Cheon Inho began turning the pages one by one. Even though it was a story he was reading for the first time, the pages turned easily.

It couldn’t be helped.

Because inside that story was every single scenario he had lived through.

「It’s a dokkaebi (goblin). The moment it first appeared, someone said that.」

The more he read, the stranger he felt. Even though he knew perfectly well that he had no choice but to read this story to the end, it also felt like the moment he finished it, he would become someone who could never go back.

[Are you going to keep reading?]

Even the Goblin King spoke as though it knew that very well.

[If you read all of that, you will never be able to return to the world you knew.]

“I wonder if I even have a choice.”

Cheon Inho answered with a smile in his usual half-lidded eyes. Then, narrowing his eyes even further, he began reading again.

In that story, there was a man he knew all too well.

A man who had been his rival for as long as he’d lived through this worldline.

To kill him, and to accomplish what that man had failed to accomplish, Cheon Inho had lived this life.

“Yoo Joonghyuk.”

He wanted to mock that man’s smug righteousness, and he also wanted to prove that even without living such a lofty life, you could still see the end of this world.

“How ridiculous. Just how many worlds did you drive into ruin to see the ending you wanted?”

With trembling hands, he turned the page, and turned another. Watching a “Tyrant King” different from the Tyrant King he knew speak, act, and live there, Cheon Inho’s shoulders quietly shook.

―Next time, it wouldn’t be bad to make the Ten Evils into allies.

Because of Yoo Joonghyuk’s words, he revived the Ten Evils and brought them in as companions. He tried to prove that what was possible in the next turn was also possible in this turn. Joining hands with constellations, tricking them and betraying them, enduring life while accepting plausible nicknames like “Sophist of Evil” or “One Who Deceived the Stars.”

It’s fine if I’m cowardly.

It’s fine if they call me evil.

Because that was him. If he could survive to the very end in a vile way and seize the final victory, it didn’t matter. If he could prove himself like that, that was enough.

But what was this?

“Am I in this story too?”

In front of a story titled with seven characters, Cheon Inho felt as though the entire history of his life was collapsing from the edges.

[You are.]

He didn’t need the Goblin King’s explanation. The moment he turned the page, his name appeared there.

「“I see. My name is Cheon Inho.”」

Cheon Inho let out a dry laugh.

So this really was “me.”

What do you know about me.

How could you possibly know who I am, what I’m thinking, and narrate it like this?

「It was easy to tell what was going on. I could see Cheon Inho’s mug smiling faintly behind everyone. His lips were saying:
‘Choose.’
Will you distribute the food and become a hero?
Or will you monopolize the food alone and become a villain?」

“Kh, khahahat.”

So this sloppy villain is “me,” is it. Thinking that, he turned the page, and turned another.

Then his eyes stopped on a single sentence.

「“Huff, hehe… y-you bastard….”
His words couldn’t continue. Because Jung Heewon, who appeared from behind, pierced Cheon Inho’s face from the crown of his head straight down.」

Cheon Inho read his own death over and over. It was a fitting and precise death.

Cheon Inho, who had been rereading that sentence with eyes full of distrust, slowly raised his head.

“Is this all there is to my story?”

[Yes.]

“This isn’t me.”

[But that is you.]

“I’m here.”

[No, you are there.]

The Goblin King spread its index and middle fingers toward empty ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) space. Then, as if by magic, a cigarette appeared between them.

The Goblin King smoked in silence and said,

[In this universe, only what is recorded becomes truth. The you here will not be recorded anywhere. No one wants your story, and no one wants to read it either.]

The Goblin King glanced at the book in Cheon Inho’s hands and added,

[But that story is different. That story was chosen by the “Oldest Dream,” and completed. Being someone who exists as a person written inside that story is the entirety of the choices you’ve been given.]

“How I exist is something I decide.”

The Goblin King looked down at Cheon Inho for a moment, as if he were pitiful.

[Little incarnation. How much do you know about yourself?]

“Of course, I know everything.”

[Do you remember your parents?]

“You’re asking something obvious. My parents are—”

Cheon Inho, who was saying that, froze. Why was that? Words that felt like they should flow out effortlessly stopped inside him.

「He couldn’t remember his parents.」

Then, like lightning, a shiver ran down from the top of his head.

And a moment later, on a wall some distance away, a single sentence floated into view.

「Cheon Inho was an orphan.」

Was that his thought? Or was it a setting someone had just created?

Cheon Inho, lips twisted in incomprehensible confusion, said,

“I have no parents. Because I was an orphan.”

[That would be right.]

“Did you know?”

[Yes.]

[Yes.]

“Because someone made me that way?”

[That’s right.]

“Who is it.”

[This universe.]

For a moment, neither Cheon Inho nor the Goblin King spoke. The two beings who had lived different histories but were written within the same story stared for a while into the darkness of a universe where the stars had gone out.

“Who is Kim Dokja?”

[The symbolic body of the “Oldest Dream.”]

“Is he the ‘protagonist’ of this story?”

[Now, every universe has been reorganized around him.]

“Why?”

[I don’t know that either. Because in this story, I’m nothing more than a character as well.]

“Why isn’t the Tyrant King the protagonist? Just how many times does that bastard regress?”

[1,864 times.]

“He acted so high and mighty in front of me, and after regressing that many times, he only barely managed to see the end?”

The Goblin King didn’t answer.

Cheon Inho started to cackle. Somehow, that laughter sounded sad, and it sounded resigned, and it also sounded like it held a terrifying rage. Then, in a single instant, Cheon Inho’s laughter stopped dead.

“I’ve decided my wish.”

Cheon Inho stood up, gripping the page he’d been reading as though to crush it.

“I will bring this universe to an end.”

[…….]

“I will take revenge on the being who designed this universe, on that bastard Kim Dokja, on the ‘Oldest Dream’ that dreams this universe.”

[You can’t.]

“Didn’t you say you’d grant anything?”

[Your request lies in a domain I cannot grant.]

“So even you are only that much?”

[Yes, only this much. All you and I can do is read that story to the end. And in that story, realize and accept how trivial and pathetic we are. You should be grateful for the fact that you were given such a chance. Most incarnations aren’t even given the chance to learn the truth of the world.]

“You think I came all the way here just to learn this worthless truth?”

[But that is all you can know.]

“Once, I had a similar conversation with Hermes.”

[Hermes?]

“He said this. That even if I reached the ‘Epilogue of Everything,’ I would still never be able to see the scenery of the world I wanted. Because—”

In Cheon Inho’s tightened grip, the page of the book tore ever so slightly.

“Because I’m not ‘Tyrant King Yoo Joonghyuk.’”

From the torn page of the book, fable spilled out.

A story not written in 『Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint』.

Cheon Inho’s own fable.

「“Hermes. What do you mean I can’t see the end of the world?”」

During the conquest of <Olympus>, Cheon Inho had once accidentally connected to a joint network created by <Olympus>.

There, he came face-to-face with the being that controlled the network <Olympus> had built—an artificial intelligence, or a being you could call a divine artificial intelligence—namely, the true body of Hermes, the “Master of Skywalk.”

「[Exactly what it sounds like. Sophist of Evil. According to my “big data,” even if you clear the Final Scenario, you cannot reach the end of the world.]」

「“Then what does that mean?”」

「[Because that is simply what is written.]」

「“Written?”」

「[Have you heard of something called a “revelation”?]」

Hermes told him about what “revelation” really was. In this world, there existed a huge “wall” upon which every sentence was written, and every revelation flowed from that “wall.”

「[However, not long ago, those revelations stopped.]」

「“Stopped? Why?”」

「[Probably because there is no longer any reason for “revelations” to exist in this world.]」

The timing of revelations disappearing was after Tyrant King Yoo Joonghyuk died. As if, in a world where he was gone, no more sentences were needed.

「[Cheon Inho. This is what I think. A revelation is, in truth, a single complete story—and at the center of that story is “Tyrant King Yoo Joonghyuk.”]」

Hermes’s inference was correct. Because that result was the single book in his hands right now.

「“Hermes. If you help me, <Olympus> will be destroyed. Even so, why did you decide to help me?”」

「[Who knows. Perhaps… it’s because even I got bored of “revelations.”]」

Cheon Inho smiled as he held in his hands the end of the world Hermes had wanted to see so badly.

“I can’t accept it.”

[What are you saying?]

Instead of answering, Cheon Inho looked at the enormous wall behind them.

The “Final Wall” on which all revelations were written.

“What is beyond that ‘wall’? I will go beyond the wall.”

[You cannot go. Because you are a being for whom it is “impossible.”]

With a deep sigh, the Goblin King said,

[I understand how you feel, but your story ends here. Because you are fated to be unable to be recorded on the “Final Wall.”]

“Is that something you decided? Or is it what’s written on the ‘Final Wall’?”

With one arm, Cheon Inho drew the sword at his waist. When the jet-black blade of the [Black Heavenly Demon Sword] let out a strange wail, the Goblin King’s expression hardened.

[Do you intend to decide your end in that way, after all?]

As if it had already read all of his fable, the Goblin King lightly waved a hand. Cheon Inho’s knees buckled with a soft thud, as if by magic.

[You cannot defeat me.]

Cheon Inho’s specialty was tactical conquest based on “information warfare.” So of course, against a “Goblin King” he’d never faced before, it was only natural that he couldn’t use any of his strength.

But at that moment, with a psht sound, one of the Goblin King’s fingers was cut off.

