In the nebula <Olympus>, there existed a kind of secret intelligence bureau. In the world at large, it was known as the ‘Hermes System’.

The intelligence bureau had two core duties.

To collect big data and predict ‘big stories’.

And to detect abnormal phenomena in lower scenarios in advance and exclude any factors that might become a threat to <Olympus>.

[What’s happening with the Recycling Center.]

At Hermes’s question, the Intelligence Bureau Chief, ‘First Hermaphrodite’, answered with confidence.

[The raid should be over soon.]

[How?]

[We put together a team of hero-grade constellations from the lower scenarios.]

Originally, the subordinate-grade constellations of <Olympus> were precious resources meant to offset scenario Plausibility.

But in this case, given the nature of the matter, they had no choice but to grind down hero-grade constellations.

[The ‘Recycling Center’ should have entry restrictions by epithet.]

[We handled that part with a loophole. No need to worry too much.]

[A loophole…….]

[It may be called a loophole, but it’s a safe method. I swear it on my epithet.]

[All right. By all means, we must get our hands on the ‘Kim Dokja fragments’ there. Otherwise, the Recorders will steal the recording rights to the ‘single tale’.]

When Hermes disappeared with a grave warning, the First Hermaphrodite—Hermaphroditos—let out a light sigh and grumbled.

[Damn father. Easy for you to say.]

Of course, even as he spoke that way, Hermaphroditos wasn’t all that worried.

Because the lineup of the special forces team deployed to this ‘Recycling Center’ was anything but ordinary.

A raid party that included famous constellations from Murim, sailors of the ‘Argo’ whose fame hadn’t spread widely, and even forgotten Greek heroes.

With that much force, they could easily hunt down a ‘tale-grade constellation’ even if one manifested.

No matter who was in the ‘Recycling Center’, they wouldn’t be able to block them all.

[I don’t know who this ‘Kim Dokja’ is for them to go this far for, but…….]

Even the Intelligence Bureau Chief Hermaphroditos didn’t know much about the name ‘Kim Dokja’.

What he knew was only this: that it was the real name of the ‘Oldest Dream’.

That he had been shattered and scattered across various scenario regions.

That <Olympus> had to get those fragments before any other nebula.

[An abnormal phenomenon has occurred in the ‘Hermes System’!]

The emergency lights of the intelligence bureau came on at that moment. Hermaphroditos hurriedly ran for the situation room, calling for his secretary.

[What’s going on?]

[I-I’m not entirely sure either!]

Since he had become the agent of the ‘Hermes System’, there had only been three incidents big enough to set off the system’s emergency lights.

The first was when ‘Wealthy Father of the Night’ Hades and ‘Spear That Draws the Boundary of the Sea’ Poseidon clashed.

They had argued over whether to recognize the night sky reflected on the surface of the water as ‘night’ or as ‘sea’, but thankfully, the matter was resolved smoothly through Zeus’s mediation.

The second was when <Olympus>, <Veda>, and <Eden> clashed over the copyright to the ‘Resurrection Tale’.

The situation, which was on the verge of escalating into a psychological warfare between myth-grade constellations, fortunately ended in a dramatic truce agreement when copyright experts from each nebula appeared.

The last, third, was when the ‘Oldest Dream’ was broken.

As for the report related to that, even he, the Intelligence Bureau Chief, had been allowed to read only a portion.

There was only one fact he knew for certain.

「On that day, the ‘Oldest Dream’ they knew was discarded.」

Since the scale of all three previous incidents had been enormous, the moment the emergency lights came on, Hermaphroditos couldn’t help but tense up.

The blinking interval of the emergency lights became shorter in proportion to the scale of the event. For example, when the ‘Oldest Dream’ descended, the emergency lights blinked seven times per second, and when Hades and Poseidon clashed, they blinked four times per second.

This time, however, it was twice per second.

Judging by the blinking interval alone, the scale didn’t seem as large as the previous incidents.

What bothered him was the color of the lights.

‘Yellow?’

Hermaphroditos’s expression twitched around the eyebrows.

Because the ‘yellow lights’ were lit when the ‘Hermes System’ intelligence bureau itself was in danger.

[Secretary!]

[Director! This way!]

Hermaphroditos immediately ran toward where his secretary’s voice was coming from.

[Kueeeek!]

The scream came from the annex of the situation room. It was where the special department that had recently been put in charge of the ‘Recycling Center’ raid was located.

[What in the—]

Inside the department, constellations wearing connecting goggles and diving into the interior of the ‘Recycling Center’ were sitting in neat rows.

The ‘Recycling Center’ was a place that couldn’t be accessed without special network facilities. So the fact that constellations were sitting here with goggles on was not, in itself, a problem.

The problem was their condition.

[Kyaaaaaaak―!]

With a terrible scream, tales began to writhe and spill out of the true bodies of the constellations wearing the goggles.

[What the hell! Force the dive to terminate! Now!]

What was going on.

The dive terminals provided by the Intelligence Bureau were tale equipment that guaranteed the constellations’ safety during ‘lower scenario’ infiltrations.

As long as they were wearing this tale equipment, the constellations might lose tales or damage their grade in lower scenarios, but they would not be annihilated.

And yet.

[Constellation, ‘Brothers of the Undying’ is entering an abrupt annihilation process.]

[Constellation, ‘Forgotten Monster Hunter’ is entering an abrupt annihilation process.]

The constellations were dying. It was something that should have been impossible.

The place they had been deployed to was no more than the twentieth Main Scenario. Even if they had encountered a monster above tale-grade, there was no reason for them to face death.

