898 Episode 50 The World After The End (1)

—Dionysus, the God of Wine and Ecstasy

A part of the sparkling story was scattered and absorbed into me.

Perhaps this is the last gift Han Sooyoung left me.

Even though she knew that this 'ending' would come, and even though she knew that I wouldn't be needed in her ending, Han Sooyoung taught me everything about herself. This was her choice.

Her voice hummed in my head.

As I barely managed to stabilize my breathing, a message came.

The possibility of a new Giant Tale. Perhaps it was because it affected the 1,863rd worldline.

Normally, it would have been something to be happy about, but there was one problem for me.

As expected.

Han Sooyoung was right.

It seemed that all the 'Giant Tales' I would obtain would be absorbed into the 'First Giant Tale'.

A sign of the aftershock that was slowly coming.

It was the result of me, who was not even a member of this 'worldline', receiving excessive benefits from this worldline. Normally, in this case, the 'Management Bureau' would make one of two choices.

One is to make the entity that has a negative impact on the scenario a 'disaster' and incorporate it into the scenario.

And the second is to banish the entity from the scenario.

The interests of the Management Bureau coincided with a 'proposal' that came in at the right time.

'Forced movement of the worldline' was a transfer that would not be easily attempted unless at least by a 'Secretive Plotter' level entity.

But there is an entity that can negotiate and pull off that transfer with the 'Management Bureau'.

Han Sooyoung, who on earth did you contract with?

Han Sooyoung said that I shouldn't know that name yet.

But I was the entity that knew the end of 'Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint'. Could there be someone whose name I shouldn’t know?

That was when a strange scent wafted from the tip of my nose.

The scent of apples?

My vision shook with the softly spreading scent. The portal in front of my eyes was calling me.

I saw Han Sooyoung’s body enjoying a reunion with her companions from afar. I wanted to say goodbye for the last time, but that 'Han Sooyoung' wouldn’t recognize me.

The Han Sooyoung who remembered me is now gone. And I have to live the blank space she left behind.

I have to write the next sentence while carrying all the words she left behind.

Can I do it like Han Sooyoung? Like Han Sooyoung, who knew that she would become tIs123, but did not hesitate to move forward toward the same future.

Can you choose an endless eternity just to save one person's world?

My vision became distorted and all the scenery became distant.

I listened to the message coming in and focused my mind.

Along with the familiar voice, I felt the flow of time and space being distorted.

When I opened my eyes again, what was revealed was a desolate scene.

No sign of life was felt around the innermost part of the 'Fear Realm' where everything was destroyed. Suddenly, the scenery of that day came to mind once again. The destruction of the Fear Realm, and the incarnations of the Fear Realm fleeing on the 'train'. The constellations of the giant nebula that attacked the Fear Realm, and the tail of the 'Apocalypse Dragon' that flew over the fault. The gods of the other world who were running away in a panic from the 'Time Fault' where they had been hiding.

The traces of the ruins that still remained were evidence of the history of that day.

Including the portal I had come through, all other 'Time Faults' were closed.

Time Fault.

Was the story I had experienced really a 'history' that existed? Or was it just a 'Time Fault'?

If it was a story that no one would remember anyway, was there a significant difference between the two?

Woof.

My smartphone was ringing in my arms.

I immediately checked the caller.

It was a call from the 'Demon King of Salvation'.

I walked through the ruins of the Fear Realm and talked to the Demon King of Salvation.

—Hey, man! Pick up the phone!

The 'Demon King of Salvation' seemed to have gotten a little angrier since I hadn't seen him before.

—Hey! I told you not to touch that! Do you really want to get hurt? Huh? Huh? Hey! I fell down! Get back up quickly!

Who is he talking to?

For a while, a clattering sound could be heard from the other end of the phone. It seemed like there was a commotion in the [Fourth Wall].

—Damn, it’s so hard to hear a voice. Why aren’t you answering the phone?

"Did you call me?"

It was strange. My smartphone never rang while I was in the 1,863rd round.

—Yeah! Do you know how much coins I spend on each call?

"It’s always the recipient’s call."

When I checked my smartphone, there were actually dozens of 'missed calls'.

But why didn’t I know that I had a call? Was it in an area where I couldn’t receive calls?

—No matter how distracted you were by Han Sooyoung, you have to answer my calls.

It seemed that the 'Demon King of Salvation' knew roughly what I had been through in the 1,863rd round.

"If you have something to say, I can tell her."

—She'd have forgotten everything even if I told you.

"Just because Han Sooyoung disappeared, that story didn't disappear entirely."

