Chapter 497 — Beginning of the end (4)

The moment that dark, sinister irregular mass exploded in the sky, I grabbed the kids nearby and went down flat on the ground. Yi Hyeon-Seong spread out his steel wall, and the rough screeching metallic noises coming from above assaulted our ears.

How long passed by like that? Both the sounds and sensation of touch all disappeared.

[Transmission has been completed.]

And then, a puzzling message entered my head.

Muscles in my entire body ached as if I had been beaten up. Yi Hyeon-Seong’s defensive barrier covering the sky was also gone, too.

....What on earth happened here?

I couldn’t properly understand the current situation.

Scanning my vicinity revealed the fact that I was all alone. Not the kids I had been shielding, Yi Hyeon-Seong and Jeong Hui-Won enveloping us, even Yu Jung-Hyeok leaping into the air to wield his sword – none of them could be seen.

What I could see, though, was a wide-open plain. I looked behind to discover a dense forest with trees reaching high into the heavens, and opposite it, a land filled with stinking sulphur.

⸢Great Dokkaebis exercised the Bureau’s powers and interfered with the scenario.⸥

I could clearly remember that much. After that, the Bureau began restricting our Coin donations, and realising that that wasn’t enough, they even summoned a strange missile-like thing, too.

And then, after that...

⸢[Ah, ah. Can you hear me now? Well, deary me. I ended up working extra because the Korean patch wasn’t installed yet.]⸥

I felt this chilling sensation and quickly took a look around. A Fable could be heard coming from somewhere. And it was something I was intimately familiar with.

⸢[This is not a film shoot.]⸥

Something else popped up in the air right after that. It was a small shadow covering the sky the moment that dark, sinister summoned thing exploded.

I hurriedly scanned my surroundings.

⸢[This isn’t a dream, it’s not a novel, nor is it ‘reality’ that you people used to know. You get it now? So everyone, shut your mouths and listen to me.]⸥

Definitely nearby. He was somewhere nearby, for sure.

Just how long did I wander around this plain for?

Eventually, I spotted him collapsed on the field of reeds.

“Bihyung.”

I carefully picked him up. He used to be as big as a grown adult male after becoming a Great Dokkaebi, but now, he had shrunken back down to the size of a baby.

Just like on the first day that I met him.

“Bihyung!”

The starting point of all my tragedies.

If I hadn’t met this guy, I’d have probably remained as a regular contracted worker for Mino Soft even now.

⸢[Hold on. Are you saying that you want to sign the with me??]⸥

If I hadn’t signed the damn contract with this guy, I’d not have been able to come this far.

Crumbs of Fable fell from Bihyung’s body. Their falling speed got progressively faster and faster.

⸢”Just what have you contributed to the ’s Fable? Why are you shamelessly involving yourselves in their Coin compensations?”⸥

⸢”Aren’t you fed up with such a story by now? For how long are you going to seek out Fables that conform only to the Bureau’s standards?”⸥

Bihyung’s Fables that I didn’t know of were crumbling away.

I shook him again, trying to wake him up. I even resorted to smacking him in his cheeks, too. That prompted a frail voice to enter my ears.

“....That hurts. I’m beginning to pity Bawul you smacked around back then.”

Bihyung opened his eyes and smiled bitterly.

He spoke not in the true voice, but in a trembling, faltering regular voice. It was Dokkaebi Bihyung’s real voice, heard for the first time after such a long while.

A voice that I hated.

This bastard was responsible for turning people into Incarnations and spreading scenarios everywhere, changing this world into a kingdom of voyeurism. And that was precisely why I had to ask him.

“Why did you save me?”

The reason why Bihyung ended up in this state was because he touched the Probability he shouldn’t have.

Just like those Great Dokkaebis being extinguished after forcibly interfering with the scenario, Bihyung too ended up in this miserable state by jumping headlong into the aftermath’s storm he couldn’t handle.

⸢Bihyung would die in this place.⸥

Fables I possessed began trembling.

This wasn’t my plan. This wasn’t the Fable I longed for.

[‘The 4th Wall’ is violently shaking!]

Instead of a reply, Bihyung vomited out a mouthful of pitch-black Fable. His body was getting smaller and smaller.

“....I’d like to sit up for a minute.”

I helped Bihyung up.

The flights of stars could be seen in the cold night sky. Stars that went along this way and that according to the flow of the scenario. The flow of the distant stream of stars...

Bihyung was staring at the ⸢Star Stream⸥.

“I’ve transferred all of your companions. And the majority of the Constellations, as well as the Incarnations near you, should’ve survived as well. This place is safe from the external shocks.”

“You....”

“You’ll soon figure out the details yourself. You’re a smart cookie, after all.”

Several stars were falling in the sky. While I searched for words to say, the number of falling stars gradually increased.

Stars were dying in the distant ‘context of constellations’.

Bihyung should have lived his life while dreaming the dreams of those stars.

“Kim Dok-Ja. You and I aren’t comrades.”

He must’ve enjoyed the stars’ Fables, and must’ve watched their tragicomedies together. He must’ve witnessed the deaths of countless stars. And, on one hand...

“You are an Incarnation of the scenario, and I’m just a storyteller.”

....He must’ve thought that those deaths looked quite beautiful.

It was true that I hated Bihyung. I tried so hard to stoke the flames of that emotion.

[Fable, ‘King of a Kingless World’, is looking at its storyteller.]

[Fable, ‘One Who Opposes the Miracle’, grieves for its storyteller.]

[Fable, ‘One Who Hunted the King of Disasters’, mourns for its storyteller.]

My Fables scattered like fading screams and spoke to Bihyung.

He chuckled. With a proud face, no less.

“I actually wanted to witness your Fable till its end, though.”

Beyond the skies he was looking at, was the ⸢Final Wall⸥. The dream Bihyung had been dreaming. The place where the king of all scenarios, the ‘Dokkaebi King’, resided.

I wanted to say something. I wanted to ask if he really was giving up here. Ask him if he had forgotten about the promise we made back then.

⸢”Dokkaebi Bihyung, sign the contract with me. If you do, I shall make you the king of all Dokkaebis.⸥

I still hadn’t fulfilled that promise yet.

⸢He was the first reader of the Fable Kim Dok-Ja had compiled.⸥

My hands grew lighter. I slowly lowered my head, but Bihyung wasn’t there anymore. As befitting a damn storyteller, he made sure to leave behind his story even as he died.

I staggered back up to my feet.

⸢He wanted to create a Fable where no one had to be sacrificed.⸥

[Your great epic has encountered an opportunity to change!!]

Blood seeped out from my tightly clenched fists. All of my Fables were wailing out. They screamed towards and at the [Final Wall].

⸢This story hasn’t ended yet, Kim Dok-Ja.⸥

That was the dead Bihyung’s Fable talking. The Fable he left behind moments before his death circled around me and was exhausting its own paragraphs.

Bihyung was dead, yet the Fable he left behind was still alive.

I somehow managed to get a grip on myself. Bihyung was right; the end I wanted to see had only just begun. I needed to find out where he had sent me, and where my companions had ended up in. And then....

Tsu-chuchuchut....!

The Probability’s sparks were raining down in the middle of skies above the vast plains. And the scenes of the outside faintly revealed themselves beyond the storm of sparks.

The devastated stage of the final pages, the battlefield I was in only a few moments ago, was now filled to the brim with corpses of unmoving Constellations and Incarnations.

The moment I saw that, I figured out where I was.

[Welcome to the ‘Final Ark’.]

This was inside of the ‘ship’ I was supposed to destroy.

[The ‘Final Ark’ is currently in the middle of the takeoff procedure.]

[Final scenario has been revised!]

+

Type: Main

Difficulty: ???

Clear condition: Destroy the Fable Core that powers the ark, and stop the world-line migration plan of the Great Dokkaebis and Myth-grade Constellations.

Time limit: 24 hours

Reward: Final Wall

Failure: Destruction of the world-line.

+

....So, that’s how it was.

If this was indeed inside the ship called ‘Final Ark’, then it made sense to see such a world hiding within the craft.

This place I was standing in, it was the land of the beginning where countless myths were born. The myths that were currently asleep inside this very ark.

Ku-gugugugu....

Rough vibration could be felt coming from the opposite side of this land. Something was approaching here.

⸢Run, Kim Dok-Ja.⸥

The existences that recovered their original powers while carrying their worldviews on their backs – the Myth-grade Constellations were flooding in this way.

*

⸢The ark is a type of a ‘Great Fable weapon’. In order to completely wreck the ark, you must destroy the Fable core deep inside it somewhere.⸥

I read the Fable Bihyung had left behind while running within the interior of the ark.

[You have currently infiltrated the residential cabin D-21.]

[The influence of another myth is far too strong within the applicable area.]

[Your Nebula’s members can’t be contacted currently.]

