649 Episode 19 People of the Past (1)

rlaehrmk37: These days, I like old stories.

Tsutsutsu. Shin Yoosoung suddenly opened her eyes.

The last thing she saw was the scenery of the dungeon scattered in the light.

Her heart sank.

Maybe something is wrong.

How is ahjussi?

She blinked several times, but all she could see was darkness.

Shin Yoosoung exhaled lightly and reached out her hand to take off her goggles.

Then, she saw a pure white circular device and patients rotating violently around the device.

"Hey! It bounced because of you!"

Looking around, Lee Gilyoung was annoyed and took off his connection. Shin Yoosoung narrowed her eyes and said:

"What nonsense. It must be because of you."

"It bounced because you used your abilities excessively. Sooyoung-noona told you not to use skills recklessly in the 41st round! No, and why did you log in together!"

Shin Yoosoung shrugged her shoulders, refusing to listen to him.

"Who was the one who recklessly send indirect messages? Isn’t that what caused the probability error?"

"That—"

"But you're good at making that formula? Are you a Sneaky Schemer?"

Lee Gilyoung, his face reddened, screamed.

"Call Seolhwa noona quickly. I need to fix this!"

"You do it. I could have talked to him more, but you turned me down."

"Didn't he say he wasn't Dokja-ssi?"

"You are right, Dokja-ssi. Dokja-ssi was reincarnated."

"Hyung doesn’t have any memories, but what?"

How many minutes had they been bickering like that? Lee Seolhwa's voice flowed from the speaker installed on the top of the connected device.

—Did you break it again? I'll fix it, so stop fighting. Go out and take a look outside for a while.

To the voice that came from the air, the two children answered "Yes".

—And I definitely told you not to connect at the same time, right? The device is still incomplete, so if you connect at the same time…

The two children rushed out of the room. Lee Gilyoung asked while walking down the long corridor.

"Where is Sangah-ssi?"

"Room 3. She’s still online."

Yoo Sangah could be seen through the glass of the door with the number 3 written on it.

Yoo Sangha was wearing goggles sitting in front of her device, the same one they connected to.

Her eyes were obscured, so they couldn't get a good look at her face, but with her lips she seemed to be saying something intently.

Shin Yoosoung said in a worried voice.

"You have to eat."

She pays for it, and she has already been online for thirty-six hours. On the screen that floated in front of her, the screen she was looking at was reflected.

A view of Gwanghwamun in ruins. The National Palace Museum of Korea collapsed. Lobby engulfed in flames. Among the incarnations busy running away, They could see a incarnation of the beautiful type shouting something.

There was also a familiar face beside her, secretly darkening the surroundings.

Lee Gilyoung, who recognized the face, opened his mouth.

"Would Sooyoung noona be okay?"

"…"

"She went herself. I heard she already used a lot of probability."

Unlike them, who can indirectly interfere with the 41st turn only through the 'Seolhwa Connector' made by Lee Seolhwa, Han Sooyoung infiltrated the story directly.

To be precise, she used [Avatar] to transmit some of her memories, but thanks to that, she was more free than the other members of <Kim Dokja’s Company> in terms of the probability of the scenarios.

—Never connect directly. okay? The 41st turn is different from other world lines. I am the only one who enters that world directly. Do you know what happens to the constellations that descend into the beginning scenarios? Don't even possess incarnations. Save the most probability. I'll save Kim Dokja somehow, so you guys just watch from here.

A method that only writer Han Sooyoung can do.

She made her own [avatar] participate in her 41st turn’s scenarios.

In order to get Kim Dokja back, she once again jumped into the hell of the scenarios.

—Never come in. If you really want to see it, just look around like the constellations, okay?

They understood Han Sooyoung's heart, but they couldn't stay still because of the other party.

It was for this reason that Yoo Sangah and Lee Gilyoung entered into a 'behind the scenes contract' with the incarnations in the 41st turn, and Shin Yoosoung intervened in the 41st turn through 'possession'. Lee Gilyoung opened his mouth as if passing by.

"You were possessed."

Among the members present here, Shin Yoosoung was the only one who could possess the character of the 41st turn using the 'broken film theory'.

"How was it?"

Lee Gilyoung didn't ask specifically, but Shin Yoosoung understood.

"You saw it too."

"Because what you see and what you experience are different."

"What do you know?"

She had a lot to say.

The <Star Stream> was still the <Star Stream>.

Scenarios worse than anything they've been through were playing out everywhere.

The goddamn constellations and dokkaebis laughed at the desires of the incarnations, and scorned humans.

Many people died.

Shin Yoosoung knew better than anyone why Han Sooyoung had not allowed the group to come there.

"It was a world I never wanted to return to."

Apparently it was. Even so.

"I missed it."

Shin Yoosoung answered like that. Lee Gilyoung thought for a moment and then asked.

"Why don’t I just come to the 41st turn and descend?"

"Do you want to die? Even now, the probability is already dangerous."

Lee Gilyoung and Shin Yoosoung were incarnations who cleared the last scenario.

Their true rank already surpasses even the stars in the high sky.

In such a situation, if he descended into a beginning scenario in another world line, it was obvious what kind of goal he would score.

"I heard that even if Dokja-ssi gets hit by an aftershock, he will hit the ground a couple of times and end up."

"That's ahjussi."

Even Kim Dokja, who is strong in probability, would find it difficult to do such a thing. Lee Gilyoung grumbled.

"Sheesh, I want to have some fun too."

"Fun? Are you doing this for fun?"

Shin Yoosoung, furious at Lee Gilyoung’s words, frowned. Then Lee Gilyoung asked again.

"Don’t you have fun too?"

"I am—"

It's fun, can it be expressed with the same word?

Shin Yoosoung bit her lip at the feeling of guilt and guilt that she could not do anything about.

Even so, if she could deny Lee Gilyoung's words now, she didn't have the confidence to do so.

"Going back to the scenarios, honestly, it was fun. Just admit it."

To be thrown into a terrible world, to carry out a life-and-death scenario under the gaze of the constellations.

The moment she was thrown back into the time she never wanted to go through again, Shin Yoosoung strangely felt her heart race and blood circulate throughout her body.

Maybe they have become that kind of humans now.

The two looked out the window of the [Industrial Complex]. A cool breeze blew through their hair.

Lee Gilyoung spoke first.

"Sometimes it just doesn’t feel real."

"Huh."

There was a white landscape spreading out of the window.

A world that seems to have been drawn by someone.

Staring at the unfinished landscape, Shin Yoosoung recalled the moment they entered this world.

Finally reaching the end of the story, <Kim Dokja’s Company> opened the door to the hospital room.

Beyond that door, there were two endings.

One is the world where Kim Dokja exists, and the other is the world where Kim Dokja does not exist.

In front of the two endings, the party chose the latter.

This kind of option is a trap.

The members sensibly thought so.

Just as he did on the subway someday, Kim Dokja will be wandering on the far side of the scenario alone, leaving only sweet illusions for his party.

The latter would.

This world without Kim Dokja was not a proper world. The world that Kim Dokja's gaze has not fully reached.

A dream that even the oldest dream has never dreamed of.

"It's already been half a year."

Over the past six months, a lot has happened here. The <Kim Dokja’s Company> members each embarked on a plan to retrieve Kim Dokja.

—You can connect to all world lines here.

The first to find out this fact was Yoo Sangah, the third person to come over.

Yoo Sangah, who possesses the authority of the 'Guardian of Mandala’', straightly stretched the [thread of bond].

She searched for the soul of Kim Dokja, who was scattered all over the world.

However, the world line was too wide, and there were too many fragments of Kim Dokja scattered.

The party decided to collect the fragments of Kim Dokja who has not yet been reincarnated.

Some fragments were on a world line they knew, and some fragments were on a world line they had never seen before.

All those fragments were traces of Kim Dokja's stay.

Yoo Sangah said.

—If you collect all the fragments, the Kim Dokja we know won't come back.

If you collect someone's footprints, the person who took the footsteps will not come back. Their friends also knew.

Jihye Lee replied:

—But if we don't do that, what's left for us?

Even if this is just the way to mourn Kim Dokja, even if the Kim Dokja they know will never come back.

Like the days when they waited for Yoo Jonghyuk to leave for space someday, they wanted to continue their eternal hope.

So, the party continued to collect fragments of Kim Dokja's stories.

The fragments gradually grew in mass, and when they reached a certain level, they began to move somewhere as if they were attracted by gravitational force.

The party searched for the direction the story was headed and finally found a world line.

'41'.

That world was not the world recorded in Ways of Survival. A world that has not been recorded like Yoo Jonghyuk's 0th turn.

The companions instinctively realized.

Maybe there is Kim Dokja here.

"Did the sooty bastard contact you yet?"

"Not yet. And stop calling Yoo Jonghyuk-ssi that way. It’s arrogant." Shin Yoosoung said, staring blankly at the scenery outside the window.

She stared and stared again. Looking at it like that, Lee Gilyoung asked as if his white coat would flutter in that white landscape.

"Can we find him?

"Yes. We already found one."

"That's not hyung."

"...Then who is ahjussi?"

"Hyung..."

What is Kim Dokja?

Shin Yooyoung and Lee Gilyoung knew the answer.

They were familiar with Kim Dokja.

Kim Dokja's likes, dislikes, dishes he can't eat, height, age, weight, facial expression and smile he made when seeing them.

But if they collect all of them, will he become Kim Dokja?

If they collect all of Kim Dokja's memories, will it become a being that can be named Kim Dokja?

One day, Lee Seolhwa asked,

—Do you remember the lunch we had a week ago?

Shin Yoosoung shook her head. Then Lee Seolhwa asked again.

—I don't remember either. So, am I no longer Lee Seolhwa?

That question shocked Shin Yoosoung. The disturbing questions she had been harboring all this time swirled in her head.

Perhaps the 'Kim Dokja' she knows does not exist in the world anymore.

As the 'Shin Yoosoung' from 1 year ago, 2 years ago, and 3 years ago is no longer in the world.

They definitely existed once, but aren't they only left in the story now?

She didn't want to think about anything complicated.

Even so, thinking of Kim Dokja, Shin Yoosoung couldn't help but think of such a thing.

What is Kim Dokja?

Kim Dokja left such a note. Therefore, Shin Yoosoung already knew Lee Gilyoung's answer.

"My hyung is a person who likes stories."

As if satisfied with his answer, Lee Gilyoung nodded his head several times and added.

"Hyung likes my story."

"Wouldn’t he like my story better?"

"No. He prefers my story."

The two started arguing again.

Shin Yoosoung thought.

In this world, conflict soon becomes a story. And stories are Kim Dokja's favorite things.

If Kim Dokja really likes stories, he will definitely see them now.

No matter what he looks like, if he sees this story, Shin Yoosoung will surely get her star back.

How long had they been talking like that?

Lee Seolhwa's voice was heard through the broadcasting in the industrial complex.

—He’s back.

He’s back. At those words, Shin Yoosoung and Lee Gilyoung held their breath.

No way.

However, there is no way that Kim Dokja has returned. That means—

Along with a beep, they heard someone grab a microphone.

—Gather. I have something to say.

Yoo Joonghyuk is back.