Lee Hyunsung and Jung Heewon.

The two of them chose a 'different ending' from the party. What ending they chose was obvious.

The two of them must have headed to the 'world where Kim Dokja is.'

Lee Jihye smacked her lips.

"Then...... does that mean we won't be able to see them anymore?"

Yoo Sangah hesitated for a moment, then answered.

"It's not certain. It's like the worldlines branched differently. I'm sure we might be able to meet again."

"That's not certain either, is it?"

Yoo Sangah didn't answer.

Taking that silence as a yes, Lee Jihye muttered,

"If we made that choice too......"

"Then we wouldn't have been able to meet the mister of the 41st regression."

Shin Yoosung's firm voice cut off Lee Jihye's trailing words.

"Ms. Heewon and Mr. Hyunsung chose what they thought was best in their own way, and we chose what was best for us."

No one in the party blamed Jung Heewon or Lee Hyunsung. Rather, they hoped that the two of them, who had made a different choice, would be happy.

The fact that the party each chose different endings was only a matter of how they understood Kim Dokja. The image of 'Kim Dokja' they chose was different, but the fact that all of them liked Kim Dokja hadn't changed.

"Maybe it's the same for Mister Dokja, too."

At Shin Yoosung's words, the party all stared at the screen on the wall. On the screen, the record of the 'Recycling Center' was playing.

Kim Dokja of the 41st regression, who had now become the 'Demon King of Salvation.'

His half-closed eyes, so narrowed that you couldn't even tell what he wanted to see or where he was looking, filled the screen.

Lee Jihye muttered,

"If that's the choice Mister made, and the world Mister wanted to see......"

Even without saying any more, everyone already knew the next words.

"We might be characters who don't belong in this story."

The one who broke the deep, brief silence that fell in an instant was Yoo Joonghyuk.

"You're still saying something that pathetic. I don't care what story that bastard wants to see, or that kind of crap."

"Then why are you trying to interfere in that story, Master?"

"To find that bastard who made things this complicated......"

Maybe the reason he didn't say all the way to the end, "I'll kill him," was because even Yoo Joonghyuk had changed a little now.

As if something didn't sit right with him, Yoo Joonghyuk frowned and pressed Yoo Sangah.

"What's the second piece of news? Didn't you say there were two things to tell us?"

They had already heard one piece of news. Where Jung Heewon and Lee Hyunsung had gone.

But there was still one more left.

Instead of immediately telling them the remaining one, Yoo Sangah looked at the party and said this.

"I agree with what Joonghyuk said too. I respect Dokja's life, but I also don't think it's time for us to give up yet."

"Unni, do you think we still have a role left?"

"I don't know, but......"

Yoo Sangah continued as she looked at the half-closed eyes of Kim Dokja of the 41st regression, growing larger and larger.

"If this world is a dream Dokja is having, then I think there will definitely be a place for us too. I don't know if it'll be as villains or as heroes, though."

"If it's Sooyoung, I feel like she'd write us as villains."

When Lee Seolhwa added that cheerfully, the party wore bitter smiles.

Yoo Sangah nodded and continued.

"The second piece of news is about Han Sooyoung."

"Did Sooyoung wake up?"

Han Sooyoung still hadn't been able to wake up after confronting an Outer God in order to save Kim Dokja of the 41st regression.

"Not yet."

"Then what? Where is Sooyoung right now?"

"I don't know exactly either, but...... I'm sure something happened to Sooyoung."

Yoo Sangah fumbled in her chest and pulled out a laptop. Everyone here knew what that laptop was.

It was Han Sooyoung's laptop.

Han Sooyoung wrote the story of Kim Dokja and <Kim Dokja Company> with that laptop.

Just as the party's eyes were tinged with longing, Yoo Sangah turned on the laptop and opened a file.

A story of Kim Dokja that Han Sooyoung had written once, long ago.

Familiar letters they hadn't seen in a while spread out before their eyes.

"Huh?"

But the manuscript's state was a little strange.

「■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■…….」

The content was covered in noise.

"Wh-why did it suddenly become like this? Did the computer break?"

It didn't feel like a simple malfunction. Seeing the sparks flickering faintly over the manuscript, Yoo Joonghyuk said.

"The fable has been contaminated."

Fable contamination. It was a symptom that sometimes appeared in old fables. A symptom where the fable's context became tangled, or parts of it were lost.

But what did it mean that the contamination happened to this manuscript of all things?

"Since when has it been like this?"

"Since the 41st regression began."

"The cause?"

At Yoo Joonghyuk's question, Yoo Sangah let out a light sigh and opened her mouth.

"From here on, it's my hypothesis, so don't take it too seriously."

"Say it."

"You all know the principle by which this world operates, right?"

Lee Jihye scratched her cheek and nodded.

"That, Sooyoung explained it once before, but......"

"I heard it's a world that exists because Sooyoung unni writes Mister Joonghyuk's story, and then Mister Dokja reads it. Isn't that right?"

At Shin Yoosung's words, Lee Jihye tilted her head.

"Then does that mean Sooyoung unni wrote the book first, and this world existed?"

"No. Sooyoung noona went back into the past and wrote the book with the things that happened with Dokja, so Dokja read it first."

"What are you talking about. How do you read a book nobody even wrote."

"Because Brother is a god, he can read it."

Yoo Sangah stopped the bickering children and said.

"Measuring what's earlier and what's later doesn't really mean much. As you know, this world was made so you can't know its beginning and end."

Han Sooyoung had once said something similar.

That this world was a 'square circle.'

A world with a continuity that was impossible in spacetime, a world that existed only as a 'text' humans couldn't imagine.

"So what does that mean?"

"It means a story that started later could be placed on an earlier timeline."

A story that started later could be earlier. The party already knew {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} an example of those words.

"Like Joonghyuk's 1,863rd regression."

The time when Kim Dokja, who existed after 'Ways of Survival,' changed Yoo Joonghyuk's last regression.

Lee Seolhwa nodded as if she understood and said,

"Is something similar happening now in the 41st regression too?"

"That's right. More precisely......"

Yoo Sangah scrolled down and turned the pages of the manuscript.

Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4......

The pages that kept turning stopped at a certain point.

Episode 551. It was the last regression of Kim Dokja and <Kim Dokja Company> that Han Sooyoung had written, and the end of that world.

But the moment she turned to the next manuscript.

"Huh?"

A page that hadn't existed until now appeared.

The flustered party asked,

"Wait. What is this?"

The manuscript after the ending, which had definitely been blank, was filled with letters.

Yoo Sangah said,

"The 41st regression's story is being recorded."

"Is Sooyoung unni writing the later part?"

On top of that, the manuscript was still repeating writing and erasing even now.

If it was Han Sooyoung, who had said she'd be a writer for one person forever, there was a possibility she was continuing to write this manuscript somewhere.

"Some parts look like they were written by Sooyoung. But not all of it is."

"There's someone who wrote the manuscript besides Sooyoung unni?"

"If you read it, the style isn't consistent from part to part. The thematic intent is subtly different too. I don't know how to put it exactly, but......"

Yoo Sangah chose her words for a moment, then spoke again.

"It looks like multiple writers are competing over a single manuscript."

After thinking for a moment, Yoo Joonghyuk asked.

"Who, and why did they do that?"

"I don't know that far, but this is what I think."

Yoo Sangah read the sentence of the latest episode being written in real time.

As she looked at her own lines being written in real time, Yoo Sangah thought.

Was it being written because she was saying it. Or was she saying it because it had already been written.

"There are people trying to steal the 'fables' we've built."

Either way, it didn't matter.

What was certain was that this gave her and <Kim Dokja Company> something to do.

"More precisely, 『Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint』 that Sooyoung wrote."

*

【Do you really think he has the qualifications of a 'recorder'?】

*

I read 『A Horror Realm Guide Even Squid or Sunfish Can Understand』 that Han Sooyoung wrote, together with Kim Dokja.

As the title suggested, it was a 'settings compendium' written in sentences that were easy to understand.

However, there was one point that bothered me.

For example.

+

* Viewing of this document has been prohibited by SVRP.
SVRP. PW 0.
■■ ■■■ ■
■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■…….

+

Similar traces were left all over the book. It felt like multiple editors had intervened in a single manuscript and revised or deleted parts here and there.

—Looks like someone edited the manuscript Han Sooyoung wrote.

Kim Dokja had a similar opinion.

The problem was who was doing that.

Of course, we vaguely had an idea of the answer.

—Probably the guys who record 'Terror.'

"Recorders of Terror."

But why did they lay hands on Han Sooyoung's manuscript?

In the first place, why was this manuscript inside [Fourth Wall]?

Right now, there were almost no clues we could guess from. Since there were almost no clues, it was time to read what we could know for now.

—We don't have time to read it all, but.

"Still, let's look through the basics step by step."

If Kim Dokja were next to me, he would've been wearing that characteristic grinning smile. It would make sense. We were the two greatest letter addicts in this universe.

"What should we check first?"

—We need to look at which terrors are weak and which are strong first.

"So we don't die."

I said it like that, but in truth there was another reason too.

Who were we? Weren't we fragments of Kim Dokja who drew things like 'Ways of Survival power-balance charts' during every break time.

According to 『A Horror Realm Guide Even Squid or Sunfish Can Understand』, the 'terror' of the Horror Realm is defined into four broad grades.

Disaster-grade terror.
Calamity-grade terror.
Cataclysm-grade terror.
End-grade terror.

Things like the 'traffic light' I had faced earlier, or the tunnel's 'crack,' belonged to the most primal terror, 'disaster-grade.'

