[The Constellation, 'God of War at Sea', expresses gratitude to you.]
[The Constellation, 'Demon-like Judge of Fire', is moved by your kindness.]
I chuckled as I cleared the messages from the Constellations.
Uriel is still the same.
By the way, receiving gratitude from Yi Sun-sin made me laugh a little. Mentally, I'm completely Korean, but physically, I'm Japanese, so it's a pretty funny situation.
"8th floor now."
I looked at the stairs leading up.
Yoo Joonghyuk, who barged in alone and made people anxious for no reason, exists beyond these stairs.
"Jihye-ya."
I grabbed Jihye's arm as she tried to go up while looking at the stairs.
"I plan to rest a bit before going, let's rest together."
"But..."
"Trust them."
Kim Dokja looked at me.
He seemed to be contemplating.
Whether it was okay to leave me behind, or if he should take me by any means necessary.
Is he worrying about that?
"Sorry. Dokja-ssi."
At my apology, Kim Dokja nodded as if he had no choice.
"I can't predict what will happen on the 8th floor. If you hear a loud noise... I shamelessly ask for your help."
"Got it."
The group heading to the 8th floor.
Jihye and I sat down, watching their backs.
"Ajussi."
"?"
Jihye called me, poking me.
Was she bored sitting still?
"What did you do in the past, Ajussi?"
"Suddenly?"
"You dug up my past first. Reveal yours fairly too."
I thought she'd ask how I found out, but she asks about my past.
[Multiple Constellations are curious about your past.]
"I was a teacher."
"A teacher?"
Look at her reaction?
Staring as if to say it really doesn't suit me.
"PE teacher."
"Ah... suits you. Must have been popular. Handsome face and cool personality."
"I wasn't popular."
Originally, neither my personality nor my face was like this.
"Sounds like a lie."
[The Constellation, 'Demon-like Judge of Fire', shouts that it can't be true.]
Well, I know credibility drops quite a bit with my current appearance and personality.
But what can I do. I originally had an ordinary face.
Boom.
Just as I was about to say more.
A large vibration resonated from above.
"W-what is this sound!"
"What do you think. The sound of your Master going wild."
"What?! Why is our Master going wild!"
"Well, to my eyes... looks like your Master is being controlled by the Theater Master right now."
"Master is being controlled?!"
I nodded.
Jihye looked quite surprised, but I know the reason.
Repeated regressions devastate a person, and to the current Yoo Joonghyuk who hasn't secured mental defense skills, that devastation becomes a fatal weakness.
simply put, it's this.
The Theater Master's demonic hand reached into the cracks of Yoo Joonghyuk's damaged mentality.
And it succeeded.
"Any more than this would be dangerous."
Crack.
I loosened my body, grabbed Lee Jihye by the nape of her neck, and quickly moved to the 8th floor.
[8th floor above ground. You have entered the 'Sky Garden'.]
As soon as we entered the rooftop, we saw Yoo Joonghyuk and Kim Dokja clashing swords.
Gilyoung was concentrating from afar to summon something, and Jung Heewon was repeatedly trying to find an opening to thrust her sword at the Theater Master.
"Chaos."
First, I put down Lee Jihye, then immediately ran to Gilyoung and patted his back.
"Stop. Gilyoung-ah. Don't overdo it."
"Ah, uh... Gang-hoon Hyung...?"
"Yeah. It's Hyung."
No need to do it while getting a nosebleed.
"Hyung will do it. That role."
I turned my gaze to Kim Dokja and Yoo Joonghyuk.
Kim Dokja thrust his sword at Yoo Joonghyuk as if angry at something, and Yoo Joonghyuk was parrying it as if it were nothing.
"If you can't find the meaning of life right in front of you... you decided to live for the greater cause at least!!"
Kim Dokja was shouting as if screaming his lungs out.
Kim Dokja seemed to have already activated Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint and read Yoo Joonghyuk's inner thoughts.
Seeing Yoo Joonghyuk's weakened heart, a scene where Kim Dokja conveys his sincerity.
It was a scene I remembered vividly because I read it impressively among the early stories of ORV.
Is this a scene others can listen to?
I clearly recall them talking, but what happened after is fuzzy.
Just in case...
"Emerge from darkness, blacker than darkness. Purify that which is impure."
Let's set up a Curtain.
It's better to block ambiguous parts in advance.
No need to block sight, so I add a different effect to the technique.
Visible inside, but sound blocked.
