Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint Novel MTL - Chapter 658

Chapter 658

Of course. Here is the paraphrased chapter:

658 Episode 19 People of the Past (10)
「 «I intend to marry Yoo Jonghyuk.» 」

Everything in Noh Gyeonghwan’s life was irrevocably altered the day his daughter was taken by a being from a story.

He found he had no strength left for anger, nor for sorrow.

He could only mutely accept that his entire existence had been shattered by a meteorite that had fallen for no reason at all.

But even after his life was ruined, he had to keep living.

Noh Gyeonghwan endured.

He made it through each day, he ate his meals. He worked his job and collected his pay.

He was the head of his household, and that came with duties.

But what Noh Gyeonghwan didn’t realize then was this:

Just as a meteorite had struck his wife and daughter, there was one last meteorite in this world destined for him alone.

「 «It’s cancer.» 」

The diagnosis came from a routine check-up he hadn’t thought much about.

Noh Gyeonghwan was certain he had misheard. He asked the doctor to repeat it, again and again.

「 «It’s cancer.» 」

It was a far more likely event than a meteorite strike. Yet probable events are not always any easier to accept.

「 «This is quite common. Some people barely feel any symptoms. Have you been unusually fatigued lately?» 」

Who isn’t tired these days?

But as the doctor spoke, he realized he had been more weary than usual.

「 «You should start to prepare yourself.» 」

How does one prepare?

I am going to die.

Is accepting that fact what it means to be prepared?

«I won’t kill you. I won’t kill you.»

If he prepares his heart like that, what will become of his daughter now?

«Noh Jiyoon. Noh Jiyoon.»

I don’t know.

Where did I go wrong?

«Find someone.»

Why was this happening to him? What terrible sin had he committed?

It was a pointless question.

He knew that.

This was simply an ordinary human life, and there is no fairness to the probabilities in an ordinary life.

Because it isn’t a story about his life.

—Ahjussi! Dansu ahjussi!

No one is watching his life, which is why there is no one to dictate its probabilities.

[The constellation ‘Sneaking Schemer’ looks at his incarnation.]

Noh Gyeonghwan chose not to tell his daughter about his illness.

He spoke to her less and less, and instead, the hours he spent talking alone in his room grew longer.

It was less like talking to himself and more like conversing with his friends online.

While he was grateful to still have a line of communication to his daughter, he also feared that malicious people might target her.

But he could not bring himself to interfere with what went on inside her room.

All Noh Gyeonghwan could manage was to make her meals and tentatively ask questions he wouldn’t normally pose.

「 «When do you leave for school?» 」

Jiyoon’s lips would push out into a pout.

「 «You said I didn’t have to go?» 」

Had his approach been right?

Had he raised his daughter correctly?

Perhaps, in his attempt to prepare for a catastrophe that never arrived, he had instead damaged his daughter’s life.

Staring at the half-eaten sandwich his daughter left behind, Noh Gyeonghwan was struck by a thought.

「 Maybe it wasn’t the meteorite that ruined his daughter, but him. 」

It was then that he began secretly reading the novels his daughter loved.

Before he died, he wanted to understand her, even a little. He wanted to know what kind of man this Yoo Jonghyuk was that his daughter adored.

「 There are three ways to survive in a ruined world. 」

The novel was strange from its very first line.

「 I can’t recall all of them now. But one thing is certain. You, the person reading this, will survive. 」

In a way, he wondered if he started this story because he, too, wanted to survive.

Could someone truly live by reading a novel?

Even though he knew it was a fantasy, he kept reading.

However, to a man who had become an ‘old person’, the novel’s contents were bewildering.

「 «Kim Dokja. My father gave me that name so I would become a man who reads well and stands strong on his own.» 」

Kim Dokja.

It was an odd name.

Even for a man not well-versed in literature, the name felt heavy with deliberate symbolism.

「 «Even if no one says it, I’m sure you’ve all figured out the situation by now. Exclusive skills and a system window. A game-like interface. Is there anyone left who doesn’t understand games?» 」

The characters discussed concepts foreign to him. System windows. Game-like interfaces. Regression, reincarnation, possession… bizarre and outlandish concepts.

Is this what young people enjoy these days?

As he scrolled on, he occasionally found a story he recognized.

The Shang Dynasty and the Later Three Kingdoms period. Kim Yushin and Yi Sunshin.

Though he worried this was a distortion of history, he found himself turning the pages with excitement when a familiar tale appeared. When he read about the myths of Olympus or Journey to the West, he decided they were somewhat educational. When complex settings emerged, he wondered if Jiyoon could possibly understand them all. When brutal apocalypse scenes occurred, he felt a pang of worry and wanted to leave a comment, but he always stopped himself.

One line became one page, one page became a chapter. He read two, three, four chapters.

Stories hold a peculiar power.

The protagonist had nothing in common with him. And yet, as he read, Noh Gyeonghwan felt a connection to Kim Dokja. He became Kim Dokja, clearing scenarios, exploring worlds, and building stories.

He began to understand why his daughter was so fond of the character ‘Yoo Jonghyuk’.

「 Perhaps Jiyoon wanted to go back. 」

Even if it required a hundred or a thousand regressions, even if it meant tearing the world apart for just one person.

