Chapter 422: The Secretive Plotter (7)

“Just what the hell happened back there?”

Bihyung hung his head low after hearing Han Su-Yeong’s words.

“You were busy talking a big game, but then, we got refused entry at the door…. Oii, Dokkaebi, will you say something already?”

[Well, that is….. Fuu….]

In the end, the <Kim Dok-Ja Company> couldn’t go to the ‘Final Scenario’ and had to return to Earth. The reason? Their ‘qualification is insufficient’.

[It seems that the Great Dokkaebis were behind this.]

“You think everything’ll be fine after saying that? What will you do about our wasted time, dude?”

[….I’ll compensate you with suitable rewards so please, stop grilling me.]

While the grumbling Bihyung was rummaging through his pockets, Han Su-Yeong sighed deeply and took a look at her companions.

They had somehow returned to Earth after going through all sorts of crazy ups and downs. Predictably, none of them were themselves at the moment.

“He might have died for real this time…. I’m sorry, hyung…. I… I wasn’t qualified…. Because, I didn’t do the contract….”

Yi Gil-Yeong had been muttering some indescribable things to himself while crouching over there, while Shin Yu-Seung had her eyes closed and both of her index fingers were pressed to her temples as if she was meditating or some such. Meanwhile, Yi Ji-Hye and Jeong Hui-Won had taken Yi Hyeon-Seong to Aileen at the [Industrial Complex] and had vacated the premises for the time being.

“….This place hasn’t changed at all. That ahjumma didn’t even bother to clean the house, did she?”

Han Su-Yeong muttered to herself as she patted away the dust on the aged couch.

Once upon a time, she, Yu Sang-Ah, and Yi Su-Gyeong stayed together in this very house. A place where they lived together for three years during Kim Dok-Ja’s absence….

Her brief reminiscence was cut short by the doorbell.

She utilised the [Black Flame] to remotely open the door and smirked to herself. “….I guess the ⸢Devil showing up when you talk about her⸥ could be a Fable as well.”

“It’s been a while, Su-Yeong-ah,” said Yi Su-Gyeong as she scanned the messy state of the house. She eventually shook her head. “You’re still the same as before. You should at least ventilate the place.”

“I’ll have you know, I’ve returned only just now. And it’s already been so many yea…..”

Han Su-Yeong flinched when she got that far. She might have spent dozens of years in the ‘Isle of Reincarnators’, but that was time spent within the island itself. She couldn’t really tell exactly how long it had been on the outside.

Yi Su-Gyeong opened all the windows in the house with a simple flick of her hand and sent away all the stuffy dust outside. Her eyes remained fixed on the group sagging on the floor in the meantime.

Han Su-Yeong sneakily blocked the older woman’s view towards them and coughed to clear her throat, before asking a question. “By any chance, did Jeong Hui-Won tell you already?”

“Tell me what?”

Han Su-Yeong lightly bit her lip. She wasn’t sure how to explain this situation.

“Well, you can see that Kim Dok-Ja isn’t here.”

“Hmm, that’s true. I learned of it just now, too.”

She thought that maybe, she shouldn’t have brought it up, but it was spilt milk already. Han Su-Yeong squeezed her eyes shut and spoke. “The reason why he’s not here, it’s…. Me, Yu Jung-Hyeok and Jeong Hui-Won, we all wanted to save your son and tried to go with the soul’s one big hit, but….”

“Please get to the main point.”

“Ng. Actually, ahjumma, your son’s gone to some place with someone. But that place is….”

“Are you perchance speaking of that?”

Han Su-Yeong followed Yi Su-Gyeong’s pointing finger and turned her head. The TV mounted on the wall was playing a news footage.

The scene on the screen showed a man wearing a white coat floating in the jet-black sky, with Kim Dok-Ja dangling off that man’s arm.

– Breaking news! <Kim Dok-Ja Company>’s president kidnapped!

Han Su-Yeong’s jaw dropped to the floor as she muttered softly. “….What the heck is that?”

For some unfathomable reason, the Earth’s media had found out about that event. Yi Su-Gyeong and her rather relaxed expression stared at the screen for a little while, then she nodded her head. “That boy. He’s still so popular.”

“Ahjumma?! Don’t you get that it’s a pretty serious problem??”

“But, he looks like Yu Jung-Hyeok-gun. So, what can be a serious problem?” (TL note at the end)

“Because, that’s not the ‘Yu Jung-Hyeok’. That’s the problem.”

Han Su-Yeong spat out a groan. But then, the TV’s screen suddenly rewound itself back and the exact same footage played out again.

– Breaking news! <Kim Dok-Ja Company>’s president kidnapped!

She looked around wondering what was going on here, only to discover the stupefied Yu Jung-Hyeok continually poking the TV remote. He rewound the footage several times and repeated it over and over again.

Han Su-Yeong asked him. “…..Hey, are you alright?”

“…..”

“You won’t regress even if your rewind that, you know? Did you even forget how to go back now?”

He didn’t even pretend to hear her. His eyes burned scarily as if he wanted to engrave the appearance of the ‘Secretive Plotter’ in them. The Status of the Regressor who refused to accept his defeat oozed out from him and made the air in the living room rather stuffy and hot.

Han Su-Yeong spat out an even greater groan. “Dammit. Just who the heck distributed that footage…..”

[Hum, hum.]

She turned her head yet again to find Bihyung this time, coughing to clear his throat.

“….You haven’t left yet?”

[Here’s your reward.]

Now that she thought about it, she had forgotten all about the reward payout. She extended her hand out, and the Dokkaebi’s small hand placed 500 Coins on her palm.

“Are you messing with me??”

[Well, the thing is, the financial state of the Bureau’s Seoul branch is a bit strained lately, you see…. And what with all these many things that require our attention, it’s like…..]

Bihyung whistled while glancing at the other side of the sky.

The Seoul’s sky that should’ve been clear was now dyed in the ominous colours of crimson and yellow. There were Probability’s sparks lashing down like lightning bolts, as well as the pitch-black [Great Hole] swirling around viciously.

Han Su-Yeong frowned deeply and asked. “Did something happen to Seoul?”

“The skies have been like that for a while now.”

This city was no longer the location for the main scenario. But, if the apocalyptic phenomena were still persisting like that, it…..

[It’s because of the Apocalypse Dragon.]

Bihyung looked at the sky with a bitter expression, pulled out a lengthy smoking pipe from his inner pocket and mouthed it.

Perhaps she found that sight unacceptable, Han Su-Yeong snatched the pipe away and yelled at the Dokkaebi. “What are you talking about?! Why does the Apocalypse Dragon’s effect reach this far?”

[You don’t know? I thought Kim Dok-Ja would have told you already.]

“That idiot never tells us the most important information.”

Bihyung pulled out a second smoking pipe looking rather unperturbed and spoke while lighting it up. [The revival of the Apocalypse Dragon is the first button of the great annihilation for all of us. You can think of it as the world-line now rushing towards its end with that thing wide awake…. This was why I told you that we need to hurry to the ‘Final Scenario’.]

“….What will happen if we don’t get to the Final Scenario?”

[As the word implies, it’s the apocalypse. You, me, this world.]

That composed declaration prompted the dumbfounded Han Su-Yeong to sharply shoot back. “What the heck, what is even…. What’s the point of this ‘Final Scenario’ when the whole world is about to be destroyed? Why did you people even create such a scenario in the first place?!”

[The great annihilation is not a scenario planned out by the Dokkaebis. It’s simply meant to be. And because the annihilation is real, the ‘Final Scenario’ has gained its purpose at last.]

Bihyung looked up at the distant skies with an expression of remorse. He saw the movements of a group of stars, hurriedly trying to get to some place. Stars of the heavens were getting further away like shooting stars.

*

[Oh-oooooooh!]

[Ah-aaaaaah!]

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The ‘Outer Gods’ unleashed their jet-black Statuses, dyeing the entirety of the N’Gai’s Forest in pure darkness.

The kkoma Yu Jung-Hyeoks managed to extract me from the vines and quickly stood all around me. The kkoma number [999] spoke up first. “Protect Kim Dok-Ja.”

“I told all of you this before, didn’t I? I knew he would cause a problem.”

“Indeed, we should’ve killed him the first time we saw him.”

Even though they spat out some seriously scary words, all of the mini Yu Jung-Hyeoks continued to hold their [Heaven Shaking Swords] firmly and didn’t lower their guards. They sliced and cut the approaching tentacles and advanced forward little by little.

Maybe because it was directly after witnessing something truly shocking, my entire body seemed to be wrapped in this cold air. The kkoma number [999] took off his black coat and placed it over my shoulders.

“I only remember telling you to read a book, so why did you have to provoke them?”

I wasn’t sure what I could say back to him here. [999]’s eyes trembled.

“….You fool.”

[Oh-ooooooh!]

The howling Outer Gods’ true voice reverberated heavily in the sky. Insects within the forest vomited out their bodily fluids and died, while some of the Gods even began fighting among themselves, too.

[999] spoke in a grave tone of voice. “These beings have not been understood for a very long time. And you just had to get involved.”

‘Outer Gods’ were flooding into where we were.

[GivetomeGivetomeGivetomeGivetome]

[KimdokjaKimdokjaKimdokjaKimdokja]

What was even more concerning, though, was the fact that not all Outer Gods carried the same sentiments as their peers. A few of the higher-ranked ones, after sensing my presence, began to exude unfiltered animosity in my way.

[Stin ki ng Cons tel ation has lo oked down on us.]

[Ki ll him get r id of h im.]

[No fo rgiving e ven if y ou are Plo tter’s gue st.]

“Step aside, members of the Shantak!”

“We will cut you down if you come closer.”

The kkoma Yu Jung-Hyeoks all unleashed their Statuses and resisted, but the ‘Outer Gods’ didn’t back down at all. They approached closer one step at a time, and while emitting dizzying Statuses themselves, cried out in a loud roar.

[Oh, Pl otter! We can no lo nger wa it!]

[F or ho w long do we n eed to wa it? The wo rld-l ine’s end is ap pro aching!]

I knew very well what they were talking about.

The world-line’s end.

Even these guys, as expected, were fully conscious of the ‘Final Scenario’.

[Th is wo rld mu st unde rstand us]

“Step aside!!”

The tentacles closing in grew even more ferocious. Eventually, their Statuses became simply too much for the kkoma Yu Jung-Hyeoks to deal with, but then….

The forest parted ways, and ‘he’ made his entrance.

He walked forward while crossing the tentacles that none of us could block. Each of his steps contained the solitude of indescribable eternity as well as the entirety of the 1863rd lives he had experienced.

Once upon a time, his name was Yu Jung-Hyeok, but now, he was the ‘Secretive Plotter’. A man who knew of every world-line’s sorrow.

Outer Gods knelt down in front of that absolute, overwhelming nobleness.

[Oh, the gr eat Pl otter.]

However, not all of them did. There were some ‘Gods’ who didn’t want to bend their opinions even when subjected to the intense pain of their existences turning into nothingness.

[Oh, the gr eat Pl otter, we can no lo nger wa it.]

The ones no one could ever understand were wailing in sorrow. They raged on, and they mourned. Even then, their rage and sorrow were not understood. They didn’t belong to this this world-line, and they couldn’t be understood through the existing ‘Fables’.

One needed to work really hard to understand their rage, their sorrow and their grief.

[We wan t to be un ders tood.]

[We w ant to bec ome Fa bles.]

Stories that needed one to work hard to understand could never be Fables. Stories that needed one to throw oneself deeply in first couldn’t be consumed.

The ‘Secretive Plotter’ opened his lips. [You will not be understood.]

He looked at each and every one of them with subtle gazes, studied them, and gifted them with the cruel reality.

[That is because this <Star Stream> has labelled all of you ‘Terrors’. Because, this world has described you all as ‘Chaos’ that destroys the order, as calamities that could never be understood. That is why.]

It was then I finally understood why the ‘Secretive Plotter’ has chosen to side with these creatures.

⸢Why would a person who knows the end of everything repeat the same story over again?⸥

When I thought about it, the answer was a rather simple one.

⸢That’s because he didn’t like the end he witnessed.⸥

In the original story, Yu Jung-Hyeok and Constellations defeated the ‘Outer Gods’ together. That’s how he got to the end of the scenarios, and destroyed the <Star Stream>.

[You will never shine in the sky like the Constellations, nor can you become the main actors of this world. As long as the <Star Stream> exists, you will all remain forever as ‘Outer Gods’.]

However, he didn’t find what he wanted. And now, after becoming the ‘Secretive Plotter’, Yu Jung-Hyeok was stepping up to the battlefield once more.

[Soon, the war of annihilation will commence. The end of everything will soon begin, where stars will fall, worlds will collapse, and all Fables will be extinguished.]

I spotted the eyes of the ‘Secretive Plotter’ looking at me from afar. The [Eye of Sage] spun around within his pitch-black iris.

[Oh, the great Plotter….!]

[Oh, ooooooh!]

According to the plot of the original story, these creatures would meet with defeat.

⸢For the sake of the conclusion Kim Dok-Ja wishes for, these beings simply had to be defeated.⸥

<Star Stream> would be destroyed, while the stars of the heavens and the solitary gods would die with no one to remember them. The defeated would die extremely sorrowful deaths, while the victors would not get to bask in their victory.

I began walking towards the ‘Secretive Plotter’.

“….Kim Dok-Ja?”

I heard [999] call out to me, but I didn’t look back. I undid the [Miniaturisation], and my eye level changed rapidly. The black coat [999] placed on my shoulders wavered along with every step I took.

[<Star Stream>’s Probability is now shifting!]

[Stream of the great main scenario is now dwelling in you.]

Past the canopy of the vine-covered forest, the sea of stars of the <Star Stream> could be seen. On one side of the sky, stars were emitting bright light, while on the other side, ominous-looking galaxies alongside the [Great Hole] were quietly flowing about.

Half of it, light, while the other half, darkness.

Soon, the final war would begin. And most likely, I would have to stand on one of the sides to witness the end of the world.

[Your second Modifier has been decided.]

A small star flickered on the far side of the sky. I stared at it for the longest time, before slowly reverting my gaze back to the ground. The ‘Outer Gods’ were now looking at me.

I returned their gazes and finally chose the side I’d stand.

[Your second Modifier is the ‘Watcher of the Light and Darkness’.]

<Episode 79. The Secretive Plotter (7)> Fin.

(TL: The “-gun” bit at the end of a person’s name isn’t a literal gun. It’s exactly the same thing as Japanese “kun”, btw. Not many Koreans use it, though. At least not that I’ve seen.)