Chapter Text
I stared at the back of the subway disappearing into the darkness. Now, the figures of my companions couldn't be seen all that well.
⸢And everyone lived happily ever after.⸥
I always hated that phrase.
However, the current me dearly wished for that phrase to become true.
[Constellation, 'Demon King of Salvation' has reached his ■■.]
[You have become the 'Most Ancient Dream'.]
The disappearing lights in the distance resembled the Constellations that still remembered me.
And with that, my endless voyage got underway.
[Your ■■ is 'Eternity'.]
Fin.
***
…What? That’s it?
I felt my stomach drop as I spammed the ‘reload’ and ‘next’ buttons.
There was no way that the book just ended like this? After all this time?
People warned me about the ending, but this was worse than what I thought, yet, I still sat there as I fought back against my tears until I was rudely interrupted by a notification on my phone.
It was strangely a notification that a new chapter had loaded.
Thank goodness I was just overreacting. It made sense that the wifi was just slow because I was on the subway.
I let out a sigh of relief as I lifted my phone up to read.
“You have been chosen based on a random survey. You will be transferred in 10 seconds.”
Huh?
It was surely an ad. I tried to search for a tiny “x” to close it out. The intent was probably to scare the user into clicking it only to install some tracker thing in your phone.
Ugh, It was annoying when these ads popped up. I wiped my tears and tried to let my annoyance overpower my emotions so I wouldn't cry on the subway home. What would mom think if she saw me like this?
I clicked the home button of my phone only to find that it was frozen on the screen. That was weird, since when did ads take over your phone?
The lights of the subway shut off and I felt sick for a moment, probably because of the sudden shock of the subway coming to a halt. Voices of confusion surrounded the space.
“Uh, what?”
“W-What is this?”
“W-What is going on?”
People on the subway seemed to be voicing their concerns. They were right. It was a bit strange for the subway to stop so suddenly. Hopefully everything was okay?
A guy across from me seemed to be fairly calm about the situation though.
“Don’t worry. It isn’t a big deal.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes, it is probably a disturbance from a suicide. The engineer will soon make an announcement.”
The engineers' announcement turned on as if on cue. “telling all passengers on the train. Telling all passengers on the train.”
“See, it isn’t a big deal. Now an apology will air, and the power will come back on…”
…. Huh? Hold on, why did his response sound so familiar?
“E-Everyone run away… Run…!”
The broadcast ended with a bone chilling beep.
No. Simply, no. There was no way this was real.
“D-Dokja-ssi? What is this…?”
The train car seemed to be rattling with chaos but I was still lost in my thoughts.
Dokja?
A bright light flashed around us and a loud pop could be heard.
[The free service of planetary system 8612 has been terminated.]
[the main scenario has started.]
I really can’t be Dokja-ing into Dokja’s story right now. I need to wake up from this dream.
I was still slapping myself in the face as the lights of the subway turned back on. Suddenly I wished that I could go back to trying not to cry on the subway.
With a bright spark, everyone's attention was diverted to the direction of the dokkaebi floating at the front of the carriage.
Yoo Sangah said her line. “... Dokkaebi?”
Everyone's attention was moved to Bihyung floating at the front of the carriage. That meant….
I switched my gaze to search for Dokja, as if it made this whole situation feel a bit more believable from seeing him. Lo and behold, he was sitting directly across from me. I could tell who he was immediately because his face was a bit blurred.
I was disappointed when I realized the 4th wall was censoring his face from me too. I guess it made sense since I only knew what he looked like through other people's interpretations of him through fanarts and the occasional official art, which was definitely not the same as real life.
… Wait. Fourth wall? Did I have such a scam skill too?
‘Hey. fourth wall? You there?’ I didn't know exactly how to communicate with mine if I had one.
There was no response. I guess it was understandable since Dokja only really started talking to it in the later chapters… but there was another way to check.
‘Attribute window’
[you can’t activate the attribute window.]
Hah. So I did have some cheating skills. I guess it was only fair. Dokja read TWSA and got scam attributes from it, and I read ORV and, should in theory, also have scam attributes from it.
I was slapped back into reality when blood splattered on my face.
I guess Bihyung already got rid of the loud people while I was lost in my thoughts. Now wasn’t the time to be thinking about my stats. I needed to survive the subway first.
[Everyone, your lives have been nice so far. Isn’t that right?]
Bihyung seemed to be talking on schedule. If I somehow got my hands on a bug, then maybe I would be able to get off the subway and figure out what was going on. Except, a system message notification popped up in front of me.
Mission #1
[Happy Ending]
Category: Mission
Difficulty: ???
Clear conditions: Ensure that Dokja Kim receives a happy ending in the epilogue.
Time limit: none
Compensation: Transported back to your universe. You will be returned to the exact time and place where you came from.
Penalty for failure: Death
… Mission? Was that ever a type of scenario? Wait. This wasn’t a type of scenario.
Shivers went down my spine. So many questions were popping into my head as the dokkaebi explained to the people the dire situation that they were in.
What qualifies as a happy ending? How do I know that I've completed it? How did any of this happen?
System messages filled the air in an instant.
[Bi-7623 channel is open.]
[The constellations have entered.]
[The main scenario has arrived!]
Main Scenario #1
Proof of Value
Category: Main
Difficulty: F
Clear conditions: Kill one or more living things.
Time limit: 30 minutes
Compensation: 300 coins
Penalty for failure: Death
Everything was becoming a bit too much for me.
‘It would be nice if I had a handy fourth wall skill to help me out right about now.’
There was no reply.
Dang. I really hoped that I had a fourth wall type skill, and I had just received an exclusive ‘mission’ task that I had no idea how to clear. All I want to do now is go home and cry about the ending that everyone else seemed to cry about after reading it. Screw whatever this was.
“Come on, everybody! Everybody calm down. Start breathing calmly.”
Just from what he said, I could tell who it was.
Even though I was definitely not in a state of calm, his words knocked a bit of sense into me.
All of a sudden I remembered a bunch of people talking about using hand sanitizer to pass the first main scenario. I instinctively reached into my pocket and applied some hand sanitizer after wiping my hands on a nearby subway pole.
No system message alarmed. I guess the star stream didn’t count germs as a ‘living thing’.
I knew that theory had many problems with it since cells are dying within our bodies all the time but, at least it was worth the try.
I had to think of something else instead of that then.
I originally thought that I could steal the bug from Han Myungoh, but even though he was an annoying character in the beginning, he ended up helping Dokja in the long run…
I didn’t know what would happen if I started changing what I knew from the book so early on. Unlike Dokja, who had many different regressions to work out what would happen in each situation, I only had one storyline from him.
In the end, I decided that Myungoh should live another day at least.
Hunsung was being bombarded by questions from the other subway goers. I still had a bit of time to figure out a plan to survive. If only I could re-read the early chapters of ORV…
[Your recollection has provided you with the earlier chapters due to the effect of an exclusive attribute.]
The chapters of ORV were scrolling before my eyes. I thought it was a rip off version of one of Kim Dokjas reading skills, but it was a bit different since I didn’t need to read a book on a phone since it was all in my head.
I noticed my reading speed was also exceptionally fast, and my mental scrolling stopped when I read about the grandma. She was someone that died because she didn’t clear the main scenario, but she was already half dead at that point.
It was someone that I could kill as an easy target and nothing much would change from the original plot… But I still didn’t like the idea of having to kill grandma.
No other solution was popping into my head though. It seemed to be the best solution for the time being.
I blinked back to reality, and everyone was clamoring about the guy whose head was just blown off on live tv.
[Everyone, I’ve told you already. This isn’t a game like ‘terrorism.’]
[Do you still not understand? This won't do. Do you still feel like this is a game?]
Silence followed the question and he continued to talk to us like we were a crowd full of energy.
[haha, according to the data, the people of this country are very good at games. So, why don’t I try raising the difficulty?]
Suddenly the timer in the air decreased rapidly.
[The remaining tie has been decreased by 10 minutes.]
[There are 10 minutes remaining.]
[If the first killing doesn’t occur within the next five minutes, all lives in that carriage will be wiped out.]
The development of the people panicking and trying to escape was soon solved by the system message notification that came soon after.
[All types of access to the carriage will be restricted until the scenario is complete.]
Everyone that was trying to break out could be seen being thrown back to the center of the carriage.
