The Dragon-Headed Leader’s eyes were filled with confusion. The afterimage of the landscape that had enveloped him until moments ago still lingered.As he slowly blinked, a fragment of that afterimage brushed against the tip of his nose.「In the days when Murim still thrived, the White Blue Sect Master Kyrgios met the Dragon-Headed Leader, Cheonga.」Cheonga was defeated, and though he ground his teeth in bitter determination, vowing revenge, he never met Kyrgios again.What he longed for was to fight Kyrgios once more in Murim.But Kyrgios achieved Transcendence and vanished far beyond the heavens, while Cheonga chose the path of a constellation, casting away most of his human emotions.That was why I created this ‘story.’To resolve the unfulfilled wish of a star that could never be realized.To let the Leader meet Kyrgios once more, in the place and in the form he desired, and to fight again.The Leader approached slowly, pointing his broken cudgel at me.“Tell me, why did you show me such a landscape?”If he brought that cudgel down right now, I wouldn’t be able to dodge it.From outside the dueling stage, I saw Jeong Huiwon’s hand moving toward her sword hilt.I stopped her with a glance, then spoke to the Leader.“You already know, don’t you.”“Know, you say?”The Leader stared at me blankly.“There was a story. And now it’s over. That’s all I have to say.”The cudgel quivered faintly as it pointed at me.[Constellation, ‘The Last Hero of Hwangsanbeol,’ lets «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» out a low sigh.][Constellation, ‘Martial King Heungmu,’ exhales faintly.][Constellation, ‘Bald Militia Commander,’ quietly wipes his head.]His lips slowly parted.“I am……”[Constellation, ‘Greatest Sword of Goryeo,’ wishes for the ‘Last Leader’ to show the dignity of a star.]At the indirect message echoing through the air, the Leader abruptly lifted his head.In the eyes that turned toward the heavens, deep resentment welled up.“Dignity? You call that dignity?”His voice trembled with grief.Watching him, I thought back to the reason he had resolved to descend to the earth.「Why had the Last Leader, Cheonga, returned to a sub-scenario?」Was it really only because he wished to resurrect the Gaebang?Perhaps so.This naive star might truly have believed that if he began the scenarios “from the very beginning,” he could grow stronger.That to one day challenge Kyrgios and the Destroyer Sword once again, he had to seize this chance.「“The White Blue Paradox and the Destroyer Sword. One day I will meet them again, and earn their recognition.”」But his story had contradictions.[Constellation, ‘God of the Seas,’ says there’s no need to hide it any longer.][Constellation, ‘Demonic Judge of Fire’ slowly shakes their head.]Why had he insisted on starting everything over “from the beginning”?If his only purpose had been revenge against Kyrgios or the Destroyer Sword, it was something he could have pursued while maintaining his dignity as a constellation.“What do you know, to dare prattle so? I am different from you. I am wholly present in this place. Unlike you, watching idly from beyond the heavens—”The Leader’s wild gaze suddenly froze. Following it, I saw the spotted boy near the dueling stage.「The ‘vessel’ of the Leader standing before me was the spotted boy’s father.」[Constellation, ‘Martial King Heungmu,’ says if he truly wished to be righteous, beginning as a ‘vessel’ was his first mistake.][A few constellations point out the Leader’s contradiction.]For once, the stars were right.If the Leader were truly righteous, he would have reincarnated as an ordinary incarnation.In other words, he had never staked “everything.”The sparks jumping in the air were proof of that.Chzzzzk.He had come down to earth for a moment, but remained a spectator to the story. He was merely an onlooker who had stepped briefly onto the stage for a single farce.That spectator now turned to the others.“Yes. You are right.”A soft thunder rolled across the distant sky, and rain poured through the gaping hole in Seoul Station’s ceiling.As the tents grew soaked, the outline of a massive stone, covered until now by tarps, came into view.I immediately knew what that stone was.「A meteorite.」That meteorite must have been what opened the hole in Seoul Station’s ceiling.The Leader stared at it for a moment.As though that meteorite, fallen suddenly from the heavens, was himself.His rain-soaked head slowly drooped.