「 She would have wanted her mother to return. 」

Now Jiyoon was alone.

What story could he leave for his daughter?

「 «Dad.» 」

What tale would be written about the only daughter of the man named Noh Gyeonghwan?

「 «Can I get a ride?» 」

Jiyoon said she was meeting an internet friend at a theater in Chungmuro.

After dropping his daughter off, Noh Gyeonghwan drove to the hospital for his scheduled examination.

He remembered arriving safely and going to the reception desk. But his memories after that were fractured.

Collapsing from vertigo, being helped up by a man in a bowler hat. And… thinking that this was the end.

If only they had been granted a little more time.

If he could have spoken to his daughter one last time.

‘I read your favorite story, too.’

He wished he could have said that.

「 There are three ways to survive in a destroyed world. 」

As his consciousness dimmed, Noh Gyeonghwan chose to put his faith in a fictional tale.

「 This is a story for a single reader. 」

If such a story truly existed, he wanted to beg for a miracle for himself as well.

«I won’t kill you. I won’t kill you.»

The voice from his throat was not his own.

«I won’t kill you.»

—Ahjussi!

The fog in his mind dissolved, and Noh Gyeonghwan awoke.

But his vision was pitch black, and he could see nothing.

Instead, specific memories surfaced.

「 He had entered Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint. Had someone granted his final wish? 」

He had entered this world and was still breathing. He was alive and searching for his daughter.

«Run away!»

«He’s insane, completely insane—»

«Don’t be fooled! He won’t kill you even if he hits you! He keeps saying he won’t kill you!»

In his disordered mind, images slowly sharpened into focus.

The tragedy at Geumho Station.

He also remembered meeting Cheon Inho.

「 Inho-ssi. 」

What had happened to Inho-ssi?

The only dependable man he’d met since arriving in this world.

It felt like he was seeing him for the first time, yet it didn’t feel like the first time at all.

«Alright, do it! Throw another one at him!»

«Now!»

He sensed something flying toward him, then heard a popping sound in his ear.

[You have acquired an additional ‘Star Jewel’!]

[A total of 6 star jewels have been obtained.]

[Step 6 of Madness!]

He vomited blood.

A flood of memories rushed through his mind chaotically.

[The constellation ‘Sneaking Schemer’ shouts to wake up!]

Why did it have to come to this?

He had only wanted his daughter back.

He would have done anything to get his daughter back.

「 «Would you truly do anything?» 」

So he had yielded to temptation.

「 «There is a way to find your daughter.» 」

The image of a theater, staining his thoughts.

A white coat fluttering.

Representative Kim Dokja.

「 «Bring me the [Death Sword]. Then I will tell you where your daughter is.» 」

The Death Sword.

That’s right. He had come to this dungeon to retrieve it.

«Noh Jiyoon. Noh Jiyoon.»

In his clouded memory, Noh Gyeonghwan asked Representative Kim Dokja.

「 «Why did you bring me into this novel?» 」

He needed to know.

«Why did the meteorite fall? Why did my wife have to die? Why did I get cancer?»

He hadn’t expected an answer.

And yet.

「 «Do you wish to know?» 」

An answer came.

「 «Why did a meteorite strike your family that day, and not another? Are you truly curious?» 」

「 «Could there truly be a reason for all my suffering?» 」

「 «Bring me the ‘Sword of Death’, and I will reveal every reason to you.» 」

Representative Kim Dokja provided equipment and skills, and even gave him the coordinates to find the ‘death sword’.

「 «Why are you helping me?» 」

「 «Because you remind me of someone.» 」

For the first time, something resembling emotion showed on Representative Kim Dokja’s face.

「 «He, too, was a father who cared deeply for his daughter.» 」

Noh Gyeonghwan could not comprehend what that meant.

All he knew was that there was a cause for all his misery.

«What, what is this? Where did they come from?»

“Apostles! They’re apostles!»

«Ahhhh!»

«White and Blue Steel! Ki, Kim Dokja?»

That someone had made him suffer like this.

—Ahjussi! You have to calm down!

A voice echoed as if from the far end of the universe.

«I won’t kill you. I won’t kill you-»

Noh Gyeonghwan thought.

I will never forgive you. If there is someone responsible for making my life this way.

«I’ll kill you.»

His hand closed around something burning with power.

*Quadduk.*

A sound came, accompanied by the sensation of his muscles tearing.

«Ahjussi.»

It was a voice he recognized, but he couldn’t place to whom it belonged.

«I don’t want to do this either. But.»

The owner of the voice spoke through evident pain.

«I will deceive you just this once.»

His voice in that moment.

«I am.»

It sounded like the opening sentence of a novel.

​»Noh Jiyoon.»

At that exact moment, the void before his eyes suddenly cleared.

A blank, white page materialized in the overwhelming darkness.

Someone was inscribing a sentence onto the empty page.

「 There was a girl there. Small in stature with a round face. Eyebrows set a little wider than most. Plump cheeks that hadn’t yet lost their childish softness. 」

The text soon shaped itself into a person’s face.

Noh Gyeonghwan reached his hand out toward the girl’s face.

Jiyoon-ah.

「 The daughter he loved so much spoke. 」

«Pass the star jewel to me.»