[■■■ Company].

Whether the word that should go into that ■■■ was Kim Dokja, or the name of someone you must not call, or literally three squares blacked out, there was still no way to know anything yet.

However, there was also something certain.

In this insane worldview, the people who would build a company with a name like that were decided.

“Readers.”

Killer King, Cha Yerin, Gyeong Sein, Ji Eunyu, Ye Hyeonwoo, Uncle Dansoo……

All of them, or at least one of them, I could definitely meet if I went to that company. I was sure of it.

[Summoning to the screening platform has been completed.]

The summoning was completed along with dazzling rays of light.

So this is the “screening platform.”

When I slowly looked around, the scenery of a stark-white room came into view at a glance.

A room that looked about the size of a typical athletic field.

Around the outer edge of the screening platform, all sorts of weapons and martial gear were on display. In particular, the quality of the martial gear displayed in the front row was quite good.

If they were investing this much coin into mere display equipment, was “New Murim Earth” a fairly wealthy city?

—High-grade D Sword.
—High-grade D Blade.
—High-grade D Spear.

Strangely, every item name had a D attached to it.

Come to think of it, the coins I received when entering here also had a “D” attached.

I took out the coin I’d received as a scenario reward.

+

<Item Information>

Name: D Coin

Grade: ???

Description: A special currency distributed in “New Murim Earth.” It holds relatively greater value compared to normal coins. There is a rumor that it contains tales of “Otherworldly Divinities” found in places like the “apocalypse region,” and sometimes unrefined “horror” can seep into it, so use caution when handling it.

+

It was a simple description. A high-value currency handled in this region.

By the way, Otherworldly Divinities……

No wonder the moment I held the coin, I felt an unpleasant sensation, like touching the skin of an unfamiliar living creature.

[The ‘D Coin’ resonates with your tale.]

In an instant, the coin slapped onto my palm like a leech. Startled, I immediately unsummoned the coin.

Maybe it was because I’d returned to a scenario after eight years, but I couldn’t adapt to anything at all, from the currency to the scenario region.

If I could at least get in touch with the First, I could ask for help, but it didn’t seem like the inside of [Fourth Wall] was in a situation like that, either.

I need to meet the readers quickly.

“Is anyone here?”

Near the screening platform, there wasn’t a single sign of anyone besides me.

Why is there no one? Is this also an automated system?

I thought about just walking out, but Namgung Myeong’s advice—telling me I absolutely had to choose a corporation—came to mind.

Let’s wait a little longer.

I took out [Unbreakable Conviction] and began lightly loosening up my body. Maybe because it was a Murim region, the amount of magic imbued in the air was quite abundant.

[Exclusive Attribute, ‘Circulatory Body’ is activated!]

I lightly drew sword lines left and right.

Although I couldn’t become a Transcendent, after entering the ‘Transcendent Alliance’ and going through the 1,863rd round, my swordsmanship truly improved by leaps and bounds. The linkage between [Wind’s Path] and [White Azure Qi] became much more natural, and my understanding of the people inside [Bookmark] also became far deeper than before.

Honestly, right now, it felt like I wouldn’t lose no matter which incarnation I fought, as long as it wasn’t Yoo Joonghyuk.

“Hm?”

It was then that I discovered a sword mark drawn in the center of the training ground.

A sword mark that had torn the solid training ground floor in a long diagonal line.

“It’s a Transcendent’s martial arts.”

There was no doubt. Judging by the floor’s hardness and the depth of the sword mark, it was a powerful Transcendent who had reached at least Transcendent-type Stage 3 or higher.

The faces of the Transcendent Alliance flashed through my head quickly.

Could one of them have visited this place?

But the sword mark wasn’t Cheok Jun-gyeong’s [Three Sword Forms], nor Kyrioos’s [White Azure Qi]. At a glance, I wondered if it was [Heaven-Breaking Sword Art], but when I looked closely, it had different characteristics than that, too.

There was something else strange. The moment I examined the shape of the sword mark, my heart gave a light lurch. I can’t express it well, but it felt like the swordsman who left this mark swung a sword in the midst of extreme sorrow.

“Huh? Who is it?”

A human voice came from the entrance outside the screening platform. What entered through the entrance was a middle-aged person wearing somewhat baggy clothes.

Finally, someone showed up.

It seemed that middle-aged person was the “screening officer.”

“Who are you, young hero?”

“I’m someone who came to be screened.”

“Alone?”

“Yes.”

The middle-aged person, as if troubled, checked something on a terminal pulled from inside their clothes, then said,

“That’s strange. It shouldn’t be the ascension season for Lower Scenarios yet.”

What kind of baseless term is ascension season now?

“How did you come here?”

“I walked here.”

“Hm?”

“I just walked into the city, and I got summoned here.”

The middle-aged person, hearing my answer with a blank face, suddenly bellowed.

“You bastard! Don’t lie! How could someone who walked into the city get summoned to the screening platform!”

“It happened, though?”

The middle-aged person looked extremely flustered. After rolling their eyes around while examining me for a moment, I felt their lips mutter softly.

I can roughly tell what they’re trying to do.

[Someone has activated ‘Precise Search’!]

But there was no way they could infer my identity with a skill like that.

[Exclusive Skill, ‘Fourth Wall’ is activating!]

With a light spark, the screening officer who had been looking at me was shocked and staggered back.

“Th-this—”

Then they widened their eyes and began inspecting my entire body. Probably not a “discern” type skill, but trying to read my level through sensing energy.

But it would be useless.

The “hood” I was wearing was something I brought from the last scenario region.

[Your level is concealed by the effect of the Item, ‘Unknown Hood’.]

The screening officer looked at me with ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) a confused expression, then suddenly switched to polite speech.

“Young hero, could you perhaps be from a ‘Great Nebula’?”

A “Great Nebula.”

Come to think of it, together with the other readers, I once made a small nebula in the ‘Recycling Center.’

“I’m not from a Great Nebula.”

“And yet… no, wait just a moment.”

So the moment I say I’m not from a Great Nebula, the tone changes right away.

While the screening officer rummaged through a bundle of electronic documents, I lightly activated a skill toward the screening officer in front of me.

[Exclusive Skill, ‘Character List’ activates!]

+

<Character Information>

Name: Jeon Yeongwoo

Age: 231

Backer Constellation: None (There are currently no constellations taking interest in him).

…….

+

For a moment, I doubted my eyes.

It had been a while since I’d seen an ordinary incarnation over a hundred years old.

Did they go into a ‘time stratum’ or something?

+

Exclusive Attributes: Grade-2 Screening Officer (Rare), Cyborg (Rare), Lobbying Specialist (Rare)……
Exclusive Skills: [Heartless Sword Art Lv.10]……
Overall Stats: [Stamina Lv.67], [Strength Lv.88], [Agility Lv.84], [Magic Power Lv.68]
Overall Evaluation: Jeon Yeongwoo is a screening officer of “New Murim” equipped with a ‘Lower Otherworldly-God Prosthetic Body’. Having traded with the major corporations of “New Murim” for a long time, Jeon Yeongwoo maintains close connections with manager-level personnel of the corporations.

+

“Otherworldly-God prosthetic body. Cyborg. So that’s why the lifespan was long.”

Come to think of it, a large number of incarnations of a similar type had appeared in ‘Ways of Survival’ as well.

Was it the 1,500s?

I skimmed it in speed-reading, so my memory wasn’t clear, but there had been a time when part of a scenario region was occupied by a group called a “company.”

The Murim world including <First Murim>, the demon beast world, medieval fantasy worldviews including “Peaceland,” and even SF worldviews.

「The appearance of a ‘company’ that governs mid-tier scenario regions where incarnations live en masse.」

Perhaps those “companies” were exactly the “corporations” I’d just seen earlier.

And this screening officer……

“Hmm, are you really someone who came up without knowing anything? It’s been a while since I’ve had a case like this.”

They were, in a sense, a “new recruit training handler,” tasked with the role of measuring incarnations’ abilities and handing them over to corporations.

“So it looks like people normally don’t come in by walking like I did?”

“The screening platform only summons incarnations who came up from a Lower Scenario through the [Ascension Path]. Simply walking into the city won’t get you summoned to this ‘screening platform’.”

So that’s the principle.

“Usually, ‘screening’ is conducted according to the seasonal quarter of the Lower Scenarios. This season already ended a few months ago, so I thought there wouldn’t be any new recruits for a while, but……”

So this “screening platform” was, in the end, a kind of primary filter that receives new recruits who rise to “New Murim Earth” through something called the [Ascension Path] from the Lower Scenarios.

“If you were summoned to the ‘screening platform’ alone at a time like this, it’s usually one of two things. Either you’re an ‘Exile’ who left the scenario for a long time……”

The screening officer, who had been staring into me with deep eyes, continued.

“Or you’re an unknown powerhouse who suddenly underwent a ‘Scenario Leap’ from an unknown scenario. Which one are you?”

I hesitated for a moment, then asked.

“If I don’t answer properly, is there a disadvantage?”

“Heh heh, what an interesting new recruit. You’ve got a lot of nerve.”

“For now, I’m not an Exile.”

“That seems right. If you were from an Exile background, your incarnation body should’ve already been stained by the Backlash of Plausibility.”

Were there quite a few Exiles who had infiltrated scenarios?

The screening officer seemed to know the characteristics of Exiles well, too.

