Episode I. The World After Completion (2)

ᅳAah, aah. Testing, testing.

I wonder if this is how the characters felt when they first saw the Dokkaebi in the subway.

ᅳCan you all hear me?

The woman on the screen was so identical to the Han Sooyoung I had imagined it gave me

goosebumps.

I'm sure I wasn't the only one, as other readers stared at the screen with their mouths open.

ᅳSomeone still remembers that guy's story. Oh yeah, you guys are all Kim Dokjas, too.

She was the perfect Han Sooyoung, right down to the asshole remarks. I'm pretty sure it was

done using deepfake technology, but whoever did it was amazing.

However, Han Sooyoung suddenly started saying something strange.

ᅳI sent a short story to the cloud a while ago, did you all read it?

Eh?

ᅳOf course you've seen it. I know, but so far it was just a preview, because the 'side story' is

about to start now.

No, wait a minute. I don't even have a stockpile yet.

Give me the manuscript right now.

ᅳI'll keep you in my prayers. Finally, I'll take one last question.

The readers who were staring at the screen looked at each other.

Han Sooyoung added.

ᅳDon't ask me where Yoo Joonghyuk bought his boots or whether Gilyoung eats grasshoppers or not.

I don't know that kind of stuff.

Someone said "oh" and sighed with regret.

The readers looked like they weren't sure if they should ask.

After all, it's just a recorded video, so there's no way they're going to get an answer.

But then someone raised their hand.

"Did Kim Dokja come back to life?"

It was a petite girl fan in the front row.

A short silence descended on the room.

It's a question that any reader who's read the final chapter would have asked.

In a way, it's an unanswerable question because everyone knows the answer.

I felt sorry for her. If Han Sooyoung was the real Han Sooyoung in that video, I'm sure she'd feel

the same way.

By the way.

ᅳOh, yeah, you mean Kim Dokja?

Eh?

ᅳThat's...

Was that a live video?

The next moment, the screen turned off with a crackling spark.

A gasp escaped from the audience.

"Oh no, unfortunately, the signal has been cut off. We'll all have to wait for the side story to find

out if Kim Dokja survived or not!"

Indeed. The moderator's skillful facilitation was right up Kim Dokja's alley.

I could hear the readers discussing in high-pitched tones.

"Is it really coming out?"

"I don't think it's been announced."

No wonder. It hadn't been announced.

Jin Eunyoo, sitting next to me, whispered playfully.

"Isn't that a cute way of blackmailing you into starting the series?"

"No, but that's a little too much."

As I sighed lightly, the moderator introduced the final segment.

"It's time for the final event of the day, the Omniscient Reader's quiz. We've prepared a generousamount of prizes for everyone to share, so if you can answer the questions correctly, please come right up to the stage."

Judging by the glowing eyes of the readers, this seemed to be the main event.

The moderator stood in front of the screen and read the questions.

"The first question is-"

Before they could finish the question, readers raised their hands. I was surprised; I thought the

question was pretty hard. When the nominated reader said the answer, the moderator clapped their hands.

"Congratulations. Please come this way."

The reader whose face I recognized was guided by the moderator to the curtain behind the

screen.

A few moments later, there was a tsuchut, and the reader's presence was gone.

I laughed, and the audience laughed.

It's a funny trick.

I thought I'd give it a shot this time.

"Okay, second question. How many times does ⬛ appear in total in the entire 'Omniscient

Reader'?"

Hmmm....

No matter how I thought about it, I realized that no one would know that.

Even I, the writer, don't know.

But then someone raised their hand.

"Me! The answer is-"

The reader who raised his hand said the answer, which I assumed was a random number, but to

my surprise, the moderator clapped their hands.

"Congratulations. Please come this way."

How did he get it right?

The reader who got the second question right was also led by the moderator to disappear behind

the curtain.

The moderator smirked.

"Was that question too hard? This one is easy!"

I gritted my teeth and focused on the moderator's words.

Okay, this time.

"Third question. In 'Ways of Survival', Yoo Joonghyuk regresses 1,863 times. What does the

number '1,863' symbolize?"

I was stunned for a moment after hearing the question. What was the symbolism of that number?

I speculated on what the author of Omniscient Reader might have meant by using the number

1,863.

In my opinion, the writer... didn't mean anything. I'm sure of it. I know because I was the

author of Omniscient Reader.

This time, the number of readers raising their hands was quite high. When the moderator called for a name, the reader said.

"1,863 is the year that the world's first subway opened, symbolizing the repetition of Yoo

Joonghyuk's regression in the circling subway."

Huh?

No way, I thought, as readers around me chimed in.

"Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's it."

"Oh, I saw that in your analysis."

The moderator clapped their hands, and the reader with the correct answer walked up to the

podium with a big smile on his face.

Jin Eunyoo turned to me.

"Did 1,863 really mean that?"

"Of course, every single one of those numbers has a meaning in what I wrote. It's all so

incredibly connected."

The quiz continued.

Some of the questions I knew, some I didn't, and some I couldn't answer at all.

But amidst the back and forth, I felt an indescribable emotion.

Stories I remembered. Stories I don't remember. Even stories I didn't intend to tell. Stories I

hadn't written in the past three years were still being told here.

Suddenly, I wondered.

Can I say that I love these stories more than they do?

"In the theater dungeon, what was the name of the sword that Kim Dokja gave to Jung Heewon?"

"Me! Me!"

Judge Heewon sitting next to him also managed to guess a question.

As she watched him disappear behind the curtain in excitement, Ji Eunyoo muttered in a nervous

voice.

"We'll be the only ones left. Is there a penalty for staying?"

Ji Eunyoo began to raise her hand.

After ten or twenty questions, Ji Eunyoo got it right.

"I'm going then, but I'll meet you outside."

