An Extraordinary Lawyer’s Subspace - Chapter 172



Only Noblemtl

【Episode 172 – Other People’s Space】

New York,

I met Moo-yeol Hyung at a bar in Midtown Manhattan.

“Wow- this place is awesome.”

“Is that okay? This is where I came from with the White & Chase lawyers.”

Brother Moo-yeol had visited Namoo Shipping’s New Jersey sales office to find out more.

“Are you now penetrating the eastern US market as well?”

“I think they’re going to try. If they stay still, they’ll be eliminated.”

It was a wood shipping company that already had offices in the Midwest, including LA, Portland, and Seattle.

“So, how does it work? Do you set up an office and send employees from Korea?”

“That’s what we do. There’s a local freight company here that’s looking after our business. We’re thinking about just taking over.”

“Namoo Shipping is doing well.”

“After all, it’s a small company with five employees.”

“Our New York office also has five employees, you know.”

Although his brother was humble, Namoo Shipping was growing every year.

It seemed like Moo-yeol’s position within the company was also going smoothly.

“Oh, but I have to go to Boston sometime while you’re here. I have to take a tour of Harvard.”

“Come. Don’t you have time this time?”

“I was thinking of skipping a day, but I have to go to LA tomorrow, so I can’t go this time. I guess I’ll have to try to do it in the summer. Isn’t it available in the summer?”

“I don’t know for sure, but I think it might be possible.”

“Really? Then, I’ll go and see you in the summer.”

“yes.”

“okay.”

It had been a long time since we last met, but it felt different because we were meeting in a new place.

Since we came all the way to New York, of course we couldn’t just have the first meeting and then part ways.

“Where are you going to sleep tonight? Would you like to go to my apartment? It’s not far from here. Would you like to go and have another drink?”

“Hey, that’s fine. I’m on a business trip, so I have to stay at a hotel. I’m here to work, so I have to enjoy everything I can. It’s not like I can pay for your accommodations.”

“I feel sad to break up like this… Then, should we just have a simple second round somewhere around here?”

“No, let’s go to the hotel. Let’s have another drink there. What do you think?”

“That’s fine too. Oh, but, is that okay? I heard you have to go to LA tomorrow. If you’re tired….”

“It’s okay. Just sleep on the plane. I won’t be able to sleep anyway because of the time difference.”

As my brother suggested, we headed to the hotel where he was staying.

We had the second round at the hotel lounge, but we were disappointed so we ended up having the third round in our room.

When we were both pretty drunk, I quietly brought up the topic of subspace to my brother, who was a ‘comic book fanatic’.

“What? You went in like that, and Trader Joe’s came out? Puhaha- Hey, why is it going like that when it was going so well? Hehehe-”

“Trader Joe’s: American hypermarket chain”

“That’s why.”

“I heard Trader Joe’s is the best-selling store in America?”

“Kuuuuuu- Yes, that’s true.”

“Still, that’s true. Your dreams are really fantastic. Have you been reading too many comics lately?”

“Didn’t your brother read more comics?”

“Oh, by the way, I got scolded by my wife.”

“why?”

“You bake too many ‘cookies’.”

“Hahahaha-”

“I think it was a bit much. I spent 200,000 won a month reading webtoons.”

“Wow – that’s quite a lot.”

“If you do it one by one as a habit, you will start to spend money.”

I told my brother that I had a strange dream.

Somehow, I had an expectation that if I talked to my brother, he might give me a hint about subspace.

I don’t know if it was because he was drunk, but Moo-yeol hyung passionately poured out his ideas.

Some of them were a little creepy.

“Hey, it would be fun if it went like that!”

“How?”

“That space, the one beyond the gray door. That space was actually built by someone for a long time. You entered the space by making a contract with the owner. You’ve seen that movie, right? Inception. Why is it that when you watch that movie, you enter someone else’s dream? It’s like you open the door and enter, but it’s someone else’s subspace.”

“hmm···.”

“But that person died! That’s why you were able to enter. And, in fact, the tree in that forest was the World Tree containing the Akashic Records, and that subspace is a kind of mirror space that highly advanced aliens created on Earth.”

Without going into too much detail, my brother filled in the gaps in the story with his imagination.

“You said it was a dream a little while ago. So humans are creatures created by aliens, and through dreams we access the mirror space created by aliens?”

“I don’t know.”

“yes?”

“Just say whatever comes to mind. How would I know? It wasn’t even my dream. It was your dream. But still, don’t you think it would be fun? Ah- It would really be fun. Hehehe.”

This isn’t a dream…

It’s true that it’s my story.

“Ah! That would be more fun! In fact, there are many other subspaces like that. So, the owners there create gray doors and come in to occupy each other’s subspaces. What do you think?”

That doesn’t seem like much fun…

“But if you’re going to invade, you need to have a good reason to do so···”

“What’s the purpose? You can make anything. Like a resource, or a special item.”

Special item?

“Awesome technology? Magical healing potions? No, no, honestly, we don’t need any of that. Just introduce one psycho spacelord who’s crazy about conquest.”

Crazy psycho space owner!

“Now that you mention it, it sounds really fun, but I wish someone would make it into a comic. How about the title ‘Subspace Wars’?”

“Is it Star Wars?”

“Is it too 80s or 90s style? ‘The protagonist hides a subspace’?”

“Brother, you seem to have had a lot to drink.”

“Yeah, that’s right. I’m drunk. Actually, I’ve been really sleepy since earlier. I’m just talking to myself to wake up.”

“Okay, go to sleep.”

“Ah- I guess so. I was going to stay up all night drinking for the first time in a while, but I just can’t do it. This is why you can’t ignore age. My stamina is running out. What are you going to do, Beomsang? Do you want to sleep over?”

“No. I’m going to go to the apartment and sleep.”

“Are you okay, tonight? Just go to sleep.”

“If you call an Uber, it won’t even take 10 minutes from here.”

“Really? You can just sleep.”

“No. I think you’ll be too busy waking up tomorrow morning to get ready and stuff. I’ll go.”

“Would you like that?”

“Yes. I had fun today.”

“Me too. Alright, dude. Let’s meet up in New York and have a drink.”

“Me too. Please come to Boston.”

“Hehehe hahaha-”

“Why? Why are you laughing?”

“But you’re really funny too. What kind of dream do you have? A gray door… What kind of dream do you have in color? Hehe-”

It’s not a dream, bro.

“Okay. Go to sleep, hyung.”

“Yeah, I had fun today. Thank you.”

“me too.”

After leaving the hotel, I headed to the apartment I had found in New York.

I wanted to enter the subspace right away.

I held back.

I drank a lot of alcohol.

My mind was clear, but after talking to Moo-yeol, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to be a little more careful.

The next day,

I went in after sobering up.

-*-

For a while, my interest in the subspace world was focused on finding the ‘mysterious fruit’ that Butterfly had found for me.

I experienced one firsthand, even though I didn’t know exactly what it was.

I almost died in this, but I ate it and survived.

Of course, I hope that such an accident will never happen again and I will be careful, but danger can happen at any time regardless of my will.

If I could just find the ‘fruit’, it would be like having a huge ‘insurance’.

That wasn’t the only reason.

I made that guess too.

“If someone else eats that ‘fruit’, wouldn’t they be able to enter this subspace?”

I was trying to find the ‘fruit’ and give it to my mom.

I even imagined giving it to Ha-young.

Now, my thoughts are a little different.

I think we need to be a little more careful and execute.

Maybe the world, or ‘worlds’, are much bigger than I thought.

It was just a one-pyeong space with no light…

There is evidence that this may not be my space.

“meow-”

The gray door that was contracted and opened in the ancient way.

After that, the original color of the door, which had been gray, appeared.

It seemed to mean that he was now allowing me to take his position.

First, we confirmed the characteristics through several experiments.

A one-time contract was enough.

There was no need to grab the doorknob with bloody hands every time.

Even when I entered that space, time in the real world I live in also stopped.

On the other hand, time in the subspace where I originally resided did not stop.

Even while I was moving to that space, the original subspace with the butterflies and puppies was still passing time at the same speed.

Unlike other ‘doors’, the size of the door did not increase or decrease.

I haven’t tried it yet to see if it’s the limit of the question or the limit of the tree.

No other limitations have been discovered yet.

They were able to carry things and even living things, including butterflies, seemed to be unaffected.

It seemed like if I left the door open, they could come and go freely without me.

“The owners are trying to invade each other’s subspace by creating a gray door.”

Suddenly, I remembered the story that my older brother Muyeol told me.

‘Because it’s someone else’s space…’

World tree,

Akashic records,

Special Item

···

Subspace war.

I never thought about it that way.

As my brother said, it doesn’t seem like an impossible story if there’s just one crazy psycho.

But that doesn’t mean we can just sit there and wait for someone to come in.

I grabbed my gun and a simple survival kit and headed to another area.

“meow-”

“I thought you knew everything, but is this your first time here too?”

After much thought, I decided to take Butterfly in.

He’s like a guardian angel to me.

But it seemed like it was his first time there too.

The butterfly walked close to me.

“Don’t worry. I’ll protect you.”

“meow-”

.

.

.

The place we came out of through the ‘door’ in the tree was a warehouse of a large shopping mall.

A storage room next to the bathroom where trash cans, cleaning supplies, etc. are stored.

At first, I explored cautiously, not knowing where it was.

One thing was clear.

There were things that were made by humans.

So, at first I thought I had found a portal to a shopping mall somewhere in the real world.

But there was one very big difference.

“meow-”

“Don’t worry, Butterfly. It’s just a mannequin.”

There was no one here.

A large shopping mall that can accommodate thousands of people.

The store has products on display, electricity is working, and it is fully stocked with food and drinks, but there is not a single person there.

I also wondered if it was because it was before opening.

That seemed a bit strange.

Sunlight streams in through a glass dome in the ceiling.

This time again, the Trader Joe’s sign was the first thing that greeted me.

Last time I came in, I left one of the water jugs on display in the middle of the road, and it’s still there.

Either there was really no one managing this place, or they just left it there.

Today I plan to go outside the shopping mall building for the first time.

He put the rifle he was holding on his shoulder and instead took out the pistol from his waistband.

Then he held the butterfly in his arms.

Just in case.

“Shall we go, Butterfly?”

“meow-”

We went out of the shopping mall.

“!!”

There wasn’t just one shopping mall there.

Buildings packed tightly together.

It was a city.

···

People are invisible.

The new owner of the city

The store displayed products from brands that actually exist in the world I live in.

Even the food items displayed in the supermarket had expiration dates marked on them.

However, what was a little strange was that the expiration dates on each food product were different. Some were marked as 2025, while others were marked as 2019.

The oldest object discovered was said to be 2000 years old.

For a while, my explorations in subspace were focused on the world behind the gray door.