Maybe the abnormally higher influence of another Great Fable was to blame, because I couldn’t get in touch with my companions. Fortunately enough, though, one other person from my group had been transferred into the same cabin as me.

[The influence of the same Nebula can be felt strongly!]

“Kim Dok-Ja!”

Just before I reached out and said something, Han Su-Yeong shouted out first.

“Shut up and run! Don’t come this way!!”

The thicket behind her was cleanly sliced through right then. Something was chasing after her. She hurriedly yanked an item out from her inner pocket and threw that thing behind her – which was a smoke grenade.

[‘Mass-production SSS-grade smoke grenade’ is activating its effects!]

[For next 20 seconds, the surrounding field of vision will be screened off!]

While the Constellations falling into confusion raised a noisy ruckus, we hurriedly escaped from the thickets. Han Su-Yeong seemed to have finished analysing the situation by now, too.

“Did that guy die?”

I didn’t reply.

The heavily-panting Han Su-Yeong spat on the ground.

“That stinking Dokkaebi bastard. How could he even call this his final parting gift?”

Indeed, could anyone even call this a gift at all?

I looked up at the ark’s ceiling. There should be countless owners of ‘Great Fables’ besides us still sleeping inside this ship.

“Kim Dok-Ja.”

“According to Bihyung’s Fable, the Fable core is at the centre of the ark. We should be near its front section.”

The moment I finished saying that, the true voices of Constellations rang out from the rising smoke screen.

[After them!!]

[They are still nearby! We can’t head to the next world-line with them!]

Han Su-Yeong used the [Midday Tryst] to speak to me.

– Should we just kill them all?

That was an option, sure. However, the current battlefield wasn’t ideal. This part of the cabin was actually another Nebula’s worldview. Meaning, their own ⸢Stage Transformation⸥ was active in this location.

[The residential cabin D-21 is the location of the Universe Tree Yggdrasil’s roots.]

Han Su-Yeong frowned deeply.

– Son of a gun. Why did it have to be ?

[Constellation, ‘God of Harp and Horn’, is performing the requiem of the apocalypse.]

[Constellation, ‘One who Lost His Arm to the Wolf of Apocalypse’, is searching for his disappeared arm.]

[Constellation, ‘Thursday’s Thunder’, is overly emphasizing his mightiness.]

Constellations were flying around in the air searching for us. Most of them were Fable-grade, but...

– .....Since when was Thor that powerful?

The ‘Thursday’s Thunder’ condensed lightning on Mjolnir and stared at the sky, his eyes now in the shade of eerie blue. Thor was a Fable-grade Constellation. On this stage, however, he could unleash Status rivalling that of Zeus.

I addressed Han Su-Yeong.

– We need to find a stage that’s advantageous to us.

– Will there be such a thing in this place, though?

Unlike them, didn’t really have anything in particular to call its worldview.

– There is one.

Even then, there should be one stage here where we could fight on equal footing. If my thoughts were correct, that was. If it was that place, then all of our other companions should also be able to exercise their full power, too.

The problem was with how to get there.

[Fable, ‘Pebble and I’, has begun its storytelling!]

Of course, there was that method, too. Han Su-Yeong’s eyes grew wider.

[Fable, ‘Pebble and I’, is telling the story of ‘We’re just pebbles’!]

– What the heck is this?

I grasped her wrist and cautiously stepped in front of the Constellations like small pebbles rolling on the ground. As expected, they couldn’t locate us at all.

[Constellation, ‘Goddess of Love and Cats’, is forming a depressed expression.]

[Constellation, ‘Guardian of the Great Horn Bridge’, is searching for someone.]

Han Su-Yeong saw all these Constellations failing to find us even though we were walking right past them, and her jaw dropped nearly to the floor.

– This is madness. What kinda dogshit cheat is this?

Sure, it was a cheat, alright. At a bare minimum, you wouldn’t spot a ‘pebble’ unless you actually acknowledged the fact that there were some of them lying on the ground.

[A Constellation that likes to change gender is giggling away.]

It was then, a bad premonition entered my head. Even Han Su-Yeong was making a similar expression to mine.

However, we were almost there. Even if Loki had discovered our existences, the main forces of were far away now, so...

“Are you thinking of using that same method to escape this time?”

The Fable ⸢Pebble and I⸥ didn’t work on those who had detected the actual form of the Fable itself. And unfortunately for us, I had used this Fable on a certain someone once before.

I slowly turned around to find an eye swirling in crimson light staring at us,

< Episode 94. Beginning of the end (4)> Fin.