Even after she waved and disappeared, I didn't raise my hand.

One by one, the struggling readers got it right and stood up.

Some suddenly wiped their tears.

I watched their backs for a long time as they left the theater.

"And now for the final question."

The voice echoed through the silent theater.

Soon, I was the only one left in the theater.

Staring at the countless empty seats in the front row, I thought for the first time in a long time

about the person who is 'Kim Dokja'.

"Okay, last question."

I listened nervously to the question.

Hopefully it would be an easy one.

The moderator smiled brightly and asked.

"Who is Omniscient Reader's heroine?"

I opened my mouth for a moment, then closed it again.

Sensing my embarrassment, the moderator added reassuringly.

"I'll give you one minute to think about it."

Omniscient Reader's heroine.

I don't know who Kim Dokja would consider a heroine, because I'm not a Kim Dokja.

So I decided to think about it from the point of view of Lee Hakhyun, the author of Omniscient

Reader.

「Who is Omniscient Reader's heroine?」

In fact, 'Omniscient Reader' was not a story written by actively imagining a heroine, so it had

little to do with romantic narratives.

"Ten seconds left."

"The heroine of Omniscient Reader isᅳ"

I said the name of the heroine I thought of. I wasn't sure if he was talking about this character.

She didn't have much screen time compared to the other leads.

Nevertheless, it was the character I had created for Kim Dokja.

The moderator was silent for a moment at my answer, then asked.

"Why did you think that?"

I'm probably not the one who loves this story the most.

I'm probably not the one who knows the most about it.

But for once, I wanted to say.

"Because I wrote it."

"What?"

The moderator repeated, as if they hadn't heard correctly.

I smiled bitterly and raised my voice.

"Because she's my favorite character."

I couldn't tell if my answer was correct or not.

The moderator just nodded and slowly clapped their hands. Was I right, or was I wrong?

Come to think of it, the moderator had never said the word "correct" before.

"Congratulations."

With that, I walked down the theater stairs to the stage.

As I followed the readers down the aisle, my eyes fell on the empty theater seats.

The words "Fourth Wall" glowed faintly on the screen.

Suddenly, I remembered them walking down the aisle with tears in their eyes, smiling weakly

and glancing back once in a while.

Suddenly, I knew how they felt. They weren't crying or laughing because they were happy to get

the quiz right.

It was because this is the end of 『Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint』.

I realized that I was finally going down a road I should have gone down a long time ago.

Each reader had reached the end in their own way, and now it was my turn. I walked up to the

stage and the moderator was waiting for me. We looked at each other for a moment on stage.

The moderator looked at the nickname on my nametag.

[■■■]

"Your nickname is very difficult to pronounce."

I smiled and nodded.

Even up close, I couldn't quite make out the moderator's face. The voice was strangely

androgynous, so I couldn't tell if they were a man or a woman.

I suddenly wanted to ask if they were 'RepresentativeKimDokja', but I didn't. I didn't feel

qualified to ask.

"The prize is behind the curtain. You can pick it up and leave."

The word "prize" made me feel a little excited. What could it be, merchandise?

I reached toward the stage curtain. Then I paused. Because if I pulled back the curtain, it would

really be the end of this story.

I wondered if there was anything left to write.

I wondered if there were sentences I had forgotten to write, words I hadn't said.

At the last moment, I looked back. I had a feeling there might still be someone left.

And I realized that if there was someone left, I wanted to write a story for them.

But then I looked back and there was indeed someone there. When had they gotten there?

The moderator was waving from the center of the audience.

I could see the audience better than I thought from the stage.

I waved back, facing the moderator, and then slowly turned my back and pulled back the curtain.

It was time to live in the post-completion world.

"Are you really going to end it like this?"

And then.

"What about the rest of us?"

I heard the moderator say.

I was about to reply "what?" when I heard a tsuchuchut from somewhere. I reflexively grabbed

my phone. It wasn't my phone ringing.

"So I'm going to ask you to tell that story."

Something was swirling in front of my eyes.

Eh.

The vortex sucked me in, right down to the sound in my mouth. My vision flickered as sparks

flew in front of my eyes. It was like someone had rolled me into a ball and thrown me into a

subway car with endless stops.

My mouth tasted slightly like vomit as I held my breath.

And when I opened my eyes.

「I was indeed in the subway.」

My vision slightly higher than usual.

A lukewarm breeze blew in from the ceiling vents. Smelling the oddly musty subterranean dust, I

blinked.

The vague sensation of being in a daze slowly clung to my skin, and slowly, I became aware of

the present.

「In the subway station, to be exact.」

At the same time I was asking myself why am I here, the answer came from deep inside my

head.

I already know where this place is.

「"But, author-nim, why did you start in the subway?"」

Ji Eunyoo once asked me that.

「"Because that's where I feel it was the most natural."」

But I couldn't accept that answer.

"What the hell?"

The voice that came out of my mouth startled me with its unnaturalness.

I reflexively looked ahead.

In the screen door was not 'Lee Hakhyun', but a man with narrow eyes facing me.

"Noᅳ"

An unfamiliar cell phone was in my hand.

I absentmindedly pressed the phone's power button.

「It was just a coincidence that I saw the clock at this moment.」

The numbers on the phone's clock ticked, chimed, and changed.

7:00 p.m.

The moment I looked up, a message came from somewhere with a small bang.

[The free service of planetary system 8612 has ended.]

[The main scenario has started.]

I knew the next sentence all too well.

「This was the moment the genre of my life changed.」

These words were not my own.

「And thus.」

In that moment, I was 'being thought'.

「I had entered "Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint".」

Author's Note

The serialization of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint will be at 7pm on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

If there are any changes, we'll notify you on advance.

Once again, thank you very much for following Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint.