"I’m going to marry Yoo Joonghyuk."After losing his daughter to an imaginary character, No Kyunghwan’s life changed.He no longer had the strength to rage, nor the strength to grieve.He simply accepted—quietly—that a single, senseless meteor had destroyed everything he had ever built.But even after a life is destroyed, life continues.No Kyunghwan lived.He woke, ate, went to work, received his paycheck.He was a father. He had responsibilities.What he didn’t know was that—just as his wife and daughter had been struck by a meteor—there was still one more meteor in this world, waiting with his name on it."It’s cancer."It had been a routine check-up.No Kyunghwan thought he’d misheard. He asked again. And again."It’s cancer."Far more plausible than a meteorite—but plausibility didn’t make it any easier to accept."It happens sometimes. Some people show almost no symptoms. Haven’t you been unusually tired?"Who isn’t tired these days?Yet after hearing that, he began to wonder if he really had felt more exhausted lately."You should prepare yourself mentally."How exactly does one “prepare mentally”?I’m going to die.Was accepting that fact the preparation?"I won’t kill. I won’t kill."If he prepared his heart to die—what would become of his daughter?"No Jiyoon. No Jiyoon."He didn’t know.Where had things gone wrong?"Looking for someone."Why did these things keep happening to him?What had he done wrong?Pointless questions, and he knew it.This was what it meant to live an ordinary human life.And ordinary human lives had no guaranteed narrative consistency.Because life wasn’t a story.—Mister! Mister Dansoo!No one watched his life.There was no one to point out when the plot stopped making sense.[The Constellation ‘Insidious Strategist’ is watching his incarnation.]No Kyunghwan never told his daughter about the illness.She spoke less and less, and spent more time in her room talking to someone unseen.Not to herself—he could hear faint murmurs, the tone of conversation. Online friends, perhaps.He felt relieved that she finally had someone to talk to.At the same time, he worried. What if someone bad was out there?But he couldn’t intrude.All he could do was prepare her meals and, on rare courage, ask questions he normally wouldn’t."When are you going back to school?"Her lips would jut out in a pout."You said I didn’t have to go anymore."Was he doing it right?Had he raised her well?Maybe in trying to protect her from an ending that might never come, he’d destroyed her life himself.Looking at the half-eaten sandwich she’d left behind, he wondered—Maybe it wasn’t the meteor # Nоvеlight # that ruined her. Maybe it was me.That was when he started secretly reading her favorite novel.Before he died, he wanted to understand her—just a little.To know what kind of person that “Yoo Joonghyuk” she adored so much really was.There are three ways to survive in a ruined world.The opening line was strange.I’ve forgotten some of them. But one thing is certain: the fact that you, reading this, will survive.Maybe his daughter had read it for the same reason—to survive.Could reading a story really let you live?It was absurd, but he began to read.For a man who had become somewhat “old-fashioned,” it was bewildering.Kim Dokja. My father named me so that I would grow up to be strong even on my own.Kim Dokja.Even to someone not well-read, the name reeked of deliberate symbolism."I trust everyone’s already noticed what’s happening. The status windows, the exclusive skills… does anyone still not get it?"The protagonist spoke of things he didn’t understand. System windows, levels, regressions, reincarnations—utter nonsense.Is this really what kids these days like?Still, sometimes he’d stumble across something familiar.The Three Kingdoms, the Later Three Kingdoms, Gung Ye, Gyeon Hwon, Kim Yushin, Admiral Yi Sunshin—probably historical distortion, he thought, but the familiarity made him read faster.When Greek myths or Journey to the West appeared, he even thought it might be educational.At the complex settings, he wondered—did Jiyoon really understand all this?He almost left a worried comment when the story turned cruel, describing apocalypse and death—but stopped himself.One line became a page, a page became a chapter, a chapter became four.He read on.Stories have a strange power.A protagonist with no connection to him, no resemblance to his life—yet as he read, No Kyunghwan felt connected.He