Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint

Chapter 192: Episode 36 – Story Horizon (4)

It was a legendary story but at the same time, there was no special function. Nevertheless, the existence of the story itself was enough to attract the attention of the wenny man.

“This story...?”

“How about it? Do you like it?”

The wenny man stared at the story with eyes full of disbelief. His eyes trembled as if such a story wasn’t possible. The long fingertips touched the window and the contents of the story started to play.

Peok! Peok! Peeeok!

The intermediate dokkaebi Paul was being pounded by my fists. Every time the face of the dokkaebi was battered, an expression of shock crossed the wenny man’s face.

The story ‘One Who Showed Contempt for a Streamer.’

Even if this story was given, I had five stories above the legendary level and my status wouldn’t be jeopardized. Naturally, it was a story that the wenny man was bound to love. They were those who like to swear at the dokkaebi and was bound to like stories beating the dokkaebi up.

“Kuk, kukuk... kuhahahat!”

The wenny man soon let out a burst of laughter. I waited until he had fully enjoyed it.

“Good, I’ll take this. It is a very pleasant story.”

“Then do we have a deal?”

“It is still lacking. The story you gave is rare but it has almost no functional value.

...I figured this would come out. I quickly added, “Then I’ll give you Silla Allied Forces as well.”

“...It is still insufficient. If you want to continue the transaction, you have to change the contents of the deal.”

“Change it? How?”

“As I said earlier, you asked for two things. One is to return to the scenario and the other is to get a new ‘incarnation body.’”

I thought for a moment before asking, “Is this story enough to only cover one of them?”

“That’s right. To be exact, I can only help you get an incarnation body.”

Gaining an incarnation body. This was naturally important. However...

“Why can’t you return me to the scenario? Can’t you originally help with this much?”

“You talk like you know something.”

“I’ve heard some things.”

Rather, I had read about it. Cheok Jungyeong was excluded from the scenario and I remembered what the nebula Hongik paid.

The wenny man stared into my eyes and said, “Hmm... normally this price would be enough but the current situation is a bit special.”

“Special?”

“The bureau and nebulae are nervous due to everything you have done.”

I somehow understood what he was talking about. The wenny man kept speaking. “Returning an exile to the scenario is a lot more expensive than you think. It is one of the most intensive consumption of probability in the entire Star Stream. Still, as you know, I have a close relationship with the ‘eyes’ of the probability.

“In a situation like this where many eyes are watching, you will have to pay too much probability.”

“Yes. Furthermore, I don’t know the reason but the branch manager of the bureau, Baram has come out and all existing transaction windows are blocked. At present, the straight route of return to the scenario is almost completely blocked. I can’t afford it, even if you pay a bigger price.”

I couldn’t go straight back to Earth...

The situation wasn’t as smooth as I thought. The wenny man looked at me and asked, “Do you just want an incarnation body? This is a legendary story so I can give you a decent body. There are a number of healthy incarnation bodies that I have recovered from the Murim side.”

Incarnation bodies from Murim. It was an enticing proposition. However, I shook my head. No matter how good the body, it would be futile if I couldn’t return to the scenario.

A new incarnation body could stop the collapse for a while but if I didn’t return to the scenario, the collapse would still persist.

The wenny man was making such a suggestion because he knew this. Once my new incarnation body was broken down from the exile penalty, he would try to take my other stories with a new deal.

I decided to push harder. “I have to go back to the scenario. By any means. It is more important than getting an incarnation body.”

“Hrmm... it is difficult.”

“Earth isn’t possible then is it okay to go to other scenarios?”

This was how Cheok Jungyeong escaped from the Korean Peninsula scenario. There was no reason I couldn’t do it.

However, the wenny man shook his head. “There are a few places to search but it isn’t good. Moving to an escape scenario requires a greater probability.”

“...Is it really like this? Are you being greedy?”

I deliberately waved the story window through the air. The sight of the intermediate dokkaebi Paul being punched shook slightly.

“It is a rarer story than you think. What type of incarnation would strike a dokkaebi in a world controlled by them?”

“Hmm...”

“Imagine if you put this in your lump and boast about it to your friends.”

The wenny man agonized over it for a long time. He thought and thought about it.

[Your existence is at stake.]

[Acquire a new incarnation body or return to the scenario.]

[Your existence will soon collapse.]

Finally, the wenny man opened his mouth. “There is one place that you can go.”

“Where?”

At this moment, an eerie light appeared around the wenny man’s mouth.

“The Demon World.”

His tone sounded as if he was saying something terrible. The wenny man saw my expression and laughed.

“You don’t have to be so scared. The Demon World is also a place where people live. Besides, there is enough demonic energy in your body that it won’t be noticeable if you go there.”

“There are different areas of the Demon World. Where are you going to send me?”

“The 73rd Demon Realm. It is a place without a ruler. It is also a place where the losers of the scenario have gathered since a long time ago.”

The 73rd Demon Realm. If I remembered correctly, it was one of the scenario areas that overlapped with the Earth scenario. I nodded.

“Well... it isn’t bad.”

“Instead, I won’t be able to supply you with an incarnation body if I send you there.”

“However, I will return to the scenario?”

Entering the scenario area didn’t mean I could return to the scenario. It was because I had already finished the scenario. In other words, I had to get help to enter the scenario.

Then the wenny man shook his head. “It is too unreasonable. I can only send you to the 73rd Demon Realm.”

“What nonsense is this?”

“I will give you some information instead. You will need a lot of luck and effort but if you use this information, you will be able to get an incarnation body and return to the scenario.”

“It looks like a losing deal for me.”