「Disaster-grade terror refers to a 'terror' that regularly causes anywhere from a minimum of 0 to 50 deaths.」

「The cause of disaster-grade terror is primarily a mutated 'historical-grade fable.'」

"So it really was fable-based."

Only then did the overall picture of the Horror Realm start to come into view little by little.

「This Horror Realm is composed of an enormous 'discarded fable.'」

Fables that hadn't been properly handled in the main story. Those fables gathered and formed a single enormous world, and that was this 'Horror Realm.'

At that, it almost felt like a cluster of letters waiting for the grayish darkness around us to be named.

「Calamity-grade terror refers to a 'terror' that regularly or irregularly causes anywhere from a minimum of 50 to 10,000 deaths.」

「The cause of calamity-grade terror is primarily a mutated 'legend-grade fable.'」

Calamity-grade terror was legend-grade fable.

Then does that mean that 'shark head,' that is, 'Tooth Fin,' was a terror based on a legend-grade fable?

When I turned around, Tooth Fin had stopped and was looking at me while swishing its huge tail.

I didn't know why, but right after it ate the fable I gave it, that guy had been following me at a certain distance. It was fortunate it didn't seem to have hostility.

I kept reading the book.

「Cataclysm-grade terror refers to a 'terror' at the level of a world being annihilated.」

「The cause of cataclysm-grade terror is primarily a mutated 'demigod-grade fable.'」

According to the records, even 'Tooth Fin,' which had tried to destroy Murim, had once been temporarily recorded as 'cataclysm-grade.'

Murim's destruction is 'cataclysm-grade.'

Then what in the world was the next grade, 'end-grade'?

Is some Outer God teacher Jaehwan going to show up.

Unfortunately, most of the description regarding 'end-grade terror' was covered as ■. Looks like the Recorders of Terror controlled the description here too.

Even so, as if they couldn't control every bit of the description, there was one piece of advice left behind that I was quite grateful for.

「End-grade terror appears in the 'end region.' No matter what happens, never enter the 'end region.'」

"If Han Sooyoung wrote it to this extent......"

—It means we absolutely can't go.

"You saying it that firmly makes me nervous we'll definitely go."

—That's always how Ways of Survival is.

"Can't you at least say we don't have to go, even just with words."

Kim Dokja chuckled.

—Still, we have to go to the mid region. That's how we can find the second.

The mid region.

Even in the entry region, monsters like Tooth Fin came out, so if we went to the mid region, something worse would definitely come out.

"Can't we just try calling again first?"

—No.

"Why. Did you fight with the second?"

—That's......

It must be because of the reason he mentioned before.

The Demon King of Salvation had said that the other Kim Dokjas didn't agree with the intentions of 'First Kim Dokja.' Then there would definitely be some kind of misunderstanding and conflict. It was important to resolve that.

"I think this. Kim Dokja and Kim Dokja need to talk."

—That's a good line, but.

"Then talk."

—I have to answer the phone to talk. I told you we can't make calls here.

"But it worked earlier?"

—That worked because he called. If we want to call, we have to go somewhere else.

"Somewhere else where."

—A place you already know, too.

After thinking for a moment, I asked.

"Is it the time fissure of the Dark Dimension?"

—That's right.

So it really was that place.

The place that made Tyrant King Yoo Joonghyuk, Heaven-Shattering Sword Saint Namgung Minyoung, and White Cheong Kirios of Paradox be reborn as 'Transcendent Ones.'

A cradle and a grave for Murim people who dream of the stars in the sky.

—The entrance to that place starts from the 'mid region.'

In the end, either way, we had to go to the mid region.

It suddenly felt endlessly far away. Even coming this far, we'd passed countless traffic lights, and all kinds of disaster-grade terrors. We'd almost died several times. How many more times would we have to go through similar things in the future.

['Nameless Terror' has discovered you!]

It was then that a bright light shone from far away.

A long, slender object clattering as it approached with a heavy roar.

Wait, that......

—Mm. That's it.

In the darkness with no tracks even laid, a subway was running toward us.

When you think about it, since it's a world where a terror related to 'traffic lights' exists, it wouldn't be strange for a terror related to a 'subway' to exist too.

Up to there, I could accept it.

The problem was the announcement that flowed out along with the approaching subway.

【We will do our best to become a pleasant and comfortable subway that thinks of customer safety first.】

The moment I heard the announcement, my head rang and my stomach lurched.

【……Passengers going to the side of the room, please use this train.】

A train exterior that felt familiar somehow. The moment I confirmed the train name shining brightly on the front, Kim Dokja and I muttered at the same time.

"I'm seriously going insane."

—I agree.

There was no doubt.

「Bulkwang-bound Train 3434.」

That train was the very train Kim Dokja and Yoo Joonghyuk rode in the 'First Scenario.'