The awkward air persisted since Kim Dokja had last spoken. No one wanted to get between the three-way standoff between him, Yoo Joonghyuk, and Han Sooyoung. Lee Hyunsung just had a contemplative look on his face, and he honestly resembled a kicked puppy more than the lieutenant he was.
[The constellation 'God of Wine and Ecstasy' is desiring to break the tension with some good alcohol.]
[The constellation 'Queen of the Darkest Spring' is reminding the constellation 'God of Wine and Ecstasy' that this is not the time for a party.]
[The constellation 'Abyssal Black Flame Dragon' would prefer a battle royale.]
Well, at least the constellations could always be relied on for ill-timed comments.
Sangah flinches back, letting go of Dokja's arm as she trembles. He stays silent, but glances around in confusion.
That's strange. Why hasn't he appeared yet? The events I'm familiar with and those I didn't know were even part of the story were all happening at once. If I could just read TWSA again, I could know what to do, but…
Dokja turns on his phone and tries to search for TWSA, but there are no results when he searches for the title.
'Damn it. I guess it was removed. But why? This series isn't even popular, so I doubt someone would've tried to illegally share it.'
Suddenly, a thought runs through his mind. Frantically, Dokja opens his email again and checks the message from tls123. Just as he suspected, there's an attached file.
'No… it can't be…'
To his surprise, the file is [Three ways to survive the apocalypse.txt]. His eyes go wide as he stares at his phone screen in disbelief, even rubbing his eyes and blinking several times to see if it's real. It is.
'Did he send me his novel as a present!? Isn't this illegal sharing? Or does it not matter since he's the author?'
"I was right," Han Sooyoung remarked, glancing over at Kim Dokja. "You really do have the file."
He didn't enjoy the way that Lee Hyunsung stiffened at the mention of the novel, but what could he do other than nod?
"It's been helpful," Kim Dokja admitted quietly.
Lee Gilyoung tugged on his robe a bit. "Hyung, I think it's okay that you use it. Other people might not, but didn't you use stuff it told you to help us make weapons before? I don't think you're a bad person."
He probably needed that. It was nice to hear someone talk to him without judgement, even if Gilyoung probably had too much faith in him at times. He wasn't a saint, even if the kid put him on a pedestal.
As he opens the file, a few system windows pop up to inform him that he has received an exclusive attribute and that a skill slot has been unlocked.
Each of the TWSA survivors receives a special attribute and a skill that is linked to that attribute. It's just like a game. I'll need to figure out my attribute.
'Attributes window,' Dokja thinks in hopes of getting it to appear. Instead, all that shows up is a window that says: [Attributes window cannot be opened.]
What?
[Several constellations are confused.]
[The constellation 'Secretive Plotter' is wondering about incarnation 'Kim Dokja''s attributes.]
At that, everyone around him looks stunned.
"Wait, Dokja-ssi, all this time you really had no idea what your attributes are?" Jung Heewon asked him now that Lee Jihye was calm enough to let her go. "Did you ever get it fixed?"
"I tried," Kim Dokja admitted, "but it didn't work. I know what some of my skills are now, and I have an idea of what some attributes could be, but I don't know for sure. I can't even see my stat levels, so I just have to rely on my memory of what they were when I last increased them using coins."
Lee Jihye grimaced. "I'm sorry, ahjussi. That sounds awful."
He tries over and over with the same results every time. To his distress, if he can't access his attribute window, he won't be able to learn what his attribute and skill are. He stares at the windows for a moment before giving up and opening the text file instead.
[Your attribute has been activated. You are now able to read at a faster speed.]
Dokja's eye widens as words seem to fly past his eyes at dizzying speeds, all the information flowing into his head effortlessly.
'W-what? That was my attribute? It just took me less than a minute to read the opening chapter of TWSA, but thanks to that… Bingo!'
