Chapter Text
“Where are you going?”
Yoo Joonghyuk stopped with one hand on the doorknob. Han Sooyoung stood behind him in the hall. Nobody else seemed to be in earshot. The house that South Korea’s “provisional government” had assigned to their party was spacious, more spacious than the one Yoo Joonghyuk had gotten used to in his previous turns. But then again, the party was bigger.
“I don’t owe you an answer,” he said.
“You’re leaving, aren’t you? Did you at least warn anyone?”
“Yoo Mia knows.”
“Oh, so just the kid? Not Lee Jihye? Not even Lee Seolhwa?”
He had told Lee Jihye. Vaguely. He could barely stomach talking to her these days. The way she looked at him… And Lee Seolhwa was worse. She was a doctor, she knew better than to let her pity show on her face. But her mask mattered little. He couldn’t ignore that she had seen him at his lowest, coughing up blood with grief running down his cheeks.
Everyone in this house saw the gaping wound he was trying to cover. Their stares made him feel like the walls were closing in.
Han Sooyoung let out an impatient sigh.
“You shut yourself up in your room for days on end and now you’re just leaving? What about the next scenarios? Have you finally gone insane? Lee Hyunsung said he could hear you talking to yourself through the door, you know. You nearly made him cry.”
He gave her a scathing glare. He had obviously been talking to constellations. She couldn’t possibly be stupid enough to believe Lee Hyunsung’s naive fable.
“I see you’re feeling very free with your words,” he growled, hand clenched on his sword.
Should he kill her?
What had one day been a genuine interrogation now felt rote somehow. He was too numb inside to feel true ire. Besides, Kim Dokja had been adamant that Han Sooyoung could be relied on for knowledge of future scenarios, even if her pretensions as an Apostle had been a scam. She could be useful. The party would need someone to guide them during Yoo Joonghyuk’s planned absences.
He didn’t like her. But Kim Dokja had considered her a companion of his. Maybe that was enough.
“This isn’t what Kim Dokja would have wanted, you know,” she said.
He tensed. The only reason his suddenly boiling blood didn’t spill over and burn her was how tired she sounded. For a brief moment, she looked genuinely weary. Seeing her like this, he could just about believe that she cared under her usual layers of bullshit.
“Kim Dokja knew better than to expect me to behave according to his whims,” he retorted sharply.
He turned and opened the door. With one foot already over the threshold, he stopped. He added over his shoulder:
“I’ll be back in six days.”
A system window hovered nearby, ignored but not forgotten.
[The next scenario will start in six days.]
Once the tenth scenario ended, the Star Stream opened access to personal trials, scenarios sponsored by constellations that could replace the main ones. Yoo Joonghyuk was quick to avail himself to them. No matter what Han Sooyoung said, there was no point in staying on Earth. He already knew what awaited him there.
Ten days separated the end of the tenth scenario from the beginning of the eleventh. One would think that ten days would be enough time for the rest of South Korea to prepare itself for an apocalypse. But in every regression, it was the same: no matter what Yoo Joonghyuk said or didn’t say during this lapse of time, no matter how many hearings from the provisional government he snubbed or chose to indulge, no matter how many interviews he gave or didn’t give, the vast majority of the country’s population convinced themselves that they were safe, that the scenarios wouldn’t reach them.
This time, he didn’t want to bother. There was not enough spark left in him to care about the delusions of strangers.
The personal scenarios were far more useful. He had been talking to constellations, choosing the hardest ones, the ones with the best rewards. He needed to get as strong as possible. What had happened on the third floor of the Dark Castle could never happen again.
“Incarnation Kim Dokja will be killed by…”
He couldn’t… he needed to get stronger. So he left.
[The item Midday Tryst has come to the end of its paid one-month period.]
[Pay 3,000 coins to renew use of item Midday Tryst?]
The reappearance of the system windows was unwelcome. Yoo Joonghyuk stared at them. After a long moment, he averted his eyes.
Around the high rooftop where he stood, Seongnam’s streets lay in ruins. An eerie calm reigned over the city. Twenty-four hours after the scenarios had come to the rest of the peninsula, most of the initial chaos had passed. The new incarnations hid in precarious shelters, coming to terms with what they were now, with what they had seen and done to survive until this point. The last phase of the scenario would start soon.
Yoo Joonghyuk’s gaze wandered to the horizon. The Seoul Dome loomed there, a reminder of everything that had been sacrificed under its shimmering roof. It was closed again. It would stay a no man’s land until the twentieth scenario.
The Star Stream liked its symmetry.
“Unni, have you seen Master?”
Lee Jihye was crossing the plaza far below his feet. In the silence, her words could reach him even where he stood. This Lee Jihye was still too careless. She should have known better than to project her position like this.
Jung Heewon and Yoo Sangah interrupted their conversation to shake their heads at the girl. Lee Jihye put her hands on her hips.
“He can’t already be gone again, can he? The scenario isn’t even over!”
“Who knows what that guy is doing,” Jung Heewon said, her voice weary and significantly quieter than Lee Jihye’s.
“I’m sure Yoo Joonghyuk-ssi has his reasons,” Yoo Sangah said.
There was a pause.
What an asinine thing to say. Maybe they all thought that they knew what those reasons were. But whatever they pictured, Yoo Joonghyuk had no time to keep looking over his shoulder. He wasn’t wallowing, he was moving forward. He stepped away from the ledge.
“Do you think he’s looking for Dokja-ahjussi?”
Lee Jihye’s voice made him stop in his tracks. He listened, but there was no answer that he could hear.
[The constellation ‘Demon-like Judge of Fire’ is looking at you sadly.]
Her again. This constellation seemed to have latched onto him now that Kim Dokja’s channel had closed. He didn’t appreciate it. He didn’t need one more person looking at him like this, especially one that he couldn’t ward off with a closed door.
Yoo Joonghyuk closed his eyes and offered his face to the sun’s warm rays. He had trouble sleeping, lately, so his eyes ached. So did his thigh, a fading remnant of the deep wound he had earned during his latest personal trial.
No matter. He had only come back to check that the party would be fine. It seemed Han Sooyoung had organized them well, and they had managed to spread enough information among the population that the scenario was going fine, relatively speaking. The eleventh was always a disaster, but it could have been worse.
In that case, he might as well leave. He was ahead of South Korea by four scenarios now, so there wasn’t much point in him intervening in this one. He could go to Planet Lugratia for the next personal trial he had lined up…
A chime had his brow crease. The system windows, still open, were reminding him of their existence.
[The item Midday Tryst has come to the end of its paid one-month period.]
[Pay 3,000 coins to renew use of item Midday Tryst?]
[Yes | No]
Yoo Joonghyuk sneered. This reminder had been popping up intermittently for the past few days. If he didn’t make a decision soon, the system would make it for him.
His hand hovered the two buttons. They mocked him. They were the embodiment of the choice he had refused to make since Kim Dokja’s body had crumbled in his arms.
Believe? Don’t believe?
He was nearly to the point of cursing Kim Dokja for having come back to life every other time. There should have been no hesitation about the right course to take here. Cut ties, move on, learn to live with his ghosts. But how could he grieve for someone who might just reappear one day like nothing had happened?
He opened the item.
Midday Tryst
[Kim Dokja] If I can...
[Kim Dokja] ... I’ll come back to you, Yoo Joonghyuk.
These two lines were branded on the inside of his eyelids, he had stared at them so often. Yoo Joonghyuk gently touched the window.
His lips thinned. It occurred to him that if he were to cancel Midday Tryst, he would lose his entire conversation log with Kim Dokja. His hand flew out and tapped the ‘Yes’ button. It winked cheerfully at him before fading.
He stood there, at once relieved to have found an uncorrelated reason to make the decision and ashamed of how fast he had made it.
More windows flashed open.
He glared. What now? He banished Uriel’s question without even reading it, closed the indirect messages from other constellations complaining about his lack of activity even faster.
At the last window, he stopped.
[Your notoriety is spreading in the 73rd Demon Realm.]
“… What?”
The Demon Realm…
Was the system broken?
He contemplated the message for a long time, bewildered. The 73rd Demon Realm… No matter how much he thought about it, it was too early for him to have any tie there. The wenny men were probably selling his story in poor areas like this, but the Star Stream ignored the influence of illegal streams. In his second turn, he had gone to the Demon Realm much later in the scenarios. And there was nobody in this turn who knew him and who would have already reached such a faraway place, was there?
His eyes widened.
No. It couldn’t be…
“Kim Dokja?” he whispered.
[The constellation ‘Demon-like Judge of Fire’ is astonished!]
[The constellation ‘Demon-like Judge of Fire’ is asking you what you mean.]
Yoo Joonghyuk clamped his jaw shut. Stupid. If this was Kim Dokja, the last thing Yoo Joonghyuk should do was spread news of his survival. Kim Dokja had too many enemies.
Besides, he couldn’t jump to conclusions. This was just a system notification. Possibly a broken one.
He frowned. Planet Lugratia…
No, maybe he should stay on Earth a little longer. He hadn’t checked on Mia yet.
It didn’t end with just one system notification.
At first, nothing more happened. But then, late in the evening…
[Your notoriety is spreading in the 73rd Demon Realm.]
And then again…
[Your notoriety is spreading in the 73rd Demon Realm.]
And again…
[Your notoriety is spreading in the 73rd Demon Realm.]
By the time morning came, it became apparent that there was at least one corner of the 73rd Demon Realm in which ‘Yoo Joonghyuk’ had become a household name.
Once more holed up in his bedroom in the party’s house, elbows on his knees and hands joined in contemplation, Yoo Joonghyuk examined the messages. His heart beat a strange rhythm against his ribs.
There was only one man who had ever had the guts to steal his name.
As dawn slipped its fingers between the curtains, so did hope pool inside the room.
Kim Dokja was in the Demon Realm.
Should he wait? Kim Dokja had promised to come back to him. If Yoo Joonghyuk stayed on Earth…
But what if Kim Dokja needed help? The last time Yoo Joonghyuk had seen him, his situation had been dire. Being ejected from the scenario was nearly always a death sentence. He could be gravely injured. He was without a doubt alone.
What if the messages were a way for Kim Dokja to call for help?
Yoo Joonghyuk ducked his head and took a deep breath.
Kim Dokja. That Kim Dokja, that infuriating and reckless fool, asking for help? Was it possible?
He could no longer wait. His hard-earned patience was failing him. At the very least, he had to confirm whether or not this was Kim Dokja. But how?
He dug a hand in his coat pocket and took out a folded spyglass. This item, “Reach for the Stars”, was one of the rewards he had earned in his twelfth scenario. Though it was only B-grade, Reach for the Stars was the entire reason he had picked that scenario in the first place. It was a one-use item that allowed communication with a selected constellation outside of the constraints of the Star Stream.
[The constellation ‘Demon-like Judge of Fire’ is excited by your actions!]
Although he had been aiming for this item, he hadn’t touched it since he had picked it up. He had been reluctant to admit to himself why he wanted it.
Besides, it was ridiculous. Even if Kim Dokja still existed somewhere, to Yoo Joonghyuk’s knowledge he had yet to earn a modifier. Reach for the Stars needed a modifier to function. Yoo Joonghyuk knew of this item in the first place because he had once tried it on his sponsor, and he hadn’t been able to make it work.
[The constellation ‘Demon-like Judge of Fire’ asks whether you’re going to use the item.]
Yoo Joonghyuk glanced up. She must not be aware of the item’s restriction. Unless she knew more than he did about Kim Dokja’s modifier?
He thought for a while. Even if he could use Reach for the Stars to contact Kim Dokja, it might not be a good idea. Say Yoo Joonghyuk managed to talk to him for the few minutes the item allowed. What then? It wouldn’t get him to the 73rd Demon Realm.
It wasn’t in his nature to trust constellations… but Kim Dokja had changed many things, hadn’t he?
Yoo Joonghyuk got up, drew the curtains back on the view of a devastated street, unfolded the spyglass and pointed it at the fading stars.
‘Demon-like Judge of Fire,’ he thought.
In the center of the lens, a star flashed brightly.
[The constellation ‘Demon-like Judge of Fire’ is flustered!]
[The intended recipient of item Reach for the Stars has agreed to the communication.]
The room faded around Yoo Joonghyuk. He found himself in a dark space. The Star Stream spread all around him, pinpricks of lights clustered in glittering nebulae. Facing him in the void was a beautiful woman. Long legs were elegantly crossed as she sat on an invisible chair. Her short black dress formed a bold contrast to the angelic white wings, blond hair and pale skin.
[Ah… Heh?!]
At the sight of him, she stood up in a hurry, feathers fluttering in agitation. She tripped on her own feet and stumbled.
[Yes? Me?] she said, wide-eyed.
“…” said Yoo Joonghyuk.
Somehow, this wasn’t the initial impression he had of Uriel, the archangel warrior that sent demons running in fear.
“I want to discuss a personal scenario,” he said.
[A personal scenario… from me?] she said, frowning as she regained a bit of her composure.
She had to be wondering why something like this needed to be discussed away from the eyes of other constellations.
“I think I know where Kim Dokja is.”
Her entire figure lit up. She radiated so much happiness in this instant that he lost most of his misgivings in telling her something so dangerous.
[Really?] she said, high-pitched. [Really, Kim Dokja is alive? Of course, I’ll help you!]
“First, can you promise that you won’t share what I tell you with anyone?”
[Of course! I don’t want those Vedas, Papyrus and Olympus bastards to get their hands on Kim Dokja either!]
[You have activated the exclusive skill Lie Detection Lv.8.]
[The level of the skill Lie Detection is high enough to ignore the status of the proposed individual.]
[You have confirmed that the statement is true.]
Uriel’s puffed-up feathers wilted like so many white flowers. She glared at him.
[Hey, aren’t you a bit too rude? You didn’t even greet me!]
That temper was closer to what he had expected. Good. He couldn’t afford to rely on someone soft where he was going.