Things That Cannot Be Changed (3)
Kim Dokja let out a small sigh.
Haa…. How did things end up like this….
She recalled everything that had just happened. Herself leaping forward in Yoo Joonghyuk’s place to meet death instead, and Yoo Joonghyuk—defeated by Shin Yooseung—bound hand and foot by the sulfur mummies the girl commanded.
And then there was her own situation. Having activated First-Person Protagonist Viewpoint on Shin Yooseung and immersed herself into the girl, Kim Dokja’s face twisted.
At that moment Shin Yooseung’s thoughts began to surge.
「Comrades?」
「How is a word like that even possible? Of all people, that Yoo Joonghyuk calling someone a ‘comrade’?」
These are Shin Yooseung’s thoughts?
Kim Dokja flinched in surprise and focused, listening carefully.
「In the 41st turn, calling a woman you’ve never even seen a ‘comrade’? Don’t make me laugh. I can’t accept it.」
「Then what about me? What about the time I’ve lived? How is my turn supposed to be compensated?」
Before long a scene began to take shape before Kim Dokja’s eyes.
Lee Jihye, riddled with holes by the Japanese during the naval battle and left dead. Lee Hyunsung, who took the Iron Blood Dragon’s breath in Yoo Joonghyuk’s place and whose body was never even recovered. Then the corpses of Lee Seolhwa, Kim Namwoon, and every other comrade flashed past in rapid succession.
「…What the hell was I to you?」
Kim Dokja could say nothing in answer to those thoughts. She simply listened with quiet, sunken eyes and watched the world through Shin Yooseung’s gaze.
“I’m going to kill them. I’ll kill every last one of them.”
Fueled by the words Yoo Joonghyuk had spat, Shin Yooseung declared in a voice thick with hatred that she would slaughter every incarnation inside the Seoul Dome.
Whether from pure bad luck or sheer denseness, two incarnations chose that exact moment to appear in front of her.
“Kill her! That’s the disaster!”
They yanked out their weapons and charged straight at Shin Yooseung.
These idiots…?!
Kim Dokja cursed the pair who didn’t know their place, already imagining the carnage about to unfold and scowling.
Shin Yooseung looked at them and casually swept her hand, intending to end them. It failed.
Clang-clang—!
“…Huh?”
…Huh?
Ice chains had locked around her arms.
Kim Dokja stared at the chains binding Shin Yooseung and gave a hollow little smile.
…He’s coming fast, wow.
Knowing Park Jinwoo had finally reached Nodeul Island, she allowed herself a small smile.
If it’s Jinwoo, he can stop Shin Yooseung safely. I’ll revive soon, free the bound Yoo Joonghyuk, and if the three of us team up, subduing her won’t be impossible.
As she watched with faint relief—
Clang-clang—!
“Waaaaah?!”
“S-Save me?!”
The two men were being dragged away by ice chains snaking out of the forest.
…Still, Jinwoo saved them. From their point of view, maybe that’s lucky?
Kim Dokja watched the pair being hauled off exactly like a horror-movie scene and made a complicated face.
Shin Yooseung stared blankly for a moment, then snapped the chains with raw strength and began looking around wildly—searching for Park Jinwoo, no doubt.
Then the sound of something racing toward them at high speed came from behind.
Kim Dokja turned toward the noise, confirmed who was charging in, and her expression went blank with shock.
Jihye?! No! If you take Shin Yooseung’s attack head-on you’ll die right here…!
Park Jinwoo’s form was still nowhere in sight. Kim Dokja’s face crumpled. If she left things alone, Lee Jihye would die by Shin Yooseung’s hand. She began thinking furiously.
How do I stop her? How…
A thought suddenly dug into her mind and made her body tremble.
Wait… ‘stop’…?
Seeing Shin Yooseung wind up for the finishing blow that would take Lee Jihye’s life, Kim Dokja mirrored the motion exactly—and at the last instant halted the arm, draining power from Shin Yooseung’s right hand.
Kwang!!
Interfering with the character’s actions via First-Person Supporting Character Viewpoint.
Kim Dokja felt a surge of triumph at having interfered even a little and drained Shin Yooseung’s strength. Lee Jihye would live.
Done! Success…
Then sudden sparks erupted across her entire body. Something was wrong.
Pajijik! Pajijijik!
Uwaaaaah!!!
The Fourth Wall ominously shakes.
Kim Dokja screamed as pain like her whole body burning tore through her. Even while screaming she thought:
It was only a fine adjustment, but at the exact moment Shin Yooseung was about to land a decisive blow on Lee Jihye I managed to drain a little of her power.
Your understanding of the character Shin Yooseung has increased.
Kwaak!
Startled by the sudden sensation in Shin Yooseung’s right hand, Kim Dokja looked ahead. The dust cloud made everything blurry, yet someone inside that cloud was gripping Shin Yooseung’s right fist.
“Yooseung-ah. Even if it’s puberty, throwing a punch at your sky-like unnie? Our kid’s turned into a real gangster, huh?”
…………….
Hearing a voice she knew all too well, Kim Dokja stared with an utterly blank, incredulous expression.
…Park Jinwoo, you bastard. If only you’d stepped in a little earlier.
If he had arrived even a few seconds sooner she would never have felt her whole body burning. Still, relief that he had come at all washed over her—until the next moment made her freeze.
Kwang!
“Keuk…?!”
Shin Yooseung, kicked square in the gut by Park Jinwoo, went flying through the forest of Nodeul Island, smashing trees as she went. Kim Dokja could only stare at him in a daze.
Then he started playfully pinching and stretching both cheeks of the bleeding, wounded Lee Jihye. Kim Dokja clutched her throbbing head and sighed.
“…Ha?”
Shin Yooseung looked just as dumbfounded. Kim Dokja simply hung her head.
Haa… Playing around even in this situation.
No—because it was Park Jinwoo, maybe it was only natural? Even she was starting to get confused.
By the way…
She shifted her gaze and glared at Park Jinwoo as he eyed Shin Yooseung.
Was Jinwoo always this strong…?
She had estimated his combat power at roughly one step below Yoo Joonghyuk’s. What he had just shown far exceeded that guess.
Just what is going on…?
On a hunch she used Cold Observation on him. The result left her staring blankly.
Even if Cold Observation only roughly estimates overall stats…
Stamina, strength, agility, and magic power totaling over three hundred? What the hell was this…
Kim Dokja glared at him, genuinely shocked that his numbers exceeded the overall ability limit of the current scenario.
Then Park Jinwoo’s sly, teasing voice drifted over.
“What was it again? That Yoo Joonghyuk said she needed me and asked me to become her comrade? Ah~ right. Sorry, sorry. You never even heard the word ‘comrade’ from her, did you? I poked a wound there. My bad, Yooseung-ah!”
…Park Jinwoo, you absolute trash.
Watching him mercilessly stab the exact reverse scale of Shin Yooseung’s heart, Kim Dokja glared with eyes gone ice-cold.
「…I’ll kill you.」
Properly hooked by the provocation, Shin Yooseung’s thoughts began to overflow with terrifying intensity.
“…I’ll kill you. Definitely, definitely kill you…!! I’ll tear your limbs off while you’re still alive and feed you to monsters…!!”
What followed was pure, textbook toying.
Park Jinwoo played with Shin Yooseung as if she were a toy, all the while pinching Lee Jihye’s cheeks, mocking and provoking. Watching it all from inside Shin Yooseung’s viewpoint, Kim Dokja let out a long, heavy sigh.
…Why did this kid have to get caught by a crazy bastard.
The scene was so pitiful it inspired genuine sympathy. Kim Dokja felt sorry for the thoroughly toyed-with Shin Yooseung.
Shin Yooseung lost her reason easily under the barrage of taunts; her body and mind were visibly shaking from the relentless toying.
“Our Yooseung gets so worked up she can’t even land a single hit?”
“Shut up! Shut up! Please just shut up!!”
Park Jinwoo was a genius at provocation and torment. No—he was fucking annoying.
Dodging every kick, every punch, every attack from the monsters she had tamed, and even the Beast King’s Breath by a hair’s breadth—watching it made even Kim Dokja’s blood boil.
…Park Jinwoo, real fucking trash.
She watched Shin Yooseung being thoroughly toyed with and unconsciously covered one eye with her hand.
「Please… please…! Please…!! Please…!!! Just one hit…. Just one hit…! Just take one hit…!!」
The space Kim Dokja occupied shook as if an earthquake were rolling through it, stirred by Shin Yooseung’s desperate thoughts. She let out a long sigh.
And then, without meaning to, she began cheering for her.
Yeah, hit him! You can do it, Yooseung-ah!
Had she listened to the girl’s thoughts too long? Or had she simply piled up too much resentment against the endlessly annoying Park Jinwoo?
Without realizing it, Kim Dokja was rooting for Shin Yooseung.
Shin Yooseung poured everything into landing even a single blow. Failure after failure. Yet the effort never broke—and at last it paid off.
Kwaaaaaang—!
“Keheok…!!!”
Shin Yooseung’s fist finally slammed into Park Jinwoo’s abdomen.
Aja—! That’s it! Well done, Yooseung-ah!!
Kim Dokja, who had been staring blankly, broke into a bright smile and let out a cheer.
“…Bastard. Serves you right. Ha, haha, hahahaha, hahahahaha…!!”
Matching the madwoman-like laughter of Shin Yooseung, Kim Dokja had been praising her—until sudden realization hit and her face hardened at once.
Th-this…?! Because Jinwoo provoked and toyed with and mocked her so damn annoyingly, I ended up cheering for Shin Yooseung without even noticing…!!
She hurriedly scanned the forest where Park Jinwoo’s form had vanished, but not even his shadow remained.
Ugh…. Suddenly I feel sorry….
Of course he had no idea she was watching from inside Shin Yooseung’s viewpoint. As long as she didn’t show it on her face she wouldn’t be found out. Still, the fact that she had unconsciously cheered for the enemy left a small knot of guilt.
…Ha, but Jinwoo’s actions just now really were fucking annoying…?
She thought back to the thoughts Shin Yooseung had directed at him earlier.
How much must it have hurt for the Shin Yooseung who went through every filthy ordeal of the 41st turn to act that emotionally…
Even with teardrops hanging on her lashes. Kim Dokja still remembered—no, she remembered it vividly. The desperate expression on Shin Yooseung’s face as she tried with everything she had to land even one hit.
「After I kill only Jihye unnie and Seolhwa unnie and Hyunsung oppa, I’ll definitely kill you, Park Jinwoo.」
Right on cue the thought reached her ears again.
…It’s really bitter.
Hearing it, Kim Dokja pressed her lips tightly shut and fell silent at the bitter reality.
As Shin Yooseung sprinted toward the ongoing battle, Kim Dokja hardened her expression and steeled herself.
Even Jinwoo won’t recover quickly from that last blow. I have to buy time.
Earlier, when Shin Yooseung had been about to deliver a decisive strike on Lee Jihye, Kim Dokja had realized she could exert a little control over the girl’s actions. She intended to make full use of that knowledge.
The price was the searing pain throughout her body, but there was no choice. Without Yoo Joonghyuk or Park Jinwoo, the rest of the party had no way to handle Shin Yooseung right now.
The moment an opening appears I’ll activate the Undying King’s privilege, or at the very least buy time until Park Jinwoo returns.
With that resolve she focused on everything visible through Shin Yooseung’s eyes.
“Haaa….”
Boring.
Clang-clang—!
“U-uhk… Th-thank you for saving us….”
“If you know what’s good for you, fall back. With those wounds you can’t stay on the battlefield.”
“Y-yes…!”
I started pulling the people of Seoul Dome out of danger with ice chains shaped by Glacier Modeling—anyone injured by monsters or about to get overwhelmed. Of course I kept an eye on the party through Clairvoyance and the channel broadcast screen the whole time.
