1023 Episode 62 Snowfield Kim Dokja (13)

For over eight years, Cha Seongwoo fought alongside a man for his sake.

Snow White.

A man known to the myth-grade constellations as the 'Master of the Erased Blank Space', and to the recorders as 'Snowfield Kim Dokja'.

While clearing scenarios and growing alongside him, Cha Seongwoo learned many facts about Kim Dokja that he had never known before.

The Kim Dokja he followed liked tea. He often wore a melancholic smile, and would sit blankly before intently staring at his smartphone.

It didn't seem like he was reading 'Ways of Survival', so there were times when Cha Seongwoo wanted to ask him what on earth he was looking at.

When he wasn't performing a scenario, drinking tea, or looking at his smartphone—Kim Dokja was always looking up at the sky.

With eyes that made it impossible to tell what he was searching for, he gazed endlessly at the sky again and again.

Even on a day shortly after 'Ragnarok' began, he was gazing up at the night sky alone.

Perhaps it was because the back of Kim Dokja's head looked lonely. Cha Seongwoo said something he wouldn't normally say.

At that, Kim Dokja glanced back, smiled, and replied.

He would occasionally mutter such pedantic words. Whenever Cha Seongwoo heard such things, he felt the urge to smack that gloomy man hard on the back of the head.

However, it was not him who struck the back of the head first that day, but Kim Dokja.

A question that flew in out of nowhere.

Cha Seongwoo swallowed his feigned bewilderment and said.

The Kim Dokja he had hoped for.

Cha Seongwoo ruminated on those words a few times before asking back.

Cha Seongwoo also knew very well who the 'Kim Dokja' he was speaking of was.

Blonde hair resembling Cheon Inho. Kim Dokja, who appeared in this world with squinting eyes.

Cha Seongwoo liked that Kim Dokja, too. He wanted to see the ending with him. He wanted to turn the final page of the story he would write together.

But eight years had passed, and now he was here. Beside another Kim Dokja, who might become his enemy.

Kim Dokja gave a wry smile at Cha Seongwoo's words.

Cha Seongwoo thought about the scenarios he had shared with Snowfield Kim Dokja.

Snowfield Kim Dokja was incredible. He had built a story that could only be described that way.

Based on the strategy information he knew, he calmly completed the scenario with his companions and saved many incarnations. Perhaps even more characters had been saved by him than the Kim Dokja of the main story had saved.

However, not all characters were like that. The choice to save the majority was sometimes heartless toward the minority.

At Cha Seongwoo's words, Kim Dokja smiled silently.

Is this Kim Dokja good, or is he on the side of evil?

Even with Yophiel's [Eye of Sin], Cha Seongwoo could not fathom what kind of being he was. All he could see through the [Eye of Sin] was a quiet, desolate, gray ruin.

For the past eight years, Cha Seongwoo walked and walked through that ruin endlessly. He felt that if he walked to the very end of the ruin, he would be able to understand the Kim Dokja standing before him. However, no matter how much he walked and walked for eight years, the back of Kim Dokja, who walked ahead of him, did not get any closer.

Although Kim Dokja was carrying out the scenario with him, he always seemed to be living in a different story.

As if trying to deny that sensation, Cha Seongwoo spoke.

The constellations in the night sky were emitting an ominous light. The forces of the stars were gathering ahead of the final scenario.

Looking at the cluster of stars shining exceptionally brightly that day, Cha Seongwoo spoke.

Kim Dokja, too, slowly nodded his head. Soon, Kim Dokja would begin his final battle. And the Kim Dokja who won that battle would become the 'Oldest Dream' of this world.

At Cha Seongwoo's assertion, Kim Dokja's eyes wavered faintly. Cha Seongwoo deliberately averted his gaze and continued speaking.

Since he was not looking at Kim Dokja, Cha Seongwoo could not see his expression. A quiet night breeze brushed against the back of his hand. Just as he was thinking that the answer wouldn't come back, Kim Dokja answered in a low voice.

Was it because the shimmering starlight in the night sky was sad? Or was it because the final scenario was nearing its end? The moment Cha Seongwoo heard those words from Kim Dokja, he choked up without realizing it.

Kim Dokja remained silent for a long time after Cha Seongwoo's answer. Only after several stars had fallen from the sky did Kim Dokja open his mouth in a subtly sorrowful voice.

At that moment, Cha Seongwoo did not understand why Kim Dokja had asked such a question. However, there are moments when one realizes that they have wanted to read a story all along only after finally reading it, and that there is a story that anyone can read, yet resonates only with me. A sentence born in a world I do not know, yet seems to explain me more accurately than anything else.

"I know you, too."

When Cha Seongwoo heard those words from Yoo Joonghyuk, he realized what he had truly desired.

The depths of his soul vibrated faintly. The sensation of the door leading to the story he had long wanted to know—a door that had been closed for so long—opening wide.

"Get up."

At that voice, Cha Seongwoo raised his head and felt his vision slowly return.

"At least do not die in a place like this."

In the dim light, Cha Seongwoo saw golden stories scattering before his eyes. The stories touching his cheeks were caressing him. A faint vitality was returning to his body.

Yoo Joonghyuk was scattering something he held in his hand over his head.