The screen shows the text with subway cabin number 3707 highlighted. Immediately, Dokja looks up and realizes that he and Sangah are in cabin 3807, and that's why the events that were taking place were different from what he remembered in the novel. The protagonist of TWSA's prologue was actually in the subway cabin behind theirs.
Wait, then… what happened to the people in 3807 in the story?
If Yoo Joonghyuk still needed any confirmation that he was TWSA's protagonist, then that settled it. He was the only survivor of that cabin, after all.
Kim Dokja glanced around and saw everyone who had been in 3807 with him looking somewhat anxious. After all, what would come next would prove how much Kim Dokja had really changed in the first main scenario alone. Maybe they would forgive him, or at least go easier on him, because of his methods.
[The constellation 'Prisoner of the Golden Headband' is wondering what could have happened if incarnation 'Kim Dokja' had not interfered with the scenario.]
A lot of people would die, that's what.
"Dokja, shouldn't we try to stop them?" Sangah asks fearfully, still trembling at his side, but Dokja is too preoccupied with remembering the facts from the prologue.
He took a peek at the chaos and confusion that was unfolding in subway cabin 3807. It's probably too late for them. After all, only two people will survive in that cabin.
Dokja's attention was suddenly drawn by the loud and crass shout of a white-haired teenager in a school uniform who is threatening a grandmother. The nametag on his clothes identifies him as Kim Namwoon. The elderly lady begs for him to let her go, but he just smacks her across the face without remorse.
I knew who those two people were. Sangah will probably die. Except for those two, everyone in this cabin will die.
Only Lee Hyunsung and Kim Namwoon will survive.
Including me.
Lee Hyunsung froze. "Wait, just… just me and that teenager? You really changed that much?"
Reluctantly, Kim Dokja nodded. "I didn't want to die, so I did what I had to."
The other man still seemed uncomfortable, but at least he seemed to be willing to talk with him again. That was better than Kim Dokja had hoped for, honestly. The problem wasn't solved, and maybe it never would be, but at least they were communicating again.
From the conflicted look on Yoo Joonghyuk's face (characterized only by his twitching eyebrow, really), Kim Dokja could reason that the protagonist wasn't really happy about having his actions narrated on the screen. At the very least, Kim Dokja could sympathize. It wasn't a pleasant situation, no matter the reason why it was happening.
[The constellation 'Abyssal Black Flame Dragon' is upset that he couldn't sponsor incarnation 'Kim Namwoon'.]
And that was a surprise to absolutely no one, now that they've seen the kind of craziness the constellation prefers.
"What do you think you're doing!?" Suddenly, a man shouts and runs in to grab Namwoon's wrist to stop him from pummelling the old lady. To Dokja and Sangah's surprise, it's Han Myungoh. "You little brat. Didn't they teach you to respect your elders!?"
Namwoon glares at him and asks if he wants to die too. When Myungoh doesn't seem to understand, he reminds everyone that no one is coming to save them. Someone has to die. The screens in the subway cabin continue showing scene after scene of murders happening across various channels, serving as a grim reminder of what has to be done.
His voice is serious and remorseless when he says, "We have to pick the ones who will die."
He mocks Myungoh, laughing about the law and how people can't just kill others to survive like animals. But given their situation, they have no other choice. It's kill or be killed, and who could blame each other when everyone's lives are at stake?
"Think wisely," Namwoon says. "The world you knew just ended, and in this new world, we have new rules to follow."
When no one speaks up against him, he turns and continues punching the grandmother into the ground.
Yoo Sangah paled. "Even seeing this for the second time… it's brutal."
Lee Hyunsung didn't say anything, but Kim Dokja could tell that his hands were clenched into fists so tightly that he was certain there would be marks left afterwards. This was one of his greatest regrets in TWSA, so it made sense that he was so affected.
[Constellations who love the colosseum are cheering.]
[The constellation 'Demon-like Judge of Fire' wants to fight the constellations who love the colosseum.]
Leave it to an archangel to get revenge. At the very least, the grandmother hadn't been killed by Kim Namwoon, but she had still died all the same.
