778 Episode 35 Demon King Qualifications (4)
[You came to find me.]
Kim Dokja stared blankly at his clone and tilted his head.
[But no matter how much I think about it, it doesn't make sense.]
[What?]
[How can you exist here?]
Even if the time of the <Star Stream> moved toward the 'empty space' of the story, this was a nonsensical story.
Whether it was 51% or 49%, all of Kim Dokja's soul fragments were disintegrated and scattered into space.
It became the <Star Stream> itself.
If it weren't for the novel written by Han Sooyoung, Kim Dokja wouldn't have survived now.
But how could 49% of his clone exist in such a distant place?
What's even stranger is that the clone in front of him feels like it existed much longer than that.
The clone answered.
[If you exist, it wouldn’t be so strange if I exist.]
[Han Sooyoung didn’t write stories like that.]
The look in the clone’s eyes changed subtly.
[Of course.]
[You are me. I am you. If Han Sooyoung’s story had been successful, we should have been restored as one person.]
[It’s simple. We are no longer 'one'.]
We are not one.
Kim Dokja thought about those words for a moment and then said.
[Let’s go back. There are people waiting for us.]
[They must be people waiting for you.]
[What nonsense are you talking about?]
[Remove your hand and leave.]
[What?]
[The world you are trying to intervene in now is 'my world'.]
Only then did Kim Dokja look at the 'Void Curtain' that he had placed his hand on. The world inside this 'Void Curtain' was a world that even Kim Dokja, who had been the oldest dream, did not know about.
「 How could a world he did not know exist? 」
The realization came a little too late. The answer to the question was simple.
Because his clone in front of him had become this world’s 'oldest dream'.
He had watched over this world so that it could come to life and its characters could live.
[I see. You… don’t want this world to end, do you?]
The clone didn’t answer.
Kim Dokja let out a light sigh and added.
[You can imagine this place even when you go back. So let’s go back. I’ll read this story with you. You don’t have to carry it alone—]
Since when did it start? The clone that had the same 'Unbreakable Faith' as his had been aiming at his neck.
[What are you doing?]
He was confused.
Why did the clone harbor such strong hostility toward him?
[I just said it. This is my 'world'. I don’t want to read it with you.]
[Where is your world, my world? You…]
He has used [Avatar] many times before, but this has never happened before.
A clone that has escaped the control of the main body.
It was like him yesterday, or him the day before yesterday, suddenly declaring, 'I am Kim Dokja'.
[You really.]
Kim Dokja thought of Han Sooyoung’s avatar that he had met in the 1,863rd round a long time ago.
That Han Sooyoung had also escaped the control of the main body and had her own ego.
What if the clone in front of him had become that kind of case?
Kim Dokja smiled and asked.
[Who are you?]
[What?]
[Who gathered you?]
The clone’s pupils wavered for a moment.
Kim Dokja didn’t miss the gap and asked.
[As I said, Han Sooyoung has never written a story about you existing like this. That means…]
Kim Dokja slowly raised his voice and spoke.
[Before Han Sooyoung wrote the novel, someone must have collected my 'soul'.]
[Nonsense.]
[Well. Whether this is nonsense or not, it seems like the beings behind you are explaining it.]
Kim Dokja could clearly feel it. The ominous and distant feeling behind the clone's back.
[Everyone, run away! Run away!]
The constellations surrounding them began to sway.
The absolute beings of the universe that made even those constellations tremble in fear.
There was something that held such a powerful aura that it could even be a threat to him, the 'oldest dream'.
[I wondered who they were.]
Kim Dokja frowned.
The abyss of this universe is vast. No matter how much he is the 'oldest dream', there are beings in this universe who escape his observation or live hidden between the lines.
Beings who are more afraid of being recorded than anyone else, and at the same time, who want to take over the record more than anyone else.
There were definitely those beings behind the clone right now.
[I don't know who tricked you, but you're being fooled right now.]
[It doesn't matter.]
[It doesn't matter? Really?]
Kim Dokja, who had been silently enduring, couldn't hold it in this time.
[There are people waiting for us. Are you thinking of betraying them?]
The clone he left behind was 'Kim Dokja' who existed for <Kim Dokja Company>. Kim Dokja couldn't accept the fact that such a clone refused to return to <Kim Dokja Company>.
[What those people want is you, not me.]
[You're me too.]
['You're me too'.]
The clone smiled subtly once again.
[I think it’s time for me to say that.]
[What?]
[What do you think 'real' is?]
[Are you suddenly going to have a philosophical conversation?]
[If having just a few more percent of memories is what separates 'real' and 'fake'.]
The tension slowly began to boil over in the clone’s entire body. The entire universe rippled and heated up dangerously.
[I think the 'clone' is you now.]
Kim Dokja nodded, watching Kim Dokja aim at him once again.
[Aha, so now the 'real' is you?]
Two Kim Dokjas aim their swords at each other.
Identical coats, identical Unbreakable Faiths.
The only thing that sets them apart is the meaning contained in those beliefs.
[You haven’t forgotten, have you? You’re not 51% anymore.]
Kim Dokja nodded with a grin.
[You’re not the 49% I knew.]
As if announcing the start of war, a meteor fell from somewhere.
「 And the fight began. 」
「 Then who the hell am I? 」
Goo Seonah clearly remembered the moment she first came into this world.
She was at the theater that day. She wasn’t planning to watch a movie, but to attend some fan event.
—Hey, this is my first time here.
She contacted her partner nervously at the theater entrance.
Her partner’s name was Go Jangwon.
His nickname was Go Janggo.
It was because he often said things that sounded like his head was broken.
—Go Jang. Where are you now?
—I took the subway
—What station
—Actually, I just got out of the house.
—I’m going to go back.
—Young-in, we can wait. You know?
—Just die.
While wondering why she had come to like this guy, she was very excited about today’s schedule. After today's event, they should eat something delicious together and go to a cafe and talk about novels all day.
With that thought, she opened the theater door. Not knowing what would happen to her after that.
"It still doesn't feel real."
Goo Seonah clenched and unclenched her fists several times while muttering bitterly to herself.
Several months had already passed since that day.
And she had changed a lot in those months. She no longer talked to strangers. When someone approached her, she was wary, suspicious, and even prepared to kill them if necessary.
It was a world where she couldn't survive if she didn't do that, and she survived.
「 Only to meet Go Jangwon again. 」
Goo Seonah looked down at the fallen Cheon Inho. No, he was no longer Cheon Inho. His appearance, his physique, and the items he was wearing now resembled 'Kim Dokja' more than anyone else.
[Story fragment 'A Certain Beginning' is shaking!]
Kim Dokja, who was injected with a story fragment, did not stop convulsing as if he had completely lost his senses.
「 A Certain Beginning. 」
It had been a few weeks since she had obtained this story fragment.
While she was hunting monsters as usual and absorbing the souls of readers who died during the scenario to gain strength, a familiar being appeared in her dreams.
【Honestly, I didn't know you would survive this far.】
"Representative Kim Dokja?"
The being I once met in a dream 'theater'.
"No, should I call you 'Asmodeus'?"
Goo Seon-ah was now able to see through his true identity. It was the result of gathering information from Ye Hyunwoo and other readers and making her own deductions.
[Oh. Am I already that famous?]
"What's your business?"
[I have a 'fragment' I want to give you.]
Goo Seonah obtained 「A Certain Beginning」 at that time. Unfortunately, most of the fragments were lost, so she couldn't obtain complete memories. However, it wasn't hard to guess what happened even with the legend with holes here and there.
「 Kim Dokja and Kim Dokja fought. 」
As a result of that confrontation, the 'Kim Dokja' she knew was torn into several pieces.
Goo Seonah looked down at the convulsing Kim Dokja.
Is this person really that 'Kim Dokja'?
Asmodeus, who gave her memories, described him like this.
【He is 49% Kim Dokja, the cause of all this.】
Goo Seonah quietly observed Kim Dokja. However, no matter how much she observed, she still felt like she didn’t understand.
The more she thought about it, the more things didn’t make sense.
If this guy was really 49% Kim Dokja, why did he lose all his memories and come here? No, wasn’t this guy a reader who had been living in reality with her and then possessed a character in this world?
What was most unsettling was that there was a subtle difference that she couldn’t explain between the '49% Kim Dokja' she had confirmed in her memories and the 'Kim Dokja' in front of her.
"Ah, I don’t know."
Goo Seonah slowly brought her hand to Kim Dokja’s neck.
She’ll know if she absorbs it.
There was only one thing for sure. This man in front of her now had more 'Kim Dokja fragments' than she had ever collected. If she could get these 'Kim Dokja fragments', she would get closer to the one and only Kim Dokja than anyone else.
'Then I can find the cause.'
Goo Seonah took deep breaths.
Her hands kept shaking. This was because she had never taken the 'Kim Dokja fragment' of a living incarnation before. The 'Kim Dokja fragments' she had taken were all of the readers who were on the verge of death or had gone mad.
「 "Take my memories." 」
It was the same when she absorbed Christina.
Christina, who faced death while carrying out the <Twelve Zodiac Signs> scenario, entrusted the 'Kim Dokja fragment' she had to Goo Seonah.
She took on the burden. The more she embraced it, the stronger she became.
'You can do it. Come to your senses.'
Goo Seonah slapped her own cheek several times. She must do it. She must absorb it.
That's how she can become strong. That's how she can get her friend back.
In the end, Goo Seonah, who had made up her mind, reached out her hand once more.
[The story 'Heir of the Eternal Name' rejects you!]
A feeling of something biting her hand came along, along with a surge of excitement.
Tsk tsk tsk.
And Kim Dokja's memories began to come back. Some memories were sad, and some were painful.
There were also memories she knew.
「 "Seonah-ssi. Don't make Inho-ssi too uncomfortable. He's not someone who would lie." 」
The more she examined her memories, the more she felt that something was wrong.
Was it really the right thing to absorb this guy? Wasn't what she said actually right? Wasn't it necessary for someone to become the only Kim Dokja?
The moment she thought that.
[The story 'Recorder of Things That Will Disappear' begins its storytelling.]
Goo Seonah encountered a story in a corner of his memory.
「 Yeong-in-ah. We can date. You know? 」
It was the voice of Go Jangwon that she had been looking for.
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