821 Episode 41 Sophistry (5)

In a way, it was a ridiculous idea.

It's not like Scheherazade, and there's no way that Fear can be solved just by telling a plausible story.

Nevertheless, I was convinced that this was possible.

More than anything, there were several 'metaphors' in this subway.

Han Sooyoung's guide explained.

Only those who saw the lights blink three times in total survived.

How about saying it like this? 「Blinking」 is not just a 'light'.

What if that 'light' is an 'eye' watching us?

It wasn't just that.

I looked at the passengers lined up here and there. Strangely, none of them were wearing earphones.

They are listening to our story.

If you think about it that way, a pretty plausible story is completed.

The space where you accidentally hear other people's stories is 'public transportation.'

Kim Dokja also used public transportation. He must have read and reread 'Ways of Survival' while riding the 'subway home from work' countless times.

In that sense, this subway was the space where Kim Dokja was more absorbed in the story than anyone else.

Now the premise is complete. The question is whether the gambler in Las Vegas will help me.

"Didn't you just forget about the old days?"

"I'll go and do well. I can forget."

"You are really—"

Anna Croft glared at me, then grabbed my hand and held it. I could barely understand her agony, which was contained in the short movement.

She was now putting the weight of her memories on the scale.

She wondered whether it would be good to tell Cheon Inho, who was in front of her, about what happened last time.

I decided to strike first.

"Just a few things to keep in mind, I am not Cheon Inho from the 40th Round."

Anna Croft, who was surprised by my words, raised her head and looked at me.

"Whatever Cheon Inho you remember was, I am different from him."

"That's."

"Just like Yoo Jonghyuk from the First Round was different from Yoo Jonghyuk from the Second Round."

"…"

"Just like Anna Croft was different in the Third and Fourth Rounds."

"The essence of a human being doesn't change easily."

"What do you think constitutes the essence of a human being?"

Anna Croft hesitated for a moment.

"The essence of a human being."

"It's the total sum of the history they have chosen and decided to live by."

Anna looked at me as if she was a little surprised, then slowly nodded.

"That's right. Everything in this world is made of 'stories'."

Her eyes were watching me. As long as I had the [Fourth Wall], those eyes wouldn't be able to read anything from me.

So what she was reading now was not me, but the stories of this world that she and I shared.

The things we did together in Washington. And even the rumors about the Recycling Center.

"I really can't figure out what you're thinking. You're suddenly talking about a novel, and you're making me play a strange role. And then."

Anna added, still clenching and unclenching her fist repeatedly.

"Now you're asking me to tell you who you are."

"Because only you can tell me that."

Now, almost no one remembers the 40th Round. Even Yoo Jonghyuk forgot most of his memories from the 40th Round in exchange for the 'Story Imprint'. The only one who properly remembered what happened in that Round was Anna Croft, a Prophet who could use [Past Sight].

Finally, Anna clenched her fist, as if she had decided on something.

"You."

The flesh on her palm, pressed against her fingernails, turned red.

"You were a piece of human trash."

"I already know that."

There is no reader who doesn't know that Cheon Inho is trash.

But Anna Croft's words didn't end there.

"If it weren't for you, so many people would have survived. Las Vegas wouldn’t have been destroyed, and the Korean Peninsula would have been intact.”

I expected it, but the scale was bigger than I thought.

Cheon Inho ruined Las Vegas and the Korean Peninsula?

"The great evils gathered under your banner, and the Demon War broke out. You and they messed up the scenarios."

"…"

"If you hadn’t fooled the Constellations, if you hadn’t made up some plausible excuses… Maybe Yoo Jonghyuk wouldn’t have had to regress."

I smiled bitterly.

Because that couldn’t have happened.

It was only the 40th Round. There was no way that Yoo Jonghyuk, the Regressor, could see the 'End' in that 40th Round.

However, the moment I heard Anna Croft’s voice, I couldn’t laugh anymore.

"Because you were one of Yoo Jonghyuk’s closest colleagues."

"Colleague?"

I wondered what that meant.

Because.

"Why didn’t he make me his colleague a long time ago?"

"He should have. But this life is too late."

Because in the memories I saw before, Cheon Inho and Yoo Jonghyuk were never colleagues.

They were mortal enemies, and they couldn't tolerate each other.

My head was in confusion.

What on earth does that mean?

They were colleagues before they fought?

No, is that even a possible setting in the first place?

"Please tell me exactly. Me and Yoo Jonghyuk were colleagues in the 40th Round?"

"That..."

Anna Croft's expression suddenly changed as she spoke.

"Oh, oh. Oh...?"

I felt an ominous feeling, and her whole body was shaking. Her red eyes turned white, and sparks jumped from her body that was turned white. And.

The lights were blinking.

Once. Twice. Three times.

FourFiveSixSevenEightNineTenElevenTwelveThirteenFourteenFifteenSixteenSeventeenEighteenNineteenTwentyTwentyOneTwentyTwentyTwentyThreeTwentyFourteenTwentySixteenTwentySeventeenEighteenNineteenTwentyTwentyOneTwentyTwoTwentyThreeTwentyFourTwentyFiveTwentySixTwentySevenTwentyEightTwentyNineThirtyThirtyOneThirtyTwoThirtyThreeThirtyFourThirtyFiveThirtySixThirtySevenThirtyEightThirtyNineForty

Something is wrong.

"Anna Croft! Come to your senses!"

I grabbed Anna urgently and shook her, but her consciousness had long since disappeared.

At that moment, the smartphone screen flashed. The guide's new information had been unlocked.

All subways head to the destination.

Destination? Where on earth is that?

Is it a good thing? It seemed that the subway's goal was gradually being found.

Passengers fell unnaturally.

Beyond the pitch-black window, I saw a huge streamlined body running beside the subway.

It was a fin.

Did it really follow me all this time?

The eyes of the guy moving urgently. It seemed to be warning me.

Escape from here immediately.

The guy's huge body crashed into the subway several times, and its fierce fangs collided with the side of the subway.

For a moment, I felt anticipation.

Tooth Fin is a 'Disaster-level Fear'. In some Rounds, it was even recorded as a 'Natural Disaster-level Fear'.

If it were him, wouldn't he be able to get me and Anna Croft out of this subway?

A loud noise that tore through my eardrums, intense sparks shot out all over the 'Tooth Fin's' body. 'Tooth Fin's' body bounced away helplessly.

After all, this subway seemed like it couldn't be handled by Outer Gods even by force.

I felt a little strange. I instinctively grabbed Anna Croft's arm, but I couldn't feel it in my hand. I felt my senses gradually becoming paralyzed along with the feeling of time and space gradually becoming distorted.

My vision blinked very slowly.

As if an electric motor blinked.

Once, twice.

Three times.

My vision disappeared.

My vision returned.

The moment I swallowed my breath, I was galloping through the meadow.

I almost fell over, but I managed to keep my balance and kept running.

It wasn't as good as [Way of the Wind], but it was definitely an amazing lightness technique.

What could it be? I have never learned this kind of martial arts.

"Chase that guy!"

I hurriedly turned around at the sound of the voice, and the masked men were running alongside me.

It didn't take long for me to figure out the situation.

My side profile was briefly reflected in the masked man's dagger running nearby.

Black mask.

I was also wearing a mask. In short, I wasn't being chased by them, but was 'chasing someone' with them.

I briefly checked my body while running. My physical condition didn't seem to have changed much, and my eyes were normal.

Then.

I put my hand in my bosom to figure out the situation. It was to find my smartphone.

Perhaps this situation was also a production based on 'Fear'. All Fear is a 'discarded tale', and most Fears have a re-experiential nature, so I might have entered the records of a fragment of a tale that existed in the past.

If so, there might be a hint in Han Sooyoung's guide or 'Ways of Survival'. Even if there are no hints there, I have the First Kim Dokja. If only the call could be connected safely—

Hmm?

None. My heart sank lightly.

I put my hands in my bosom several times. I searched my pants pockets and my back pocket.

My smartphone was gone.

And that wasn’t all. Most of the items I had were gone. I had no Unbreakable Faith or Thoughts. Of course, my coat was gone.

I felt my head opening up along with a slight headache.

Fortunately, the skills I had seemed to have been synchronized.

Yes, if I had the ability, I wouldn’t be flustered.

There is nothing.

Even without a smartphone, I can figure out where this place is on my own.

"It's over there! It's that guy!"

It didn't take long for me to figure out the situation.

The man the masked men were chasing appeared in front of me.

I slowly opened my eyes and looked at the target.

The fluttering black coat and the strangely familiar wide back.

Thinking that something was strange, I widened my eyes even more, or at that moment, with a "spot~" sound, the masked man's head flew off.

"Kwaaaaak!"

What the hell.

I quickly got out of the group and hid in a nearby forest.

I wondered if those crazy guys were attacking Yoo Jonghyuk, but the masked men's skills were no joke. Judging from the martial arts they were using, I thought they were probably the best of the previous generation, or maybe the elite of the Demonic Cult or Blood Cult.

Of course, Yoo Jonghyuk is Yoo Jonghyuk, no matter who the opponent is.

The guy swung his [Breaking the Sky Sword] mercilessly and killed the masked men. One, twenty, thirty. In an instant, the nearby forest was filled with blood.

But Yoo Jonghyuk, who was carrying out such a merciless massacre, did not look in good condition at all.

I immediately noticed his condition.

He was poisoned.

The pale complexion of the farmer proved it. Perhaps the intangible poison—or a poison comparable to the heavenly poison—was eating away at his entire body.

He must have fallen into a trap, or walked into one himself.

In an instant, over a hundred incarnations fell to the ground, and Yoo Jonghyuk started running again.

Cut, run, fall, cut, run.

Cut.

How much time had passed?

Finally, Yoo Jonghyuk, who had been staggering, knelt down. I was the only masked person left around him.

I came out of the water and cautiously approached him. You could tell just by looking at him. Yoo Jonghyuk had no magic left. He seemed to have already used [Knight Resurrection].

"Yoo…!"

I was about to speak to Yoo Jonghyuk, but I stopped because I felt something strange.

The guy was glaring at me.

"The energy is strange."

If Yoo Jonghyuk had seen me, he would have asked for help from me.

But he didn't.

I reflexively used [Character List]. And.

Yoo Jonghyuk, who was glaring at me as if he was going to kill me, collapsed forward.

Then, I heard the loud voices of the masked men from beyond the bushes.

"Over there!"

I looked down at the back of Yoo Jonghyuk's head, who had fallen.

While thinking that such a thing could not be possible, I could not deny the great battle unfolding before my eyes.

I told the supervisor the story of the '40th Round' on the subway.

And if my skill was not wrong, the guy who had fallen with the back of his head exposed was Yoo Jonghyuk of the '40th Round' that I had only heard of.

My head rang.

"There it is!"

Damn it. I don't know.

Right now, I had to think about something certain.

Right now, Yoo Jonghyuk of the 40th Round was lying in front of me, and I had two choices.

Should I save Yoo Jonghyuk in front of me, or let him die?

"Kill him!"

I didn't think long.

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