Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint Novel MTL - Chapter 671

Chapter 671

671 Episode 21 Kim Dokja (7)

Asmodeus, upon hearing Han Sooyoung’s declaration, let out a derisive laugh.

【Do you have any idea what you’re saying?】

Han Sooyoung didn’t bother to reply. She never expected him to comprehend it in the first place.

【You’re gathering the fragments of Kim Dokja for a reason this foolish? To retrieve a ‘Kim Dokja’ who might never return?】

There was a strange, exasperated tone in Asmodeus’s voice.

【Have you ever considered the extras whose lives you’ve ruined?】

Extras who were trampled underfoot.

Han Sooyoung scowled at him.

【Think of all those who gave their lives for your narrow goal of finding Kim Dokja. Have you even once truly seen them?】

Asmodeus added mockingly, his tone growing theatrically condescending.

【You’ve distorted the world-line multiple times. Do you genuinely believe that was justified?】

It was true they had altered the world-line on several occasions, but the worlds they left behind were those destined for annihilation; they had acted only to shrink a predetermined cataclysm into a manageable disaster.

That was the core principle they had agreed upon.

【Would the Kim Dokja you seek agree with your methods? Do you believe the countless fragments of Kim Dokja who lost their individuality during your collection would support you?】

Han Sooyoung found Asmodeus’s words incomprehensible.

In their search for Kim Dokja across the worlds, <Kim Dokja’s Company> had never once taken a fragment from a living Kim Dokja.

They collected only those fragments drifting through the cosmos after failed reincarnations, or story fragments left behind by Kim Dokja.

“I wouldn’t know. I’m not Kim Dokja.”

Even so, Han Sooyoung didn’t try to justify herself. She wondered if there was any point. She was long accustomed to being misunderstood.

「 «You’re scared that people will still blame you, even if you explain?» 」

Kim Dokja was the only one who ever accepted Han Sooyoung for who she was.

「 «I’m usually a truly terrible person.» 」

「 «Who decided that?» 」

What would Kim Dokja say if he saw her now?

Asmodeus spoke as if he knew the answer.

【If you’re going to be this shameless, you should commit to it fully. Initially, you claimed you would let the world end as destined, but now you intend to alter the ordained path?】

“That—”

【Did you change your mind after encountering the 49% Kim Dokja?】

The 49% Kim Dokja.

Han Sooyoung’s eyes flickered slightly; she hadn’t realized Asmodeus was aware of that.

【Did you pity the Kim Dokja you abandoned?】

For once, Han Sooyoung, who was rarely flustered, felt shaken by those words.

Two others grew angry on her behalf.

[The constellation ‘Sneaky Schemer’ is furious at what you’re implying…]

[The constellation ‘Lotus Flower Blooming Under the Moonlight’ wears a stormy expression…]

“Lee Gilyoung. Yoo Sangah.”

At Han Sooyoung’s words, the constellations’ indirect messages faded.

Han Sooyoung continued.

“Yes, you’re not wrong. In the end, I failed to save him.”

Han Sooyoung recalled the story of the 49% Kim Dokja.

She wondered if he had been reborn as someone entirely new—not as Kim Dokja.

Ultimately, the one who had gained a new name, ‘Lee Hakhyun’, had returned to the very world that made him ‘Kim Dokja’.

「 «This kind of ending is unacceptable.» 」

This time, not as a ‘reader’, but as the author who writes the tale.

“What’s done cannot be undone. All I can offer now are poor excuses.”

【I have no interest in your excuses.】

“But I am still the author of this story.”

What did it mean to write a ‘story’ in this world?

What responsibility came with altering a single line?

Understanding that weight better than anyone, Han Sooyoung had chosen to take up the pen before Lee Hakhyun.

“I will destroy the absolute throne.”

At the very least, so that Lee Hakhyun would not bear the guilt for the tragedy he caused.

“Whether the world-line twists or the universe crumbles, I will bear that responsibility.”

It was the only gift she could give to the 49% Kim Dokja, to the writer Lee Hakhyun.

【Hah, it seems I cannot grant you the Death Sword after all.】

Asmodeus shrugged at Han Sooyoung as if in ridicule, then turned gracefully away and said,

【Because this story is no longer yours. Surely you must realize that by now?】

Han Sooyoung’s brow furrowed.

Unperturbed, Asmodeus continued speaking loudly, as if addressing an unseen audience.

【Shall I show you now? What kind of person ‘Han Sooyoung’ truly is? How arbitrary and self-serving you can be. How catastrophic your existence is to this universe.】

The space behind Asmodeus began to quiver.

It shimmered like a silver screen caught in the wind, soon revealing the seating of a vast theater.

An auditorium with space for hundreds of spectators.

“You—”

Kkomas of Kim Dokja filled the seats.

“You’ve taken living souls?”

Asmodeus answered Han Sooyoung, who was fighting down her rising fury.

【Alive? These are all the readers you killed, are they not?】

“What nonsense—”

Han Sooyoung stared at the multitude of kkoma Kim Dokjas in the audience. Their numbers were beyond counting—far greater than all the readers in this world combined.

It couldn’t be…?

Just as Han Sooyoung, reeling from the shock, was about to retort—

「 «What will you do if you pass through the first portal and find a Kim Dokja who isn’t good enough? Will you believe he’s the real one this time?» 」

A familiar narrative echoed from somewhere.

「 «And as for the fragments of Kim Dokja who imagined that sort of ending, I will hunt down every last one and torment them until they produce a proper conclusion.» 」

They were all things she had said.

