In a way, it was a ridiculous idea.

「Drawing Kim Dokja’s attention with an interesting ‘story’.」

I wasn’t Scheherazade or anything— just because I spun a plausible story didn’t mean the horror would neatly get solved.

And yet, I was certain it was possible.

More than anything, there were a few ‘metaphors’ on this subway.

「The flickering subway lights.」

Han Sooyoung’s guide explained it.

Only those who confirmed that the lights flickered a total of three times survived.

If I put it like this—

It wasn’t only the ‘lights’ that could ‘flicker.’

「Eyes.」

What if those ‘lights’ were ‘eyes’ watching over us?

And that wasn’t all.

I looked at the passengers scattered here and there. Strangely, not a single one of them was wearing earbuds.

「Ears.」

They were listening to our story.

If I thought of it that way, a pretty plausible story came together.

A space where you come into contact with another person’s story that happened to spill out. That was ‘public transportation.’

Kim Dokja used public transportation, too. Riding countless ‘after-work subways,’ he must’ve read and reread ‘Ways of Survival.’

In that sense, this subway was the space where Kim Dokja, more than anyone, would be absorbed in a story.

Now the premise was complete. The problem was whether the gambler of Las Vegas would help me.

“You said earlier to forget the old days and get along, didn’t you?”

As expected, Anna Croft came at me prickly.

“Some things you have to remember well to forget well.”

“You really are—”

Anna glared at me like she was dumbfounded, then clenched and unclenched her hand several times. Silence nestled between those short motions.

I could vaguely understand her turmoil.

Right now, she was weighing the weight of memory on a scale— deciding whether it was good or bad to tell the Cheon Inho in front of her about what happened in the previous regression.

At this point, I decided to strike first.

“Let me say one thing. I’m not Cheon Inho of the 40th regression.”

Anna Croft flinched, lifting her head to look at me.

“Whatever kind of person the Cheon Inho you remember was, I’m saying I’m different from him.”

“That…”

“Just like Yoo Joonghyuk of the 1st regression is different, and Yoo Joonghyuk of the 2nd regression is different.”

“……”

“And just like Anna Croft of the 3rd regression was different, and Anna Croft of the 4th regression was different.”

“The essence of a human being doesn’t change easily.”

“What do you think makes up a human being’s essence?”

Anna Croft hesitated for a moment.

“A human being’s essence is…”

“The sum total of the history they chose and decided to live through.”

Anna looked at me, a little surprised, then slowly nodded.

“That’s probably right. Because everything in this world is made of ‘fables.’”

Her ‘Great Demon’s Eyes’ were staring at me. As long as I had [Fourth Wall], those eyes wouldn’t be able to read anything from me.

So what she was reading right now wasn’t me— it was the fable of this world that she and I shared.

The events we went through together at the Washington Dome. And even the rumors at the recycling center.

“I really can’t tell what you’re thinking. You suddenly start talking about novels, you make me play some weird role, and then…”

Still repeatedly clenching and unclenching her fist, Anna added,

“Now you’re telling me to answer who you are.”

“Because you’re the only one who can say it.”

Now, almost no one remembered the 40th regression. Even Yoo Joonghyuk had forgotten most of his memories of the 40th regression as the price of ‘fable engraving.’ The only person who properly remembered what happened in that regression was Prophet Anna Croft, who could use [Retrospection].

Finally seeming to make up her mind, Anna clenched her fist tight.

“You were…”

The flesh of her palm, pressed by her nails, was split red.

“The lowest kind of human trash.”

“I already know that.”

No reader exists who doesn’t know Cheon Inho is trash.

But Anna Croft’s words didn’t end there.

“If it weren’t for you, so many people could’ve survived. Las Vegas wouldn’t have been destroyed, and the Korean Peninsula would’ve been intact.”

I expected it, but the scale was bigger than I thought.

Cheon Inho ruined even Las Vegas and the Korean Peninsula?

“Under your banner, great evils gathered, and the Hall of a Hundred Evils opened. You and them turned the scenario into a total mess.”

“……”

“If you hadn’t seduced the stars, if you hadn’t strung together that plausible sophistry… maybe Yoo Joonghyuk wouldn’t have had to regress.”

I gave a bitter smile.

Because there was no way that was true.

Only the 40th regression. In the 40th regression, there was no way the regressor Yoo Joonghyuk could have seen the ‘knot.’

But the moment I heard Anna Croft’s next voice, I couldn’t smile anymore.