Jihye was seen on screen strangling her friend to death.
Panic washed over the rest of the train again.
Maybe I was in mental shock. All of these events felt like I was reading it straight from the book. I only sat in place while observing everything as if I wasn’t actually there.
I guess I was taking this moment to grasp this situation again…
Dokja quickly checked his phone and startled me though.
Ah, he probably checked his phone for the TWSA TXT file that tls123 sent him.
He read the phone for a bit and seemed to be the only other calm person in the station other than me and maybe even hyunsung.
Things were going exactly as how ORV described it to be. I decided to stay in the shadows a bit longer and I needed to figure out the best time to kill the grandma.
Namwoon made his entrance and led the rest of the subway to attack her. This wasn’t my time to strike. Dokja still had to use her grandma to bait Namwoon… So I had to kill her at the last second before Namwoon would be able to get to her.
I refused to move from my spot on the subway until I had to strike. It must have looked a bit strange because Gilyoung approached me after he squashed the grasshopper that Dokja gave him.
“Uh, why are you so calm?”
Ah, this kid. His mother was searching for the grasshopper that Dokja threw to the other side of the train so she was away, and Dokja was preoccupied with Namwoon. He was probably watching me for some time now if he approached me…
Answering him would be hard too. It wasn’t like I could tell him about TWSA or even ORV.
“I…. was.. uh… praying….”
Gilyoung made a complicated expression as he seemed to analyze all the details of my face. I was never really good at lying, so his suspicious gaze made me break into a cold sweat.
But then Gilyoung quietly backed away from me with a scared expression on his face.
No, was I really that ugly?
All of a sudden I felt like I was in a shadow. I looked up to meet the gaze of Kim Namwoon.
“Praying? At a time like this? Do you really think God is watching you right now?”
Surprisingly, our little side conversation was picked up by Namwoon who seemed to be busy fighting with Dokja earlier.
There was one minute left, which meant that Dokja should have just killed the egg sack by now and Namwoon should be going insane and begging for his life...
Namwoons knife hovered a few inches away from my neck. I found that Dokja was just staring at the situation with a bit of dread in his eyes as he was hovering over the grandma.
[Time remaining: 40 seconds]
[Time remaining: 39 seconds]
[Time remaining: 38 seconds]
The timer seemed to be moving at a faster rate than before.
I can’t believe I was becoming more of a nuisance to dokja than helping him right now. Kim Namwoon needs to die on this train no matter what, and if he kills me, there's no telling what will happen to Dokja in the future…
My hand moved before I had time to fully think about my actions. I grabbed the knife handle and pushed back against Namwoon.
Surprisingly, he budged a bit. There was no doubt that he was using blackening lv.1 because of the dark aura he was emitting. But didn’t that have a strength boost or something?
I pushed a bit back again, just to test the waters. He seemed to be noticeably struggling against my push.
…Eh? I know I am an athlete but, is this the power of high school sports?
“Hah. This bitch thinks she can overpower me. Too bad I'll kill you soon. I would ask you to join me with that determination, although you’d have to fix that whole praising god spiel.”
[Time remaining: 19 seconds]
[Time remaining: 18 seconds]
[Time remaining: 17 seconds]
Time was quickly running out. I couldn't listen to his words anymore, and I used my full force to push Namwoon off. He flung back into the seat across from me and his body left a dent where he landed.
Since when was I so powerful?
He dropped the knife at the impact, and I picked it up off the floor.
[Time remaining: 8 seconds]
[Time remaining: 7 seconds]
[Time remaining: 6 seconds]
This is where I decided that no, I wasn't going to kill an innocent grandma today.
“What? Who are-”
I lunged towards Namwoon with unusual speed as I slit Kim Namwoons throat before he could finish his sentence. He needed to die anyway, so Me killing him instead of the end of the scenario shouldn’t change much right?
The timer hit zero right after he died.
[The given time has run out.]
[Paid settlement will begin.]
People’s heads started exploding from the front of the train to the rear. Standing here, I really knew how it felt when Dokja watched it ‘with a bit of joy, a bit of guilt, and a mysterious feeling’ in ORV.
I felt the same as I stared at my system message in front of me.
[You have killed 1 living thing.]