A lonely wind blew over the snowfield. The space between the lines where the incident had disappeared. Over that space between the lines, tale fragments that couldn’t be properly recorded scattered like snow.

「"Kim Dokja, where are you."」

……

「"Teach me so I can break this barrier."」

……

「"Tell me. Where did Mr. Inho go."」

The voices of people who, in the end, couldn’t save someone precious to them. Words that disappeared without being able to go anywhere.

Listening to those words, the one who had been standing on the snowfield took the white coat fluttering in the wind and hung it over a chair, sat down in front of the table, and drank a cup of tea.

「The margin you were given was really small, but you still left behind a lot of stories in the meantime.」

The man read and reread the tales that fell endlessly.

「"Kim Dokja."」

What had once been his name had now become a form of address used to call someone else. The man was often confused by that fact. He didn’t know what kind of feelings he should hold.

Should he feel sadness, or should he feel a sense of liberation.

Or should he be angry.

When the man made a light gesture with his hand, another chair appeared on the opposite side of the table.

Leaving the tea he had been drinking on the table, the man asked.

「Is there something you still haven’t been able to write?」

Behind him stood another man.

Bright hair, with eyes that were especially striking for how narrow they were. A dark red coat that reminded one of dried blood.

「That’s what records are like. Once you write them down, you always end up feeling regret.」

「As you wanted, the record of the '40th round' was changed.」

「Well, for now, yes.」

「Then it wouldn’t matter if you exited now.」

Cheon Inho smiled faintly and sat down in the chair the man had prepared. Then, narrowing his characteristic eyes even more, he said.

「You’re being too stingy to a father you’ve met after so long.」

「Father.」

The man glared at Cheon Inho with an irritated expression and added.

「You did raise me. In this snowfield.」

「…….」

「Sometimes I think about that. Maybe the fact that I was raised by a human like you might be proof that I’m the 'real Kim Dokja'.」

Cheon Inho nodded and asked.

「Are you still agonizing over who you are? How many more 'Kim Dokja fragments' have to be gathered for you to stop agonizing over that?」

「If I gather them all, I’ll know.」

「Then until then, what should I call you?」

「…….」

「That friend using my incarnation body.」

Cheon Inho picked up the teacup the man had set down and took a light sip of tea as he spoke.

「He calls you 'Kim Dokja of the Snowfield'.」

Kim Dokja of the Snowfield let out a small snort, as if finding that title extremely strange.

「From the start, that bastard called me Kim Dokja.」

「Because anyone can see you’re Kim Dokja.」

「Other than that bastard, no one calls me Kim Dokja.」

「Aren’t I calling you that?」

「…….」

「Have you already forgotten that I gave you that name?」

The two of them looked out at the snowfield landscape without speaking. Was it because too much snow was falling? The footprints they had left behind weren’t visible. Even so, the two of them had definitely walked that road where there were no footprints at all.

「Even now, I remember the day I picked you up.」

As Cheon Inho said that, he pulled a book out from inside his clothes.

『Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint』.

「Your birth was probably around this passage, right?」

Saying that, Cheon Inho opened the book.

Kim Dokja of the Snowfield silently read the passage Cheon Inho pointed to. A sentence that had begun to lose its shape was written there at a slant.

—The Kim Dokja you know scattered across this entire universe.

Cheon Inho continued, his expression strange, as if even now that moment was vivid.

「You were such a pretty child. To the point I couldn’t believe a child like that had just fallen from the sky.」

「Don’t describe it romantically. You bastard just wanted to use me.」

「That’s right.」

Cheon Inho answered, nodding along.

「My goal was to feed you 'Kim Dokja fragments' and revive the 'Oldest Dream'.」

Oldest Dream.

The absolute observer of this universe, something only 'the one and «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» only Kim Dokja' could become.

「If that was really your goal, why did you betray me?」

「…….」

「You raised me because you wanted me to dream your story for you. So why.」

「I simply found an easier way to achieve the goal.」

「Are you satisfied with the record that bastard changed for you?」

There was a subtle edge to Kim Dokja of the Snowfield’s voice.

