In the distance, the Absolute Throne shone.The seat upon which only a single “king” could sit.Once, Han Sooyoung had wanted to sit there herself.She had believed that if she could reach that seat, it would make up for every humiliation she’d endured.At least until she realized even that desire was nothing more than amusement for the Constellations.[Many Constellations have become aware of your presence.][A few Constellations are concerned about your interference.][Some Constellations have requested the Bureau to review your plausibility.]She could feel the stars’ gazes from far across the sky.Would they understand her story now?[An unnamed Constellation watches you without revealing its modifiers.]What she sought lay far beyond that throne—so distant and unreachable that even she wasn’t sure what it was anymore.She had no reason to intervene in this incident.This was the “normal progression” of the 41st round.In the 41st regression, Yoo Joonghyuk would seize the Absolute Throne and walk the path of a Conqueror who ruled all.No one would ever again stand at his eye level.He would have no comrades.Just leave him be.If left alone, the 41st round would fail.Despairing, Yoo Joonghyuk would send Shin Yooseung to the past at the end of the scenario.That would be the end of this worldline’s story.And Kim Dokja—who had read every story—would return to her.He had to return.To ensure that, she couldn’t move.She couldn’t write even a single line.She had to leave the characters to act and the world to flow as it would.She knew that better than anyone.Then why—“Yoo Joonghyuk. Once you sit there, everything ends.”Had she really picked up the pen?“You already know what the ‘Absolute Throne’ really is, don’t you?”Of course she knew the answer.She could still see it vividly when she closed her eyes—because she had seen something she should never have seen.“What you’re trying to do isn’t ending the story. It’s giving up.”The Kim Dokja she’d once turned away from.The Kim Dokja who didn’t want to be Kim Dokja anymore—and yet, had to return to this story again.She had found that Kim Dokja.And that was why she was here now.“So you’re Han Sooyoung.”The Yoo Joonghyuk of the 41st round looked at her, black spear in hand.Han Sooyoung smiled faintly.“Who told you my name?”She met his eyes.“I owed you one, last time.”This was the second time she had fought the Yoo Joonghyuk of the 41st round.“Think it’ll go differently this time?”“It will.”“Slow learner, huh? After the last fight, you should know—you can’t win against me.”They had clashed once on the rooftop of the Theater Dungeon.She’d forced plausibility to its breaking point, drawn on legend itself, and exploited his “regression depression” to bring him down.But could she do that again?She didn’t know.“Right. Guess that’s why you’ve regressed forty-some times.”Because she didn’t know, she provoked him deliberately—just to read his reaction.But Yoo Joonghyuk didn’t rise to the bait.His eyes were deep, still, and dark as a sunken sea.All sounds vanished.The air itself was heavy with tension.Not even a single insect dared to cry.Han Sooyoung moved first.The sound of the earth shoving backward came half a beat late.Black spear and white blade collided midair.Mana clashed against mana; from within the storm clouds above, an ear-splitting screech burst out.KAAAAANG!Lightning fell in the form of a spear strike that crushed her sword.A heavy blow.With a grunt, she pushed it back. Yoo Joonghyuk spoke.“So you know about regression.”“Yeah. Surprised?”“I expected as much.”He didn’t even twitch an eyebrow.“This round has had a lot of strange ones.”Strange ones.She knew exactly who he meant.“They all claimed to know me.”A sliver of raw emotion slipped through his words—the fury of a regressor honed and honed again.[Incarnate ‘Yoo Joonghyuk’ activates ‘Soul-Annihilating Divine Spear Lv.10’!]Dark mana spiraled from his weapon.Its horrific pulse froze her expression.Now it starts for real.Han Sooyoung embraced implausibility and unleashed her own stigma.[Black Flame.]The mark of the Black Flame Dragon—the power that had earned her the title of Blackflame Demon King.Thunder cracked as her sword met his spear.The Divine Spear against the Black Flame.She was confident.The Soul-Annihilating Divine Spear might be powerful,but it couldn’t surpass her stigma.KUGUGUGU!The sky went black with the force of it.Han Sooyoung was the first to be thrown back.Her face went pale; she swallowed the blood rising in her throat and clenched her teeth.Impossible.Even accounting for the plausibility backlash—she had seen the end of two separate scenarios.The Yoo Joonghyuk before her was only the 41st-round version.Then how—“Don’t underestimate the me of the 41st round.”A comrade regressor’s voice echoed faintly in her head.“It’s just the forty-first round. So what?”“That round might be different.”This world wasn’t even recorded in Ways of Survival.Even she—the author—barely understood this worldline.Yoo Joonghyuk, who had lived a 41st life no one had ever written.He was saying—“So, you know me too?”Han Sooyoung bit her lip.“He’s the one who sent Shin Yooseung to the past because he couldn’t handle it alone. A guy who gave up that easily—how strong could he be?”“That’s exactly the problem.”“What?”“There’s no way I could’ve broken that easily in my forty-first life.”She stared at the Yoo Joonghyuk hovering in the air.The legend cloaking him said everything.A legend was proof of the life one had lived.A chill crawled down her spine.“In that worldline, I must have seen despair so absolute it broke me.I, who could always regress myself, concluded there was no ending except sending Shin Yooseung to another past.”His eyes were dark—bottomless.And Han Sooyoung thought of regressors.Regressors do not regress.Only the world around them rewinds.Their souls age. Their memories accumulate.A mind that frays, a heart that decays.Endless depression. Madness.She knew what that curse was.Regression was not something a normal human could endure—and Yoo Joonghyuk was no normal human.A will of iron, a spirit of steel.Strong—not merely in ability, but in being.He had been built to survive 1,800 regressions.“If he made such a choice by his forty-first…”If that “protagonist” had already abandoned his future by the forty-first round,it meant he had fought to the very limit of human endurance.“He must’ve given everything he had left.”“You don’t understand.”The spear’s light shimmered with legend.Something dark, dreadful, and unrecorded burned within.He was terrifyingly strong—unbelievably so for a 41st Yoo Joonghyuk.Stronger than any she’d seen in the fourth scenario.If I use the ‘Kim Dokja Company’ legend… I can win.But if she did—[ reacts to your choice.]The world’s plausibility would never forgive her.KAGAGAGAK!She swung her sword against his charging spear.Once, twice, three times.Each clash tore at her hands; blood dripped, nerves burned.The fourth strike—her grip gave out.Unbroken Conviction slipped from her grasp and fell.A single instant of vulnerability.Yoo Joonghyuk did not hesitate.With a cold, precise thrust, as if she had never belonged in this world—THUD.Straight through the heart.Han Sooyoung looked down at the wound, then up at him.That was the last thing she saw.Her limbs went slack.There was no mistaking it—she was dead.As he pulled the spear free,“It hurts, you bastard.”A voice came from behind him.Startled, Yoo Joonghyuk spun—ready to strike.“Do you know how much memory loss you get when an avatar dies once?”Small, soft hands clasped his head.ZZZZZT—!A blinding spark—an overwhelming jolt ripped through his mind.His whole body convulsed.The legend within Han Sooyoung’s hands invaded his consciousness.“The stronger he is, the heavier his despair.”That was the method her companion had told her.“Even a single feather’s weight will sink him.”No one knew better than Han Sooyoung what haunted a regressor.[Grand Legend ‘Kim Dokja Company’ begins its tale.]Her insides twisted; her entire body trembled like it was being electrocuted.“How’s that taste, huh? The flavor of happy memories.”The memories of Kim Dokja Company poured from her fingertips.“Why the hell is that guy good at cooking too?”The days they’d fought over Yoo Joonghyuk’s food with Kim Dokja.The company’s group picnic, laughing together.Moments from the story that had never truly ended.In that memory, Kim Dokja had said—“Next time, bring more beef.”Han Sooyoung gazed blankly at the scene.Those times felt unreal now—as if they’d only ever existed in fiction.Square screens.People who could only live through text.Her own memories felt like someone else’s novel.She smiled faintly at Yoo Joonghyuk’s blank white eyes.“Dying of happiness, huh.”Happiness.The word itself felt strange on her tongue.Maybe she’d forgotten its meaning when her avatar died.Maybe she’d lost more than that.But she believed—[Constellation, ‘Lotus Blooming Beneath the Moon,’ watches your choice.]—that someone else would remember the word for her.“They told me ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) to try persuading you.Are you ready to be persuaded?”Someone who would write the story in her place.“Son of a bitch.”A muttered line—one she herself would never have written.And in that moment, she finally understood her actions.Every author is first and foremost a reader.And she was no exception.She wanted to see what story he would tell—after everything he’d suffered, returning once more to this world.[Constellation, ‘Lotus Blooming Beneath the Moon,’ gazes at you with sorrow.]That was why she stopped Yoo Joonghyuk.[Constellation, ‘Sinister Strategist,’ lowers his head.]She had acted on her own, without the other members of Kim Dokja Company.“You think so too, don’t you, Yoo Joonghyuk?”Even knowing this choice could unravel everything she’d planned—Han Sooyoung exhaled softly and hoisted the unconscious Yoo Joonghyuk over her shoulder.There wasn’t much time left.He would wake soon.Before that, she had to descend, destroy the Absolute Throne,and cut the Thread of the Constellations.Only then would this scenario end.But there was something she didn’t know.The hair on her arms stood on end.A pressure filled her ears—the sound of a colossal scale tipping somewhere in the heavens.She realized instantly what was happening.Because she had entered this scenario from another worldline,the anomaly she’d caused was triggering a plausibility backlash.But she hadn’t expected it to take this form.The sky’s plausibility itself was going berserk.Her mouth fell open.She recognized this sensation well.[The Great Hall opens.]A vast hole tore through the black vortex of clouds above.[The divine beings of the Outer Realm have noticed your existence!][The Scale of Plausibility returns to equilibrium.]And through the rift of the Great Hall,the true master of the Absolute Throne revealed himself.

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