Not long ago, I had been asked a similar question.

【Do you truly wish to know it? Even if that truth could destroy you forever?】

The owner of that voice had said: that once I reached the final chapter of the ‘Recycling Center’, I’d be able to learn that truth.

Was this what it had meant.

「Why couldn’t Kim Dokja return to <Kim Dokja Company>.」

I was curious. Of course I couldn’t not be curious.

“Seonah, I’m not going to absorb you.”

“……”

“No matter how curious I am, I don’t want to learn the answer that way.”

Gu Seonah wasn’t someone I could call my companion. There was a wall between us as thick as a single sheet of paper.

However, I at least understood the sentence written on that sheet of paper.

Now I knew who she was searching for in this world. I knew which character she liked and which sentences she loved. That was why I couldn’t absorb her.

Because I wanted her to remain as a reader on the other side of the page, reading this story.

“That side of you is what I don’t like.”

Gu Seonah glared at my hand gripping her shoulder as she spoke.

“You won’t do this. You won’t do that. Does this world still feel like just a ‘novel’ to you?”

“……”

“You think I absorbed other readers because I liked it?”

Gu Seonah’s gaze burned.

There wasn’t a single reader who wanted to absorb another reader’s spirit. Gu Seonah had to be the same.

“You know it too. All those branded as ‘Kim Dokja fragments’ are already being chased by the stars.”

Gu Seonah looked up at the sky as she spoke.

Beyond that sky where lightning flashed, there were surely nebulae waiting for us.

Those who wanted to gather the ‘Kim Dokja fragments’ and control this world’s dream.

“For now, the Recycling Center is protecting us, but how long do you think that’ll last? Soon they’ll start tracking us.”

“……”

“This scenario is our last chance. The last chance to protect ourselves. As many ‘Kim Dokja fragments’ as possible need to become one here. We have to become strong enough to stand against the constellations up there.”

Gu Seonah’s muttering sounded almost like an incantation.

“We have to become a single ‘Kim Dokja’.”

Maybe I knew that as well.

Even so, I spoke in rebuttal to that fact.

“That’s not the only way. We can just work together. Even if we don’t become one, we can still become one team.”

“That won’t be enough. We’re just ordinary people except for the fact that we have Kim Dokja fragments.”

“<Kim Dokja Company> were just ordinary people at first too.”

“So you’re saying we can do it too? Do you have any idea what kind of novel this is?”

“Maybe someday it will become a novel.”

Gu Seonah started laughing like she’d gone crazy. Then, all at once, she cut off her laughter and looked at me.

“As expected, you are ‘Kim Dokja’.”

The instant I turned my head at the chilling feeling, her left hand turned into a snake and bit my wrist.

The tale, 「Snake That Bites Memory」.

Damn it.

Had the conversation just now been stalling to set this up.

I belatedly activated 「Understanding of All Beasts」.

[This tale has no intent to harm you.]

The ability of 「Snake That Bites Memory」 was to inject a part of one’s own memories into another.

My vision slowly turned white.

In the blazing field of view, Gu Seonah was faintly smiling.

“I’ll make you remember clearly. What you, ‘Kim Dokja’, have done.”

Within the vision dyed bright, sentences slowly surfaced.

「This is a story for one reader alone.」

That memory began from the last sentence of Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint that Han Sooyoung had written.

*

「I hope many people will read this story.」

That had been Kim Dokja’s first wish.

So he left recommendation posts on the internet and comments. He went around recommending the same story to people.

He got cursed at.

At the time, he couldn’t understand it. Why wouldn’t people read a story that became interesting if they just endured a little.

Now he knew the reason.

The story that had saved him simply wasn’t salvation for others.

Accepting that simple fact had been very difficult for the young Kim Dokja.

「And a single reader who read that story opened his eyes.」

When he looked around, the first thing he saw was a hospital bed. As he slowly took deep breaths, strength returned to his whole body.

The things that had happened so far rose up one by one—from the ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ first scenario to the last.

From separating from his companions in the subway, to becoming the ‘Oldest Dream’, and finally to the moment his spirit was broken apart and scattered across the universe—all of it.

“Haaah—”

The voice that escaped him didn’t feel real. He hadn’t thought he’d be able to return again.

And yet he had returned. He had definitely returned.

「This is not a dream.」

Tears welled up from the swelling emotion and his heart pounded violently.

「Han Sooyoung did it.」

From outside the hospital, he could hear someone running busily toward him.

Familiar presences and familiar voices. He wanted to jump out of bed and go hug them right away. He wanted to tell them he’d missed them. But.

[Your current existence restoration rate is 41%.]

The system message that appeared before his eyes stopped him.

「Why wasn’t I fully restored?」

Reading the ‘memory of the world’, Kim Dokja retraced what had happened.

One, his spirit had been completed as the ‘Oldest Dream’ and scattered across the entire universe.

Two, Han Sooyoung had written a novel that his reincarnated spirits across the universe would read.

Three, his reincarnated spirits read Han Sooyoung’s novel and dreamed of ‘Kim Dokja’ returning.

Four, the dream of the ‘Oldest Dream’ became reality.

If that assumption was correct, he should have been fully restored and become a single Kim Dokja.

But his spirit restoration rate was not 100%, or 51%, or even 49%—it was 41%.

Hearing the footsteps of his companions approaching, Kim Dokja grew uneasy.

「Is the current me the figure the companions want.」

「Do I have all my memories of them.」

That fear made Kim Dokja get to his feet. He couldn’t use the full authority of the ‘Oldest Dream’, but in his current state, he could still search the entire world line and recover the memories he was missing.

「Kim Dokja thought.」

Right, before meeting the companions, I’ll go retrieve the memories I’ve lost.

「It’ll only take a moment.」

Finding the fragments of his memories was not difficult.

As soon as he began ‘Worldline Search’, he detected the fragments containing his memories all heading toward ‘a certain world line’.

Following that flow, he drifted and drifted through the universe.

And finally, he reached the place where the memories had gathered.

The moment he witnessed the shape of the universe there, Kim Dokja’s heart pounded once more. It was because he recognized where it was.

「The forgotten 41st round.」

Kim Dokja was truly shocked.

It was a world that even he, the ‘Oldest Dream’, had not known existed. In a sense, it was a world whose existence could not be allowed to stand.

A dream the ‘Oldest Dream’ had not dreamt—such a world shouldn’t exist.

Even so, that world was clearly there before his eyes.

What was more,

[Is that the ‘Oldest Dream’.]

it bared fierce hostility toward him.

[I can’t believe it. That you’d really come…….]

Radiant stars blocked his path.

Stars so bright they could have lit an entire galaxy.

Kim Dokja slowly looked over that army of stars, then checked the ones at the front. He knew who those stars were.

[Odin.]

Odin of <Asgard>.

[Zeus. Poseidon.]

Zeus and Poseidon of <Olympus>.

[Mitra.]

Even Mitra, the myth-grade constellation of <Veda>.

The lords of the most renowned nebulae in <Star Stream> were gathered there.

Normally, just having their true names spoken would have enraged those stars. But not a single myth-grade constellation dared take issue with Kim Dokja’s words.

Their opponent was the ‘god’ who dreamed this universe.

In front of the ‘Oldest Dream’, concepts like tale-grade or myth-grade meant nothing at all.

[I don’t know what your intention is in blocking my path, but I’ll say this once. Move.]

At Kim Dokja’s true speech, the stars of the nebulae all trembled at once.

Even so, none of the stars moved. On the contrary, they radiated an intent to hold their ground even if they burned up all their tales.

[We cannot.]

It was strange.

No matter how myth-grade they were, they shouldn’t have been able to refuse his command. That was the respect owed in this world to the star that had read the most stories.

[Is that so? Then it can’t be helped.]

In the end, just as Kim Dokja raised his hand to sweep the stars aside, a light sparkled at his fingertips.

Well now.

Plausibility was the will of the stars that made up <Star Stream>.

In other words, there was a powerful enough flow restricting his actions to cause a Backlash of Plausibility against him.

[Looks like you’ve got someone impressive behind you.]

Interest flashed in Kim Dokja’s eyes. Blinding radiance swirled into his hand, and a broken sword appeared.

‘Unbreakable Conviction’.

The mythic blade that had shared his tales finally revealed itself to the universe.

[Try and stop me if you can.]

Nothing could change his resolve.

<Kim Dokja Company> had resurrected him. That meant he had an obligation to become a complete Kim Dokja and return to them. For that, Kim Dokja could do anything.

[Stop him!]

At Odin’s incantation, his holy relic ‘Gungnir’ shot out like a meteor, followed by Zeus’s ‘Astrafe’ and ‘Keraunos’ falling as lightning.

The constellations’ screams rang out wretchedly as they were swept up in the storm of tales.

A combined assault by the highest divinities of <Asgard> and <Olympus>.

It was an omnipotent attack strong enough to erase an entire world, and Kim Dokja received it with a single sword.

With a thunderous roar, light exploded, and a cataclysmic scene unfolded as the very map of the universe shook.

In that scene, Kim Dokja, covered in pitch-black stardust, smiled faintly.

[Kill him! He’s just a star as well!]

The stars did not give up and charged. Whatever it took, they were determined to block his path.

When Kim Dokja cut down one star, two more rushed in; when he cut down three, four came at him.

[The Plausibility of <Star Stream> is moving.]

He couldn’t just annihilate all the stars like this.

In the end, even Kim Dokja furrowed his brows.

Even as the ‘Oldest Dream’, his authority was in an awkwardly restored state. If he misused his power here, he could be caught in the Backlash of Plausibility and cause the nearby world lines to evaporate entirely.

The best approach was to respond to the constellations’ stature only to an appropriate degree, and swiftly break into the ‘41st round’.

Having made up his mind, Kim Dokja activated [Wind’s Path].

[All right, here I go.]

He felt wind blowing from somewhere, and at a flick of his hand, the canal of stars tilted and wavered. Kim Dokja moved through the gap. Swifter than lightning, faster than meteors.

Having become a stream of wind, Kim Dokja finally pierced through the nebula’s net.

[St-stop him!]

The weapons that rushed in grazed Kim Dokja’s body. Even as tales splashed instead of blood, Kim Dokja did not stop. Just a little farther.

Just a little farther and—

「A story he did not know was waiting.」

Then, at last, the moment he laid a hand on the world line’s ‘void curtain’.

[That’s far enough.]

Someone grabbed his wrist.

Kim Dokja quietly looked down at the hand holding him, then spoke.

[It’s you. The one who moved the stars.]

The owner of the hand answered.

[Yeah. It’s me.]

Kim Dokja slowly turned to face that existence.

The only being in this universe who could touch his body and remain unharmed. Come to think of it, there was only one.

[You came to find me, didn’t you?]

He was the avatar Kim Dokja had left in this world.

[Yeah, I came to find you.]

The 49% Kim Dokja.