“Then that means you’re from a Lower Scenario… but there are parts that don’t sit right if I just believe that.”

“Which parts?”

“Normally, when you’re summoned here from a Lower Scenario, you can’t endure the narrative pressure of a high-tier scenario, so you end up struggling even to breathe, but you’re very relaxed, aren’t you?”

It was true that the density of tales I felt in the air was different. But compared to the tale density I’d experienced in the apocalypse region, this level of pressure was child’s play.

“Even if you walked all the way here, you must have a last-cleared scenario. What was the last scenario number?”

Which scenario number was it last.

The last scenario I carried out was the “apocalypse region,” but the apocalypse region didn’t have a scenario number attached to it.

Then do I have to count back from the ‘Recycling Center’ before that?

“About Scenario 20… I think.”

The screening officer’s eyes widened when they heard my words.

“That can’t be! Do you know what number scenario this place is?”

I nodded. Even if I didn’t ask, there had been a message sparkling over my head this whole time.

[You are currently in the region of ‘Scenario 70’.]
[A Main Scenario will be assigned soon.]

Scenario 70.

A number at a level where it wouldn’t be strange even if a “Great Fable Scenario” occurred in a gigantic nebula.

At this point, I understood the screening officer’s shock. Even if you searched through both the “main story” and “Ways of Survival,” there wasn’t a single incarnation who suddenly leapt fifty scenarios at once.

“Did you perhaps receive the blessing of a tale-grade, or even myth-grade constellation?”

“Um, I feel like something like that might have happened.”

“Did you receive instruction from a Transcendent of the Transcendent Alliance, or are you their prized disciple?”

If you’re being strict, I am a disciple, but I didn’t receive instruction in their martial arts.

Strictly speaking, I didn’t learn martial arts from them—I’m a thief who stole it with [Bookmark].

“Huh… Either way, it’s astonishing. Honestly, the level I feel from you isn’t that great, but……”

After saying that, the screening officer smacked their lips and began sending messages somewhere. Judging from it, it seemed like they were sending messages to “corporations.”

Watching that scene, a familiar cliche came to mind.

This is that thing.

The “rank measurement episode” you often see in hunter stories.

This was the exact cliche that hunters who returned from an “otherworld” or an “unmeasurable rank” dungeon go through when they visit the Hunter Association.

Usually around now, a character A who looks down on me should appear.

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

Unfortunately, there was no sign of anything like that.

While I was thinking about whether I should keep maintaining “hidden-overpowered mode” again, or whether it would be better to start revealing my level a little, the screening officer said something unexpected.

“Well, I’d really like to measure your level at least once, young hero, but unfortunately, the measuring device is broken right now. Last time, an incarnation that got summoned wrecked even all the spare measuring devices.”

Honestly, from my standpoint, it wasn’t a bad situation. It meant I got a reasonable excuse to hide my strength.

However, I was a little curious who that incarnation was, the one who wrecked every last spare “measuring device.”

Without thinking, I glanced over the floor of the screening platform.

Could the owner of that “sword mark” be that incarnation?

“If it were manager-level personnel, they could tell your level even without a measuring device, but……”

After hesitating for a moment, the screening officer seemed to make a decision and gestured to me.

“Well, rather, this works out. Come with me for a bit.”

“Where are we going?”

“Today, near here, there’s an ‘Ascension Ceremony’ for corporate executives scheduled.”

“An Ascension Ceremony?”

“Simply put, it’s the day the executives go up to the ‘next scenario’ region. Normally, an event like this is something a new recruit like you can’t attend, but……”

If they were executives, that probably meant beings who carried important duties in the corporation.

“Since it’s admirable you came all the way here alone, I’ll make a special exception and take you along.”

I stared for a moment at the screening officer, who was smiling with a brazen face as if bestowing some great kindness.

There was no reason for a screening officer I’d met for the first time today to suddenly show me goodwill, so their purpose was clear.

「Some of the corporations they just contacted want to make contact with me.」

In other words, this bastard was currently plotting to sell me off to corporations in real time.

Did they judge that I was that valuable?

[Your understanding of the character, ‘Lobbying Specialist Jeon Yeongwoo’, has increased!]

If I wasn’t careful, I was going to get sold off to the rulers of this region the moment the scenario started.

If I wanted to wisely maintain “hidden-overpowered mode,” the right move would be to quietly slip away around now, but I, too, happened to be getting curious.

Just how strong were the key figures of this “scenario region.” And just how strong had I become now.

It was then that a strange tale got tangled in my energy sense.

“Screening Officer.”

I stopped walking and asked while staring at the entrance outside the screening platform.

“Is it possible to know who the ‘executive’ ascending today is?”

The owner of a tale I knew very well was definitely beyond that.