"Alone? Don't be ridiculous. How did we get up here! Why are you alone!"
Their sword strikes clashed.
The clanging sound rang in my ears as if tearing the air, and they swung madly at each other, the sound continuing to resonate.
"Even when you died like an idiot in the 'Theater Dungeon', even when you whined holding your dead little sister, even when you got backstabbed by the Prophet and died!!"
Kim Dokja's anger was gradually reaching its climax.
Perhaps his anger was justified.
Because to Kim Dokja, Yoo Joonghyuk wasn't just a 'character' from the moment he read the story of 3000 regressions, Yoo Joonghyuk's long narrative.
"Even when you had a child with the person you loved for the first time, even when the child died and you went crazy!!"
"...!"
"Fighting the Demon King, confronting the Returnees! Helping Otherworlders, fighting against the damn Reincarnators! Even when you finally stood before the Constellations! Watching you struggle to live somehow, I...!!!"
Boom.
Yoo Joonghyuk slammed his sword into the ground, jumped up, and struck Kim Dokja's sword hard.
Clang. Behind the ringing sound, the ground beneath Kim Dokja, who barely parried, began to crack with a boom. Amidst all that, Yoo Joonghyuk was looking at Kim Dokja clearly.
"You,"
"...!"
"Who the hell are you?"
[The 'Theater Master Simulacrum' is flustered.]
[The 'Theater Master Simulacrum' strengthens control over the Incarnation, 'Yoo Joonghyuk'!]
"Kuh-ugh...!!"
Yoo Joonghyuk swung at Kim Dokja again, wrapping Breaking the Sky Energy around his sword, and Kim Dokja countered by wrapping White Pure Star Energy around his.
"Joonghyuk-ah."
Kim Dokja's words no longer reach Yoo Joonghyuk.
Kim Dokja must know this too, but he spoke to that Yoo Joonghyuk.
"I asked you before, right? If I could hit you just once. You said? I could."
I saw Kim Dokja's sword transforming into some other property.
Vwoom. That ringing sword soon began to harbor flames, and as if Kim Dokja started something more, the aura emitting from him became stronger.
...Song of the Sword.
Kim Dokja immediately launched several sword strikes at Yoo Joonghyuk to stop him, then rushed straight at the Simulacrum.
"...!"
But Yoo Joonghyuk recovered his stamina rapidly and rushed at Kim Dokja again.
"Keep running. Dokja-ssi."
However, I have no intention of just watching anymore.
I didn't step in because it was a scene I personally liked, and anyway, what follows was supposed to be Gilyoung's highlight, which I stopped.
It was time for me to step in.
"I'd like to hit you with a Cursed Technique, but-!"
Hitting with a Cursed Technique would hurt a lot, so I decided to choose a very kindly weak method.
I immediately grabbed Yoo Joonghyuk's head and slammed it into the ground.
With this, the Titanoptera paid for its meal.
"Eh?"
Kim Dokja's sword reached the Simulacrum, and immediately upon contact, the Simulacrum disappeared from the spot.
[The Hidden Scenario clear conditions have been met!]
[You have acquired 4,000 Coins as a reward.]
The reward for defeating the Simulacrum didn't come in.
It must have gone entirely to Kim Dokja.
"Everyone, is everyone okay?!"
Lee Jihye ran urgently towards us, and Jung Heewon, who had collapsed without anyone noticing, slowly approached us.
"Dokja-ssi, are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Heewon-ssi?"
"I'm okay."
[The end time of the third main scenario is imminent!]
"Looks like it's ending down below too."
"...Ah, Seoul."
We looked down at Jung Heewon's words.
Seoul being destroyed. Explosions began to be heard here and there, and the poisonous fog wasn't visible, perhaps because all the farting rhinos were dead.
"The sky is damn beautiful."
"Indeed."
Shooting stars began to fall from the sky, and at that sight, Gilyoung made a wish earnestly.
"Aren't you Hyungs making a wish?"
"They say wishes don't come true if you say them out loud."
"I made one."
"Me too."
Kim Dokja looked at Yoo Joonghyuk who was knocked down by me in the back, and I looked up at the sky.
"I wished to see the epilogue of a certain novel."
"I wished to see the end together with everyone here now."
At my words, the gazes of the group around me poured onto me.
...Ah, should I not have said that?
"So, get strong quickly. Just need to become as strong as me, right?"
"Easier said than...!"
"Fighting!"
I chuckled and slowly went down the stairs.
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