The ‘Recorders of Terror’ appear in this world in the form of ‘possession’?

“Is that the case for all the Recorders of Terror?”

“I don’t know for sure, either.”

Along with the thought of no way, a few cases floated up in my head.

One was the ‘Heavenly Maid Hori’ I met at the ‘Recycling Center,’ and another was me and the other readers.

If the trait of ‘possession’ itself was a characteristic of the ‘Recorders of Terror’…

“However, there’s a saying like this. ‘The Recorders of Terror appear as if infiltrating the worldline, then disappear.’”

They appear as if infiltrating the worldline, then disappear.

I repeated that phrase to myself and asked.

“What’s their purpose supposed to be?”

“Who knows. Probably to interpret ‘terror,’ isn’t it?”

Terror. That word that had been repeated from earlier now sounded unfamiliar.

“What exactly is the ‘terror’ they’re talking about?”

“If it could be explained that simply, the title ‘Recorder of Terror’ wouldn’t exist in the first place.”

“Can’t I understand it even roughly?”

“Roughly…”

The divine physician began calmly tidying up the place he had used. He swept up the fable fragments that had been scattered in confusion, and neatly put the brushes he used into a brush case. Was it because he was a ‘fable expert’ that every one of those actions looked like it had some kind of meaning?

At last, after finishing tidying up, the divine physician opened his mouth.

“What do you think is the biggest fable that makes up this world?”

I answered without thinking long.

“Probably the ‘scenario.’”

Everything in this world is made of a ‘story.’ And the biggest flow that leads that story is the ‘scenario’ governed by the <Star Stream>.

Tzzzzzt.

You could tell just by looking at how my existence, having become an exile, immediately became unstable.

This universe is a world where you are granted a ‘qualification’ simply by participating in a scenario.

Maybe satisfied with my answer, the divine physician nodded and smiled.

“Then where do you think that ‘scenario’ came from?”

“Well…”

Saying “Actually, a writer named Han Sooyoung wrote it,” here probably wouldn’t help much.

And even if the designer of the scenario was Han Sooyoung, that wasn’t the logical plausibility that supported this world.

Because there would definitely be scenarios in this world that Han Sooyoung didn’t write.

Besides, Han Sooyoung also didn’t know all scenario content from the moment she was born.

She would have written scenarios with the content she learned by encountering other contents and by experiencing things directly.

As I thought that far, a strange feeling came over me. Come to think of it, the ‘gigantic fable scenarios’ I knew all felt familiar.

Olympus’ <Gigantomachia>.

Eden and the Demon World’s <Holy Demon Great War>.

The Emperor’s <Journey to the West>.

All of them were scenarios made based on famous fables.

That wasn’t all. Ordinary scenarios were the same.

A battle royale-style survival game, or a variation on the mafia game.

In the end, scenarios were things made based on existing ‘stories.’

“Aren’t most scenarios from old ‘fables’?”

The divine physician nodded again, but he didn’t smile. That meant my answer was lacking.

“That’s right. More precisely speaking…”

The divine physician blinked as if choosing his words for a moment, then opened his mouth.

“All scenarios are, in other words, ‘interpreted fables.’”

Interpreted fables.

A bright light went on in my head.

“One very small interpretation of a fable can sometimes change the entire universe.”

The divine physician nodded once again and smiled.

“Looks like you understand now.”

“Then… the Recorders of Terror are people who interpret ‘fables that haven’t been interpreted yet’?”

“That’s what I think.”

“And those fables are ‘terror.’”

An uninterpreted story is hard. Unfamiliar, and sometimes even incomprehensible. The origin of that incomprehensibility touches terror.

“Fables that even this <Star Stream> still hasn’t interpreted. The Recorders of Terror like those stories.”

Suddenly, I thought of the ‘Secretive Plotter.’

Maybe the reason the Recorders of Terror revered him was because he was, more than anyone in this world, an ‘uninterpretable existence.’

“I heard you’re participating in the Horror Realm Expedition this time.”

“Yes. That’s how it turned out.”

The divine physician looked at me with a somewhat complicated expression, about to open his mouth again—

“Divine physician, the family head is calling for you.”

With perfect timing, a guard martial artist opened the door and appeared. As if he had been eavesdropping on our conversation, the martial artist’s gaze was unusual.

Letting out a light sigh, Divine Physician Rowellin looked at me and mouthed.

―I went through the trouble of saving you, so don’t die.

I expressed my thanks with a nod.

*

My conversation with the divine physician was beneficial in its own way.

Above all, getting information about the ‘Recorders of Terror’ was big.

「Maybe I, or the other readers too, are ultimately fated to become ‘Recorders of Terror.’」

I decided not to think too deeply. For now, the information I could know was too limited. Right now, what mattered was dealing with the things in front of me one by one.

Steadily, like writing one sentence and then writing the next sentence again.

If every moment I live becomes a fable, then the day would come when this moment would be written as a fable too.

If I didn’t want to leave this moment as a vague ‘terror’ then, I had to keep thinking and moving.

By the time Yoo Joonghyuk finished regulating his breathing and circulating his energy, the guard martial artist came to find us again.

“There will soon be an announcement of the expedition party. It seems the honored guests must go together.”

After discussions with the family head, we would be participating in the ‘Horror Realm Expedition’ as the Namgung Family’s representatives.

[A new main scenario will begin soon!]

Thinking that I was finally entering a new scenario made my heart race. I didn’t know if it was because I was scared, or because I was nervous.

To hide my trembling, I deliberately spoke to Yoo Joonghyuk.

“While listening to the divine physician, you suddenly started regulating your breathing and circulating your energy. Did you gain some kind of enlightenment?”

At my question, Yoo Joonghyuk shook his head.

“I thought you might transcend.”

“If transcendence happened that easily, Murim would already be full of transcenders.”

“Right, I guess so.”

“If I get even the slightest feeling, I have the habit of regulating my breathing and circulating my energy sometimes. Because I can’t miss even a small clue to enlightenment.”

Once again, I realized what a diligent person Yoo Joonghyuk was. Even if this guy often did sunfish-like things, Yoo Joonghyuk was fundamentally a sunfish who makes an effort.

Since he lived that hard, he could go through as many as 1,863 regressions and become the ultimate sunfish.

[Your understanding of the character ‘Yoo Joonghyuk’ has increased.]

[The character ‘Yoo Joonghyuk’ shows you faint favor.]

I was startled by the message that suddenly sounded.

My understanding increased, all of a sudden?

“Why?”

“It’s nothing.”

I had to bite my lip several times to hide my expression.

When I first met him, I thought there was no way we could ever become companions.

And that was because ‘Yoo Joonghyuk of the 41st regression’ was a person counted as the worst Yoo Joonghyuk among the countless Yoo Joonghyuks.

But I earned even a little favor from that guy. Just that alone made it feel like I had received enough compensation for this ‘trip to Murim.’

“Then even if I enter the Horror Realm, you won’t throw me off a cliff.”

“What nonsense are you talking about?”

I just shrugged.

Yoo Joonghyuk glared at me with a strange expression, then added,

“It looks like you’ve had some kind of progress.”

“You noticed?”

As expected—couldn’t I escape a regressor’s eyes?

In fact, I had made progress. Not something profound like enlightenment, but a clear progress visible at a glance.

[Congratulations! Your fable has successfully evolved!]

[Fable, ‘Successor of the Eternal Name’ has evolved into a myth-grade fable!]

At last, ‘Successor of the Eternal Name’ had become a myth-grade fable.

I didn’t know why it suddenly evolved. Maybe the fable, worried I was about to die, evolved on its own.

[Fable, ‘Successor of the Eternal Name’ snorts.]

Or maybe it helped that after talking with the divine physician yesterday, I spent the whole night pondering ‘Kim Dokja.’

