I had already expected they would use [Fate]. High-ranking constellations always like to eliminate enemies in safe, certain ways.

「Kim Dokja will be absorbed by the end-of-the-world-grade horror—‘Impossible Chivalry’.」

When [Fate] erupted, I was already in a state where I had separated my tales. Feeding the stars the tales I didn’t need right now, so that I could take the tales I absolutely needed with me.

[Constellation, ‘Almighty Sun’, requests ‘Fate Withdrawal’!]

[Constellation, ‘Terminator of War’, requests ‘Fate Withdrawal’!]

[Constellation, ‘Owner of Baekrokdam’, requests ‘Fate Withdrawal’!]

The constellations that ate my tales belatedly fired off messages. But contrary to their wishes, the sentence of [Fate] would not change.

Because,

[You are using the authority of the ‘Horror Recorder’!]

[An ‘Assistant Recorder’ joins your record.]

I, too, was bearing plausibility for this [Fate].

All of my Recorder authorities were helping the realization of [Fate] so that the [Fate] bestowed on me wouldn’t scatter.

[All Recorders of the ‘Afterglow Archive’ are greatly flustered!]

If it were normal, even if I blocked them, the Recorders would have interfered with [Fate] somehow. But this time, that can’t happen. Because this [Fate] is a fate bestowed on me.

「I myself am strengthening the fate of my ‘death’.」

Naturally, the existence that has the greatest influence on realizing ‘death’ by one’s own will is oneself.

[The ‘Afterglow Archive’ failed to withdraw the relevant ‘Fate’!]

[Constellation, ‘Almighty Sun’, is aghast and cries out your name!]

Amid the oracles of the screaming stars, a familiar cry rang out.

"Dokja!"

I saw Jung Heewon reaching out toward me. When she finally grabbed my wrist, her eyes were bloodshot.

"Hold on! Hold on tight!"

The tree’s shadow sucked in all the starlight in the area, including me, but it did not suck in Jung Heewon.

Gripping Jung Heewon tightly, I said,

"Don’t worry."

This [Fate] can’t be changed.

"Let’s meet again."

At the final moment, my fingertips crumbled, and I saw the tale blooming up from Jung Heewon’s entire body.

「Disciple of the Heaven-Breaking Sword Saint」.

As long as that tale operates, this tree will not harm her.

[The end-of-the-world-grade horror, ‘Impossible Chivalry’, receives the protection of ‘Fate’.]

[You are ‘Kim Dokja’.]

Darkness covered my vision. In the deep dark, I intermittently sensed the presences of the stars that had been sucked in together. The constellations were flailing as if they had fallen into a sticky swamp, endlessly reciting their own tales.

[How could ‘Fate’……!]

[Where is everyone! This, this, what on earth is happening!]

Considering that high-grade horrors are classified as a kind of Outer God, this tree could be seen as a fairly high-rank Outer God even among ‘Otherworldly Divinity’.

And the true body of every ‘Otherworldly Divinity’ has its root placed outside the scenario.

In other words, those of us swallowed by this tree were effectively outside the scenario right now.

Tsutsutsutsut!

[The effect of the ‘Horror Recorder’ activates!]

[You possess strong plausibility immunity in the ‘outside-the-scenario region’.]

Constellations, isolated from the ‘scenario’ for the first time in their lives, were revealing their confusion.

[Kuaaaagh! Help me! Apollo!]

Constellations who had always been accustomed to the abundant ‘tale pressure’ of scenarios. They were swelling up like living creatures suddenly exposed to a low-pressure environment.

[No! No!]

The tales that had been tightly wrapping their bodies began to leak out.

「I have to eatI have to eatI have to eatI have to eat」

「Endureendureendureendureendure」

「Mythmythmythmythmythmyth」

Before long, the constellations’ appearances became indistinguishable from Otherworldly Divinity.

The tree’s shadow coiled around the constellations who lost their selves and turned into ‘nameless things’. A shadow tangled like tentacles sucked in the brightly shining tales.

[‘Impossible Chivalry’ begins to qualify as a ‘world tree’.]

As the starlight of the constellations went out one by one, I felt the tree’s tentacles approaching me.

I spoke to the tree.

[Do you want to eat?]

Losing my incarnation body here would be a big blow even to me. But I had the [Fourth Wall], and I had the tale of the ‘King of Terror’. At least as long as this world was taking a form similar to an ‘apocalypse region’, even if I were absorbed by this tree, I would not die.

[Then try eating.]

In fact, as if the tree knew that, it only contemplated me and did not readily swallow me.

How much time passed like that?

In the end, the tree’s shadow, having made up its mind, coiled around me.

[The end-of-the-world-grade horror, ‘Impossible Chivalry’, absorbs you.]

I felt my incarnation body being sucked somewhere. At last, I was entering the source of this ‘horror’.

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

Under the protection of the [Fourth Wall], I kept breathing slowly and maintained my consciousness.

「"Listen, disciple. This is the most basic breathing method for resisting ‘horror’."」

A breathing method Cheok Jun-gyeong taught me once.

It used the ‘tale fragment’ you obtain first when you enter the apocalypse region.

[Tale fragment, ‘Fictionalization’, continues its story.]

Continuing the ‘story’ in order to resist the infinitely expanding cosmic void. Cherishing the relationships you have formed while living.

