Clearly, until right before I went in to meet the Recorders of Horror, the countdown still had “21 days” left. There was no way 21 days had passed in that brief span, and unless a new horror had occurred in the countdown, the situation was obvious.
「I touched something in the ‘apocalypse region’.」
But no matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t figure out what I’d done wrong. All I did was meet the Recorders of Horror, piss a few of them off a bit (was that the problem?). And failing the deal was all……

I opened my palm and looked down at the shimmering interpretation of the “end-of-the-world-grade horror.”

"Hey. Did you, by any chance, not ‘deal’ for anything?"

Cheongheo’s expression as he looked at me was strange.

For an instant, the Transcendent Seats looked at each other.

"No, nobody told the rookie?"

"I didn’t think there was any need to. This has never happened before."

"A rookie who turns down a Transcendent Leap?"

Cheok Jun-gyeong, who had been watching me from the side, pressed a hand to his forehead.

Kyrios let out a low sound and opened his mouth.

"In a ‘deal’ with the Recorders of Horror, if you don’t deal with anyone, you incur the anger of the ‘apocalypse region’."

The apocalypse region’s anger? Why? Just because I didn’t deal with the Recorders of Horror?

Cheongheo nodded and added,

"Perhaps the countdown disappearing is also highly likely to be because of that."

"Are you saying I caused the end of the world?"

At this point, after Mr. Kim Jong-eon, I was in a situation where even if they called me Mr. Kim Jong-mal, I wouldn’t have anything to say. Damn it.

Even within the scenery of destruction where cracks split open all over the sky, Old Man Cheongheo chuckled airily and added,

"Don’t think like that. It was all something that would happen someday, anyway."

From all over the entrances of the time strata, the savage screams of Outer Gods poured out. Some of them were already even slyly sticking their heads or tentacles out beyond the stratum doors.

"One came out over there! Block it!"

"Dammit! It’s end-of-the-world-grade!"

"We need captain-class cover!"

Looking at it like this, this “time stratum” almost looked like a gigantic prison for Outer Gods. In each stratum, there were Outer Gods running wild, and the Transcendent Alliance exterminated them.

Suddenly, a strange thought came to me.
「Why does a place like this exist.」

What on earth was the Second Kim Dokja trying to do by gathering them here.

Why did that bastard create a place called the “apocalypse region.”

I didn’t know, but I would soon find out.

If the prophecy of the end was right, and if the countdown disappearing meant the fulfillment of the prophecy, then soon, the “Second Kim Dokja” would appear before my eyes.

The problem was—

"Kkeuaaaaaaak!"

"Another one came out here!"

Before that, it looked like the Transcendent Seats were all going to die.

Before I knew it, even the captain-class figures around us were all preoccupied with exterminating the Outer Gods trying to pour out beyond the doors.

But no matter how hard the Transcendent Seats struggled, it was impossible to stop that many “time strata” from going berserk. From the upper “doors” that no one had ever touched, unidentified Outer Gods were already bursting out like bamboo shoots after rain, shrieking horrific wails.

Kiiyaaaaaaak!

One Outer God that looked like a hybrid of Medusa drifted through the air, then suddenly charged straight at me. I hurriedly pulled out “Unbreakable Conviction” and tried to swing it, but something moved toward it faster than I did.

With a crunching sound, Medusa’s whole body was sharply torn apart.

A streamlined tail that stepped in as if to protect me.

The disaster-grade horror, “Tooth Fin.”

The one that had disappeared on the Subway Ride Home had somehow managed to chase me all the way here.

"Oh, it’s Tooth Fin. You really managed to tame that thing?"

When I turned my head, Ryu-nad vice-captain was there.

Maybe he had a fairly close relationship with horrors, because Ryu-nad tapped Tooth Fin’s snout a few times, like patting it, and added,

"Still, the end of the world is back again."

It was a voice where it wouldn’t have sounded strange if he replaced “end of the world” with “weekend.”

As if this kind of situation was familiar now, Ryu-nad swayed as he stood beside me and looked up into the air.

"Every time I see it, it’s a spectacle. Look at that. Isn’t it cooler when they just let them all loose?"

I wondered if it was okay to be spouting such insane nonsense when the Transcendent Seats were getting slaughtered, but thinking about it carefully, it wasn’t exactly strange.

To begin with, weren’t all Transcendent Seats a bunch with one screw each “meticulously” missing from their heads?

"I don’t know if that’s a good way to put it."

Looking at it like this, this “apocalypse region” felt like a gigantic terrarium for Outer Gods.

A cosmic fish tank that gathered the divinities that had been discarded from the main story and rejected by the scenarios.

Inside that fish tank, the Outer Gods were pouring out their rage toward the world without pause.