Either way, with this, I too had finally become the owner of a ‘myth-grade fable.’

And the next moment, a bright light began to flow out from Kim Dokja’s smartphone.

[The relic’s function evolves!]

The relic’s function evolution.

Maybe this was the first effect of a ‘myth-grade fable.’

I immediately turned on the smartphone, and the platform screen was the first thing I saw.

+

……

Episode ■■. ■■ (■) +[??]

Episode ■■. ■■ (■) +[??]

Episode ■■. ■■ (■) +[??]

……

+

Why couldn’t I see the latest regression?

I pressed refresh several times, but the screen didn’t change.

Did something ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) happen to the serialization record? Or—

「Uninterpreted fable.」

My head felt like it rang.

Right now, I was an exile, and I was outside the scenario.

If so, and this moment ‘couldn’t be interpreted’… if that was why I couldn’t see these episodes…

It was a plausible assumption, but it wasn’t the stage where I could be certain yet.

More than that, there was one thing I still had to confirm.

[You can use a ‘Daily Free Pass’ to check one comment of the episode you want.]

Thankfully, I could still check comments. Did that mean serialization was proceeding normally?

I would know if I checked the comments.

[Now, even without using coins, you can check ‘a highly upvoted comment’ first.]

[Would you like to use a ‘Daily Free Pass’?]

An unexpected proposal. It seemed this was an added effect through 「Successor of the Eternal Name」.

Until now, because of the ‘random comment check system,’ it was hard to efficiently collect information.

And that was because if you checked comments at random, it was hard to avoid comments that suddenly spammed Yoo Joonghyuk’s name (Yoo Joonghyuk villain), or comments that spammed the Demon King of Salvation’s name (Demon King of Salvation villain).

But if I could only see comments with lots of ‘upvotes,’ it was different.

That it received many readers’ upvotes meant that, with a fairly high probability, it pinpointed the core of that ‘episode.’ More than that, there was a high chance of avoiding villain comments.

Of course, there was already a function where you could use extra coins to check an ‘upvoted comment,’ but because the cost increased as episodes went on (after it passed episode 200, it started demanding as many as 10,000 coins per single comment), recently I could barely check ‘upvoted comments’ at all.

But to unlock that function for free. I couldn’t miss this opportunity.

[1 Daily Free Pass has been deducted.]

[Checking the comment with the most ‘upvotes’.]

I immediately checked the comment.

Now, let’s see.

+

―But■! But■! But■! But■! But■! But■! But■! But■! But■! But■! But■! But■…….

Upvotes 195 / Downvotes 10

+

I stared at the blank ■ between “But” and “!” for a moment.

Newly, I thought that uninterpreted fables were terrifying, but uninterpreted comments might be terrifying too.

That was probably that, right?

Why in the world was this the most upvoted comment?

I couldn’t understand Kim Dokjas’ thoughts at all.

I checked the second comment.

+

―Bang■Bang■Bang■Bang■Bang■Bang■Bang■Bang■Bang■Bang■Bang■Bang■Bang■Bang■Bang■Bang■Bang■Bang■…….

Upvotes 123 / Downvotes 6

+

Mm.

Thankfully, the third most upvoted comment left room for interpretation.

+

―Rea■ly th■s i■ how y■u d■e, r■ght?

Upvotes 98 / Downvotes 3

Sometimes, comments are even scarier when you interpret them.

+

「Is it really like this—you’re not dying, right?」

I stared blankly at that comment, then suddenly went back to the first comment and checked how many times “But■!” was written.

A total of 41 times.

In that moment, a series of keywords combined in my head.

But■! 41. Bang■. Is it really like this—you’re not dying, right?

Wait. Don’t tell me.

I reflexively turned to the side and muttered.

“Yoo Joonghyuk.”

And then real terror began.

“Yoo Joonghyuk?”

Yoo Joonghyuk was gone.