Right after hearing Killer King and Lee Dansoo’s opinion, the number of times Gyeong Sein communicated with the party sharply decreased.

The reason was clear.

It was because, following the new ‘Kim Dokja’’s suggestion, Lee Dansoo and Killer King began personal scenario activities.

“I heard a ‘Holy Milk Fruit’ might open in the 37th scenario region. I’m going to go there.”

“Should I go with you?”

“No. Lee Dansoo and I decided to go together. You stay here and protect Yerin.”

Maybe that was consideration for Gyeong Sein.

Watching the backs of Killer King and Lee Dansoo as they left, Gyeong Sein suddenly recalled what Jieunyu had said.

「“Just because everyone read the same story doesn’t mean everyone can think the same way.”」

Jieunyu had long ago left the party and started acting alone. When Gyeong Sein asked if she really had to leave, if they couldn’t carry out the scenarios together, Jieunyu only left behind ambiguous words.

「“If you made everyone think the exact same thing, then from the start, that isn’t a good story.”」

Gyeong Sein often thought about what that meant. Of course, she couldn’t easily find the answer. Since Jieunyu had been an editor, maybe she was seeing something different from other people— that was all Gyeong Sein could guess on her own.

「While everyone was making their own choices, only she remained stalled here.」

If she had been an editor, if she had been a reader who’d read the same book a hundred times, if she had at least been someone with a special story— would she have made a different choice than now?

She thought about it, but she couldn’t know.

Naturally, it was because humans truly cannot become other people.

“Miss Sein.”

When she flinched and turned around, Kim Dokja was standing there.

“I’m sorry. It looks like I startled you.”

“No.”

“May I sit?”

“Go ahead.”

The two of them sat on a bench in front of the manor and watched the crowd passing by. Between the alleys, people bustled as they carried building materials, surging in and surging back out again.

“Move it slowly!”

After the apocalypse region incident broke out, Murim’s existing ruling system completely collapsed.

The great trees that formed Murim’s backbone died, and the giant sects fell.

Incarnations that lost their center scattered in all directions and left to find other scenario regions.

Of course, there were still incarnations that remained in Murim. People struggling to raise Murim back up, and to reclaim the scenery they remembered of it.

“Move it here! This way!”

Watching those people, Gyeong Sein would sometimes feel strange. If they worked like that, sweating like that, would the Murim they longed for really come back? Even if Murim revived again, even if countless trees were planted in this world again and a forest was recreated— would it really be proper to call that world Murim?

“Why did you come?”

“Do you need a particular reason to come looking for a companion?”

A person with the exact same face as the ‘Kim Dokja’ she remembered. Looking at that man’s face, Gyeong Sein thought.

Perhaps a person who could become closer to ‘other people’ than anyone else in this world. A person who mercilessly understands ‘other people’ and sometimes uses that as a weapon to fight.

Maybe this time, too, Kim Dokja came to use that weapon on her.

“What did the party say?”

Gyeong Sein made up her mind again and again. She didn’t know what kind of sweet talk he’d fed the other party members, but she would never fall for it. With a resolute tone as if she were putting up a [Fourth Wall], Gyeong Sein asked.

“Did they tell you to persuade me, since I don’t acknowledge you as Kim Dokja?”

But what Gyeong Sein overlooked was that her opponent was a man more accustomed than anyone in the world to handling a [Fourth Wall].

“Do you hate me, Miss Sein?”

Instead of answering, Gyeong Sein averted her gaze. Hate. Gyeong Sein didn’t know whether that expression was appropriate or not.

“I respect what Miss Sein thinks. Since I am not Miss Sein, I cannot fully understand the hostility Miss Sein has toward me, but…….”

After a brief pause, Kim Dokja looked at the distant sky and said,

“Do you like novels?”

“I do.”

“Then shall we talk about novels for a moment?”

“No.”

“Then you can just listen. I like talking.”

Kim Dokja smiled softly and started talking on his own.

“There’s a novel I used to like.”

Naturally, Gyeong Sein knew very well what novel that was. Kim Dokja was talking about “Ways of Survival” right now.

“I don’t remember every detail clearly anymore, but I definitely liked that novel. I especially admired the protagonist in that novel.”

Gyeong Sein was about to say she knew what novel it was, but held it in and kept her mouth shut.

“The protagonist of that novel regresses again and again. For one single reason, to see the end of the world, he lives through a hellish life over and over.”

Why was it? Even though it was a story she definitely knew, hearing it from Kim Dokja’s mouth made it sound like a new story. Kim Dokja continued.

“In the previous round, someone who was a companion becomes an enemy in this round. In one round, all the companions like the protagonist, but in another round, all of them betray the protagonist.”

Gyeong Sein had even forgotten to respond, and before she knew it, she was listening intently.

“When I first read that part, I hated the companions who betrayed the protagonist.”

“…….”

“It was painful to watch companions who didn’t know anything follow someone other than the protagonist. Without knowing the history the protagonist lived through, without knowing what he had sacrificed for them until now, I hated the companions who hovered around the new person who had taken the protagonist’s place and sheltered him.”

Even as Gyeong Sein wondered which round of Yoo Joonghyuk’s story that was, she realized that this conversation wasn’t simply a story about “Ways of Survival.”

“It’s fine if I’m not Miss Sein’s ‘Kim Dokja.’”

Facing Kim Dokja’s calm eyes, Gyeong Sein couldn’t say anything.

“If you don’t want to call me ‘Kim Dokja,’ you don’t have to. That’s Miss Sein’s right.”

Just by meeting his gaze, Gyeong Sein felt like every bit of her inner thoughts was being read in front of him.

Feeling a faint dizziness, Gyeong Sein asked,

“What do you want from me?”

“Miss Sein can find the ending Miss Sein wants. I will do the same.”

“What ending do you want?”

“All ‘Kim Dokja’ returning to the place they rightly should exist.”

Gyeong Sein stared blankly at Kim Dokja. A man with the face of the ‘Kim Dokja’ she thought of. For ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) an instant, Gyeong Sein felt an indescribable turmoil.

“I don’t know where I’m supposed to go back to anymore.”

“…….”

“I don’t know whether I’m Gyeong Sein, or someone else. I don’t even know what tales I’m supposed to build. I don’t know at all how the other party members are enduring all of this.”

Kim Dokja silently listened to her words. Feeling the pity dwelling in that silence, or turning away from that pity, Gyeong Sein continued.

“I’m not useful anymore. My body is pretty sturdy, but compared to Hyunsung, I’m nothing, and compared to the other companions, I’m lacking in talent.”

There was a time when Gyeong Sein trained hard, too. Like everyone else, she diligently honed skills and trained tales.

But there was a limit to her growth. In the first place, the character she possessed was an extra character. Both her growth potential and her level of talent were meager.

On top of that, unlike Killer King or Lee Dansoo or Jieunyu, she wasn’t chosen by a good supporting constellation.

“Maybe, in the ‘ending’ you want to see, I’m someone you don’t need.”

The moment she said that, Gyeong Sein’s body trembled without her realizing it. The reason she feared the new ‘Kim Dokja’ wasn’t only to keep faith with the existing ‘Kim Dokja’ she believed in.

She had been scared.

“You don’t have to take care of me. I just want to stay here like this. While waiting for the Kim Dokja I want, I’ll stay here like this.”

That was Gyeong Sein’s choice. The only way someone like her, who wasn’t particularly outstanding compared to others, who might be discarded by the scenario soon, could become special.

「Gyeong Sein thought that was enough.」

She tried, and she came this far. If the Kim Dokja she was waiting for didn’t return, that was fine too.

If she was a character, then her ■■ was definitely this place.

“Miss Sein.”

Looking at Gyeong Sein like that, Kim Dokja said,

“I’ll correct what I said earlier. I understand you, at least a little.”

“Understand? What?”

Kim Dokja didn’t answer. He only quietly stared at Gyeong Sein with eyes that were a little sad.

At that silent gaze, Gyeong Sein’s voice sharpened without her realizing it.

“How do you understand this?”

“Because I’ve had thoughts similar to Miss Sein’s before, too. There was a time when I suffered because I thought I wasn’t helping my companions and was only being a nuisance in the scenario.”

Gyeong Sein blankly listened to those words.

“There was a time when I hated companions who, leaving only me behind, went forward toward another ending on their own. I wanted to remain here, but I definitely blamed them for constantly pushing my back.”

“You’re Kim Dokja.”

“Miss Sein doesn’t know what ‘kind of Kim Dokja’ I am.”

For the first time, Gyeong Sein was at a loss for words. That was right. Gyeong Sein didn’t know what kind of Kim Dokja the ‘Kim Dokja’ in front of her was. She didn’t know if he was the ‘Demon King of Salvation,’ or the ‘Watcher of Light and Darkness,’ or the ‘Prisoner of the Golden Coil.’

No, maybe that ‘Kim Dokja’—

“I, too, like Miss Sein, am just one of countless ‘Kim Dokja fragments.’”

Gyeong Sein flinched and asked.

“What does that mean? Don’t tell me you were possessed too?”

“No, I was born with a body. Instead, unlike you, I fell into a region outside the scenario.”

“An outside region?”

“A place where an endless snowfield spreads out like a vast sea with no end in sight. I was born and raised there.”

A snowfield like a vast sea.

Gyeong Sein couldn’t tell whether that was a metaphor or not. She had never even heard a story that a Kim Dokja like that existed, and she’d never imagined it would exist.

And yet, his story was definitely true. A small fragment that lay dormant deep in Gyeong Sein’s soul was testifying to that.

“Maybe if there hadn’t been someone who took me in, I wouldn’t even have known my own name, and I would’ve starved to death there.”

At the tragedy delivered in a terrifyingly calm voice, Gyeong Sein felt confused.

“I first came to know you all there.”

“Us?”

“There, tales sometimes fall like snow.”

At some point, dark storm clouds were thickly gathering in the sky. Little by little, rain began to fall. Looking up at the raindrops drizzling down, Kim Dokja continued.

“Miss Sein. I know what kind of life you’ve lived.”

“…….”

“I know well how hard you tried, and what kind of time you endured in order to be of help to your companions.”

“Wait.”

Her heart pounded, and she felt dizzy.

“Stop.”

「Maybe this person really is Kim Dokja.」

It felt as if someone was forcibly carving that sentence into her heart. She didn’t want to think about it. Just thinking about it hurt.

If he really was Kim Dokja, the Kim Dokja they knew— then why had he only now appeared before their eyes?

“I’m sorry.”

As if answering that question, Kim Dokja was apologizing.

“I was foolish. I should have come here long ago. I should have resolved the scenarios together with you directly. Instead of just watching, I should have tried to change the story myself.”

Looking at his strangely shining eyes, Gyeong Sein felt like she might collapse at any moment.

“It’s late, but from now on, I’m going to try to change it.”

That was when thunder struck in the sky. Along with an ominous gale, the sky was opening. A cluster of light flashing pure-white. Between it, distant existences were descending.

[Constellation, ‘Flame of Purification’ is descending into the scenario!]
[Constellation, ‘Almighty Sun’ is descending into the scenario!]
[Constellation, ‘Terminator of War’ is descending into the scenario!]
[Constellation, ‘Owner of Baekrokdam’ is descending into the scenario!]

Kim Dokja, who had already risen from his seat, stepped forward as if protecting her.

“Uninvited guests have come.”

Constellations. And they weren’t ordinary constellations. A sinister presence covering the entire sky. At minimum, they were fable-grade, and stars that were close to the main forces of a Great Nebula.

Gyeong Sein instinctively sensed it.

Those stars hadn’t appeared here out of goodwill.

[Is there a fragment of the Oldest Dream in this place.]

At the stars’ call, Kim Dokja smiled.

“It seems they’ve come looking for me.”