“Ms. Sooyoung is probably resting for a bit. The aftereffects from using the ‘Apocalypse Dragon’ power last time still haven’t recovered—”

I knew that too. Of course that would be the case. But that wasn’t what I was curious about.

“I’ll ask again.”

“…….”

“Where is the ‘real Han Sooyoung’ right now.”

The real Han Sooyoung.

Lee Seolhwa glared at me with eyes full of fury.

“You…….”

In that moment, I could feel a fierce, overbearing energy.

Before I knew it, Lee Hyunsung, who had finished cleaning up the “star scraps” at the front, was walking this way.

“What is this about.”

As if he’d been watching me the whole time, Lee Hyunsung’s expression as he looked at me was icy. A threatening fighting spirit, like he might rush me at any moment, was pouring off his whole body.

Right after, Lee Jihye, who had finished organizing the right-side front as well, joined us.

“Mister! We took care of everything over here too! What is it, why is the mood like this?”

Had she sensed the strange current in the air? Lee Jihye looked back and forth between me and Lee Hyunsung with tense eyes.

Lee Seolhwa let out a deep sigh and opened her mouth.

“Dokja says he wants to meet the ‘real’ captain.”

Then Lee Hyunsung stepped in front of me and said,

“The captain isn’t in good condition right now.”

“It’ll only take a moment.”

“The captain isn’t someone you can meet whenever you want.”

I compared the Lee Hyunsung of the 1,863rd round I’d read with the Lee Hyunsung in front of my eyes. Lee Hyunsung was originally a person with strong loyalty, but this was too much. But if I was going to back down here, I wouldn’t have brought it up in the first place.

“Exactly what is wrong, and how. I might be able to fix it.”

A drizzling rain fell from the sky. Rain so cold it felt like snow. That stream of rain flowed down over my head and the party’s heads as-is.

In the distance, I could see Kim Namwoon edging closer while furtively reading the room.

“Kim Namwoon. Take Dokja inside.”

“Huh? Uh, okay.”

Startled by Lee Hyunsung’s hard tone, Kim Namwoon grabbed my arm and tugged.

“Mister, I don’t know what’s going on, but let’s just go inside. C’mon, everyone, move!”

I shook off Kim Namwoon’s hand and said,

“Cut it out. How long are you going to keep up this ‘direction’?”

I looked around at the sky and shouted.

“Han Sooyoung! I know you’re listening to everything!”

The moment Lee Hyunsung frowned and took a step toward me.

“There are still two of them left!”

Shin Yoosung, who had been operating the “Chimera Dragon” in midair, shouted.

“Over there, over there!”

Two high-rise buildings on the opposite side of the base. A bleak tale was blooming up from the top of each building.

On the rooftop railing, two incarnation bodies of young women were standing precariously, and even at a glance, their looks were ominous.

Mouths split long in a threatening way.

Those gaunt women like zombies looked at each other, then opened their mouths at the same time.

Aaaaaaaaah—

The first to show an abnormal reaction were the front-line incarnation bodies. With a clank, they dropped their weapons and stared blankly up at the sky.

Some of them clawed at their own faces or clutched their chests.

Aaaaaaaaah—

My chest went cold. The identity of the “star scraps” inhabiting those female bodies was obvious.

The rear group, coming to their senses late, shouted.

“It’s a Siren!”

A Siren. One of the monsters of Greco-Roman mythology.

Those damn stars of <Olympus> had finally gone as far as summoning monsters that were on the level of fable-grade constellations.

“Everyone, cover your ears!”

Lee Seolhwa shouted, but most incarnation bodies were already bewitched by the Sirens’ song.

In my head, I recalled the “Siren countermeasure” that appeared in Ways of Survival.

「Despite its lofty notoriety, the countermeasure for a ‘Siren’ is very simple. One, cover your ears. If you have the [Sound Wave Block] skill, the Siren’s song isn’t a threat in the slightest.」

But it seemed there was no incarnation here capable of [Sound Wave Block].

「Even if you don’t have [Sound Wave Block], there’s no need to panic. If you have a high-grade [Mental Barrier], you can resist the Siren’s song you hear from far away well enough.」

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

As if it had been waiting, the [Fourth Wall] activated. Thankfully, if you had a high-grade skill of the mental-barrier type like me, the Siren’s tale was barely a threat.

The problem was that there was no way such high-grade skills would be smoothly distributed to ordinary incarnations.

And even if you had a mental barrier, it wasn’t something you could be one hundred percent at ease about.

「However, cases have been reported where incarnations with unusually high sensitivity to others react even more sharply to the Siren’s song.」

The new form of the “Chimera Dragon” covering the sky was swaying dangerously. Having noticed something was wrong, Lee Jihye shouted.

“Shin Yoosung!”

The Chimera Dragon flying in midair tilted, lost its direction, and began to fall. The huge body of the dragon crashing to the ground with a roar.

“Ah…….”

A faint groan coming through the thick dust.

“Th-thank you.”

Shin Yoosung, held in my arms as I activated [Wind’s Path], stammered. With eyes rounded like she was startled, she looked up at me and asked,

“But…… it feels like something similar happened before……”

I set Shin Yoosung down on the ground. It seemed she remembered Kim Dokja who had visited two years ago.

“Please rest.”

I was grateful, but dealing with the Sirens came first right now.

There were two Sirens on the rooftop.

I quickly checked the party’s condition.

Among us, excluding me, there were two who had resistance against the Sirens’ voices.

One was the Steel Swordmaster, Lee Hyunsung. But Lee Hyunsung was slow on his feet. Then—

“Kim Namwoon!”

I shouted toward Kim Namwoon.

“Please take the Siren on the right!”

Kim Namwoon, who had snapped back to his senses, nodded at me.

“Okay, leave it to me!”

At the same time as his answer, I started running toward the Siren on the left rooftop.

Ooooooooh—

The Siren’s song made the target’s mental burden spike sharply the closer you got within hearing distance.

But I wasn’t worried.

I had the [Fourth Wall], and Kim Namwoon—

“Uwahahahaha!”

He’s a guy who’s already crazy even without hearing a song like that.

「The Delusion Fiend has resistance to one-dimensional ‘mental attacks’.」

His exclusive trait, ‘middle school syndrome’, had probably evolved into ‘ultimate delusionist’ by now.

“Sounds nice!”

To Kim Namwoon, who reinterpreted all information in reality through his “delusion filter”, the Siren’s song wasn’t a threat at all.

Slash!

Kim Namwoon climbed the wall in an instant and cut off the first Siren’s head.

I activated [Wind’s Path] as well and reached the second Siren right in front of her.

The Siren’s eyes widened. The moment the “blade of conviction” scattered magic power—almost at the same time the Siren sensed danger, she raised her voice one last time.

Aaaaaaaaah—

The instant the Siren’s head fell to the ground, her final song swallowed up the area. Even I, with the [Fourth Wall], felt for a moment as if the ground were rippling like the surface of water.

A powerful impulse to throw myself down under the deck.

The Siren’s head rolling on the ground was smiling.

When I reflexively turned around, I could see patients sticking their heads out the windows of the base. As if bewitched by something, one by one, the patients were hanging onto the windowsills. People grinning stretched their feet toward empty air. The horrific scene that would happen the next moment was vivid before my eyes.

They’ll fall. All those incarnation bodies would plummet all at once.

For an instant, it felt like time was slowing, and the circuits in my head accelerated.

“Everyone—”

A feeling of tales moving and plausibility charging.

I activated the skill I could use best.

“—Freeze!”

[Exclusive skill, # Nоvеlight # ‘Incite Lv.???’ is activated!]

Like a huge rock falling onto the surface of water, the area was swallowed by a spray of silence. I could feel Kim Namwoon and the others turning this way with startled faces. And—

“Wh-what is it.”

“Huh? Huhhh—”

“What in the world…… what just happened?”

The people who had stuck their feet out past the building railing were screaming and collapsing backward one by one.

“What the hell, mister. If you could use something like this, you should’ve used it sooner!”

Kim Namwoon came running over with a thud-thud-thud and slapped my back painfully.

But I couldn’t smile back at him.

I slid down under the building and sprinted toward headquarters. Lee Hyunsung, Lee Seolhwa, and Lee Jihye didn’t try to stop me. They knew where I was heading too.

At the end of my gaze, one incarnation body that had fallen to the ground caught my eye.

“Dokja.”

Even though I used [Incite], I couldn’t protect everyone. An incarnation bewitched by the Siren’s song had thrown their body to the ground.

A man who died instantly after smashing his head on the ground.

I stood still and watched the man’s end. He was a character I didn’t know.

“Kim Dokja.”

Hearing Lee Hyunsung calling me, I placed my hand on the dead man’s head. There was no blood anywhere. Only the pervasive tale he held lingered around my nose like an after-scent.

I could feel Lee Hyunsung’s tough grip clamp down on my shoulder.

“Calm down.”

I slowly stood up and turned to Lee Hyunsung. Lee Hyunsung added with a blunt face.

“No one is dead.”

“No one is dead?”

“Yes.”

With those words, the dead man’s incarnation body vanished like magic. And the next moment, someone opened the main front door of headquarters and appeared.

“Yaaawn…… hiiiek! Wh-what is all this! Did something happen?”

The man, wearing torn patient clothes and making a huge fuss, was the same man who had vanished right in front of my eyes.

I stared at him with a blank face, then slowly opened my mouth.

“I see. No one is dead.”

It felt like I was about to let out a hollow laugh.

Even after such a fierce battle against enemies this powerful, not a single person is dead.

「That’s how Han Sooyoung built ‘one single perfect world’.」

A world where you can see the ending without anyone dying.

Whether Han Sooyoung had gone crazy for making a world like this, or whether the <Star Stream> that pushed Han Sooyoung into making a world like this was a crazy world, or whether I was the crazy one for accepting this world as crazy, I couldn’t tell at all.

Because I couldn’t tell at all, I laughed like a madman. In a scene where no one laughed, I laughed alone and laughed and laughed. Then, in an instant, I stopped laughing dead and said,

“But it feels like there isn’t anyone alive, either.”

I couldn’t believe those words had come out of my mouth.

Is an avatar an existence or not. If an avatar commits suicide, is that suicide or not. If an avatar dies, is that death or not.

An avatar is, I am.

“Kim Dokja. You aren’t a human of this world.”

Only when I thought that far did I feel like I finally understood why I was so angry.

“It means that no matter what happens here, it’s not something you have any business with.”

“Lee Hyunsung. Is that what you think. Or…….”

Watching Lee Hyunsung slowly clench his fist, I asked like I was biting down on my lips.

“Is it what the ‘Han Sooyoung’ who made you thinks?”