The soundless blade moved—no one saw it happen.The world’s condensed sense of time slowly began to stretch back to normal, and a faint spark leapt from the hand gripping the sword.[An unnamed Constellation is gazing at you.]No screams of incarnations, no clash of weapons—nothing could be heard anymore.Every presence that had been rushing toward me was gone.[Constellation, ‘Prisoner of the Golden Goah,’ opens their mouth.][Constellation, ‘Abyssal Black Flame Dragon,’ gleams with excitement, asking if you had been hiding your true power.][Constellation, ‘Demonlike Judge of Fire,’ feels deep sorrow from your single strike.]Something hit the ground with several dull thuds.No one stood at my height anymore.I was alone.Perhaps just as Yoo Joonghyuk had always been.[Constellation, ‘Maritime Messenger,’ is astonished by your martial skill.][Constellation, ‘Greatest Sword of Goryeo,’ …][A few Constellations have sponsored you with 1,000 coins for your martial feat.]A limitless omnipotence and superiority filled my body.So this was Yoo Joonghyuk.For a brief moment, I felt someone far above the sky watching me.[A veiled Constellation fixes its gaze upon you.]A chill ran down my spine; when I lifted my head, that presence was gone.A tingling wave of fatigue came crashing in.I’d already experienced the backlash of [Incitement] enhanced through [Sentence Enhancement].If I lingered in this state any longer, I’d be swallowed by [Incitement] again.Crackle—[‘Incitement’ has been deactivated.]A devastating recoil slammed into my body. Blood dripped freely from my mouth.It was a brutal experience—just a fleeting moment of early-stage Yoo Joonghyuk, and yet this much damage.Even after the skill had ended, I could still feel remnants of Yoo Joonghyuk circling my mind.I wiped my lips lightly and looked down.“U-uaaaargh!”A belated scream broke the silence.Gu Taesung was lucky.Both his legs were on the ground, but bleeding heavily as he writhed, staring up at me with bloodshot eyes.The emotion in them shifted—from disbelief, to fear, to pure terror.As if forgetting pain itself, he began to beg.“P-please! Spare me! Please!”I walked toward him.Looking at his terrified face, I suddenly remembered Mr. Dansoo.Mr. Dansoo, who had lost his eyes.Covered in wounds, mind shattered, endlessly searching for his daughter.All because of these men.They were the ones who made him that way—destroyed the life of a blameless man who only wanted to find his child.They deserve to die.The lingering voice of Yoo Joonghyuk inside me whispered it.“A-are you an Apostle?”Gu Taesung suddenly grabbed at my pants leg, eyes wild.“Please, I’m begging you! We came from the same world!”His trembling face looked up at me, and I realized who he truly was.He wasn’t “Gu Taesung.”“I—I read that Revelation too! It was a great story!”“……”“It’s all a misunderstanding! I’m different from the others! I didn’t pirate everything—I bought some copies legally too!”Like a death-row inmate confessing sins before execution, he kept babbling.“I want to live. Please. I just want to go home. I didn’t want to come here either.”Tears streamed down his face, the words spilling out like a flood.“M-my mom and dad… I miss them. Damn it, I didn’t want any of this! I just wanted to survive somehow—”How old was this man?Where had he lived? What kind of life had he led?I didn’t know.Then or now, he was nothing but anonymity to me.So maybe this is the last chance to kill him.Just as I tightened my grip on the [Broken Conviction]—“I’ll do it.”Shin Yooseung’s voice brushed past me.“I need the practice.”Practice.“To survive.”Her voice sounded strange. I couldn’t see her expression, but somehow I knew.Her eyes were gold right now.“You don’t want to do it, do you?”Maybe it was an illusion, but in her small back I could feel a weight of years that shouldn’t belong to a child barely over ten.I placed a hand on her shoulder.“I’ll do it. Step back.”In the meantime, Gu Taesung was dragging himself toward the edge, but there was nowhere left to run.[‘Rearrangement’ will begin in 1 minute.]Once he left the Safe Zone, the flames would burn him alive anyway.Perhaps realizing his fate, he started begging again.“Please! I didn’t want any of this! They said if I played my role well, they’d send me home—”“What do you mean by that?”The being possessing Gu Taesung was a member of the False Readers’ Association.But I didn’t know how the False Readers had entered this world in the first place.They weren’t readers who bought Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint, nor attendees of Kim Dokja’s Banquet.So how did they get here?Gu Taesung’s throat trembled under the cold edge of the sword.“Who brought you here?”“T-that was—”He seemed to make up his mind.“Kim Dok—”Crackle!Suddenly his entire body jerked like an electrocuted fish, lips turning black with smoke.Something had seized his right to speak.[‘Rearrangement’ will begin in 30 seconds.]Twisting in agony, he managed to force out words.“I—I’m sorry. I can’t say that. But I’ll do anything else. Anything you want—”I stared down at him silently.The residue of Yoo Joonghyuk inside me was quiet now.Maybe my heart had softened a little.Instead, a memory of Mr. Dansoo surfaced.Even if it’s just a novel, I don’t want to kill anyone.Since the scenario began, Mr. Dansoo had never killed a soul.Even now, lost to madness, he kept repeating, “I won’t kill.”Surely the “Kim Dokja fragment” within him was the purest and kindest part.It’s my daughter’s favorite story.I lowered the sword aimed at Gu Taesung.