Three people answered Yoo Joonghyuk’s summons.Lee Seolhwa, Shin Yooseung, and Lee Gilyoung.“You black bastard! Where the hell have you been wandering all this time?”The moment he entered the conference room, Lee Gilyoung jabbed a finger straight at him. The gesture all but screamed: Do you have any idea how much we suffered while you were gone? What were you even doing until now?Yoo Joonghyuk merely looked down at him for a moment, then turned his head and muttered.“This brat’s starting to look more and more like Kim Namwoon.”“What did you just say?!”Before Gilyoung could explode, Shin Yooseung flicked her finger against his forehead.“Quiet down.”“Unfair!” Gilyoung yelped, rubbing his head. Yooseung sighed, scolding him with the sharp tone of an older sister.Watching the two of them squabble, Lee Seolhwa let out a sigh.“So, where did you really go?”“Another worldline.”“Which round?”“Outside Star Stream.”Outside Star Stream.No one had ever heard of such a place existing.“There’s really such a place?”“You can reach it from here.”This was a world without Kim Dokja.Because of that, both the Oldest Dream and the binding force of Star Stream had weakened here.Yoo Joonghyuk frowned slightly, as though considering something troublesome.“Where are Han Sooyoung and Yoo Sangah?”“They’re in the 41st regression.”“And Lee Jihae?”“Different worldline. There were uncollected fragments of Reader.”“There shouldn’t be any need to collect more fragments. Don’t tell me you touched even the reincarnated Kim Dokja?”“Of course not.”Kim Dokja Company had traveled through worldlines, gathering fragments that had failed to reincarnate and remained in fable form.Each member had their assigned sectors, and from the results of those collections they created a device—the Fable Connector.By combining the clusters of Kim Dokja’s lingering fables, they could trace the one that led to the real Kim Dokja.Of course, the phrase real Kim Dokja was a contradiction in itself. No one knew which Kim Dokja was truly real.But one thing was certain: wherever the Fable Connector pointed, the “main theme”—the core of Kim Dokja—was there.“Tell Jihae to come back. It’s not good to linger too long at the edges of a worldline.”Lee Jihae had always been the freest among Kim Dokja Company. Her emotions fluctuated sharply, and she had a wandering streak.“She’s an adult now. She must have a lot on her mind.”Yoo Joonghyuk thought about Jihae for a moment.Kim Dokja’s fragments were scattered across every worldline—some in places where scenarios were still running.Perhaps Jihae was watching over one of those worlds. One that still held the dream she could not fulfill, and the friends she could not save.Just like the constellations.But Yoo Joonghyuk knew all too well what fate awaited constellations who drowned in such regret.“Track the worldline Jihae entered, just in case.”“Understood.”“What about Lee Hyunsung and Jeong Huiwon?”“They didn’t come here.”At Seolhwa’s words, even Shin Yooseung and Lee Gilyoung fell silent.Jeong Huiwon and Lee Hyunsung—The sword and the shield of Kim Dokja Company.The two who had always protected their companions had not chosen to make the same decision this time.“But they don’t seem to have picked another portal either.”“How can you tell?”“Because here, we can observe the possibilities of every worldline.”Meaning—if Jeong Huiwon and Lee Hyunsung had entered a world with Kim Dokja, they would be able to see it from here.But no such possibility was visible.“They haven’t chosen yet.”No one in Kim Dokja Company had chosen the world where Kim Dokja had returned.Perhaps they all understood instinctively.That kind of simple happiness could never be real. Every “easy happiness” that had tempted them until now had turned out to be a trap.Their journey had always been complex, arduous, and winding. And even at the end of that road, there was no guarantee happiness waited.Even so, they had kept walking, and finally reached this point.Perhaps Jeong Huiwon and Lee Hyunsung were simply a little tired along that road.“Anyone else crossed over?”“Not sure yet. Some constellations might come through—or might already have.”If any constellations were to cross over to aid Kim Dokja Company, the list would be obvious.But Yoo Joonghyuk didn’t seem to expect their help.“Don’t trust the stars. They’re just drawn like moths to the flame, lured by passing stories.”“Still, without them, we wouldn’t have seen the ending either.”“How’s the 41st regression progressing?”Seolhwa silently handed him the scenario record and connection logs.They contained everything that had happened since the start of the 41st scenario, along with Kim Dokja Company’s connection data.After calmly reading through the document, Yoo Joonghyuk spoke in a cold voice.“Pathetic. There was a chance to end that worldline. Why didn’t they intervene more decisively?”He pointed to part of the record. A scenario screen projected above the text.Cheon Inho’s face appeared on it.Yoo Joonghyuk’s eyes widened for an instant.“That man—”“Who does he look like to you?” Seolhwa asked.Yoo Joonghyuk didn’t answer. He simply stared at that face for a long time, as if examining a memory eroded by the ages.Slowly he turned the screen. The Yoo Joonghyuk of the 41st regression appeared next.A being who hated the constellations and dreamed of the destruction of Star Stream.The one who sent Shin Yooseung into the past—creating the disaster.