"Stories are not subject to the rules of time. They just flow towards an empty place."
ーDokkaebi King
*
How is 'Han Sooyoung' here?
Is that person really the Han Sooyoung of 『Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint』 that I know?
My intuition said yes, but my reason demanded verification.
[This is a target that cannot you use 'List of Reader Comments' on.]
['Character List' is unavailable.]
Target unavailable.
"Really, are you Han Sooyoung?"
I've never had such a message pop up before.
「I didn't expect it.」
When I found out that this world was the 41st turn not in the original work.
After seeing kkomas Kim Dokja at the theater.
And when I met Kim Dokja in the snowfield in my dream.
Maybe, I've been imagining that this moment would come.
Han Soo-myung looked at me blankly and said, "Yes. I'm Han Sooyoung."
[Someone is activating 'Lie detection'.]
['Lie detection' has confirmed that the statement is true.]
Up to authentication with lie detection.
Even the thorough appearance was exactly the Han Sooyoung I knew.
The other thing is that the present Han Sooyoung is more believable than the Han Sooyoung I
remember.
It gives off an indescribable atmosphere.
It felt like facing some kind of great person.
"Don't you need to introduce yourself?"
"I am-"
"I know who you are, Cheon Inho. No..."
Han Sooyoung slightly tilted her head.
"The author of the 'Omniscient Reader' of planetary system Z865123."
I unknowingly clenched my fist.
"How did you know?"
"You keep stealing the items I wanted. How could I not know? As for if you're a reader or a
writer... The way you behave is a bit different from the reader's."
Seeing Han Soo-yeong smiling, my fists lost their strength.
"You're good on your own, right? I guess you read intently..."
'Read intently', those words stuck in my ears like thorns.
"It seems that other guys besides you do it quite a bit... You can't even compare to the 'prophets'
of our world line."
A face that seems to know everything.
There was no hostility in Han Sooyoung's tone. Rather, it was a tone that seemed to encourage
me from the bottom of her heart.
"I guess the novel sold quite well in that world line? In some world lines, it was completely
ruined."
"The reaction wasn't bad. It was a success."
"Okay?"
Han Sooyoung smiled lightly.
"I'm glad."
What is it that makes you happy?
I giggled and said.
"Until I met you, I thought I wrote the whole story."
Han Sooyoung looked at me with regret.
"Okay. But I wrote it."
I couldn't help but admit it.
The tale that ran through her body spoke.
That person is real.
It's not me who wrote it, it's that person.
"If you wrote a story, you know. All the sentences you came up with are from the cloud."
"The sentences in the cloud were passed on in the form of inspiration. I believed it was my idea."
"That's right."
Really. Did I really not write a single sentence in this world?
As if dismissing the question, the original author of the story said.
"So, just stop here and get out of here."
Before I could even walk, one of my knees felt bent.
But on the other hand, I felt a strange sense of relief.
"You don't have to take responsibility. I'll do the rest. Stop down and rest."
Why do I believe in these words and want to quit everything?
I stumbled and asked.
"Doing something... what do you mean?"
"Are you a writer too?"
As if he didn't already know the answer, Han Sooyoung asked.
Her vague premonition came to a certainty, and her fingertips trembled anxiously.
Han Sooyoung spoke as if driven by a premonition.
"The end of this turn has already been decided. I'm just trying to speed it up a little."
The 'end of the 41th turn' I remember flashed through my mind.
「The bequest power using the 'absolute throne' fails to proceed with the scenario.」
「After losing all his comrades, he contracts with a demon to send 'Shin Yoosung' to the world
line of the past.」
「Shin Yoosung' wandered around the world for over a thousand years.」
「She descended as the 'Disaster of Floods' in the world line of the past.」
At the end of this story, nothing good came of it.
It was such a world in the first place.
Han Soo-young said as if to comfort me.
"No need to continue, no need to be sad. There are just stories like that."
I know.
This world was already over.
Through the conclusion of the 41st turn, the next incident has already 'occurred' and the 'end of
the incident' must be fixed.
Only then, for the first time, does『Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint』 begin.
I understood that too.
I understood, so I didn't understand.
"Then why were we called to this worldline?"
It was unfair.
Clearly 『Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint』, the story written by Han Sooyoung is correct.
But.
"Ordinary people were suddenly summoned to this worldline and had to fight for their lives."
Can I say that all the moments that I and the readers endured in this world are also her sentences?
"Fighting monsters you've never seen before, struggling to get food, killing others to survive."
I thought there must be a reason we came here.
It's just that we weren't chosen by chance. I believed that there must be a tie in which we, as we
ought, must contribute to this story.
"Not only me, but everyone along with me did that. So I think we deserve to know why."
I thought of doing squats Kyung Sein in the corner of Geumho Station, and I remembered Dansu
Ahjussi, who had nightmares calling his daughter's name.
I thought of the Killer King left in the movie to send me upstairs, and I thought of Literature Girl
64 who believed in such a Killer King and helped me.
All of them were possessing readers in this place just because they had read the Omniscient
Reader.
"There are even people who have been brought here and died."
"They're not dead. You know."
Han Sooyoung sighed lightly and added a word.
"They just returned to being 'Fragments of Kim Dokja'. They are back to their original form."
"They are no longer Kim Dokja. They are people who have already lived in another world. They
each had their own lives."