“You were one of Yoo Joonghyuk’s closest companions.”

“Companions?”

I couldn’t understand what that meant.

Because—

「“You should have made me your companion earlier.”」

「“You should have. But in this life, it’s too late.”」

In the memories I’d seen before, Cheon Inho and Yoo Joonghyuk were never companions.

「“Don’t think you can make me your ally. I’ll be your enemy in the next regression too. Again and again, I will be your enemy.”」

They were sworn enemies, a relationship that couldn’t tolerate the other.

My head was a mess.

What did that even mean?

Before they fought, were they companions?

No— was that even a possible setup?

“Tell me exactly. You’re saying I was Yoo Joonghyuk’s companion in the 40th regression?”

“That’s…”

As Anna Croft was saying that, her complexion suddenly changed.

“Ah, uh. Ah…?”

The moment I had a bad feeling, her entire body was trembling. Her red eyes turned white, and sparks flew from her upturned body. And then—

The lights were flickering.

Once. Twice. Three times.

fourfivetimesixtimesseventimeseighttimesninetimestentimeseleventimestwelvetimesthirteentimesfourteentimesfifteentimes
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twentyfivetimestwentysixtimestwentyseventimestwentyeighttimes
twentyninetimesthirtytimesthirtyonetimesthirtytwotimesthirtythreetimesthirtyfourtimes
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[Exclusive Skill, ‘Fourth Wall’ strongly activates!]

Something went wrong.

“Anna Croft! Snap out of it!”

I grabbed Anna in a panic and shook her, but her consciousness had been gone for a long time.

Just then, my smartphone screen glittered. New information had been unlocked in the guide.

+

All passengers who escaped this subway without using a ‘crime-prone zone’ were moved to ■■■■.
■■■■ is the ■■■ that passengers spoke of?

* Some of this document has been censored by SVRP.
All subways head toward a ‘destination’.

+

All subways head toward a destination.

Destination? Where the hell was that?

Maybe it was just my imagination, but it felt like the subway’s rattling was gradually dying down.

Passengers toppled over unnaturally, like mannequins.

The surroundings wobbled uneasily.

Beyond the window where pitch-black darkness had settled, I saw a gigantic streamlined body running alongside the subway.

【Teethteethteethteethteethteeth!】

It was Tooth Fin.

Don’t tell me it had been following me this whole time.

【Teethteethteethteethteethteethteeth!】

Its eyes moved urgently, like it was warning me.

To get out of here immediately.

That enormous body slammed into the subway over and over, and savage fangs collided with the subway’s side.

For a brief moment, hope rose.

Tooth Fin was a ‘disaster-grade horror.’ In some regressions, it had even been recorded as a ‘calamity-grade horror,’ an outer god.

If it was that thing, could it pull me and Anna Croft out of this subway?

【………………………………!】

With an ear-splitting roar, intense sparks burst across Tooth Fin’s entire body. Its body bounced away, powerless.

It seemed this subway was something even that outer god’s power couldn’t handle.

[Attention to all passengers currently onboard.]

My feeling got stranger and stranger. I reflexively grabbed Anna Croft’s arm, but there was no sensation in my hand. Along with the sense that spacetime was slowly warping, my five senses were going numb.

Very slowly, my vision flickered.

Like the lights flickering.

Once. Twice.

[We will soon arrive at the destination.]

Three times.

[‘After-Work Subway’ supports your safe return home.]

My vision vanished.

*

【Hm, oh dear.】

【You drew the owner of horror’s curiosity too much.】

【Well, the commute home is originally a treacherous thing.】

*

My vision returned.

The instant I sucked in a breath, I was sprinting across a grassland.

I almost went tumbling with an “oh, shit,” but I barely caught my balance and kept running.

It wasn’t quite [Wind’s Path], but at the very least, it was definitely some incredible lightness art.

What was this? I’d never learned martial arts like this.

“Chase him down!”

At the voice I heard, I hurriedly turned my head— masked people were running alongside me.

It didn’t take long to grasp the situation.

Because a glimpse of my side reflected in the dagger of a masked person running nearby.

A black mask.

I was wearing a mask too. In other words, I wasn’t being chased by them— I was ‘chasing someone’ together with them.

As I ran, I quickly checked my body. My build didn’t seem to have changed. My squinty eyes were normal.

Then—

First, to figure out the situation, I shoved my hand into my clothes. To find my smartphone.

