837 Episode 43 Transcendent Alliance (6)

Cheon Inho in the 40th Round.

His nicknames are the 'Evil Sophist' and 'The One Who Deceived the Stars'.

I don't know why he was given those nicknames. All I know is a very small amount of information about him.

That he was a rascal in the 3rd Round, and a great villain in the 40th Round.

That he almost became Yoo Joonghyuk's comrade for a short while.

That he had a showdown with Yoo Joonghyuk before the ending of the 40th Round.

And that he may have survived and continued the scenarios even after Yoo Joonghyuk regressed.

Memories that whirled in my head.

Memories I had experienced through the Time Fault slowly came to mind.

In the Fear's 'Subway on the Way Home from Work', I briefly experienced the 40th Round where Cheon Inho lived.

Actually, it's called 'experience', but I lived in the 40th Round for almost 3 months.

There, I became Cheon Inho, and I endured for 3 months with Yoo Joonghyuk, who was being chased by the Blood Cult.

Why did the Second Kim Dokja want to see Cheon Inho's story?

"Cheon Inho."

Why, out of all the 'characters', did I possess 'Cheon Inho'?

"Cheon Inho?"

I carefully called out his name.

The room with the lights off was dark and dreary. It had no sense of life, as if it had been abandoned for a long time.

As I took another step, the entire room shook lightly as if an old beast was groaning. With the bright lights coming in, a room about thirty pyeong in size came into view.

The first thing that caught my eye were the various shaped masks hanging on the wall.

"Ah."

Giyeon, riding on my shoulder, made a strange sound. When I lowered my hyung, who was wriggling on my shoulder, to the floor, he stood in front of the masks on the display stand and started to flutter.

"Ah."

"Do you want to touch the masks?"

"Ah."

"Take them out?"

"Ah."

"Don't cry like Biyoo."

I sighed and handed one of the masks to Giyeon.

The mask he chose was shaped like a small weasel. He must have really liked that mask, because he laughed heartily while wearing it and ran around the room.

I also followed Giyeon and slowly observed the masks. Some of the masks were new to me, and some looked familiar.

There were masks that resembled the Twelve Zodiac Signs, and there were masks that resembled Constellations. There was a mask that looked like Dionysus from <Olympus>, and another that reminded me of Hades from the <Underworld>.

Another mask resembled Surya from <Vedas>.

Suddenly, Cheon Inho's nickname came to mind. 'The One Who Deceived the Stars'.

Maybe all the masks here were a collection of people Cheon Inho had disguised as.

With that thought in mind, as I looked at the masks, this room felt empty again.

Cheon Inho must have always disguised himself, just like I had done.

If Kim Anna had heard, she would have said, "Are you sympathizing with the world's worst villain right now?" and given me a good scolding, but I couldn't stop the thought that suddenly came to my mind.

Maybe I too was born a villain. Cheon Inho, who became someone else and lived controlling people. What kind of ending did such Cheon Inho want to see in the end?

After looking around the room, we stopped in front of a small glass display case. There was a red coat on display in the display case. It was the same coat that Cheon Inho wore in his final fight with Yoo Jonghyuk.

"Ah."

"What?"

"Ah."

"Take it out?"

"Ah!"

"Put it on? Right now?"

Giyeon kept nagging, so I reluctantly took the coat out. I put my arm in the sleeve and put it on lightly, and the coat naturally wrapped around me as if it had been mine from the beginning.

'Infinite Dimension Space Coat' like Kim Dokja or Yoo Jonghyuk's.

However, there was one thing I realized when I actually put the clothes on.

These clothes weren't originally red.

The deep scent of blood that I could feel from the clothes, the white fabric that concealed that scent remained here and there. I was sure. This coat was originally white.

At that moment, Giyeon grabbed my hand. When I turned around in surprise, Giyeon was standing there, pointing to the full-length mirror next to me.

"Ah."

"Can't we stop here…?"

In the mirror, Giyeon and I were reflected.

The small Kim Dokja and the big Kim Dokja.

At first glance, we looked like father and son, holding hands.

That's when the mirror began to ripple.

I instinctively grabbed the handle of 'Unbreakable Faith' while holding Giyeon's hand.

The next moment, my face in the mirror distorted and changed into a familiar face.

It was a face I knew well.

The first time I saw it after possessing a character in this world - the face reflected on the subway screen door.

I got goosebumps just from hearing the voice. I instinctively had to judge whether the guy had used [Incite]. Fortunately, I didn't feel any sign of [Incite].

"…"

"Do you have to do your first greeting like this?"

Then, Cheon Inho in the mirror smiled with his eyes wide open.

"Stop joking around and get out of there quickly. It's creepy to hear you say that in the mirror."

"Why?"

I see. Is it because I'm occupying your body that you can't get out?

Then, Asmodeus's words suddenly came to mind.

Could it be that this guy could take my body away whenever he wanted?

Cheon Inho read my thoughts and said.

"It sounds like you plan on taking it away someday."

I shot back with a grin.

"Do you think that kind of threat will work? This is already my body. It's filled with the legends I've personally built. Even if you're the 'Recorder of Fear', you can't easily take away someone else's legends. The probability of the <Star Stream> doesn't allow that."

I said that, but I was actually anxious. It was because of the words that the God of Despair, Chunghuh, had left behind.

If the 'Recorders of Fear' really had that kind of ability, it could have been possible for them to take my body, despite the aftermath of probability.

Cheon Inho didn't really confirm or deny what I said, and just smiled ominously and said this.