「A record like that, once I become the 'Oldest Dream', I can discard it as much as I want. Conversely, I can write it again, too.」

「Of course.」

Kim Dokja of the Snowfield let out a low breath, as if cooling down his anger. Watching that, Cheon Inho asked.

「Weren’t you originally fond of that friend?」

「…….」

「Are you angry because he declared he’d become 'Kim Dokja'?」

「…….」

「Or because he got close with the 'Demon King of Salvation' you dislike?」

「Your role was to stop that bastard from living as 'Kim Dokja'.」

「Hehe, we did make that promise.」

「Why didn’t you keep it? Did you want to see that bastard play the protagonist using your body? Were you so ecstatic, watching a new record being written with your incarnation body?」

Cheon Inho nodded.

「I was ecstatic.」

「I could’ve made you the protagonist too.」

「If you became the 'Oldest Dream', it would’ve been possible. But, you see. Wouldn’t a wish achieved that way be pretty uninteresting?」

「Uninteresting?」

A few snowflakes falling from the sky dropped into the tea. As if trying to find those snowflakes, Cheon Inho stirred the tea with a spoon, swirling it around, and said.

「The Great Sage, Heaven’s Equal could ride the Somersault Cloud at any time and head to India at any time. But he deliberately reached India by walking together with Sanzang. And what was made that way was 『Journey to the West』.」

「What are you trying to say?」

「Walking on purpose was fun.」

Kim Dokja of the Snowfield flared up.

「That isn’t your story. You’re nothing but a spectator.」

「Even so, it was fun. That I could tell a story like that with my incarnation body. That I could live a life that isn’t 'Ten Evils'.」

「You were incited.」

「That might be true. But.」

Looking at the tea water swirling in circles, Cheon Inho finished.

「From the start, this world is a gigantic 'Incite'.」

With that as their last words, the two existences looked back out at the snowfield. The footprints they had left behind still weren’t visible. But they no longer thought about the road they had walked.

「So, what will you do now? Contrary to your wishes, he decided to become 'Kim Dokja' on his own.」

「…….」

「He isn’t your avatar. He won’t listen to what you say, and he won’t move the way you dream.」

As Cheon Inho said that, he looked at Kim Dokja of the Snowfield’s left hand, which had become half transparent. It was the backlash he had suffered from forcing Plausibility in the apocalypse region.

「He’ll find an answer that destroys this world, or an answer that doesn’t destroy it. Already becoming closer than anyone to a 'protagonist', him—」

Watching the snow blowing through and piercing that transparent left hand, Cheon Inho asked.

「Kim Dokja of the Snowfield. With what method will you stop him?」

Kim Dokja of the Snowfield looked up at the sky, then slowly opened his mouth.

「The day I gathered more than half of the 'Kim Dokja fragments' with your help. I tore apart my brother who came looking for this place from up there in that sky.」

Kim Dokja of the Snowfield continued.

「I thought I had become the 'real Kim Dokja'. That if I gathered just the remaining fragments, I’d become complete as Kim Dokja—I believed that.」

「It sounds like you don’t think so now.」

Kim Dokja of the Snowfield moved a finger and wrote someone’s name on the piled snow on the table.

■■■

A name that couldn’t be written.

Staring at that hole, Cheon Inho asked.

「Looks like I’m not the only one who was incited by his story.」

「…….」

「To become Kim Dokja, he even threw away his own name. What can you throw away?」

「I thought about it for a long time. What do I really want.」

Reaching out and wiping the table, Kim Dokja of the Snowfield said.

「What do I want to become. Am I satisfied with simply becoming the 'Oldest Dream'.」

「…….」

「Just by gathering all the 'Kim Dokja fragments', can I say that I became the 'Kim Dokja' I wanted.」

In that instant, Cheon Inho flinched. It was because he sensed the unusual energy coming from Kim Dokja of the Snowfield.

「You’re right. What’s important isn’t the result, it’s the process.」

Cracks were forming little by little between the 'Kim Dokja fragments' that made up Kim Dokja of the Snowfield. Through those cracks, a hazy white light was leaking out.

