Episode 5. Villain (3)
< Episode 5. Villain (3) >
After realizing that this world was the '41st round' of Ways of Survival, Kyung Sein slowly
dropped to the ground and began to do planks.
Dansoo ahjussi was speechless for a while, as if he hadn't realized what was happening yet.
I didn't stop them and waited for a while.
I could hear Kyung Sein counting.
"Nine, ten, eleven...."
In the distance, I saw Bang Cheolsoo talking to Dayoung's mother.
"Cheolsoo-ssi, how come you're so fearless and brave?"
"Haha, the life I've lived is a little different than most people."
Suddenly, I wanted to slap Bang Cheolsoo on the back of the head.
"Thirty-eight, thirty-nine, forty... Inho-ssi."
"Yes."
"What do we do now?"
Apparently, no amount of planking could give him an answer, because he collapsed to the floor.
I helped him to his feet.
"It's okay, there's Dansoo ahjussi and Sein-ssi. And Sein-ssi said you've read Omniscient
Reader's Encyclopedia or something like that ten times."
"What's the point of reading that? This is not Omniscient Reader, it's Ways of Survival. The 41st
round is barely mentioned in the novel. The only thing that is mentioned is...."
I know. It's all about how bad Yoo Joonghyuk was.
Just because this world is the 41st round, some of the methods Kim Dokja used are now
obsolete.
"Still, we can't give up yet. It's still early in the scenario."
"But it's the 41st round! Yoo Joonghyuk is a scumbag!"
Dansoo ahjussi, who finally realized the seriousness of the situation, muttered his daughter's
name.
Suddenly, memories of the days when I was writing my manuscript came back to me. When I was writing the 'Disaster of Floods' episode, in which the Shin Yooseung from the 41st
round was a disaster, I received a letter from a reader at the management office.
Yoo Joonghyuk can't be such a bad guy. Honestly, 41st round Yoo Joonghyuk is a plot hole,
please fix it immediately.
It was a letter that said something like that.
At the time, I thought, 'Who are you, asshole?' But now that I think about it, the reader was right.
I should have just fixed it then.
"He'll become trashier and trashier, but maybe he's not irredeemable yet. Even in Omniscient
Reader, Yoo Joonghyuk was a psychopath at first. He changed later on, so maybe there's a
chance for him here."
You can't rewrite people, but you can rewrite characters.
It's funny that I'm defending a guy who tried to kill me, but I'm not going to lose hope yet.
[A constellation who hasn't revealed their modifier is looking at you.]
[The constellation 'Sneaking Schemer' says they're not sure what you are talking about, but the
man in the black coat looks like a bad guy.]
As long as you carry out the scenarios, you will continue to run into Yoo Joonghyuk. You can't
just keep avoiding him every time.
After all, you'll need his help to clear the final chapter.
Especially if this is 'Ways of Survival' instead of 'Omniscient Reader'.
"If possible, I'll be the one to contact Yoo Joonghyuk from now on. You should avoid him no
matter what."
"Will you be alright?"
"After all, I he gave me the 'Elaine Forest Essence'."
"Isn't that just to take advantage of Inho-ssi?"
"That's what I think, too, so that's good, because he won't kill me right away if I'm worth using."
I'm sure he'd left something like that because he still has expectations on me.
Besides, I didn't tell them, but there were still secrets in this '41st round' that I didn't know about.
For example, there's some kind of deal between Cheon Inho and Yoo Joonghyuk from the
previous round.
There's no need to think about it right now. We'll just have to find out slowly from now on.
[The constellation 'Prisoner of the Golden Headband' picks his nose and asks how long the filter
will be up.]
Please be patient with us, constellations-nim. We're talking about something important.
"Don't be discouraged, just do what you can. Our pace isn't bad either. Heewon-ssi has
awakened, Dansoo ahjussi knows how to tame bugs, Sein-ssi has [Average Correction], and
Sein-ssi, you're puting all your coins on physique, right?"
"Yes. Of course, but...."
I knew it.
As expected from the soul of a muscular man.
If Kyung Sein could play the tanker role, the party now had a basic formation of damage dealer-
support-tanker.
So what's my position?