Another Transcendent Seat was torn in half. Eyes wide open as if they couldn’t believe it. In <First Murim>, he would have been a famous master, but here, in a place no one would remember, he was ending his life.

[Exclusive skill, ‘Fourth Wall’ is strongly activated!]

[Exclusive skill, ‘Fourth Wall’ warns you.]

Is becoming numb in the face of that death proof that I, too, am becoming a member of this apocalypse region.

As if resisting, I opened my mouth.

"If we leave it like this, everyone dies."

"They’ll die."

"You’ll die too."

"Me, Old Man Cheongheo, Carlton hyung. You, too. Everyone’ll die."

That expression, “die,” was so indifferent, so flat, that without realizing it I looked back at him. Ryu-nad smiled faintly.

"It’s not like it’s the first time I’ve died. Ah, rookie, are you different?"

If I really had to be strict about it, it wasn’t my first time dying either, but no matter how many times you die, it doesn’t make you want to die again.

"There really isn’t a way to stop that?"

"A way to stop it……."

Ryu-nad, who had been admiring Old Man Cheongheo’s slash scattering pure white spectral light across the sky, said,

"There’s no way to stop the end of the world, but there is a way to return things to normal after the end of the world."

There was such a way?

"Do you see that door over there?"

The “door” Ryu-nad pointed at was hanging at the dizzying top of the room. A place where the tentacles and heads of terrifying Outer Gods roamed.

When I narrowed my eyes, I noticed a round number written small beside the door.

[1863-99th round].

For a moment, I doubted my eyes.

If what I thought was right, that door was, in other words—

「Scenario 99 of the 1,863rd round.」

Just thinking about it gave me chills.

A time stratum like that exists?

"Don’t tell me we have to go in through that door?"

"No way. If you go in there, even I’ll die."

"Then what?"

"See the little button next to that door?"

Looking closely, there really was a tiny black button next to the door.

"Yes. I see it."

"Press that. That’s the ‘reset’ button for this ‘apocalypse region’."

The apocalypse region’s reset button.

"If you press that, everything gets restored to before the ‘prophecy of the end’ happens. Dead souls come back to life, and the time strata that went berserk stabilize. That’s a horror with that kind of ‘effect’."

For a moment, I stared at that black button, then asked,

"Who made something like that?"

"I don’t know either. Some say it’s a gimmick a Great Old One set up, others say it’s a horror the King of Horror made in agreement with the Recorders of Horror. What’s certain is, when nothing else works, you press that."

"Then can’t we just press it now? While the damage isn’t huge yet—"

"That button can only be pressed after the end of the world is over. And honestly, that button, people don’t press it unless they really have to."

"Why?"

"Think about it. If you really press that, is it really true that ‘everything returns to normal’?"

In that instant, I felt like something under my shins creaked.

With eyes slightly out of focus, Ryu-nad continued speaking.

"Are the people who died really the ones who come back to life? Rewinding time to before—are you saying that’s really something that’s ‘possible’? If something like that is possible—"

"……."

"The ‘me’ who died and came back to life, is it really the same being as the ‘me’ from before? Who can guarantee that? And if guaranteeing that is possible…… what even is the existence called ‘me’?"

An inexplicable chill ran through me. Suddenly, the black button set in the sky began to feel terrifying.

I felt like I could understand, at least a little, why the Transcendent Seats didn’t press that button.

"If it really comes down to it, we’ll press the button, but if possible, I hope something like that doesn’t happen. Hey, you there! Catch!"

Ryu-nad lightly stabbed and subdued a few Outer Gods coming in, then hurled a lump of Outer God into a time stratum.

But there were still far too many Outer Gods left unhandled. Even the Outer Gods in the upper levels looked like they were starting to stir, so even the captain-class figures seemed tense.

Cheok Jun-gyeong, who had quickly cleared out the lower time strata, darted over to my side.

[Disciple.]

Cheok Jun-gyeong, radiating a red aura across his whole body, glanced around and then said to me.

[Escape the ‘apocalypse region’. It’s not too late yet. If it’s just you alone, it would be fine for you to escape.]

"What about you, Master."

[I’m fine.]

Cheok Jun-gyeong said that with a rather resolute face. I could tell for sure from that expression. No matter what happened, he would never run from this “apocalypse region.”

Honestly, my bond ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) with Cheok Jun-gyeong wasn’t long. Him taking me as a disciple was based only on a misunderstanding, and I had only used him too.

But.

"Master."

Even so, Cheok Jun-gyeong was the first person here to welcome me.

[Why is that?]

When, in the distant future, this time is written down as a record, I don’t want it to read that Cheok Jun-gyeong of the 41st round died in the apocalypse region.

