.

She grabbed her purse, went out the door, and rushed to the nearest upscale supermarket.

The supermarket was filled with a dazzling array of delicious-looking food, and she wanted to buy a little bit of everything. Driven by hunger, she unconsciously lost her usual pickiness and self-control, and her shopping cart was quickly filled: instant rice, microwaveable fried rice cakes, frozen fried chicken, and high-calorie chocolate. The cart was full, far exceeding her usual weekly shopping volume.

"Fresh meat." She stopped in the fresh meat section, unable to move her feet.

She doesn't usually buy these ingredients because it's too much trouble to cook them herself from scratch.

But now I feel that the meat is so delicious and juicy, it must taste really good.

The price of meat made her feel a little distressed, but having just made a fortune, she wasn't so stingy as to not spend such a small amount of money.

So she took a lot of freshly cut pork and beef.

"How did I buy so much?" She only realized it slightly when she was paying the bill, but her stomach quickly regained control of her brain.

"Never mind, it can fit in anywhere anyway, the refrigerator is big enough."

Once home, she practically rushed to the kitchen, frantically tearing open packaging and stuffing the food into the microwave or simply opening it up.

"Delicious! So satisfying!"

She had never eaten so heartily, so thoroughly.

Reason told her that eating too much would make her fat, but she immediately thought that since she had already lost a lot of weight, it wouldn't be a big deal to have a cheat meal.

"Just this one meal, just this one meal, anyway, I've lost weight." She wolfed down her food while trying to convince herself.

Hunger spread like wildfire, instantly destroying all restraint.

She was completely unaware that the sauce had gotten onto her face, which she had just finished her skincare routine.

She swallowed the rice from the instant bibimbap while it was still hard in the center; the fried chicken was so hot that she gasped for breath, but that didn't stop her from tearing into it.

She didn't know how long she ate, but after her hunger subsided slightly, she suddenly came to her senses.

Looking at the mountain of packaging boxes and bags on the dining table, and the empty plates, a chill ran down her spine.

She actually ate almost half of the food in her shopping cart, enough for her to eat for three or four days!
Even more frightening was that her stomach didn't feel full at all; her lower abdomen remained flat, without any of the bloating that should occur after overeating.

She remembered that the doctor in the hospital said that mental stress could lead to bulimia, but what was wrong with her stomach?

"No, no, it won't be." Her face was pale as she murmured to herself, "It's just... just a normal aftereffect, some insignificant aftereffects, it'll be fine. As long as I don't gain weight, I'll be okay."

She tried to comfort herself with these pale words, but deep down, an indescribable panic was spreading, and she struggled with whether or not to go to the police.

But then I thought of those serious guys, and I was afraid I'd be dragged into some kind of experiment.

Before she could think too much about it, a strong wave of drowsiness washed over her, drowning out her panic.

Too lazy to clean up the messy dining table, she dragged herself back to the bedroom, collapsed onto the soft bed, and fell into a deep sleep almost instantly.

late at night.

All sounds are silent.

Ms. Park suddenly opened her eyes.

It wasn't a startled awakening, but rather being awakened by a basic physiological need—

hungry.

So hungry.

I'm hungrier than ever before.

My stomach felt like it was screaming.

She gently parted the fabric covering her stomach, and in the dim light, she could see that her relatively flat abdomen was writhing as if something was constantly moving, sometimes swelling up and sometimes subsiding, as if it were cramping.

She opened her eyes wide, feeling the endless hunger, like a black hole, with each contraction of her stomach.

Cold sweat instantly soaked through her pajamas.

Reason told her that she was in big trouble.

But at the same time, her reason was being gradually devoured and torn away. She gasped for breath, got out of bed, and walked toward the kitchen.

"I need to eat something."

"No matter what."

　Thank you to "行者商丘" for the 500-coin reward.

　　Thank you to "pi=3.14" for the 100 coins donation.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)