If it was none other than Kim Dokja, there must have been something he wanted to say to Han Sooyoung in the 1,863 round.

The two had never met since they met in the 1,863rd round.

—I'm not the 'Kim Dokja' she remembers.

"Still..."

—And you said everything I wanted to say.

Sometimes, whenever I talked to Han Sooyoung, I felt like someone was knocking on the wall at the entrance of my heart.

It felt like someone was conveying their thoughts to me from beyond the wall.

Maybe it was a signal from the 'Demon King of Salvation'.

—I didn't know you would say that.

"You're talking about tIs123."

Thinking back, the story related to tIs123 was something that should never have been told to Han Sooyoung, considering the distortion of the worldline.

"Why didn't you stop me? There must have been a way to talk without using the phone."

—Are you the kind of person who would listen to me if I told you not to?

"If you were an ordinary person, you would have told me not to."

The story of tls123 was related to the origin of this world.

If Han Sooyoung had not become tIs123 and written the novel, Kim Dokja would not have survived and 『Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint』 would not have begun.

It means that the very creation of the world could have been distorted due to my slip of the tongue and that this entire universe could have been overturned.

—Does that mean that I had to say with my own mouth that Han Sooyoung had to die in order to save me?

Come to think about it, this was a complicated issue for Kim Dokja.

"Well, you're the kind of person who would rather die than kill someone else."

—You talk like it's someone else's business, you idiot.

"But this problem isn't just about our lives."

If Han Sooyoung doesn't create 'Ways of Survival', not only Kim Dokja's history, but everyone related to us will change. Those who die and those who live will change, and maybe the world could have fallen more into great tragedy and misery.

Even so, Kim Dokja did not stop me. The reason was clear.

"You knew, right?"

Kim Dokja probably knew what choice Han Sooyoung would make.

— Because that's the kind of person she is.

A reader who has read a writer's story longer than anyone else can read sentences that the writer did not write.

— You knew Han Sooyoung would make that choice, right? That's why you were able to tell the truth.

I turned my head and looked at the entrance of the 'Time Fault' I had come out of. It hadn't been that long since I had experienced all those things, but the events of that worldline felt somewhat distant.

"Is what I experienced really 'history' that actually happened?"

—Now that novels have become reality, does it still matter what's real and what's fake?

Kim Dokja was right. Whether real or fake, the story I told with her clearly remains inside me.

Still, if you think it would be nice to have at least one more person who remembers that story—someone who can tell you that the story was real, is it greed?

—The second and I watched it together. And the other kkoma Kim Dokjas.

I smiled silently.

Kim Dokja wouldn't know. How much comfort his one word is to me right now.

—Are you crying?

"…The [Fourth Wall] seems a bit noisy, what's going on?"

—Are you really asking because you don't know? It's all because of you.

"Is it because of me?"

While I was learning various things from Han Sooyoung in the 1,863rd round, the Demon King of Salvation said that he spent all his time organizing the [Fourth Wall].

—What do you want me to do if you put all the Outer Gods of the Fear Realm in the library? Do you think I'm Yoo Sangah?

As expected, many of the 'Divine Beings of the Other World' who resided in the 'Fear Realm'’s Time Fault seemed to have been incorporated into the [Fourth Wall]. It was a side effect of accepting the 'King of Fear' as the [Fourth Wall].

—The library almost collapsed...

"But you managed to calm them down, huh?"

—They all liked your story.

My story.

—The guys who would go crazy at the mere touch of me, became like ghosts when the story of the 1,863rd round began. It got quiet. So in that gap…

Just as Outer Gods were hiding in the 'Time Fault' of the Fear Realm, Kim Dokja said that he folded them one by one and put them like bookmarks between the records of the [Fourth Wall].

I don't know exactly what that means, but I was glad that it was sorted out anyway.

"How about the 'King of Fear'?"

—Second…

At that moment, the phone was interrupted by static and the call was disconnected.

The side effects of 'worldline movement' were finally about to begin.

Tsutsutsutsu.

A light spark shot out from my entire body.

I finally recalled the contents of the 'main story'. Just like when Kim Dokja visited the 1,863rd round of the main story, those who have experienced dimension movement to another 'worldline' are always given a 'returner scenario'.

This time will probably be the same.

My heart pounded for no reason. Ji Eunyu, Dansu ahjussi, Kyung Sein, Yerin-ssi, Ye Hyunwoo, Killer King… Are they all doing well? And that bastard Yoo Joonghyuk too.

It was finally time to meet them again. But.

What?

I frowned at the sentence that followed quietly.