「“After all the scenarios end, could we all live together in the Big House?”」
—Shin Yoosung, <Kim Dokja Company>.

*

When you hear the words Big House, what kind of scenery comes to mind?

For me, I picture a living room.

In that living room there’s a huge fireplace (not a real fireplace), a chandelier gently swaying overhead, and a long table with several sofas.

People sit at the table reading books, or sit on the sofas chatting quietly.

And at the center of them all is Kim Dokja, clutching a smartphone.

He’s holding the smartphone, but I can’t tell if he’s actually reading a novel.

I can’t really see his expression. It looks like he might be smiling, or like he’s deeply absorbed in something.

But one thing is clear—he looks settled. More comfortable than at any other moment in his life so far.

Thinking of that comfort, I gathered my courage and opened my mouth.

“Yes. I want to go to the Big House.”

The ‘Big House’ I imagined and the ‘Big House’ Kim Dokja imagined were definitely different. The ‘Big House’ my imagination could come up with was just that somehow artificial-feeling modern living room where <Kim Dokja Company> was.

“Can I get there?”

I didn’t know what the real place was like. But I had to go to the ‘Big House.’ Because I’d heard the ‘Second Kim Dokja’ was there.

The Conductor of Horror, at my answer, stared into the darkness of the far universe for a moment.

【As you know, this train isn’t a means of transport that goes straight to ‘home’.】

“Then…”

【But I can take you to a nearby station.】

Putting a strange emphasis on the word station, the conductor continued.

【You know it too. That there are destinations you can’t reach in one go.】

I understood what the conductor meant.

That was certainly the rule of this <Star Stream>.

The reason the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, who could have ridden a cloud and brought the scriptures from India in one shot, still had to go through every hardship together with his companions.

The reason Kim Dokja, who could have chosen a powerful sponsor and debuted in <Star Stream> in an instant, still had to refuse a sponsor and become a star himself.

“Even just the station is enough.”

Because this world needed stories.

“As long as that station is close to the destination.”

【The distance to your destination is something only you can decide.】

The conductor spoke as he tapped the instrument panel with a finger.

【Will you walk slowly together with many stars, or will you move quickly with only the small handful of stars who like you?】

I thought for a moment about who the ‘stars’ he meant could possibly be.

Watching me, the question-mark lips on the conductor’s face curved into a small smile.

【I’ll get you to the station as fast as I can. Because I’ve received a fare worth doing that.】

“I paid a fare?”

【You showed me an interesting doze, didn’t you?】

Only then did I remember that he, too, had once been a star.

【It’s been a long time since I watched a fable while fully immersed in it.】

There was a strange longing and heat in the conductor’s muttered voice.

At least in that moment, he didn’t feel like the ‘Conductor of Horror,’ but like Surya—the ‘Final Conductor’ who had seen his own grain.

Standing beside him, I stared into the vast universe of the horror realm.

Where was his destination?

Was it challenging the [Final Wall] again with <Kim Dokja Company>?

Or was it endlessly replaying the ending of things that had already happened?

Or was his destination the eternal journey itself, inside this horror?

A life where the story itself was the destination.

Thinking about it, Kim Dokja had been the same.

The ■■ that 51% of Kim Dokja reached was ‘eternity.’ The one who had been more curious about the final chapter than anyone chose an ending that was a story that never ended.

Instead, he left the ‘final chapter’ to the other side of Kim Dokja. And in a sense, that final chapter still hadn’t been realized.

If the ‘final chapter’ were written completely, could Kim Dokja be happy?

I didn’t know. The essence of my soul was probably a deficient fragment of Kim Dokja, not even 0.1% in content.

I didn’t have the right to decide Kim Dokja’s happiness.

But even someone like me might be able to help Kim Dokja choose happiness.

That was when the smile vanished from the conductor’s face.

【It seems someone has chased you here.】

With a heavy grinding sound, the subway shook violently. Something was biting and shaking the rear cars of the train. At first I thought it was the ‘Tooth Fin,’ but looking closer, it wasn’t.

Something beyond the last car was being torn away and eaten.

An unprecedented fog blanketing the back of the train.

I realized what had chased me here.

【A fragment of unnameable vastness.】

The <Star Stream>’s cleaner, devouring everything that went against Plausibility.

There was no doubt. It was a fragment of ‘The Nameless Mist’ that had been speared apart and disassembled by Teacher Jaehwan. It had recovered its strength and crossed even into this ‘horror realm.’

The conductor’s question-mark lips twisted, clearly displeased.

【It’s been a while since my train was broken.】

Come to think of it, Surya’s train had been torn apart by an Outer God in the main story too.

As if he refused to let that happen this time, the conductor increased the train’s speed.

【Hold tight. I’ll drop you off at the station right away. Ah—take that friend beside you too.】

My body shuddered, and the world around us shook unstably. The surrounding scenery began to streak past rapidly.

Suddenly I thought this might be the last time I ever met him.

Watching his broad back as he guided the way, I wanted to ask something. But no proper question came to mind.

【The commute home is extremely treacherous.】

Why did those words make my throat tighten without me realizing it? Did I have the right to be moved by that?

【To arrive safely at the Big House, you need far more fables than you’d think.】

“Come with us.”

Only after I said it did I realize that was what I truly wanted to say.

The conductor paused for a moment, then spoke without turning back.

【You are truly mysterious. That you can still say something like that.】

“I’m nothing. Compared to the Kim Dokja you remember, I’m nothing.”

I didn’t mean to say that.

And yet, the moment I heard him, weak words slipped out.

