A light spark flickered in the air. Then, a playful true-word rang out.

【Since when did you know?】

It felt like space was opening, and a stranger wearing the same “white fox mask” as me appeared before my eyes.

Even though “recognition interference” was in effect, the moment I felt the class emanating from his entire body, I could be sure.

【Since the moment you started pulling pranks with a ‘white fox mask’ like that.】

Heavenly Flying Fox King Wei Long.

The owner who had created this secret subspace was right in front of me.

【Interesting. You already noticed back there?】

【It’s strange, isn’t it? I entered a space you made, and then, as if you’d been waiting, ‘that kind of mask’ popped up as an option for me.】

【Right. Do you like the mask I gave you?】

I looked at the Heavenly Flying Fox, who was spinning his words around. Maybe because he was a high-ranked recorder, there was no record leaking out of him like the other recorders.

That must mean he was controlling himself perfectly.

I decided to throw a stone that would send ripples through that quiet mask.

【Since when have you been interfering with my [Fate]?】

The Heavenly Flying Fox paused as if startled for a moment, then answered in a brazen voice.

【What are you talking about? Even for me, it’d be difficult to interfere with your [Fate] without you noticing.】

That was true. If he had interfered directly with my [Fate], there was no way I wouldn’t have noticed the context around me changing. But—

【If you control other people’s [Fate] instead of mine, it’s a different story.】

What if the sentence he wrote wasn’t about me?

From the moment the “Unchanging One,” who heard the Heavenly Flying Fox’s true name, collapsed, until the moment I entered this room—did all of that really hold together by relying on “coincidence”?

Instead of answering, the Heavenly Flying Fox let out a light laugh, then added in a rather serious ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) voice.

【Still, thanks to that, didn’t you have an enjoyable meeting?】

I glared at him for a moment.

Maybe even the fact that I met Cloud Mountain here was a story written in his record.

【Is Cloud Mountain the person I think she is?】

【Would confirming that here have any meaning?】

【Why did you lead me here?】

Even if I was happy to meet that person again, even just for a moment, I also thought it shouldn’t have turned out like this.

【Is there something you want to pry out of me? Are you still curious about the tomato story?】

【Calm down. I didn’t call you here with any particularly bad purpose.】

A mysterious light began to flow from the eyes of the white fox mask.

【Now that you’ve become a ‘recorder’ too, it’s about time you received a proper epithet.】

At the same time, a message rang out in the air.

[A Horror Recorder, ‘One Who Creates Nicknames,’ smiles.]

I flinched and looked around.

But it didn’t seem like there was another Horror Recorder here besides the Heavenly Flying Fox.

Then that name, “One Who Creates Nicknames,” must be another epithet of the Heavenly Flying Fox.

Thinking about it, it wasn’t strange.

He was the person who wrote 『The Strongest 100』, the in-story book within Ways of Survival. The historian who personally gave countless characters their nicknames was him.

【So you’re going to make an epithet for me as a recorder.】

【That’s right.】

【Do you create all the epithets for new recorders?】

【Most of them.】

The Heavenly Flying Fox’s mask curved into a smile.

I stared quietly at that smile and said,

【I have no intention of being trapped inside the ‘context of epithets’ you created.】

Every “name” that exists in <Star Stream> has a tale dwelling in it. That tale grows along with the existence, becomes a Fate, and soon becomes an important indicator that determines that existence.

Meaning—

【Isn’t your plan to assign me a [Fate] that way?】

In <Star Stream>, an epithet is, in other words, that existence’s Fate.

【I figured you’d come out like this. But if we’re being strict, this isn’t an ‘epithet’ that I assign. I’m merely choosing a fragment of a tale that suits you.】

I knew what the Heavenly Flying Fox meant. Both he and I were just recorders of this <Star Stream>. And the one who completes a record isn’t the one who writes it, but the one who reads it.

【The one who grants you power isn’t me—】

【It’ll be <Star Stream>.】

A series of epithets floated up before my eyes.

+

1. Scribe of the End.

3. Knight of Salvation (Recorder).

4. Witness of Infinity.

+

Looks like those three were the epithet candidates.

When I stayed silent for a long time, the Heavenly Flying Fox asked,

【Is there nothing you like?】

All three were names that described some aspect of me.

【If there’s no name you like, there’s also a way for you to make one yourself.】

I make my own name.

Was that even possible?

【But in that case, it’ll be hard for you to properly receive the blessing placed on the name. <Star Stream> is originally harsh toward existences that try to change their own Fate.】

【Can I put off choosing an epithet for a bit?】

【Do you have some other urgent matter?】

Even while listening to the Heavenly Flying Fox, my head was busy with what was happening in the scenario outside.

If the information I heard from Cloud Mountain was true, now wasn’t the time for me to be leisurely choosing a name here.

The Heavenly Flying Fox studied me closely, then asked as if tossing it out.

【Is it because of the Radiant Sword Emperor.】

As expected, it was difficult to hide my true thoughts in front of a high-ranked recorder.

When I nodded, the Heavenly Flying Fox said,

【Even if you go to her now, it’ll be too late. The stars of the Great Nebulae have started chasing that child.】

I already knew the Radiant Sword Emperor was in an urgent situation. What I was curious about was how he could grasp the Radiant Sword Emperor’s situation in such detail.

【Heavenly Flying Fox. Just how far are you ‘recording’?】

No matter how high-ranked a recorder was, they couldn’t be watching every scenario.

If he was paying attention to the Radiant Sword Emperor, a mere incarnation, then what that implied was clear.

【Were you the one who gave her the nickname Radiant Sword Emperor too?】

【She’s a character who will put her name on 『The Strongest 100』 in this world-line.】

I hurriedly looked around. I had to leave right now. A tale being watched by none other than the Heavenly Flying Fox.

「A serious crisis will soon come for the Radiant Sword Emperor.」

It meant a story a recorder would covet was about to begin.

【I have to go.】

【I told you. Even if you go now, it’s too late.】

I was already eight years too late. Even if I became even later here, I couldn’t not go just because I was late.

The Heavenly Flying Fox quietly examined me, then said,

【There is one way for you to not be late.】

I asked, measuring what he meant.

【Do you know the Radiant Sword Emperor’s exact location?】

【Is that all?】

In that instant, I realized something.

The Heavenly Flying Fox was saying this. If I accepted his proposal, he would tell me how to save the Radiant Sword Emperor.

【What do you want?】

【Good. You’re quick.】

Since we had just been talking about “epithets,” maybe the condition of the trade would be that I choose one of the epithets he had made.

But the Heavenly Flying Fox’s proposal was unexpected.

【Read the tale record I wrote. Then I’ll tell you how to save the Radiant Sword Emperor.】

【You want me to read a record?】

Under normal circumstances, I would have accepted gladly. Even if it wasn’t his request, a record written by a high-ranked recorder was worth reading.

The problem was timing. Right now wasn’t the time for me to leisurely read a record he wrote.

【Didn’t you want to know where the Radiant Sword Emperor ‘is right now’?】

The moment I heard that, I felt strange.

Where is she right now.

The Heavenly Flying Fox wasn’t simply talking about the Radiant Sword Emperor’s “spacetime coordinates.”

「To properly understand someone’s situation, you ultimately have to understand that person’s history.」

The Heavenly Flying Fox was speaking.

【If you want to ‘properly save her,’ shouldn’t you start by understanding why she came to ‘New Murim Earth’ in the first place?】

Maybe this was the Heavenly Flying Fox’s trap. Maybe he was using the fact that I was a “Kim Dokja fragment” to set up some kind of scheme.

【All right.】

Even so, I had no choice. Maybe it was because, even before I was a writer, I was a reader.

【Show me.】

【Good thinking.】

As the Heavenly Flying Fox nodded readily, a dazzling sentence began to float up in the air.

「This is a story about a certain madness.」

Record viewing began.

*

With rough breathing, the tale scattered. Was it because of the wounds from the earlier clash? The skull mask covering her face clattered. She had to find somewhere to hide.

“Find her! She’s nearby!”

Hidden deeper inside an abandoned building, the Radiant Sword Emperor repeated her breathing.

[An exclusive attribute, ‘Undying Body’ power manifests!]

If it weren’t for the power of “Undying Body” that she inherited from her master, it wouldn’t have been strange for her to have collapsed long ago.

But even with that level of ability, dealing with the enemies chasing her now wasn’t easy.

[Constellations of the Great Nebula, <Olympus>, are tracking you!]
[Constellations of the Great Nebula, <Veda>, are tracking you!]

To make matters worse, even the recovery ability of “Undying Body” was being restrained.

[Your incarnation body is currently in a poisoned state.]

Maybe the blow she took earlier had poison seeping into it. The vitality of “Undying Body” was fighting the poison, but resisting them in this state would be courting a dog’s death.

[A ‘Horror Recorder’ cheering for <Olympus Technology> is looking for you.]

More than anything, there were “recorders” attached to them, too. Bastards who arbitrarily judged other people’s [Fate].

‘Are my choices two?’

Either close her eyes tight, use the spirit energy of Elain Forest, and lie down for two hours, or find an antidote.

After thinking briefly, the Radiant Sword Emperor called someone in her mind.

‘Can you hear me.’

The one she called was a constellation who had often helped her along the way to get here. But there was no answer.

They said they’d been busy lately with matters in their own nebula, so maybe they didn’t have the leeway to care about this side.

‘What would he have done.’

At the thought that surfaced without meaning to, the Radiant Sword Emperor let out a bitter smile without realizing it.

‘He would’ve found a way somehow.’

She suddenly wanted to call his name for once. But maybe because of the poison. His name, his face, wouldn’t come to mind easily.

Her consciousness kept drifting away and coming back. In the somewhat hazy surroundings, it felt like she could hear auditory hallucinations.

“Why are you going that far, Heewon? You could really die. You heard what kind of place it is. Who is that person, anyway?”

She had definitely heard something like that before, at some point. It was probably right before entering the “apocalypse region.”

To the questions people asked her—why go that far, did she have any reason she had to do that—she had to answer.

“That’s…….”

But back then, she couldn’t answer. Because she wasn’t confident she could explain her feelings.

Maybe that was why she had to act even more. If she saved him first, she felt like she would know the reason. If she met him again and faced those gentle half-lidded eyes, she felt like she might be able to explain her heart.

[Your tale murmurs sorrowfully.]

But inside the “apocalypse region” she entered without thinking, she had to brush past death over and over. She couldn’t believe such terrifying monsters existed.

Monsters that would become a great catastrophe if they appeared in a scenario, one by one.

Even so, facing those monsters, avoiding them, and running again and again—she steadily advanced deeper into the apocalypse region. The entrance of the apocalypse region, the mid-region—when she finally reached the entrance of the end region, she became certain.

「He is here.」

At the same time, she received a premonition.

「The apocalypse region is collapsing.」

The world was collapsing as if being crushed by overwhelming pressure. Beyond the collapsing world, starlight she knew well was sparkling.

“Inho.”

Jung Heewon started running. Calling the name of that star, the thing she thought was its name, wildly as she ran.

“Kim Dokja!”

But that star was sucked somewhere into the furious storm. Chasing the starlight that vanished without a trace, Jung Heewon ran in a daze.

She had come all the way here boasting that she would save him, that she would definitely save him and bring him back.

“No…….”

Watching the starlight scattering within the dying storm, Jung Heewon slowly sank to the ground.

From somewhere, the sound of a train. Before the disaster that was destroying a world, a train carrying the Transcendents was leaving.

Watching the rear of the train receding, Jung Heewon sank to the ground.

「I want to become strong.」

She wanted to become strong. Strong enough to protect that person. That was why she had swung her sword. Because she wanted to return what she had received, what she thought she had received, she came all the way here.

「Some salvations are completed not by the one who gives them, but by the one who receives them.」

But she wasn’t even given a chance to save that person.

「Her salvation ended here.」

With a sound like an entire time stratum being crumpled, her world was dyed blank white.

But the moment she gave up everything, a faint voice came from far away.

[No, Commander! If you jump down here right now—]
[Stop! Heaven-Breaking Sword Saint!]

At first, she thought she’d heard wrong. But a moment later, in that distant, pale landscape, she could see something running this way. An elongated shadow was running toward her.

A large hand that closed the distance in an instant grabbed her.

But the speed of the world crushing her was faster. The giant reached out with the other hand and forcibly pried open the gap in that world, pulling her out. But in exchange, the giant had to lose one arm.

「Even so, some salvations are still only completed once you reach out your hand.」

With a crack, the giant’s arm tore away. The giant, spilling tales from one arm, asked her.

[Are you really going to die in a place like this?]

That was how she met her master.