Kim Namwoon. He was one of the earliest people to adapt to the world of TWSA. It was Kim Namwoon who drove a wedge into the crack and destroyed the sense of morality that had been binding society together.
"Are you all just gonna sit and watch? Do you all wanna die?" he calls, and several passengers swear under their breath before joining in on the brutal beating of the grandmother. Hyunsung can't bring himself to watch, shaking and grimacing as he tries to hold himself back from interfering. Though he wishes for justice, he's just as frightened as everyone else. They all remember that they will all die if no one else dies in the next few minutes.
I suddenly recalled a line I had read a long time ago. "Executioners pull the lever of the electric chair at the same time. They do so in order to conceal who really killed the prisoner." It was as if I was reading that part of the novel. They were in a different world, and I was just a spectator. All I could do was stand by and watch. That nameless, elderly woman became the first victim. If I carelessly meddle with the course of the story, there may be less of the original plot left for me to work with. But... is it fair to stand by and watch her die, just so that I can live?
"They're going to kill her!" Sangah's cry jolts Dokja out of his thoughts, and he hurries to stop her from rushing forward to help.
"Don't be so reckless, it's dangerous!" he yells. "If you go, they'll kill you too."
I guess some people were just destined to shine regardless of the genre they're in. But Sangah cannot change the course of the story because she isn't the heroine in this world.
"I guess that's true," Yoo Sangah admitted, lacing her fingers together and looking down. "However, Dokja-ssi is changing this story quite a bit. Does that not make you a protagonist in your own right?"
Blanching, Kim Dokja shook his head. "No, I'm no protagonist; I'm just a reader."
She shot him a meaningful glance and smiles slightly. "Does the difference really matter so much?"
Shin Yoosung hugged him tightly. "I think ahjussi would make a good hero."
Of course, there was a difference between a hero and a protagonist, but Kim Dokja didn't want to get into that right now. He really didn't want the spotlight, but he knew that he would have to put himself there at times in order to achieve his desired ending.
"At the very least, you're the main character of this version of the story," Han Sooyoung remarked, looking at him pointedly. "You said all that about being in a different world, and feeling like a mere spectator, but would someone who doesn't care for mere 'characters' really put their own life on the line to save them?"
Kim Dokja couldn't argue with her point, above all else because he loved this story and (most of) its characters dearly. TWSA was so important to him that Kim Dokja wasn't sure that there would be much of him left if you removed it from his personality.
Carefully, he sits her down on a seat. "Sangah, stay here."
When she tries to protest, Dokja does what he can to reassure her. "Please, just do as I say for now. If you listen to me this once, I promise I won't ever bother you again."
Dokja takes a deep breath and thinks about what he should do. He's nervous, and this wasn't part of his barebones plan. It's still too early for him to interfere, but…
The reason I didn't interfere sooner wasn't because I was afraid of Namwoon or the others, or because I condone their savage ways. I was just waiting for the right moment. And that moment is… Now.
Something explodes in cabin 3707, and Dokja rushes forward past terrified passengers toward the group trying to kill the old woman.
There's only 7 minutes and 32 seconds left on their timer.
"So you took advantage of the explosion to catch the others off guard," Yoo Joonghyuk remarked for the first time since their argument. "That was a good idea."
Wait, was that a compliment? Kim Dokja stared at him in confusion, eyes wide and emotions bared to the world. Yoo Joonghyuk wasn't looking at him, almost pointedly so, and it was so weird that Kim Dokja wasn't sure if he was imagining it.
[The constellation 'Demon-like Judge of Fire' is hoping that this is a sign of a renewed and strengthened companionship.]
What companionship? Sure, he had offered it to the protagonist on several occasions, but it's not like the guy had actually accepted it or anything.
Still, maybe this was Yoo Joonghyuk trying to show some degree of forgiveness. Maybe Han Sooyoung's impassioned speech had gotten through to him, or maybe he would still be ready to stab Kim Dokja the moment they got out of this place. Whatever it was, