Little Yu Joonghyuk slowly lifted his head and looked at me. I looked down at that Yu Joonghyuk. The difference in the height of our gazes felt unfamiliar. Whether he was an adult or a child, Yu Joonghyuk had always been someone who looked down from a high place. But the current Yu Joonghyuk was a little different.

An expression like he had really become a child.

Had he lost too many memories and ended up in that state?

I wanted to ask. How long he had been here. For how far-off a time he had been enduring this cold all alone.

“This is the first time someone’s come here.”

The one who spoke first was little Yu Joonghyuk. A faint something like life flickered for a moment in the eyes of little Yu Joonghyuk as he raised his head.

“You finally came to pick me up. Right?”

Little Yu Joonghyuk raised his finger and pointed behind my back. For some reason, behind my back, white wings were fluttering.

I checked which tale that was.

[The ‘Unidentified Fragment’ reveals its identity.]

[Tale fragment, ‘Wings of the Lost Demon King’ begins its story.]

It seemed the ‘Unidentified Fragment’ that the ‘Tiger Who Eats Rice Cakes’ had been holding was exactly these ‘Wings of the Demon King of Salvation’.

“You can take me.”

Little Yu Joonghyuk said.

“It’s over now, right? What is heaven like?”

Heaven.

It really seemed like Yu Joonghyuk believed something like that existed.

“You’re an angel. You know what heaven is like, don’t you?”

I hesitated, then answered.

“Heaven probably isn’t as beautiful as you think.”

“Then what kind of place is heaven?”

I didn’t know what kind of place heaven was either. The heaven I knew was just one of the countless worlds of stars.

“That place is…”

I pictured the great angels of <Star Stream>. Great angels who got bored of Metatron’s instructions, who kept to the rules and yet longed to deviate, who loved the incarnations they cherished.

“It’s just a world where angels who raise sheep live.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“If I explain in detail…”

I slowly bent down and sat beside little Yu Joonghyuk. I could see the tale fragments drifting around little Yu Joonghyuk. They were all Yu Joonghyuk’s memories.

「[Conqueror. Leave this to me and go. Go see the ending you want.]」

Among them there was a great angel who sacrificed himself for Yu Joonghyuk.

「[Sorry, but I can’t just let you become a Demon King.]」

There was a great angel who stopped Yu Joonghyuk from becoming a Demon King.

「[I see the sin you have piled up. You will surely become the great evil of this world.]」

There was a great angel who defined Yu Joonghyuk as “evil.”

「[Regrasor, you will never be able to go to heaven. The being who can dream of your heaven will never want you to go to heaven.]」

There was also a great angel who lamented his life.

In a mere forty-one regressions, Yu Joonghyuk heard that many stories.

And so this child already knows what kind of place heaven is. He knew, but now he has forgotten.

“No. You don’t have to tell me.”

“What? Why?”

“I don’t want to be disappointed. If it’s similar to the place where I lived, I’ll definitely be disappointed.”

“The place where you lived?”

“Yeah.”

The place Yu Joonghyuk had lived.

Come to think of it, there wasn’t much I knew about Yu Joonghyuk’s childhood.

Just like with Kim Cheolyang from Geumho Station or Bang Cheolsu, there were no remaining records of Yu Joonghyuk’s childhood.

The protagonist’s childhood, which neither “Extermination Method” nor “Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint” properly dealt with.

Thinking that, I felt a strange sensation.

Even though Han Sooyoung had written that much text, she never properly wrote about Yu Joonghyuk’s childhood.

“So what was the place where you lived like?”

Therefore, in a certain sense, Yu Joonghyuk’s childhood “still” doesn’t exist.

“The place where I lived was…”

Little Yu Joonghyuk frowned. After rubbing his forehead several times with his small hand, the child spoke.

“I can’t remember.”

I looked at the tale fragments floating like dust around Yu Joonghyuk.

[Tale fragment, ‘Pro-gamer ■■’ has halted its story.]

[Tale fragment, ‘■■■ Slave’ has halted its story.]

Tales that had stayed too long without anyone to read them. Some tales were broken beyond reading, and some had most of their contents disappear. Or maybe some had no content from the very beginning. Like a novel whose title was decided but was never properly written.

I opened my mouth.

“I’m the same.”

“You don’t remember the place where you lived either?”

“I remember. But only in bits and pieces.”

“In bits and pieces.”

“Yeah, in bits and pieces.”

Whether protagonist, supporting role, or extra, maybe everyone is the same. All of us consume our memories and move toward death.

In that process, there is no one who remembers the entirety of their own life. As time passes, we are eventually forgotten even by ourselves.

That is why we tell stories.

We speak, like we are doing now, to recall the things that used to be in the vanished place.

“The place where I lived is a place where many stars hang in the ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) sky. People explore the world together with those stars. All together, they hunt monsters, and they obtain new items.”

“…”

“Some of those people can receive the praise of the stars and become great beings.”

Light was shining in Yu Joonghyuk’s eyes as he listened to my words. How much story was left now inside this kid?

“Great beings.”

“Yeah, great beings.”

At my words, Yu Joonghyuk nodded. Then he curled his body up. Looking closely, Yu Joonghyuk was covering his stomach.

“Like you, becoming an angel?”

“I’m not an angel.”

“Then what are you?”

I couldn’t bring myself to be honest with Yu Joonghyuk, who was looking up at me with pale eyes.

That I was a Demon King.

So I said this instead.

“I’m a writer.”

“A writer?”

