I will start with the conclusion.

[Your approval rating has risen.]
[Currently, 16% of beastfolk belonging to District 13 support you.]

Our tale succeeded.

[Your approval rating has °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° risen.]
[Currently, 25% of beastfolk belonging to District 13 support you.]

More precisely speaking—

[Your approval rating has risen.]
[Currently, 32% of beastfolk belonging to District 13 support you.]

Our tale became quite popular. The system messages that had been ringing in my ears for a while were proof of that.

[The influence of the tale, ‘The Fox and the Crane and the Wolf― Sometimes the Panda’, grows stronger.]

The name had gotten a bit weird, but being famous at all was something. And the more I saw it, the more this side felt trendier than ‘The Fox and the Crane’. It was the same as Kim Dokja feeling less beautiful in terms of naming study than Yu Joonghyuk.

“I-it’s getting popular. My tale is becoming popular again.”

The crane owner, checking the messages in real time, was staring at the system window so hard it looked like his eyes might split. Maybe because the tale was regaining its strength, I could feel magic surging from his whole body.

The other beastfolk, seeing the crane’s change, also had their expressions change.

“Could you perhaps make my tale like the crane’s as well?”

Even the beastfolk who had been hesitating until now—

“My tale too! Please, my tale too!”

Those who had been watching for a chance all grabbed me and started shouting.

“You appear in it yourself!”

“Put the panda in too!”

“I don’t care if the tale turns into a complete mess. I want to be remembered again. Even someone like me―”

Those who have lost their dreams perceive the emptiness of those dreams more clearly than anyone.

“I want people to know that I existed in the <Star Stream>.”

“Understood.”

Watching the beastfolk whose expressions had changed, I felt an unknown melancholy. What had driven them this far? Why did they want to become famous and spread their tales?

[The tale, ‘The Swallow That Brought the Gourd Seed’, wants to tell its story again.]

Was it their will, or the will of the tales?

[The tale, ‘The Dove and the Crow’, wants to tell its story again.]

I don’t know. It’s not something I can pass judgment on anyway.

I am just a writer who writes stories.

[The tale, ‘The Goose That Lays Golden Eggs’, wants to tell its story again.]

If there are tales that want me, I simply live up to their expectations.

“Alright, everyone come this way and line up one at a time.”

<Twelve Zodiac> had not been <Twelve Zodiac> from the very beginning either. So, who knows. Among the beastfolk here, one of them might become a new <Twelve Zodiac> and stand on our side.

Even if not, it didn’t matter.

[Your approval rating has risen.]
[Currently, 33% of beastfolk belonging to District 13 support you.]

Even now, at this very moment, the approval rating was steadily rising.

Two more days passed like that.

[Your approval rating has risen.]
[Currently, 70% of beastfolk belonging to District 13 support you.]

For two days, we turned countless tales into stages.

For example, 「The Swallow That Brought the Gourd Seed」. The swallow said it hadn’t been able to trigger Stageification all this time because there were no humans.

“As expected, the faceless mask works. I thought it would be impossible to ever reenact it in District 13.”

[Due to its abnormal Stageification, the name of the tale is being changed.]
[The tale, ‘The Panda Who Witnessed The Swallow That Brought the Gourd Seed’, has been born.]

We also carried out tales related to doves and crows, elephants, parrots, hyenas, and the like.

The way we altered them was however we wanted. Sometimes a wolf appeared, sometimes a panda appeared. Now that I could use the faceless mask to alter masks, I filled in whatever roles were lacking as needed.

“Thank you, thank you so much!”

Of course, not every tale alteration went smoothly. It was particularly dangerous with 「The Goose That Lays Golden Eggs」. The goose, who hadn’t laid eggs in such a long time, fainted in the middle of laying.

“This fellow won’t wake up. If Stageification ends like this―”

“She’s dead.”

“Pardon?”

A major disaster had occurred on stage: the true owner of the tale had died. In the original, 「The Goose That Lays Golden Eggs」 is destined to have her belly slit open and die, but this was a bit too early a death.

Just when people were starting to say we should scrap this tale, I called Uncle Dansoo.

“Uncle.”

“Yes.”

“Turtles lay eggs too, don’t they?”

Uncle Dansoo turned to look at me with a dumbfounded expression.

“I am not a goose. I’m not Han Myeongo either.”

“I’m not asking you to lay them. But isn’t it at least possible for you to brood them?”

Uncle Dansoo was urgently drafted as an egg-incubation assistant for the goose.

Cradling the lukewarm egg, Uncle Dansoo had a somehow strange look on his face.

“It feels like something is squirming.”

He diligently brooded the golden egg, and when a gosling finally hatched from the egg, everyone clapped, deeply moved. Thus, the goose’s tale was allowed to continue.

Uncle Dansoo shed tears as if he were looking at a child he himself had given birth to.

“I understand Han Myeongo now.”