「You’re asking what I can throw away?」

「You, don’t tell me…….」

Cheon Inho unconsciously looked down at the book on the table. In the shaking pages, he felt as if he had read this scene in advance.

「Stop. If you do something like that now—」

「No, this is the right choice.」

Kim Dokja of the Snowfield was breaking apart.

「From now on, let’s start the real 'scenario'.」

Killer King—Cha Sungwoo sat on the rooftop railing of Gwanghwamun and looked up at the sky.

At that moment, the rooftop door banged open and someone came in.

Keeping his gaze fixed on the sky, Cha Sungwoo asked.

"Still no news today?"

"None."

Ye Hyeonwoo, who answered like that, trudged over and sat down next to Cha Sungwoo.

"Maybe it’s time we slowly admit it."

Half a year had passed since Kim Dokja disappeared from the scenario. In the meantime, a lot had happened to the group.

Earth was currently in the middle of Scenario 32. In the meantime, the comrades who had lost their center split into factions, and some people died, became wrecks, and gave up on the scenario.

Of course, there were also people who didn’t give up, like Cha Sungwoo and Ye Hyeonwoo. But even they had to admit a certain fact now.

「Now, there is no 'Kim Dokja' in this world.」

During the half-year that passed, they came close to death over and over again.

As time piled up, Kim Dokja’s face in their memories blurred, and soon became a blank. Maybe it was time for someone to fill in that blank now—both Cha Sungwoo and Ye Hyeonwoo knew that.

But who in the world could take over that role.

"Looks like we’re all going to die here."

"The Second Apostle, Yoo Joonghyuk wouldn’t say something like that."

"I’m not Yoo Joonghyuk."

"You knew I wasn’t?"

Now, only this lonely joke was all they had left to prove the history of how they had lived in this world.

"Even that Yoo Joonghyuk disappeared."

In a world where Kim Dokja and Yoo Joonghyuk had both disappeared, they were left behind. What they could do was only imitate what they had read.

But even that was becoming harder and harder. Because the scenario had veered away from the 'novel’s developments' they knew.

"Yerin almost died this time."

"……."

"Next time, she might really die."

Cha Yerin suffered a fatal injury that couldn’t be recovered from even with the spirit energy of Elain Forest.

According to Lee Seolhwa, in order to recover from this injury, they needed at least a 'Holy Oil Fruit'-grade item.

"We might have to make a deal with the Great Nebulae."

The last choice for surviving in the scenario.

Ye Hyeonwoo also knew that kind of option existed.

"But that’s……."

Ye Hyeonwoo let out a deep sigh and said.

"What would Kim Dokja have done."

It was then that a single meteor fell from the distant sky.

"Huh?"

The 'Fifth Scenario' where meteors appeared had already ended.

Then what in the world was that meteor?

"The Second Apostle, that—"

Before Ye Hyeonwoo could even finish speaking, Cha Sungwoo leapt off the rooftop like someone possessed. Then he ran straight toward where the meteor had fallen.

Thankfully, the meteor’s impact point wasn’t that far.

Panting as his rising breath hitched, Cha Sungwoo walked up toward the crater.

Inside the huge crater, one man was lying there.

Every cell in his body trembled. The story he had read over a hundred times was telling him who the man in front of him was.

The man slowly opened his eyes and looked at Cha Sungwoo. Cha Sungwoo also looked at him.

He definitely knows who the man in front of him is.

Even so, Cha Sungwoo asked him.

"Who are you……?"

Then the man asked back.

"Who do you want me to be?"

Cha Sungwoo slowly parted his trembling lips. He wasn’t sure whether he should say that name or not. Some ominous premonition had him in its grip. Just a single name. By saying that name, he had a premonition that an important axis of this world would twist.

Even so, Cha Sungwoo had to say that name. Because it was.

"Kim Dokja."

The wish of all the readers living in this world.

Whether the man knew that expectation or not, he listened to those words with a blank face, then slowly opened his mouth.

"I’m Kim Dokja."

On the day that marked Day 499 since the scenario began on Earth.

"From now on, I will lead the scenario."

'Kim Dokja' returned to the scenario.