[Avatar].

An exclusive skill of incarnations with the 'Writer' attribute, and a skill that creates one's alter ego and enables execution for various purposes.

At the same time, the culprit behind all this tragedy, the one that split Kim Dokja into 51% and 49%.

「Why does a writer have the 'Avatar' skill.」

That reason had already appeared in the main story, in Kim Dokja's monologue.

「A job mainly engaged in creative work, receiving excessive stress, where dissociative identity disorder or ego-splitting frequently occurs.」

In truth, it's not as if being a writer automatically means you suffer from grand symptoms like 'dissociative identity disorder' or 'ego-splitting'. In this world, there are healthy writers too (I've hardly ever seen them), and there are writers who live happily even if they're not healthy (I’ve hardly seen those too).

Then why did [Avatar], of all things, become the exclusive skill of a 'Writer'?

"Because a writer is a job that writes 'characters'."

Even ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ while writing a single novel, a writer has to become countless other 'characters'. Maybe Han Sooyoung who wrote this story was the same.

Even if that story was a reconstruction of the stories she heard from Kim Dokja, from Yoo Joonghyuk, and from the other characters, someone who writes a story still has to fill in the empty parts with their own imagination.

And while filling those empty areas, a writer has to become another existence again and again.

So Han Sooyoung must have become Kim Dokja, Yoo Joonghyuk, Lee Hyunsung, Yoo Sangah, Shin Yoosung… and then once again, her own past self.

By the time I thought that far, a groan slipped out of me without me realizing it. I looked around the scenery once more.

「This world was still 『Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint』.」

Maybe, even here, without realizing it herself, she had been continuing to write that story the whole time.

"Looks like you’re not completely lacking in talent."

Han Sooyoung smiled as if she were a teacher checking a model answer, then asked again.

"Then question here. Why can't you use [Avatar]?"

"Why are you so sure I can't use [Avatar]?"

"If you knew how to use [Avatar], the moment you first met me, you would've realized I was an [Avatar]."

"If you have [Avatar], you can tell things like that too?"

Thinking about it, the first one in <Kim Dokja Company> to realize that 49% Kim Dokja was an avatar had been Han Sooyoung too.

"But I figured it out in the end."

"I told you. That’s why you’re not completely lacking in talent."

Talent.

I gave a bitter smile and kept clenching and unclenching my dust-stained hand.

After coming into this world, I went through a lot.

In the meantime, I gained a lot of fables. From 「Successor of the Eternal Name」 to huge fables that still didn't have names.

And that wasn't all. I had even obtained the qualifications of a 'Horror Recorder' now.

"Why."

And yet, as time passed, there were times when I felt like these 'fables' I'd piled up weren't mine.

"Why can't I use [Avatar]?"

Maybe it wasn't simply a question about [Avatar].

"Who knows."

Han Sooyoung seemed to know that too.

In the end, the answer to this question was something I had to derive myself, not something Han Sooyoung could answer for me.

Even so, I hoped for a moment. Of all people, it was Han Sooyoung. If it was Han Sooyoung, maybe she could say something different.

"There are things you have to know first to solve that question."

When Han Sooyoung lightly gestured into the air, with a pong sound, two [Avatar] entities that looked exactly like Han Sooyoung were born.

While Han Sooyoung flopped down in her seat and put a cigarette in her mouth, the avatars started working, grumbling the whole time. Checking the equipment we installed, repairing the outside of the base.

"Hey, are you afraid of [Avatar]?"

After a small pause, I asked back.

"Why are you asking that?"

"I just imagined it once. What it would be like if I were you."

In her eyes, I could see a condensed world of imagination flowing.

[Predicted Plagiarism].

Right now, looking at me, she was imagining the me I hadn't said, maybe even a 'me' I didn't know myself.

"In a universe where countless 'Kim Dokja' exist, what is it like to live as one of those 'Kim Dokja'?"

I had never told Han Sooyoung in detail why I existed here, or exactly what happened to the 'Kim Dokja' she remembered.

And yet Han Sooyoung was reading information I hadn't told her.

"Living your whole life with doubts about who you are. Anxiety that you might be a byproduct of another existence, that the things you think might not be entirely your own thoughts…."

I wanted to ask how she could know so well. But there was no need to ask. The Han Sooyoung in front of me was someone who could understand me better than anyone.

"Was it the same for you? When you first learned you were an [Avatar], did you feel like that?"

Of course, she doesn't think of herself as an [Avatar]. I also acknowledged that there were a lot of ambiguous parts to calling her an [Avatar].

But there was one clear fact.

「The Han Sooyoung in front of me is an existence 'made' through [Avatar].」

Whether she had memories equal to the main body or not, the Han Sooyoung in front of me was born the moment Han Sooyoung first used [Avatar].

Just because it was born later in the time sequence, a later-born existence can’t escape the thought that it isn’t the 'real' one.

"What do you think it’s like?"

Smiling, Han Sooyoung took out a cigarette from her chest and lit it. Watching the smoke spread whitely, I reached out my hand without realizing it.

"Could I have one too?"

"Why? You smoke too?"

"I feel like smoking."

Han Sooyoung let out a snort and handed me a cigarette, then lit it for me. When I sucked in the smoke, the sensation of acrid smoke tickled my lungs.

I coughed and added a pointless line.

"It’s because I haven’t smoked in a while."

I sucked in the smoke once more, then let out a long breath. The billowing smoke soon took on the shape of a person with the same build as me.

Han Sooyoung spoke in a slightly surprised voice.

"Is that [Smoke Human]. You’ve got a pretty unusual skill."

"I got it by absorbing other 'Kim Dokjas'."

"How many did you absorb?"

"I don't know. There were ones that weren't in human form, and there were ones that just existed as fragments."

"Sounds like there are a lot of those Kim Dokjas in your world."

"Yes."

"Do Kim Dokjas compete with each other or something? To pick out the one 'real Kim Dokja'?"

"Something like that."

Han Sooyoung fell silent for a moment. Maybe with [Predicted Plagiarism], she was drawing the bloody battle of Kim Dokjas fighting to become Kim Dokja in her head.

Suddenly, I got curious.

In her hypothesis, which Kim Dokja survived to the end?

With a tap, the cigarette butt fell near Han Sooyoung's feet.

"You're afraid another 'Kim Dokja' will appear again, aren't you?"

"…."

"You're afraid something you can't control will happen. Right?"

I couldn't answer.

Without waiting for my answer, Han Sooyoung continued.

"But being a writer is originally that kind of job. Constantly colliding with things you can't control."

"…."

"You know. Once you make a character, they don't move the way we want them to."

"That's true."

"In the end, we shape them while taking on a certain amount of uncertainty. Without even knowing what kind of guy the shaped one will turn out to be."

For a moment, I remembered a conversation Kim Dokja and Han Sooyoung had once shared.

「"Just because you're a writer doesn't mean you perfectly control your novel. If you look back, there are holes everywhere. In the end, reading is the work of connecting those irregular holes in its own way."」

Someone who writes something is also, perhaps, nothing more than one reader.

The first person to weave a story experiences the first reading by weaving it.

Maybe Han Sooyoung was explaining those words in different words.

"You need to learn how to handle [Avatar]."

"…."

"You finally have the writer attribute, and it's a waste if you don't use [Avatar]."

I knew it too.

How foolish it was to have the writer attribute and not use [Avatar].

But I had my reasons too.

"This world isn't a simple 'novel' anymore. The uncertainty I create becomes a variable I can't control. If it were a world that wasn’t real, I could make anything and tear it down without hesitation, but this world isn’t like that."

"So it's not simply that you're afraid of making [Avatar], huh?"

[Exclusive skill, 'Fourth Wall', trembles.]

I let out a light sigh. The cigarette I hadn't even smoked a few drags of became a spark and fell to the ground.

I was afraid to let the words out. Even so, right now was the moment I had to speak.

