Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint (Web Novel KR)

“Ba–, did you just say Jiyoon?”
When Uncle Dansoo asked, Yae Hyunwoo frowned warily.

“…Sorry?”
“Jiyoon! Do you know Jiyoon?”
“She’s my friend, why?”

“Where is Jiyoon right now?”
Startled by the uncle’s sudden outburst, Hyunwoo turned wide eyes toward me.
I calmed the uncle, who was panting for breath, and said,

“Your daughter’s name is Noh Jiyoon.”
Hyunwoo’s eyes widened.
“Noh Jiyoon? Really?”
Glancing back and forth between me and the uncle, Hyunwoo muttered cautiously,

“But… it could be someone with the same name…”
“Hyunwoo-ssi, your friend—she’s the same Jiyoon who said she would marry Yoo Joonghyuk in the future, isn’t she?”
At my question, Hyunwoo gave a blank nod.

“Huh? Yeah. Wow. You really are Jiyoon’s dad. But wait, if you’re here too, then that means you also read ORV…”
“Where is Jiyoon right now?”
It was the first time, since arriving in this world, that Uncle Dansoo had met someone who actually knew his daughter. He was on the verge of collapsing from the weight of it.

“I’m sorry… I haven’t met Jiyoon since I got here either.”
“Ah…”
“But she should definitely be somewhere here. I was with Jiyoon at the theater when we got pulled in.”

At the word theater, Gyeong Sein spoke up.
“Then, Seventh Apostle-nim, were you also at ‘Kim Dokja’s Banquet’?”
“Yes. You too?”

“I was there as well…”
As expected, most of the readers who had been in the theater seemed to have transmigrated into this world.
Uncle Dansoo added a word,

“I was in the hospital when I suddenly got dragged in, but…”
So even being outside the theater, one could still transmigrate. Which meant it wasn’t necessarily limited to just the audience inside.
Hyunwoo let out a sigh and went on.

“If I’d known this would happen, I never would’ve gone. Up until the quiz, I was actually in a good mood. I solved a tough one and was expecting a prize…”
“What did you answer?”
“Uh, the meaning of 1,863…”
“Ah, so you were the Seventh Apostle.”

I remembered vaguely.
The one who had confidently explained the connection between Yoo Joonghyuk’s regression count and the year the subway first opened.
And the girl sitting beside him had asked whether Kim Dokja had come back to life.

So was that girl—Jiyoon?
Hyunwoo sighed again, out of habit, and glanced toward Yoo Joonghyuk who was still pacing restlessly along the railroad tracks.
“I haven’t seen Jiyoon since we got separated then. I thought for sure she’d be with Yoo Joonghyuk by now… but from the looks of it, she hasn’t transmigrated into Jihye either.”

At his tactless words, Uncle Dansoo’s expression darkened sharply.
“But still, Jiyoon’s definitely alive somewhere, so don’t worry too much. There’s no way a tough girl like her would die. She even read Ways of Survival more than me.”
I froze at those words.

Jiyoon read more than fifty regressions?
As if to change the subject, Hyunwoo forced a faint smile.
“Anyway, it’s amazing you all made it here already. I survived by luck, starting near Chungmuro even with my fifty reads… but you guys—”

“We started from Geumho Station.”
“Wow, from that ‘Geumho Station’? Oh, right—you’re Cheon Inho… then you must’ve met Jung Heewon there too?”
“Yes.”

Jung Heewon was standing a dozen steps away, chatting with Lee Jihye. It looked like Jihye had taken an interest first and was asking her all sorts of questions.
“That’s really strange. Jung Heewon becoming comrades with Cheon Inho… is this development even okay?”
At that, I had nothing to say.
If we’re talking developments, I actually thought it was a rather fresh twist.

“Anyway, meeting other Apostle members makes me feel relieved. That bastard Killer King showed up dragging a bunch of Odukhyeop kids along, and it was a nightmare dealing with them.”
At those words, the sight of the non-human corpses scattered in front of the tunnel flashed through my mind. So that really had been Hyunwoo and Gong Pildu’s doing.
“Odukhyeop attacked here too?”

“You’ve met them already?”
“Thanks to Killer King-nim.”
“Ugh, that bastard… anyway, they were here too. They must’ve prepared a whole raid for the early rush. But I guess they underestimated my Invincible Castle Lord, Stage 3 Tech Tree.”

Hyunwoo seemed particularly fond of Gong Pildu, rambling on at length about some home-grown Invincible Castle Lord growth plan or whatever.
Who knows how long he went on like that.
“…I want to go home.”

It was like stepping on a thorn that had sprouted in the middle of an open field.
When had it started? Hyunwoo’s eyes were brimming with tears.
I belatedly realized Hyunwoo was about Jiyoon’s age.

Outwardly, they all seemed excited about entering the world of a novel, but in truth—no one would ever want to be thrown into a real apocalypse.
Gyeong Sein clenched his fists tight, and Uncle Dansoo rose, reaching out as if to comfort the boy with a hand on his shoulder.
That was when a voice came from behind.

“Stop yapping and get over here, brat.”
Hyunwoo scurried over and sat beside Gong Pildu. When Hyunwoo sniffled, Gong Pildu shot me a murderous glare.
Barely mid-to-late teens.

And yet, a kid like that had endured both the first and second scenarios and managed to survive to this point.
I wanted to say something to him. That he would get home safely. That nothing bad would happen.
But… did I really have the right to say such things?

Bzzzzzt.
The same vibration buzzed from everyone’s pockets.
One by one, we pulled out our phones.

And then—
“Inho-ssi.”
Gyeong Sein’s tense voice.

Not just him. Uncle Dansoo, and even Hyunwoo beside Gong Pildu, all wore the same expression.
On our phone screens, the same identical message appeared.
―It’s been a while, dear Readers.

A message from Kim Dokja Representative.
“This… is it—”
I quickly scanned the surroundings.

Checking if anyone else beyond us was looking at their phones.
“Let’s just check first.”
I opened the message.

―Hello, Readers. By now, you should all be in the Second Scenario, or if you’re quick, already proceeding with the Third. You’ve survived well. Of course, some Readers didn’t survive. But what can we do? You should’ve read more diligently.
A strange chill seeped from the tone of the words.
Was this really a message from the Kim Dokja Representative I knew?

―I’m sure you’re all curious. Why me, of all people? What did I do wrong to be transmigrated into this world? Was it because I read that damn novel? But I never even left a hate comment, so why? Who on earth, and for what reason, dragged me into this world?
An ominous premonition struck me.
“Everyone! If you haven’t opened the message yet—”

But I couldn’t finish my warning.
―Frustrating, isn’t it? So for all of you Readers who’ve managed to survive thus far, I’ll be holding a little briefing. To explain why you were brought into this world, and…
With a buzzing crack, Gyeong Sein, Uncle Dansoo, and even Hyunwoo collapsed one after another like puppets whose strings had been cut.

―What you must accomplish in order to return to your original world.
My own vision went black.
―Then, see you soon.

***
A dark tunnel.
The woman in a white coat, who had been watching over Chungmuro Station with a lollipop in her mouth, shot to her feet.

“Hey, remember every single one of the people whose phones just rang.”
[The Constellation, ‘Sneaking Schemer’, asks why you’re being so bothersome.]
“They’re all transmigrators. And…”

She checked the faces of Cheon Inho’s fallen group one by one, adding,
“Trace the coordinates of the new sub-space. Find out where their souls were dragged to. Hurry.”
***

When I opened my eyes, I was lying in a wide lobby.
The instant I sprang up, something about my line of sight felt oddly familiar.
As my eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness, the surroundings came into view.

Darkened ticket counters and unmanned kiosks.
This place was the theater at Chungmuro.
I approached the ticket machines, and on the black screen, someone’s face flickered.

It was my face reflected back. Not Cheon Inho’s, but Lee Hakheon’s.
A laugh slipped out, a mix of irony and sorrow. Relief flooded in, tangled with an inexplicable sense of loss.
Could it have all been just a dream?

Of course—transmigration into a novel couldn’t really happen. There was no way something so webnovel-like could suddenly happen to me.
That was when the ceiling lights switched on.
Beams of light shot down around the area, summoning people one by one.

“Uwaaaah!”
“What the hell?!”
Some screamed, others calmly scanned their surroundings.

One after another, people appeared.
And I recognized them immediately.
「Readers.」

The very Readers who had transmigrated into the novel world with me.
Only then did I realize.
We had all been summoned here in our original, real-world forms.

I quickly began to count. Roughly estimating, there had to be well over a hundred people.
So it wasn’t only those who had been in the theater that night—others from outside had transmigrated too.
And around the twentieth head I counted, I spotted one that stood out towering above the rest.

Even if I didn’t recognize anyone else, there was no mistaking that person.
“Sein-ssi.”
“Eh? Who—”

The startled man turned toward me, and I caught sight of his nametag.
[JudgeHeewon].
He, too, seemed to have confirmed my tag.

“I-Inho-ssi? It’s you, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Waaah! Inho-ssi!”

Sein threw his arms around me with exaggerated relief.
I hastily pushed him off and asked,
“Have you seen anyone else?”

“The thing is… I don’t know what the others look like in real life.”
Well, true enough.
By now, people were catching on, and shouts of searching rang through the theater.

“Mijin-ah! Seo Mijin!”
“JihyeLover-nim! Are you here, JihyeLover-nim?”
“NamUnMom-nim!”

That was when I realized.
I had someone I had to find, too. And maybe—this might be my only chance.
“Sein-ssi, I’ll be right back.”

“Huh? Inho-ssi! Wait—!”
I shoved through the crowd, checking each face.
“Ji Eunyu-ssi! Is Ji Eunyu here?!”

My editor, Ji Eunyu.
The one who had {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} brought me to this theater. She had read ORV, solved the quiz. She must have transmigrated as well.
“Ji Eunyu-ssi!”

But she was nowhere to be seen.
Had she not been summoned yet?
Or…

I bit down hard on my lip. Of all people—it was Ji Eunyu. She might have read my novel more than even I had.
There was no way someone like her wouldn’t have survived.
And then, I heard a familiar name.

“Jiyoon… Jiyoon!”
A neatly dressed middle-aged man had collapsed onto the floor, desperately crying out for someone.
“Ahjussi.”

When I approached, the man lifted his head. It wasn’t a face I recognized, but the instant I saw his eyes, I was sure.
“Inho… friend?”
It was undoubtedly Uncle Dansoo.

“Yes.”
In real life, Uncle Dansoo was just as handsome as his novel-world counterpart.
The difference was, this version of him looked deathly pale, gaunt like a dried branch, as if he might keel over at any moment.

“I’m sorry, friend. Jiyoon. Please… Jiyoon…”
He muttered the words and fainted. His forehead burned with fever. I hurriedly hoisted him onto my back—his body was as light as a child’s.
I looked around anxiously.

Should I try to get him to a hospital?
Impossible.
The theater’s emergency exits and elevators were blocked by translucent walls.

This wasn’t the same theater we knew, but a temporary sub-space someone had created.
Escape wasn’t an option.
That left only one thing I could do.

“Jiyoon! Noh Jiyoon!”
I began shouting at the top of my lungs.
Sein, who had rushed over, grasped the situation and joined me in calling her name.

“Jiyoon, where are you?!”
A few times, I caught sight of girls about her age—but none of them were Jiyoon.
Before long, all the beams of light faded.

The summoning was complete.
At that moment, a crushing pressure froze me in place. My breathing faltered, my head swam.
「Something was watching us.」

With difficulty, I raised my head against the weight.
Since when—
Someone was floating in the air above the theater ceiling.

【Let’s see… finally, you’ve all gathered.】
A white coat, a face resembling Kim Dokja, trademark sunglasses. He addressed us.
【Welcome, everyone, to ‘Kim Dokja’s Banquet.’】

The Kim Dokja Representative.
The very culprit who had summoned us into this world.