“I only ran away.”One truth he knew, I knew, and the constellations knew alike.He had not come here for righteous cause, nor for exalted vengeance.He had only run away from the constellations.A fallen star who had despaired at the unreachable heights he was meant to ascend.Even then, he had left himself one lifeline back to the heavens.“I just…”“You only wanted to see a story. Like the other constellations.”The Leader turned his head toward me.“Just… a little closer.”I could have condemned him as a coward.I could have called him pathetic, contemptible, a man fleeing reality.But everyone longs for vicarious satisfaction, for catharsis.Just as Kim Dokja read ‘Annihilation Law’ starring Yoo Joonghyuk, just as the stars watched constellation channels.Just as the Great Sage, Heaven’s Equal, Uriel, and the Black Flame Dragon could not help but watch Kim Dokja’s story.Existence again and again becomes someone else through stories. For without that, there is no surviving this mad world.“Can you see this story clearly now?”There are those who want to run, yet lack even the courage to run.Perhaps the reason the constellations envied him was because Cheonga, at least, had the courage to flee.The Leader pressed his temples, as if dizzy, and asked me:“Who are you? What do you want, to do this to me?”“What I want…”I had already said.Elixirs of summoner-grade, and the purple flag he possessed.But that wasn’t the answer he sought right now.[Constellation, ‘Bald Militia Commander,’ awaits your answer.][A few constellations prick their ears toward your words.]The constellations were watching me.All of them waiting for the punctuation mark of this story.I opened my mouth.“Chivalry.”[Constellation, ‘Greatest Sword of Goryeo,’ sighs.]The Leader’s eyes widened slowly.“I want the chivalry of the orthodox Murim, of the Nine Great Sects’ Gaebang.”(Xia) for righteousness,(Yi) for justice.The ancient banner of Murim, a word no one spoke aloud anymore.The Leader’s lips twisted faintly.Was he mocking me, drenched in rain, for saying such words? Or was he grieving at hearing them now?He let out a low laugh toward the heavens, then turned on me with blazing eyes.Yet the voice that followed was weary, almost indifferent.“Disciple of the White Blue Sect.”Slowly, I felt a tickle in the region of my heart.A sensation I hadn’t felt in a long while.「No one here has died, and we’ve come this far.」Was this what it felt like, to write through the night and finally glimpse the end of an episode?The Leader sighed lightly and spoke.“You said you wanted an elixir.”At his sudden words, the beggars around us stirred in commotion. He silenced them with a hand and continued.“And the flag.”I nodded.“Don’t you think your greed is excessive?”“It’s a path that can’t be walked without greed.”“Arrogant brat. Remember this. Today you were far too lucky.”Muttering so, he walked to the edge of the stage, grabbed the purple flag planted there, and brought it to me.“Are you confident? To accept this flag means to take responsibility for the ‘Gaebang’ I created.”“……”“There are three hundred beggars here who follow me.”I slowly looked around.The beggars encircling the dueling stage were watching us, their eyes filled with fear and dread.Three hundred.More than all the incarnations gathered at Chungmuro Station combined.“Are you ready to accept them as your household?”Honestly, I wasn’t.Even as a child, I had never once been class monitor.But to become a ‘king,’ I would eventually need a group, a faction.I knew it. This was my homework to face.“All I can do is imitate you, as best I can.”The Leader shot me a piercing look.“That won’t be enough.”“I am a disciple of the White Blue Sect. Expect no more.”“…If you really were Kyrgios’s disciple, he’d have killed you a hundred times over already.”True enough.From the moment I claimed to be a White Blue disciple, it was already over.But there was one thing I needed clarified.“When you say to accept the Gaebang as my household… does that include you?”If he joined under me, he’d be the greatest strength imaginable.Even as a constellation-level being, he was still here in a vessel.In a true battle, I wouldn’t have lasted thirty seconds against him.「But would that be a fitting end for this episode?」I knew I shouldn’t say it. But I couldn’t help myself.“I’d rather you return to your rightful place.”“……”“Your seat is still up there in the heavens. You came not as reincarnation, but as a vessel.”In the end, all stories exist to return the reader to their own world.“I—”Just as he had read my story, I had read his legend.Not only those with dazzling tales—like Kyrgios, the Destroyer Sword, or Yoo Joonghyuk—could claim the best lives.Even battered, even pitiful, the Leader before me was still a star of the heavens.“You reached that place by your own efforts. Even if you lost the Gaebang, lost Murim, lost even vengeance—your story to get there does not become meaningless.”“Insolent incarnation. Who are you to lecture a constellation?”Maybe I’d gone too far.But he didn’t seem truly angry. He glanced at me once, then looked back to the sky.[Constellation, ‘Bald Militia Commander,’ nods.]Then he spoke in a tired voice.“Take the flag. And the elixir—”That was when sparks burst in the air. At first, I thought it was backlash from his overuse of the vessel’s plausibility.“The… elixir.”But his expression was strange.I leapt to my feet on instinct.「Something’s gone wrong.」Through the drumming rain, I heard something ominous speaking. Reflexively, I looked up—and saw a black, rippling portal spread above Seoul Station.‘Great Hall.’But the fifth scenario hadn’t started yet, and only low-grade beasts could cross from beyond. Which meant—「Wrong. There was one more thing that could cross.」I looked at the meteorite in the station’s center.A dreadful suspicion shivered in my mind.「From where had the ‘Last Leader’ borrowed his vessel’s plausibility?」If that meteorite…「Who could dare to lend plausibility to a being like him, a constellation?」If it had come from the ‘Otherworld’…Chzzzzk!The meteorite exuded dark crimson energy, wrapping around the Leader and Sa Gyeol.The Leader floated a hand’s span into the air, and spoke to me.“Do not in ter fere with the sto ry al rea dy de ter mined.”A voice that sent chills down my spine. Within it no longer resided the Leader. His eyes had turned pitch black with corruption.“O fool ish re cord er of this world.”It wasn’t an Incantation. Yet just hearing it made my insides churn and revolt.And I realized who was speaking now.‘An Otherworldly Divinity.’Of course.No matter how much he cast aside his stature, a constellation descending into an early scenario—This possibility had always lurked.I glanced back. Jeong Huiwon was sprinting toward me, and behind her came Master Jeong Munho, carrying his younger brother Jeong Eunho.「How was this story meant to end originally?」Black legend surged from the Leader’s body, blanketing the dueling stage.“Such a sto ry…”The ground, stained black, bubbled up to swallow me.“We do not per mit it.”[Constellation, ‘God of the Seas,’ warns you of danger!][Constellation, ‘Greatest Sword of Goryeo,’ shouts in fury!][Constellation, ‘Bald Militia Commander’…]……[Constellation, ‘The Last Leader’ sends you his apologies.]Ignoring the constellations’ messages, I charged forward.Danger or not, this was the only chance.If I were truly fated to die, the Script would have already activated.[Exclusive skill, ‘Incitement Lv.6,’ activates!]Triggering Incitement twice in succession tore at my body like it would rip apart my muscles.My eyes were bloodshot, my chest squeezed tight with pain.But I didn’t stop.[‘Thoughts on Almost Everything’ assumes the form of ‘Broken Conviction (Mass-Produced).’]‘Thoughts’ became ‘Broken Conviction.’[Exclusive skill, ‘White Blue Aura Lv.1,’ activates!]The White Blue Aura I learned from Literature Girl 64 triggered the special option of ‘Broken Conviction.’[‘Blade of Conviction’ activates!]The strongest anti-personnel weapon I could use now.「The force controlling the Leader’s body is flowing from that meteorite.」Meaning, if I destroyed the meteorite, he would lose his power.“Fut ile.”The Leader’s body intercepted me.Without hesitation, I swung my blade.Kwa-dududud!My desperate strike was nullified by the sweep of his hand.I’d expected as much.Even with [White Blue Aura] and ‘Broken Conviction’ combined, my opponent was a lunatic monster, a constellation’s soul fused with an Otherworldly Divinity’s blessing.Chzzzzk!Even Yoo Joonghyuk would have struggled against that.But I laughed.“Futile?”Because I’d already accomplished my goal.[You have acquired the ‘Seoul Station Group’s Flag.’]From the start, my aim wasn’t to destroy the meteorite.[Your ‘White Flag’ absorbs the accumulated merits of the ‘Purple Flag.’][Your ‘White Flag’ evolves into the ‘Purple Flag.’]I had only needed to pick up the ‘flag’ lying on the ground.[By the effect of the Purple Flag, you gain control over the Seoul Station Group.]I had always wondered.Which was stronger—an Otherworldly Divinity existing outside the scenario, or the plausibility of the ‘system’ that built this world?The Leader’s eyes widened slowly.I grinned at him and spoke.“Kneel, you bastard.”[You use ‘Punishment.’]

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