“Still, it is all I can offer.”

I pretended to think for a moment before slowly nodding. Now I had no other option.

“Okay, I will accept that deal.”

I had decided so there was no need to waste any more time. I immediately pulled out the story and gave it to him.

[You have paid the story ‘One Who Showed Contempt for a Streamer’.] action

The wenny man nodded. “The price has been received.”

The wenny man swallowed the story that he had received from me. Then his lump shone blue. He smiled with satisfaction and took a deep breath.

It was as if he was sucking all the air around him. I looked closer and realized he wasn’t just swallowing air.

The time and space around him was being sucked inside. The lump swelled by several times before there was a loud roar. Along with the roar, a space poured out of the wenny man’s mouth.

The space that came pouring out created a long, elliptical passage. Beyond this passage, the landscape of a different world was shining.

“Quickly enter. It has a very short duration, unlike a portal.”

I jumped into the passage without hesitation.

[You have been transferred to a new time and space.]

It felt like he was jumping through the universe. Stars passed like countless meteor showers.

I was flying through the night sky of the Star Stream. Numerous scenario areas that had become fragments of the story flew around me.

[The Star Stream has noticed your presence.]

For a moment, there was a gaze on me.

[The Star Stream has accepted your presence.]

Then the gaze disappeared. A small current seized my body but that was all. Perhaps the necessary probability was paid by the wenny man. After a short space journey, I felt the gravity of a powerful story pulling at me.

[You have reached an area adjacent to the scenario!]

I rolled across a dust covered ground with a groan. The impact affected my body as the areas touching the ground started to crack little by little.

[Your existence is collapsing.]

[Your stories are damaged.]

[You need a new incarnation body!]

Damn. I hurriedly got up from the ground but the hell had already begun.

“Kuheook...”

Letters started to flow from the cracks in my body. The most dangerous area was my heart.

[Your birth story is leaking out.]

If I didn’t seal the wounds and save my body, all my stories would collapse and I would die.

I hurriedly looked around.

That guy said he would send me to a place where I could save my body. There must be something here that could make up the incarnation body.

The moment I looked around, my expression hardened.

“This place...?”

There was a huge pile of garbage around me. Then as if he had been waiting, I heard the voice of the wenny man.

-Perhaps by now, you have arrived in the 73rd Demon Realm and you are facing the horizon of the scenario.

The horizon of the scenario. I knew this name. It was a place where the wastes excluded from the scenario, like me, were forcibly thrown by the scenario cleaners.

I shouted as I looked at the debris rolling around. “No, wait a minute! This is a dumpster!”

-You will be able to obtain an incarnation body that can be used from there. Of course, you have to find useful components. Well, I don’t know if you can get them.

“Dammit...

The wenny man wasn’t planning a fair deal with me from the beginning. If I was to die, he would come here and retrieve my stories.

-I hope you can find something good from the horizon.

I hesitantly sat down. Letters kept falling from my heart. If this continued, I would die in less than 5 minutes.

「 After a moment, Kim Dokja’s expression started to change. 」

I slowly looked around. It was for certain. I couldn’t feel the eyes of the wenny man at all.

「 The confused eyes became calm and the mouth, that was open like a fool, slowly closed. Soon, Kim Dokja restored his clothes and muttered. 」

“It’s hard.”

「Kim Dok ja’s act ing is wro ng. 」

“...Did you notice?”

I slowly looked down. It was pretty annoying but I had to act to avoid the wenny man’s doubts.

「 His purpose was to come here in the first place. If he wants to get what he wants while hiding as much as possible, he has to act this much. 」

I listened to the Fourth Wall as I searched the surrounding area.

“...I think I came to the right place.”

As the Fourth Wall said, I planned to come here from the beginning. It was why I put on a death show in front of the constellations.

I climbed the garbage pile and started to look around.

“Kuek, it hurts...”

However, it wasn’t easy to maintain my sanity due to the piercing pain in my heart.

[Your birth story is collapsing.]

Everything else was clearly acting but this pain wasn’t false. I desperately held onto my consciousness while thinking of sentences from Ways of Survival.

「 It was Yoo Jonghyuk’s 111th regression. Yoo Jonghyuk was expelled from the scenario and reached a place where he could build up his power. 」

「 The 73rd Demon Realm, the horizon of the scenario. 」

「 At the dumpster, Yoo Jonghyuk got his new ‘body.’ 」

Nevertheless, no matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t find a story that could be the materials for a new body.

In the first place, the horizon of the scenario was a place where broken stories converged. There was no way I could find a usable body in this place. At least, through a normal method.

“Activate an attribute effect.”

[The effect of the Lamarck Kirin attribute has been activated.]

Lamarck Kirin was an evolutionary attribute that I purchased for 300,000 coins. It was an attribute left behind in Bihyung’s item box. Finally, the time had come for the consumption of coins to be worth it.

[The privilege ‘Evolution Factor Search’ has begun!]

[Searching for story fragments that you can absorb!]

I slowly closed and opened my eyes as different things started to become noticeable around the garbage dump.

[Story fragments have been detected!]

The fragments were shining with a white light. At least for me, this place wasn’t a ‘dumpster.’

「 The right arm of the poor sword master who was stabbed in the back by a colleague. 」

「 The terribly damaged frontal lobe of a grand wizard. 」

「 The heart of a young gold dragon who was torn to death by an outer god. 」

According to the setting of Ways of Survival, the privilege of Lamarck Kirin was to construct the body by absorbing broken stories.

“...Then I am starting.”

I slowly reached out towards a red heart fragment.