All the way to the Blood Demon’s base, I kept thinking about Big Bro Fortuitous.

Big Bro Fortuitous, whom Cheon Inho took into the mirror and vanished with. Maybe Big Bro Fortuitous, even now, is watching my story together with Cheon Inho.

I hope so.

Because Big Bro Fortuitous’s imagination—since he likes fortuitous encounters so much—might just call a fortuitous encounter down for me.

That’s how desperately I needed one right now.

[The owner of the time stratum is watching your story.]

This “time stratum” was the “final scenario” Cheon Inho went through.

From what I could tell, the “time stratum” held by the Horror Recorders seemed to be connected to their “core scenario.” You could tell just from the fact that Heavenly Flying Fox, who was from Murim, had the time stratum of the “0th Murim.”

If so, what does Cheon Inho want to see by making me go through this “time stratum”?

「From here on, write it “again.”」

He told me to “write it again.” Which meant he didn’t like how the events of this “time stratum” had turned out when he lived through them.

[If you solve the task of this “time stratum,” you will be able to view the “final chapter” of the ■■-grade Fear, “Sophist of Evil.”]

The final chapter of the “Sophist of Evil.”

If I somehow saw the ending of this stratum, that meant I could also see the history of Cheon Inho’s “original 40th round.”

All of a sudden, I got curious.

Just how did Cheon Inho clear the final scenario.

No—did he even clear it?

He wouldn’t have had the revived rock-headed reanimated corpse Yoo Joonghyuk, either.

“Watch where you’re going.”

I nearly tripped over a rock, but Yoo Joonghyuk caught me.

He looked at me like I was pathetic, then added,

“My master said this. A guy who can’t even see the tree right in front of him has no right to imagine the forest.”

“It’s true, but you still have to imagine the forest to understand what the tree in front of you even means.”

At my words, Yoo Joonghyuk glanced toward the Ten Evils walking some distance away and asked,

“Why did you come into this time stratum?”

“To stop the End.”

“Is that all?”

“I have to meet the King of Horror too.”

“King of Horror? You mean the owner of the Fear Decree.”

For a moment, I debated whether I should tell Yoo Joonghyuk about the “second Kim Dokja.” But I had no idea where to even start, so I just nodded vaguely and brushed it off.

“Yeah, well. I have to get stronger than I am now, too.”

Both Yoo Joonghyuk and I had realized it desperately while escaping the “recycling center.” Right now, we were getting far too much attention for how strong we actually were, and our enemies were more powerful than we thought.

“Getting a little stronger won’t be enough. You have to become overwhelmingly strong.”

There was a strange tension in Yoo Joonghyuk’s voice.

His pupils, deepening.

Somehow, I felt like I knew who he was thinking about.

It was only natural. While going through the 41st round’s regression, it must have been the first time he’d faced an “existence” that strong.

“He said it. That for me right now, the time stratum is the only hope. That if I can’t reach a proper ‘transcendence’ here, it’ll be hard to see the ending I want.”

When did Teacher Jaehwan say something like that? Did the two of them do some kind of private transmission?

“Aren’t you already a ‘Transcendent One’? What’s a ‘proper transcendence’?”

“I don’t know either.”

Yoo Joonghyuk muttered in a dark voice.

“But when I see his thrust, there’s definitely a realm like that. And…”

“You believe you can find the clue in this time stratum.”

“That’s right.”

We walked with a short silence between us. Then a question came to me.

“Have you met Cheon Inho too, like I did?”

This “time stratum” was a place only those who had faced a Recorder could enter. Which meant it was possible Yoo Joonghyuk had also met Cheon Inho, who had become a Horror Recorder.

“I did.”

Of course.

“What did he say?”

“He told me to see it for myself.”

“See what?”

Yoo Joonghyuk stopped dead.

“The ending of the world I abandoned.”

A faint light showing beyond the underground tunnel.

We finally arrived at our destination.

Ye Hyeonwoo, who had gone out ahead to scout, returned and reported the situation.

“That’s the Blood Demon’s base.”

“Seoul Station?”

The Blood Demon’s base was under Seoul Station. The Seoul Station platform I was visiting again after a long time.

Memories of the 41st round surfaced for the first time in a while. In the 41st round, the one who occupied Seoul Station was the Dragonhead Ark of Liberation.

But this time, it was the Blood Demon.

“He picked a pretty strategic spot for a hideout.”

I nodded along with Yoo Joonghyuk.

Considering how severe the surface contamination was, the Blood Demon’s residence couldn’t be anything but underground.

And among those, the center of Seoul—an intersection station where lines overlapped—would be overwhelmingly advantageous for transporting supplies.

“Damn it, just how many reanimated corpses did he make…?”

In other words, this “underground passage” was a place extremely well-suited to transporting the “corpses” the Blood Demon would use to make reanimated corpses.

“Just eyeballing it, there are at least a hundred.”

I quickly scanned the reanimated corpse hordes wandering around the area near the Seoul Station underground passage. From the looks of it, they weren’t reanimated corpses made with [Summon the Dead]. They had no souls inside them, moving only with the body’s memories from when it was alive. I could pretty much guess what principle he used to revive them.

「The tale of Davitz, who was ranked 3rd in Dark Castle: ‘King of the Dead.’」

Looks like the Blood Demon acquired 「King of the Dead」 in the 40th round’s “Dark Castle” scenario.

That tale, which Jo Yeongran used in the main story, was being used by the Blood Demon in this round.

Still, it seemed like it’d be hard to deal with all those reanimated corpses.

“Is it finally time for me to step in?”

Gyeong Sein puffed out his small shoulders and stepped forward.

“Most of the reanimated corpses are lower in ‘level’ than me. With my 「Insect Slaughter」…”

“They won’t all be lower than you.”

“Well, I do see a few reanimated corpses around my level…”

“Exactly how many?”

“…About twenty?”

It wasn’t hard for me to pick out the reanimated corpses Gyeong Sein mentioned.

Even at a glance, there were ones that looked like upper-tier variants. Unlike the lower-tier reanimated corpses that dumbly went back and forth along the platform area repeating fixed behaviors, the higher-tier reanimated corpses showed unexpected actions—turning their heads irregularly or suddenly sniffing the air.

Gyeong Sein asked, tense,

“Do we go in right away?”

“No. Wait.”

“Ah, you’re setting traps?”

“We didn’t come here to fight.”

I spoke while laying out the cooking tools Yoo Joonghyuk had in the center of the underground passage.

“Gyeong Sein, you’ll only step in if there’s an emergency.”

“Hm-hm, so it’s a secret weapon, is it?”

“Something like that. So until something happens, let’s follow my plan.”

“Don’t tell me your ‘plan’ is making dumplings again.”

My plan must have seemed completely unsatisfactory, because Gyeong Sein took a jab at me.

“Deceiver of the Stars. Are you serious? Honestly, you’ve looked kind of off for days now.”

“No matter how good dumplings taste, do you really believe you can trade with the Blood Demon over something as trivial as dumplings?”

Ye Hyeonwoo chimed in too.

I shrugged and answered.

“You said reanimated corpses eat food too.”

“They do, but—”

“Most of the upper-tier reanimated corpses look like ‘Murim people.’”

“Probably. The Blood Demon tried hard to take dead Transcendent Ones and collect them as his reanimated corpses.”

Transcendent Ones. Then that was even better.

“The reanimated corpses revived by the tale 「King of the Dead」 are in a state closer to senseless beasts. Especially the stronger the incarnation body, the simpler and stronger its desires become.”

“So?”

“What food do dead Murim people want to eat the most?”

At my question, Lee Dansu answered in admiration.

“So it’s ‘dumplings.’ Of course you’ll put virulent poison in them, right?”

“No. Ordinary virulent poison doesn’t work on reanimated corpses. Instead, we have to put something in that’s just as deadly as virulent poison.”

I didn’t tell them what it was. And in front of everyone, I began making dumplings.

I made a total of thirty dumplings. It was an amount that included extras.

[Tale fragment, your understanding of the “Murim Dumpling Recipe” is quite high!]
[The average completion rating of your “Murim dumplings” increases!]

In the meantime, my proficiency with the recipe had gone up a lot.

“Bastard. Are you sure it’s okay to make this many at once?”

“It’s fine.”

Because this time, I wasn’t using my own memories.

[The owner of the time stratum watches you in admiration.]

Looks like Cheon Inho noticed.

The small, trivial memories I used while shaping the dumplings this time belonged to this body—the “40th round’s Cheon Inho.”

Because it’d be a problem if I used up all of Lee Hakhyun’s memories.

“I’m going to assign the plan now.”

After sweeping my gaze over the revived Kang Ilhun, Lee Dansu, Gyeong Sein, and Ye Hyeonwoo, I asked,

“Lee Dansu, you’re good at setting traps, right?”

“Good enough. I’ll set them anywhere.”

“Yes. But what you’ll set this time is a little different.”

I pointed at the table where the dumplings sat.

“Set this up in the center of Seoul Station.”

Lee Dansu looked down at the worktable with an expression like he couldn’t believe what he’d heard, then asked me again,

“Setting it up isn’t a problem, but it’s pretty bulky to carry and place quietly.”

“Ye Hyeonwoo.”

I pressed down firmly on Ye Hyeonwoo’s shoulder as he tried to slip away.

“Support Lee Dansu with your [Erase Existence].”

“How do you know my skill name?”

Wouldn’t it be weirder if I didn’t? In the final scenario, the only stealth at that level was [Erase Existence], unless it was 「Stone and Me」.