「 «I’ll capture him no matter what and bring him back. 49%, 51%—I’m done playing number games. I need 100% now.» 」

After hearing her own story, the kkoma Kim Dokjas began questioning her.

「 Why did you discard the 49%? 」

A cold dread seized her. It felt as if the whole world had turned against her.

Han Sooyoung fought the fear and tried to speak.

She hadn’t given up.

She wanted to say that. But the words wouldn’t come.

The probability of the Star Stream was suppressing her.

Asmodeus laughed.

【Do you understand now?】

Amid the whirring of a projector, the questions of the kkoma Kim Dokjas reverberated like a haunting refrain.

「 Why did you abandon him? 」

Han Sooyoung understood.

‘It seems they think just like him.’

This narrative had been following Asmodeus’s script for a long time.

「 «They are no longer Kim Dokja. They were people living their own lives in different worlds.» 」

「 «You summoned me.» 」

「 «I never called for you, though?» 」

Things she hadn’t done.

「 «Do you believe the countless Kim Dokjas who lost their sense of self during your gathering would endorse your mission?» 」

What <Kim Dokja’s Company> had avoided doing.

「 «That guy can’t be the Kim Dokja we know.» 」

Slivers of truth artfully woven into lies. The story was complete.

“What have you done?”

Han Sooyoung staggered as she looked out at the audience.

[The story ‘Kim Dokja’s Company’ begins its storytelling.]

She wanted them to know.

What they witnessed wasn’t the full picture. Those words likely didn’t mean what they thought.

「 «That guy can’t be the Kim Dokja we know.» 」

Han Sooyoung had said that clearly.

「 «Just as the ‘me’ from the 1,863rd round is not the Han Sooyoung all of you know.» 」

To properly acknowledge the 49% Kim Dokja, they had to accept that he wasn’t the Kim Dokja they knew.

Han Sooyoung believed that was the way to treat the 49% Kim Dokja as his own person.

She was certain.

She wrote from the viewpoint of an Omniscient Reader. These were lines that had never been written.

1%, 49%, 51%.

As long as they were <Kim Dokja’s Company>, every Kim Dokja was precious to them.

She could have repeated it endlessly: that seeking one Kim Dokja didn’t mean disregarding the others.

An ‘Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint’—she hadn’t written those words.

Because they weren’t meant for just one Kim Dokja.

And the 49% Kim Dokja had said,

「 «I’m sorry.» 」

Kim Dokja had wanted to be the one and only.

「 «I’m sorry, Han Sooyoung.» 」

Since that was impossible, he left them.

He ceased to be Kim Dokja.

“Kim Dokja, I—”

For the first time, Han Sooyoung opened her mouth to defend herself.

They would understand if they were ‘Kim Dokja’. They would.

Hearing her story would change their minds.

*Tsu tsu tsu tsu.*

She needed to tell a story. She had to inscribe here the sentences she failed to write back then.

But nothing came to mind.

Han Sooyoung stared blankly at the void where her story should be.

Memories lost when her [Avatar] vanished.

The only sentences that could persuade the readers.

She had lost those words forever.

【This world is made of such stories. Do you see?】

Asmodeus was laughing.

【This world has no desire for you. You are its antagonists.】

It was all a matter of perspective.

Each kkoma Kim Dokja was a tiny fragment of ‘Kim Dokja’. Thus, the stories they read and believed became the power of this world.

They became probability.

*Tsu tsu tsu tsu tsu—*

A brilliant aura emanated from the center of the theater—the right hand of Asmodeus.

【So, please, stop here and die.】

Han Sooyoung looked at Asmodeus, then at the readers beyond him, and thought of the one person who would be witnessing this entire story.

“Fine.”

Han Sooyoung laughed.

“I’ve always been the villain anyway.”

She took a deep breath, feeling her broken body. The probability granted to her now was limited.

[The constellation ‘Lotus Blooming Under the Moonlight’ is…]

[The constellation ‘Sneaky Schemer’ is…]

But she was still the author, and she still had stories to tell.

「 «Maybe Kim Dokja’s tastes have changed? The stories you write aren’t interesting to him anymore.» 」

Remembering Lee Hakhyun’s words, Han Sooyoung gripped the Unbreakable Faith left by Kim Dokja.

What story did Kim Dokja wish to see when he came here?

She didn’t know.

Perhaps not even Kim Dokja knew.

He was the most helpless god in this universe, capable only of reading and rereading a single story.

“Do your worst, Asmodeus.”

Han Sooyoung resolved to begin her final story for her god.

She declared, “This time, I will leave you breathless.”

—

*rlaehrwk37: Save me, Kim Dokja*

I sprinted through the wind and rain.

Black and blue lightning repeatedly split the sky shrouded in dark clouds.

A torrent of thoughts flooded my mind.

It might already be too late.

If it wasn’t, what could we do to stop Yoo Jonghyuk?

As I ran until my muscles screamed, I recalled the ‘Ways of Survival’ in my mind.

Just as Kim Dokja would turn to the ‘Ways of Survival’ whenever a scenario stalled.

[The skill cannot currently be activated.]

Ways of Survival was blocked. Why?

A sense of foreboding washed over me. Deafening thunder shook the surroundings.

One brilliant blue lightning bolt after another crashed down.

An immense probability was gathering, brewing a storm.

At the heart of the tempest, I glimpsed an incarnation.

I whispered her name in disbelief.

“Han Sooyoung?”

Her body, now completely blackened, was plummeting toward the ground.