I calmly studied Anna Croft’s face. Just by checking her complexion, I could glean a lot.

Eyes that had lost some of their sharpness. Dark circles sinking deep beneath them.

She probably hadn’t slept a single proper night from the moment the Washington incident began until now.

Which was why she was making such a rash judgment at this moment.

“What if I really am a retainer of the ‘Demon King of Salvation’?”

At my question, Anna Croft only flinched and couldn’t give any answer.

“Are you going to detonate a nuclear weapon right now? Can you blow away the whole of ‘Las Vegas’ just to eliminate a single retainer?”

“I was the one asking the questions.”

“If I tell you who I am, will you believe it? You know that [Lie Detection] doesn’t work properly on me, don’t you?”

“That’s your claim.”

“Do you want to test it?”

Instead of answering, Anna Croft bit down hard on her lips.

“Anna. You can’t detonate a nuclear weapon. You’re someone who wants to protect ‘Zarathustra.’”

I doubted whether the tactical nuke in question would even function properly, but from the start Anna Croft had no intention of using a tactical nuke.

If she did something like that, the ‘Zarathustra’ she protects would disappear along with it.

“Cheon Inho, what do you even know about me—”

“I know well. How full you are of a sense of mission, why in this world you want to erase all the stars. And what kind of ‘night’ it is that you dream of every day.”

「“Please. You too, come with me into my ‘Perfect Night.’”」

I remembered those words Kim Dokja once heard.

In the end, ‘Anna Croft’ would arrive at her ‘night.’ It would be a brighter night than she thought, and it wouldn’t be in this worldline either.

“How in the world do you—”

“At this level, I know quite a lot about you, don’t I?”

As the advantage in the conversation flipped, Anna Croft’s complexion turned grave.

“Anna Croft. What relation I have with the ‘Demon King of Salvation’ isn’t important. What’s important is that you’re desperate right now. And that the only hill you can even try to climb is me. If you leave things like this, the American continent will be destroyed. Do you want this round to end in failure again?”

Anna Croft looked as if she had just taken a barrage of strikes in a row. Normally, an attack of this level wouldn’t have shaken her composure.

But right now she was very tired.

“What do you want, Cheon Inho?”

“Looks like we can finally have a conversation.”

There were many things I was curious about.

Most of all, I wanted to ask about the life or death of Yu Joonghyuk and his companions.

But here, that question wasn’t appropriate.

Anna had asserted that they were alive, and there was a problem that had to be solved before I asked that question.

I organized my thoughts.

Kim Dokja wasn’t here right now.

But if it were ‘Kim Dokja,’ he would surely have started the conversation like this.

“Then let’s get to the point. You can come out now. I know you’ve been listening.”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

“No matter how difficult the scenario situation has become, it makes no sense for you to be this incompetent.”

I remembered all of Han Sooyoung’s descriptions of ‘Anna Croft.’

Although Anna got played every time she ran into Kim Dokja, that was only because the opponent was Kim Dokja.

She was the strongest incarnation in America, someone whom even that regressor Yu Joonghyuk had been wary of. The one who realized her prophecies, fooled even constellations in the end, and dreamed of a ‘Perfect Night.’

There was no way a character like that would struggle this much in the mere seventh scenario.

“If you won’t come out, I’ll make you come out.”

Unless there was a very fatal saboteur.

[Exclusive skill, ‘[Agitation] Lv.10,’ activates!]

“Anna Croft. You are currently under [Hypnosis Agitation].”

At those words, Anna Croft’s pupils trembled.

“From now on, you will awaken from [Hypnosis Agitation]—”

“W-wait! Please wait!”

With the sound of someone clapping—clap—Anna Croft slumped onto the chair.

Right after, the air rippled and a woman appeared from within a transparent cloak. ‘Cloak of the Hermit.’ A face I knew well.

“How did you know?”

Since I possessed this world, I had picked up a bad habit.

When a new person appeared, I used [Reader Comment List] first.

[Checking this reader’s profile information.]

+

ID: FantasyQueen90
Platform: BestNovel
Total comment count: 80
Reader Level: 5
Number of complete reads: 1

+

* You can use coins to check the comments this reader has left.

* Number of comments you can currently check for free: 3.

+

When we boarded the car heading for Las Vegas, I had already used ‘Reader Comment List’ on Christina, and so I knew.

That she was an ‘Apostle’ of America.

I slowly scanned the list window floating before my eyes.

‘BestNovel’—the name was unfamiliar, so it was probably an American platform.

Number of complete reads: 1.

“It would be strange not to know. You’re the one who made that ‘Anna Croft’ end up like that. None of the ‘Annas’ I know have judgment that poor.”

“…….”

“If you brought me all the way here, you must have a purpose. What is it?”

Christina Page.

Even after confirming in Korea the indirect message from the ‘Demon King of Salvation,’ she brought me all the way here.

If she believed the demon king at the Washington Dome was really the ‘Demon King of Salvation,’ it would have been unthinkable.

It was no different from bringing an enemy’s retainer into her own stronghold.

Even so, she did it.

