Ch 539: Epilogue 4 - The Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, IV

An explosion rang out on the field of snow.

Yoo Joonghyuk swung the [Black Heavenly Demon Sword] and smacked away the 'Hounds Chasing After the Abyss', before climbing on the roof of the subway train.

That explosion just now, it sounded suspicious. Did something happen inside the train?

The Abyssal Black Flame Dragon fighting off the Hounds blew his top in anger. There didn't seem to be an end to these black hounds rushing in at them from all sides.

The Great Sage continuously throwing down lightning bolts to scorch the hounds could only mutter on in an exhausted voice. […I don't want to admit this, but I'm still ways off from comparing against the people from 999th turn.]

Yet another explosion noise went off from inside the subway. Yoo Joonghyuk reflexively turned his head in that direction. What could those be? From the front car of the train, bits and pieces of what resembled Stories began leaking out.

It was also right then that some things were spat out of the hole on the train along with the loud 'Ku-gugugu!' noise.

Uriel freaked out and shouted at him. [Yoo Joonghyuk! Dodge it!]

Right next second, hounds being ejected from the train blanketed Yoo Joonghyuk like a black cloud.

Pah-susu…

Black bits scattered about. With the comma-shaped hole as the centre, the door before their eyes was disappearing.

Han Sooyoung pushed herself off the floor and looked to the front. Letters were strewn about near the cabin door leading to the 3807 train car.

⸢I also⸥

⸢With you all⸥

The moment she saw those words that couldn't yet become sentences, Han Sooyoung realized just what knocked on the door from the other side. They were Stories – very small fragments of Kim Dokja. Her eyes chased after the line of fallen fragments. The closer she got to the centre of the cabin, the greater the number of Story fragments fallen on the floor.

⸢Kim Dokja was there.⸥

Kim Dokja's body, now as small as a young child, was floating up in the middle of the cabin. His eyes were closed, and he seemed unconscious. Rays of entrancing light were being emitted by his figure that continued to shed blinding Story fragments. These fragments went through the subway's windows and drifted off to the destination unknown.

"Ah…?"

Kim Dokja's Avatar next to Han Sooyoung gasped out. His eyes were trembling as if he was shocked. Then, he began approaching the young Kim Dokja.

"Ah… Ah, I'm…"

The moment he said that, a powerful suction force began pulling him in. Some kind of power was summoning him back. The Avatar's body began breaking down bit by bit. Those broken bits were then sucked into the main body.

His gaze looking back met Han Sooyoung's. She reached out unbeknownst even to herself.

"Grab him!"

However, her hand couldn't touch him. The rate of the Avatar breaking down and getting sucked in grew faster. The bits of fragments from the Avatar brushed past her hand – some words were caught in Han Sooyoung's fingers.

⸢I'm sorry⸥

Just what was he sorry about? Kim Dokja's Avatar scattering away like an apparition emitted bright light as he got sucked into the main body. However, despite it absorbing all of the Avatar's Stories, Kim Dokja's body didn't grow back up again. No, the amount of Stories flooding out from him increased, instead.

"Kim Dokja!!"

Han Sooyoung instinctively realized it. They needed to stop that. Otherwise, they would lose him forever.

Her muscles tightly wound up released like a spring. And so, just as Han Sooyoung tried to approach Kim Dokja floating in the air…

Kwa-aaaaaaah!

⸢Y o u c ant go fu rth er⸥

Accompanied by a loud explosion noise, powerful gusts of wind suddenly blew in and something exploded out from Kim Dokja's body. His Stories were overflowing wildly. Sentences flooding out like black tides blanketed the entirety of the cabin and swallowed Han Sooyoung up.

"Everyone, be careful!"

She was forced back mercilessly along with sensations of her skin being swept away. Kim Dokja was getting further away. She urgently looked around, but there was not a thing she could grab onto. Even though she unleashed the Status of a Constellation and borrowed the powers of Giant Stories, she had no method to defend against this surging torrent.

"Kim Dokja! Sto…!"

Sentences escaping from Kim Dokja's body scratched past her entire figure. Sentences a man used to endure his life – the despair created by one person's life. The tidal waves of letters completely blanketing every direction resembled the darkest of the darkest night.

The 'Kim Dokja' she understood was merely just the tip of an iceberg. Han Sooyoung was overwhelmed in an instant and was helplessly shoved back, unable to say anything.

It was Yoo Sangah who supported her back, though. "Get yourself together!"

Kim Dokja's figure could be spied among the gaps of the letters.

Lee Jihye shouted out. "…He's a kid?! Why did ahjussi become like that?!"

"Hyung!"

"Everyone, gather around!"

To fight against the tidal wave, the companions hurdled together. Unfortunately, even that was not enough. They were kept pushed back again and again. At this rate, not only would they be forced outside the cabin, but get ejected from the train itself sooner rather than later.

It was then, someone spread open his entire figure and stood to block the exit.

"Hu-aaaaahp! I shall support you all!"

It was Lee Hyunsung.

Accompanied by "Kwa-dududuk!" noise, he activated the [Steel Transformation]. His arms and legs assimilated with the metal of the exit and caught the companions like a net. With a pained face, Lee Hyunsung watched Kim Dokja's Story brushing past his body.

⸢To Lee Hyunsung, Kim Dokja was too difficult.⸥

The act of understanding someone started off with admitting that you didn't know anything about that person. Lee Hyunsung bit down on his lip hard enough to draw blood and shouted out. "I can only hold on for a little while! Hurry!"

Gong Pildu quickly summoned his Armed Fortress and supported Lee Hyunsung from behind. He then shouted out. "If I help, we can endure for a bit longer! So, hurry up and rescue that fool!"

The companions looked at each other.

"Hold each other's hands, everyone!" Jung Heewon grabbed onto Lee Hyunsung with one hand, and extended the other. "Unleash your Stories all at once!"

That outstretched hand was held by Lee Seolhwa, then Shin Yoosung and Lee Gilyoung held on to her other hand. The hands of two children were then connected to Lee Jihye. Persephone, as well as Lee Sookyung, followed them right after.

"Kim Dokja! Wake up!!"

Jang Hayoung grabbed Lee Sookyung's hand and cried out, while Yoo Sangah caught her extended hand next.

"Sooyoung-ssi!"

The last person to grab the outstretched hand was Han Sooyoung.

"…I got you."

The Giant Story that connected the companions as one began resisting against the vicious storm.

Like a buoy in the stormy sea, Han Sooyoung's body helplessly rocked from side to side. She could hold on only because of her companions behind her.

The companions tightly held each other's hands within the crashing waves of the letters, as if they were trying to save a drowning man.

Jung Heewon shouted towards Kim Dokja, ever so faintly visible to her. "Dokja-ssi! We're here! Just hold on for a little bit longer!"

The companions holding onto each other's hands were like sturdy sentences connected as one. Han Sooyoung felt the warmth transmitted in her hand and gradually realized something.

Words existed to describe the depths of the darkness. And to console such darkness, the thing called 'story' was created.

"Kim Dokja!"

The tightly-held hands, supported by the sentences shoring up other sentences. While entrusting herself to that hand, Han Sooyoung approached Kim Dokja one step at a time. Only his face could barely be seen as the rest was covered by the darkness of the letters.

⸢Wh at y o u are do ing is me aning l ess⸥

The waves grew more and more vicious as [The Fourth Wall]'s voice resounded out.

⸢Th ere is o n e Kim Dok ja⸥

Han Sooyoung knew the reason – the reason why that Kim Dokja was getting smaller. The younger face of him right now resembled the 'Oldest Dream' they saw some time ago.

He'd lose the memories of the days he spent with his companions, and…

…And, he'd even lose the memories of when he read the 'Ways of Survival'.

Then, he'd become the purest child after returning to the universe's great cycle.

Later on, he'd get rescued by the 'Secretive Plotter'.

If that was the case, what would happen to the 'Kim Dokja' they remembered?

"We've managed to come this far, so this…!!"

Han Sooyoung reached out as pain of her hand burning away assaulted her.

Kim Dokja was right before her eyes.