“The 41st regression must perish. It was fated to.”“It could still change,” Yooseung said quietly.“Reader uncle changed fate countless times. So did we. If not for the altered 1,863rd round, we wouldn’t even exist.”“You know what that means. Changing the 41st will only create more branches.”Save a few lives, and another world—once only a possibility—will be born. A world of new deaths and tragedies.“There’s no law that says that world must be unhappy—”“It’s the world I came from.”Silence fell.No one here could refute him.He had repeated the scenarios longer than anyone, and knew their tragedies better than anyone.“The faster we end it, the better. Only that can prevent greater catastrophe. If more worldlines split from here, the balance of the universe will collapse. There are already too many derivatives.”“But whether we intervene or not, more worldlines will still form. That dark guy’s a regressor too, right?”Every Yoo Joonghyuk regresses.And with each regression, a new worldline is born.That was the core tragedy—the absolute law—of Star Stream.But Yoo Joonghyuk shook his head.“His forty-second regression doesn’t exist.”“What? How do you know?”“If he kept regressing, new worldlines would keep appearing—like the Silent Schemer.”The Silent Schemer.After 1,863 regressions, Yoo Joonghyuk had finally uncovered the Supporting Star behind that entity.If the Yoo Joonghyuk of the 41st regression had continued regressing after sending Shin Yooseung to the past, he would have transcended—become an absolute deity, just like the Silent Schemer.“But nowhere can the next worldline be found.”Nowhere in the universe did a worldline exist where the Yoo Joonghyuk of the 41st regression continued to regress.After that point, only the worldline branched by Shin Yooseung’s return to the past remained—the world of Annihilation Method.“Then what happened to the Yoo Joonghyuk of the 41st?”“My conclusion is this: the ‘me’ of the 41st regression stopped regressing of his own will.”“But how? Did he reach the end of the scenario in that round—”“Impossible. The record of failure is too clear.”Yoo Joonghyuk recalled the words spoken by Shin Yooseung, who had descended as the Calamity of Flooding.“In that round, ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) I despaired deeply during the scenario. I realized I would never reach the end. That’s why I sent Shin Yooseung to the past.”The Yoo Joonghyuk of the 41st had sacrificed his comrades, trying to reach the end of the scenario, but failed. And perhaps he knew he would fail forever.So before his mind broke completely, he sent Shin Yooseung to his past self.Thus began Annihilation Method.“Then it makes even less sense. He didn’t reach the end—so how could he stop regressing?”“I don’t know.”Yoo Joonghyuk thought for a moment, then turned toward the window.“Maybe that’s why Kim Dokja is there.”The one who loved stories more than anyone in this universe.He must have found that forgotten worldline, determined to see its ending.“There’s one possible method, though.”The others’ eyes widened.It was only natural.This was the Yoo Joonghyuk who no longer regressed. Perhaps the only being who knew the secret of regression itself.“I’ll go to the 41st regression myself.”He was the regressor who had seen the end of the scenario—The incarnation who cleared the 1,864th and 1,865th rounds and felled even the myth-grade constellations—the strongest being on Earth.And because he was that Yoo Joonghyuk, the others couldn’t help but believe him.But there was a problem.“You can’t go there, Joonghyuk.”“Why not?”Seolhwa sighed lightly and looked him over from head to toe.His muscles were firmer than ever, radiating an overwhelming aura.“You’re too strong.”The current Yoo Joonghyuk consumed massive plausibility merely by existing.The 41st regression was only at its early scenario phase.Even a hero-grade constellation descending there would cause a plausibility storm. If Yoo Joonghyuk descended as he was now, the entire worldline would collapse under a cataclysmic backlash.He himself wouldn’t survive it either.Yoo Joonghyuk nodded, as if he already knew.“I can’t rely on Han Sooyoung forever.”“She’s doing her best right now—”“Is that what you call doing her best? Making a blunder like that?”He pointed to the connection log he had been reading earlier.“She wasted her chance to end the 41st.”The recording began to play on the connection device.“‘Tell him I received it well.’”On the rooftop of the Theater Dungeon, Han Sooyoung glanced once at the fallen Yoo Joonghyuk and Cheon Inho of the 41st, then disappeared beyond the edge.“Tell Han Sooyoung and Yoo Sangah this—there’s only one thing they have to do.”Yoo Joonghyuk averted his eyes from the log, as if there was no more to see, and walked to the window.“They must create the conditions for my descent.”Standing before the vast window, he looked out with that familiar, piercing gaze. The others watched him in silence.Perhaps it was the white background beyond the glass—He looked like a single character written upon an endless blank page.“I’ll bring Kim Dokja back myself.”

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