The answer was obvious.

“What is your…… relationship with the ‘Demon King of Salvation’?”

She knew that the ‘Demon King of Salvation’ at the Washington Dome was fake.

“Please answer. Is the ‘constellation’ you serve truly the ‘Demon King of Salvation’?”

Not ‘demon king’—‘constellation.’

I met her eyes anew.

The moment I saw those eyes trembling deep, I realized what she was hoping for.

I slowly rose from my seat, went to the window, and pulled open the curtains Anna had closed.

Deepening dusk. Far in the night sky, the stars were twinkling.

Among them, I quietly looked up at one that shone there.

“What if I say he is. Then what.”

How much time passed like that.

When I slowly turned my head, I saw Christina kneeling.

“Please.”

A face collapsing as she let go of everything she had been holding in.

“Please save Washington…… please save our Zarathustra.”

*

So that other constellations wouldn’t overhear us, I set up several safety measures including [Soundproofing].

[Some constellations suddenly grumble that you’ve gone off their screens.]

Fortunately, Anna was also thorough with security, so it seemed the constellations couldn’t hear our conversation at all.

“First, undo the [Daily Waybill] you placed, and then we’ll talk.”

Wiping away her tears, Christina released the [Daily Waybill].

[Your soul returns to its original body.]

The senses of my body that I had regained after a long time.

Right. This was what being alive felt like.

After a light deep breath, I seated Christina on the sofa and asked,

“What on earth happened in America?”

A little calmed, Christina laid the fallen Anna Croft across her lap and began to speak slowly.

After hearing her out, I finished my judgment while keeping my emotions as restrained as possible.

“To start with the conclusion, the demon that appeared at the ‘Washington Dome’ isn’t the ‘Demon King of Salvation,’ correct?”

“Yes.”

“What about the symbolic body of the ‘Demon King of Salvation’ you said you saw?”

“It’s true I saw the symbolic body of a high-ranking demon species. But he isn’t the real ‘demon king.’ The moment you see the real one, you can tell immediately.”

I had suspected that might be the case.

No matter that she had met a demon king through the [Nightmare] skill, Christina was far too intact for someone who had faced a true demon king.

Unless you were Yu Joonghyuk or Kim Dokja, it would be natural for an ordinary incarnation to go mad.

“Then why does Anna think that demon king is the ‘Demon King of Salvation’?”

“Because I told her so.”

“Why did you tell that lie?”

“That is……”

“And according to Anna’s story, the retainers at the Washington Dome also mentioned the ‘Demon King of Salvation.’”

Christina bit her lip hard. She glanced around as if checking my mood, then seemed to conclude there was nothing for it but to be honest.

“To tell that story, I need to explain a bit.”

“Keep it as concise as possible.”

“I didn’t mean to make things turn out like this from the beginning. I didn’t want to ruin the scenario this badly.”

Christina protested.

From what she said, it didn’t sound like Christina had maliciously worsened the situation.

And the same went for the other American Apostles.

「“In times like this, you have to catch the bugs. Everyone, find the bugs.”」

「“Protect the children first. If we stand together and fight, we can kill even the monster species!”」

「“Don’t fight each other! If ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) we clear the scenario together, it’ll be fine!”」

America’s initial situation wasn’t all that different from Korea’s.

The problem began right after the first scenario ended.

「“So now…… what are we supposed to do next?”」

American readers had almost no advantages from the start.

There was no guarantee the American scenarios were the same as Korea’s, and even if they were, it was difficult to leverage geographical advantages.

On top of that, due to translation issues, communication among the Apostles wasn’t smooth.

In that situation, the Apostles had only one method to choose in order to survive.

「“We have to find Anna Croft.”」

They eventually found Anna Croft and rallied around her.

Having met a major character like Anna, they thought they were saved now—thought they might be able to survive.

Until they learned the identity of this world.

「“My God, it seems there is no ‘Kim’ here.”」

That this world wasn’t ‘ORV.’

This world was the 41st round of ‘Extinction Method.’

A world where ‘Kim Dokja’ could never exist.

The Apostles fell into immense despair. Some began to believe in apocalyptic endings, some abandoned the scenario, saying death was inevitable anyway, and some even took their own lives.

Even amidst that, Christina and a small number of Apostles helped Anna Croft and fought on.

They cleared the second scenario, the third, the fourth, with astonishing performance.

And as a reward, they obtained a certain item.

「Calamity Choice Ticket」.

In the fifth scenario, they gained a chance to choose the ‘calamity’ that would come to them.

Ordinarily, choosing ‘Kronos’ there would have been correct.

Because Kronos’s calamity was one they were well acquainted with.

But then someone came up with an idea.

Couldn’t they summon someone they knew as a ‘calamity’ here?

“Hold on, don’t tell me.”

Just as the Calamity of Flood, Shin Yuseung, had done, certain ‘calamities’ could come even from beyond worldlines.

If so.

Christina, as if ashamed, bowed her head low.

“Yes. We asked to summon the ‘Demon King of Salvation’ as our ‘calamity.’”