[Main Scenario #■■ - ‘Apocalypse Region Expedition’ has ended!]

The main episode ‘apocalypse region’ was cleared. The strange thing was that even though the scenario was cleared, the scenario number still wasn’t unlocked to the end.

Well, considering what happened in there, the Administration Bureau would have a hard time assigning a scenario number, too.

If you took into account that Great Nebulae and myth-grade constellations showed up, and end-of-the-world-grade horrors ran rampant, it honestly wouldn’t have been strange even if the scenario difficulty was in the 70s or beyond.

[Your ‘Apocalypse Region Exploration Rate’ is 300%.]

Not 100%, but 300%.

I infiltrated the end-of-the-world region of the ‘apocalypse region’, joined the ‘Transcendent Alliance’, and even faced the ‘King of Terror’ and fought it.

If they didn’t properly acknowledge that, I’d be the one who felt wronged.

[An ‘Temporary Channel’ is operating in this area.]
[Some constellations are curious about your identity!]

It seemed the constellations couldn’t recognize me right away. Right now, I was wearing the hood I’d received when I crossed over from the 1,863rd round. It was something Han Sooyoung gave me.

「“Use it later before you go. You don’t know what might happen in your world line. It’s an item that makes it hard to identify your identity.”」
「“So you want me to live in hidden-overpowered mode?”」
「“That’s what the constellations find fun, too.”」

As expected of a genius teen girl writer.

In fact, ever since earlier, there was one guy in the air sending indirect messages, curious about my identity.

[Constellation, ‘Owner of White Deer Lake’ is curious about your identity.]

‘Owner of White Deer Lake.’

A nebula came to mind.

But why would a constellation from that ‘nebula’ be on a Temporary Channel?

That question didn’t last long.

Because the Administration Bureau’s message that followed immediately filled my head.

[The Administration Bureau is verifying the clear record for this scenario!]
[The dokkaebis of the Administration Bureau cannot accept your clear as plausible.]
[The Administration Bureau is conducting a full investigation of the scenario.]

Are they trying not to pay me?

With no scenario number assigned, there was a chance they’d use some ridiculous excuse and spit out a lousy reward.

[The Administration Bureau has verified your scenario clear record.]

But what happened that day was known by <Star Stream>, and the constellations remember it.

So many stars participated it was comparable to a ‘Great Fable Scenario’, and just as many stars fell.

I barely survived that vicious scenario.

If they didn’t recognize my contribution here, it wouldn’t just damage the Administration Bureau’s authority—it would damage the Plausibility of <Star Stream> itself.

[<Star Stream> acknowledges your eligibility for rewards.]

As expected. Then the rewards should be coming soon…

[The ‘Returnee Scenario’ that was scheduled to be granted to you is temporarily postponed.]

I looked up at the air with a slightly bewildered feeling.

Not some other scenario—the ‘Returnee Scenario’ was postponed?

The flow of the main story ran through my head. Even Kim Dokja, who had gone to the 1,863rd round, didn’t go through something like this.

[A ‘sponsor dokkaebi’ will be dispatched to you soon.]

A ‘sponsor dokkaebi’ dispatch.

I fell into brief thought, but soon I decided it might actually be for the best. Rather than receiving some half-baked reward, it might be better to request a private meeting with that sponsor dokkaebi and get a proper reward.

Most of all, I had the ‘Demon King of Salvation’ on my side, so it wasn’t like I’d lose in a war of words.

[An temporary scenario is issued to you!]
[Sub Scenario, ‘Familiar Sky’ has begun!]

+

<Sub Scenario – Familiar Sky>
Category: Sub
Difficulty: B
Clear Condition: You are the first survivor after the ‘Apocalypse Region’s End’. Check the scenario situation that progressed while you were gone.
Time Limit: 3 days
Reward: 5 D-Coins
Failure: ―

+

The sub scenario ‘Familiar Sky’.

It was a sub scenario commonly given to incarnations who temporarily traveled to another dimension.

It seemed to mean, until the sponsor dokkaebi was dispatched, do this in the meantime…

But there was one thing that bothered me. It was the reward item.

…D-Coins?

That was when the man walking with me at the entrance of the apocalypse region opened his mouth.

“Um, Benefactor.”

“Yes.”

“My name is Namgung Myeong.”

Come to think of it, we’d been walking together without properly introducing ourselves.

I answered with an awkward smile.

“Ah, you’re from the Namgung Clan.”

Thinking back, I had a small connection with the Namgung Clan.

When the ‘Apocalypse Region Expeditionary Force’ was being assembled, I attended the expedition with the help of Emperor Sword Namgung Jincheon, the head of the Namgung Clan.

At my answer, Namgung Myeong seemed to gain a bit of strength and nodded vigorously.

“Yes. I am the current young clan head of the Namgung Clan. Though now it’s just a name in name only.”

The young clan head of the Namgung Clan. Hearing that made things come to mind.

「“Father! Please save me! Father!”」

A young man of a prestigious household who cried out for his father after being contaminated by an otherworldly fable.

His face was far more weathered than my memory, but the man in front of me seemed to be that Murim man from back then.

Which meant the man in front of me was Emperor Sword Namgung Jincheon’s son.

“Is the Emperor Sword doing well?”

“You know my father?”

How could I not. A greedy old man who advertised a dumpling franchise by selling Heaven-Breaking Sword Saint stories.

“I met him once before.”

Still, back then, the Emperor Sword called in ‘good faith’, so I was able to repair my incarnation body. It was part of business, but it wasn’t like I had no gratitude at all.

I even thought that if I met him again, I should at least buy him dumplings.

“My father passed away a few years ago.”

Unfortunately, those dumplings were now something I could never buy him.

“Th-that… I’m sorry.”

“No. I’m glad to meet someone who remembers my father after so long.”

A faint longing surfaced in Namgung Myeong’s eyes, then disappeared. He quickly composed himself and smiled as he added,

“In any case, this time I received the grace of being saved by you, Great Hero. May I ask your honored name?”

I almost answered “Kim Dokja” out of habit, then paused.

[Constellation, ‘Owner of White Deer Lake’ is paying attention to your answer.]

Come to think of it, the name “Kim Dokja” was already fairly well known even before I entered the apocalypse region.

Since I’d decided to hide my identity, it would be better to watch how things played out for now.

“Actually, I can’t remember. It seems I lost part of my memory while staying in the ‘apocalypse region’.”

Namgung Myeong looked startled, but soon he seemed to accept my words without resistance.

“Oh… you were consumed by horror.”

“That seems to be the case.”

“Well, it’s not anywhere else, it’s the ‘apocalypse region’… I ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) even have a friend who was consumed by horror and faints whenever he sees a white ladder.”

A white ladder? Did they see the ‘Alien Traffic Light’?

“That horror is scary.”

“As expected, Benefactor, you also know about the danger of ‘disaster-grade horror’.”

“Uh… yes.”

If Namgung Myeong learned that I could control that traffic light, what kind of expression would he make?

“If you went through memory loss, then I’m sure you were trapped for a long time in a ‘disaster-grade’ or higher horror.”

Disaster-grade, huh…

I smiled faintly and answered.

“Yes. Something like that.”

“Then you don’t really know what happened inside the apocalypse region, either?”

“I do know the apocalypse region was destroyed, but…”

“Do you also know the King of Terror died?”

“Yes. I know that.”

As if that made things easier to explain, Namgung Myeong nodded.

“Right now, outside, we’re going through hell because of that.”

“It happened inside the apocalypse region—did it affect the outside too?”

“More precisely, it’s the turmoil caused by the ‘shell’ it left behind.”

The ‘shell’ the King of Terror left behind.

Somehow, I felt like I could guess how the situation was unfolding.

“A struggle broke out over the fables of a dead Outer God?”

“That’s right.”