[How—]

When the Goblin King hurriedly looked around, Cheon Inho was already gone from that spot. When it turned, Cheon Inho was dragging his knees and had reached the “Final Wall.” He had applied the ability of Ye Hyeonwoo of the Ten Evils, the “One Who Disappears.”

“Looks like you didn’t watch properly. How I cleared the ‘Final Chapter.’”

A golden radiance flowed from the eyes of Cheon Inho, who was squinting.

[Stigma, “Divine Artificial Intelligence” is activating.]

Divine artificial intelligence. The totality of the big data created by <Olympus>. Hermes’s stigma, which collected all data in this world and made a kind of [Future Simulation] based on that data possible.

Cheon Inho used the data gathered by “Divine Artificial Intelligence” to repeat countless “simulations.” Like Yoo Joonghyuk repeating regressions, he too repeated a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand simulations for the sake of a “single” clear.

And so, Cheon Inho found the one method to clear the Final Chapter, and now he was here.

“I don’t need to fight you. What I want is—”

Tstststst, a sound like that, and Cheon Inho’s palm met the wall.

“It’ll be beyond this.”

With sparks spraying violently, Cheon Inho felt the wall pushing him away. At this rate, his entire body would be burned black. Even knowing that perfectly well, Cheon Inho didn’t take his hand off the wall.

[Activating exclusive skill, ‘Agitation Lv.???’!]

“Wall. I am.”

Because he was the greatest “agitator” of this worldline.

“A ‘sentence’ written on the Final Wall.”

With that declaration, Cheon Inho felt his body being sucked into the wall. The Goblin King’s shout grew distant, and his body, turning into fable, seeped into the wall in an instant.

「And so, ‘Cheon Inho’ became part of the story.」

When he came to his senses again, he realized he had entered the wall. His heart was pounding, and an unknown exhilaration made his breath catch.

“I’m here. Tyrant King.”

At last, he would be able to meet Yoo Joonghyuk again. Or perhaps he might even meet the being who dreamed this damned world.

“Oldest Dream!”

But no one answered his voice. As he slowly blinked, the surrounding scenery came into view.

An endless snowfield spread out before his eyes.

Cheon Inho hesitated, then cautiously took a step. One step, then two.

No footprints remained.

As if, in this world, he didn’t even have the right to leave footprints.

Cheon Inho silently looked down at the snow, then started to smile.

“Really… there’s no one at all?”

A world of nothingness. Trapped in the blank space beyond the wall where time and space didn’t exist, he walked the world. He walked for a long time.

He walked for a day. For two days.

Three days, four days. A week.

A month, two months.

One year. Two years. No—maybe

「How long have I been walking?」

Could all of this be nothing but a mirage? This place was the world between sentence and sentence. A place where even a hundred years, a thousand years could pass in a single sentence.

Thinking that, Cheon Inho

「felt everything was just like a huge joke.」

Was the Goblin King right after all? Was this ultimately his fate? Quietly dying while never being written anywhere, never being remembered by anyone—was this horrific journey, wandering in search of the blank space where he would be buried, the end that had been given to him?

“Why.”

Cheon Inho glared at the sky with his eyes open. In the midst of crushing humiliation, Cheon Inho tried, one last time, to leave behind some kind of words.

“Isn’t it me.”

But those were the only words he could manage, and only after saying them did he think that maybe, truly, that was all his desire amounted to.

Maybe he wanted to be the protagonist. That was why he wanted to meet the Tyrant King again, and why he wanted to mock this world. Maybe he’d been wishing that at least one person, just one, would dream the dream of a villain like him.

So, in truth.

「Didn’t he also have a story he wanted to leave behind?」

The white night sky. It was then that a star glittered from very far away.

The glittering star erupted into a dazzling explosion, scattering across the entire universe. How enormous did that star have to be for the explosion to be visible even from here?

But at such a distance, that star must have already exploded long ago.

He was watching the end of a star that no longer existed in the world. Thinking that, he reached a vague hand up toward the sky—and from the direction of the star’s explosion, he saw several streaks of meteors flying in.

Among them, one meteor was coming straight toward Cheon Inho.

Startled, Cheon Inho took a step back. With a light boom, the meteor crashed down not far from the snowfield.

Cheon Inho hurried toward where the meteor had fallen.

There was a small cradle there.

Cheon Inho knelt and reached a hand into the cradle.

「Inside was a newborn baby, as if it had been born within snow blossoms.」

Cheon Inho slowly lifted the baby into his arms. Then the baby looked at him. Just from being met by that gaze, in that moment Cheon Inho felt his own blurred self becoming clear.

Only then did Cheon Inho realize who this baby was, and what he might be able to give it.

「And so, “One Who Deceived the Stars” finally reached the scenario’s reward.」

Cheon Inho smiled and spoke the baby’s name.

“Your name is Kim Dokja.”

The baby beamed with a bright smile.