The moment I heard that name, my heart dropped like a stone.「Yoo Joonghyuk knows Kim Dokja.」But how does he know that name? The Yoo Joonghyuk of the 41st regression shouldn’t have seen or met Kim Dokja.He might’ve met Kim Dokja in the 0th regression, but Yoo Joonghyuk didn’t know that it was “Kim Dokja,” and when he moved on to the next regression, he lost all related memories.Then how in the world…?「“This regression has had a lot of weirdos from the very start.”」Come to think of it, Yoo Joonghyuk must’ve been hearing that name all over the place since the early stages of this round.「“Up through the last regression they were nobodies, but suddenly they started coming up to me like something had come over them and spouting strange things.”」There were probably even readers who approached him claiming they were Kim Dokja. And what became of those readers is obvious.「“That to clear the 46th Scenario I need companions; that they’re prophets; one even said he’d take me to the end of this world.”」At first he would’ve written them off as lunatics, but his thoughts would’ve changed by now.Because he must have learned of the existence of “Apostles.”He might even have glimpsed my fight with Han Sooyoung while he was in the midst of “regression depression.”Even if {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} he didn’t, it would have been exactly the timing to eavesdrop on what the Apostles were saying.「“Is there really a Kim Dokja in this world?”」「“I don’t know. But they said he was on the rooftop of the Theater Dungeon.”」The Theater Dungeon rooftop. The only ones there were me and Yoo Joonghyuk—and Han Sooyoung and Jung Heewon.“Are you, by any chance, ‘Kim Dokja’?”Seeing Yoo Joonghyuk leap to a disastrous conclusion, I shook my head in a panic.“Absolutely not.”His expression grew even graver.“Then who the hell is Kim Dokja? What does he even do that everyone keeps saying that name?”“That’s…”Who is Kim Dokja?No matter how I tried, the right words wouldn’t come to me.“Kim Dokja… is simply the name of someone who loves stories very much.”“Stories?”“Someone who has read one single story for a very, very long time.”“What do you mean? Are you talking about a constellation?”“I mean—”As I spoke one sentence, then another, phrases popped in my head like fireworks going off.「“You’re asking what kind of person ahjussi is? Ahjussi is…”」A girl’s voice shimmered through my mind. Beloved blond hair rippled like waves.「“The strongest constellation in the universe!”」Beside her, a boy’s brown hair scattered playfully.「“What. Don’t ask me hard stuff. But now that you mention it I’m craving squid. Master! Where’s Master!”」With a faint smell of sea salt, my head grew more and more confused.「“There was this expression in a book I read recently. ‘Someone like a childhood friend you’ve never met.’”」Somewhere I seemed to smell the warm scent of a library.「“The world I want to protect.”」And the metallic stench of blood.「“You mean Mr. Reader? That… uh, did I ever tell you I lost my ballistic helmet once?”」「“Hyunsung-ssi, please, just one verse.”」Familiar banter scattered away. Then came the sweet clack of typing, like chocolate snapping.「“The punk who promised to read three thousand episodes.”」Those weren’t lines I had written. Then what were they?These lines,「“You dullard.”」These memories—where did they come from?The world reeled as if a blood vessel in my head had clogged. My irregularly pounding heart hurt.Clutching my head, I staggered.「Who is Kim Dokja.」With a throbbing headache, sentences were erupting like a volcano.「Why is he still reading this story.」When I snapped back to myself, blue sparks were swirling around me.I lifted my head stupidly and saw Yoo Joonghyuk. He was shouting something.「Don’t lis—ten」But I couldn’t hear his voice.Instead, what reached me came from across an unfathomable span of time.「Be hap—py」As ash-like whiteness of volcanic dust blanketed the line breaks in my mind, I blacked out on the spot.***A light roll of thunder from the distant sky.Han Sooyoung realized the sparks shrouding her had thinned.“The plausibility backlash has weakened.”Watching the faint ripples of plausibility backlash flicker at her fingertips, Han Sooyoung recalled what had happened a few days ago on the Theater Dungeon rooftop.She had gone there to end this “regression,” and there she met the Yoo Joonghyuk of the 41st round.Yoo Joonghyuk was strong.Not just strong—astonishingly strong.So strong that it made no sense for him to have reached that level at this point in the mere 41st regression.She fought with everything she had, even resorted to tricks, and only just managed to subdue him.Up to that point, it was all according to plan.Even when Jung Heewon burst in afterward, and even when some author of Ways of Survival from an unknown worldline appeared, it was still fine.These things happen when you write.Forgotten foreshadowing pops out, or characters act in ways different from the author’s intent.Writing is always the work of tailoring a rampaging unconscious. That’s why she was well-practiced at handling the unforeseen.Because she was a professional who had already brought countless stories to completion.But the story that came to her next was a piece of foreshadowing that even she could not bear.「Another Kim Dokja she had forgotten was there.」A sudden wave of pain made Han Sooyoung lurch, one hand bracing against a building’s outer wall.Dusk was falling beyond the dank alley. As if a cross-section had been sliced from Seoul’s horizon, the cityscape showed through between the alleys.Corpses strewn everywhere. People who died because they couldn’t eat, who fled from fights and got caught. The familiar reek of blood.It was a story she never wanted to live through again.Even so, she had returned to this story once more.She couldn’t help it.Because this was the story read by her one and only reader.“Tiring.”She knew that view was not the entirety of this world. The margins are always wider than the sentences. So in the margins this alley couldn’t contain, there would still be precious stories left.But right now she had no strength to read those margins.For her, the world at this moment was nothing but a fistful of hell-scape flickering at the mouth of an alley.