Maybe it was because of the horror.

While experiencing the 40th regression’s horror, ‘Evil Sophist,’ maybe something inside my heart had broken.

The anxiety that I couldn’t do what Kim Dokja or Cheon Inho could. Maybe telling Surya to come with us was because of that weakness.

【Unfortunately, my fable can’t reach your ending.】

I knew. He wasn’t a person of this worldline. His ending had ended long ago.

“Can I make it to the end?”

That wasn’t what I meant to ask. I wanted to ask how I could reach the ‘Big House.’

And the Conductor of Horror, to a passenger who’d named the wrong destination, told the location of the correct one.

【A tree fell in a forest where no one was there.】

“Huh?”

【Since no one saw the tree fall, the fall of that tree has not yet been recorded in this universe.】

All at once, I felt like I understood what he meant.

The origin of this universe was text. What hadn’t been recorded did not ‘yet’ exist.

And what didn’t exist couldn’t change the world.

【As you did for me, once again, find the fallen trees and read them. Record them. Then…】

The train shook even more violently.

Reflexively, I grabbed Anna Croft’s arm and reached out a hand toward the conductor.

【The ‘Big House’ will surely find you first.】

The scenery vanished.

[You have succeeded at interpreting the disaster-grade horror, ‘Subway on the Commute Home’.]
[Interpretation suggestion: As long as the stars do not forget the story, the story too will never lose its light.]
[You have obtained a ‘Fable Fragment Selection Ticket’ as an interpretation reward!]
[Horror realm exploration progress increases!]
[Current horror realm exploration progress: 57%]

When I blinked again, Anna Croft and I were outside the train.

Cold air brushed my nose. Beyond a distant galaxy, Surya’s train shone like a star as it departed together with «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» the fragment of ‘unnameable vastness.’

Could I ever meet him again someday?

Carrying the unconscious Anna Croft on my back, I looked up at the train’s long tail for a moment.

—Maknae.

The call connected again.

It was Kim Dokja.

—You don’t have time to space out. Open the guide, now.

It seemed that the moment we interpreted ‘Subway on the Commute Home,’ additional passages from the guide Han Sooyoung had written had been unlocked.

I hurriedly turned on my smartphone and checked the contents.

And I found strange passages.

+

This horror is mostly observed after the ‘mid-region’.

+

It was an added passage related to the disaster-grade horror, ‘Tooth Fin.’ There was more added text.

+

This horror is most frequently observed intensively after the ‘mid-region’.

+

Information about the horror I’d encountered on the way, ‘Alien Traffic Light.’ And then—

+

This horror has only been observed after the ‘mid-region’.

+

Even ‘Subway on the Commute Home.’

All three horrors I’d encountered so far had the exact same kind of added passage.

「They’re all horrors that appear after the ‘mid-region’.」

Was that why the difficulty of the horrors had been so brutal?

No—wait. Then this means—

As fear slowly seeped up, Kim Dokja’s voice came through.

—You remember seeing the rules explanation at the start?

I checked the ‘Horror Realm Exploration Guidelines’ again. Then that damned rule I’d forgotten came back vividly.

+

—Warning. One of the ‘exploration guidelines’ above is ‘false’.

+

It was definitely written that way in the guidelines.

At first, I couldn’t tell which guideline was false—but now I think I knew.

+

—You are currently located in the ‘entry region’ of the horror realm.

+

“This was the lie.”

If that was the false guideline, then everything I’d experienced was explained.

Not only that, it also explained why there hadn’t been a single survivor from the ‘horror realm expedition’ for the last three regressions.

They’d all begun their exploration in the ‘mid-region’ like me the moment they started, met an unexpected horror, and were annihilated.

[A new horror has been unlocked.]
[You have unlocked the calamity-grade horror, ‘Editable Manual’.]
[Horror realm exploration progress increases!]
[Current horror realm exploration progress: 63%]

So even this ‘exploration guideline’ was a horror?

I’d expected as much.

The problem was, expecting something didn’t mean you could guard against everything.

Guuuuoooo.

The place I fell into was the ruins of some city.

The desire to ask where this place was, and the desire to not want to know where this place was, collided inside me.

Thick white fog lay over the ground. Torn arms and legs and torsos of incarnations were scattered everywhere. Some looked like martial artists’, and some looked like incarnation bodies of constellations.

Beyond the fog, I could see a grotesque lifeform walking with eight incredibly long legs. It slowly moved its head as if searching for prey, then started moving its legs again.

Holding my breath, I asked,

“What the hell is that?”

It wasn’t just one creature.

One with a head wriggling like a long hairworm.

One with the body of a gigantic boar, twelve horns grown all over its body, impaling corpses and dragging them along.

A huge baby, bulldozing everything in sight.

—Divinities from another world.

Right. Those were unmistakably ‘divinities from another world.’

But why were divinities from another world roaming here?

—Doesn’t this feel kind of familiar?

“Please don’t say that.”

—But this is the second one’s taste. Can’t be helped.

“Damn it.”

I knew scenery like this.

Outer Gods and Nameless Ones prowling around. Familiar signage text rolling on the ground. A Yi Sun-sin statue split in half, and a shattered throne.

「It looked like someone had carved out a piece of Seoul from the 1,863rd regression.」

Beyond the endless fog, I could faintly see the outline of the ‘industrial complex’ where <Kim Dokja Company> had lived.

[You are currently located in the ‘apocalypse region’ of the horror realm.]

Maybe the Second Kim Dokja’s ‘Big House’ was a little different from the place I’d imagined.