“But most of its fables should’ve disappeared along with the destruction of the apocalypse region.”

“Ah, you felt it too, Benefactor. As you said, it’s known that the larger shells of the ‘King of Terror’ were stolen by Outer Gods on the level of myth-grade on the day the ‘apocalypse region’ was destroyed, but…”

So that’s how what happened that day was being told.

I’d ended up becoming an Outer God on the level of a myth-grade constellation.

“The smaller shell crumbs were scattered throughout the apocalypse region. Since that day, traces of the ‘King of Terror’ have often been found in the appendages of the ‘Nameless Ones’ and ‘Otherworldly Divinities’ that appear in the apocalypse region.”

“Don’t tell me the reason Young Hero Namgung entered the apocalypse region…”

“Yes. That’s right. I’m gathering the ‘crumbs’ of the shells under the corporation’s orders.”

A corporation?

“What is a ‘corporation’? Did something like that get created in <The First Murim>?”

“Ah, Benefactor, you might not know. This is… it’s hard to know where to start explaining. May I ask when you first entered the apocalypse region?”

“Mm, even I don’t have a clear sense of time.”

“That could be. Then do you remember which numbered expeditionary force you joined?”

I searched my memory for a moment.

“I think it was the 191st expeditionary force.”

“191st? My god. Benefactor, you were a survivor from ‘that day’.”

The scenery of ‘that day’ Namgung Myeong referred to rose in my mind.

The day the Great Hall opened, and ‘Tooth Fin’ appeared in the Azure Dragon Castle of <The First Murim>.

Back then, to prevent <The First Murim>’s destruction, I dragged that thing and entered the ‘apocalypse region’.

“Then it makes sense you wouldn’t know. First, to tell you the conclusion.”

Namgung Myeong let out a sigh with a worried face, as if concerned I might be shocked, then added,

“The <The First Murim> you know was destroyed eight years ago.”

*

The destruction of <The First Murim> was an episode that was dealt with several times even in Ways of Survival. Sometimes it was destroyed by a Great Nebula’s invasion, or an Outer God’s intrusion, sometimes it was consumed as a Lower Scenario region of <Emperor>, and sometimes a blood calamity occurred due to a rebellion from a lower Murim.

And in the main story, wasn’t it nearly destroyed by an invasion of Otherworldly Divinities?

So the problem wasn’t the destruction of Murim itself.

“How many years?”

Namgung Myeong answered my stupid-looking question with an awkward expression.

“Eight years.”

Eight years.

To constellations, Otherworldly Divinities, and transcendents of the ‘time strata’, it was a time close to a blink.

But if you used the ‘Main Scenario’ of the ‘main story’ as the standard, it became different.

It felt like my head was going blank.

In the main story, Kim Dokja had disappeared from the Main Scenario for three years at a time, but there was never a single time he vanished for as long as eight years.

「What happened to all the companions.」

My heart beat dangerously.

[Exclusive Skill, ‘Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint’ activates!]

If even a single person was thinking of me right now, I could connect with them.

But even after activating [Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint], there wasn’t a single person I could reach. That meant no one was thinking about me.

Eight years was that kind of time.

「The feeling of being left alone in the vast universe.」

Like someone plucked my existence right out of the center of the story and threw it into a barren empty field.

The first goal after returning was naturally decided in that moment.

「I have to meet the companions again. I have to hear what happened.」

The problem was if that ‘goal’ couldn’t be achieved.

「What if it isn’t that they aren’t thinking of me, but that they can’t think of me?」

I bit down hard on my lip and thought. It still wasn’t time to make such a dreadful assumption.

It’s fine even if no one thinks of me. Even if [Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint] doesn’t activate, at least for one person, there was a way to connect directly.

[Item, ‘Midday Rendezvous’ is used!]

Once, I had connected a direct line with Yoo Joonghyuk through ‘Midday Rendezvous’. If that bastard was alive, the line would definitely respond.

A moment later, a message rose before my eyes.