Hello, everyone. I’m Lee Hakhyun. It’s been a while. You’ve probably all forgotten my name by now. That’s natural. It’s not even a particularly cool name. If we’re talking about a protagonist, shouldn’t it be something like Yu Joonghyuk? But suddenly, Lee Hakhyun? It sounds like some real-world guy suddenly got possessed into a web novel.But as you all know, I really am possessed inside a web novel. And not just any possession—of all things, I had to end up as a petty villain——Mr. Cheon Inho.That’s right. That name. Cheon Inho. That’s the name of the villain I possessed.—He’s not waking up for quite a while.—They said it’s a miracle that Miss Seolhwa is still alive.Well, whoever you are, you just said exactly what I wanted to say. That’s been my life ever since I got possessed into Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint.Being alive is a miracle.At Geumho Station. At Chungmuro. At Theater Dungeon. At Seoul Station and Gwanghwamun. I almost really died.Maybe because I’ve escaped death too many times, my head’s gotten a little twisted. These days, I don’t even know what’s what anymore. Especially, I don’t know who I am. It sounds like the kind of worry a middle schooler would have, but I mean it.Is it because I’ve used [Incite] too much? Or because I didn’t think enough about my own identity back in middle school? Or maybe—【How long are you going to keep talking like that】Ah, right. Yes. That’s true. I shouldn’t keep acting so half-hearted anymore. Forget everything I just said in my introduction. I’ll do it properly this time.Hello, everyone. I’m Kim Dokja.It feels really awkward to say that, but it’s true. I’m the reincarnation of 49% Kim Dokja.But, everyone, I’m scared. Think about it. One day you suddenly get possessed into a novel, and it turns into “The reincarnation of the protagonist in my own novel turned out to be me.” Does that kind of light novel plot even make sense?If my editor Ji Eunyoo heard this, she’d never let me live it down. She’d definitely say something like, “Wow, Author! Readers used to joke that Kim Dokja was your self-insert, but it turns out he really was! Wow, wow.”Ji Eunyoo. I’m really not okay with this. First, let’s get one thing straight: that novel wasn’t even one I wrote. The author of that story was Han Sooyoung… Han Sooyoung?...With a spasmodic scream, I shot up from where I lay. My heart pounded like crazy, and the breath rising to my throat burst out all at once. Through the hazy vision, I could see someone’s shadow flickering.“Inho?”Feeling slowly returned from my fingertips. The touch of a soft bed and blanket. The smell of disinfectant peculiar to a hospital. My head was a mess. What exactly had happened? Han Sooyoung? The Otherworldly Divinity? Yu Joonghyuk? Did we… succeed?When I finally forced my eyes open, I saw a familiar figure. Under thick eyebrows shone kind eyes.“Inho!”The man who no longer called me his friend, Uncle Dansoo, grabbed me and pulled me into a tight hug. For some reason, the moment I fell limply into his arms, my strength drained away and tears spilled out without me knowing.“Thank goodness. Thank goodness, truly.”Even an evil man like me apparently had this many tears stored up. There were so many that it surprised even me. Hearing him keep repeating how relieved he was, I suddenly realized—it really was something to be grateful for.“Uncle.”And just like that, I had survived again. This time too, someone else had sacrificed themselves in my place.*There were those who came running as soon as they heard I was awake. They were people I knew well. Since it’s been a while, let me briefly introduce them like this.“Waaah! Inho!”The muscular girl running toward me is Gyeong Sein. She looks like a girl, but she’s actually a reader with a man’s soul inside her.“You’re awake, Kim Dokja.”The man leaning coolly against the hospital doorway in a black coat is the Second Apostle, “Killer King.” He looks like that, but he’s a crazy guy who’s read Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint more than a hundred times. He has this habit of calling me Kim Dokja all the time—whether he’s doing it knowingly or not, I can’t tell. By the way, he has a younger sister who goes by the ID “LiteratureGirl64.” Miss Yerin is, unlike her brother Killer King, a perfectly normal person.“Inho, how are you feeling right now? How many fingers do you see? Can you say your name? How old are you? What’s your real name in the real world?”The boy trying to dig up my personal info while I’m still half-conscious is Ye Hyeonwoo. He looks exactly like one of those gifted kids you see on education programs—he’s the commander of the Chungmuro group and the brains who lead the readers.“Yes, I’m fine.”“You still have a slight fever, so you should rest a bit more.”The handsome man checking my temperature last is Lee Dansoo. The first reader I met, and a man living in this world to find his lost daughter.And the rest of the companions… they haven’t arrived yet, it seems. I mentally went over their names one by one. Jeong Heewon, Cha Yerin, Ji Eunyoo, Gu Seona…“Inho.”In the light silence that fell, the one who spoke again was Uncle Dansoo. For some reason, the looks in everyone’s eyes felt strange. As if they were hesitating about what to ask me, or unsure what to say. Smiling lightly, I spoke first.“May I ask what’s happened while I was out?”*“I was unconscious for forty-five days?”Hearing Gyeong Sein’s exaggerated voice, I tried to gauge how long forty-five days would feel in Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint. Wait, hold on. Then what scenario are we on now?“Right now, the seventh scenario is happening on the Korean Peninsula.”I couldn’t believe my ears.“Not the fifth?”“Come on, the fifth scenario ended ages ago.”The last scenario I remembered was the fourth one—“Qualification of a King.”“Wait a second.”Holding my head, I tried to recall Omniscient Reader’s plot. Originally, the fifth scenario was “Flood Disaster.” Even ignoring the main “Flood Disaster,” there were four disasters to defeat before it ended.Even if I had handled one at the Palace Museum, there were still four left. Had they already cleared all of them?“The fifth scenario was cleared directly by Yu Joonghyuk. Truly, a protagonist is a protagonist.”“How did he clear it? Don’t tell me he killed Shin Yuseung—”“Did you forget this is the 41st regression?”A chill ran up my spine. Right. This was the “Destruction Method’s” 41st regression. And this was the worldline before Shin Yuseung regressed twice to become the “Flood Disaster.” In other words, in this round, the “Flood Disaster” didn’t exist yet.But the “Flood Disaster” wasn’t the only dangerous one.“The ‘Question Disaster’ wasn’t easy either. But thanks to my performance, it was handled smoothly.”“It wasn’t your performance; Yu Joonghyuk killed it.”I roughly got the picture. I didn’t know what other disasters had appeared, but apparently, Yu Joonghyuk of the 41st round had crushed them with overwhelming power.“All right, fine. What about the sixth scenario? That one was tricky too.”The sixth scenario was “Peace Land,” involving the Japanese incarnations. In some ways, it was even harder than the “Flood Disaster.”“Yu Joonghyuk went himself and ended that one too.”“Yu Joonghyuk?”I asked skeptically. Of all scenarios, “Peace Land” was the one where the incarnations and disasters took opposing sides.“Don’t tell me Yu Joonghyuk became a disaster?”I asked, imagining the worst. If the 41st-round Yu Joonghyuk had chosen the disaster side, then “Peace Land” would—“Don’t worry. Yu Joonghyuk sided with the incarnations.”Yu Joonghyuk? Really?“We got in earlier than expected, so the damage was smaller. Cooperation with the Japanese incarnations went well too. Asuka Ren and even Izumi, the King of Japan, are both safe! Amazing, right?”Asuka Ren and Izumi both safe… From the sound of it, the situation didn’t seem bad.“What about Kirios?”“We didn’t meet him. It looks like the event split differently in this round.”Of course. If one thing went smoothly, another would twist. My original plan had been to meet Kirios Roadgrime in “Peace Land” and train to become a Constellation. But I’d been unconscious, and Kirios hadn’t even appeared in “Peace Land.”“The seventh scenario is still ongoing. Actually, that’s why Yerin and Heewon are in the scenario zone. Oh, Jiwon too…”Maybe because I was still reeling from what I’d just heard, it was hard to focus on the rest.In the forty-five days I’d been asleep, the 41st round had veered off the path I remembered from Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint.But was that necessarily bad? The “Disaster Scenario” and “Peace Land” were difficult even if I’d joined personally. Yet Yu Joonghyuk had perfectly cleared both of them on his own, without any help.Was that how it had gone in the original 41st regression? Or was it a result of me and Han Sooyoung killing the Founder of the Absolute Throne?Maybe my expression looked too serious, because Gyeong Sein added, “Anyway, don’t worry. The 41st round isn’t as bad as we feared. The ‘Absolute Throne’ effect really is strong.”“Absolute Throne?”I asked dumbly, and Gyeong Sein nodded.“Yes. The Absolute Throne.”“It still exists?”“Huh? Well… it wasn’t destroyed this time.”Impossible. The Founder of the Absolute Throne had definitely died. I’d seen it with my own eyes.