The wolf constellation, his expression twisted to the limit, shouted.

"[What nonsense are you―]"

Even I thought it was insane.

Saying I would steal the tale of 「Three Little Pigs」 would sound strange. But if this <Star Stream> really was a world that worked the way I thought— the way Kim Dokja had read it— then it wasn't a story that was impossible.

"Shut up and listen to me."

The temperature contained in my voice felt unfamiliar.

Was this really my own voice, or the residue of the tale the "Demon King of Salvation" had left in me?

[Tale, "Successor of the Eternal Name" listens to your story.]

Either way, it didn't matter.

Just, if Kim Dokja was also reading this story, if my backer star, somewhere in this world, was watching as well.

[A certain constellation that has not yet revealed its modifiers looks at you.]

At the very least, I wanted to tell a story I wouldn't be ashamed of before him.

"But you must not summon just any 'otherworldly divinity.'"

I took in as much air as I could and spat out my words. What came next was the important part.

"The otherworldly divinity you will summon is―"

The wind around us was growing strong again. I forced my voice out desperately. I couldn't tell whether the wolf heard me or not.

[Constellation, "Pig Who Died First" is enraged!]

Sparks that blasted from the wolf's whole body flung me away.

In my spinning vision, something short grabbed hold of me.

It was little Yu Joonghyuk.

He lifted me up in one go and dashed toward the brick house like an arrow.

Gyeong Sein, who had quickly rushed out to meet us, shoved me and little Yu Joonghyuk into the brick house and closed the door.

The beastfolk hiding inside the brick house raised their heads one by one from between the tables to look at me. Some with eyes resenting me, and others with eyes revering me.

There were also people who were worried about me.

"What on earth, what on earth are you thinking! You'll die! You'll really die!"

Gyeong Sein was crying.

"Your head hasn't gone wrong or anything, right? You didn't seriously start thinking you've become Kim Dokja, did you!"

Little Yu Joonghyuk snapped his head around to look up at Gyeong Sein. But it seemed Gyeong Sein didn't even have the strength left to keep up her concept.

"Please, please just hide here! If you hide, you'll be safe."

The Gyeong Sein I knew had been a cowardly person. Someone who was afraid of mole crickets. Someone who used to hide behind Jeong Heewon.

But I also remembered his other side.

The person who had endured Yu Joonghyuk's hellish training.

The person who had thrown # Nоvеlight # himself in front to block monsters to save the characters in the novel.

The person who had risked his life multiple times to protect me and the others.

"It's a tale that has nothing to do with us. We just have to stay still. Then it'll pass."

He was never someone who would say something like that.

"It does have to do with us."

"…Excuse me?"

"They're the ones who turned you into a beastfolk."

I looked at my companions standing behind her. Ye Hyeonwoo, Uncle Dansoo, and Cha Yerin.

"You all came here before I did, didn't you. You must know what District 13 is like better than I do."

Solving the event scenario was important. But that alone wasn't enough.

My party members had already had their "masks" taken and failed the scenario.

To save them, there was no choice but to break the "rules of District 13."

And for that.

「I must stand against <Twelve Zodiac>.」

Gyeong Sein stared at me with vacant eyes. Her eyebrows were quivering.

"Aren't the constellations scary?"

"They are."

I'm scared. I'm really scared.

It was because those bastards were scary that I had run all the way here too.

"But I've seen ones even scarier than those bastards."

It was different from how I had imagined it. The stars' power was beyond what I had thought.

Power that literally split mountains and cut apart seas.

Even now, if I closed my eyes, the figure of Ares fighting against the "Demon King of Salvation" vividly came to mind. I didn't feel even the slightest certainty that I could stand against such a monster.

"The enemy we have to defeat is in a place far higher than the likes of that <Twelve Zodiac>."

And even that Ares was only one of the twelve gods of <Olympus>.

The sky of <Star Stream> is so far away.

"We can't lose to the stars. We must not see the world the way they see it. We are―"

No matter how I struggled, I couldn't beat a constellation as I was now.

I could tell just by looking at their symbolic bodies. But just because I couldn't defeat them didn't mean I could obediently go along with their rules.

"We are readers."

Each of my companions either lifted their heads or stared at the ground, lost in their own thoughts. In the brief silence, the gale outside the house was gradually growing stronger.

The first to open her mouth was Cha Yerin.

"How."

"She's asking how my little brother can help."

"From now on, we're going to change the 'tale.'"

The key of this 'event scenario' was to change the fundamental tale of 「Three Little Pigs」.

Even if we pulled this off successfully, the part of the tale that changed would amount to no more than a speck of dust.

But right now, we desperately needed that single speck.

"Just like Kim Dokja did."

"It's a tale where 「Stageification」 is already in progress. You know it won't be easy to change it."

"That's right. But it's not impossible either."

Once invoked, the power of 「Stageification」 is absolute. The power of the stage that overturns even differences in strength.

At the very least, as long as 「Three Little Pigs」 was in effect, the "wolf" would never be able to break the "brick house."

"I've already laid the foreshadowing."

For a "wolf" that was only ordinary.

Rumble rumble rumble rumble.

This was a gamble.

Just as Kim Dokja had staked his life every time, I too would have to bet my life, at least this once.

The fortunate thing was that we had this "brick house."

It wasn't as reassuring as the [Fourth Wall] that Kim Dokja had possessed, but at least as long as we had this "brick house"―

[Tale fragment, "Brick House" becomes even sturdier.]

We would surely get a chance to overturn this board.

It was then that the sound of the wind suddenly stopped.

Through the window, I could see the surging figure of the wolf constellation. His lengthened shadow was finally reaching the sky-vault.

[Constellation, "Pig Who Died First" is greatly appalled!]

[Constellation, "Pig Who Builds a House with Wood" is enraged at the wolf's judgment!]

[Constellation, "Rabbit Without a Liver" is startled by the wolf's choice!]

[Some of the constellations belonging to nebula <Twelve Zodiac> criticize the wolf's atrocity!]

Judging from the constellations' reactions,

[Constellation, "Wolf Who Likes Red Hoods" bursts into mad laughter.]

it seemed things were going to roll the right way.

"This is―"

Sensing the unusual flow, Uncle Dansoo slowly crawled backward.

"Don't tell me he summoned an 'otherworldly divinity'?"

Through the pitch-black dust that had billowed up, I could see a small "Great Hall" open in the sky-vault. It was smaller than the "Great Hall" I had seen before, but without a doubt, it was a "Great Hall."

"My god."

"A-ahhh―"

"We're all done for! We're all done for!"

The beastfolk who had come into the inn with us also seemed to know about the "Great Hall"; they shoved their heads under the tables and held their breath.

Well, they too had probably been incarnations of scenarios once.

Fzzzzzt!

The plausibility backlash raging near the "Great Hall" was weaker than usual.

I had heard that the "Recycling Center" had a thin boundary with the other world, so maybe that was why.

If not that―

["Otherworldly divinity" is preparing to descend.]

"W-what do we do, Mr. Reader!"

In the meantime, having recovered her mental state a little, Gyeong Sein started calling me "Reader."

"If a 'Great Old Entity' shows up or something―"

In that case, from here on, I also had to live up to my name.

"Not every otherworldly divinity is on the 'Great Old Entity' level. You know that."

In fact, most "otherworldly divinities" were closer to "nameless things." Aberrant monsters that had lost their own egos and wandered through worldlines.

"It's still a problem. Even if something like the 'One Who Eats Dreams' shows up, District 13 is done for!"

"It'll be lower in rank than that."

In the main story's "Dark Castle," the "One Who Eats Dreams" had descended.

But the "One Who Eats Dreams" had been summoned with the shadow of nothing less than a "tale-grade constellation" as sacrifice.

On the other hand, what had been offered as sacrifice this time was the shadow of a "great-personage-level constellation" who had lost most of his own tales.

"If something like that had appeared, the constellations would have been the first to run away. But look. They're still watching."

[A very small number of constellations are frightened by the existence of the "otherworldly divinity".]

[Constellations from nebula <Twelve Zodiac> are appalled at the "otherworldly divinity" that has appeared in the scenario!]