[‘Rearrangement’ will begin in 20 seconds.]His face brightened with relief.“T-thank you! Thank you!”He sobbed with gratitude and reached into his coat.“I—I don’t have much, but at least take this—”Before I could tell him it wasn’t necessary, my instincts screamed.Something was coming—fast.Sensing it too, Shin Yooseung grabbed my arm, and I pulled her close protectively.A shrieking surge of mana sliced through the air.I reflexively gripped the [Broken Conviction].[Durability of ‘Broken Conviction’ has reached its limit.]Of all times—now.And then I realized—That attack wasn’t aimed at us.The mana wave shot past us and decapitated Gu Taesung instantly.His head flew out of the green circle before I could stop it.“Still too soft.”A familiar voice.A man in a black coat stood there.A handsome face, for an extra.That deliberate imitation of Yoo Joonghyuk’s tone.“A Tyrant doesn’t hesitate like that. What’s there to deliberate over when killing a villain?”Beside him stood a woman, bowing lightly in apology, as if embarrassed by his bluntness.Our last conversation echoed in my mind, stirring something faint within me.[‘Safe Zone’ activates.][Admittance limit: 4/4][‘Rearrangement’ begins.]The Apostle siblings.The 2nd Apostles, Killer King and Literature Girl 64, had joined the War for the Absolute Throne.***The rearrangement lasted exactly one minute.Flames surged and burned everything outside the Safe Zone. The labyrinth’s walls shifted, passages transforming completely.When it ended, Killer King rifled through Gu Taesung’s corpse.“See? He had other plans.”In his hand was a Poison Bomb.I remembered the expression Gu Taesung had worn as he reached into his coat.Had he truly been pulling out that bomb?Reading my face, Killer King added:“Don’t feel guilty. Think of it as a stranger dying somewhere far away. You don’t mourn everyone who dies on the other side of the world, do you?”True—he had been a stranger.I didn’t know his name, his face, or his life.“They were criminals abusing anonymity. Don’t waste pity on them.”Was it really that simple?What would Mr. Dansoo have said?I opened my mouth several times but couldn’t find the right words.Maybe it was because I didn’t have Kim Dokja’s “good fragment” in me.“How have you been?”Instead of talking about the dead stranger, I spoke to someone I knew.“Mm.”Killer King rose, having collected the items from Gu Taesung’s corpse.A °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° black flag was tied around his arm like an armband.A Black Flag.As expected, Killer King had completed the [Path of Kingship] scenario.Naturally so—He’d read Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint over a hundred times.The 2nd Apostle, backed by none other than the Archangel Yophiel.“It’s been busy.”As expected, his gaze soon drifted to Shin Yooseung, noting her flag.“Looks like you’ve had your share of trouble too.”We exchanged brief summaries of our paths.Clearing the Theater Dungeon, splitting up after Chungmuro—He’d traveled through places I’d never even heard of, uncovering hidden pieces I hadn’t imagined.I recounted my own journey—meeting Gaebang at Seoul Station, coming to Gwanghwamun, entering the dungeon.When I mentioned Mr. Dansoo, Killer King sighed softly.“Lee Dansoo? The man looking for his daughter?”“That’s right.”“That’s troublesome. The scenario’s completely off from the original.”“……”“To summon the Fourfold Calamity Sword, you need seven Star Jewels.If that man already has five…”Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything.I remembered how effortlessly he had killed Gu Taesung.“I’ll warn you now—if you plan to harm Mr. Dansoo—”“Why would I?”He frowned slightly, almost offended.“The enemies of the Seven Apostles Conference are only the False Readers. We don’t attack anyone else.”Considering his track record, that sounded doubtful, but there was no point in arguing now.“In any case, if things stay like this, that man might gather all seven Jewels.”I agreed.The False Readers scattered through the labyrinth were surely waiting for a chance to feed him the remaining ones.“They’ll use him as a sacrifice to summon the Fourfold Calamity Sword, then steal the item.”“We need to find him first.”[Time remaining until next ‘Rearrangement’: 2 hours 58 minutes.]Plenty of time left before the next reset.The problem was that after the labyrinth’s reset, we no longer knew where Mr. Dansoo was.“We need a tracker. Do you have any related skills or traits?”Neither Killer King nor Literature Girl 64 had anything useful.A short distance away, the girl and Shin Yooseung silently regarded each other.Killer King clicked his tongue.“Bad party composition. We could use Yoo Sangah or Lee Gilyoung right about now.”He was right.Kim Dokja Company had two incarnations capable of navigating mazes, but neither was here.And the one who might’ve filled that role—Mr. Dansoo—was now a monster wandering the labyrinth.We needed a way.A way to find him before the False Readers did.I thought to myself—What would Kim Dokja do?That was when the message rang out.[The restoration of Trait, ‘Record Restorer,’ has been completed.]At last, it was done.I hadn’t expected much; after all, this body belonged to Cheon Inho, and restoring his records shouldn’t change much.But then—[‘Record Restorer’ repairs a deactivated skill.]A message I never expected followed.[Exclusive Skill, ‘Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint,’ has been activated.]

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.