This situation was probably also staging created by a ‘horror.’ All horrors were ‘discarded fables,’ and horrors mostly had an experiential nature— so maybe I’d entered the record of a fable fragment that existed before.

If so, there would be hints in Han Sooyoung’s guide or ‘Ways of Survival.’ Even if there weren’t, I had the first Kim Dokja. As long as the call connected safely—

Huh?

It wasn’t there. It felt like my heart dropped lightly.

I shoved my hand into my clothes again and again. I searched my pants pocket, even my back pocket.

There was no smartphone.

That wasn’t all. Most of the items I had were gone. No Unbreakable Faith, no Rumination. Of course, there was no coat either.

[Information synchronization has been completed.]

With a light headache, it felt like my mind was opening up.

[Wind’s Path] settling into my feet.

Fortunately, it seemed the skills I had were synchronized.

Right. If I had abilities, there was no need to panic.

Even without my smartphone, I could figure out where this was directly.

“Over there! That guy!”

It didn’t take long to understand the situation.

Because the man the masked people were chasing appeared right in front of us.

I slightly opened my squinty eyes and examined the target.

A black coat flaring as it flew, and a broad back that felt strangely familiar.

The moment I opened my squinty eyes wider because something felt off, with a spot— sound, the neck of the masked man beside me flew off.

“Kyaaaagh!”

God damn it.

I quickly broke away from the group and hid my body in the nearby grass.

I wondered what kind of insane bastards were attacking Yoo Joonghyuk, but the masked people’s skills weren’t trivial either. Judging by the martial arts they used, they seemed like a group of elite warriors from a previous generation, or the top elites of a demonic sect or a blood cult.

Of course, no matter who the opponent was, Yoo Joonghyuk was Yoo Joonghyuk.

He swung his ruthless [Heaven-Shattering Swordsmanship] and butchered the masked people. Ten, twenty, thirty. In an instant, the nearby forest filled with the stench of blood.

But Yoo Joonghyuk’s condition as he carried out that merciless slaughter didn’t look good at all.

I immediately noticed his state.

He was poisoned.

His pallid complexion proved it. Some kind of formless poison— or poison on the level of Celestial Spirit Poison— seemed to be gnawing away at his entire body.

He had either fallen into a trap, or walked into one himself.

In an instant, more than a hundred incarnations collapsed onto the dirt, and Yoo Joonghyuk began running again.

Cut, run, collapse, cut, run.

Collapse.

How much time passed?

Finally, Yoo Joonghyuk, staggering, dropped to his knees. The only masked person left around was me.

I came out of the bushes and cautiously approached him. I could tell with just a glance. Yoo Joonghyuk had no magic power left. It looked like he’d already used [Return from Death].

“Yoo…!”

I was about to call out to Yoo Joonghyuk, but an odd feeling stopped me.

He was glaring at me.

「Something is strange.」

If Yoo Joonghyuk had seen me, he would’ve asked me for help long ago.

But he didn’t.

「Yoo Joonghyuk didn’t recognize me.」

I reflexively used [Character List]. And—

[Exclusive Skill, ‘Character List’ activates!]

[There is too much related information about this person. ‘Character List’ is being converted into ‘Summary List’.]

+

<Character Summary List>

Name: Yoo Joonghyuk

Exclusive Attribute: Regressor <40th regression> (Myth), Pro Gamer (Rare)……

Exclusive Skills: [Sage’s Eye Lv.10], [Close-Quarters Combat Lv.10], [Weapon Mastery Lv.10], [Mental Barrier Lv.10]……

+

Yoo Joonghyuk, who’d been glaring at me like he wanted to kill me, suddenly slumped forward.

Right after, noisy voices of masked people came from beyond the bushes.

“Over there!”

I stared blankly at the back of Yoo Joonghyuk’s head as he lay fallen.

Even though I thought there was no way something like this could be possible, there was no way to deny what was happening right in front of me.

I told Kim Dokja the story of the ‘40th regression’ on the subway.

And if my skill wasn’t wrong, the guy collapsed with his back of the head exposed right now— was the Yoo Joonghyuk of the ‘40th regression’ I’d only ever heard about.

「All subways head toward a ‘destination’.」

My head rang.

“Right there!”

Damn it. I ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) don’t know.

For now, I had to think about what was certain.

Right now, Yoo Joonghyuk of the 40th regression was collapsed in front of me, and I had two choices.

Would I save the Yoo Joonghyuk in front of me, or leave him to die?

“Kill him!”

The hesitation wasn’t long.