Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint (Web Novel KR)

Everything was pure white.
A blank sheet of manuscript paper with not a single dot written on it.
My thoughts flickered like a cursor.

「“Inho-ssi, how did you end up becoming a writer?”」
When we were trapped in the fish dragon, Jung Heewon had asked me that question.
Strangely, the answer didn’t come to mind right away.

How had I become a writer?
The memory was distant, hazy.
「You’re here?」

I forced my eyes open and saw a sky where snow was falling.
I immediately knew where this was.
The snowfield, covered in white.

As I slowly raised myself up, a face I knew very well appeared.
「Kim Dokja.」
Kim Dokja nodded. Just like the last time we had met, he was standing alone in the snowfield.
He waved lightly at me, then squatted down and gazed at the ground.

Since he was staring so intently, I couldn’t help but approach and ask:
「Is there something down there?」
Kim Dokja tilted his head and grinned. He pointed his finger down.

There was a pitch-black footprint.
It wasn’t one of the original prints.
Clearly, it had been made very recently.

I looked down at my own foot, then back at the footprint.
Then I slowly crouched beside Kim Dokja.
「I wanted to become strong like you.」

I didn’t know why I said it. The words just came out.
「Like you…….」
「But you know,」 Kim Dokja said,

「I’m not really that strong.」
Turning, he looked back—at the endless trail of footprints behind him.
He spoke as if counting them.

「I’ve just kept walking.」
Kept walking.
Kim Dokja continued.
「It’s going to be really hard from now on.」

「……」
「You’ll be lonely.」
At those words, I truly did feel lonely. I said:

「This story isn’t going to have a happy ending, is it.」
Kim Dokja stayed silent for a moment.
We looked at the footprints. The ones that had vanished. The ones just made. The ones yet to come.

Kim Dokja asked:
「Will you be okay?」
I slowly nodded.

「As long as you keep reading.」
Kim Dokja’s eyes were on me. I felt strangely self-conscious and turned my gaze away.
Then Kim Dokja said:

「Well, I shouldn’t really do this, but.」
After a moment of hesitation, he rummaged through his coat pocket. Then he placed something in my hand.
「Take it. And…….」

***
Gasping, I opened my eyes.
It was Chungmuro Station.

“Inho-ssi!”
Holding my aching forehead, I pushed myself upright. Gyeong Sein’s face came into view.
“Everyone…….”

“They’re safe. Everyone’s safe.”
Gyeong Sein squeezed my hand tightly.
“Hey, Inho-ssi.”

That was when Ajusshi Dansoo approached. Dropping to his knees, he stared straight at me.
His expression seemed to both scold me and worry for me.
But he didn’t ask me anything. He simply pulled me into an embrace.

And then Gyeong Sein suddenly burst into tears and hugged the both of us together.
Caught in their arms, I looked around Chungmuro Station.
I saw the faces of those who survived.

Citizens, including Gong Pildu and Ye Hyunwoo, were stacking sandbags near the stairwell.
A large waterproof sheet had been spread across the stair entrance, blocking the rising poison gas.
On the benches, the injured were being tended to.

Some incarnations had fallen asleep after consuming the [Spirit of the Elain Forest].
Jung Heewon lay stretched out on the floor, while Lee Jihye sat on a bench, glaring toward the tarp.
[3 hours 39 minutes remain until the end of the ‘Emergency Defense Battle.’]
[The ‘Administration Bureau’ is reviewing early termination of the ‘Emergency Defense Battle.’]

A faint cheer rose among the people stacking sandbags.
Early termination.
From the Administration Bureau’s perspective, it was a reasonable judgment.

[The Constellation, ‘Abyssal Black Flame Dragon,’ grumbles about how long they have to watch this predictable story.]
[Some constellations ask if the result hasn’t already been decided.]
The constellations were growing bored, and dragging it out further would not change the outcome.

