1000 Episode 60 Star Fragments (8)

Snowfield gave no answer. I knew it even without him answering.

Just as myth-grade constellations left their true bodies outside, Snowfield also left his important memories behind to enter this place. And among those 'important memories', there exists a memory of me.

Snowfield slowly opened his mouth.

"I think you're mistaken. The reason I left those memories outside is because they are needed there."

At that remark, so typical of Kim Dokja, I didn't know what to say in response.

"And it's not just your memories that I left behind."

"…"

"If you've performed a scenario, you would know. That there is a story you don't want to lose, no matter what happens."

I was a little surprised by his honest words. I realized once again that Snowfield, standing before me, had also performed a scenario just like me. Over the past eight years, he must have built up his own story. And during those eight years, he had acquired a story he never wanted to lose.

Suddenly, I became curious. I wanted to read that story. What kind of 'precious memory' could have formed in a boy raised by Cheon Inho's hands and grown up in the snowfield?

What is he envisioning through that story?

"In that sense, you are the truly strange one."

Snowfield muttered with a look of pity.

"You, who cherish people more than anyone, carelessly throw away the very self they love."

Snowfield is right. I, who chose to disappear into this world risking everything, might actually be the one much stranger than them.

"Still."

I pressed down on Snowfield's chest even harder and spoke. As if rebelling against my strength, Snowfield's story scratched my hand even more roughly.

"I won this time."

If he hadn't entered here in his main body, the absolute amount of 'Kim Dokja fragments' would inevitably be less than mine.

However, despite the crisis, Snowfield remained composed.

"There is one more thing you are mistaken about."

In an instant, a strange current flowed from Snowfield's entire body.

"Why do you think that just because I left my memories behind, I would have fewer fragments than you?"

In a split second, the flow of the air shifted. The massive amount of story flowing from him tightened its grip on me with an immense pressure.

I unleashed my story and confronted him head-on. It was different from when we faced each other with the Third's soul between us. His power, manifesting in its raw form, was pulling me in with tremendous force.

"Snowfield is trying to absorb me."

I, too, could not lose. I unleashed my story while pressing down on his chest.

A small mouth that had grown from my palm began to devour the stories of Snowfield indiscriminately. However, Snowfield muttered as if he had anticipated even that.

"You cannot defeat me with just those stories."

The waves of story flowing from its entire body grew even stronger.

An overwhelming amount of story, powerful enough to momentarily cast out even the 'Heir to the Eternal Name' with his ruthless gluttony, surged toward me like a waterfall. Sentences that pierced me like needles instantly discolored my skin.

Snowfield's riddle pierced my mind. It felt as if my head was being covered in pure white sentences. Suppressing the urge to gag, I activated the [Fourth Wall] and desperately protected myself.

However, I was not certain what would happen to the world if I used my power any further here.

Is it right to destroy this world to protect myself? If so, what is the reason I came to this world?

The eyes of Snowfield were asking. Asking if I could do it. Asking if I could choose to absorb him, destroy this world, and become 'the one and only Kim Dokja'.

It was then that a voice reached my mind.

I suddenly looked up and saw the figure of a baby floating in the distance. It was the Third.

Almost simultaneously, Snowfield heard the Third's voice and shouted.

"White Flame Dragon of Lamentation! Drinking Demon!"

At Snowfield's command, the two constellations looked toward the Third Kim Dokja at the same time. But I was faster. Shaking off Snowfield's crests and rising from my seat, I ran with all my might and wrapped my arms around the Third. The blows of the White Flame Dragon and the Demon exploded on my back at the same time. Suppressing the burning pain, I held the Third even tighter.

I could feel the Third's soul resonating with me.

Just as the 'Demon King of Salvation' and the 'Great King of Fear' had done, the soul of the 'Prisoner of the Golden Cage' was flowing into me.

Hearing the Third's words whispering in my ears, I bit my lip hard.

That was the Third's true sentiment. A wish that might have come true had I and Snowfield never come to this world. Nevertheless, in exchange for that wish, the Third entrusted the dream he desired to me.

I thought about the landscape the Third wanted to protect. I imagined and imagined the house he had longed for so desperately.

My heart warmed gently, then subsided.

I felt an immense surge of vitality throughout my entire body.

The power of 'Kim Dokja' who imagined this world. Snowfield and I, sharing that power, faced each other.

Snowfield slowly rose from his seat and spoke.

"Right, from now on, it's going to look like a fight."

We lunged at each other. Our fists, swung simultaneously, struck each other's faces. The punches that had felt like cotton candy now hurt. Even as we exchanged definite blows, we did not back down an inch. Amidst the punches, our lips split and our cheeks swelled.

Wiping away the flowing blood, Snowfield said.

"You are desperate."

"Of course."

"Why? You have no reason to do that."

Snowfield's punch landed in my stomach. I gasped and punched him in the jaw. Stumbling back, he spoke again.

"It wasn't a story you wanted to start in the first place. You are an outsider to this story. You are not Kim Dokja."

"My story, not even Kim Dokja's."

I grabbed the lunging guy by the collar and lifted him up. His body, which I couldn't lift before, now felt light.

Looking down at him as he slammed onto the floor, I asked.

"Why did you want to read it?"

Snowfield, pinned to the ground, pushed me away and stood up. As we exchanged punches again, both of us staggered at the same time. Snowfield answered.

"I don't know."

I could feel the sincerity in his answer. He truly did not have the answer to this question. I asked again.

"You used to hate the idea of ​​me becoming Kim Dokja. Why, then, are you trying to become 'the one and only Kim Dokja' now?"

"Me too, I don't know."

Our fists, thrown simultaneously, struck each other's faces. We groaned in unison and recoiled.

Every time Snowfield and my fists clashed, a story bloomed in the air.

Amidst the landscape of the blooming stories, Snowfield was watching a certain story. I couldn't see what story he was watching. However, his expression proved the existence of that story.

I paused for a moment.

In that record, I opened my mouth as if sighing.

"Could it be because of me?"

The reason why Snowfield, who had hated 'Kim Dokja' more than anyone, came to want to become 'the one and only Kim Dokja'.

"So, are you trying to gather <Kim Dokja Company>?"

As he watched my story, he dreamed once again. A dream of completing a scenario with the companions he desired. A dream of being chosen by the people he loved at the end of this world.

I shook my head and said.

"You know it, too. We are not the Kim Dokja that <Kim Dokja Company> wants."

In an instant, I felt spacetime creak. Snowfield was looking at me with a face I had never seen before.

"Then where is that 'Kim Dokja'?"

I couldn't answer.

What kind of Kim Dokja does <Kim Dokja Company> want? If all the Kim Dokjas really gather and become 'the one and only Kim Dokja' again, will the 'Kim Dokja' that <Kim Dokja Company> desires return?

"You don't know either."

The fist Snowfield threw at me along with those words hurt. I let out a sharp gasp and struck his face just as hard. A trickle of blood trickled from his nose.

"Right, I don't know either."

We both grew up reading and writing the story of 'Kim Dokja'. We have no memories of the time when we were the complete Kim Dokja. Most of our memories have disintegrated, and the stories of those days exist only as fragments of 『Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint』. As we read and wrote those stories, we believed that we were Kim Dokja. We still believe.

"I don't know, but at least we aren't."

"You aren't the one deciding that."

Snowfield pointed to the sky and said.

"They are the ones who will be here soon."

Since when? The vortex in the sky was growing larger once again. The imagination of the 'Third' that Snowfield had absorbed was being unleashed. I spoke as if giving a warning.

"Your plan will fail. There is no way <Kim Dokja Company> would consider the current you as 'Kim Dokja'."

"Well. At least one of them."

Snowfield continued speaking without taking his eyes off the sky.

"They already believe me to be 'Kim Dokja'."

In that instant, I read the record flickering behind him.

Why? The moment I read the sentence, I felt dizzy. There was a familiar scent emanating from the words.

It was the scent of lemon candy. Recalling that nostalgic scent, I stared endlessly at the continuing sentence.

The 41st round. And the 1,863rd round.

Memories of being with her swirled chaotically through my mind.

If so, why has she never once spoken to me? Like the other great recorders, she would have had plenty of opportunities to talk to me.

And above all—

Snowfield smiled as if answering my question.

"■■-ah, don't you still understand?"

With a face that seemed to already know the ending of this story, Snowfield Kim Dokja spoke to me.

"Han Sooyoung chose me as the 'protagonist' of this world."

Author's Note

As of today, Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint has reached Chapter 1,000—including short side stories—or Chapter 999 without them.

Seeing this unfamiliar number fills me with a renewed sense of emotion, yet also gives me a strange feeling.

Perhaps it is because today happens to be Sooyoung's birthday.

I sincerely thank the readers who have stayed with me through these long chapters.

I will do my best to write during the remaining time.