“When you write a story, you sometimes get confused. Whether you are the one writing the story, or whether the story is using you to reveal itself. Anna, have you ever thought that way?”
— Asuka Ren

*

It was the first time I revealed my name to the party. I had hesitated all this time because I did not want to create unnecessary unease.

In truth, the one who wrote Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint was Han Sooyoung, but in the world line where I lived, the one who wrote Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint was me.

And the readers standing before me were people who had been possessed from the same world line as me.

Hearing my name, they were bound to be flustered.

“Wait a moment. That name.”

As expected, Gyeong Sein reacted first.

Uncle Dansoo, who was standing next to Gyeong Sein, also looked startled, as if he had realized something.

Honestly, I thought Uncle might not know, but everyone was more than I expected…

“What characters are used to write it?”

I felt slightly taken aback by the uncle’s unexpected question.

“It uses crane for Hak and flying for Hakhyun.”

I said it while omitting the “lightly” that comes before flying.

Uncle Dansoo nodded with admiration.

“It is an extremely refined name. I can feel how much thought the person who named you put into it.”

“Wow, Uncle. You even know how to read names?”

“I studied naming a little when I named Jiyoon. Lee Hakhyun. It is a good name.”

A good name?

No, wait. That is not what matters right now… did they really not notice anything at all?

I plainly said my name, you know?

“Um…”

As if he knew exactly what I was about to say, Gyeong Sein waved his hand and replied.

“Ah. Do not worry. We will keep calling you Kim Dokja from now on.”

“No, that is not—”

“If we call Hakhyun Kim Dokja, then the name Kim Dokja will become famous, tales will be born, and the chances that the Kim Dokjas, including the Demon King of Salvation, will notice us will increase!”

“Yes, that is true, but…”

“Do not worry. I will definitely keep it!”

I watched Gyeong Sein blankly and let out a light sigh.

Maybe this was for the best.

I could not tell whether they were pretending not to notice or truly did not realize.

When I thought about it, it was not that strange that they did not know my name. Most readers remember the works they read, but they do not remember the author’s name.

At that moment, Killer King, who was standing across from us, spoke.

“My name uses the characters for star and friend.”

“I do not know much about naming theory, but it is an extremely cool name.”

“I named it myself.”

I looked over each member of the party’s faces and noticed the one person whose expression had changed.

A face that had turned pale in a way that was unlike her usual self.

As I saw Cha Yerin avoiding my eyes, a realization suddenly came to me.

Ah, right. Come to think of it, Yerin—

[It is time to enter the Twelve Zodiac Ball.]

[The representative of District 13, please designate companion marks for the companions who will enter together.]

So it was finally time.

Including me and Yu Joonghyuk, the party consisted of six people.

I left a companion designation mark on the back of each person’s hand.

The mark looked exactly like someone’s face, but no matter how I looked at it, it did not resemble an animal.

This… does it not look a bit like my face?

The next moment, the sky split open and an orbital elevator descended toward the ground. The elevator doors opened with a light cloud of dust.

But for some reason, the inside of the elevator was somewhat cramped.

[Only two people may board the orbital elevator at a time.]

[Please board together with one companion.]

Wait. Then what about the others?

[Additional orbital elevators will arrive shortly.]

Ah, so that is how it works. Several of them come one after another. It would be more convenient to go together, so I did not understand why they insisted on pairing us up like this.

Could it be related to the next scenario? Well, if not, there would be no reason to impose such a restriction.

I looked back at the party.

It did not particularly matter who I brought with me, but it would probably be best if I took the most dangerous one.

Just as I was about to call out to Yu Joonghyuk, the boy who had appeared after opening the inn door in the distance—

Cha Sungwoo shoved someone toward me.

“Take this one first.”

*

Long ago, I once took part in an event called “A Dialogue with Readers.” It was held at a small local bookstore.

The event was structured as a conversation between about five or six writers, including myself, and roughly thirty readers.

Of course, among the readers who attended that day, not a single one had read my novel.

That was only natural. At the time, I was a novice who had just debuted in the literary world. Even among the writers, I was an unknown who had not published a single book, while the others were promising newcomers who had gained some recognition.

Readers raised their hands here and there, and writers answered their questions.

There, I was neither a writer nor a reader, just a spectator watching their exchange.