“I’m someone who writes various stories. Fun stories, sad stories. Difficult stories. Even stories that shouldn’t be written. I’m someone who writes all kinds of stories in order to live.”

“Someone who writes stories.”

Little Yu Joonghyuk slowly blinked and then, as if he had thought of something on his own, faintly smiled.

Seeing little Yu Joonghyuk smile for the first time, I spaced out for a moment and looked down at the child.

“Then you’re a god.”

Instead of answering that, I slowly reached out and checked little Yu Joonghyuk’s story pulse.

The speed at which the tale was flowing was slow. As expected, he was dying.

“If I’m a god, I’d be the most powerless god in the universe.”

“Among the stories you’ve written, what’s the most fun one?”

“That story is…”

I began to tell the story.

It was the story I could tell the best.

A story about a man whose favorite novel that he had loved his whole life became reality.

A story where monsters appear, stars watch, someone is saved, comrades are gained, and they run forward to see the epilogue of one world.

The child listened to that story.

Watching the child listening to the story, I thought.

Kim Dokja was once saved by Yu Joonghyuk’s story. He endured his life with that story, and in the end, survived.

Then what about Yu Joonghyuk?

When his life was driven to a crisis, when he stood on the edge of a cliff where no one could save him, what was it that saved the young him?

I couldn’t know.

His world was just a vast snowfield.

A world that I could neither read nor write. Perhaps not only I, but no one could know that beginning.

This was truly the primordial origin of this whole universe.

「All the stories we know began from this 41st round.」

In 『Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World』, Yu Joonghyuk received information from Shin Yuseung of the 41st round and was able to clear the scenarios.

And again, in 『Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint』, Kim Dokja was able to see the end of the world based on the information from “Extermination Method.”

All stories began from the Yu Joonghyuk right in front of my eyes.

Because he survived, fought, and in the end failed, all stories finally became possible.

“That sounds fun.”

Young Yu Joonghyuk smiled and slowly blinked.

“But now I’m starting to get sleepy.”

Little Yu Joonghyuk shivered his shoulders as if he had chills. Even then, the child kept covering his stomach.

I carefully moved the child’s hand and checked his condition.

There was a hole in little Yu Joonghyuk’s stomach.

It was the same as when Shin Yuseung of the 24th round was dying. The exact same wound as Shin Yuseung’s, who had asked him to come to her graduation ceremony, remained on Yu Joonghyuk’s stomach.

「Side effect of ‘tale engraving’.」

If this wound was left alone, Yu Joonghyuk would die. Even if he regressed again, his soul would be broken forever.

Little Yu Joonghyuk asked.

“Now you’re going to take me to heaven, right?”

“I’m not taking you to heaven. I’m not an angel.”

What I could do was make it so that he kept on living.

But I already knew his ending.

A life that would ultimately fail and become nourishment for another world line.

To keep the promise of the 0th round, he would repeat regressions and, in the end, be driven into a dead end—the last of this world that would become a “pathless path.”

Because of that, I couldn’t recommend life to him. I couldn’t tell someone already horribly exhausted to live a life whose failure was scheduled.

“If you live a little longer…”

Even so, Yu Joonghyuk spoke once more.

“Can I listen to the stories you write again?”

Not knowing what kind of expression I should make, I looked down at the child.

And barely muttered.

“If you want to.”

Everything I have written is nothing more than imitating the life of a single person.

That one person nodded.

White snow was falling on the snowfield.

A world where no footprints had been stamped yet lay there.

A blank space that even Han Sooyoung had never touched.

[Exclusive skill, ‘□□’ is extremely activated.]

Only then did I realize the reason I had to come to this 41st round.

[The amount of ‘Loss’ you have collected breaks through a certain level.]

Why I had to possess Cheon Inho’s body.

[The ‘Kim Dokja fragments’ you have collected begin to bloom.]

The reason I had to become the incarnation of the Demon King of Salvation, the reason I had to gather Kim Dokja fragments.

[Tale, ‘Successor of the Eternal Name’ acknowledges your name.]

The reason I had to enter this “Recycling Center” and repair tales.

“Yu Joonghyuk. Let’s make a promise.”

And even the reason Kim Dokja had to see this world.

“Never give up on life.”

Just as one day the universe was born, Yu Joonghyuk was born.

“As long as you don’t give up on life…”

In return, he would have to walk through eternity once again.

But as long as he didn’t give up that path, this time he would not be alone.

“I will keep writing you.”

Yu Joonghyuk, who had been looking at me, slowly nodded.

As if answering his calling of me, I stamped the first footprint that would fill this snowfield.

「This is a story about despair that could not be read.」

Writing that sentence, I understood Han Sooyoung, who wrote the destruction of the world for the sake of one person’s life.

[Character ‘Yu Joonghyuk’ has gained a new realization.]

[Character ‘Yu Joonghyuk’s transcendence grade rises.]

Even if only a single person lives this world, even if in the end everyone is fated to be forgotten, rot away, and disappear—I will not give up this story to the very end.

[Tale, ‘Between the Lines of Truth and Lies’ has been born!]

At last, the sky of the snowfield opened.

[You have created a total of four tales.]

[All the tales you have piled up are ‘legend-grade’ or higher.]

[The Administration Bureau analyzes your rank.]

[<Star Stream> reevaluates your rank.]

[Your backer constellation is currently absent.]

[Your backer constellation has granted all authority to you.]

.

.

.

[From now on, you can act as a ‘constellation proxy’.]