The place I had fallen into was a dense forest zone.

[Enter the region of the Eighth Scenario.]
[Dokkaebi fire will guide you.]

The dokkaebi fire buzzed before me like a tiny firefly.

But I didn’t move right away. I needed to know where I was.

It was late at night. The forest, crowded with broadleaf trees blocking the sky, felt eerie and frightening.

The stars in the sky were nowhere to be seen.

I couldn’t hear any indirect messages either.

I formed hypotheses in my head.

First, this might be an area the constellations still couldn’t observe.

Second, I could be in an outer zone of the scenario, where the constellations had no interest.

Whichever it was, with my current physical condition, avoiding combat was the best option.

Beasts cried out from time to time.

I crouched down as much as possible and slipped into the bushes, holding my breath.

“Dokkaebi pouch.”

Fortunately, the dokkaebi pouch still functioned normally.

I purchased items needed for camping.

[You have purchased the item, ‘Body Odor Removal Spray’.]
[You have purchased the item, ‘Portable Cot’.]
[You have purchased the item, ‘Someone’s Old Blanket’.]
[You have spent a total of 800 coins.]

They were the “homeless survival essentials” the Demon King of Salvation had once recommended to me.

After spraying the area, I set up the portable cot and draped the “someone’s old blanket” over it.

The blanket shimmered like ectoplasm and then slowly blended into the surroundings. From the outside, one would never notice there was a hideout hidden in the bushes.

[You have completed the hidden item combination.]
[Special option, ‘Outside the Blanket Is Dangerous’ activates.]

I slipped into the transparent blanket. Inside, I could see everything outside clearly.

The only drawback was that the space inside was so cramped that an adult male could barely lie down.

But since I was the only one here, it didn’t matter.

Curled up inside the thick blanket, faint, unfamiliar memories rose to the surface.

「“If you read there, your eyes will go bad.”」

Memories of hiding inside a blanket, turning on a small reading lamp, and reading a book.

Were those my memories, or Kim Dokja’s?

「“It’s fine.”」

Did it matter whose they originally were?

「“Don’t stay up too late.”」

I turned on Kim Dokja’s smartphone and began reading the ‘Destruction Method’.

*

One day passed, then another. My daily routine was simple.

[Dokkaebi fire guides you.]

During the day, I followed the dokkaebi fire through the forest zone. At night, I would curl up in the blanket tent, reading the ‘Destruction Method’ before sleeping for short stretches.

Sometimes I ran into beast species.

Grrrrrr—!

The ones I encountered were mostly Grade-7 or Grade-8 species.

By the second night of camping, my body had recovered enough to fight them.

The creature I most frequently encountered was a huge boar.

[Grade-7 beast species, ‘Forest Boar’, has appeared.]

I reached for my usual weapon—only to realize the Demon King of Salvation had taken ‘Thoughts About Almost Everything’.

Thankfully, I still had one replacement weapon.

‘Unbreakable Conviction.’

Kim Dokja’s main weapon, and the weapon left behind by the vanished Han Sooyoung.

The radiant blade of [Body-Protecting Gang Qi], now familiar in my hands, flashed brightly.

「Youngest, how do you use [Body-Protecting Gang Qi]?」

I barely dodged the massive tusks of the forest boar and shaped my sword path with the tale ‘Tenacious Martial Arts Master’.

The boar collapsed, blood gushing from its flank.

[You have slain the Grade-7 beast species, ‘Forest Boar’.]

I gathered its core and immediately began butchering it—I hadn’t eaten anything for two days.

「Never starve. If you lack energy, your head stops working. Yu Joonghyuk eats eight meals a day.」

I looked up ‘Forest Boar Butchering Method’ in the ‘Destruction Method’.

I removed the poison-coated tusks, peeled off the hide, took out the organs, and cut the meat along the spine.

I collected twigs and lit a fire.

I didn’t have a [Magic Furnace], but I was now skilled enough to conjure cooking flames without one.

「Youngest, which round is the Yu Joonghyuk who cooks the best?」

I followed the 81st-round Yu Joonghyuk’s recipe. But even following his recipe closely, the dish turned out strangely bad.

Of course—I wasn’t Yu Joonghyuk.

「Yu Joonghyuk thought, ‘Maybe I can achieve transcendence through cooking as well.’」

Living alone taught me a few obvious truths.

For example, not every beast species tasted delicious like ‘Groundhog Rat’ or ‘Yanaspreatta’.

「Watching Kim Namwoon vomit up the thing he’d just eaten, Yu Joonghyuk thought, ‘This ingredient is not something one can fix by cooking.’」

I had to butcher beasts three or four times a day and stockpile emergency food in case a hunt failed.

「Seeing Kim Namwoon foaming at the mouth, Yu Joonghyuk thought, ‘This fruit kills you within a minute.’」

Even in the apocalypse, hygiene must be maintained. Sometimes you had to bathe in running water.

「“Kim Namwoon, you smell awful.”
Lee Jihye pinched her nose and stepped away.
“Ungh……”」

If there was no place to wash, I could always buy [Clean Body] from the dokkaebi pouch.

「Kim Namwoon immediately used [Clean Body].」

[You use the item ‘Clean Body’.]
[50 coins have been consumed.]

Three days passed. Then four.

It had been a long time since I’d been this alone.

Suddenly, I remembered my first day living on my own.

「Kim Namwoon begged, “Leader, can’t I get to eat first this time?”」

Humans must eat something every day to live.

「Yu Joonghyuk commanded, “No. From now on, you are also in charge of the laundry, Kim Namwoon.”」

Someone has to do laundry for [N O V E L I G H T] clean clothes to exist.

「Yu Joonghyuk commanded, “You’ll also dispose of the beast carcasses, Kim Namwoon.”」

If you don’t clean up after eating, insects gather.

「Yu Joonghyuk commanded, “And pay ten thousand coins a day.”」

You have to earn money to pay rent and city tax.

Those extremely obvious truths—I learned them myself and barely grew into a functional adult.

「Yu Joonghyuk commanded, “Practice sword swings twenty thousand times a day.”」

Things one must do to become an ordinary grown-up.

「Kim Namwoon shouted, “Damn it, how am I supposed to do all that!”」

I often thought about Kim Dokja, who must have endured such things alone without his parents.

About the boy who washed dishes, worked to earn money, paid rent, ate meals, and read the Destruction Method before bed—the Demon King of Salvation from a time when he could not save anyone.

「Yu Joonghyuk answered, “I did.”」

「Yu Joonghyuk answered, “You do it too.”」

Thinking about that boy, I continued reading the ‘Destruction Method’.

And a week passed.

I had become far more natural at hunting beasts. My butchering had sped up, and my skill proficiency had increased.

I reread the ‘Destruction Method’, searching for the required information each time.

I learned to tell what was edible and what wasn’t.

Whenever there was a stream, I tested the water quality and collected drinking water.

Sometimes I washed my face in the cold water. My reflection stared back at me in the strangely clear stream.

[The tale, ‘Successor of the Eternal Name’, silently watches you.]

For some reason, my face looked slightly different. Was it my imagination?

[Collect a new ‘Kim Dokja Fragment’.]
[Time remaining until death: 9 days 12:53]

“It’s about time to go get a new fragment.”

[‘Recycling Center’ reacts to your muttering.]

Recycling Center.

Over the past week, I had combed through the entire ‘Destruction Method’ for information on the Eighth Scenario.

[‘Recycling Center’ senses the possibility of a new ‘protagonist’ in you.]

Originally, the Eighth Scenario of the Korean Peninsula was ‘Dark Castle’.

A new Demon Realm—a stage to choose the ruler of the 73rd Demon Realm.

But in the 41st round, the Eighth Stage was the ‘Recycling Center’.

「If ‘Dark Castle’ is a stage to choose a new demon king, the ‘Recycling Center’ is a stage to choose a new constellation.」

A region you could only reach through the ‘Star Ladder’.

「Any incarnation who graduates from the ‘Recycling Center’ becomes a constellation, regardless of origin.」

According to the ‘Destruction Method’, one could ascend to constellation status through the Recycling Center while still retaining a backer constellation.

At first glance, the scenario didn’t seem bad.

「But Yu Joonghyuk almost never used the Recycling Center.」

The problem was that even the regressor Yu Joonghyuk shook his head at the difficulty level of this place.

No wonder the Demon King of Salvation disliked this scenario.

And yet, he had sent me here.

[Dokkaebi fire ends its guidance.]
[You have arrived at the ‘Assembly Point’.]

The guidance ended at last. I looked around.

I had arrived at an entrance leading somewhere. A guide holding a small attendance board stood at the doorway.

“Hm.”

The guide wore a sheep mask.

“There was someone who still hadn’t come in?”

The guide looked me up and down, then spoke in a bored voice.

“You seem to be from an outlying nebula. Right?”

“I don’t belong to a nebula.”

“Oh. Dear. No nebula?”

Perhaps feeling pity, the guide began saying strange things.

“Some crazy backer must have shoved another incarnation into a death trap. Did you fall for some idiotic tale like ‘A Dragon Born from the Muddy Stream’?”

Apparently there was such a tale.

“I don’t know what story you heard before coming here, but you’d better go back. Incarnations like you become prey the moment you step inside.”

“Thank you, but I want to enter the ‘Recycling Center’.”

The guide, unaware of my circumstances, shook his head like yet another hopeless fool had shown up.

“Well, whatever. It’s your life. I need to ask a few things first. Is that fine?”

I nodded.

“Place of origin?”

“Seoul Dome.”

“Do you have any tales?”

“Yes.”

“How many did you stack yourself?”

“Three.”

“Stacked three yourself…”

He stopped writing and asked:

“You stacked three tales? Who recommended you?”

“The Demon King of Salvation.”

I wondered if he would know my backer constellation, but with the sheep mask on, I couldn’t read his expression.

After checking something, the guide nodded.

“Name?”

I was about to say Cheon Inho, but hesitated.

“Name?”

I didn’t know why—

I simply had a strong feeling that I shouldn’t say that.

“I asked your name. You didn’t forget it, did you?”

[The guide doubts your identity.]
[If you say an incorrect name, you will be immediately expelled.]

“There are a lot of strange ones today. That pitch-black kid who came in earlier, too…”

I thought of the Demon King of Salvation.

“Just warning you, if you say the wrong name, you’re expelled on the spot. Only invited incarnations can come—”

My mischievous backer constellation. He was the one who let me into this place.

“My name is—”

I slowly spoke a certain person’s name.

The guide stared at me for a moment, then said:

“That’s a strange name.”

“I hear that a lot.”

“Welcome to the ‘Recycling Center’, Kim Dokja.”

I nodded.