As I watched the questions and answers go back and forth, I vaguely remember thinking something like this.

Perhaps someday, I too would receive questions like that.

Perhaps someday, I would meet someone who looked at me with deep eyes, curious about my story.

“Well.”

The scenery of District 13 was gradually growing distant below us as the orbital elevator rose.

“Um. I am not sure how to say this, but…”

Inside the window, I saw Cha Yerin standing next to me. Perhaps because the elevator was narrow, the air inside felt strangely suffocating.

Only then did it occur to me that the writers being questioned back then probably had not been purely enjoying themselves either.

Was Cha Yerin resenting me for hiding the fact that I was a writer?

From my point of view, it was unavoidable. At the time, I could not yet trust Cha Yerin.

Even so, had I not revealed my identity far too late? Should I not have at least given a small hint? Or, if not that—

“I am sorry.”

Unexpectedly, the one who apologized first was Cha Yerin.

I waved my hands in slight confusion.

“Oppa ended up making things awkward for no reason.”

“No, it is not that. I should have told you much earlier—”

“Oppa already knows everything.”

It was not difficult to guess what she meant.

Killer King, Cha Sungwoo, must have known both that I was a writer and that his younger sister liked the novels of the writer Lee Hakhyun.

That must have been why he pushed his sister into the orbital elevator.

“A lot of time has passed already.”

Cha Yerin’s voice was deep, as if she were reflecting on the years gone by.

“It really passed quickly. Just like when a story says, ‘and several months passed.’”

It was a metaphor worthy of Literature Girl Sixty-Four.

I recalled the day I first met Cha Yerin. That day, we were inside the Edge of Darkness, fighting Odukhyeop.

It was a time when enemies and allies were still unclear.

“It feels strange somehow.”

Below the orbital elevator, the figures of the beastfolk were fading away. The crane inn owner, who had decided to support us, was waving his hand. I could also see the leader of the bear beastfolk.

In a world where everything turns into a story, this very moment would someday become a story as well.

We looked down at the comrades who had shared that story with us. The rest of the party was there, waiting for the orbital elevator. Cha Sungwoo, Noh Kyunghwan, Sung Minwoo. And Yu Joonghyuk.

As she looked down at the scene together with me, Cha Yerin added,

“Just liking the same story is enough for people to become companions.”

“Perhaps it is because everyone is a good person.”

“Author.”

“Yes.”

“I will only call you that until the orbital elevator finishes going up.”

“Understood. Then may I call you Reader?”

Cha Yerin slightly lowered her head and looked down at her toes. Then she suddenly stiffened her expression and asked,

“Our possession situation. Was that your intention, Author?”

“No.”

Using a constellation’s authority, I searched for the stars watching us. Fortunately, there were no gazes peeking into the conversation inside the orbital elevator.

In other words, it meant we could talk freely here without worrying about filtering.

“May I tell you a little about my situation?”

Cha Yerin nodded briefly, and I began.

About the strange note I had received from Representative Kim Dokja the day before the possession.

About attending Kim Dokja’s Banquet and meeting Representative Kim Dokja.

And about suddenly possessing this world when I came to my senses.

“It is very similar to what happened to Kim Dokja. It is almost like someone parodied it.”

A parody.

I had not thought of it that way.

“How does it feel, being possessed by a story you wrote yourself?”

“I should have written a more peaceful story. And made the protagonist die a little less.”

We looked at each other and smiled faintly.

“Can the ending be changed?”

“It will be changed.”

By now, the scenery of District 13 was no longer visible. As the orbital elevator entered between layers, only pitch-black darkness could be seen outside.

“The ending of the forty-first round is already decided, isn’t it?”

“The story of the forty-first round has never been properly read.”

“If it has not been read, it can be fixed.”

“Yes. That is what I believe.”

“It will not be easy.”

“It will not be. But Yerin is here, and Sungwoo is here. And the other companions too.”

The scenarios that await us are different from the early scenarios where we barely struggled with incarnations.

“It is worth trying.”

What is waiting for us above are at minimum historic-figure-level constellations.

We will compete with them within the scenario.

“Please tell me you can write it well.”

I looked at Cha Yerin in the dim darkness.

Even she, who appeared calm the entire time, must be afraid. According to my memory, in reality she would only be a girl in her late teens at most.