⸢The one and only reader who could understand this story.⸥

That Kim Dokja was right over there.

There were less than four metres between them, yet to Han Sooyoung, this distance came across as an infinite margin that nothing could fill. As if an invisible wall was standing before her and Kim Dokja.

"You son of a bitch! You promised to read my novel, didn't you?!"

She wanted to tell him. Tell him that there was a world that didn't need his sacrifice to be saved. She thought that, if it was her, she should be able to do it.

Because she was most proficient at lying than anyone alive, after all.

"What the hell is this 'Ways of Survival', anyway?! I can easily create dozens, hundreds of worlds of illusions!"

Her shouting voice was gradually losing its strength.

She had written so many sentences until now, yet she was still unable to save a single person.

Within the world growing dizzier, Kim Dokja's figure was getting blurrier.

What would it have been like if only she was just a little bit stronger? Maybe, they didn't plan this out properly. Maybe, she should've learned an even stronger attribute. Maybe, she should've earned a much, much harsher Story.

She shouldn't have abandoned Kim Dokja from the get-go. She should've cottoned onto Kim Dokja's plan sooner. No, maybe…

…She shouldn't have written the 'Ways of Survival' in the first place.

She shouldn't have become an author of such a story.

…An author?

Han Sooyoung abruptly raised her head.

⸢Could she do it?⸥

It was uncertain.

⸢No, I can do it.⸥

Someone else was saying that in her stead.

Memories of the 1863rd turn became a Story and began to violently writhe around. Han Sooyoung looked down at her own fingertips. Her fingers, scorched black like charcoal.

She was not a protagonist, but a writer.

Han Sooyoung's hand, looking as if gripping a pen, began to slowly move. They created trajectories in the air; these trajectories went to become letters, and those letters soon became words.

Han Sooyoung vomited out a mouthful of blood, but didn't stop.

From the very onset, an author really had only one way to reach her reader.

⸢Han Sooyoung imagined. Just like how the other her did once upon a time.⸥

With the most vigorous, carefully worded sentences, she began drawing out a man's hands, his arms, and his legs.

An individual created solely for the sake of one reader. An entity tougher in body and nobler in heart than any creature in this world. The man who managed to bring down all the stars in the skies to end his truly lengthy regression turns, and eventually, even succeeding in destroying the system of the world.

Tsu-chuchuchuchuchu-!!

Every character was, as a matter of fact, an incarnation of the author.

However, that didn't mean the incarnation was the author itself. The characters that left her hands wouldn't listen to her, after all.

And that was why Han Sooyoung was trying to get the help from the individual she had created.

That one term that could fill up that empty margin.

Han Sooyoung shouted out as if she was screaming. "Yoo Joonghyuk-!!"

And right next second, the letters before her eyes split apart.

The Breaking the Sky Swordsmanship.

Secret Technique: Inner Mystery Transmission.

Split the Dark Ocean.

A single sword split apart the pitch-black night ocean. The fighting spirit of a Transcendent bursting out from the entirety of his body illuminated the darkness of the letters.

The individual she had written, but she didn't know of.

"Hold on tight."

A man descended with the rays of light. Yoo Joonghyuk's powerful hand grabbed hers. Han Sooyoung endured against her eyes tearing up and shouted back at him.

"You hold on tight, instead!"

From Lee Hyunsung to Yoo Joonghyuk, the companions' Story began to glow brightly.

To get this far, they had lost many things.

"Joonghyuk-ssi! We leave it in your hands!"

"Master! Hurry!"

However, it wasn't as if they had been losing things only.

Yoo Joonghyuk extended his hand out.

The distance of just one person. The distance that couldn't have been bridged without the presence of just one person was finally being closed in.

Yoo Joonghyuk's hand reached out while breaking past the letters. The sentences protecting Kim Dokja fell away one by one.

The hand that experienced thousands of regressions tightly grabbed hold onto Kim Dokja's collars – as if to yank out the oldest memories from within.

"It's time to go back, Kim Dokja."

Right next second – as if the lights were turned off, the whole world was suddenly plunged in darkness.

*