Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint - Chapter 901

It felt like my head was getting tangled up. There was no way.

The final scenario had been cleared.

Why, exactly?

"Sorry. This was the best I could do."

Watching Han Sooyoung mutter, I finally felt like I understood what had happened.

"Was it an avatar?"

Han Sooyoung’s avatar, wearing a faint smile, was looking at me.

The half-destroyed Last Ark.

Inside that ark, Han Sooyoung’s 'main body' was probably there. While her [Avatar] kept me occupied, she infiltrated the Last Ark and finished the final scenario.

"Why did you do this? You promised we’d clear it together."

"Inside the ark is way more dangerous than you think."

"I’ve been learning from you all this time to get through that dangerous thing together."

According to Han Sooyoung, what was waiting for us inside the ark were the myth-grade constellations of and .

Of course, they weren’t in peak condition after taking a huge hit from the Apocalypse Dragon, but even so, myth-grade constellations were myth-grade constellations. They weren’t enemies Han Sooyoung could deal with easily on her own.

"I can do it alone, so why bother."

As the storm clouds made by Han Sooyoung’s [Black Thunder] faded, I could see the Apocalypse Dragon sticking its head in between the 'sealing spheres of the Apocalypse Dragon' floating in the sky.

Now I understood why she’d made so many storm clouds and used flashy techniques to summon thunder and lightning. Beyond the scenery created by [Black Thunder], she had used the 'breath of the Apocalypse Dragon' to bombard the constellations inside the ark.

Judging by how I could barely feel any constellation status from the ark, her gamble seemed to have succeeded.

"You won."

"Why do you look happy?"

"Because you can revive your comrades now."

Even though Han Sooyoung didn’t keep the promise, in a way, I thought it was fortunate that she hadn’t.

I didn’t know if it was because she didn’t trust me, or for some other reason, but in the end she obtained the fable core. So……

「But did she really need to obtain the fable core in such a 'troublesome way'?」

My expression hardened at the doubt that surged in an instant.

If she was going to revive her comrades anyway, the best way was to just join forces with me or clear the final scenario through an 'existence oath'.

But she obtained the fable core with her own strength.

If it wasn’t anyone else but Han Sooyoung who acted like that, it meant there was a reason she had to.

For example—

"You’re not thinking something weird, right?"

"What."

"That fable core……"

"Ah, are you worried I’m going to give the fable core to you?"

When I gave a tiny nod, Han Sooyoung snorted and added with a grin.

"Why would I give you something I got with so much effort? Seriously, you’re over-self-conscious too."

Han Sooyoung suddenly jumped up, grabbed my arm, and hid between nearby ruined buildings. Just as I was about to ask what she was doing, Han Sooyoung went, shh, and brought a finger to her lips.

A moment later, it felt like a golden fable was surging in the sky, and then I sensed movement from the underground warehouse.

「And so, the final puzzle piece of the forgotten world line was being set into place.」

Han Sooyoung’s comrades, who had been trapped in the warehouse all this time, were walking up to the surface.

The power of the 'fable core' had succeeded in reconstructing their bodies.

"Captain!"

"Captain!"

Lee Hyunsung, Shin Yoosung, Lee Seolhwa, Kim Namwoon, Lee Jihye. The main members of met Han Sooyoung’s main body descending from the sky.

Through the link to Han Sooyoung’s [Avatar], the group had received her memories, and it looked like they knew everything that had happened to Han Sooyoung so far.

「Now they will go together to see the end of this world line.」

They would enter through the portal installed inside the ark and bring down the 'Dokkaebi King' of this world line. And then they would complete all scenarios.

That was how the 1,863rd round would end safely.

I watched the people in the sky hugging Han Sooyoung and bursting into tears. In any world line, the scenery of the final scenario made people’s hearts strange.

When I looked to the side, Han Sooyoung was watching the same scene with deep eyes.

"Thank you. For keeping the promise."

"A promise?"

"You said you’d watch the ending with me."

"Did you split your [Avatar] just to watch this scene with me?"

Han Sooyoung didn’t answer, wearing an expression I couldn’t quite read.

Either way, watching that scene together with Han Sooyoung meant something to me too.

「Just like Yoo Joonghyuk of the 1,863rd round, Han Sooyoung of the 1,863rd round also created her own ending with her own hands.」

It was so overwhelming I even thought I wanted to put this moment into sentences someday.

But maybe it was just my imagination.

Even though the scenery of the ending was this vivid, the Han Sooyoung in front of me felt a little thinner than before.

"Now retrieve your [Avatar]."

I said it again to the silent Han Sooyoung.

"You don’t have to worry about me. I’ll figure out how to return to my original world line somehow. So you, retrieve your [Avatar] and for your comrades—"

"That won’t work. This [Avatar] can’t be retrieved."

For a moment, I couldn’t understand what Han Sooyoung was saying.

"To be precise, it mustn’t be retrieved."

I didn’t want to understand.

Deep in my head, I didn’t want to imagine the underside of this 'epilogue' flowing past.

Han Sooyoung explained further.

"You said it. A lot of problems happened because you twisted the world line. If it twists any further here, it’ll be a problem for both you and me."

It was already a twisted world line.

When I told her the fact that I was tls123, the essence of this world line changed from the main story I knew.

She learned everything that would happen in her future, and by declaring that she wouldn’t become tls123 herself, she changed the development of the world line.

I thought she changed it.

「Han Sooyoung, in the end, found a way to restore the twisted world line back to the original.」

I blankly looked down at her, then looked at Han Sooyoung’s main body far away, reunited with her comrades.

「But for that twist to be healed, a single prerequisite condition is necessary.」

I felt dizzy.

「Han Sooyoung’s main body must forget everything that happened with me.」

I slid down and collapsed against a nearby stone wall.

"Right now…… you put all of our shared memories into that [Avatar]?"

"That’s right. The main body doesn’t know who you are right now. She doesn’t know at all what’s going to happen in the future, either."

Han Sooyoung’s [Avatar] became a little thinner than before.

Han Sooyoung’s plan was clear. She was going to erase all the memories of the 'future' she had learned in this world line.

「This was her 'real epilogue'.」

I staggered to my feet.

It wasn’t too late even now. I could tell Han Sooyoung’s main body this fact. Then she could choose again. Without knowing anything, she wouldn’t have to become tls123 and sacrifice herself for Kim Dokja.

She wouldn’t have to become the author of this story.

"If you go over there, Kim Dokja will die."

Han Sooyoung’s transparent hand gripped my wrist tightly.

"Everything is already written, and at the same time, it is being written. You know too. It was fate for it all to turn out like this."

I couldn’t say anything. In front of the cruel Plausibility of , I was completely powerless.

"How much time is left on that avatar?"

"Less than five minutes now. Here, I’m in the mood. If you’re curious about anything, ask. I’ll answer everything."

"Why did you make that choice?"

Han Sooyoung seemed to think for a moment, then pulled a notebook from inside her clothes and handed it to me. It was the notebook Kim Dokja had given her when he left the 1,863rd round.

"I know you’ve been writing new stuff in it little by little every night."

"……"

"Unlike Kim Dokja, your writing’s pretty decent."

Han Sooyoung said that while reading the lines written in the notebook, even the Backlash of Plausibility that threatened her became quiet.

So I wrote in the notebook the future I knew. The things that would happen to her, the comrades she would meet, and even the 'ending' of this universe that she would face.

Hoping that once she knew that fact, she would make even a slightly different choice.

"Thank you. And I’m sorry. I can’t take this with me after all. If I do, the future gets ruined."

I took Han Sooyoung’s notebook.

"Is this why you made that choice?"

"Well, that’s not all."

Han Sooyoung laughed and scratched her cheek.

"You remember how Kim Dokja always teased me, calling me a plagiarist writer?"

I nodded.

Han Sooyoung continued.

"It’s the perfect chance to make a guy like that the one and only devoted reader of my novel. I can’t just miss an event that fun, can I?"