"You called us."
"I didn't call you?"
Of course, it was 'RepresentativeKimDokja' who kidnapped us, not Han Sooyoung.
However, can we really say that Han Sooyoung is irrelevant?
"I saw a video of you."
"A video of me?"
"Didn't you say, 'So far it's just a taster. A side story will start soon'?"
The memory of the theater where
RepresentativeKimDokja, who kidnapped us, played a video of Han Sooyoung on the screen.
"I don't know what you mean?"
Han Sooyoung narrowed her eyes, as if she didn't understand.
"I've never done anything like that. What are you talking about?"
Looking at her expression, it seems that the video was not Han Sooyoung herself.
If so, did someone disguise themselves as Han Sooyoung?
It wasn't impossible.
Because RepresentativeKimDokja had the 'Ever-changing Stealth Suit'.
RepresentativeKimDokja knew information about Kim Dokja and 'Omniscient Reader's
Viewpoint', so it would not have been impossible to imitate Han Sooyoung's tone.
But there were still unanswered questions.
"Then you have nothing to do with us coming here?"
Han Sooyoung hesitated for the first time.
"I may not be completely irrelevant, but... Anyway, I wasn't the one who called you to this world
line. I didn't mean to."
"Then why are you here?"
As Han Sooyoung said, this story has already ended. Those words were more applicable to Han
Sooyoung than anyone else.
"『Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint』 is a story that has already ended. Why did you come back to
this story?"
Countless universes bloomed and lost to complete a story.
There have been countless tragedies, and they have seen the end. The world line is closed.
Originally, she shouldn't have been able to come here now.
"I am."
Han Sooyoung's eyes shook. For the first time, agitation rose up in the expression of the author.
"I am a Kim Dokja-"
Sparks exploded all over her body with a sound like tsutsutsuchut.
An aftermath of probability.
The reason was simple.
「That's information she can't mention.」
Han Sooyoung's expression hardened. She looked down at the sparks running through her hand
and said in a much cooler tone.
"I am under no obligation to tell you the details."
"Wait a minute."
"Hey."
I felt my blood run cold.
"I am really tired right now?"
Both of her eyes were staring at me.
"Do you know what I went through to get here?"
Seeing the cool emotion in those eyes, I took a step back without realizing it.
"I feel sorry for you, too. I feel bad for being called to a place like this, and do you think I haven't
experienced a scenario? I'll find a way too, so just stay still for now."
I felt overwhelmed just by hearing the story.
It was as she said.
Han Sooyoung was someone who had already experienced scenarios. Even at the end of the
scenario, a person who has reached it twice.
She said that no matter how much I and the readers knew about her story, there was no way we
could do better than she did.
「Wouldn't it be wise for me to entrust everything to Han Sooyoung?」
A weak thought appeared in my mind.
If you think about it, even when I first possessed this world, wasn't I thinking of meeting and
relying on Kim Dokja or Yoo Jonghyuk?
Even if it changes to Han Sooyoung, nothing will change.
So even now, I want to believe in her and quit.
How many steps did I take back without even realizing it? I felt something touch my back.
When I turned around, Yoo Jonghyuk was standing there.
I stared blankly at Yoo Jonghyuk's still hardened face.
And at that moment.
「What I want to protect.」
I heard the story of Yoo Jonghyuk.
Yoo Jonghyuk, who is not the Yoo Jonghyuk of the Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint I know, nor
Yoo Jonghyuk of the Ways of Survival read by Kim Dokja.
「Do I still have something I want to protect?」
I could tell just by looking at his face.
[The character Yoo Jung-ryuk is suffering from 'regressive depression'.]
Han Sooyoung's method of overpowering Yoo Jonghyuk.
She wrote the method used by Kim Dokja in the 1863th turn.
"You mean you're going to do something like this?"
Unbeknownst to me, something suddenly soared inside me.
I couldn't stop talking, wondering if I deserved to say that.
"Isn't this Yoo Jonghyuk doing nothing wrong?"
"I would have told you not to mind."
I also wanted to believe in Han Sooyoung.
However, I couldn't understand Han Sooyoung's current behavior to just ignore it. Why didn't Han Sooyoung's kill the Theater Owner?
[Your exclusive attribute effect is activated!]
Why did Han Sooyoung subdue Yoo Jonghyuk here?
I looked at the simulation controlled by Han Sooyoung and Yoo Jonghyuk connected through the
Theater Owner.
「"Kim Namwoon, you can't follow me with that kind of effort."」
Yoo Jung-hyeok was dreaming.
「"Lee Hyunsung. Sometimes think for yourself, act and decide."」
Even in his dreams, he was carrying out the scenarios with the determination to die.
「"Stand back, Lee Jihye. From here on out, I'm in charge."」
Losing colleagues and failing the scenario.
Not knowing that all the stories were false, Yoo Jonghyuk struggled.
Perhaps Yoo Jonghyuk will not be able to see the 'end' of the 41st turn in the future.
The moment I thought that far, I knew Han Sooyoung's plan.
In this world, there were too many variables that would hinder the 'end of the 41th turn'.
Me. Readers. And even Yoo Jonghyuk, who has abnormal power compared to the when reading
the main story.
What if there was a way to remove all those variables at once?
"You're not going to clear this theater dungeon."