Chapter 221: Episode 42 – Asmodeus (1)
A sleeper car was rolling around. The citizens of the council, including Aileen, were busy moving me somewhere. I could feel the fragments of my stories constantly entering, like patient in critical condition.
Putting aside the urgent situation, my mind was gradually becoming calm. I decided to sort out the situation.
[Currently, you have the inheritance rights to the Gilobat Industrial Complex.]
How did I become a revolutionary and gain the inheritance rights of the Gilobat Industrial Complex?
The answer was simple.
「 ‘Kim Dokja’ killed the ruler of the Gilobat Industrial Complex. 」
At first glance, it seemed like a circular argument but this wasn’t the case. It was because ‘Kim Dokja’ wasn’t my body. In other words, it was easy for someone to impersonate me, build up a reputation there and finally kill the ruler.
[The Star Stream is correcting the scenario error.]
[A new story related to you is scheduled.]
What crazy person could do such a thing? There obviously couldn’t be two such crazy guys.
「 Kim Dokja thought: Yoo Jonghyuk is now in the Gilobat Industrial Complex. 」
At first, I purely felt gratitude. Ah! Yoo Jonghyuk was a decent person! That jerk hit the industrial complex to save me! I felt thrilled for a while without thinking much.
Then once I thought about it, I couldn’t believe it. That Yoo Jonghyuk entered the Gilobat Industrial Complex to save me? In the first place, it was strange that Yoo Jonghyuk knew about my crisis. How could a guy who wasn’t a constellation or have access to a channel know about my crisis?
Thus, Yoo Jonghyuk was likely to do the opposite of coming to my rescue. He noticed that I impersonated him and came to the Demon World to pick me up. In the meantime, something went wrong and he headed to the Gilobat Industrial Complex first where he went through an unnecessary dispute and overturned the industrial complex. I couldn’t even fathom how much rage it felt to do that.
“You’re being healed. Don’t shake your body.” Aileen, who was working on my story in the treatment room, pushed up her glasses and scolded me.
I replied in a dispirited manner. “I’m sorry, it is instinct. How is my state?”
“Don’t talk nonsense in your current physical condition.” Aileen sighed but her expression didn’t look bad. “I can only see it as a miracle. You are slowly recovering. The damage to your stories is so big it will be hard to move around but... I think you will be fine.
Maybe it was because I entered the main scenario again but my sense of breathing had changed.
Those who didn’t know what it felt like to be an exile and return to the scenario wouldn’t understand.
「 Kim Dokja thought: This is the ‘story.’ 」
It felt like a cozy and huge world was embracing me. Funnily enough, it felt like I was now living properly. It was frightening to think about who designed these ‘senses.’
“Kuek...”
“Don’t move!”
Aileen’s sharp voice was heard along with the strong pangs.
[Your current story configuration is incomplete.]
I had entered the scenario and was in the recovery phase but things were still serious. It was a miracle that I survived long enough to kill Duke Syswitz. It was a reckless battle. It was uncharacteristic of me and I didn’t know why I acted like that.
[Some constellations are asking about you.]
Moreover, I summoned the story weapon so my future stories would become very complicated. I opened the message log that I had been putting off.
[Many constellations in the channel are greatly impressed by your performance!]
[3,000 coins have been sponsored.]
[The constellation ‘Prisoner of the Golden Headband’ is nodding at your confidence.]
[4,000 coins have been sponsored.]
There was some sponsorship. Somehow I wasn’t impressed.
[The 20th main scenario has ended.]
[The main scenario ‘ Demon World Revolution’ has been cleared.]
[The excessive main scenario skip is delaying the compensation.]
[The collection of stories due to clearing the main scenario is pending.]
There were some problems but the scenario messages came up correctly.
[Some constellations are wondering about your identity.]
[Some constellations would like to invite you to their nebula!]
[Someone is eyeing your story!]
The familiar shenanigans had also begun. It was understandable why they were running around like this.
「 The story weapon Pluto. 」
Even the narrative-grade constellations coveted the giant soldier. The giant soldier was a rare weapon that could only be seen in the huge stories of Gigantomachia. It was a weapon that could trample on the legendary story, the Factory like it was a toy. There was no way the constellations wouldn’t covet such a weapon.
By the way, ‘he’ hadn’t come yet...
[The constellation ‘Father of the Rich Night’ is watching you.]
...He came, shit.
[The constellation ‘Father of the Rich Night’ is watching you.]
Father of the Rich Night. Fortunately, he didn’t take any action apart from looking at me. It was normal for him to be angry because I used his story weapon... No, Hades looking at me might be a terrible thing in itself. He was the king of the Underworld.
[The exclusive skill ‘Fourth Wall’ is strongly activated!]
[The Fourth Wall is laughing.]
Dammit, I disliked this mean fellow.
Of course, I was narrative-grade and could touch Hades’ toes but the problem was my current condition. The bandages wrapped around my body represented my present situation.
The incarnation body was the phenotype of my status. The phenotype was ruined so the status of the constellation inevitably shrunk. It was the first time I had been injured like this...
It was hard to lift one arm but the smartphone in my hand was comforting. I was grinning and Aileen frowned as she bandaged me. “...I told you not to look at that for too long.”
“My mother always said this.”
“You need to maintain absolute stability.”
“For me, looking at this is absolutely stable.”
I deliberately didn’t explain. It would probably be filtered even if explained.
“What about the Syswitz Industrial Complex? No, now we should call it the Yoo Jonghyuk Industrial Complex.”
“It’s fine.”
The duke died and the industrial complex was on its way to stability. There was a lot of talk about the removal slaves and the treatment of the nobles who were prisoners but Aileen was doing well.
Aileen looked at me for a moment and asked, “In fact, you aren’t Yoo Jonghyuk?”
It was a question I had anticipated and I nodded. “That’s right, I’m not him.”
“However, the owner of this industrial complex is now Yoo Jonghyuk.”
Certainly, it was true. In fact, there was a mention in my messages.
[The current owner of the industrial complex is Duke Yoo Jonghyuk.]
Duke Yoo Jonghyuk... That jerk should be thanking me. I glanced at Aileen and told her, “The duke will soon come.”
Aileen’s expression filled with a strange tension. “...Yoo Jonghyuk is a demon?”
“He isn’t a demon although sometimes he feels like a demon.” I was worried about how to explain and finally decided to say, “In this round, Yoo Jonghyuk is a good guy.”
Aileen didn’t understand what I meant. I shook my head. “I have a favour to ask. Can you call Jang Hayoung and Han Myungoh to me? I have something to say to them.”
“...I understand.”
I had passed one crisis but it was literally only ‘one.’ The ‘Revolutionary’ scenario was over but the following scenarios were incomparably larger in scale.
[some demon kings are interested in your actions.]
If I wasn’t cautious, I would be eaten. Thus, from now on, I had to prepare step by step. As soon as Aileen disappeared, I opened the file on the panel screen without hesitation.
-Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World (1st Revision).txt
It was the long-awaited Ways of Survival. My heart was already beating quickly. What did first revision mean? In addition, why did the writer give this to me?
However, the file didn’t immediately appear. It might be due to the smart made by Aileen. The performance was enough to make me miss my old smartphone. The file barely opened after a considerable amount of time passed.
“...The phone isn’t slow. It is the file that is too big.”
Indeed, this was around the time it would take to load on an unoptimized PC. I felt a bit sick at the huge amount of text.
Damn, how did I read this?
In order to see where the story was modified, I had to read it again from the beginning and compare it to my memories. I started reading the first ten pages.
...There didn’t seem to be much change? It started with the subway and Yoo Jonghyuk’s actions...
This was a revision so why was this jerk still like this? Then a sentence that didn’t exist in the original Ways of Survival appeared for the first time.
「 Yoo Jonghyuk thought, ‘If it was him, I wouldn’t have thought of this.’ 」
I stopped as I felt cold.
「 ‘If he had been here, I would’ve judged things a bit differently...’ 」
I subconsciously scrolled back to the first page. The performance of the smartphone caused the text to be mixed up but I couldn’t afford to worry about it. An eerie feeling filled my heart. I was missing something.
...The first scene was the same? No. It was a completely different beginning. I scrolled to the first page of the first chapter of Ways of Survival and stared with a stunned expression.
“...It isn’t the third regression.”
The first revision of Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World. I read the first sentence of the novel again.
「 Thus, Yoo Jonghyuk’s fourth life began. 」
The first revision started from Yoo Jonghyuk’s fourth regression.
「 Yoo Jonghyuk had a thought. 」
「 In this round, that guy doesn’t exist. 」