824 chapter - Sophistry (4)
824 chapter - Sophistry (4)
Her eyes widened when she spotted me sitting in a seat.
"You."
Fluttering, swaying blond hair. Eyes trembling as if shaken.
I gave her a light wave and grinned.
"It's been a while."
I never thought we'd run into each other in a place like this.
At my greeting, her expression hardened. She hesitated for a moment, then strode over.
"Cheon Inho."
A person who called me “Cheon Inho.”
"Why are you here?"
Prophet Anna Croft.
She was in the same ‘Horror Realm’ as me.
*
To think I'd live long enough to ride the same subway as Anna Croft.
I recalled our last encounter. The last time I saw her was at the ‘Washington Dome.’
Back then, I fell into ‘the Primordial Abyss,’ a trap laid by <Asgard>, and there, borrowing the power of the Salvation Demon King, I slaughtered hero-grade constellations.
If I think about it, I owed Anna Croft a debt from that time. If she hadn't used her attribute to process a ‘Lesser Dragon Heart,’ then neither I nor the Salvation Demon King would have been able to summon Cheok Jun-gyeong’s power with [Bookmark].
Come to think of it, Cheok Jun-gyeong is here, too. Whether it was coincidence or not, I felt like things were unfolding in a pretty strange way.
I pointed to the seat beside me and said to Anna Croft.
"Sit."
Anna Croft hovered for a moment as if it was uncomfortable to sit next to me, then plopped down with an expression that said she had no choice.
"You. What are you scheming here this time?"
"I'm not really scheming anything."
"What are you plotting again—"
The moment we reached that point in the conversation, I felt that ‘gaze’ I’d experienced before, once again.
「O n t h e s u b w a y」
Damn it. Again.
「M a k i n g a b i g d e a l o u t o f i t」
My stomach churned, and a faint dizziness washed over me.
[Exclusive Skill, ‘Fourth Wall’ is activating.]
Fortunately, I'd already been through it once, and [Fourth Wall] was activating, so it was bearable.
But it seemed Anna Croft hadn’t.
"Th-this… what is…"
Anna Croft’s face had turned pale, and she was already dripping with cold sweat. Even she, who possessed a fairly high-level mental barrier, ended up like that?
"Lower your voice."
When I conveyed it like a whisper, the surrounding gazes vanished as if washed away.
Anna Croft, panting as she wiped away sweat, asked,
"What was that just now?"
"Probably a horror effect."
The car we were riding in still hadn’t triggered a ‘crime-prone zone.’
Considering that a similar phenomenon occurred when I made a call, and when I talked with Anna Croft— this place was probably a space ruled by the crude ‘public etiquette’ of public transportation.
For example, things like this.
Don’t talk loudly on the phone or make a racket.
Don’t eat food.
Don’t cause a disturbance.
Give up your seat to pregnant women or the elderly.
Anna Croft seemed to have caught on to the rule as well.
"An unusual rule is ruling this place."
"It's a normal rule. Before the scenario came, this was what was normal."
Sitting side by side, we took in the scenery of everyday life we'd forgotten. People's quiet breathing. Their gazes lowered as they focused on palm-sized screens.
It hit me anew. This was the normal world we used to know. Back then, people were trapped inside their own worlds, and maybe the scenario dragged those people out from there.
The ‘scenario’ Kim Dokja had read.
When I glanced to the side, Anna Croft was also lost in a brief reverie.
As if she sensed my gaze, she snapped back to herself and spoke in a cold voice.
"I knew you'd be alive, but you're even more intact than I thought."
It seemed Anna Croft had already heard news about me.
"Good thing I'm intact, right?"
"No one could go through that and be intact."
"Heard any rumors?"
"I heard you were hunted down by enormous nebulas and torn to pieces."
Torn to pieces.
It wasn’t exactly wrong.
If anything, I was the one who’d been ‘torn’ from the start.
"Well, I almost was."
"To survive even after being put through that… you have a tenacious vitality."
"My specialty is dying and coming back. But why are you here?"
"Are you really asking because you don't know?"
Something came to mind belatedly.
The last day I met Anna Croft, she helped me even while going against her own nebula, <Asgard>.
It was obvious what awaited an incarnation who went against their nebula.
"Looks like you're being chased too."
"Thanks to someone. I was going to give you an earful at the recycling center anyway, but……."
"Hm. I didn't see you there?"
"I didn't know you were the kind of lunatic who'd try to clear that place all the way."
"Did you follow me into the Horror Realm?"
"Hey. Do I look like someone with that much free time?"
"Then why did you enter the Horror Realm?"
