Scenario Destroyer (4)

The banquet hall was finally winding down toward its end.

Most of the little people and the incarnations were stuffing the food and liquor laid out across the hall into their mouths with wild abandon, and I was capturing the cheerful scene in photographs.

I snapped shots of my companions happily eating and of a few people already deep in their cups, savoring this brief stretch of peace.

Clack.

Someone suddenly dropped into the chair across from me.

"Izumi?"

The man sitting opposite me was the Japanese King, Izumi Hiroki—still wrapped in bandages here and there even though the elixir should have completely healed him.

"Haha, I apologize for arriving so late to the man who saved my life, Mr. Park."

"Ah, don't worry about it. I could see from a distance how thoroughly your companions were giving you a hard time. No way you could have gotten here any sooner. I understand completely."

It felt strangely surreal to have a man who should have died—bound by his contract with Yamata no Orochi—sitting right in front of me.

With his long brown hair and rather handsome, likable face, Izumi Hiroki flashed me a grin and raised his glass.

"If you don't mind, how about a drink together?"

"You're still a patient. Are you sure that's wise?"

"Haha! Everyone else tried to stop me, but they won't go so far as to keep me from sharing a toast with my benefactor!"

"Then I won't refuse."

Izumi Hiroki and I looked at each other and reached for our glasses.

Clink!

"Cheers!"

We knocked our cups together and drained the liquor in long, greedy gulps.

"Pwah! Ha, the taste really is incredible."

"It's liquor made by melting a Constellation's shadow and an SSS-grade item, after all."

"Knowing it came from the being that used to be my Sponsor makes the feeling a little complicated."

Izumi Hiroki wore an expression that said he had no idea what face he ought to be making, then scratched his cheek with an awkward look.

A moment later he fixed me with a serious gaze, set his glass down on the table, and spoke.

"Mr. Park."

"Hm?"

"Thank you, truly, for saving my life."

Izumi Hiroki closed his eyes and bowed his head deeply, offering his gratitude for the life I had spared.

"……………."

With his head lowered like that, the crown of his head was all I could see. I stared at it for a while, lost in thought.

There were two major ways I had twisted the story so far.

The first was saving Shin Yooseung, who had been destined to become the Disaster of Floods.

The second was the man sitting right in front of me—Izumi Hiroki.

I had rescued a woman who had wandered the labyrinth of the world-line for more than a thousand years.

I had rescued a man whose control over his own incarnation body had been stolen by a vicious Sponsor, forced to watch the disasters unfolding before his eyes with nothing but his own two eyes.

I wonder what kind of snowball this is going to roll into.

Both of the people I had saved were exceptionally talented.

One possessed the kind of talent Yoo Joonghyuk would recruit as a companion; the other had the growth potential to become the king of an entire nation.

Male Kim Dokja once looked at Izumi Hiroki and said that in the later regressions he became one of Yoo Joonghyuk's supporters, didn't he?

Piecing together the information from male Kim Dokja's monologues, it was possible that later scenarios would require allying with other nations.

Or… it might also hint at the possibility of war against the forces still remaining on Earth.

Of course, that could just be me thinking too far into the worst-case scenarios.

Even so, there's nothing to lose by getting along with the man in front of me.

His personality was open-hearted, and watching him offer thanks so honestly made me want to stay on good terms with him.

I finished sorting my thoughts and slowly opened my mouth toward the still-bowed Izumi Hiroki.

"Izumi."

"I'm listening, Mr. Park."

"I'm a pretty direct person, so I'll get straight to the point. You owe me a debt, right?"

"…That's correct. A life debt that's hard to repay, at that."

Izumi Hiroki slowly raised his head and met my eyes with a solemn look.

I returned that serious gaze in kind, poured Peace Land wine into my glass, and filled what remained of his as well.

"If you grant me one request, I'll consider the life debt paid."

"If it's something I can do, I'll do anything."

He said that, but I could read the worry in his eyes. I let out a small snort of a smile and continued.

"It's nothing difficult, complicated, or anything that would harm your companions, so don't worry too much."

"Ahaha… thank you for saying that. Then may I ask what it is you want from me?"

"That is…"

I cut myself off mid-sentence and turned my head to look somewhere else. When I stopped talking and looked away, Izumi Hiroki followed my gaze.

Where I was looking, Yoo Joonghyuk was eating skewers she had grilled herself, and Kim Dokja was deep in conversation with Asuka Ren.

"Later—much later—if that woman in the black coat, Yoo Joonghyuk, or the woman in the white coat talking with Asuka Ren, Kim Dokja, ever finds herself in danger or needs help… help them just once. That's my request."

At my request, Izumi Hiroki's eyes widened a fraction in surprise as he looked at me.

"Is that all? I am, for what it's worth, the King of Japan. You could ask for something larger…"

"Haha, that's enough. Yoo Joonghyuk is a precious companion of mine, and Kim Dokja is the woman I love. Helping those two is more than enough repayment."

"…If my benefactor says so, then I understand. I swear on my life that I will fulfill Mr. Park's request."

"As generous as ever. How about another toast?"

"Hahaha! Of course!"

Izumi Hiroki and I clinked glasses again and tipped them back.

It wasn't Story Wine—just the sweet, low-alcohol Peace Land grape wine—but I completely forgot I had just taken a hangover cure and went on a proper run with him.

Empty wine bottles began to slowly multiply on the table between us.

By the time the empty bottles on the table had passed ten, a sharp female voice cut in from the side.

"Izumi! A patient drinking alcohol?! Are you out of your mind or what?!"

It was Asuka Ren, who until moments ago had been talking with Kim Dokja.

I turned my head, startled by the sharp tone I had never heard from her before.

Asuka Ren was glaring at Izumi Hiroki with a piercing look.

Sensing the dangerous atmosphere rolling off her, Izumi Hiroki carefully set down his glass with a flinch and slowly opened his mouth.

"Ah, Asuka? Thanks to the recovery potion Mr. Park gave me—the elixir—my body is already completely…"

I cut off Izumi Hiroki's fumbling attempt to explain himself to Asuka Ren and hurriedly spoke up.

"Asuka, this guy forced the drinks on me. I kept refusing, but… I felt bad turning him down forever…"

"M-Mr. Park?!"

Izumi Hiroki looked at me in shock, then stared blankly with an expression of utter betrayal.

"Izumi! I've told you before to fix that bad habit of forcing drinks on people!"

"A-Asuka? Just now Mr. Park was lying! I was the one who…!"

"Sniff… Asuka, please take Izumi away. I'm terrified he's going to try to make me drink again…"

"………?!"

Izumi Hiroki kept opening and closing his mouth at me, too flabbergasted to form words. I snickered inwardly.

Asuka Ren, looking thoroughly mortified after hearing me out, grabbed Izumi Hiroki by the scruff of the neck.

"I'm truly sorry, Mr. Park…. I'll give him a proper scolding so this never happens again."

"Yeah… please…"

"Mr. Park, thank you so much for saving Izumi and Peace Land. I'll take him with me, so please rest well."

Having said everything she needed to say, Asuka Ren began dragging Izumi off somewhere with a shadowed expression.

"Well then, we'll be going, Izumi."

"W-Wait a second! This time I'm really being framed?! M-Mr. Park was the one who first…!"

Izumi Hiroki protested with a genuinely wronged face toward Asuka Ren, who was hauling him away by the scruff, then stretched a hand out toward me.

And I—

"Heh heh."

—sent him off with a shit-eating grin.

"……! ……! ………!!"

Izumi Hiroki stared at my smile with an expression of pure disbelief, thrashing and complaining to Asuka Ren as he was gradually pulled farther away.

Once a considerable distance had opened between us, he kept waving and struggling toward me until he finally vanished from sight.

"Ah, that was sweet."

Having successfully screwed over Izumi Hiroki, I was in a great mood. I chuckled and swirled the remaining grape wine in my mouth.

I kindly flipped off the Secretive Plotter who was sighing at me, gave a brief reply, then slipped past the little people who had begun tidying up and headed toward my companions.

Everyone must have been exhausted from the past few days of hardship. They were all deeply asleep with their heads planted on the tables.

Lee Jihye, Lee Gilyoung, Lee Hyunsung, Shin Yooseung, old man Gong Pildu, Grandma Lee Bok-sun, Min Jiwon—every last one of them was out cold.

I looked down at my sleeping companions for a moment, took their pictures, then kindly laid each of them down in their own rooms inside my My Room.

Ah, of course I created new rooms for Gong Pildu and Min Jiwon, who hadn't had any before.

After tucking all my cute companions—except for Yoo Joonghyuk, Kim Dokja, and Lee Seolhwa—into My Room, I approached Yoo Joonghyuk, who was eyeing me from a corner of the banquet hall.

"Joonghyuk."

"…What is it, Park Jinwoo."

Even her usual icy greeting didn't faze me. I generated a door to My Room right in front of her eyes.

"Here!"

"What am I supposed to do with this."

But Yoo Joonghyuk completely failed to catch my meaning. She stared blankly at the door to My Room, then looked straight at me.

Faced with that, I thumped my chest in frustration and spoke.

"Our Joonghyuk really has no sense of atmosphere! It means go into your room and get some proper rest now."

"…Who are you calling dense. Do you want to die?"

"Whatever. Just go in and rest. You've worked hard these past few days. Seolhwa, you've also been through a lot these past few days, right? Go in with Joonghyuk and get some rest."

"Thank you for the invitation, Jinwoo. I was quite tired from wandering all over Peace Land these past few days, actually."

"…………."

Yoo Joonghyuk seemed to have nothing to say in the face of Lee Seolhwa's smiling, barbed words. She simply whipped her head away without answering.

"See, even Seolhwa is saying so. You run around looking for hidden pieces and whatever else every day—you must be mentally exhausted. Rest a little, at least."

"…Fine. Stop nagging."

Yoo Joonghyuk sighed at my prodding, quickly finished cleaning up, and then disappeared into My Room together with Lee Seolhwa.

With every companion except Kim Dokja now inside My Room, I slowly walked toward Kim Dokja, who was approaching me.

"Jinwoo."

"Dokja. Perfect timing. You're tired too, right? Want to go into My Room?"

I asked her with an innocent, completely clueless smile.

Soon Kim Dokja would mix the ancient serpent's star blood into the Story Wine and drink the liquor made from the hidden piece Ancient Serpent's Star Blood.

A hidden piece obtainable only through a ritual that could be performed solely with Orochi's serpent wine mixed with the ancient serpent's star blood.

Eight Lives.

Exactly as the name suggested—a cheat-level attribute that granted the drinker eight additional lives.

Of course, something that good came with a few drawbacks.

Drawback one: the difficulty of obtaining it was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠beyond imagination.

In the end, both the serpent wine made from Orochi's remains and the ancient serpent's star blood were materials you could only acquire by defeating Yamata no Orochi.

Only protagonists of this world like Kim Dokja and Yoo Joonghyuk could take down Yamata no Orochi's shadow. For anyone else, the difficulty was simply impossible.

Drawback two: once you died and revived, there was a three-day cooldown.

Unlike the Immortal King, which allowed immediate revival, Eight Lives required a full seventy-two hours before you could come back.

In the Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint webtoon, the members of Kim Dokja's Company—who had no idea he possessed such an attribute—were devastated when he died and spent days weeping their eyes out.

Well, the cooldown wasn't entirely a bad thing, either.

Even if revival had a cooldown, each of Yamata no Orochi's heads held a different power, and upon revival you could also receive a blessing related to that power.

The only real problem was that the people around you would have their outfits completely ruined from the shock.

Final drawback three: if you were cut by the SSS-grade items of the Totsuka-no-Tsurugi or Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi series, you lost every remaining life at once, no matter how many you had left.

The revival attribute Eight Lives ultimately originated from the authority of the Constellation Yamata no Orochi. It was inevitably vulnerable to the god-slaying swords that had killed Yamata no Orochi.

There were three drawbacks in total, yet the fact remained that it was an extraordinarily powerful attribute for granting the drinker eight extra lives.

I looked at Kim Dokja—who was about to perform the ritual to obtain the hidden piece in secret from the others—and smiled faintly.

At my smile, Kim Dokja studied my face for a moment, then nodded and spoke.

"Yeah, I'll go in. You look like you're in a good mood, though?"

"I picked up an unexpected holy relic, and I finally got my hands on an item I've been waiting a long time for."

Originally, there had been three things I came to Peace Land to obtain.

First: coins.

By taking the little people's side, completing the scenario, and clearing it, you could pocket a hefty three hundred thousand coins. That was why I had come to Peace Land.

Second: Kyrgios Rodgraim's Electrification.

Aside from the drawback that it could only be used in little-person form, Kyrgios's Electrification was a thoroughly attractive skill.

A skill that, upon use, transformed the body into lightning and raised both speed and attack power.

It was a skill the protagonist of this world, Kim Dokja, used often enough that learning it would never be something to regret. I had wanted it badly.

Third: Story Wine.

I had desperately wanted to taste a liquor so fine it was called the wine of the heavens.

Of course, beyond that, there was also Kim Dokja's claim that drinking Story Wine and sleeping raised your overall stats a little, plus my plan to stockpile large quantities of it, sell it to Constellations someday, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠or list it on the Dokkaebi exchange and auction house to rake in massive coins.

…And I wanted to drink it myself, too.

And finally—ahem!—there was also the rumor that serpent wine was good for stamina, which had been a small additional motivation.

But never in my ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wildest dreams had I expected to obtain a new holy relic containing the power of dragon-slaying here, or to acquire two portions of the Ancient Serpent's Star Blood needed to awaken the attribute Eight Lives.

I'd love to awaken Eight Lives myself right this second, but…

Thinking of the future, there was no real need. No—if anything, it was too precious to use right now.

I casually brushed off Kim Dokja's blank stare and generated a door to My Room in front of her.

"Here. I've linked it to your room. Sleep well, Dokja."

"Yeah. You haven't slept properly these past few days either, right? You should sleep soon too."

"Got it. See you tomorrow."

"Yeah. See you tomorrow, Jinwoo."

With that, Kim Dokja entered her room. In the vast banquet hall, only the little people who had collapsed drunk on the floor, snoring loudly, and a few still-sober ones cleaning up remained.

I watched them for a moment, then looked up at the sky and spoke.

"I'm going to sleep now too. You Constellations can figure out your own bedtime. See you in the morning."

After reading the Constellations' indirect messages, I linked the door of My Room to my own bedroom door, opened it, and stepped through.

Clunk.

I was finally back in my room.

I had no idea how long it had taken to return here.

This room alone was my utopia—a place where the Constellations' noisy indirect messages and their gazes could never reach.

Thud.

"Aaah, I'm exhausted. Totally wiped."

I flopped straight onto the bed and grumbled.

The soft texture of the mattress and the pillow that seemed to melt away my fatigue already made drowsiness flood in.

"Ah, I should at least wash up a little."

I forced myself to resist the bed's powerful temptation, quickly washed my hands and feet in the bathroom, washed my face, brushed my teeth, and then lay back down on the bed.

Before falling asleep, I checked the channel screen again to see how things stood in the Seoul Dome.

Fortunately, nothing had gotten worse since the last time I looked.

The Maitreya King, Cha Sangkyung, was still alive, and Lycaon and the adult Shin Yooseung were supporting him from behind, resisting the Salvation Church.

The only real problems were that Jung Heewon, infected by Thought Infection, was running wild like a madwoman, and that Dokja's mother and Yoo Sangah had been kidnapped by Nirvana.

"Still, it's a relief. It's flowing exactly like the webtoon."

This time there hadn't been any major variables, so the flow hadn't diverged much from the webtoon's progression.

I let out a sigh of relief at that, flipped through the channel screens, and spotted two familiar faces I hadn't seen in a while.

"Seongguk! I'll buy time—run!"

"H-But—!"

"If even you don't get out, we're both dead, you bastard…!"

It was the former prophets Lee Seongguk and Jung Minseob.

I stared blankly at the channel screen for a moment, then broke into a grin.

"I was just about to sleep. Guess I can't now."

They had only been temporary companions, but companions all the same.

I opened the general shop while watching the two of them under attack by ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Salvation Church members on the channel screen, and spoke.

"Consider yourselves lucky."

In this third turn I'm in, both of you are going to live.