"If I had ‘dealt’ with the Recorders of Horror, would the end of the world not have started?"

[Probably? Up to now, that’s how it’s been.]

Why does the apocalypse region get angry if you don’t ‘deal’ with the Recorders of Horror.

Based on that fact, I thought for a moment.

The apocalypse region is a domain ruled by the Second Kim Dokja, the “King of Horror.” But in a place like that, why would a taboo like that exist.

「When a Transcendent Seat deals with the Recorders of Horror, what happens?」

「When a Transcendent Seat deals with the Recorders of Horror, a new time stratum opens.」

「Why does the King of Horror want that ‘deal’?」

It felt like a light flicked on in my head.

"Master."

[From here, I will tell you how to escape. Right now—]

"No. I’m not going to escape."

[Your courage is admirable, but I cannot let the legacy of the Three Sword Style be cut off here.]

"It won’t be cut off. I think I know a way to stop the end of the world."

At my words, Cheok Jun-gyeong flinched and turned to look at me. An expression where faint expectation and reproach toward a reckless disciple coexisted.

I asked Cheok Jun-gyeong, who looked like that,

"Master, what do you think the ‘end of the world’ is?"

[The end of the world is—]

Cheok Jun-gyeong hesitated for a moment, then answered.

[It is the ‘largest fable’ that a single world can complete.]

I nodded.

From here on, everything I thought was only a guess.

"Only the ‘King of Horror’ who loves all horrors could love even an end of the world like that."

I only made the worst assumption: that the “Second Kim Dokja,” who had been stuck in the apocalypse region for so long, had finally gone mad, and so he was creating new fables like this, and living while savoring them.

"But the ‘largest fable’ isn’t always fun."

The end of the world.

It was certainly an interesting material, but it wasn’t only that kind of material that was always interesting.

To someone who sees the same end of the world every time, the value of this “end of the world” wouldn’t be equal to the value of the first end of the world.

Sadly, just as Yoo Joonghyuk’s first regression and 100th regression carry different weight.

In this world, sorrow, joy, emotion—everything, in the end, fades within repetition.

[What do you mean by that?]

"I have a story the ‘King of Horror’ might find fun."

That was why this was an ‘adventure’ worth trying enough.

I told Cheok Jun-gyeong the number of the “time stratum” I wanted.

[Hm. That ‘time stratum’ is…….]

With Cheok Jun-gyeong’s signal, the Transcendent Seats in the area began moving while escorting me. Cutting through the waves of Outer Gods surging in beyond the strata, we advanced and advanced again.

[Here, disciple.]

Fortunately, the door wasn’t far.

[40-99th round].

A scenario number that gave me chills just from looking at it.

And at the entrance of that stratum, a title was attached in unfamiliar handwriting.

「Evil Sophist」.

The moment I read the words, I felt something inside me react.

[You can view the ending of ‘Evil Sophist’.]

I had already obtained the entry rights to this “time stratum” from Cheon Inho of the 40th round.

And just in time, this time stratum was—

「The story the Second Kim Dokja was curious about on the ‘Subway Ride Home’.」

So I thought. If I entered this stratum, and if I could draw the “Second Kim Dokja”’s gaze, then maybe the “end of the world” would be postponed.

[Within this time stratum, there exists an ‘incarnation body’ suitable for you.]

As expected. Cheon Inho of the 40th round had survived all the way to scenario 99 too.

Since I’d come this far, there was no point hesitating.

The moment I slowly took a deep breath and reached a hand toward the door of the time stratum, Cheok Jun-gyeong asked,

[Are you truly fine with this?]

"I’m fine. It’ll be a bit hard, but—"

[Not that. There is already an entrant in this ‘time stratum’.]

"What?"

[To be precise, there ‘was’.]

Someone had gone into the stratum before me?

When I turned back in shock, Cheok Jun-gyeong answered with a somewhat displeased face.

[A month before you came, a fellow who claimed to be a disciple of the Heaven-Breaking Sword Saint visited the Transcendent Alliance.]

In an instant, chills ran through me. Because who the disciple of the Heaven-Breaking Sword Saint referred to was far too obvious.

But can someone visit here a whole month earlier than me?

If, in the “light doze” of the “Subway Ride Home,” I had used more time than I thought, it wasn’t an entirely impossible story, but.

No, right now, more than that—

"That bastard…… don’t tell me he went in alone?"

[He did. Unfortunately.]

Blankly, I examined the monitor of the time stratum.

A monitor screen with the power out, pitch-black.

Then, below the screen, the log message of that stratum appeared.

If that bastard were alive, it was a message that would never appear.

[There is currently no Transcendent Seat challenging this ‘time stratum’.]