Even if all of this history is nothing more than a fleeting dream the universe made up—

「"Continuing that paltry story is the only way we can endure this universe."」

With each continued breath, memories surfaced. The people I recalled this time were those I met in the apocalypse region.

Cheok Jun-gyeong. Kyrioos. The Heaven-Breaking Sword Saint. The people who called me "Kim Jongeon".

What happened to the other Transcendents who rode the train? Is Ms. Kim Anna doing well? What about old man Cheongheo, the Commander-in-Chief—what about Vice-Captain Ryunad and Vice-Captain Carlton?

And above all……

「…….」

Somewhere, I heard a murmuring sound. When I slowly opened my eyes, my five senses began to return one by one. The sensation of warm sunlight. Familiar air around my nose. The voices of bustling people.

When I opened my eyes again, I was standing among people walking along the roadside.

"Who did you say the participant of this ‘Murim Tournament’ is?"

A scene that felt familiar.

I had been here before. No, even before I ever came here, I knew this place.

"This time, probably……."

A street scene I wrote, read, and experienced.

「This is the ‘First Murim’.」

A place that no longer ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) exists in the 41st round. A world that was destroyed with the birth of ‘New Murim Earth’.

That world was preserved intact inside the Heaven-Breaking Sword Saint’s tree.

「To properly interpret horror, you must know what question that horror holds.」

With a calm heart, I looked around the street. Even if it was the same ‘First Murim’, not all ‘First Murim’ in Ways of Survival were the ‘same place’.

This tree’s name is ‘Impossible Chivalry’.

Considering that the name of a horror is bestowed as it embodies the question of that horror, the clue to interpret the horror would also be hidden somewhere in this memory.

「What was the ‘Impossible Chivalry’ the Heaven-Breaking Sword Saint dreamed of?」

But no matter how much I looked around the street, nothing looked like a clue.

Come to think of it, I didn’t actually know that much about the Heaven-Breaking Sword Saint.

That she was a Giant race half-blood. That she was revered as the god of Murim. That she pursued justice more fair and upright than anyone……

This kind of information was something anyone in ‘Murim’ knew even if it wasn’t me.

"…Huh?"

From somewhere, a faint smell of food drifted over. A Murim specialty I knew well.

「Murim dumplings.」

Smelling the fragrant dumpling scent, for a moment I even thought I wanted to forget all this horror and just stuff my face with dumplings.

Led by the smell, I took a few steps, and near an old dumpling shop I saw a group of people sprawled out like vagrants. Most were Murim people who had been expelled from their sects, or had their martial arts taken away and their dantian destroyed.

People who lost hope in the scenario and stuck to this street like weeds.

"Get lost. This is my spot."

Even in the world of weeds, the strong and the weak exist. Vagrants were grappling to pick up dumplings someone dropped and claim the crumbs.

Watching their grappling for a moment, I thought.

「No horror exists without a reason.」

The vagrants attacked each other for different reasons. Someone because an arm was missing, someone because an eye was missing.

In this world, a ‘weakling’ means an alien existence. Someone can become a weakling because their strength is weak, and someone can become a weakling because their body is too big or too small.

「"Damn Giant race bitch."」

Though the Heaven-Breaking Sword Saint was part of the Namgung Family, she had long been persecuted in the family for the single reason that she was a Giant race half-blood.

Then, did she want to pursue a chivalry for ‘weaklings’?

[The end-of-the-world-grade horror, ‘Impossible Chivalry’, is watching you.]

Considering her ‘fair uprightness’, it wasn’t necessarily an absurd thought.

But did the Heaven-Breaking Sword Saint turn into ‘horror’ for only that reason?

No matter how much she was the ‘god of Murim’, did her motive have to be divine too?

"Mm, it’s good."

"Indeed, the best dumplings in the Jianghu."

Even as I watched people lining up to receive dumplings, I really wanted to shove horror aside and eat a dumpling……

[Constellation, ‘Demonic Judge of Fire’, shines curious eyes.]

Startled by the message I heard in the air, I looked around.

Uriel?

But I soon shook my head.

This world is inside the Heaven-Breaking Sword Saint’s memory.

Then that indirect message would also be Uriel’s written inside the Heaven-Breaking Sword Saint’s memory.

But was there something in this ‘First Murim’ that would draw Uriel’s gaze?

"Dammit! Those are my crumbs!"

"That bastard’s trying to eat them!"

Right then, a shout rang out from somewhere. When I turned, the vagrants who had been fighting over a spot were beating up some other vagrant.

[Constellation, ‘Demonic Judge of Fire’, looks at an unfamiliar incarnation with pity.]

The man who was beaten to a pulp was thrown to the ground.

As if drawn by the smell of dumplings, I walked over. Even while being beaten, the man never let go of the dumpling wrapper clenched in his hand. The moment I saw those rough, familiar hands, a sentence from Ways of Survival came to mind.

「There are humans whose back-of-the-head is handsome first.」

If you think about it, there was only one reason the Heaven-Breaking Sword Saint would choose to become ‘horror’.

Many emotions churned, then sank at the same time.

I slowly squatted down, looked down at him, and opened my mouth.

"Are you hungry?"

The back of his head, which I was seeing for the first time in eight years, still looked like something I wanted to smack once.

"Joonghyuk."