65. I don’t know what I’m talking about.
I felt like I was out of body, and I had a bird’s eye view of the world.
But it wasn’t my world as I knew it.
“Uhhhhh.”
“Kolok! Kolok!”
Hell, hell, hell.
All around me, people were moaning and dying, while what appeared to be medical personnel in white coats and gas masks fought to save them.
But it was not enough.
People were dying everywhere.
The corpses became mountains, and the madmen dug up and buried the unclaimed bodies with excavators as if they were in some sort of mass grave.
Orientals, whites, blacks—.
It didn’t matter the race, it didn’t matter the region.
Humanity was dying.
“Ugh!”
It was a dream.
I woke up in a cold sweat.
“No, what the hell—.”
It’s almost the first time I’ve ever had a nightmare this bad.
Even when my dad’s business was failing and the whole family was scattered, the only nightmares I had were of debt collectors coming to our house.
I look at the clock: 5 a.m.
I wasn’t going to go back to sleep anyway.
I shook my head to dispel the nagging feeling, then went into the bathroom and turned on the shower.
Shoot!
As I stood under a deliberately cold shower, my gaze went to my left wrist.
The prayer beads seemed to have an unusually strong presence today.
Was this some kind of revelation or premonition?
Oh, no.
I still remember the dream clearly, and it was clearly about the entire human race suffering from some kind of disease and dying.
But that can’t happen, can it?
And even if it did, it’s not like I could do anything about it.
“Wake up, it’s a dream, it’s a dream!”
And so it goes, and so it goes, and so it goes, and now I’m having all these weird dreams.
So, I woke up about an hour earlier than usual and did a more rigorous workout.
Then I went to work.
“Hey, boss, you look a little tired, did you run a lot with Jensen Huang yesterday?”
“No, I ate moderately, but I had a bad dream last night.”
“Oh, you must have had a nightmare.”
“Yeah, I’ve never woken up screaming in my life.”
“hahahahaha, I guess the boss is human too.”
“Huh?”
If I’m not a person, what am I?
“Didn’t I sound like a person?”
“I can’t be the only one who thinks so, can I?”
“Huh—.”
“Why did Jensen want to see you anyway?”
“Well, it’s pretty obvious, I guess the management thing got on his nerves.”
“hahahahaha! Was that it?”
“Yeah, that’s what it was, so we told them not to worry about it because we don’t care about control.”
“Good for you. Nvidia is a pillar, Jensen Huang is a pillar, and it’s not good for him to be shaken by something like this.”
“That’s why you should tell our directors to play nice and not make a big deal out of it.”
“Got it.”
I ate a quick lunch and sat down, feeling drowsy from the lack of sleep last night.
Before I knew it, I was leaning back in my chair and falling asleep.
“Ouch. It hurts! It hurts!”
“There’s no room!”
“I can’t breathe! I need oxygen! I need oxygen!”
“Ughhhhh! He’s dead!”
The nightmare began again.
This time in more detail.
The hospital was overflowing with patients, and because there weren’t enough rooms, patients were being left in the hallways.
And then patients dying.
Even the medical staff – doctors and nurses – were exposed and began to collapse from the lack of proper protective clothing.
It was hell.
“Ugh!”
“Boss! Boss!”
I woke up to someone shaking me.
It was John.
“No boss, what the hell kind of nightmare are you having, ouch, look at all this sweat?”
“Hmmm—.”
“Boss, you should go to the hospital. I don’t think you’re feeling well.”
“Well, I guess I should.”
At John’s urging, I went straight to the hospital.
And.
“Well, I haven’t seen you this healthy in a long time.”
“What?”
“I don’t know if a full diagnosis will tell me otherwise, but basically, you’ve got an amazing body, and I envy you.”
“…”
In a word, dirty healthy.
“Would you be willing to undergo a full examination? I know it involves fasting and takes quite a bit of time, but—.”
“Oh, no.”
“Hmmm, no matter how you look at it, there’s nothing wrong with your health. If you keep having nightmares, I think it’s a mental problem, would you like to see a counselor?”
“No, thank you.”
As far as I could tell, this wasn’t a hardware problem.
Nor did it seem like I had a mental problem in the midst of a time when I couldn’t be happier.
So the answer is one of two things.
Either I’m just being influenced by fantasy novels about the apocalypse that I’ve been reading, or I’m actually having a premonition.
Either the beads were trying to tell me something or they weren’t.
I left the hospital and headed straight home from work.
There’s no way things could get out of hand in this situation.
Afterward, I drank two bottles of soju to the point where I could barely stand, and then lay down.
After all, soju is the best when your mind is confused—. is a dog’s horn.
“aaahhhhh!”
I had a similar nightmare again.
This time it was more detailed, and I saw the world come to a standstill.
Borders were closed, people were dying, as usual, and the lack of quarantine and medical supplies was just plain pandemonium.
“Rain, damn it, this ain’t no nightmare, this is—.”
Hell as far as the eye can see.
