Everyone has a passage from a story they like.

「Because ‘I’, in the end, am made up of things that aren’t me.」

That sentence appears in Episode 252 of the main story.

A scene where Kim Dokja gets swept up in the “Real Kim Dokja” scenario and proves himself.

When asked to pick a “favorite scene,” Gyeong Sein always picked that scene. Even if no one else picked it as a famous scene or a famous line, at least that scene alone, he picked as a famous scene.

Sometimes, when he looked at that one-and-only famous scene that had received only a single vote, Gyeong Sein thought that scene felt like it had been written only for him.

Why did he like that scene so much?

「“Hey, bug.”」

Was it because he’d been short since he was little?

「“Aren’t you answering?”」

Or because of the friends who bullied him for being pale and skinny?

「“Hey, hey, stop messing with Minwoo. You want to get suspended again?”」

Or maybe it was because he wanted to believe that all the realities around him weren’t “real.”

「On the other side of countless ‘Kim Dokja’s running away, there was a man who knew the ‘Real Kim Dokja’.」

Gyeong Sein chewed on that episode for a long time, and even wrote it down somewhere.

He just liked that scene.

He couldn’t express it well, but at least, the Kim Dokja in that scene felt like he was talking to him.

That no one knew who the real you was. That the only one who knew was you.

That was why Gyeong Sein, who rarely read books, read that story to the end.

He didn’t read it as desperately as Kim Dokja read Ways of Survival, but it was still clearly the novel he had read the hardest in his life.

After reading it all once, he picked out the parts he liked and read it once more, and he even left comments he normally never left.

—Jeong Heewon is my type.

That was probably the first comment he ever left on the internet.

A voice he threw into the world for the first time, when he’d become afraid even to step outside his front door.

And that one line, maybe, changed his world.

—Wanna come to our community?

People who took interest in his comment replied, and invited him to a fan community.

—But is you always leaving Jeong Heewon comments your concept or what?

In that community, Gyeong Sein could talk with people about the novel he liked. He learned how to debate and share opinions.

—But if you’re doing concept comments you gotta make them funny.

Maybe countless Kim Dokjas taught him. How to speak while being considerate of someone. How to handle your gaze when you talk. Even how to listen carefully to someone’s words before you speak.

—And before you drop a line, read some other comments too.

The readers there taught him the obvious things his parents and teachers never taught him.

Maybe that was when he started exercising, too.

Then, strangely, his body started getting bigger. Every time he did a push-up, every time he did a squat, muscle started to build.

As his build grew, the friends who used to bully him naturally disappeared.

Was that tiny miracle too fascinating?

After that, Gyeong Sein posted muscle photos in the fan community every day, and wrote a line of the day. It was his own way of surviving a life stained with small tragedies.

“Do you think he’s alive?”

And now, by his side were companions who had survived in their own ways.

“Of course he’s alive.”

Uncle Dansoo, weak-willed but warm-hearted.

“Don’t worry. If he was in danger, there’s no way he wouldn’t have contacted me.”

Killer King Cha Sungwoo, brimming with an inexplicable confidence.

“He’s alive.”

Cha Yerin, blunt, but cherishing her companions more than anyone.

“A new scenario will open soon. Let’s prepare in advance before Dokja comes.”

Ye Hyeonwoo, calmly preparing for the future more than anyone.

Even though they had been possessed into a novel and become people who could die at any time, he still thought it would be okay as long as he had companions.

They just had to read the end of this world together again.

That’s what he believed.

「Until the day the ‘Great Hole’ opened.」

The day the ‘Great Hole’ opened in the sky and ‘Nameless Things’ poured out from within it. The day the incarnations of the Korean Peninsula were exterminated amid screams.

The day great Outer Gods they couldn’t even imagine looked down upon Earth.

Maybe on that day, Gyeong Sein’s world ended once.

The despair that they would never be able to see the end of the scenario. The fear that this world wasn’t the Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint they knew.

“Dokja-ssi is—”

Everyone cried out a single name.

They knew he wasn’t the ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ Kim Dokja they had known. Even so, they believed that if it were that “Kim Dokja” they knew, he could solve this situation.

Tztztztztzt—.

And then one day, a backlash swept across the scenario’s firmament. A meteor fell from the sky.

“The protagonist came back.”

In a voice like he was possessed by something, Killer King said that. It was a truly strange thing to say. If Kim Dokja came back, he would have said Kim Dokja came back, or that guy came back.

But Killer King said it like this.

The protagonist came back.

Behind that Killer King, someone was standing.

「Kim Dokja was there.」

The face, the expression, the clothes he was wearing, unmistakably Kim Dokja.

But at that moment, Gyeong Sein could know. The sentence he had liked was telling him.

The Kim Dokja standing in front of him right now—

“My name is.”

Wasn’t the Kim Dokja they had been waiting for.

