Does he want to take the other one?
The moment I wanted to shout out what does that mean.
"Dokja-ssi, there—"
Kyung Sein's voice.
We looked at the red sorghum field at the same time. Standing there was a person we knew.
"Why—"
Maybe I expected it. But I wasn't sure.
「 Besides me, there was someone who signed a contract with the Tiger Eating Rice Cake. 」
Understanding, as always, came a little slowly.
It was only then that I realized why the constellation 'Tiger Eating Rice Cake' wasted a bit too much probability here.
「 There were two incarnations that the Tiger Eating Rice invited to the 'Zodiac Ball'. 」
"Hyunwoo-ssi!"
In the center of the red sorghum field, Ye Hyunwoo's whole body was shining brightly.
I jumped straight into the sorghum field with [Way of the Wind].
Tiger fur fluttering.
Ye Hyunwoo held out his hand as a sign not to approach.
"Hyunwoo-ssi!"
Ye Hyunwoo nodded his head as if he knew what I was going to say.
"I know it could be a trap."
Smart Ye Hyunwoo already knew. Even though he knew, he chose it.
When I was about to ask why, Ye Hyunwoo answered first again.
"I can't be who I want to be when I'm with you."
Ye Hyunwoo turned his gaze to behind me. There, a group of people with puzzled expressions were looking at us.
Killer King asked.
"Seventh Apostle. Are you really planning to make that choice?"
Normally, he would have said something, but today Ye Hyunwoo was a little different. It looks like he's smiling bitterly, or his face is contorted in sadness.
In the halo of light, Ye Hyunwoo's feet slowly began to disperse.
The summoning was carried out through the power of the 'Tiger Eating Rice Cake'.
Finally, Ye Hyunwoo's eyes turned towards me as if he had decided on something.
"Actually, I'm not the type of person who is good at getting attached to people. You probably already know that."
I know.
Even Gong Pildu, who was part of the duo, felt that way.
"But for the first time, I felt like I knew what it meant to be affectionate."
Ye Hyunwoo, who was now half gone, was smiling.
"I'm scared now. I don't want to see someone dear to me die again. But I will see. We've entered that world. I mean—"
I realized what he was going to say.
"Kim Dokja will be me."
I understood why he wanted to become Kim Dokja. That's why I had to stop it.
But Ye Hyunwoo was almost gone now.
The moment the Killer King rushed towards Ye Hyunwoo, there was someone who moved before him.
When I looked up with an eerie feeling, I saw Yoo Jonghyuk, spouting pitch-black speculation, right in front of me.
Yoo Jonghyuk's palm was aimed at Ye Hyunwoo's disappearing neck.
[Puppet of the Oldest Dream.]
The voice of the 'Tiger Eating Rice Cake' was heard. A voice with an ominous laugh somewhere in it.
[I will tell you the pain of falling in the sorghum field.]
A small explosion was heard in front of me, and then smoke filled the air.
The startled companions covered their mouths and backed away. But Yoo Jonghyuk and I were within the distance from where the smoke radiated.
[You have been exposed to 'poisonous fog'.]
Poisonous fog.
It was fortunate. Even though it is a deadly poison, you can survive this much for a while.
"Yoo Jonghyuk!"
I called Yoo Jonghyuk's name in the fog. However, Yoo Jonghyuk was nowhere to be seen.
My premonition was warning me. Clearly this fog will not end.
"Yoo Jong—"
I saw something shining brightly in the fog. A beautifully sparkling object floating in the exact spot where the tiger and Ye Hyunwoo disappeared.
I immediately recognized what it was.
Yoo Jonghyuk, with blank eyes, was reaching out his hand toward the object.
"Yoo Jonghyuk! No!"
['Unidentified fragment' begins its storytelling.]
The world was colored with bright light.
「 Kim Dokja's Fragment. 」
Damn it.
It seems that the 'Tiger Eating Rice Cake' knew what happened at the 'Washington Dome'.
And what happened to Yoo Jonghyuk, who came into contact with the 'Kim Dokja fragment' there?
Yoo Jonghyuk must not be allowed to have that. Then he will become a 'black beast' again.
I have to absorb that fragment before Yoo Jonghyuk.
"Yoo Jonghyuk!"
However, Yoo Jonghyuk's hand touched the fragment first. The scenery of the world shimmered with a bright beam of light.
And the next moment, a message was heard.
[You have entered the 'Snowfield'.]