Now it’s clear.
This is a premonition, a foreshadowing, a warning, a way of telling me to be prepared.
“No, but what am I supposed to do?”
You’re crazy.
Sooner or later, there’s going to be a medieval Black Death, or an early 20th century Spanish Flu, or something, and you’re telling me there’s nothing I, a mere mortal, can do about it?
“f*ck!”
But I couldn’t just sit back and let it happen.
If I stayed still, I would have nightmares.
“Let’s do what we can. The prayer beads won’t ask for much more.”
After collecting my thoughts, I immediately made a phone call to find the fastest flight to South Korea.
Now we’d be flying on a private jet, a chartered plane.
From nob le mt l. co m
Jeffrey had recommended one to me the last time, so I signed up as soon as I got back to the States.
When the day dawned, I went straight to the office with my luggage.
“What are you packing, where are you going?”
“John, I’m going to Korea for a little while.”
“What? What brings you to Korea all of a sudden?”
“Something came up at the last minute that I need to do. It won’t take long this time, I’ll only be gone for two weeks.”
“Okay, have a safe trip.”
“What? Like this?”
“Boss, have you looked in the mirror?”
“A mirror?”
I quickly went to the mirror.
My reflection had changed overnight.
Like I hadn’t eaten in days.
“I know the doctor gave you a clean bill of health yesterday, but something must be going on with your boss, and if he suddenly decides to go to Korea, it’s probably because of that. I hope that when I see you again, you’ll be back to your old self.”
“Thanks, John.”
Inside the private plane.
I ignored like a dog the short skirted, blonde beauty flight attendant drooling over me, lost in thought.
What the hell was going on in my dream?
There must have been some kind of plague going around.
Heck, I don’t even know if such a thing could happen in the 21st century.
The dream was so vivid that I didn’t even have to think about it.
What’s clear is that it’s a respiratory disease.
If so, it must be some kind of virus, but I don’t know what it is.
Let’s see a specialist first.
“No, what are you doing in Korea all of a sudden, and what is this look on your face that I haven’t seen for days?”
Mr. Nam greeted me with a despondent look.
“Something urgent came up, so I rushed in.”
“What is it?”
“Don’t ask me for details, President Nam, but I was wondering if you’re from the Ministry of Health and Welfare or the National Institutes of Health or—. Ah, I don’t know where, but do you know any of the officials in charge of epidemic prevention in our country?”
“Eh, what do you mean, Mr. Chairman, are you sick?”
“Absolutely not, so don’t worry about it.”
“But why?”
“Don’t ask me that, too.”
“…”
I have nothing to say, what am I supposed to do?
I keep having nightmares, but I can’t say that a plague has ended the human race, can I?
“Hmm, okay, I get it, just give me a minute.”
“Yes, please.”
I don’t know if it was because Ms. Nam Jung-won was used to doing things without asking, but she immediately searched for the person I needed without asking further.
After calling here and there for a while, Mr. Nam opened his mouth to me.
“I found the right person.”
“Oh, you found him?”
“Yes, I found a senior college student at the CDC. What should we do?”
“Whatever it takes, set up a meeting with me. This evening would be great.”
“Okay.”
President Nam Jung-won picked up the phone again and reported.
“This evening. The place is the Japanese restaurant.”
“Oh, they’re coming?”
“Who am I, I spent twenty years in the keynote room at Sasung?”
“hahahahaha, thank you, then come out with me.”
“Um—.”
I pondered for a moment.
Going out with the president?
That would be nice, but I was worried that he would think I was weird.
In the end, I decided to go with him.
After all, I needed Mr. Nam to get anything done.
“What’s going on, Mr. Chairman?”
Mr. Nam asked me in the car.
I knew this would happen, so I made up an excuse in the meantime.
I googled the most recent and most dangerous epidemic on my smartphone, and even dug into a fantasy novel to come up with a scenario.
“Mr. Nam.” “Yes, Mr. Chairman.”
“Do you remember the MERS epidemic that went around a few years ago?”
“MERS? You mean the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome? Was that in 2015?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“But why do you say MERS all of a sudden? Has that happened again?”
“Uh, no.”
“But?”
“Don’t ask me where it came from, just know that.”
“Yeah—.”
“I’ve been informed that something dozens of times scarier than that might be on the rise.”
“What? Where the hell did you hear that?”
“I told you not to ask for the source, didn’t I?”
“…”
This is a man who keeps his mouth shut.
However, I felt like I should write a fantasy novel.
“When you’re in the investment business, you hear all sorts of things.”
“Of course you do.”
“But I heard something strange from a reliable source.”
“What?”
“It’s a report from the U.S. Embassy in China to the State Department, saying that there’s a serious risk at a BSL-4 (Biosafety Level) lab in Wuhan, China.”
“Huh? What’s that?”
Ugh, I don’t know what I’m talking about.
It’s from that apocalyptic fantasy novel I was secretly googling earlier.
Corona Apocalypse?
What kind of title is that?