"I've got Cheon Inho who can carry the eloquence role, so we're not that far behind Dokja's Company>." Kyung Sein laughed weakly at my joke. Suddenly, Dansoo ahjussi, who was already in high spirits, nodded his head. "Inho-ssi is right." "You recovered quickly." "This is nothing." "You're not from a different world than ours, are you?" "Jiyoon will be disappointed if I get frustrated over this." Perhaps the most frustrated person here is Dansoo ahjussi. He's not even a devoted reader of Omniscient Reader, he's just a guy who ended up possessing someone in the novel because of his daughter.... I became a little curious about what kind of life Dansoo ahjussi had that led him possess someone here. "Let's go get the hidden piece first. We were lucky enough to start at Geumho Station, so we have an advantage over everyone else." "Ah! Do you mean, to get 'that'....?" "Yep. Let's go get it." At Geumho Station, there is a representative hidden piece that Kim Dokja gets. The star relic, 'Unbroken Faith'. In order to get it, you must go to the 'Edge of Darkness' of Geumho Station and enter the 'Ground Rat's Treasure Trove'. Dansoo ahjussi's expression was dark. "If that's the case, we'd better hurry." "Oh, right. Actually...." Kyung Sein said as she jumped to her feet. "There are people who have already set out that way." No, you should have told me that first, guys. * We quickly finished our preparations and stood in the tunnel leading to the Yaksu Station. I thought about waiting for Jung Heewon to wake up, but I was impatient that there were people who had already left ahead of us. "Don't worry about Heewon-ssi and go." When Dayoung's mother opened her mouth as if to leave it to her, Bang Cheolsoo thumped his chest and spoke up. "I'll protect Geumho Station!" Dayoung'mother nodded reliably and looked at Bang Cheolsoo. I stared at the two figures for a moment, a weird atmosphere beginning to form. Something has definitely changed, but I don't know if it's for the better. "Let's go." We stepped into the tunnel, and in an instant, the voices grew quieter, followed by another deep darkness. This time, it was Kyung Sein who spoke up first. "It's not fair to wake up Heewon-nim and come back again, is it?" "You said you fed her Elaine Forest Essence, so she won't wake up even if you try." "But we don't even have a DPS[1] now... Isn't it dangerous?" "We don't have much time left. If they passed through here twenty minutes ago, they might have already entered the 'Edge of Darkness'." Honestly, I didn't expect anyone to go first. Kim Dokja in the original novel was still in the middle of his hidden scenario. "How many people went first?" "Two, a man and a woman. They came down from upstairs all of a sudden...." "Were they readers?" Actually, this was a question to get her thinking. She answered immediately. "I don't know, but I guess so, because the timing doesn't allow for any characters to pass by here. I didn't get a good look at them because they were going too fast on their bikes, but...." A bike? This early on? "But Inho-ssi, you do know that there's a boss monster at the 'Edge of Darkness', right?" "Yes. I know." For reference, there is an initial boss monster in the 'Edge of Darkness', the 'Dark Keeper'. Fortunately, there was a way to deal with it in Omniscient Reader. Kyung Sein asked, her eyes shining with anticipation. "Did you happen to buy [Purest Sword Force] or the 'Broken Faith'?" I shook my head. [Purest Sword Force] was sold out, and from what I could know through Bihyung that there were no sellers for Broken Faith, only a long waiting list. -Why is everyone getting that crappy item? Is there some kind of patch I don't know about? Kyung Sein's expression darkened. "Then we won't be able to catch the 'Dark Keeper'? Even in the original, Kim Dokja barely beat it with the combo of [Purest Sword Force] and 'Broken Faith'." "I'll think about it as we go." "If you don't have 'Broken Faith', you can't make 'Unbroken Faith'...." "First of all, we should get the random item box." There is a 'random item box' in the Ground Rat's Treasure Trove, which is guarded by the 'Dark Keeper', that allows you to 'upgrade items' in the first use. Kim Dokja used the box to upgrade his 'Broken Faith' to 'Unbroken Faith'. Kyung Sein shook her head. "Well, you can get 'Broken Faith' later. Do you remember all the boss patterns?" "Yeah." The problem is the physique to perform the pattern. I opened the rewards messages I'd been putting off. [There are currently 3 unclaimed rewards.] I hit the collect button one by one. [You have claimed the reward for the hidden scenario 'Serpent Slayer']. [The scenario was cleared early due to the intervention of other sea species.] [You have received part of the scenario's reward.] [2,000 coins have been earned.] Unfortunately, I only received half of the reward because the final hit was stolen by the Sea Commander. The next reward, however, was more than enough to make up for the disappointment. [The incarnation you awakened, 'Jung Heewon', hunted the 'Sea Commander'.] [The incarnation 'Jung Heewon' succeeded in looting the rewards of the hidden scenario— 'Commander Slayer' that someone was performing.] [A portion of the looted reward is attributed to you.] [4,000 coins have been earned.] [2,000 additional coins have been earned for your first looting reward.] Looting rewards? Wait a minute. Does it mean there was an incarnation hunting the 'Sea Commander'? My head was spinning. According to the main story of Omniscient Reader, it was Kim Dokja who hunted down the 'Sea Commander' and earned the reward. Since there will most likely not be a Kim Dokja in this round, it must be a regular reader who read Omniscient Reader. What happened to that reader? [The constellation 'Sneaking Schemer' chuckles.] I feel sorry for that reader, but 6,000 coins for the looting was a great harvest anyway. And that wasn't the only reward. [You have claimed the constellations' sponsorship rewards.] [6,800 coins have been sponsored.] Jung Heewon's awakening scene was quite popular on the significant amount of sponsorships for such an early stage. Prisoner of the Golden Headband, Abyssal Black Flame Dragon, and the nice animal constellations donated coins. [14,800 coins have been earned in total.] [Coins Possessed: 17,100 C] I'm rich now. If I were Kim Dokja, I'd be saving this like it was my last dollar. But I'm different. * rlaehrwk37: Anyone else been stupidly robbed of their rewards? ... ... rlaehrwk37: No? rlaehrwk49: So what? Author's Note So what what? [1] DPS: damage dealer.