[Constellation, "Black Flame Dragon of the Abyss" makes an interested expression.]

They were afraid, but they remained in their seats. That meant the thing that had appeared now was at least lower in rank than the "One Who Eats Dreams."

The next moment, I heard something slam into the roof.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The house that had blocked the wolf's wind until now was shaking precariously.

As expected, no matter how it was summoned, an "otherworldly divinity" was an "otherworldly divinity."

[Tale fragment, "Brick House" groans low.]

I put my hand on the wall and spoke.

"Don't worry. Even an 'otherworldly divinity' isn't completely free from 「Stageification」."

Otherworldly divinities.

Beings that had been rejected by the scenarios and wandered the outer rim of <Star Stream>.

But that didn't mean they were completely free from "tales." The moment they intervened in a scenario, they too became bound by the scenario's rules.

The problem was what kind of bastard had appeared.

I glared at the darkness outside the window. But maybe because of the thick dust filling the darkness, I couldn't see the form of the descended "otherworldly divinity."

If I had to guess, it had taken over the wolf constellation's body. And inheriting his will, it would try to destroy this "brick house."

Rumble-rumble-rumble.

The ground was shaking ominously.

A sign entirely different from before.

"Kim Dokja."

Little Yu Joonghyuk also had a grave expression.

"The 'wind' has changed."

I felt it too. The wind blowing from beyond this "wall" now was on a completely different level from the gusts the wolf constellation had been blowing so far.

It felt as if a god of storms had descended.

"Just what kind of divinity has appeared that―"

"It couldn't be something like the 'Wolf of Destruction,' right?"

In response to Gyeong Sein's question, Ye Hyeonwoo answered.

"'Wolf of Destruction' isn't an otherworldly divinity. That guy is a constellation of <Asgard>."

"But you could talk normally, Mr. Hyeonwoo?"

"That bastard of the 7th Apostle only reacts at times like this."

The house started to shake violently.

I forced myself to feign composure and pressed against the wall. It was certainly not a situation where I could be at ease.

"Everyone, press against the wall and supply magic power."

Little Yu Joonghyuk stepped up first, and the other party members also clung to the wall one by one.

Feeling the wall's shaking, my companions' faces turned pale.

"Mr. Reader, I don't think it can hold out very long. At this rate―"

"Don't worry. It won't break."

"But our magic power alone doesn't seem like it'll be enough."

True. It would take an enormous amount of magic power to keep a "brick house" of this size maintained.

And more than anything―

"The brick house is only a 'tale fragment.'"

It was just as little Yu Joonghyuk had said.

The rank of the "tale" the brick house possessed was far too low.

A "tale fragment" that couldn't even be called a tale.

On top of that, low-grade.

"It's still fine. The brick house won't collapse. Because―"

Staring into the darkness beyond the sky, I added with a grin.

"If this 'brick house' breaks, there are bastards who will lose something far greater than we will."

[Tale, "Three Little Pigs" stammers over its story.]

[Constellation, "Pig Who Died First" urgently supports the tale!]

[Constellation, "Pig Who Builds a House with Wood" requests reinforcements from other constellations!]

Only then did Killer King, tied to the chair, groan as if he had finally caught on to my intent.

"Don't tell me, you bastard Kim Dokja."

"Yes, that's right."

"So that's why the otherworldly divinity―"

Ye Hyeonwoo also nodded as if he understood the situation.

"I see. If the 'wolf' wins here―"

"History will be changed. So the stars absolutely cannot give up."

[Tale, "Three Little Pigs" continues its story.]

[Tale fragment, "Brick House" is reinforced!]

"Because this is their 'origin tale.'"

My plan was simple.

「To annihilate the constellations of <Twelve Zodiac> and the 'otherworldly divinity' together.」

I couldn't see the stars' figures, hidden in the darkness.

But I could feel their anger and their fear.

"Those bastards can never give up. And so―"

I would not end this 「stage」 until all those stars had fallen.

[Your synchronization rate with your backer star rises greatly!]

"Let's create a tale that will last forever."

[Tale, "Successor of the Eternal Name" makes an unreadable smile.]