"I'm not an incarnation of <Asgard> anymore. What choices does a discarded incarnation have?"
"Ah. You're thinking of becoming a transcendent."
The only path left to her after being discarded by <Asgard>.
Anna Croft had come all the way here to climb the only ladder of class mobility a mortal abandoned by the stars could attempt.
"But judging by how I ran into you here, that probably got ruined too."
"Come on, come on. Forget the old days and let's get along. That way we'll get out of here. Get out, become a transcendent, get revenge on the stars. Anyway, let's just keep it nice and nice."
Hearing that, Anna Croft muttered as if she couldn't believe it.
"Get along? Do you think something like that is possible between you and me?"
"I even became comrades with Yoo Joonghyuk. Someone like you, I'll embrace with broad-minded generosity."
"Who do you think you are to—"
Anna Croft, about to raise her voice, urgently stopped. It was because the passengers’ gazes turned this way.
With a sigh that sounded like she might collapse, Anna Croft asked again.
"Cheon Inho. Do you know anything about this ‘horror’?"
I nodded and briefly conveyed the information I knew.
After hearing me, Anna Croft nodded and said,
"I expected it as soon as I saw the setting was the subway. Then we need to trigger a crime-prone zone to get out of here."
"It's the opposite."
"The opposite?"
"We have to find a way to get out without triggering a crime-prone zone."
"Wasn't it said that method isn't known? With your abilities, even if you use a crime-prone zone, you could definitely become the final survivor."
"It just so happens you got on with me."
Anna Croft looked flustered for a moment.
"Because of me?"
"This worldline’s Cheon Inho is pretty kind."
"You always talked like that and then aimed for my back."
"Cheok Jun-gyeong is on the next car over."
"Cheok… Jun-gyeong?"
"If I say the Greatest Sword of Goryeo, would you know?"
"Ah, no way—"
Only then did Anna Croft seem to realize the situation, her complexion turning pale.
"We're dead."
"That's why I need your ability right now."
Thinking about it, meeting Anna Croft now was luck for me, too. Anna Croft was precisely an incarnation with abilities specialized for this ‘Horror Realm.’
"Do you see anything with [Foresight]?"
Anna Croft could read the future with [Foresight]. In other words, if we made good use of her ability, it meant we might even be able to neutralize the threatening horrors that would come next.
But Anna Croft’s expression wasn’t normal.
"I can't."
"Why not?"
"After entering here, my [Foresight] lost its power."
As if she hated to admit that fact, Anna Croft glared at me for a moment, then added,
"It's like fog has settled over the entire future. I can't see it."
This was unexpected.
She couldn't see the future. Why?
When I thought back, even in the main story, there were a few times when ‘Anna Croft’ had her prophetic ability blocked.
Why was that back then?
Ah… wait. Don't tell me…?
A hypothesis popped into my head.
To verify it, I reviewed Han Sooyoung’s guide again. But for some reason—
[Some spoilers in this document have been unlocked.]
A few sentences that had been spoilered until just a moment ago were revealed.
+
A common experience was observed among all passengers who survived on this subway without using a ‘crime-prone zone.’
All passengers who successfully escaped testified: “The subway lights flickered three times.”
+
The subway lights flickered three times.
It was an incredibly decisive hint.
So that meant we just had to make the subway lights flicker three times, no matter what we did.
Should we cause a blackout or something?
"Cheon Inho."
"Yeah?"
"What are you staring at so hard?"
Anna Croft tilted her head slightly, so I hurriedly hid my phone and answered.
"Just reading some webnovels."
"Novels? You're reading novels in a situation like this? Are you insane?"
Anna Croft glared at me like I was a bug, then made a face like she’d given up on something.
"I used to read a lot of novels, too."
At that moment, my vision turned black for an instant and returned. My head felt blank.
What? What just happened?
Anna Croft looked startled too. After quickly scanning the surroundings, she muttered softly.
"Was that a blackout?"
At the word blackout, it felt like my mind lit up instead.
"Anna Croft. Keep talking about what you were saying just now."
"What are you talking about. The blackout?"
"No, the novel talk."
"What does that have to do with—"
"Do what I say."
At my serious voice, Anna Croft hesitated slightly, then forced herself to nod.
"But I don't know what else I'm supposed to say…"
"Hm."
It struck me that this person was also pretty bad at having a conversation.
Well, she's a ‘prophet.’
A being who could read the past and the future. In a way, just as ‘omniscient’ a character as Kim Dokja.
Would a prophet who learned all of someone’s shame and secrets before even getting close ever have reason to try to build a deep relationship with others?
To her, maybe every human looked like a character with a plotline of past and future.
Thinking that way, I could understand anew how Anna Croft treated her companions.
Fortunately, I'm a human being with better social skills than Kim Dokja or Anna Croft.
"Do you have a favorite author?"
"Ah."
Belatedly, Anna Croft nodded and answered.
"I do."
"Who?"
"Ted Chiang, Charles Yu, Liu Cixin. And…"
I smiled with a feeling of, I knew it.
Yeah. No way Anna would be reading webnovels.
Whatever she thought of my smile, Anna Croft snapped in a prickly voice.
"Are you laughing at my taste in books right now?"
"No. I just smiled because I thought it suited you."
"Who do you like?"
"The author I like is…"
I murmured while looking at the glowing letters on my smartphone screen.
"Someone named Han Sooyoung."
Anna Croft softly repeated, "Han Sooyoung," then tilted her head.
"That's an author I've never heard of. Is she famous in Korea?"
"In some worldlines."
Anna Croft tilted her head for a moment as if imagining a worldline where Han Sooyoung was famous.
In the meantime, I was glaring at the ceiling lights.
A light that flickered uncertainly, as if it might fade at any moment, emitting an indistinct glow.
It almost flickered, but— damn.
So this wasn't enough.
Then I had no choice but to use my trump card.
"Anna Croft. Starting now, I'm going to assign you a role."
"Huh?"
"You're Korean now, and your name is Kim Anna."
"What?"
"Ms. Kim Anna. Do you happen to know Spanish?"
Kim Anna looked at me with that characteristic expression of disbelief, then answered as if she had no choice but to play along.
"I know a little."
"Puedo prestarme dinero."
Kim Anna asked back with a dumbfounded expression.
"Why are you suddenly asking me to lend you money?"
"Do you have any apps you could recommend to me?"
"Apps?"
"Like an app you use when you're studying Spanish."
"Cheon Inho. What kind of nonsense are you spouting right now?"
"Inho has Inho’s life."
"What?"
"And Anna has Anna’s life."
At that moment, the lights flickered once again.
A thrill surged inside me.
Just as I thought. My guess was right.
Anna Croft asked back in a bewildered voice,
"What did you just do?"
"Be quiet."
Now I was sure.
I looked over the passengers and muttered. I didn't know whether it was one of them, or something outside this space, but—
"Right now, we're being ‘spectated.’"
Someone was ‘watching’ us here.
"What does that—"
"You remember what the First Scenario was."
The content of the First Scenario was ‘killing one living being.’
The name of that scenario was ‘Proof of Value.’
Proof of Value.
Every incarnation had to prove their ‘value’ to ‘someone’ through the First Scenario.
Anna, who had been scanning her surroundings, asked with a hardened expression.
"Don't tell me. A constellation is watching?"
"It's not a constellation."
"Then?"
"Who knows. What's certain is that it seems we can only get out if we entertain that person."
Up to now, the lights had flickered twice total. And both flickers happened in the moments when I parodied developments from the ‘main story.’
But now, there was no more main story content left to parody. I'd already used my trump card— “The reader has the reader’s life” too.
If you follow the main story’s progression, next was ‘the start of the scenario.’
Which meant the crime-prone zone had to open.
"Then the crime-prone zone is…"
"Probably the easiest way to entertain someone."
In fact, I had a vague idea who that ‘someone’ might be.
「At the very least, this horror is connected to Kim Dokja.」
From the start, the only person who would be entertained by parodies of the main story would be Kim Dokja, or a fragment of Kim Dokja.
If that was the case, then the method to make the subway lights flicker was simple.
All we had to do was start a story that would make even that ‘Kim Dokja’ curious.
"Anna Croft."
Fortunately, I was with someone who knew one of those ‘stories.’
"I want to know exactly what happened in the 40th regression."
It was also something I was curious about.
Anna Croft puffed out one cheek and let it deflate as she asked,
"Cheon Inho. What's your angle? If it's about the previous regression, I'd rather be the one asking you."
"I lost my memories of that regression, so I don't really know. What happened. What I did. Why you and Yoo Joonghyuk hate me so much."
A story I should have found out long ago, but kept putting off.
"I don't know anything. That's why I want to know."
As I lightly steadied my breathing, an old memory suddenly surfaced.
A red coat. Demon King wings.
An existence the stars called the ‘Sophist of Evil.’
Two blades that crossed to kill each other.
Maybe it was a question I should have asked long ago. To meet the second Kim Dokja, to truly become proper comrades with Yoo Joonghyuk, to solve this ‘horror,’ I—
"Who the hell is ‘Cheon Inho’ of the 40th regression?"
I had to know who I was first, exactly.