555 Episode 1. The World After The End (2)

―Ah, ah. Microphone test.

Was this how the characters felt when they first saw Bihyung on the subway?

―Do you all hear me?

The woman on the screen was so similar to the Han Sooyoung I imagined that I got goosebumps.

Maybe I wasn't the only one who thought so, the other readers were also looking at the screen with their mouths open.

―There are still people who remember that guy’s story. Well, you were all Kim Dokja, too.

It was Han Sooyoung, perfect down to her rude way of speaking. It was probably made by applying deepfake technology, but whoever played her was really amazing.

But Han Sooyoung suddenly started saying strange things.

―I sent a short side story to the cloud a while ago, have you all read it?

What?

―Of course you saw it. I know. But this was just an appetizer. The real 'side story' will begin soon.

No, wait a minute. What if you say that when I don't have any chapter ready yet?

Give me the manuscript right now.

―So, I’ll ask you to take care of me in the future. Finally, you get one question.

The readers who were staring at the screen looked at each other.

Han Sooyoung added.

―Please tell me where you bought Yoo Joonghyuk's boots, please tell me if Gilyoung eats grasshoppers or not, I don't know anything about this, so please take note in advance.

Someone sighed as if it was a pity.

Readers seemed to hesitate whether they could really ask questions.

Well, that's just a recorded video in the first place, so even if you ask a question, you won't get an answer.

But there was a person who raised her hand.

"Is Kim Dokja back to life?"

It was a small girl fan sitting in the front row.

A brief silence fell over the room.

A question that any reader who has read the final chapter would be curious about.

In a sense, everyone knows the answer, so it's a question that can't be answered.

I felt sad. If Han Sooyoung in that video is really Han Sooyoung, she will feel the same as me.

However.

―Oh, yeah. You mean Kim Dokja, right?

What?

―That's...

Was it a real-time video?

And the next moment, the screen turned off with a tsutsutsu sound.

An exclamation came from the audience.

"Oh, unfortunately, the signal was cut off. Let's check whether Kim Dokja is alive or not in the side story together!"

Indeed, the host's skillful hosting was at a level comparable to Kim Dokja's.

I could hear readers chatting with excitement.

"Is a side story really coming out?"

“I don’t think it was ever announced separately.”

Of course. Because I've never actually announced it.

Ji Eunyu, who was sitting next to me, whispered playfully.

"Isn't it a cute threat to start serializing it soon?"

"No, but that's too earnest."

While I let out a light sigh, the host was introducing the final segment.

"Then it’s time for today's last event, the ORV quiz. We’ve prepared enough prizes so that everyone can be rewarded equally, so if you get a question right, please come up to the stage right away."

Looking at the readers’ eyes shining, it seemed that this was the main event.

The host standing in front of the screen read the question.

"The first question is―"

After reading the question, the readers raised their hands. It was unexpected. I thought it was a pretty difficult question.

When the designated reader gave his answer, the host clapped his hands.

"Congratulations. Please come this way."

The reader with a flushed face was guided by the host and entered the curtain behind the screen.

After a while, the reader's presence disappeared with a tsutsutsu sound.

I laughed, and so did the readers.

It's an interesting directing.

Let's try to guess it this time.

"Now, the second question. How many times did ■ appear in the whole 'ORV'?

Ahem...

No matter how much I thought about it, I wondered who would know that.

Even I, the writer, don't know.

But there was a person who raised their hand.

"Me! The answer is―”

The reader raised their hand and started talking. Of course, I thought they were saying any number, but surprisingly, the host clapped his hands.

"Congratulations. Please come this way."

How on earth did you get it right?

The reader who correctly answered the second question also disappeared inside the curtain after being guided by the host.

The host said with a smile.

"Are the questions too difficult? This time it's an easy question!"

I focused on the host's words.

Okay, this time for sure.

"Third question. In 'Ways of Survival', Yoo Joonghyuk regresses 1,863 times. What does the number '1,863' symbolize here?

I was stunned for a moment after hearing the question.

What symbol was there in that number?

I guessed for what purpose ORV’s author used the number 1,863.

I think... The author had no intention. It's definitely the case. I know it well because I'm the author of ORV.

This time, there were quite a lot of readers who raised their hands.

When the host pointed to someone, the reader spoke.

"1,863 is the year when the world's first subway opened, symbolizing that Yoo Joonghyuk's repeated regressions circle back to the subway."

What?

I thought, ‘That can’t be true,’ but the readers around me agreed.

"Oh, that's right, that's right. It was that."

"Ah, I saw it in RepresentativeKimDokja’s analysis article."

As the host clapped his hands, the reader who had given the answer went up to the stage with a smile.

Ji Eunyu asked me,

"Did 1,863 really have that meaning?"

"Of course. In what I wrote, every single number has meaning. Every element is connected in an amazing way."

The quiz continued.

Some questions were about things I knew, and for some I didn't know the answer at all.

However, as words were exchanged, I felt indescribable emotions.

A story I remember. A story I don't remember. Even stories I didn’t intend to tell. The story I hadn't written for the past three years was still continuing here.

I suddenly had such a question.

Can I say that I love this story more than them?

"What is the name of the sword that Jung Heewon received as a gift from Kim Dokja in the Theater Dungeon?"

"Me! Me!"

Judge Heewon, who was sitting next to me, also managed to get one question right.

Ji Eunyu muttered in a nervous voice as she watched him excitedly pull back the curtains and disappear.

