Lee Gilyoung scowled at the screen where Han Donghoon looked petrified by the fact that Kim Dokja was approaching him. "Hyung, you're not going to replace me with him, right?"
What was this kid even talking about? Replacing him?
Kim Dokja frowned. "What do you mean, Gilyoung-ah?"
The boy curled in on himself a bit. "Well, he can make a connection to the internet and that's more useful to you than me… Please don't abandon me…"
[the constellation 'queen of the darkest spring' looks at the incarnation 'lee gilyoung' with pity.]
"Of course not," Kim Dokja said firmly even as his heart clenched painfully in his chest. "Han Donghoon just wants to be left alone, you know, and even if I did bring him along, that wouldn't mean I'd leave you behind."
Though Lee Gilyoung didn't seem entirely convinced, he still nodded. Why was that even something that was on his mind in the first place? Did it have something to do with the traumatic event he remembered in the [Welcome Prison]?
No child should ever have to feel like that, and Kim Dokja hugged him just a bit tighter. There wasn't much he could do, but at least that was something.
Donghoon's looks incredibly confused by—and even wary of—Dokja's offer of friendship.
Then that price is cheap.
Dokja then kindly says that they can communicate through the phone instead, mentally noting that Donghoon's social anxiety would still be bad out of [Hypnosis].
A tool for instigation and spreading information sprinkled with truths and lies, just for the sake of manipulating the future. This boy had been hypnotized and exploited by the prophets just for their own interests.
Instead of answering verbally, Donghoon activates [Wide-area Internet lvl. 5] on Dokja's phone, allowing him to get internet access across the Seoul Dome as long as Donghoon is conscious.
Donghoon sends Dokja a message asking who he is, now clutching his phone close while observing the older man. Dokja just replies that he's been looking for Donghoon for a while. Distrustfully, Donghoon says that Sungkook told him the exact same thing.
Dokja says that Donghoon must be scared and confused, but the teenager doesn't believe him, merely replying 'As if.'
Dokja sends more messages, saying that he can get rid of the prophets since they're in his way as well. Donghoon shoots back that Dokja will just take advantage of him. Dokja sends one final message stating he won't before speaking up.
"From now on you don't have to do anything."
"Why doesn't he believe you, ahjussi?" Shin Yoosung asked curiously, putting her hand on Kim Dokja's arm to get his attention.
Kim Dokja sighed. "Remember that the prophets took advantage of him, so he doesn't want that to happen again."
"You wouldn't though," Lee Jihye said firmly. "You might be a shameless scammer, but we all know that you would rather scam the prophets."
Not wrong, but not entirely right either. If he absolutely had to, Kim Dokja wouldn't hesitate to take advantage of anyone. It wouldn't feel great, and thankfully he didn't have to do that, but these kids really had too much faith in him.
[a constellation who has a lot of coins is impressed by how much the incarnation 'kim dokja' is spending.]
Considering it was just the fourth main scenario, he was definitely spending far more coins than anyone else at this point. No one else had anywhere near enough to even think about it, plus the fact that most incarnations didn't have direct access to the dokkaebi bag the way he did.
"So you've really had internet access this whole time?" Yoo Sangah asked quietly, glancing over at him.
Kim Dokja nodded. "Sangah-ssi, you're worried about your family outside of Seoul, aren't you?"
She bit her lip and glanced down. "Yes… if it wouldn't be too much trouble, would I be able to use your phone to contact them later?"
"Of course." Though Kim Dokja couldn't relate at all, he could understand that someone like Yoo Sangah would at least want to check in with her family to let them know that she was okay. She was a good person, after all.
Meanwhile, in another tent, the two 'prophets' are discussing how they should celebrate after they wrap everything up. A bottle of soju and pork belly would be great, especially after having to scrounge to survive in the apocalypse.
Sungkook now goes on about 'Joonghyuk's' [Eye of the Sage], complimenting the regressor as Minseob laughs at him. Sungkook takes the opportunity to complain about the other prophets telling them they should double check Chungmuro. Minseob takes the phone and seems to be confused by something.
Suddenly, the internet connection cuts out on the Prophets' phones. Minseob seems confused by why it's not working, so Sungkook tells him to check on Donghoon, insulting the boy while also revealing that they've kept him from sleeping in order to have constant internet connection.
"Ha, serves them right," Jung Heewon scoffed. "That's what they get for taking advantage of the kid."
Honestly, if he hadn't promised to let Han Donghoon live on his own, he might have offered to let the kid come back to Chungmuro with them. Still, it was probably for the best that he had stayed by himself, considering what had happened at Anguk station.
Lee Hyunsung clenched a fist. "I can't believe they were talking about barbeque and alcohol at a time like this…"
[the constellation 'god of wine and ecstasy' says that it's always time for good alcohol.]
It wasn't a bad thing to dream, but it did leave a bit of a bitter taste to see them relaxing and gossipping like that.
Yoo Mia frowned and sighed, resting her cheek on her hand. "I'm happy they're complimenting my oppa, but I wish they didn't think that he was the ugly ahjussi."
Wow, brutal. Kim Dokja was well aware that the protagonist was more handsome than him, but he didn't need it shoved into his face all the time.
As Minseob stands up, he runs into something, which is revealed to be Dokja as he takes off his cloak and draws his sword. Heewon opens the tent flap, surprising the already confused prophets as she reveals the chaotic fight happening just outside. Luckily, Hyunsung has her back and is keeping anyone from getting to her.
As the two men try to argue that their team of three can't possibly beat everyone, even if he's the great 'Joonghyuk', Dokja just replies that he only needs to go after the representative. Slashing Minseob's sweater open, Dokja reveals the real Dongmyo flag and he tells the two Prophets that it wasn't hard for him to see through their bluff.
They were the ones who knew the future, yet they couldn't turn themselves into the characters who became representatives in the novel. That's why they hypnotized Han Donghoon and used him however they wanted instead.
As Dokja narrates, a scene of Sungkook grabbing a defenceless and terrified Donghoon by the front of his shirt and forcefully hypnotizing him is shown on the screen. Beside him, Minseob watches on with a smirk.
Dokja casually leans down and grabs the fallen flag, adding it to his own. Thanks to this, the flag turns from indigo to brown.
Han Sooyoung raised a brow. "Smart move to pretend he wasn't the representative, but he didn't hide it well enough."
True, it was tactical, but they also couldn't have planned for someone like Kim Dokja to come and ruin all of their plans.
[the constellation 'secretive plotter' is amused by their plan.]
Jung Heewon grinned. "Gotta say, it was a bit fun creating that chaos outside. Thanks for watching my back, Hyunsung-ssi."
"It was no trouble at all!" Lee Hyunsung exclaimed with a large grin. For a moment, Kim Dokja could swear that he could see a metaphorical wagging tail behind the man's back. How adorable.
The kids looked uncomfortable with the scene of Han Donghoon's hypnotization, though, so Kim Dokja gently hugged them a bit closer. Yoo Mia clung to her brother as tightly as she could, and only whimpered as she trembled, likely still remembering what he had just been through.
"Ahjussi, you won't let anyone control us like that, right?" Shin Yoosung asked anxiously, her lip wobbling as she glanced up at Kim Dokja.
He couldn't make any promises—not in this world—but that didn't mean he couldn't try.
"I'll do my best."
No one should have to worry about their agency being taken away from them like that, especially not kids.
Sungkook tries to argue that he shouldn't do this—after all, the moment the other prophets hear of it, they'll likely gang up on him. Dokja cuts them off with the fact that their internet is now down, so they have no way of communicating with their allies.
"Why… Why are you doing this to us?!" Sungkook shouts, clearly hurt by the betrayal.
"Even if I was the 'real Yoo Joonghyuk', why on earth would I make an alliance with you?" Dokja responds far too casually, catching the two 'Prophets' off guard. After a brief smirk, a smug smile takes over Dokja's features. "That's why you should have read till the end."
At this, the two look defeated and horrified as they realize that they've been tricked. Despair takes over their features as they await Dokja's decision of what to do with them.
[the constellation 'abyssal black flame dragon' is laughing at the incarnations.]
Yoo Joonghyuk scoffed. "At least you had one thing right."
Oh, that he wouldn't have allied with them either? Kim Dokja knew that Yoo Joonghyuk would never have entertained any of their bullshit from the start, but he needed to find out what they were planning.
Yoo Mia even had a somewhat approving look on her face as she pretended her eyes weren't red and slightly swollen from crying into her brother's shirt only moments ago. "I'll give you this one, ugly ahjussi. You looked a bit cool there."
'Success,' Kim Dokja internally cheered. With any luck, Yoo Mia would come around eventually, and it hopefully wouldn't take her being in emotional distress beforehand to achieve it.
[the constellation 'secretive plotter' is smiling.]
Han Sooyoung, however, rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, keep rubbing it in, why don't you?"
Well it wasn't his fault that she dropped the novel so early, especially how she had tried to pass herself off as the one who knew the most about this world. Kim Dokja just shot a teasing smirk back at her, to her chagrin.
The next day, Dokja sits up on the bed and stretches out his back. Unfortunately for him, the stretch only serves to accentuate his petite waist. From this angle, it looks so delicate and grabbable that a certain someone could easily encircle it in his grip (as Jihye so helpfully pointed out earlier).
After Lee Sungkook and Jung Minseob were defeated last night, I went around the neighboring stations near Dongmyo and planted my flag.
The helpful map animatic appears once more, now lighting up 4 more stations for a total of 9 stations under Dokja's control.
Now if I can just get one more station, the 'King's Path' scenario will be cleared. The achievement of meeting a key goal for the early scenarios is just around the corner.
Checking his phone, Dokja notices that it's already the evening. While he's not paying attention, a window states that some of his skills have updated. As he steps out of the tent, Heewon and Hyunsung glance over from where they're standing nearby. Upon his exit, they ask about their next moves. Dokja, however, looks towards the two they defeated last night before answering.
[the constellation 'demon-like judge of fire' is giggling.]
Lee Jihye joined Uriel in that, though she seemed to be trying to muffle her laughs with a hand slapped over her mouth. Kim Dokja didn't miss the sharp look that Yoo Joonghyuk sent her way, either, but he decided to ignore it for the sake of his own sanity.
Seriously? Why did they have to focus on that so much? His waist wasn't that interesting!
[the eyes of the constellation 'secretive plotter' are glimmering in interest.]
Stop that.
Han Sooyoung shot him a knowing glance, raising an eyebrow. What was her problem?
"At least you got all those stations back then," Lee Hyunsung said, thankfully changing the subject. Lee Hyunsung, you are a saint.
Kim Dokja nodded. "I would have been screwed without them."
Considering the mess that had encompassed the rest of the scenario, he had sorely needed those stations. He also definitely would have been dead, which was another impending problem that Kim Dokja really didn't want to deal with just yet.
As Dokja approaches the two 'Prophets', they humbly ask for their lives to be spared in a complete 180 from their previous cocky attitude. Dokja, deciding to keep them alive, sets restrictions on them that forbid them from revealing Dokja's identity and force them to obey him at the risk of their lives.
For some reason, this makes the two men excited, likely due to the lack of too many restrictions, and because they're being allowed to live. Dokja tells them to keep up the charade of him being 'Joonghyuk' in front of the 'Prophets' for the time being, and asks for Minseob's
A little while later, the two prophets look at Dokja in awe and compliment his face, which has now become Joonghyuk's thanks to the effect of the mask. Somehow, just by changing his face, Dokja has gained the general protagonist ability of random sparkles to emphasize beauty. It's something usually found in Shoujo, but Joonghyuk is just so attractive that the sparkles have swapped genres.
The
As Dokja styles his hair to look a little more like Joonghyuk's, he thinks about how convenient it was for this item to appear here. As he begins to ask Minseob about his attributes, a window appears in front of him, shocking him.
"What!?" Han Sooyoung hissed, shooting Kim Dokja a panicked glare. "What the fuck?"
Kim Dokja shrugged. "I don't know why it updated the way it did, but [Character Profile] has started working on people who we know came from the real world."
[several constellations are uncomfortable with that revelation.]
Her entire body stiffened up in alarm, looking more like a cornered and hissing cat.
Yoo Sangah looked equally tense, though she looked more like she was ready to go after Han Sooyoung if she tried lunging for Kim Dokja again.
If she was reacting this badly to their information even being available to him, she would not react well to the revelation that even 'The Prophets' would start becoming 'characters' when their knowledge ran out.
Even Yoo Joonghyuk was shooting Kim Dokja a suspicious glance, and it made sense. His skill, which was already somewhat overpowered, was only getting more so with time. Honestly, Kim Dokja wasn't sure how this was happening either, but it was unnerving even for him. Or maybe he was just offended that Kim Dokja was, quite literally, borrowing his face.
"Please never use my oppa's face again," Yoo Mia said suddenly, grimacing in disgust. "That looks so wrong."
Kim Dokja was aware of that already, but she didn't have to rub it in like that…
[the constellation 'secretive plotter' is feeling unnerved at the sight of the face of the incarnation 'kim dokja'.]
"Same," Lee Jihye muttered. "Your lanky body and Master's face do not match at all."
Wow. Just wow.
"Also, you still don't suit sparkles," Lee Jihye continued like her words weren't stabbing Kim Dokja in the chest every time she opened her mouth.
[the constellation 'abyssal black flame dragon' is disappointed that the incarnation 'kim dokja' doesn't look blurry anymore.]
… Huh? Did using the
"Now that you mention it, we can see Joonghyuk-ssi's face clearly," Yoo Sangah muttered, frowning pensively. "The moment the mask went on, everything cleared up."
That was so confusing, and it made Kim Dokja's head hurt just to think about it.
Nothing about how this blurriness actually worked made any sense. If something was censoring his face for whatever reason, then how would it know he was using an item that would change his appearance? Why wouldn't it just censor that anyway? It's not like he had gotten a notification that a skill was deactivated, or anything.
[The information regarding this character has been updated.]
Dokja, thinking about what this might mean, activates [Character Profile].
[Name: Jung Minseob
Age: 25
Constellation Sponsor: Cursed Gladiator
Personal Attributes: Light Projection (Rare), 1089th Renouncer (Ordinary)
Exclusive Skills: Sword Training Lvl. 2, Powerful Strike lvl. 2, Berserker lvl. 3, Memory Enhancement lvl. 5,...
Stigma: Vengeance lvl. 1
Overall Stats: Stamina lvl. 18, Strength lvl. 16, Agility lvl. 12, Mana lvl. 10
Overall Evaluation: An incarnation with fairly good skills and attributes as a whole. His sponsor is somewhat lacking, but his ability as a warrior is considerable. He could have been one of the 12 Apostles if he had been a little more patient. Quite a shame.]
Dokja mentally remarks that he can suddenly see the attributes after not being able to the night before, so this must be related to that skill update. He quickly cuts off Minseob since he doesn't need to be told anything anymore, and makes him hand over his phone since Dokja's phone died yesterday.
"Fuck, it really does work," Han Sooyoung cursed, her voice much weaker and more unsure than she probably wanted it to be.
Jung Heewon glanced over at Kim Dokja nervously. "If you can see everyone's stats now… what difference is there between us 'characters' and everyone else?"
That was a great question, and Kim Dokja didn't have an answer to it.
"I don't know," he admitted quietly. "Maybe there isn't one."
[many constellations are unsure of how to feel.]
If the novel had become reality, then was there really a difference at all between 'characters' and real people? If people could become 'characters', then was it possible that everyone had been 'characters' from the start? It was distinctly uncomfortable, but Kim Dokja wasn't sure how else he should look at it.
"Does it really matter that much?" Lee Jihye asked hesitantly. "I mean, we're all just trying to survive together."
"I suppose not," Kim Dokja admitted. It might be better to not think about it too hard for the moment, especially with the tension still present in the group.
[the constellation 'prisoner of the golden headband' is yawning.]
At least the great sage wasn't bothered, Kim Dokja supposed.
The phone, which previously had no internet, lights up as Dokja sees Donghoon's skill activation and a message from the teenager comes through, saying he'll trust Dokja just this once. Dokja smiles fondly as he sends a quick thanks in the chat. 'Shadow Behind the Curtain' also demonstrates his thanks to Dokja for helping free Donghoon.
Dokja, looking at the Prophets' group chat, notes there's only 36 of them in it. Sungkook answers that none of the ones in the chat are part of the '12 Apostles' cult, and that they all stopped reading fairly early. Minseob and Sungkook suddenly look excited as they bring up Dokja's final words from the night before. With bated breath, they ask if he knows about the 'revelation'. They're so excited that both men are blushing heavily, for some reason, like they're about to meet their idol.
Dokja startles a moment before smirking slyly.
Know, huh. Just knowing?
Dokja just tells them they won't regret taking his side, causing the two to do a little celebratory cheer as Dokja walks away.
The group chat appears, and it appears that 'The Prophets' are having a heated conversation about searching for pirated versions of the novel after insulting those who could read up to and past chapter 50. After reading this, Dokja angrily states that they should pay to read the novel to support the author instead of pirating it. Looking up, Sungkook announces that they've arrived at their destination—Anguk Station—amidst the muffled sounds of murmuring from the people gathered within.
The 'Night of the Prophets' has begun.
"Pathetic," Yoo Joonghyuk scoffed as he narrowed his eyes. "It's their own fault for giving up."
Kim Dokja completely agreed. Yoo Joonghyuk probably still wasn't comfortable with the knowledge that people read about his life, but he also didn't seem pleased that his own story was considered 'boring'. He had been through so much already, even if it was just the beginning of TWSA, and Kim Dokja couldn't understand why anyone wouldn't be captivated by that kind of tenacity.
He couldn't help the smile that crossed his face. Back when the world was normal and boring, the fact that he had dedicated thirteen years of his life to a web novel wouldn't have been anything impressive. In fact, it probably would have gotten him ridiculed, but here in the apocalypse, Kim Dokja's memory and knowledge of TWSA had become the greatest resource in the world.
"Don't let their idol-worship get to your head," Jung Heewon joked with a grin, though it seemed strained.
He wasn't! He was just… appreciating his luck.
[a few constellations shake their heads at the incarnation 'kim dokja'.]
Kim Dokja pretended not to notice when Jung Heewon's hands began to shake, or when Lee Hyunsung reached over to hold them in an attempt to steady her. She had been trying to brush off her discomfort by making fun of him, but the three of them knew exactly what was about to happen.
Kim Dokja had to take a deep breath to steady himself too. He might seem unaffected, but he was also anxious.
With the 'Night of the Prophets' would come the horrifying experience of death itself.