“The King… who is it? Is it one of you?”At my question, the group exchanged glances. Gyeong Sein gave a wry smile, Lee Dansoo shook his head, Killer King looked offended, and Ye Hyeonwoo let out a small laugh.“Come on, Inho. How could any of us be the King, when the real King is still alive?”I slowly rose from the bed. My legs trembled unsteadily, unused for so long. Beyond my wobbling sightline, the hospital window came into view.“The tragedy of the 41st round begins from the ‘Absolute Throne.’”Outside, the view of Gwanghwamun spread out. At the center of the square stood the Absolute Throne. Amid that chaos, who could have possibly claimed that seat?No matter how I thought about it, there was only one person who could.“Yu Joonghyuk, isn’t it.”“Yes. The Conqueror took the Absolute Throne.”At Ye Hyeonwoo’s quiet answer, something inside me felt like it was crumbling. Where had it all gone wrong? Had Han Sooyoung and I ultimately failed to change this world’s flow?“Fortunately,” Ye Hyeonwoo said, gripping my shoulder as if to reassure me, “it’s a bit different from the 41st round we expected. Yu Joonghyuk did take the Absolute Throne, but he couldn’t use its power.”The Absolute Throne couldn’t exert its authority?Snapping my head up, I met Ye Hyeonwoo’s calm eyes. In that instant, I understood why he was here.“So… that’s what you want to know. Inho, what exactly happened that day?”Gyeong Sein, Killer King, and Uncle Dansoo—all of them were staring at me as if on cue.“The day the Great Hall opened, Yu Joonghyuk was the one who brought you back. But no matter how we asked him what happened, he wouldn’t tell us anything.”Of course. That guy didn’t know the details of that day.“That day, you were wearing the Execution Sword. Did you cut the link of the Absolute Throne?”“I—”I tried to say it. That it wasn’t me. That there had been one more person there—someone we all knew.“It wasn’t me, it was Han Soo—”[You can no longer use ‘Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World.’]The moment I heard the message, my tongue froze in my mouth.Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World.The skill that had protected me since I entered this world—and the novel that underpinned this world’s foundation. The story Kim Dokja loved most.[You can no longer use ‘Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World.’]There was someone who had given me that skill. Someone who had felt guilty toward me. Someone who had given up all of her tales to save me.I tried again and again to activate the skill.[You can no longer use ‘Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World.’]The skill didn’t activate.[You can no longer use ‘Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World.’]The story that had once protected Kim Dokja had now left me. Probably along with the author who had tried to give it to me.“Inho?”Uncle Dansoo, realizing something was wrong with me, grabbed my shoulders.“Everyone, Inho doesn’t look well—maybe we should ask later—”“No, we have to ask now. We’ve already waited long enough. That ‘phenomenon’ has been happening since forty-five days ago.”Through the buzzing in my ears, I heard Ye Hyeonwoo and Killer King talking.“Uncle Dansoo, you know how bad things are right now. Inho’s the only clue we have about what’s happening.”“Even I, who’ve read Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint a hundred times, can’t explain this anomaly. He’s the only one we can trust.”I didn’t know what exactly was happening. But I had no answers to give.“I…”The story I knew was the same story you all knew. I’m not as great as everyone thinks I am. I may be the reincarnation of Kim Dokja, but I’m not the real Kim Dokja who read «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» Ways of Destruction.The real Kim Dokja.With a faint ringing in my ears, my memory began to return. The memory of that day when we killed the Otherworldly Divinity. The reason I was still alive now.“I will make the contract.”Slowly, it sank in. I had made a backer contract with a Constellation powerful enough to defy the gods in order to kill the Otherworldly Divinity.But strangely, I couldn’t feel my backer’s presence at all. Even when I looked into the air or clenched and unclenched my fists, nothing felt different.Bzzz.The smartphone on the table started vibrating just then. A message appeared on the screen.[Someone has requested a ‘Midday Rendezvous.’]In that instant, I realized something. This wasn’t my smartphone. But I already knew whose it was.[Requester: Demon King of Salvation]So this must be the holy relic of my backer.

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