“I will do my best.”

“Please say it one more time.”

“I will do my best. Because there are people who read my boring debut work all the way to the end.”

“It was not boring.”

Even in the darkness, I felt as though I could see her serious expression.

“The Origin of Memory is my favorite novel.”

The Origin of Memory.

Hearing the title of my debut work after so long made my face feel hot. It felt as though I had been dragged back into a Dialogue with Readers after many years.

“Why? Why do you like that novel?”

Even across the entire Korean Peninsula, there were probably fewer than fifty people who had read that novel. And most of them had likely forgotten even the title.

In a sense, the Cha Yerin standing before me was the only reader who remembered the novel written by the author Lee Hakhyun.

Cha Yerin said,

“Kim Dokja likes Ways of Survival.”

“That is true.”

“And I like The Origin of Memory.”

I could not say anything.

As if she understood my silence, Cha Yerin continued,

“The Origin of Memory is a story about a man who searches for his own origin.”

I recalled the contents of that novel after a long time.

The protagonist of The Origin of Memory has no name. He has no parents. So he creates his own past. His birth, his °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° parents, his family, every story related to himself is designed by his own hands, and he calls that his identity.

Yet no one can call that story a lie. Because there is no one who knows his past.

Not even he himself.

“I envied him.”

I thought about what kind of person Cha Yerin had been. A child who lost her parents at birth and was placed in an orphanage.

The only people who remember her history are herself and her older brother.

“I like the final scene. The part where the protagonist meets his childhood self.”

In the final scene of The Origin of Memory, the protagonist meets his childhood self like an illusion.

I had completely forgotten that such a scene existed, so I was honestly surprised. Right now, there was a reader in front of me who remembered my novel better than I did.

“If you think about it, that novel has a similar ending to Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint.”

“That seems to be the case.”

“And the author is Kim Dokja.”

In the darkness, Cha Yerin’s eyes were directed toward me. She was looking at me, but in another sense, she was not.

She was gazing into the darkness between us, as if important sentences the author had forgotten to write were hidden between its lines.

“The writer is the first reader of their own novel.”

For a moment, I felt something strange.

It was as if I had heard an answer I had been searching for all along, coming from distant outer space.

“In that sense, I could also become Kim Dokja.”

Why is it that only after becoming Kim Dokja, I am finally hearing the words I most wanted to hear as Lee Hakhyun?

“I think Yerin resembles Kim Dokja much more. Sungwoo, Uncle Kyunghwan, Minwoo as well.”

In truth, they were fragments of Kim Dokja. People who loved this story more than any other readers.

Then what about me?

I am forty-nine percent Kim Dokja. A being derived from Kim Dokja, who wanted to become Kim Dokja more than anyone, and for that very reason could never become Kim Dokja more than anyone.

In that sense, I may be the person farthest from Kim Dokja.

“Maybe.”

Cha Yerin, who had been thinking for a moment, spoke. Light from outside the window slowly brightened, faintly illuminating her face.

“It is not that we resemble Kim Dokja. Maybe Kim Dokja resembles us.”

I listened to those words blankly, then suddenly opened my mouth.

At that moment, the orbital elevator came to a stop with a thunderous sound.

[Main Scenario #8 — ‘District 13’ has been automatically completed.]

Immediately after, the long-awaited rewards arrived.

[You have obtained 300,000 coins as a scenario reward.]

[You have obtained the tale fragment ‘Understanding of the Hundred Beasts’ as a scenario reward.]

“Understanding of the Hundred Beasts.”

At last, I had obtained this tale fragment.

[A new Main Scenario has arrived.]

Outside the elevator window, a new scenario region revealed itself.

It was a landscape I knew very well.

Cha Yerin looked at me with a tense expression. I nodded in response.

“The Recycling Center Head knows who Kim Dokja is.”

Otherwise, the stage of the next scenario would never be this place.

“This place is—”

At that moment, someone wrenched open the orbital elevator door. With a screeching sound, a huge hand forced its way through the gap.

Instinctively shielding Cha Yerin and gripping the hilt of Unbreakable Conviction, the owner of the hand flung the door completely open.

[So I was curious who it was that dared to reject my offer.]

A monkey with golden fur was smiling at me.

[Are you the one called Kim Dokja?]