And [Erase Existence] was the ultimate stealth skill that temporarily hid the presence of two people from the world, including the caster.

“And lastly, Kang Ilhun.”

“If it’s being a meat shield, I’m not doing it anymore.”

It was the words of a man who’d already gotten his neck cut off twice since I came into this stratum.

Of course, what I was going to make him do this time wasn’t being a meat shield.

“Spread a rumor on the <Star Stream> that ‘a regressor’s head’ has appeared in Seoul Station.”

*

Three hours later, the Blood Demon appeared on the Seoul Station platform, barking out a fairly predictable shout.

“How dare you!”

The smell of dumplings, golden and sizzling, spread across the entire platform.

I sat cross-legged on the table and waved at the Blood Demon.

“You’re here?”

The Blood Demon couldn’t hide his shock as he looked at his reanimated corpses scattered everywhere. And it made sense—because all twenty of his elite reanimated corpses he treasured were slumped down.

Some reanimated corpses were shedding sorrowful tears, and others were grinning as they laughed. Reanimated corpses curled deeply into themselves, reanimated corpses sobbing… After scanning all of them, the Blood Demon asked,

“What the hell did you do to my reanimated corpses?”

“Nothing much. I just let everyone get a little drunk on nostalgia.”

Just as I expected, the reanimated corpses bit the bait placed on the table right away.

For reference, the dumplings the reanimated corpses—all of them from Murim—ate were as follows.

「Chicken Broth Flavor Murim Dumplings」
「Braised Pork Flavor Murim Dumplings」
「Five-Spice Pork Flavor Murim Dumplings」

You could call it the “Murim Special.”

+

Completion: ★★☆☆☆

Overall: Made with low-quality memories, but the blend isn’t bad—Murim Special dumplings. An incarnation who eats this dumpling will be immersed in the memory of the “most dearly missed food” they once ate.

* Upon consumption, the status ailment “Nostalgia” effect activates for 30 minutes.

+

At least for the next 30 minutes, the reanimated corpses intoxicated by that taste wouldn’t show any movement at all.

“Kh, khkhkh.”

As if it was absurd, the Blood Demon let out a hollow laugh.

“You bastard, do you really want to die? Just because you subdued these guys, you think you beat me?”

“No. This isn’t enough to bring you down.”

I took a closer look at the Blood Demon’s face.

So that really was the face of an incarnation who survived with me all the way to the final scenario.

Truthfully, I didn’t know much about the Blood Demon. In the main story, he was only described as a despicable villain who teamed up with the Heavenly Demon to gang up on the Heaven-Splitting Sword Saint and kill him.

So before coming here, I went through all of Cheon Inho’s memories related to him.

And I found out this man was a far bigger deal than I’d thought.

“After all, the reanimated corpses in this underground city won’t even be a tenth of the reanimated corpses you have.”

「Blood Demon. King of Seoul’s underground city.」

In this 40th round, he was an existence who had thousands of “reanimated corpse legions” throughout Seoul’s underground passages.

「Second Evil, Yeom Baekho.」

After Cheon Inho, a villain who rose to become the “second” of the Ten Evils.

At this point, it almost felt like the Ten Evils were the main characters of this round.

“The dumplings are a freebie. They’re like that for now, but once they wake up, they’ll probably be stronger.”

“They’ll be stronger?”

The Blood Demon, who checked the reanimated corpses’ condition himself, stared up at me with wide eyes.

“You bastard, what scheme brought you here?”

“Blood Demon. Are you still curious about the ‘Great Art of Regression’?”

I knew why the Blood Demon was so obsessed with the “Great Art of Regression.”

The Blood Demon grinned and asked back,

“Have you finally decided to offer the Tyrant King’s head?”

“Unfortunately, even if you take the Tyrant King’s head, you won’t be able to regress.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because that’s just how this world is decided.”

[Someone is activating “Lie Detection.”]
[Someone has confirmed that your words are true.]

As expected, he had [Lie Detection] on.

The Blood Demon asked, flustered,

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“It means a small-fry villain like you can die and come back to life, and you still can’t become the protagonist.”

I looked at the Blood Demon for a moment.

To be honest, I don’t like giving narrative weight to small-fry villains like this. Either way, this guy was a villain who caused a lot of people suffering—and even after incarnations die, they’re still suffering because of him.

“But even a small-fry villain like that… in a world without a protagonist, you might be able to take up about a page of an episode.”

Even so, some worlds in stories shine a light on a horrific murderer’s hidden backstory more than a starving nobody’s last meal.

[The King of Horror focuses on your story.]

And so, on this <Star Stream>, the Blood Demon’s story finally came to exist.

And I, the “Sophist of Evil”—

“Blood Demon. Do you want to see your dead younger sister again?”

In this horrific world, I’m the kind of person who turns that villain’s “story” into a spectacle.