The last time the 'Snowfield' was opened was when I met Kim Dokja.
Kim Dokja, who likes to leave footprints in the snow, drinks tea, and gives off a gentle but strangely cool feeling.
"Kim Dokja?"
But no matter where I looked, Kim Dokja was nowhere to be seen.
There is no snowy scenery that I remember. All I see is pitch black darkness.
"Yoo Jonghyuk?"
[The exclusive skill '□□' has been activated.]
[The exclusive skill '□□' resists the laws of the Recycling Center.]
Then a fact suddenly occurred to me. When I think about it, the first time I entered the 'Snowfield' was not when I met Kim Dokja.
To be exact, it was when Kim Cheolyang's 'next action' was described at Geumho Station.
This happened at a time when the ability to describe the empty spaces in a story was still available to me.
However, as I remember, this skill originally only activated in special situations.
「 '□□' is a skill that only activates in times of 'survival' crisis. 」
Does this mean that I am in a life and death situation?
So what sentence should I write?
Should I persuade Yoo Jonghyuk to throw away the 'Kim Dokja fragment'? Or, using additional probability—
[You cannot write sentences.]
I can't write?
Why—
"Kwaaaaaaaa!"
Someone's head exploded before my eyes. While I was stupidly looking at the bursting blood fountain, the surrounding scenery was slowly changing.
「 Acrid smoke rising from everywhere. The thick bloody smell felt in the smoke of the battlefield. 」
That wasn't the sentence I wrote. I was suddenly standing in the middle of a battlefield, swept away by a torrent of one-sided sentences.
I could smell my skin burning.
When I came to my senses, both of my arms were completely charred by fire.
What is this? Why am I suddenly like this?
When I raised my head with an eerie feeling, there were even more terrifying things floating in the sky.
[The constellations of the nebula
I felt like I was losing my mind.
[The constellations of the nebula
I was definitely at the 'Recycling Center'. And those guys could never enter the center.
But why?
[The constellations of the nebula
Why can I see those damn constellations above my head right now?
Perhaps due to my mood, the sun shining in the air seemed to get bigger.
No, it wasn't an illusion.
The sun was getting closer and closer.
The blazing corona of the sun was visible. Beyond the corona, a distant great being was gazing at the Earth.
[The constellation 'The Noon Sun' burns everything on earth!]
The solar wind blew. A scorching fire covered every living thing on the surface.
Right before my eyes, someone burned in real time and reached out to me.
"Save me—"
He died.
[You cannot change this 'story'.]
As the magma exploded, I held his hand.
[You have died.]
I died without even knowing why I had to die like that.
And when I opened my eyes again, I was running down a dark road.
[The constellation 'Master of the Department of Killing' spits out quiet anger.]
I felt a huge figure writhing behind my back. I felt like my feet were sinking into the ground, and then hands came up from the dirt and grabbed my ankles.
Kyaaaaaaa!
「 There was the smell of death everywhere. The smell of things that are already dead and will never return. All the souls who had lost their stories reached out and held on to the stories of the living. 」
I instinctively realized where this was.
[Catch that guy.]
A cold voice came from behind me.
Without knowing why, I was holding a book I had never seen before in my hands.
「 Department of Killing 」
Department of killing?
At that moment, something came to mind.
「 King Yeomra's Killing Book. 」
The Book of Revelation, which records the 'lifespan' of everyone in the world.
I was now bouncing around with that Book of Revelation.
[This is the guy whose name was written three times in the death book. Be sure to catch him.]
Damn, I don't understand.
Anyway, I couldn't die here. I ran and ran again.
But soon a cliff appeared.
[You cannot write sentences.]
This time, I couldn't write a sentence.
[You cannot change this 'story'.]
With the feeling of a sharp dagger piercing the skin of my stomach, I fell a thousand miles down a cliff.
[You have died.]
When I opened my eyes again, I was sitting in a chair.
This time I wanted to do something again, but for some reason, I couldn't move my body at all. Someone had tied my body to a chair.
A chain made of 'Sulwha metal'.
I wondered who on earth would do such a terrible thing—
"Have you come to your senses?"
When I looked up, I saw Anna Croft's face.
I hurriedly tried to say something. But my mouth was covered.
"Tell me a secret."
Yes. I'll tell you. I'm going to tell you, so please let me solve this.
"Everything you're hiding."