“If this continues, we’ll be the only ones left. Is there a penalty for staying behind?”

Ji Eunyu also began to raise her hand from then on.

After about ten or twenty questions, Ji Eunyu got an answer right.

"I'll go first. See you outside."

Even after Ji Eunyu waved her hand and disappeared, I didn't raise my hand.

The struggling readers also stood up from their seats one by one after answering a question correctly.

There were also readers who suddenly wiped away tears.

I watched them leave the theater for a long time.

"Now there's the last question left."

A voice that echoes through the silent theater.

Before I knew it, I was the only one left in the audience.

Looking at the countless empty seats in the front row, I thought about the person named “Kim Dokja” for the first time in a long time.

"This is the final question."

I was nervous and listened to the question.

There should be an easy question.

The host asked with a bright smile.

"Who is the heroine of ORV?"

I opened my mouth for a moment then closed it again.

Maybe sensing my embarrassment, the host added to reassure me,

"I'll give you a minute to think."

ORV’s heroine.

Who would Kim Dokja think of as a heroine? I don't know. Because I'm not Kim Dokja.

So, I decided to think about it from the perspective of ORV’s writer, “Writer Lee.”

In fact, since “ORV” was not a story written with a heroine in mind, the proportion of romance was almost non-existent.

"10 seconds left."

"The heroine of ORV―”

I said the name of the heroine I was thinking of. I wasn’t sure if he was talking about this person. Compared to other main characters, she didn’t appear that much.

Nevertheless, that person was a person I made for Kim Dokja.

The host was silent for a moment at my answer then asked,

"Why do you think so?"

I'm probably not the one who loves this story the most.

I may not be the one who knows this story best.

But I wanted to say this at least once.

"Because I wrote it."

"What?"

The host asked back as if he hadn't heard it properly.

I smiled bitterly and raised my voice.

"Because she's my favorite person."

I couldn't tell if my answer was the right answer or not.

However, the host nodded without saying a word, and slowly clapped his hands.

Is that right or wrong?

When I think about it, the host has never once said “correct answer” so far.

"Congratulations."

With the host's words, I walked down the stairs of the theater and went to the stage.

As I followed the path that the readers had walked down before me, the empty seats of the theater came into view.

The words [Fourth Wall] were faintly glowing on the screen.

Suddenly, I remembered the readers who walked down this road, wiping their eyes, and the readers who were smiling and looking back every now and then.

Only then did I seem to know their feelings. They didn't cry or laugh because they were happy to get a question right.

Because this is the completion of 『Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint』.

I felt like I was going down the road that I should have gone down a long time ago.

The readers reached the end point in their own way, and now it was my turn.

When I went up the stage, the host was waiting for me. We looked at each other for a moment on stage.

The host looked at the nickname written on my name tag.

"Your nickname is very hard to pronounce."

I smiled and nodded.

Even though I saw it up close, I couldn't see the host's face well. The voice was strangely neutral, so I couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman.

I suddenly wanted to ask if he was “RepresentativeKimDokja.” But I didn't ask. I thought I wasn’t qualified to ask.

"The goods are beyond the curtain. You can just pick it up and leave."

I was a little excited when I heard that it was a product.

What is it? A cultural gift certificate?

I reached out to the curtain of the stage. Then I stopped. Because if I open this curtain, I really thought this story would end.

Isn't there still a story left to write?

There are sentences that I forgot and words that I haven't written.

At the last moment, I looked back. I thought there were still people left.

And if someone was there, I thought I wanted to write a story for that person.

But there was really someone in the place I looked back.

When did he move there?

The host was waving in the middle of the audience.

You can see the audience better than I thought on the stage.

I waved back at the host, then slowly turned back and pulled back the curtain.

Now, it was time to live in the world after the end.

"Are you really going to end it like this?"

But at that time.

“If you finish it on your own, what will the rest of us do?”

I heard the host's words.

Yes? The moment I was about to answer, I heard a tsutsutsutsu sound from somewhere. I reflexively held my cell phone. It wasn't the phone vibrating.

"So, please tell me that story."

Something was swirling in front of my eyes.

Ugh.

The vortex sucked me in, including the sound in my mouth. Sparks flew in front of me and my vision flickered. It felt like someone had rolled my body into a ball and thrown me into a subway that kept repeating infinite sudden stops.

My mouth tasted a bit like vomit after holding my breath.

And when I opened my eyes.

A slightly higher field of view than usual.

A lukewarm wind blew from the vent hanging from the ceiling. Smelling the strangely musty smell of underground dust, I blinked.

The vague sensation of floating slowly clung to my skin, and a sense of reality gradually returned.

Why am I here? As soon as I asked the question, an answer emerged from deep within my mind.

I already know where this place is.

One day, Ji Eunyu asked me that.

But I couldn't accept that answer.

"What the hell is this?"

I was surprised at how unnatural the voice that came out of my mouth was.

I looked forward reflexively.

On the screen door, a man with narrow eyes was looking at me, not “Lee Hakhyun.”

"No―"

An unknown cell phone was in my hand.

I absentmindedly pressed the phone’s power button.

The clock numbers on the phone changed with a ticking sound.

7:00 PM.

The moment I raised my head, I heard a message from somewhere along with a small explosion.

I knew the sentence that would follow very well.

That was not what I thought.

At that moment, I was “thinking.”

Author’s Note

The serialization cycle of Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint is 7 PM on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. If there is a change, we will notify you in advance.

Once again, thank you very much for joining us in Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint.