It wasn’t a metaphor. A path was literally opening up before my eyes.

A pleasant breeze wrapped around my whole body.

[Tale fragment, ‘Wind’s Path’, circles around you.]

Once I set down one foot, I could see where to place the next, and then the next.

This was [Wind’s Path].

The uncontested No.1 main skill of Kim Dokja.

With this skill, Kim Dokja kept taking one step and then another, and reached the end of the world.

[Tale fragment, ‘Wind’s Path’, nods.]

If someone else were watching, they might ask, “So what? Isn’t it just [Wind’s Path]?” But for me, having this one [Wind’s Path] and being that much closer to the ‘Demon King of Salvation’ was what mattered.

[That power.]

The ‘Tiger Who Eats Rice Cakes’, who had been watching me, opened his mouth.

[How interesting.]

The ‘Tiger Who Eats Rice Cakes’ was making the kind of face Yu Joonghyuk in the 137th round might have made after taking down the One Who Eats Dreams.

[Is that the fragment of a tale the dead wolf gave you?]

“Lycaon isn’t dead. There’s no way he’d die to a mere great-personage constellation.”

For a very brief moment, faint agitation flickered across the Tiger’s face.

“You should go back now. I think you’ve had your fill of rice cakes, whether they were bean rice cakes or steamed rice cakes.”

[I am still hungry.]

“I don’t think you understand. That’s ‘false hunger’. You aren’t actually hungry.”

The ‘Tiger Who Eats Rice Cakes’ was a constellation based on the tale of “The Sun and the Moon.” He possessed various mixed tales, but fundamentally, he was the one who tried to eat the sibling protagonists, failed, and fell into a millet field and died.

Since he never obtained what he desired in the end, his tale was saturated with resentment, hatred, and greed.

“If you fail to manage that false hunger, accelerated aging will set in. You didn’t know that?”

All of his thirst and hunger were triggered by his tales.

[Little rice-cake slice, human life is far too short to understand a star.]

But what if, into the gaps of those tales, the soul of some ordinary person had suddenly become possessed?

“Since when were you a star?”

I could see it now. The tiny soul shaking faintly amid the tales surrounding him. A soul smaller than a little rice-cake crumb, smaller than even a bean-powder speck.

“I don’t know who you originally were, but let me ask you one last favor. Please step back from here.”

That constellation was a ‘reader’. Even if not anymore, at least once, he had definitely been a reader.

That was why I tolerated that soul exactly once.

“I will keep the promise I made with you. I will definitely attend the Twelve Zodiac Martial Ball. But I cannot be your representative.”

In his last moment, Lycaon had said:

「Become the Kim Dokja you desire.」

The Kim Dokja I desired.

I didn’t know what that was.

Maybe something like that wasn’t Kim Dokja at all, and maybe such a thing didn’t exist in this world.

However, if such a ‘Kim Dokja’ really did exist—

“Leave this place at once.”

—that ‘Kim Dokja’ would give the ‘reader’ before his eyes a single chance.

Of course, whether he accepted that chance was a different matter.

Chchchchck.

With that sound, the ground all around shook roughly.

Now that the ‘Scales of Plausibility’ were gone, the ‘Tiger Who Eats Rice Cakes’ would no longer be able to show earth-shattering power like before.

But that didn’t mean he would simply back down. He still had the pretext of ‘the contract with me’.

[Do you think you’ve become something great just because you learned some little Wind’s Path?]

His tone was openly dismissive.

Well, of course.

He was a ‘constellation’, and [Wind’s Path] was, at best, just the skill used to seal the Disaster of Questions.

“Do you know [Wind’s Path] that well?”

The ‘Tiger Who Eats Rice Cakes’ silently stretched a forepaw toward the air. The blood-red rope tied to his forepaw whirled and flew toward me.

It seemed my patience ended here. Time to recommend ‘rereading’ to our dear reader.

[Your exclusive attribute activates.]

[Your understanding of the tale fragment, ‘Wind’s Path’, is extremely high!]

I soared in an instant up to where his body towered dozens of meters tall.

One step, two steps, three steps—I could see where to step to accelerate even faster. I accelerated and accelerated again until I could barely hear the Tiger’s shout.

At the end of that acceleration, there was ‘Unbreakable Conviction’.

Even if the skill was sealed and I couldn’t use [Baek Cheong-gang Qi], it didn’t matter.

[Tale fragment, ‘Wind’s Path’, follows your will.]

[Wind’s Path] was not just a technique used to accelerate the body or fly through the air.

Just as Kim Dokja had used [Wind’s Path] to create the ‘Vacuum Prison’ and defeat the Disaster of Questions, depending on how one understood the wind, the ways to utilize the skill were endless.

[Little rice-cake slice. If you do not stop at once―!]

The Tiger’s forepaw shot toward me, directly aiming at my position. I slipped past his forepaw on a hair-thin trajectory and drove ‘Unbreakable Conviction’ down onto his forearm.

Normally, it would have been an ineffective attack.

But right now, [Wind’s Path] was wrapped around my ‘Unbreakable Conviction’.

Kududududud.

It was the so-called [Wind Blade]. I had applied Lycaon’s realization, in which lines and curves intertwined to spin endlessly.

With a light cracking sound, tales burst from the Tiger’s forepaw.

With a short groan, the ‘Tiger Who Eats Rice Cakes’ opened his mouth.

[Quite the tricks for a little rice-cake slice.]

I smiled faintly and responded.

“You really do talk like a proper constellation.”

[What?]

“Is there some academy somewhere that teaches you to talk like that? Or else…”

[Tale, ‘Aged and Sick Guardian’, pours its fury on you!]

“Are you perhaps being controlled by that worn-out tale?”

The ‘Tiger Who Eats Rice Cakes’ unleashed a lion’s roar. It felt like bombs made of sound were exploding all across the sky.

I triggered [Wind’s Path] at maximum to reduce the impact.

Falling to the ground, I rolled across an open patch and pushed myself up. Blood trickled thickly from my lips.

So it still wasn’t enough.

Well, if learning just one [Wind’s Path] was enough to match a great-personage constellation, Kim Dokja wouldn’t have suffered as much as he did.

In any case, the provocation seemed to have hit home; ancient tales were rampaging all over the Tiger’s body.

Did that at least buy us some time?

“Kim Dokja. Just what are you thinking?”

Using [Wind’s Path], Killer King flew over and helped me up.

“Exactly what it looks like.”

Looking up at the frenzied, rampaging ‘Tiger Who Eats Rice Cakes’, I spoke.

“I’m going to fight that guy and win.”

“You’re truly insane.”

Killer King fell silent for a moment.

Then, bowing his head in what seemed like bitterness, he turned slightly away from me and added a single sentence.

“I’m sorry.”

“For what? I just chose this because it’s more fun.”

“…Because it’s fun?”

“Because it will make more of a ‘story’.”

Whenever Kim Dokja made some absurd choice, he would say something similar.

Because this is more fun.

Because this is the development the constellations will like more.

[Constellation, ‘Black Flame Dragon of the Abyss’, snorts heavily.]

[Constellation, ‘Lying Dragon’, is astonished by your decision.]

But was he really only conscious of the constellations’ gaze?

[Constellation, ‘One Who Brings Ten Little Lambs’, worries about you.]

Perhaps, in truth, Kim Dokja himself wanted that development.

“Dokja-ssi.”

“Yes.”

Gyeong Sein had quietly flown over and was now standing beside me.

“Thank you.”

Before I could answer, she burst out with all the words she had been holding back.

“I was seriously so anxious, thinking you were really going to leave us behind! I do trust the others, but—”

“We’re all people who gathered around ‘Kim Dokja’, aren’t we.”

Uncle Dansoo added.

Cha Yerin and Ye Hyeonwoo took positions on each side of the party as if to show they agreed.

Killer King asked:

“What’s the plan?”

“For now we just hold out. Until his plausibility runs dry.”

“That’s what you call a plan?”

“I thought ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) it was exactly the kind of plan Killer King-nim would make.”

I quickly relayed the situation to the party via [Group Chat].

It was about the ‘invitation to the Twelve Zodiac Martial Ball’ that I’d made with the ‘Tiger Who Eats Rice Cakes’.

After hearing the whole story, Killer King exclaimed in admiration.

“I see. That really is the kind of plan I’d come up with.”

“Right?”

“But can something like that even count as descent plausibility?”

To Gyeong Sein’s question, I nodded.

“It’s small plausibility. So he won’t be able to remain descended for long. There’s no way he can use his power properly either.”

“And if you’re wrong?”

“Even if I’m wrong.”

I gauged the depth of the night sky as I continued.

“If we can just hold out until midnight, we’re guaranteed to win.”

“Midnight?”

[A new sub scenario has arrived!]

Right on cue, a sub scenario arrived.

No wonder the ‘Tiger Who Eats Rice Cakes’ had been strangely quiet for a while—it had been groundwork for a scenario.

<Sub Scenario – Twelve Zodiac Race>
Category: Sub
Difficulty: S+
Clear Condition: Survive the Twelve Zodiac ‘Tiger Who Eats Rice Cakes’.
Time Limit: ―
Reward: Tale fragment of unknown identity, 300,000 coins, ???
Failure: Death.
+

The strategy target wasn’t “defeat him,” but “survive him.”

That meant this fight was that much more disadvantageous for us.

As the scenario began, the ‘Tiger Who Eats Rice Cakes’, having calmed his tales, frowned.

[You are truly troublesome.]

His tone was menacing, but he could no longer unleash one overwhelming attack after another like before. No matter how much ‘plausibility of coming to fulfill his contract with me’ he had, he wouldn’t cause reckless plausibility hemorrhaging like when he clashed with Lycaon.

[Tale, ‘One Who Summons Chang gwi’, begins its story.]

Even so, he was still a ‘constellation’.

[Arise, chang gwi.]

Chang gwi.

The word used from ancient times for ghosts bitten to death by tigers.

It was a tale similar to 「King of the Dead」 used by ‘Davids’, the ranker of Dark Castle.

Uoooooooh!

Incarnations buried all over District 13 began to rise one by one. Their corpse-bodies turned their hollow eye sockets toward me. They were all beastfolk who had died to the Tiger.

“Damn it, demon-bloods?”

“Close enough. But they can’t use their abilities properly from when they were alive.”

There were many of them, but from the way they moved, fortunately there didn’t seem to be any strong incarnations.

At this level, I still thought it was manageable—

[Tale, ‘Hohwan Mama’, begins its story.]

One beastfolk who happened to be standing nearby clutched his head in terror.

Just as I hastily reached my hand out toward him—

“Save m—”

Bang.

With a popping sound, the beastfolk’s head exploded.

Goosebumps ran down my body.

He used that tale too?

Chchchchchck.

White sparks flared up.

The ‘Tiger Who Eats Rice Cakes’ had made up his mind.

He would end this scenario in the form he desired, even if it meant accepting a bit of backlash.

“Everyone, focus your minds on the masks you’re wearing!”

I shouted to my companions and the beastfolk.

「Hohwan Mama」.

A tale that refers both to ‘harm suffered from tigers’ and to ‘epidemics’.

The tale’s characteristic was ‘fear contagion’.

Incarnations engulfed in fear lost their sense of self and had their heads burst open and die.

“We have to raise tales to block the fear contagion!”

Fear was, ultimately, terror of the unknown.

To overcome fear, you had to turn your gaze. You had to listen to the words of the tales you knew well, the tales that made you who you were.

[Tale, ‘Recorder of Vanishing Things’, nods.]

I was almost unaffected by 「Hohwan Mama」.

But it seemed things were a bit different for my companions.