[Due to its abnormal Stageification, the name of the tale is being changed.]
[The tale, ‘The Turtle Who Brooded The Goose’s Golden Egg and the Panda Who Just Happened To Be There’, has been born.]

“Evaluators!”

[The constellation, ‘Black Flame Dragon of the Abyss’, says it was fun that the goose’s belly didn’t get slit like an idiot.]
[The constellation, ‘Dragon Lying Down’, laments the fate of the goose, sacrificed meta-textually on the altar of gold-worship, and feels moved by the tragedy of a tale that will once again continue through the birth of new life…….]
[The constellation, ‘One Who Brought Ten Lambs’, says the turtle’s paternal love brings them to tears.]

“Verification complete! Transmit!”

We repeated the process of transmitting the tale as soon as it was completed. Since the time density of the ‘Recycling Center’ was much higher than outside, on the outside new tales would be continuously supplied in real time.

According to Bihyung’s fussing, an incomprehensible number of constellations outside the Center were currently paying coins to read our tales.

―These are indirect messages sent by the constellations outside. Read them sometime if you have the chance.

Messages from the constellations?

I looked over the compressed message list I had gotten from Bihyung.

[The constellation, ‘Lily Blooming in Aquarius’, says the panda is really cute.]
[The constellation, ‘Friend of Justice and Harmony’, says anything cute is always right.]
[The constellation, ‘Goddess of the Morning Star’, asks when the panda will appear again.]
……

The ones who reacted were mainly constellations of the absolute-good side.

I checked just in case whether there might be a message from Uriel, but Uriel was nowhere to be seen.

It left me with a strangely disappointed feeling. For some reason, the fact that Uriel wasn’t there felt like proof that I still wasn’t a proper Kim Dokja.

[The tale, ‘Successor of the Eternal Name’, is starving in hunger.]
[The tale, ‘Successor of the Eternal Name’, is staring at you.]
[Currently, your remaining lifespan is 3 days.]

Three days.

It was about time I replenished it. Come to think of it, it was also about time for that to arrive.

―By the way, the delayed reward came in too.

Of course.

[You have obtained the reward for the sub scenario, ‘The Fox and the Crane’!]
[You have obtained 12,000 Coins!]
[You have obtained a ‘Fragment of an Unknown Tale’!]

The reward for the sub scenario ‘The Fox and the Crane’ that we had previously cleared was just now arriving. There was a reason the reward had been delayed.

―It was a bit late because I was explaining things upstairs. You’re the first one to clear a scenario like this.

I could guess what the situation had been. We had reenacted the tale, but we had changed its title in the process, so the Administration Bureau must have been in a bind over whether to consider this a reenactment of ‘The Fox and the Crane’ or not.

―Anyway, it was a pain arguing that since the fox and the crane appear, we technically did stick to the original.

‘Thank you.’

―No, no. More importantly, the tale is really doing well, so keep it up.

Judging from the coins coming in, Bihyung was also starting to get a bit crazed.

―You saw the constellations’ messages, right? A lot of them are asking for the panda to show up again. I don’t really get it, but the panda you put in is super hot right now.

‘Pandas are cute.’

―Seriously, I’ll never understand the constellations’ tastes. Why do they like something like that?

I gave a wry smile. Why the constellations liked the panda.

‘Because they’re that lonely.’

―Lonely?

At some point, Kyrgios had said the following about ‘scenarios’.

「If not for that, this universe would be too lonely.」

It wasn’t as if constellations necessarily knew why they liked a certain tale. At some moment in their lives, they simply encountered a story as if by fate, and as they watched that story, they burned themselves and shone.

The story, receiving the starlight, shone even brighter, and eventually became a tale that drew the attention of the <Star Stream>.

‘If everyone is watching the same story, they will be less lonely.’

―What nonsense are you spouting?

Instead of answering Bihyung, I tried using the ‘Fragment of an Unknown Tale’.

[The ‘Fragment of an Unknown Tale’ reveals its identity.]
[You have obtained the tale fragment, ‘Kim Dokja’s Third Method’.]

The reward that had come in was, as expected, a ‘Kim Dokja fragment’. When I had first entered the ‘Recycling Center’, I had also obtained a ‘tale fragment of Kim Dokja’ as a scenario reward.

I guessed the ‘Recycling Center Head’ was deliberately giving this sort of tale as a reward. Why? For what purpose?

I didn’t know for now, but for me in this moment, it was very fortunate.

Without hesitation, I ordered tale devouring.

[The tale, ‘Successor of the Eternal Name’, devours the tale fragment ‘Kim Dokja’s Third Method’!]
[The tale, ‘Successor of the Eternal Name’, soothes its hunger.]

A warm sensation spread from deep in my chest, and then a message appeared.

[Your synchronization rate with your backer has risen.]
[You can now use the tale fragment, ‘Kim Dokja’s Third Method’.]