The story of the being he so desperately wanted to become, the one he wanted to resemble more than anyone else.

The moment he acknowledged that fact, Cha Seongwoo felt a dizzying shiver pierce his mind.

He felt as though he knew what his ■■ was.

Perhaps sensing the change in Cha Seongwoo's entire body, Metatron, who had been observing the situation from a distance, widened his eyes.

The act of reading a single story over a hundred times. A reader who wanted to understand a story better than anyone else, the history built with effort and obsession had caused a miracle.

From the very beginning of every story to the present. Cha Seongwoo felt that all the stories he had read were converging into a single conclusion.

An ending already written, and simultaneously being written. A sentence beyond the gray, which even countless recorders had not reached. At that moment, Cha Seongwoo alone reached that sentence. Upon reading it, he sighed and despaired.

"...is it?"

The reason why all these stories had to flow this way. The reader, having realized all those secrets, had only one thing to say to Yoo Joonghyuk now.

"Run... away."

That was the last word Cha Seongwoo conveyed.

Tsutsutsutsu!

With a fierce spark, Cha Seongwoo's consciousness, which had barely returned, vanished completely.

Yoo Joonghyuk looked down at Cha Seongwoo with eyes that could not understand. He was still alive and breathing.

Run away? It was an incomprehensible statement. Because there was no reason anywhere in this <Star Stream> for Yoo Joonghyuk to run away right now.

Rumble, rumble, rumble.

It was then that the weather in the sky changed drastically. At first, he thought the Demon Kings had summoned another insignificant Demon God. However, the sky was strangely bright for a Demon God to have appeared.

It was countless stars that had dyed the sky the white night.

The constellations that had waited only for the final moment of this world, crying out for the 'Oldest Dream'.

Yoo Joonghyuk's 'Black Heaven Demon Blade' began to weep faintly. His sword was reacting to the intensity of the stars.

<Olympus>.

<The Emperor>.

<Asgard>, <Vedas>.

<Papyrus>.

Just like the final scenario of the 1,864th round, the stars filling the sky were watching him.

Yoo Sangah’s prediction was correct.

The constellations of the giant nebulae, having sensed his presence, had finally revealed themselves in 'Ragnarok'.

"I will drop you all."

The moment Yoo Joonghyuk gripped the hilt of the 'Black Heaven Demon Sword' accompanied by a chilling voice.

A portal opened behind him with an ominous message.

The presence of the calamity possessed an ominous aura.

Yoo Joonghyuk instinctively drew the hilt and turned around.

"What? It works! You said only one person could go!"

At the calamity's voice that followed, Yoo Joonghyuk froze in place, clutching his half-drawn sword.

"Why are you here?"

Lee Gilyoung stood before his eyes.

Then, another portal opened, and Lee Jihye, with her long hair swaying, appeared.

"Aaaah! Master! I'm here too!"

It was impossible.

Yoo Sangah had clearly said that only one person could come. But how could Lee Gilyoung and Lee Jihye descend in the scenario of the 41st round? In any case, for now, it was a win-win situation.

If there were multiple members of <Kim Dokja Company>, there was nothing to fear even if the entire 'Great Nebulae' of the 41st round turned into an enemy.

But that was not the end.

The air split open, and Yoo Sangah and Lee Seolhwa appeared as well. With this, all members of <Kim Dokja Company> who could currently gather were assembled in one place.

However, Yoo Sangah's expression did not look particularly happy.

"Joonghyuk-ssi, is something wrong?"

Yoo Joonghyuk, too, sensed that something ominous was happening.

The fact that they had all been summoned here as 'catastrophes' meant that the 'probability' for them to all gather here had been satisfied.

At first, he thought it was the influence of the Giant Nebulae that appeared in the scenarios. However, looking up at the sky again, he saw few mythic-grade constellations yet.

Despite the misaligned probability, no aftershocks blew around the descended <Kim Dokja Company>. There was no sign of the hounds chasing the abyss appearing either.

Just as a chilling premonition brushed against his heart, Yoo Sangah spoke.

"Dokja-ssi—"

Along with Yoo Sangah's voice, Yoo Joonghyuk also suddenly realized something.

Since when had it started?

Yoo Joonghyuk and Yoo Sangah, their eyes meeting, launched themselves in unison. The sound of Ji Eunyu shouting could be heard as she followed them a moment too late. However, Ji Eunyu's voice was swallowed by the ensuing blue light.

A dazzling flash enveloped the entire ruined world. A radiance as brilliant as when Yoo Joonghyuk was summoned, or as brilliant as when the 'Radiance of Creation' of <Eden> exploded. As the blinding radiance vanished from the sky, gray snow began to fall.

"Entering."

Piercing through the swirling snow, Yoo Joonghyuk finally reached the front of the tent and reached out his hand toward the barracks. But at that very moment, someone opened the barracks.

Yoo Joonghyuk, Yoo Sangah, Lee Jihye, Lee Seolhwa, and Lee Gilyoung.

Everyone watched the scene, unable to utter a single word.

All they could do was gaze at the man, as if reading a sentence that had already been written.

The man, who had been silently looking up at the sky, slowly lowered his gaze to look at them. The faces of each person were reflected in his eyes.

Snow White—'Snowfield Kim Dokja' has finally awakened from his slumber.