At first, I naturally thought it was a joke.

―Try smacking the back of Yu Joonghyuk’s head once.

“Excuse me?”

Because no sane human would make a suggestion like that.

―Then I’ll help you.

Wait, seriously?

Why on earth?

―Because I want to see it.

“Why do you want to see that?”

It was a question not worth asking. He wanted to see it because it would be fun. The “Demon King of Salvation” is a Constellation.

No—before being a Constellation, that guy originally liked smacking the back of Yu Joonghyuk’s head. Not only in the 3rd round, but even in the 1,863rd round, he was the heinous great man who smacked Yu Joonghyuk’s head and made him eat dirt.

Come to think of it, it was strange.

Why did Kim Dokja do that?

Is he inherently a bit sadistic?

―What’s wrong? Can’t do it? You asked for help without even that much courage?

“No, having courage and being out of your mind are different things.”

―If you can’t do it, forget it. You don’t need my help, that it?

“N-no! I need it! I do!”

I calmed myself and thought again about this proposal. Come to think of it, throughout scenario progress, every action of Kim Dokja’s was thoroughly calculated. Each item picked up mid-scenario, each foreshadowing laid in advance—Kim Dokja was someone who moved while preparing for a very distant future.

Such a guy told me to smack the back of Yu Joonghyuk’s head.

Then there had to be a reason.

Smack!

That’s what I believed—until the crisp sound rang from my palm.

The moment I met eyes with Yu Joonghyuk as he slowly turned his head, I realized what I’d done.

A gaze so terrifying it felt like even my heart would freeze. Pupils roiling with dreadful heat glared at me.

To clarify the facts first: I did not “properly” smack the back of Yu Joonghyuk’s head. To be precise, I only hit the mana barrier between the back of his head and my palm.

[Incarnation ‘Yu Joonghyuk’ is activating ‘Protective Gang Qi Lv.10.’]

Protective Gang Qi at level 10 in the seventh scenario.

He wasn’t someone a back-of-the-head attack would land on.

'What do I do now?'

Anyway, I kept my promise with Kim Dokja.

From here on, it was Kim Dokja’s part.

―Wow, you really went and did it.

'Excuse me?'

―I didn’t think you’d actually do it.

Is he insane?

Another piece of information about Kim Dokja belatedly surfaced. Kim Dokja was indeed a “reader” who planned everything meticulously. But was this guy also methodical when he smacked Yu Joonghyuk’s head?

“What are you doing.”

My back stiffened and my knees began to tremble. I became certain that at this rate I’d die.

What on earth had I done.

Of all the backs-of-heads out there, why did I hit Yu Joonghyuk’s.

Against someone who already bore a grudge against me—

[Your exclusive trait activates!]

Perhaps because I was cornered, my head suddenly cleared and my mind sharpened. Live. I have to survive somehow.

Right now, to Yu Joonghyuk, I am “Cheon Inho.”

If it were Cheon Inho, what would he say to Yu Joonghyuk now?

[You activate the exclusive skill, ‘Agitation Lv.10’!]

Switching into premium Cheon Inho mode, I curved my half-closed eyes in a gentle arc and smiled.

“Your skill mastery is impressive. In your past life, you wouldn’t have been able to block it.”

At my brazen tone, the glare in Yu Joonghyuk’s eyes shifted.

“Have you regained the memories of the previous round?”

I shrugged without answering. But Yu Joonghyuk’s reply was unexpected.

“Drop the act. I already know you aren’t ‘Cheon Inho.’”

I swallowed my surprise inside.

I knew Yu Joonghyuk was suspicious of me. I just didn’t think he’d bring it up outright.

“Why do you think that?”

“If you were the real Cheon Inho, you would have aimed for a more certain vital point.”

“Then let’s go # Nоvеlight # with fake Cheon Inho. Who I am isn’t that important anyway, is it?”

“It wasn’t important. Originally.”

With those words, Yu Joonghyuk put on the black coat hanging over the chair back. Then he dropped into the chair with a thud and began chugging the drink on the table. Even as he drank, he didn’t take his eyes off the clear sky outside the window.

I could tell what Yu Joonghyuk was looking at.

At the center of the sky, without a single cloud, there remained a trace as if someone had grabbed the space itself and torn it out.

A scar from forty-five days ago, left where the “Great Hall” had vanished.

Beyond that sky, Yu Joonghyuk and I fought Asmodeus. We faced the “Founder of the Absolute Throne.”

Would Yu Joonghyuk remember that day?

―As expected.

Kim Dokja, who was watching Yu Joonghyuk with me, spoke.

―He’s not going to kill you.

I was dumbfounded. He made me smack Yu Joonghyuk’s head just to test that?

―Now you know he won’t kill you so easily. This is important. Who knows how many more times you’ll have to smack the back of that guy’s head.

'I won’t be doing it again.'

Sensing our gaze, Yu Joonghyuk set down his cup and spoke.

“Fake Cheon Inho.”

“Yes.”

“Why did you stop me from taking the ‘Absolute Throne’?”

“You took it in the end, didn’t you.”

“I know what you did.”

A Conqueror’s aura flowed from Yu Joonghyuk’s whole body as he slowly turned to me.

But that was only a matter of aura; it didn’t actually exert influence over me. Proof that, in this round, the “Absolute Throne” wasn’t functioning properly.

“How did you kill an ‘Otherworldly Divinity’?”

“I was lucky.”

“Why did you do such a thing.”

“If you take the Absolute Throne, you can’t see a proper ending.”