Damn bastard, where did you boil Kim Dokja and eat him?

I responded with a pretended calm face.

"Why did you call me? Do you also want the interpretation of the 'Natural Disaster-level Fear' that I have?"

The other three 'Recorders of Fear' all had their own purposes for calling me.

Lycaon called me as a warning, Bicheonhori called me to get the interpretation I had. And Asmodeus just seemed to want to screw me over.

Then why did Cheon Inho call me?

"If you want this 'interpretation', I'm willing to make a deal with you."

I also had a purpose for coming here.

I still remembered the scene I saw through Anna Croft's [Past Sight].

In a world where all the stars had fallen, Cheon Inho was on par with the powerful Yoo Jonghyuk before the end of the world.

He and I were using the same body, and we had become stronger based on the same skills.

In short, the '40th Round Cheon Inho' was a kind of peak that this body could reach.

If I could just quickly gain that power, honestly, I would have tried to take on any enemy waiting in front of me. But Cheon Inho had a somewhat indifferent expression.

It seems that not all the Recorders of Fear wanted my interpretation. However, since it was one of the answers I expected, I wasn’t flustered.

"Then let’s make a deal. I’ll help you complete 'One Sentence'. In return—"

"What?"

This time, I couldn’t help but be flustered. I wanted to know what the One Sentence he had completed was. At the same time, I didn’t want to know.

I nodded for now.

Something suddenly came to mind.

When I returned from the '40th Round' via the 'subway on the way home from work', I received a message.

But Cheon Inho's next words were strange.

"What?"

"What do you mean?"

Cheon Inho's eyes were shining darkly like an abyss.

I felt a sense of déjà vu as if I had been asked a similar question before.

"I—"

Cheon Inho continued speaking in a voice that made it hard to read his intentions.

Come to think about it, it was when I realized that my origin was 49% Kim Dokja. It was thanks to Cheon Inho in front of me.

"To deceive the world well, you must first know the world well."

Cheon Inho closed his mouth.

"And for fuck's sake, I am you now."

"To become strong like you, I must also know who you are."

We looked at each other for a moment.

I couldn't define the emotions that flashed through his eyes.

Anger, hatred, despair, sadness. I couldn't express the emotions he felt in any words. That's why,

At that moment, Cheon Inho looked like a 'Fear' to me.

"What?"

And then a message came.

I shouted urgently.

"Wait a minute. Explain it clearly! What do you want me to rewrite?"

"What?"

When did it start? Giyeon-hyung, who had been holding my hand tightly, had disappeared.

"This damned bastard—"

The images of Cheon Inho and Giyeon-hyung holding his hand in the mirror began to blur.

I hurriedly reached out to the mirror. But a strong spark repelled me.

Those were Cheon Inho's last words.

The spark disappeared, and I was left alone in the mirror.

Wearing a red coat, I looked vaguely like Kim Dokja.

The scenery of the area changed like waves, and I returned to the 'Room of Time Fault' before I knew it.

It seemed like a lot of time had passed in the meantime, and all the Transcendents that had been waiting for me had disappeared somewhere.

I felt empty somehow.

"Damn it."

I hadn't accomplished anything properly.

I hadn't met Han Sooyoung, my goal when I first entered, and I had barely gotten any information about the Second Kim Dokja.

Of course, I had heard some meaningful information about the 'Recorders of Fear', and I had secured the right to use the 'Time Fault', but... something was missing.

What if I had been Kim Dokja?

If I had been a proper Kim Dokja, I would have definitely gotten better results than this. I would have been able to get items from Bicheonhori and Asmodeus with plausible words, and I wouldn't have had my hyung–Giyeon taken away by Cheon Inho.

But I couldn't do that.

Maybe I should go in and meet the Recorders again, even now...

Woong, woong.

That's when my smartphone rang.

I thought it was the First Kim Dokja, so I turned on the screen, but there was no contact.

Instead.

Update news for the 'Fear Realm Guide'. By the way, this 'guide' was updated in real time.

The Founder of the Absolute Throne.

The update details happened to be about the Outer God that I had hunted.

I opened the guide and looked for related entries.

And.

Most of the records themselves were things I knew. An old Outer God of a natural disaster. The Outer God that created the 'Absolute Throne', and the lawbreaker of the scenario...

But there was a strange link at the end of the text that I had scrolled down for a long time.

Hidden records? I absentmindedly clicked on the link and the records opened.

I read the records absentmindedly. Somehow, it felt unrealistic, so I closed the window and opened it again.

The content did not match the guide's content at all. Nevertheless, the record was clearly written there, waiting to be read by someone.

I read the record out loud.

It was not written who wrote the record. Nevertheless, it was clear who wrote it.

I read the two syllables over and over again. Then I slowly got up from my seat. It occurred to me that this story was not over yet. Because neither she, nor I, nor countless other Kim Dokjas had given up on this story. But.

"Disciple!"

At that moment, those running from afar seemed to have different thoughts from me. The Transcendents ran in front with faces that seemed to have already given up on something. I lightly bowed to Cheok Jungyeong.

"Did you meet the Recorders?"

"Yes. But what happened?"

Before Cheok Jungyeong could answer, the God of Despair Chunghuh, who was nearby, cut him off.

"What on earth were you talking about with the Recorders?"

After hearing Chunghuh's words in a panic, I realized something belatedly.

I looked around the empty space over and over again.

When on earth did it start?

"The End has begun."

The countdown above my head disappeared.

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