Right now the whole group was working together against Shin Yooseung. Lee Jihye and Lee Hyunsung took the front, blocking or deflecting her attacks while staying as calm as they could. Min Jiwon, Cha Sangkyung, and Jeon Ildo barked orders to the Seoul Dome incarnations and poured attacks onto her.
They’re fighting pretty well.
Han Donghoon was putting the drone I’d given him to full use helping people, and Lycaon was prioritizing the wounded exactly as I’d asked. Still, the balance could tip at any second.
And there was one weird thing happening on the battlefield.
Clang-clang—!
“…………?!”
Whenever the ice chains I created either rescued someone or locked around Shin Yooseung’s body, she would flinch hard, look around in a panic, or throw a full-blown tantrum. It was oddly fascinating.
…More than that, why do those idiots keep charging into close combat when they don’t even have the skills or overall stats for it?
I crumpled my face and cursed at the fools surrounding her and rushing in. Because of them the workload had easily doubled—no, two-and-a-half times.
Aigo… I’m putting myself through this hell just to keep the Seoul Dome people from building too much hostility toward the 41st-turn Shin Yooseung.
My blood pressure spiked every time those bastards, blinded by a hundred thousand coins, charged in like lemmings.
Then our cute little Shin Yooseung, riding Queen Mirbad, started shouting something while attacking the 41st-turn version. A moment later Queen Mirbad bucked under an attack from King Masswood—tamed by the Disaster—and our Yooseung tumbled onto the ice.
The 41st-turn Shin Yooseung stepped toward her past self and reached out. Yoo Sangah immediately used Arachne’s Spiderweb to bind the Disaster of Floods’ arm and buy time. Lee Jihye, Lee Hyunsung, and Lee Gilyoung on his 6th-grade Insect King giant mantis seized the opening and charged—but their skill levels and overall stats still fell far short.
In a short span she subdued Jihye and Hyunsung and seized Gilyoung by the throat. My eyelid twitched.
…Haa. Fuck. Mood’s a bit shitty.
Honestly, I could subdue the Disaster of Floods Shin Yooseung by myself right now. I just couldn’t do it that way. Too many Constellations were watching me.
I rolled my eyes toward Bihyung’s channel chat. Some Constellations were cheering me on, some were proud of my actions… and others were pouring out curses and jealousy.
In the ORV webtoon, male Kim Dokja said it once.
In the Star Stream, the only time a scenario’s direction miraculously twists is when the majority of watching Constellations want it to change. If I crushed Shin Yooseung too easily, the ones hostile to me might force her specs upward. Worst case, a variable that wrecks the original ORV plot could appear.
That’s why I’m back here clutching my stomach, pretending to be hurt while I rescue people.
The sharper Constellations were already grumbling that I was faking it. I ignored them completely.
When Clairvoyance’s duration ran out and I reactivated it, something changed on the battlefield. Sparks suddenly began crackling all over the Disaster of Floods Shin Yooseung’s body.
Finally the broken-film theory connecting the two sets of memories?
I muttered, thinking of Kim Dokja finally interfering properly with her actions.
Then the 3rd-turn Shin Yooseung grabbed the arm of the 41st-turn version that Kim Dokja was controlling. Sparks like a probability storm erupted between them. The party nearby jumped in surprise and stared.
Past and future Shin Yooseung looked at each other. Memories played like film reels inside their heads; they peeked into each other’s lives. The Disaster shouted down at her past self in panic; the younger one simply stared at the future version who had lived such a painful life.
Then their expressions shifted—subtly, strangely.
What? Those faces weren’t in the ORV webtoon.
I was thoroughly flustered by the two Shin Yooseungs’ expressions.
The 3rd-turn Shin Yooseung and the 41st-turn Shin Yooseung looked at each other with complicated faces.
-P-please put me down…!
The 41st-turn Shin Yooseung saw the memory of her younger self hanging like luggage over Park Jinwoo’s shoulder while being kidnapped.
-Our Yooseung gets so worked up she can’t even land a single hit?
-Shut up! Shut up! Please just shut up!!
The 3rd-turn Shin Yooseung saw the memory of her future self being thoroughly toyed with and tormented by the Park Jinwoo she followed.
