Chapter 1: Sea, Lola
Chapter 2: Gyeongju, Sam-aewon
Chapter 3: Sea, Lola
Chapter 4: Gyeongju, Sam-aewon
Chapter 5: Sea, Lola
Chapter 6: Race, Dream Theater
Epilogue Lola

Author's Note

“It’s more fun here than I thought.
“It’s like a fortune teller.”

Haesae, a designer who uses the virtual world Lola to create a first-person virtual theater called 'Dream Theater' based on the client's memories.
She was one of the original designers who created Dream Theater, but she hasn't been getting many commissions lately.
A strange request comes from a man asking Haesang to create a dream theater based on his own memories.

I was invited to that man's house.
I accepted it without hesitation.
I set off without hesitation.
It was my job to go when called.
That's why I'm standing on this dark, unfamiliar street right now.
As the signpost tells us, the name of this street is Man-gyeong-ro.
- Page 9 of the text

The memory of the client, Gyeongju, is miserable.
A series of misfortunes befall him, even though he was making a name for himself as a chiropractor.
Following his father's death, he loses his job due to a medical accident, and to make matters worse, his younger brother, who had fought with him and left home, is found dead in a homeless village.
A depressed Gyeongju takes a job as a security guard at Samaewon, a homeless rehabilitation facility with a high salary and room and board.
A remote cape in the West Sea where drift ice drifts due to abnormal weather.
Gyeongju, who entered Samaewon located on Cheon-ae Plateau, hears rumors circulating among the homeless people.
That humans have discovered a way to avoid death, and that random tickets are being issued to homeless people as experimental subjects.
There are rumors that a series of homeless murders are taking place to get that ticket.
Gyeongju is obsessed with the idea that her younger brother Seungju's death might be connected to this.

“A ridiculously wealthy American biotechnology company has found a way to make humans immortal.
no.
It's not that I don't die.
A new race with god-like abilities, perhaps.
If you can have anything, do anything, and be anything, I don't think that's like God, it's just God.
Anyway, that company joined hands with the world's best game company and created a world where gods would reside.
A world where there are no rich, no poor, and no sick.
“An eternal paradise where everyone lives equally and freely.”
- Page 106

Gyeong-ju, who was suffering from guilt, notices that Park Jae-i, a fellow security guard who joined the company with her, is secretly looking for something among the homeless.
Then one day, while on patrol at dawn, Gyeongju discovers mysterious footprints heading towards the mountain behind Sam-ae-won.
And at the end of those footprints, on the cold snowy field at dawn, Jay, who should have been sleeping in his lodging, is found covered in blood.
While being carried to the hospital by Gyeongju, Jay calls Hae-sang's name while in a state of unconsciousness.

“I didn’t come to Lola because I wanted to live forever.
I just ran away.
And very hastily.
It wasn't until I came here that I started to wonder.
What if I hadn't run away then?
What kind of life would I have lived?
Could you understand my life?
“At least I hope I can find some clue to understand.”
I couldn't understand why that understanding was so important.
All living things are born by chance.
We form relationships by chance, live by chance, and die.
A life with clearly defined cause and effect would only exist in the Lola Theater.
“I need a chance to live without the design of fate.
“If I don’t run away, if I can endure, I think I’ll know why I existed in that world.”
- Page 392

The ultimate human desire to endure, to confront, and to ultimately overcome, wildness

Witnessing science and technology that have expanded beyond the realms of convenience to include art and philosophy, we can say, “Science cannot go backwards.”
The line from a character in the work, “I just arrived where I was supposed to arrive,” makes me feel keenly that it is a phrase that permeates this era.
The author, who faced this era without any vague optimism or high evaluation of humanity, said, “About an immortal life where anything can be done and no one dies.
“A world without troubles like poverty, misfortune, or conflict,” he continues to imagine that distant future.
The writer, who fearlessly pushed his imagination to its limits, encounters a humanity held in his hands in a distant territory that only literature can reach.


The virtual reality world of Lola in the novel is a huge metaphor for this world.
But humanity doesn't stop at wandering forever in the arcade.
The author reveals human nature through 'Dream Theater'.
Humans seek play even in eternity, and in that, they seek to encounter ‘themselves.’
In this respect, Gyeongju's desire to design a dream theater in the most strict way possible for himself is significant.


I don't think I misread the race.
However, there was one thing that was overlooked.
It was 'something' hidden behind the outer shell of consciousness.
If I had remembered how he tried to save himself when he was pushed to the edge by his brother's death, if I had remembered how he stabbed the other person in the eye with a chopstick just as he was about to be stabbed in the chest, I would have known beforehand.
What is the 'something' that is crouching in his nature?
- Page 523

The desire to live a life without any plan.
The desire to jump into that raw world and face it head on.
The desire to finally wrestle with my fate and win.
What the writer encounters at the end of human desire is this seething wildness.
In the cold deep sea beneath the thick ice floes, under the hot desert sun, what Jeong Yu-jeong has drawn is sharp, overwhelming, and hot, as if it were slicing through the marrow.
This is why the second installment of the 'Desire Trilogy' is so vivid.


Author's Note

So, this novel is a story about 'humanity's last desire to endure, confront, and overcome.'
It is also a story about the pursuit of what one considers valuable in life.
I gave the name 'wildness' to this temperament of desire and pursuit.


Sometimes I wonder if we live in an age where we are losing our wildness.
There is also a tendency to mock itself, deny its value, or give up on it.
However, we are both social and individual beings.
The undeniable truth is that as an individual being, I am responsible for myself as the agent of my own life.
So please remember that.
That the primordial wildness breathes in our genes.
That it is a precious weapon in our lives.