"I'm afraid of stories."

Maybe it was something I could say because the person in front of me was Han Sooyoung.

"I'm afraid of writing stories."

When I first entered this story, I enjoyed this story. While feeling the fear of death, I was also exhilarated at the thought that I might be able to write all of this down.

But as comrades appeared, and as I felt fables piling up, my thinking changed little by little.

The moment my emotions began to take shape was around when I cleared the Recycling Center, broke the apocalypse region, and put the two 'Kim Dokjas' into the [Fourth Wall].

「The end of the story was drawing near.」

It was like an intuition as a writer.

From here on, if I made one wrong move, everything I'd piled up could shatter. Regardless of how hard I tried up to now, just writing one sentence wrong could destroy everything.

"If you think too much, you won't be able to write anything."

"I know. But—"

"Why do you think we write stories?"

Why do we write stories. I felt like there had been a reason, but suddenly I couldn't remember.

With a sigh, Han Sooyoung said.

"I told you I wanted you to watch the 'ending' of this world together with me."

"Yes."

"Your answer?"

"I will."

Han Sooyoung pouted like she didn't like my answer and opened her mouth.

"I’m canceling my offer."

"Excuse me? Why?"

"You want to run away right now."

"…."

"You're afraid to see the ending of your world line, so you're trying to stay in this world."

"No. I—"

I tried to speak. It was true that I was trying to stay in this world line. But the reason I wanted to do that was because I thought there was something to learn from Han Sooyoung's world line.

[Someone is activating 'Lie Detection'!]

But I couldn't continue.

Maybe it was because I couldn't be sure whether my words were true or not either.

As if she'd known, Han Sooyoung said.

"I can't watch an 'ending' with a pathetic guy like that."

"I see."

So even here, I end up like this. I stared at the billowing smoke and let out a deep sigh.

But Han Sooyoung wasn't done talking.

"So let's do this. You need the 'Ark' and the 'fable core' to return to your world, right?"

When I nodded, Han Sooyoung continued.

"And I need the Ark's 'fable core' to revive my comrades."

In an instant, I felt like I knew what Han Sooyoung was going to say.

"Let's duel."

Pointing to the Ark in the sky, Han Sooyoung spoke to me as I sat there with my mouth slightly open.

"Three weeks from now, we'll fight over the 'fable core' up there."

Three weeks. The time left until my sub-scenario ended.

"If you win, you'll be able to return to the world line you belonged to. And if I win—"

"I'll be able to revive your comrades."

Why did my heart suddenly start pounding.

"That's right."

"But isn't that way too favorable for you?"

There was no reason for my heart to be pounding. If I accepted that proposal, the ending left for us was decided.

A bloody battle staked on the finale of the world line.

A story where if, by some chance, one side won, the other side had to face a painful tragedy.

And yet I—

"Of course, if we just fight, it's obviously a fight I win. So…"

Looking at her eyes shining brightly, I was naturally picturing the next sentence she would say.

"For the remaining three weeks, I'll teach you everything I have."

Along with a tststst sound, I heard the sound of the world's Plausibility twisting. The Administration Bureau of the 1,863rd round that had been watching every scenario from the sidelines—the 'Dokkaebi King' who had lost interest in the scenario—was moving.

[The sub-scenario details have been updated!]

In the pitch-black night sky, I could see stars faintly opening their eyes.

As if greeting the audience of this world that didn't have much time left, we slowly stood up.

A world of the final scenario. What unfolded before us was vast to the point of being overwhelming, but at the same time only a very small margin.

"I'm afraid."

"But you still want to try, right?"

I couldn't deny it.

Before I could even answer, my heart was answering. Was it because I was a writer, or because I was a reader? I thought it didn't matter.

Only, right now I—

"I think it'll be fun."

I was just thinking that I wanted to see the 'next story'.

The final scenario of the 1,863rd round.

Right here, there were two writers.

But even this time, there was only one story that could be left behind.

"Let's begin."

At the same time, we drew our swords.