“■■■.”

*

With a deep exhale, Gyeong Sein woke up from sleep. His back was damp, as if he’d poured out an unbelievable amount of cold sweat.

It was all a dream. A dream from a distant time, when it was still okay for Kim Dokja to be called Kim Dokja.

“Ah.”

Gyeong Sein stared blankly up at the air, then opened the notebook in his arms. It was a notebook he opened whenever he wanted to write something. On top of the notebook, which he hadn’t opened in a long time, there was crooked handwriting left behind.

I am

In the end

Not me

The sentence he used to like now had only fragments left. What the original form of that sentence was, what kind of sentence it originally was, Gyeong Sein couldn’t recall.

Now, the story he liked no longer existed in this world.

「“Sein-ssi.”」

Kim Dokja, with a pale-white face. The protagonist who had calmly solved every scenario after that, perfectly, said to him.

「“Stay here.”」

「“W-why, why can’t I?”」

He knew he was lacking. He knew his attribute was more ordinary than the others, and his skill proficiency was lower.

He trained and trained because he wanted to become a tank like Lee Hyunsung, but he still knew he couldn’t even follow half of half of Lee Hyunsung.

Even so, he worked hard.

He believed that if he worked hard, someone would definitely recognize him.

「“We need someone to protect this place.”」

There were stories like that in the world.

Like his muscle verification posts that were especially unpopular, there were stories that, no matter how hard you wrote them, hardly anyone read.

「“Why are you saying that? You—”」

He knew why Kim Dokja was trying to make him stay here.

It was because he was weak. Because he wasn’t helpful to the party.

But if it was going to be like that, he wanted him to say it honestly. He didn’t want to be abandoned miserably like this.

「“I can do it too.”」

So Gyeong Sein said.

Like leaving a comment on a story that had changed, he said it clearly.

「“The Kim Dokja I know doesn’t talk like you. You—”」

Maybe he knew he shouldn’t say it, but he still said it in the end.

「“You aren’t the Kim Dokja I remember.”」

The next moment, he was standing on a white snowfield.

In the flurries that covered everything, he, the protagonist, ■■■, said,

「“That’s right. Because I have no intention of becoming like that existence.”」

A pale-white hand slowly approached.

「“Who are you, then?”」

Gyeong Sein was afraid of the being in front of him. He was afraid of the protagonist who was too different from his memories, this man who called himself Kim Dokja.

「“Someone called me ‘Snowfield Kim Dokja.’”」

A cold hand touched his forehead. His head felt like it was getting tangled up, and then he felt as if something was being sucked out of him. He felt as if something he considered very precious was moving away from him.

And a moment later, he took his hand away.

「“Not all fragments are useful…… if so, even if I gather one hundred percent……”」

An unknown mutter.

With his strength gone, Gyeong Sein slowly dropped to his knees. He didn’t know what had been done to him. But the moment that hand touched his forehead, he felt as if something like his essence had been twisted together.

He was no longer the Gyeong Sein of before. Soon, vicious cold swept in.

「“I’ll say it again. Stay here, Sein-ssi. You don’t need to go to the next scenario.”」

In the biting cold, Gyeong Sein nodded.

「“From now on, your purpose of existence is only one thing.”」

Suddenly, a single talisman approached before his eyes. A transmission talisman. An item that sent a message from a lower scenario to a higher scenario.

「“Someday, ‘he’ will appear in the scenario again. At that time, tear this paper.”」

Gyeong Sein nodded helplessly.

「“If you complete just this mission, after all scenarios end, I will send Gyeong Sein-ssi back to the original world.”」

Gyeong Sein slowly flipped through the notebook. At the end of that notebook, the transmission talisman he received that day was tucked in.

When he slowly picked up the transmission talisman, a memo that had been hidden behind the talisman came into view.

「Real Kim Dokja.」

That squint-eyed gaze he had missed so much. The unique expression that smiled as if he knew it would be like this.

When he recalled that face, Gyeong Sein felt like he could burst into tears at any moment.

“Why, exactly…….”

A person he had once waited for more than anyone.

But now.

“Inho-ssi, why did you appear now.”

A person he wished more than anyone would not appear.

“It’s too late now. I’m saying we can’t change anything.”

Gyeong Sein slowly lifted the paper.

He just had to tear this. Tear this, and just let him know the truth, and his mission would end.

His story ends here.

Gyeong Sein fidgeted with the transmission talisman over and over with trembling hands, then let out a deep sigh. Then, biting his lip tightly, he neatly folded the transmission talisman again and tucked it into the notebook.

‘I know that nothing can be changed.’

Even if he returned now, nothing would change.

Now the scenario couldn’t be turned back. That ‘being’ who had taken Kim Dokja’s name had built a great standing that not even the constellations of those Great Nebulae could dare approach, and the world was facing its end.

Even so.

“There isn’t a scene like this…….”

Gyeong Sein staggered as he stood up. He had to meet him again. Meet him and tell him. To leave this city immediately. That he must not go up to the higher scenario. He had to tell him that.

Kugugugugu!

A sudden seismic wave. The house shook precariously.

“Executive!”

Namgung Myeong, who rushed in after opening the door, was pale.

When Gyeong Sein nodded and stepped outside, a group of incarnations had gathered in front of the manor.

“Is this the place?”

“Definitely. I heard that guy got hired here.”

“He’s a crazy bastard. Out of all the corporations, of all things…….”

The moment he saw them, he realized.

<Veda Biotech>.

Incarnations of a major corporation.

“Be careful. They say the supervisor of <Tamla Heavy Industries> got done in by him.”

“That’s because their supervisor was pathetic.”

“Oh, looks like you came out.”

At Gyeong Sein’s presence, the incarnations’ gazes focused.

Gyeong Sein drew a light breath in and opened his mouth.

“Great heroes, what brings you all the way here?”

“Hmph, you going to play dumb?”

Even if it was a minor corporation, Gyeong Sein was still an executive of a corporation. But in their attitude, he couldn’t feel even the slightest respect for an executive. At that rudeness, the Heaven-Breaking Divine Lord, which had been lying on the porch, growled and got up.

A man who looked like a supervisor of <Veda Biotech> stepped forward and said,

“Hand over the D-coins you bastards took.”

“What are you talking about?”

Gyeong Sein couldn’t understand what he meant.

“You’re not thinking of playing dumb, are you? The D-coins you bastards got by using a bug in the daytime! Because of that, we couldn’t receive the ranking reward!”

“I don’t know what you mean, but I think there’s a misunderstanding.”

“Looks like you can’t understand what I’m saying.”

The one who said that was a man standing toward the back of the group.

As the man slowly walked forward, the incarnations around split like waves. The moment he confirmed the standing rising from the man’s entire body, Gyeong Sein swallowed without realizing it.

‘Executive-class.’

There was no mistake. The being in front of him was an ‘executive’ of <Veda Biotech>.

A being with high synchronization with a “fable-grade backing constellation,” or a being whose own standing was close to the early stage of fable-grade.

In his current condition, he couldn’t fight this enemy even if he died and came back.

“Why would an executive of Veda…….”

“At today’s auction house, our corporation’s employee suffered damages from your corporation’s employee. We demand compensation for damages.”

As expected.

Gyeong Sein hardened his expression and asked.

“If it’s compensation, then how much……?”

“50,000 D-coins.”

Gyeong Sein opened his mouth at that unrealistic amount.

Why they were demanding that many D-coins as “compensation,” what kind of “damage” you would have to suffer for that much “compensation” to occur, he couldn’t imagine at all.

Was that why?

“Why are you laughing?”

Gyeong Sein started grinning. The snicker soon became loud laughter, then manic laughter.

“I asked why you are laughing.”

Gyeong Sein couldn’t explain why he was laughing either. Even knowing that this laughter might drive him toward death, he couldn’t stop.

A strange déjà vu kept surging up. A premonition that something big was about to happen.

He knew exactly what this feeling was.

“Because I feel strangely nostalgic.”

Even if this was nothing more than a futile expectation, it was enough just to feel this sensation once more.

“If I laugh just one more time—”

“Does a person need a reason to laugh?”

The one who said that wasn’t Gyeong Sein.

Since when was he there? A man was standing on top of the house’s fence.

“You’re laughing because what you said is funny.”

A man with a squint-eyed smile that Gyeong Sein knew all too well.

—Inho-ssi.

Gyeong Sein stopped laughing and sent [Voice Transmission].

—Run right now. You have to get out of this city.

But the man lightly jumped down from the fence and landed by his side.

He could see the incarnations in front exchanging whispers.

“That’s him.”

“Yeah?”

The executive slowly raised his right hand.

“Dispose of him.”

And a terrifying tidal wave of fable standing covered the area. A bombardment from a fable-grade being that gave no time to react.

Gyeong Sein screamed and stepped forward.

But there was a back that blocked him first. Astonishingly, the owner of that back was taking the executive-class bombardment very lightly.

Cries from the horrified executive and employees.

Without turning back, the man said.

“Don’t worry, Sein-ssi.”

It was definitely the back he remembered. Even so, the moment he saw him up close, Gyeong Sein flinched.

Sword scars that even an automatically restored ‘Infinite-Dimensional Subspace Coat’ couldn’t fix. Countless wounds remained on his coat.

“It’s been eight years.”

Only then did Gyeong Sein realize.

Just as eight years had passed for them, the man in front of him had also lived through eight years somewhere and endured them. And at last, he returned to this story.

“Now, I’m pretty strong.”

The protagonist’s expression he had liked was there.