[You have hunted the scenario’s first “Catastrophe.”][You have achieved a feat no one else has ever accomplished.][Scenario reward distribution is delayed.][Core rewards will be granted based on contribution.][You have earned 10,000 coins!]Killer King, Cha Yerin, Lee Dansu, and the others stared blankly at the cascade of messages raining down from the sky.[You have received the reward for defeating “Labyrinth Warden.”][You have earned 8,000 coins!][You have achieved a non-existent achievement!][Many constellations are amazed by your feat!][Someone has recommended your legend to the Star Stream.]They had done it—both a grade-5 and a grade-6 monster slain in only the fourth scenario.The individual contributions varied, but the total reward before them surpassed anything they’d ever seen.Yet not one of them looked happy.“How’s Cheon Inho’s condition?”“Not good.”After taking Inho’s pulse, Cha Yerin shook her head.Killer King looked down at the unconscious man and recalled the final moment when the venomous dragon had fallen.“If it weren’t for him, we’d all be dead.”None of them had imagined he would charge forward like that—half-delirious, body barely under control—and rip the monster’s heart out himself.If not for the woman now crouched at his side, tending to him, he would have died on the spot.The poison had turned Inho’s face the color of ash.“Do you have any medicine left?”They pooled every elixir they had to neutralize the toxin. None were on the level of a Summoning Pill, but they were still high-grade ingredients.And to that, they added the freshly extracted core of the slain Venomous Dragon.The woman ground everything together, poured it into Inho’s mouth, and began chanting something strange—something about “Kim Dokja.”A faint golden ring shimmered above Inho’s head, and slowly his complexion began to improve.Killer King asked, “You know him?”“Yes.”“I see.”A stranger who had saved him—and claimed to know him.It was more than enough reason for suspicion, but Killer King didn’t bother pressing.There were more urgent matters at hand.“The final ‘Qualification of Kings’ will begin soon.”The last test—the stage for the Throne Contest itself—was right before them.“We need the Four Calamity Execution Sword.”The blade that could be forged only by gathering seven Star Gems.And at this moment, all seven were here.But unlike the original story, anyone who gathered all seven would be consumed by madness and turn into a monster.Cha Yerin stepped forward, anxious.“He’s already on the edge. We don’t know what’ll happen if we feed him the last gem.”“Right.”Killer King looked down at the fallen Inho.He’d staked his life to save them.And now they’d use him as a sacrifice to forge the sword?“Yoo Joonghyuk wouldn’t do something that cowardly.”Lee Dansu exhaled in relief. Cha Yerin, who’d been tense, lowered her guard as well.But the real crisis was only beginning.[“The Final Qualification of Kings” begins.]The message rang through the air, and Killer King’s expression hardened.“So it starts.”The final stage had opened.He turned to Lee Dansu. “We go without the sword. All we have to do is stop Yoo Joonghyuk.”In the original 41st regression, the world perished because of the Absolute Throne.Destroying it with the Execution Sword would be ideal—but even without it, there was another way.If no one claimed the throne, the scenario could still be saved.“We just have to stall until the scenario shifts. Make sure no one sits on that throne.”The Star Stream always favored what was more interesting—more narratively compelling.If they could make the story engaging enough, they might have a chance.“Oppa, the coins.”“I’ve saved plenty.”“Take mine too.”To defeat Yoo Joonghyuk in the final test, they would need to use the same method Kim Dokja once had.And that method required an enormous amount of coins.Lee Dansu watched them. “Yerin, you’re not a king?”“No.”“Then…”At Yerin’s glance, Killer King answered,“I’m the king.”“I see.”“O King ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) of Immortality,” he said with a faint smile, “do you want to know what kind of king I am?”“Pardon?”Lee Dansu blinked, lost for words, as Killer King declared:“I’m the King of Lonely Taste.”“The… King of what?”Dansu wondered if he’d misheard. He vaguely remembered seeing such an absurd title among the list of kingly options—but never imagined anyone would actually choose it.[Constellation ‘Sly Strategist’ shakes his head in disbelief.]Even Cha Yerin turned her face away.Killer King looked genuinely puzzled by their reactions. “You and I, and Ye Hyunwoo outside—that makes three kings who can enter the final stage. It would’ve been better with Inho, but…”The man lying on the floor showed no sign of waking.It was a miracle he was even alive.“Then it’s just us.”[Qualified kings are being transferred to the final testing ground.]With a crackling sound, sparks rose around them.“Yerin, take care of him.”“Don’t worry.”Killer King glanced one last time at the woman. She still had her hand pressed to Inho’s forehead, whispering the same incantation.Apparently, it was suppressing his madness.To her, Killer King said only:“7942.”The woman slowly opened her eyes. “9158.”“You remember well.”“Of course. I made the code myself.”Killer King nodded.“First Apostle, will you fight?”She shook her head.Looking faintly surprised, he turned away.“When Inho wakes up, tell him—that I’ll protect this world.”***In the haze between sleep and waking, I dreamed.“Writer-nim. You know…”The moment I heard her voice, I understood.Of course.This was Ji Eunyeu’s dream.“Yes.”In the dream, I answered.Afraid of what she might say—and still hoping for it.“At the very end, Kim Dokja came back, right?”The ending.I knew what she meant immediately—that moment when the hospital door opened, and Han Sooyoung and Yoo Joonghyuk returned.When the oldest dreamers—the Readers—wished for Kim Dokja’s resurrection.She was talking about the final scene of Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint.I glanced around nervously, as if someone might overhear, and whispered,“Came back? Well… who knows. It’s an open ending.”Ji Eunyeu frowned.“You really think so?”“An open ending has more artistic integrity—”“Forget integrity. What do you think, Writer-nim?”I hesitated, then stammered,“To leave a strong impression, it’s best when the top spins—right at the edge of stopping—”“Want me to hit you with a top?”Her fist spun like one as she cracked her knuckles. I shrank back.“I don’t know. Han Sooyoung wrote it, ask her.”Eunyeu sighed, exasperated.“Fine, I’ll ask differently. If you were a reader, what would you think after seeing that ending? Do you think Kim Dokja came back?”If I were the reader…There was no need to think.Every line of that final chapter pointed toward the single sentence that wasn’t written.The one missing piece of the puzzle—so absent it shone brighter than anything present.“He must’ve come back.”“You should’ve just said that from the start.”“Don’t tell anyone I said so.”“Why would I? Anyway—what form did he come back in?”“Form?”“That’s how it ends, right? The countless Kim Dokjas scattered through the universe, and their wishes bringing him back to life?”Hearing her say it out loud, it suddenly sounded like the ending of a children’s fairy tale.“I suppose so.”“Then each of those readers had their own Kim Dokja. If all of them, at the same time, believed ‘Kim Dokja has returned’—what would happen?”“…Ah.”I hadn’t thought of that.Fear prickled at the back of my neck.“Do I have to rewrite it?”The moment I blinked—desperate that the answer be no—the scenery shifted.Stone walls overhead.Dim torchlight.The chill of the floor under my palms—and my memories returned in fragments.Coming into the labyrinth to find the Execution Sword.Meeting Killer King and Dansu there.Absorbing the Star Gems.The Catastrophe’s summoning.The Warden’s fall.Almost dying.Then—Ji Eunyeu.[You currently possess six “Star Gems.”][The power of the Star Gems is eroding your body.][“Madness – Level 6” is consuming you.][An unknown force is suppressing your madness.][An unknown force is interfering with the erosion.]I slowly pushed myself upright. My skull throbbed as if clamped in a vice.No one else was around.What had happened?The Catastrophe was dead. The Warden, too.Where were the others?What happened to the scenario?I—[The master of the Absolute Throne has been chosen.]The sudden message froze me.I thought I’d misheard.The master of the throne has been chosen?My thoughts aligned at once.If a master had been decided, that meant the Throne Contest had already begun—and ended.The fourth scenario is over.I looked down at the small Star Gem rolling across the floor.Six in my hand, one more there.There is no Execution Sword in this round.My fingers trembled. Something that shouldn’t have happened—had happened.The dungeon was shaking.A sickness churned inside me. My instincts screamed—something dreadful was being born into this world.[The final master of the Absolute Throne is…]A distant light flared. Footsteps thundered toward me.[Incarnation: Yoo Joonghyuk.]The 41st regression had reached its end.

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