I opened my mouth, dumbfounded. I didn’t know if she meant it or not, but in a way, I also thought it was extremely like her.

"Three minutes left. Anything else you’re curious about?"

An incarnation body even more transparent than before.

There really wasn’t time now.

"From here on, only ask what you absolutely need. You know you’ll never get an opportunity like this again, right?"

A question I absolutely had to ask.

Han Sooyoung was right. I really did have such a question.

I bit my lip for a moment, then spoke.

"Who is the 'Otherworldly Divinity' you contracted with?"

"Mm. I knew you’d ask that."

The 'Otherworldly Divinity' she contracted with was a being that provided enough Plausibility to control even that Apocalypse Dragon. If I could find out that being’s true name and make a contract, maybe I could return to my original world line too.

"Sorry, but I can’t tell you that. It’s a name you mustn’t know right now."

"What do you mean?"

I was confused. A name I mustn’t know right now.

Could it be that Han Sooyoung had 'read' something about my future?

"Kim Dokja."

Han Sooyoung stared at me for a moment with sad eyes, then brought a pale hand to my cheek. Her palm touching my cheek was crumbling in real time.

"Don’t worry. You can return safely to your world."

"What do you—"

"You came all the way here just to meet me. I should at least pay your travel expenses back, right? Isn’t that so?"

Her fingertips, her toes, were crumbling. The crumbled fables emitted a pure-white light and shot up into the sky.

A thought struck me. Right now, enormous fables were concentrated in her [Avatar].

Fables that contained the ending of the 1,863rd round and the secret of .

There was no way she didn’t know the value of those fables too.

"I will fulfill the Otherworldly Covenant."

In the distant sky, an ink-colored energy flashed for an instant. Someone had received her 'fable' as the price of the covenant.

The content of the covenant’s fulfillment was clear.

"Send this guy back to the place he was."

In the empty air, a dark light flickered once more.

Looking at me in my stunned state, she smiled.

"What are you staring like that for. I’m Han Sooyoung. Do you think I’d end this world with a sticky, unpleasant ending?"

I tried to say something. But I didn’t know what to bring up. It felt like if I spoke, the scene in front of me would collapse.

In that unstable view, Han Sooyoung said.

"It’s okay."

What was okay? If it was fate for everything to turn out like this, then what meaning did all the time we built up together even have? If it was going to vanish like this, why did she teach me all of that?

"You’ve got more stories to write once you go back."

The moment I heard that, I realized.

She had recorded her story, the story that would disappear, into me.

"One last thing I’m curious about too."

I supported her avatar as it slumped sideways. An avatar already more than half gone. Her fading eyes were looking at me.

I realized what she was looking at wasn’t the me in front of her.

"My novel…… how was it?"

Far away, I watched Han Sooyoung’s back as she moved on with her comrades into the final chapter of the scenario.

「Han Sooyoung can never hear the answer to that simple question.」

Han Sooyoung of the 1,863rd round will cross the 'Last Wall' at the end of this world, and possess the world line where young Kim Dokja exists.

「Because this 'story' is written that way.」

She writes Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World, becomes tls123, and saves Kim Dokja, but in the end she will not face Kim Dokja.

「In the end, she cannot ask, and Kim Dokja cannot answer.」

After finishing everything, she will be absorbed into the unconsciousness of Han Sooyoung of the 1,863rd round.

And then Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint begins.

For that story to be complete, that question and answer must not be established.

But.

「Some stories can only begin after a single story ends.」

The one opening his mouth wasn’t the Kim Dokja she knew, and the one disappearing wasn’t tls123 yet.

Still, in that moment, we were an author and a reader involved in a single story.

"That novel was."

I couldn’t know whether the brightly scattering Han Sooyoung heard my answer or not.

[You have fulfilled the clear conditions of the 'Sub Scenario'.]

[The 'Otherworldly Covenant' is being fulfilled.]

Only the beautifully scattering fables were proving that, here too, there definitely had been a story.