They shared every painful memory, every sad memory, every happy memory the other held.
-I-I… I’m ready. Kill…
Ttak!
-Ugh…?!
The younger one recalled trying to ask him to kill her—only to get a forehead flick from Park Jinwoo.
-Captain. I also wanted to survive.
-But what value does a life like this even have?
The older one recalled the events of the worldline she had originally come from.
-I, Jinwoo, our whole party chose you instead of Seoul. And we don’t regret it.
-You can do better than anyone, Yooseung-ah.
The younger one recalled Kim Dokja praising and comforting her.
-Jihye unnie and Hyunsung oppa and Namwoon oppa and Seolhwa unnie all died. Captain….
-Precious ones have died.
The older one recalled Yoo Joonghyuk speaking coldly, expressionless even at the deaths of their comrades.
The two Shin Yooseungs who had heard, seen, and read all of those memories.
Then a small anomaly occurred between them.
“Keuk…!”
Suddenly the Disaster Shin Yooseung seized her own right arm and began tearing it off.
Ttuduk! Ttutuduk! Jjijik!
At the horrific sound of a human arm being ripped free, the 3rd-turn Shin Yooseung stared at her future self in pure panic.
Kwajik!
“Get out of me completely!”
“Kyaak!”
The Disaster finally wrenched her own right arm free. Sparks raced over her body. The younger Shin Yooseung scrambled backward with a scream.
「Shin Yooseung! Wait, stop! Eub, uuk…!」
Inside her, Kim Dokja shared every sensation the moment the arm was torn free. Pain and nausea surged from the missing limb; she clamped a hand over her mouth.
“Aaaaaaak!!”
Kim Dokja clutched her own head and watched the Disaster desperately trying to rip her out, thinking hard for a second. If she just held on a little longer, the Disaster might collapse on her own…
But then she remembered the passages in Ways of Survival about the Disaster Shin Yooseung wandering the labyrinth of that worldline.
Damn it…!
I watched the Disaster Shin Yooseung go berserk while ripping off her own right arm and fell silent.
Up to here, everything is following the original development.
Soon the intermediate Dokkaebi Paul would collect probability from the Constellations who hated Kim Dokja, forcibly shift Shin Yooseung’s disposition to evil, and take control of her.
Looking at the Disaster scattering blood and screaming, I felt a small twinge of guilt.
…Sorry, Yooseung-ah.
Truthfully, there was no need to let things get this complicated. I could have simply finished the Disaster Shin Yooseung quickly and revived her with a resurrection item from the Story Shop.
But if I handled it that way, she would never enjoy true freedom—because of the contract tangled around her soul.
That contract had been set by Hokburi, the one called the Devil of the Horizon. He later transferred it to the Dokkaebis, and in the end the Disaster Shin Yooseung became a disaster, a mere component of the scenarios.
Because the contract was bound to her soul, killing and reviving her might not nullify it. Worst case, only her body would return while her soul went straight to Hokburi.
Considering that when male Kim Dokja was banished from the scenarios, Hokburi came looking for the Dokkaebi egg that held Shin Yooseung’s soul, the odds are high.
Simply killing and reviving her would be amateur work. To truly save her, the contract on her soul had to be broken. And to break it, events had to follow the original webtoon development.
I rolled my eyes upward to the night sky.
Soon the fifth main scenario will head toward its end as well.
It felt like someone’s gaze was watching from even farther away than the Constellations above that sky—a gaze that seemed to pierce straight through me, through my story, my tale, my soul, and read them all.
Looks like my modifier is about to be revealed.
The Star Stream really is a master of dramatic timing. The moment feels almost too perfect.
I looked down at the Disaster Shin Yooseung kneeling on both knees on the ice, head bowed.
…Time to get ready.
With practiced fingers I opened the Story Shop and bought every item I would need to save her.
Using 40% discount ticket.
Total of 510,000 coins consumed.
With this, every preparation is complete.
I glanced at Kim Dokja as she came running through the party with the injured Yoo Joonghyuk slung over her shoulder.
Just a little more. Please suffer just a little longer, Kim Dokja Company.