[Terminate the dives!]

They had to find the cause. And to do that, the top priority was to save the constellations in the midst of annihilation.

[Release the ‘Recycling Center’ entry process! Hurry―]

[I-it, it won’t release!]

[What?]

[The entire control system is dead!]

The constellations began to be annihilated one by one.

The total number of hero-grade constellations deployed for this operation was forty. If they lost them all, it would be a matter that not only brought down discipline from above but also dealt a grave blow to the prestige of the Intelligence Bureau Chief.

But the situation wasn’t stopping at that level.

[The ordinary agents of the bureau are acting strange as well!]

At the secretary’s shout, the watcher stars stationed in the general division began to cry out in pain.

[The stars monitoring the ‘Recycling Center’ are—]

The constellations were spewing tales from their noses and mouths as they screamed in agony.

Hermaphroditos couldn’t hide his dismay as he asked,

[What on earth…… what in the world is going on? Has ‘One-Eyed Father’ appeared? Is someone interfering with the ‘Fate’ we’re reading?]

Of course, that couldn’t be.

Even if a myth-grade constellation from another nebula had intervened, they would not have been able to take over the entire ‘Hermes System’.

[The feeds! Where are the feeds!]

The screens the Intelligence Bureau agents had been monitoring finally came up, belatedly.

On the screen, there was an incarnation drenched from head to toe in the blood of stars.

Hermaphroditos got goosebumps.

That ‘existence’ was clearly beyond the screen.

He was in a place where they could not possibly see him.

And yet, for some reason, Hermaphroditos felt like he had met his eyes.

In that instant, Hermaphroditos recalled a face he’d once glimpsed in a top-secret file.

Kim Dokja.

The ‘Oldest Dream’ who had once dreamed of this entire universe.

「A discarded god.」

The god who should have disappeared was now issuing a command toward them.

「“Explode.”」

*

Stars in the night sky were bursting like fireworks.

One, two, three, four.

It was a scene that could truly be called a massacre.

Watching that scene, Ms. Lamb—the ‘Demonic Judge of Fire’—spoke.

[We can’t just leave him like that.]

She was witnessing the deaths of the stars through the screen in the principal’s office.

But what she worried about was not the constellations dying.

[He’ll die again.]

The white reaper mercilessly slaughtering those hero-grade constellations. The man in the white coat, drenched in the blood of stars. The ‘Demon King of Salvation’s agent, who kept spewing blood from his nose and mouth and yet did not stop the destruction.

[Of course. But right now, there’s no one who can stop him.]

The Mass-Produced Producer looked at the screen with sunken eyes.

The man, engulfed in rough rage and sorrow, was walking. They did not know what had tormented him so much.

But what he was trying to say through that story was clear.

[Tale, ‘Successor of the Eternal Name’ laughs maniacally!]

[Tale, ‘One Who Rewrites Fate’ begins to tell a story!]

Thinking about it normally, the miracles the Demon King of Salvation’s agent was displaying right now were impossible.

To annihilate ‘hero-grade constellations’ with a single word in no more than the twentieth scenario? It made no sense in terms of Plausibility, and it was a power that even myth-grade constellations were reluctant to attempt.

And yet some mere agent of a constellation was violently wielding that nonsensical power.

「It was possible only because this stage was the ‘Recycling Center’.」

All the constellations who had entered the ‘Recycling Center’ were in a state where they had lowered their ‘grade’ to the limit.

In particular, the constellations exploding now were all beings who had entered through <Olympus>’s ‘Hermes System’.

The ‘Hermes System’ operated based on the tale network of the ‘Owner of the Sky Steps’. And Cheon Inho’s [Agitation] was a skill that spread at a truly destructive speed if it could travel through a ‘network’.

「“Explode.”」

The sentence spread along the network like a virus, and in the course of spreading, it wove together countless tales and gained immense power.

[Constellation, ‘Demon King of Salvation (Acting)’ reveals his grade!]

Cheon Inho’s [Agitation], combined with Christina Page’s [Daily Corpse] and [Hypnotic Agitation]. On top of that, [Sentence Amplification] was added to create the ultimate [Agitation].

「“Explode.”」

All constellations in the ‘Hermes System’ whose grade was lower than that of the ‘Demon King of Salvation’s agent’ were entering a process of self-annihilation, unable to withstand the power of [Agitation].

[All stars of <Twelve Zodiac> cannot take their eyes off you!]

[All stars of the ‘Gourmet Association’ are left gaping!]

[Countless constellations are shocked by the authority of ‘Agitation’!]

[Constellations belonging to the nebula <Olympus> cannot hide their shock.]

Stars bursting in the distant universe as if some grand banquet were being held.

[<Olympus> will probably never forget that sight.]

Neither the Mass-Produced Producer nor Uriel could take ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) their eyes off that scene.

[Once this scenario ends, another great tale will be born.]

Even as they knew that this was ultimately bringing about Kim Dokja’s ruin, even as they knew that he was dying a little more with each word he spoke.

Watching the stars vanish so vainly at a single command, the Mass-Produced Producer and Uriel were thinking the same thing.

「We’ll get to see this story again.」

But regardless of their wish, the end of the scenario was approaching.

The Demon King of Salvation’s agent, soaked in madness, staggered along the forest path. Blowing apart the enemies who blocked him, continuing the merciless destruction, he finally reached the deepest part of the woods.

The Mass-Produced Producer muttered with a sigh.

[Now you’ll find out who the ‘real Kim Dokja’ is.]