“How do you know that?”

“You’re a regressor and you don’t know that yet?”

Had I picked up the “Demon King of Salvation” Kim Dokja’s way of speaking in the meantime? A slick retort slipped out without my noticing.

Yu Joonghyuk’s reaction was decisive.

“You bastard.”

He raised killing intent as if he really would end me this time.

I swallowed without meaning to.

―Don’t flinch. He won’t kill you.

I agreed with Kim Dokja.

Right now, Yu Joonghyuk can’t kill me.

It had become that way.

In fact, the killing intent directed at me slowly subsided. Yu Joonghyuk had judged it. That rather than killing me here and now, it would be better to use me.

―Not an absolute disaster, then. Seems you’ve been acknowledged by Joonghyuk to a fair degree?

I’d been acknowledged by Yu Joonghyuk.

It sounded like I hadn’t lived entirely wrong, and inwardly, I didn’t feel bad about it.

Yu Joonghyuk continued.

“That day, there was someone besides you who stopped me.”

I knew at once who he meant. That was about Han Sooyoung.

“That woman implanted some kind of memory in my head.”

“What memory?”

“A different worldline’s memory.”

Even though I’d expected it, I got goosebumps again.

Not some other Yu Joonghyuk—the Yu Joonghyuk of the 41st round came to know the worldline of Omniscient Reader.

I was curious about Kim Dokja’s reaction, but he said nothing, whatever he was thinking.

“Do you also know that worldline?”

“I do.”

For a moment I became curious.

How did the Yu Joonghyuk of the 41st round view the world of Omniscient Reader? What did he feel seeing that world’s story?

“Can you do something similar to what that woman did?”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m asking if you can implant that worldline’s memories into my head.”

I didn’t possess the tale of [Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint] intact like Han Sooyoung. But if it’s simply injecting the affairs of that worldline, I might be able to imitate something similar. Because I have [Agitation].

“If you turn off [Mental Barrier], I can crudely mimic it. Are you saying you’ve grown curious about that worldline’s story?”

For a moment I worried.

If Yu Joonghyuk said he wanted to know that worldline, would I have to tell him that story?

If it came to that, what would happen to this 41st round?

“I’m not curious about some story.”

Saying that, Yu Joonghyuk furrowed his brow again, thinking something. Then, like letting out a light sigh, he spoke.

“Just now, a message came from Anna Croft.”

A name I hadn’t heard in a while.

Anna Croft.

Representative incarnation of Asgard, and leader of the American group.

“The final battle of the seventh scenario will be with her group.”

“Do you mean Zarathustra?”

“So you do know.”

I nodded.

In fact, I had even briefly spoken with Anna Croft by using the Specter’s Soulstone.

“Are you planning to join forces with her?”

Honestly, it was unexpected. Whatever happened in the 40th round, the Yu Joonghyuk I knew was by no means someone who would join forces with “Anna Croft.” Of course, when Ways of Survival enters the later rounds, the situation changes—but this is only the 41st round. Yu Joonghyuk, who hasn’t forgotten a single tragedy from the previous round… could he cooperate with that “Anna Croft”?

“If I meet Anna Croft, I will probably try to kill her.”

With those words, a strange sensation rippled from Yu Joonghyuk’s whole body.

The sensation of a disquieting tale.

At the same time, Kim Dokja’s voice sounded.

―Damn, that guy actually inscribed that on his body already in the seventh scenario?

It seemed Kim Dokja had recognized what Yu Joonghyuk’s tale was.

“Anna Croft is still useful. At least until this world ends, there is something that woman has to do. So if I try to kill her……”

Breathing slowly as if to calm the tale, Yu Joonghyuk looked at me.

“You will stop me.”

“Excuse me?”

“Inject the ‘other worldline’s’ memories into me.”

“What is that supposed to…… if I do that—”

“Then I can stop.”

A chill crept slowly down my spine.

Only then did I begin to understand why Yu Joonghyuk kept me alive.

“I don’t know exactly why, but if I receive those memories, I stop acting.”

「A happy memory.」

I don’t know what happened inside Yu Joonghyuk after he received the memory.

But Yu Joonghyuk was telling me:

“I don’t know whether you’re Cheon Inho or not. Just stick to my side, and when I command it, stop me.”

When he commands it, to stop him.

“That is your use.”

I understood what Yu Joonghyuk’s words meant. Which is why I couldn’t believe it.

―Congratulations, kid. Looks like this is going to go well.

Just now, I had been formally acknowledged by the Yu Joonghyuk of the 41st round.

“It’s an order. Join this scenario.”

To become his comrade to stop the destruction of this world.

'My backer.'

―Yeah.

At the moment when, for the first time, a ray of dawn light shone into the 41st round’s world, which had been filled with all sorts of bleak prospects—maybe the 41st round wasn’t too late yet. This story could still be changed.

Perhaps moved as well, Kim Dokja spoke in an even more excited voice.

―Next time you smack the back of his head, try injecting the memory where he eats dirt.

Ignoring Kim Dokja’s nonsense, I checked my smartphone; it happened to be vibrating.

[“Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint” has a new episode updated on the platform.]

Come to think of it, I’d forgotten I had this ability.

The ability to check the “comments” of the episodes posted on the platform. If I used this ability, I could get hints not only about what had happened during the past forty-five days while I was unconscious, but also about events that would happen going forward.

With that in mind I tapped the platform app…… but what was this?

The installments serialized during the forty-five days I’d been unconscious did not exist.