This was my first time seeing Anna Croft like that. Anna Croft's eyes filled with madness. She took a long nail out of her arms and held it close to my heart.
"Otherwise."
No, wait a minute.
"You will experience pain worse than death."
The first nail was driven right next to the heart. I felt like I was going to pass out at any moment, with a cold and heavy feeling penetrating my chest.
Anna Croft immediately took out a second nail.
"Say it."
And she stuck it in.
"Say it."
Then she took out the third nail,
"Say it."
She plugged it back in.
And.
[You cannot write sentences.]
[You cannot change this 'story'.]
…
[You have died.]
I felt like I was slowly going crazy. No person would be able to come to their senses if they suddenly fell down like this three times in a row.
Is death a joke?
How can humans die like this over and over again?
"You."
When I opened my eyes again with this thought in mind, I was in the middle of being slapped by someone.
One time, two times, three times, four times.
I felt like I was going to lose my mind from the powerful blows. No, I'm actually out of my mind.
Blood was already pouring from my lacquer tube.
"I don't need trashy disciples."
Wait.
[You cannot write sentences.]
[You cannot change this 'story'.]
Please speak my mind.
[You have died.]
I died like that five, six, seven more times.
Something is wrong.
Why on earth am I experiencing this pain?
What on earth did I do wrong to end up in this situation?
When I opened my eyes again, I was in pitch black darkness.
But it wasn't the same darkness as before. A darkness much denser and more lonely than that. It was a darkness where the entire order of time seemed to be distorted.
In that darkness, I was taking a stab.
Once, twice, three times.
After the stabbing, the cutting was repeated.
Once, twice, three times.
A tedious task that involves repeating stabs and cuts in a rhythm.
I continued with it.
In the lonely darkness with no one around, I continued to stab and cut, assuming invisible virtual enemies. Ten thousand times, a hundred thousand times, a million times… The training continued as if to tear apart the darkness itself.
How many times did I stab and cut like that?
When I came to my senses, I forgot time, forgot my body, and eventually forgot myself.
「 Perhaps that talent was not an innate talent. 」
A feeling of mental impurities being drained away and soul clutter falling away.
「 A talent that one person achieved by carving out his or her soul over a very long period of time. 」
I can stab something without having to stab it, and I can cut it without having to cut it.
「 Transcendence. 」
A tremendous realization came over me.
I realized what that realization was.
This was the very sense of transcendence that Yoo Jonghyuk spoke of.
But as if something was wrong, a hot feeling rose from the back of my head. The heat then flashed my consciousness into pure white and led me into ecstasy.
[You cannot write sentences.]
Uh oh.
[You cannot change this 'story'.]
No, right?
[You have died.]
I'm so dumbfounded that I have nothing to say anymore.
And now I can clearly explain what situation I am in.
「 I was currently experiencing the 'regressions' of 'Yoo Jonghyuk'. 」
Black despair pressed down on his shoulders all the time.
The ending is death no matter what you do.
A hell that you can't escape from no matter what.
It was painful, but I went through that hell again and again.
I was able to get through it.
Because I knew that his eternity was not actually eternal.
There is no 'eternal hell'.
Someday this hell will end.
And at the end of hell, Yoo Jonghyuk reaches his conclusion.
So—
「 There is an ending to this world. 」
How much did I die, how much did I live, and how much did I run?
Even though I knew there was an end, I was just starting to feel like I couldn't go any further, when I felt the surroundings slowly becoming brighter. I had finally escaped from hell.
「 There was a snowfield there. 」
A pure white snowy landscape. I was looking at the end of the desolate world where thin snowflakes were falling for a while.
Then I saw something whitish moving in the distance. I unconsciously waved my hand and tried to approach, but stopped for a moment.
So far, only three people have been able to move in this 'snowfield'.
Me, Kim Dokja, and Han Sooyoung.
But what is that?
A small creature was crouching on the snowfield. As I approached, it immediately took on the appearance of a child. A child squatting on a white, burnt snowfield. The moment I met the child's dead eyes, I realized who the child was.
「 There was a man who had to live a long story to save one person. 」
Until now, I thought the 'snowfield' was Kim Dokja's space.
「 It is not the reader who lives between the invisible lines. 」
Snowfield.
The unrecorded graves of a being.
「 There was only one being who could 'survive' between those lines. 」
A place where all stories are written, but perhaps nothing is written.
This snowfield,
"Yoo Jonghyuk."
From the beginning, it was one person's world.