‘Kim Dokja’s Third Method’, huh.

What ability did this fragment hold?

[An additional 8 days have been added to your time limit.]

Someone grabbed my shoulder just then.

“Reader.”

When I turned, Ye Hyeonwoo was there.

Perhaps reading my expression, Ye Hyeonwoo asked, “Are you alright?”

“Ah, yes. I’m sorry.”

The reason I had been startled was simple. I hadn’t sensed Ye Hyeonwoo’s presence at all. I had made sure no one was around before using devouring, so when had he gotten close?

Even if he had learned [Wind’s Path], his skill level shouldn’t yet be enough to completely hide his presence.

“I was just thinking for a moment. What is it?”

The time I had absorbed the soul of Uncle Kim Kyungsik came to mind. I couldn’t forget Gu Seonah’s face as she stared in horror at me devouring the ‘Kim Dokja fragment’. I hadn’t seen Gu Seonah even once since then.

With a face like Gu Seonah’s back then, Ye Hyeonwoo asked me, “Will it be alright?”

“Sorry?”

“The tales. I was wondering if it’s really alright for us to mend the tales however we like.”

Ah, so that’s what it was.

I answered with slight relief, “It’s fine. They’re all history-grade tales anyway.”

[The influence of the tale you are involved in, ‘The Panda Who Witnessed The Swallow That Brought the Gourd Seed’, grows stronger.]
[The influence of the tale you are involved in, ‘The Turtle Who Brooded The Goose’s Golden Egg and the Panda Who Just Happened To Be There’, grows stronger.]
[The name ‘Kim Dokja’ is beginning to spread throughout the <Star Stream>.]

Originally, mending tales like this would have been impossible. It was only possible because this was the ‘Recycling Center’, because we had the permission of the tale owners, and because the grades of those tales themselves were low.

“As you know, once the tale grade goes up, you can’t fix them like this.”

From legend-grade tales and up, it’s not easy even to intervene on stage. If fixing them were easy, Kim Dokja would already have obtained tons of tales like 「The Secret Schemer and Kim Dokja」 or 「The Dokkaebi King and Kim Dokja」.

[Your trait proficiency has risen.]

In any case, this ‘mending operation’ was quite a good deal for me. I earned coins, gained shares in tales, and built up proficiency related to my traits.

Most likely, the proficiency of something related to ‘writer’ had gone up. But since my trait window still wouldn’t open, I couldn’t check.

“I knew there were ‘Tale-Menders’ in the Demon Realm, but I never knew tales could be changed like this.”

“Because it’s a method that doesn’t appear in the main story.”

“How did you know about it, Reader?”

“I read the Annihilation Method.”

Maybe he thought that was a joke, because Ye Hyeonwoo gave a short laugh.

“When you say stuff like that, you really sound like the Reader.”

“That’s a compliment, right?”

“Reader.”

“Yes.”

“Reader.”

“Yes.”

“Are you really the Reader, by any chance?”

Come to think of it, I had received the same question from Ye Hyeonwoo before.

“In a certain sense.”

At my answer, different from back then, Ye Hyeonwoo fell silent for a moment. Night was once again falling over District 13.

Watching the smoke rise in soft puffs from the chimney of the house site on the other side of the empty lot, Ye Hyeonwoo asked, “Reader, do you have a family?”

“I have my parents.”

For the first time in a while, I brought my parents’ faces to mind. My parents, who made me think of a warm spring night.

“I’m jealous. I don’t have any.”

I didn’t know what to say and stood there dumbly for a moment. In times like this, should I try to comfort him, or should I ask something more?

Come to think of it, I still knew nothing about Ye Hyeonwoo. He was the Seventh Apostle of the Apostles’ Council. Uncle Dansoo’s daughter No Ji-yoon’s friend. That was everything I knew about ‘Ye Hyeonwoo’.

I didn’t know what his real name was, whether he was a man or a woman, where he lived, what hobbies he liked. I didn’t know at all.

“Even if I go back to reality, there’s no one in particular waiting for me.”

I recalled how Ye Hyeonwoo had been labeled as an ‘appearing character’. Back then, I had asked what our goal was, and Ye Hyeonwoo had answered like this.

「“To become happy?”」

I felt the air of the whole area subtly twist.

“Hyeonwoo, that’s not true. I’m sure in reality too―”

“Do you think Kim Dokja was happy in reality?”

I closed my mouth.

Ye Hyeonwoo continued to ask, “Isn’t it possible that Kim Dokja escaped to this world because reality was painful for him?”

I couldn’t answer. It was a question I must not answer right now.

“If someone has to become ‘Kim Dokja’.”

The voice coming from behind me changed.

“Isn’t it more reasonable for the person who has nothing left to lose to become ‘Kim Dokja’?”

The moment I turned my head at the creepy feeling, a sharp killing intent brushed past my cheek.