817 Episode 41 Sophistry (1)

Things that cannot be told disappear outside the scenario, and sometimes they appear in the universe in unfamiliar forms.

They are commonly called Otherworldly Deities, or Outer Gods.

But no name can contain their sorrow, so the recorders call them Fear.」

—Recorder of Fear

Snowflakes fell on his face and melted warmly. Gilyoung opened his eyes at the soft sensation.

"Hyung."

As soon as he opened his eyes, a pure white snowy field spread out before him. At the end of the snowy field, the person the boy had been longing for was standing. A person who waved his slender arms lightly, a person whose lonely smile was truly charming.

He smiled as brightly as always, and disappeared into the snow that was as white as his face.

"Dokja hyung!"

A name he thought he would never be able to call again. Gilyoung called it out loud.

"Kim Dokja!"

Memories that came to mind.

In order to meet that person again, to reunite with each other in complete form, the group chose one ending.

They collected his pieces from the ashen ruins where there was nothing. They accepted the tragedy of participating in the scenarios again.

They went to the recycling center.

"Dokja hyung! Dokja hyung!"

When they first saw him, Lee Gilyoung denied that he was Kim Dokja. He thought that he couldn't call him 'Kim Dokja' simply because he shared a part of his memories.

The Kim Dokja he remembered was an omniscient man. A man who knew everything and always made choices that defied people's expectations.

A man who could give a grasshopper to an insignificant boy in the midst of the subway tragedy where everyone was killing each other.

Kim Dokja was that kind of person.

He resembled Kim Dokja's face and speech, but no matter how you looked at him, he was a weak person who couldn't protect the moon alone.

Lee Gilyoung always watched him from the shadow of the scenarios, afraid that he might die.

The more he looked, the more different he was from Kim Dokja.

He saved people without knowing that he was dying, and fought for people who weren't worth keeping alive, and he couldn't even do anything about the scenario right in front of him, but only looked into the distant future with his eyes.

After all, that's not Dokja hyung.

While thinking that to himself, Lee Gilyoung continued to watch his story.

He watched him slowly make his way through the scenario, and he saw the number of people following him increase one by one.

Watching his story, which took a strangely different path from the path that <Kim Dokja Company> had walked, Lee Gilyoung often had a thought.

The Kim Dokja in his memories was a complete person from the beginning.

A person who held all the world's records in his hands. But was Kim Dokja really that kind of person? Wasn't that actually an illusion he had created?

Maybe Dokja hyung also wanted to run away every time.

He might not have wanted to fight.

He might have been afraid of death.

It must have been more difficult for him than anyone else to pioneer a new path that no one had walked before.

Even so, Kim Dokja always fought with the illusions of his companions on his back.

He is the omniscient Kim Dokja.

He is the Kim Dokja who always has to sacrifice alone.

Lee Gilyoung hated Kim Dokja who tried to handle everything alone. He hoped that he wouldn't make sacrifices. He hoped that he wouldn't be left alone. Even so.

Or perhaps because of that,

When the man made the same choice as that 'Kim Dokja', Lee Gilyoung had no choice but to admit it.

"Don't go! Don't do it!"

That person is Kim Dokja.

"Please! Don't do it!"

The Kim Dokja he was looking for was always the Kim Dokja who left him. In that irony, Gilyoung shouted and shouted at the disappearing figure of Kim Dokja.

I must not let that story be recorded. I must not let Kim Dokja die again.

The moment he reached out to him again.

The answer that came back was that of the supervisor.

He was the old man who brought Gilyoung to the 'Recycling Center.'

"No."

Gilyoung growled and snapped. He still hadn't done his job. He hadn't saved his hyung from another world.

However, the head of the Recycling Center—the 'Mass Producer'—had shook his head.

"What nonsense are you talking about."

Their story wasn't over.

Kim Dokja was still his main character and the god of this world.

The moment he heard those words, Han Sooyoung suddenly came to mind. Yes. Han Sooyoung was there.

She might be able to do it. She could change all these records.

But this time, the Mass Producer shook his head.

Lee Gilyoung wanted to ask what that meant.

He is still here.

<Kim Dokja Company> is still looking for Kim Dokja. So the story is not over. Their roles continue.

The mass-producer felt sorry for Lee Gilyoung and reached out and touched his cheek.

When he opened his eyes again, he saw a pure white snowy field. When he looked closely, it was the ceiling of the hospital room.

He felt something flowing down the corner of his eye. At first glance, a hand that felt indifferent wiped away his tears.

"Idiot. Are you awake?"

When he turned his head, Shin Yoosoung was looking at him. Lee Gilyoung looked up at the girl with blank eyes. The boy and girl looked at each other for a long time.

Lee Gilyoung said.

"We failed."

This time, the two children failed to save Kim Dokja.

<Kim Dokja Company> gathered together for the first time.

"Gilyoung. Don't you have something to say to the people?"

Lee Gilyoung was called out by Yoo Sangah's words. The boy sighed deeply as he endured the gazes of the group looking at him.

"C-Can't we do it later? My limbs are so numb right now, and my neck hurts a little..."

It wasn't a lie. Lee Gilyoung suffered damage to various parts of his body due to the effects of the aftershock of the probability.

Fortunately, Abaddon, his sponsor, had taken some of the aftershock, so it wasn't a wound that could have killed him.

However, this time, he couldn't make excuses about being sick.

"This time, you're not the only one who got hurt."

Hearing Yoo Sangah's cold voice for the first time in a long time, Gilyoung shrugged his shoulders and looked around at the group.

Yoo Sangah, Lee Seolhwa, Shin Yoosoung, and that dark guy… No one seemed particularly hurt.

Could it be that they were hurt?

"Oh really, just forgive me. The kid got into an accident."

Someone was coming in through the creaking door to the hospital room.

Shin Yoosoung, startled, got up from her seat and supported the person, who was staggering.

"Unni, what should I do if you come out already?"

"Oh, why? I’m okay. I’m all better."

"What’s better? Seolhwa said earlier that you need to rest—"

Gilyoung opened his eyes in surprise.

Lee Jihye was waving her right hand while her whole body was wrapped in bandages.

"Unni?"

"What."

"No, why all those bandages?"

"What."

She can wrap bandages. But the problem was that she had bandages all over her body, or more precisely, the fact that she was 'bandaged' was the problem.

There were countless ways to treat wounds in this world. There was a medicine that would completely heal the wound the next day if you took one pill and fell asleep, and there was an ointment that would quickly regenerate new skin if you just lightly applied it.

Despite the existence of such items, Lee Jihye was wearing bandages. This meant that her injury could not be treated without bandaging.

"Why are you all looking at me like that? I'm really okay. I'm fine."

Lee Jihye, who was saying that, seemed to have difficulty raising both arms. After a moment of struggling and receiving criticism from Shin Yoosoung, Lee Jihye slumped down on her chair and continued speaking.

"Don't be so mean to him, everyone. It's okay for a child to have an accident. That's how they grow up."

Only then did Lee Gilyoung realize why Lee Jihye was so hurt. Before he knew it, his hands were covered in cold sweat. He bit his lips. If it were normal, he would have snapped, "No, who would have come to save you for so long?" but this time, he couldn’t say that. Even at a glance, Lee Jihye’s wounds looked really serious.

"Noona..."

Lee Jihye giggled at Lee Gilyoung’s unusual attitude.

"Hey, it’s really nothing. It’s just that I didn’t fight well because it’s been a while."

"…Who did that?"

"Why? If you know, you’ll take revenge on them."

"Tell me."

"The Spear That Draws the Boundary of the Seas."

"Poseidon."

Lee Gilyoung bit his lips.

Lee Jihye coughed lightly and laughed, wiping her nose.

"Hey, but isn’t it a good thing that I fought Poseidon to this extent? Even so, he’s still the 3rd god of <Olympus>."

"…"

"I told you I couldn’t move with [Ghost Fleet]? I shot hundreds of rounds per second while changing the story, and that old man’s expression turned pale and—"

Lee Gilyoung couldn’t raise his drooping head.

He wanted to ask. Why did she come all this way to save him?

He wanted to tell her. It would have been okay if she hadn’t come. He would have somehow come back alive.

She didn’t have to get hurt like that.

"Gilyoung, I know what you’re thinking."

Lee Jihye spoke to Lee Gilyoung. With her bandaged hands, she wrapped her arms around the boy’s shoulders, who had grown quite a bit.

"I was just like you."

Lee Jihye looked at the group in place of the proud boy. And she bowed her head, creaking with her unbending back.

"So I’m sorry."

As Lee Jihye apologized on his behalf, something inside Lee Gilyoung that he had been holding back burst out. Lee Gilyoung, who had gotten up with a jerk, fell to his knees on the floor.

"I was wrong. I'm sorry for worrying you. I'm really, really sorry."

Lee Seolhwa sat the children down, who were apologizing repeatedly.

"Calm down, both of you. Have a drink of this each."

There was no one there who blamed the children. Not Yoo Sangah, not Lee Seolhwa, not Yoo Jonghyuk.

In fact, they all knew. They would have acted the same way if they were in the children's shoes.

"It's okay since they're alive."

The one who said those words was Yoo Jonghyuk.

The fact that Yoo Jonghyuk said those words was enough to make the group look at him in surprise.

Yoo Jonghyuk frowned and added.

"So let's stop talking about unnecessary things. I want to hear why we're here."

Yoo Sangah nodded.

In fact, they didn't gather here just to call the kids and scold them. There was something much more important.

"I have two pieces of news."

"Say it."

"One is news about Heewon and Hyunsung."

Jung Heewon and Lee Hyunsung, the children gulped at the familiar names they had finally heard.

"I think the two have finally made up their minds."

Determination.

The group's expressions brightened at Yoo Sangah's expression.

The first to speak was Shin Yoosoung.

"Are Hyunsung and Heewon-unnie here too?"

"Where are they? The two of them—"

However, no matter how much they looked around, they couldn't see the two of them. No matter how much they raised their alertness or sharpened their senses, they couldn't feel any sign of them.

"Ah."

With Shin Yoosoung's sigh, the group realized.

Just as they chose their 'ending', the other two also chose their 'ending'.

Yoo Sangah nodded and said.

"The two went to a 'different ending' than us."

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