“How about you, Kim Dokja.”Even if she asked, there was no Kim Dokja there to answer.Staring blankly at the sky, Han Sooyoung drew a slow breath and pushed herself upright.“Hoo…”Agonizing muscle pain spread through her whole body.Her incarnation body was badly damaged.Of course it was.It was a miracle she was still sane after squandering that much plausibility on the rooftop.Thanks to the plausibility backlash weakening for a while, she could finally manage to move.“Is someone making a mess somewhere?”The sky was flashing in the distance—maybe someone was doing something big enough to steal ’s attention.“Lee Gilyoung.”She called the name aloud, but there was no reply.Han Sooyoung twitched her lips once, then set off, one hand against the nearest wall.She couldn’t stay here.She had to move.[Constellation, ‘Lotus That Bloomed Under the Moonlight’ looks at you.]Han Sooyoung paused, then started walking again.[Constellation, ‘Lotus That Bloomed Under the Moonlight’ advises that you should rest for now.]“Shut it.”At her curtness, sparks flickered lightly in the air. A star was getting mad at her.“Don’t waste plausibility on crap like that, Yoo Sangah. Where’s Gilyoung—why are you here instead?”[Constellation, ‘Lotus That Bloomed Under the Moonlight’ says Gilyoung is eating right now.]Some of us were about to die here, and some people still had the appetite to eat.[Constellation, ‘Lotus That Bloomed Under the Moonlight’ asks if you’re alright.]Alright what?[Constellation, ‘Lotus That Bloomed Under the Moonlight’ says your complexion looks bad.]Han Sooyoung hummed faintly.Yoo Sangah probably hadn’t seen the “Rooftop Dungeon” scene. The broadcast channel had been closed then.Han Sooyoung started to say something, then shut her mouth again.If Yoo Sangah learned that the 49% Kim Dokja they had turned away back then was here now—what kind of face would she make?“What about the worldline you went to? You finished up already? Did you recover the Kim Dokja shard?”[Constellation, ‘Lotus That Bloomed Under the Moonlight’ says it’s roughly wrapped up.]“So this is the only one truly left, huh. What about Yuseung?”[Constellation, ‘Lotus That Bloomed Under the Moonlight’ says Yuseung is also preparing for deployment soon.]“Anyone else? Don’t tell me Lee Hyunsung or Jung Heewon came over too?”[Constellation, ‘Lotus That Bloomed Under the Moonlight’ is ….]That was when Han Sooyoung snapped her head around. As she bent reflexively at the waist, a dagger whistled past and drove into the spot where she’d been standing.A blade black with demonic energy.Han Sooyoung frowned.“Which bastard is it. Come out.”At that, black shapes emerged from both sides of the alley at once.They weren’t human.Dogs like swollen shepherds, bodies three or four times larger, bared their fangs at her.Monster species?No. They weren’t ordinary monsters.[Grade-7 Demon Species, ‘Hell’s Watchdog’ bares its teeth.]Demon species.Han Sooyoung bit her lip, slow and steady.“Demons, huh. It’s not time yet for the Hell Sorcerers to show up.”Then the hound in the center of the pack opened its mouth.[It has been a while, Han Sooyoung.]At the sound of the voice, goosebumps ran down her back.The mantra was full of static, but the manner of speech was one she’d definitely heard somewhere.“You know my name?”[Heh heh. Is there anyone in this universe who doesn’t know you?]Without hesitation, Han Sooyoung drew Unbreakable Faith.「Whoever you are.」The blade flared white as it burned. Planting a foot on the alley wall, she shot forward and lopped off the hound’s neck in a blur.「End it in an instant.」Demon species or not, there is no “Grade-7 monster” in the scenario that can face the Han Sooyoung of now.Or so it should have been.Tzz—tzzt.With a light crackle, the severed neck reattached itself.Han Sooyoung did not miss the unprecedented myth that reattached the neck.“An extra-world divinity?”The dogs tilted back their heads and howled as one.The sky over the district turned pitch-black; one by one the lights around her went out as darkness closed in.With a low growl, something in the dark clamped onto her calf. Then her arm, her waist.Staying cool, Han Sooyoung blew off the demon heads one by one and thought.「Who could it be.」An extra-world divinity that commands demon species—and knows her name.Could such an existence be present in this “41st regression”?「I have to use a Grand Fable.」If she drew on more fable here, she would be hit by backlash again—but there was no other way now.To face an extra-world divinity, she would have to pay a price of equal weight.[Are you thinking of using a Grand Fable?]As if reading her mind, an unpleasant laugh slithered into her ears.Without answering, Han Sooyoung roused her fable.[Grand Fable, ‘Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint’ begins its story.]But at that instant, her vision flashed—and the fable was cut off.She coughed up a clot with a wet sound. Regurgitated fables leaked out on her breath. The clammy voice sounded again.[Unfortunately, you won’t be able to use that ability here.]Unbreakable Faith rebounded off something as she swung on reflex.Impossible.The fable’s activation was halted?Why?Another laugh drifted from the pitch-black.All at once, Han Sooyoung felt a strange premonition. She knew the owner of that laugh.[Have you forgotten?]“You—”[Within the lofty fables of , I, too, possess a share.]Ominous demonic energy spilled forth. Within it, a fable she knew all too well writhed.『Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint』…How?The dogs circling her howled, as if welcoming her back to this hell once more.[You are no longer the “author” of this story.]From out of the darkness that surged in an instant, a hand woven of fable appeared. With no time to flee, it closed around her throat.As the light of Unbreakable Faith dimmed, Han Sooyoung’s shadow rose into the air and stretched long along the alley wall.Pinning down the kicking shadow, a voice set the period to one story.[Please just die here, Han Sooyoung.]
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