cleared scenarios, explored worlds, built legends as Kim Dokja.And slowly, he began to understand why his daughter loved Yoo Joonghyuk.Maybe Jiyoon wanted to go back.Even if it meant looping through tragedy a thousand times,even if she had to destroy the world for one person—She just wanted her mother back.Now his daughter was alone.What kind of story could a man like No Kyunghwan leave for her?"Dad."How would the human named No Kyunghwan be remembered in his only daughter’s story?"Can you give me a ride?"She said she was going somewhere with an online friend.He dropped her off in front of the Chungmuro theater, then drove to the hospital.He had a check-up that day.He remembered arriving, signing in—then dizziness, a gentleman in a fedora helping him up,and the thought, so this is the end.If only there were a little more time.If only he could speak with her once more.I read it too, he wanted to say.The story you loved.There are three ways to survive in a ruined world.As his consciousness faded, No Kyunghwan wanted to believe in that fiction.This is a story for one reader alone.If such a story truly existed, then let it grant him one miracle—just once."I won’t kill. I won’t kill."The voice spilling from his throat wasn’t his own."I won’t—"—Mister!The fog in his mind lifted.No Kyunghwan slowly came to.But his vision was black, completely gone.Only fragments of memory surfaced.He has entered the “Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint.”Had someone granted his final wish?He was here, alive, searching for his daughter."Run!""Shit—!""Don’t be scared! He doesn’t kill! He said he won’t!"Disordered memories spilled back.The massacre at Geumho Station.Meeting Cheon Inho.Inho.What had happened to him—the one man he trusted in this world?A man who’d felt oddly familiar, though they’d only just met."Now! Throw it! One more hit!"Something whistled through the air—then a sharp crack by his ear.[You have obtained 1 additional Star Relic!][Total Star Relics acquired: 6.][You have entered Madness Level 6.]He spat blood.Memories flooded in, overwhelming.[The Constellation ‘Insidious Strategist’ shouts for you to get a grip!]Why had it come to this?He’d only wanted his daughter back.He would have done anything for that."Would you really do anything?"And so, he’d accepted the temptation."There is a way to find your daughter."The image of a theater,a man in a fluttering white coat.Representative Kim Dokja."Bring me the Four Calamities Blade. Then I’ll tell you where your daughter is."The Four Calamities Blade.Yes—that was why he’d come to this dungeon."No Jiyoon. No Jiyoon."In the haze of memory, he asked the man:"Why did you bring me into this novel?"He wanted to know."Why did the meteor fall? Why did my wife have to die? Why did I get cancer?"He didn’t expect an answer.But the man smiled."Do you want to know?""Why that meteor struck your family? Why it had to be you? You truly wish to know?""Does my misfortune really have a reason?""Bring me the Four Calamities Blade, and I’ll tell you everything."Representative Kim Dokja had even given him equipment, skills, and the coordinates to the blade."Why help me?""You remind me of someone."For the first time, emotion flickered across that man’s face."He, too, was a father who loved his daughter dearly."No Kyunghwan hadn’t understood.All he knew was that his suffering now had a cause."What the hell—who are these guys?!""It’s the Apostles! The Apostles are here!""Aaaagh!""The White Heaven Flag! K-Kim Dokja?!"Someone had made him suffer.—Mister! Please, wake up!A voice from across the universe."I won’t kill. I won’t—"No Kyunghwan thought:I won’t forgive them. Whoever caused this—"I’ll kill them."His hand closed around something.Crack.Muscle tore, and a voice reached him."Mister."He knew that voice—yet couldn’t remember whose it was."I don’t want to do this either. But…"The speaker’s voice trembled with pain."Just once… I’m going to lie to you."And that voice—"I am..."—sounded like the first line of a story."‘No Jiyoon.’"At that moment, vision burst open.In the dark, a single white page unfolded.On it, someone was writing.A girl stood there. Short, round-faced, with brows lighter than most, cheeks still soft with baby fat.The words became a face.No Kyunghwan reached out toward it.Jiyoon.His beloved daughter spoke:"Give me the Star Relics, Dad."
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