Even now, beneath that tarp, the monsters were surely dying in real time, poisoned by the gas.
I stared at the thin barrier dividing human and monster life and death.
“Ah, Inho-ssi.”

Ye Hyunwoo spotted me and waved. I awkwardly waved back—
“You.”
A large shadow loomed above me. Looking up, I saw a shiny head under the fluorescent lights.

Gong Pildu scowled, scanning the bite marks all over my body.
“What would you have done if you’d died?”
“I knew I wouldn’t die.”

He glared at me for a long time, dissatisfied with my answer.
“You saved everyone.”
I swallowed unconsciously.

It was Gong Pildu, of all people. The Ten Evils of Chungmuro. A man whose pride was second to none in Ways of Survival.
And yet he had just thanked me.
But his expression was strange.

“What’s that?”
I turned. Nestled against my side, breathing softly, was the baby mole cricket.
Several people gasped at the sight.

Of course they did.
These were the very people who had just fought for their lives against mole crickets. And now a baby monster was right before their eyes.
Frightened by the stares, the baby burrowed deeper into my arms.

“Why did you bring that here?” Gong Pildu asked.
I placed a hand on its head, thinking.
I could have said it was out of pity. Or guilt.

I could have argued that no one here had fought because they wanted to, and the monsters were the same.
Instead, I said:
“Do you like dogs?”

For a moment, Gong Pildu was silent.
The baby cautiously peeked out, watching him.
Gong Pildu stared for a while, then asked:

“Are you going to raise it?”
I hadn’t thought that far.
Could I raise this thing?

Slowly, Gong Pildu crouched down.
“Max.”
His voice was low, commanding. After a pause, he repeated:

“Max.”
The baby whimpered, hesitated, then crawled toward him. Sniffing, it wagged its tail.
Gong Pildu’s pupils trembled faintly. For an instant, on his wrinkled face, a trace of longing flickered and disappeared.

“Have you ever had a dog?” I asked.
Instead of answering me, Gong Pildu gazed toward the tarp covering the stairwell.
“A dog’s perfect for guarding territory.”

***
Carrying the mole cricket, Gong Pildu suddenly declared to the people:
“We’re keeping this one.”

In his hands, the baby—Max—let out a huge yawn.
“You all saw it fight earlier. It’s a tough, powerful monster. We’ll train it to be a guard dog. Anyone who objects, step forward now.”
One man, who had been glaring at the baby all along, hesitantly raised his hand.

“What if ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) training fails and it attacks us?”
“Then I’ll take responsibility and kill it.”
At his firm words, several people nodded. Others approached carefully, peering at Max.

“The baby’s kind of cute.”
“Ha, is that what it grows into later?”
The atmosphere of Chungmuro Station grew noisy. Watching beside me, Ajusshi Dansoo spoke:

“When Jiyoon locks herself in her room reading web novels…”
“Yes?”
“I sit in the living room watching old movies.”

It was rare for Ajusshi to speak about himself.
“What kind of movies?”
“King Kong, Godzilla, King Kong vs. Godzilla….”

“Ah.”
The daughter reading Ways of Survival in her room, the father in the living room watching monster movies. With a firmly shut door between them.
“In those monster movies, there are always people who feel sympathy for the monster’s offspring and try to raise them.”

“……”
“And Jiyoon would always say one thing as she passed by. That this was why humans were hopeless. That people who nearly got eaten now wanted to raise a monster—how could that make sense.”
In the distance, Gong Pildu was teaching Max to ‘shake hands.’ Max licked his hand.

“I wish I could show this scene to Jiyoon.”
Gong Pildu frowned, the people of Chungmuro chuckled.
Like actors laughing after the curtain call, as if everything beneath that tarp had been a lie.

Though some had been wounded, though some had died, they laughed.
Everyone knew that if they didn’t, they wouldn’t be able to perform the next scene.
“Friend.”

“Yes.”
“I don’t want to watch a movie where my friend dies.”
I couldn’t answer. I just looked at the laughing, chattering people.

[The Constellation, ‘Demonic Judge of Fire,’ sponsors you.]
[You have received 500 coins.]
***

As the price for my reckless act, I was bombarded with Gyeong Sein’s nagging.
“Inho-ssi, you’re just like Kim Dokja.”
“…What?”

“Really, though. Who else would suddenly charge into a swarm of mole crickets? Are you sure you’re not actually Kim Dokja? You’re not secretly the King Without Killing or something?”
Her words left me with complicated feelings.
I did like Kim Dokja, but this was… well….

—Hey.
A spark flickered in the air, and Bihyung’s voice rang out.
—You awake?

It seemed he had been waiting for me to regain consciousness.
‘Yes. I’m awake.’
After a couple of coughs, Bihyung spoke in a solemn voice.

—This time, you really surprised me. I didn’t think you’d obtain the seed of a Myth.
As he spoke, a backlog of logs surfaced all at once.
[You have achieved an unprecedented feat.]

[You have obtained the seed of the first ‘Myth’ in the Third Scenario.]
[A minority of constellations doubt their eyes at your feat.]
[Some constellations take interest in your record.]

[A rare few nebulae have taken notice of your existence.]
[You have received 10,000 coins.]
Even a nebula was paying attention.

Considering this was only the third scenario, it was an incredible achievement.
—But don’t get cocky. Do you even know what a Myth is?
‘I know vaguely. Collect them, and you get stronger.’

—Well, for now that’s enough. Just don’t get carried away. You haven’t actually obtained the Myth, just the sprouting of the first seed. Got it?
‘Yes.’
It was like a producer trying to calm down a writer excited by unexpected success. I couldn’t help but smile wryly.

Indeed, I had no reason to be arrogant.
My first Myth was just a seed. It might not even bloom. Even if it did, it could turn out to be insignificant.
—This brat, acting so meek, makes me hate him even more. Damn.

Listening to Bihyung grumble reminded me of Ways of Survival’s early days. The rookie dokkaebi, shocked and terrified by Kim Dokja’s actions.
—Anyway, once the scenario ends, you’ll receive additional rewards. No incarnation has ever cleared an ‘Emergency Defense Battle’ the way you did.
I wondered: what ending would this Bihyung meet in this worldline?

Could he become the dokkaebi king here?
—Hah, still, this batch is really unusual. Already three sprouters of Myths.
I hesitated, then asked:

‘Besides me, there are others?’
Who? Yoo Joonghyuk?
—Yeah. They’re already pretty famous. One’s a dark one, and the other’s a white one….

The dark one was definitely Yoo Joonghyuk.
But who was the white one?
‘Can you tell me who it is?’

—Of course I can’t. But honestly, the guy seemed crazy. Kept buying lemon candies from the dokkaebi bundle. Two hundred coins each.
‘Lemon candies?’
—Anyway, I gotta go. There’s chaos all over, and now a hidden dungeon’s opened too, damn it….

With that, Bihyung vanished.
Turning back to Gyeong Sein, who was still babbling about Kim Dokja, I asked:
“Sein-ssi. Has Yoo Joonghyuk returned yet?”

“There it is again, Yoo Joonghyuk this, Yoo Joonghyuk that. Honestly, Inho-ssi—”
“Sein-ssi.”
“He hasn’t shown his face. Why?”

As I suspected, if Yoo Joonghyuk hadn’t joined the Emergency Defense Battle, there was only one place he could be.
「The Theater Dungeon.」
A foreboding chill ran through me.

Of course, in this worldline Yoo Joonghyuk was strong enough. He wouldn’t die in something like the Theater Dungeon.
At least—he wouldn’t have.
「Yoo Joonghyuk’s heading straight for the goldfish route again.」

That comment I had read hours ago kept echoing in my mind.
Glancing around, I quietly pulled out my phone. The battery was nearly dead.
[A new episode has been updated!]

Already?
I scrolled through the list, then froze at the title of the latest episode.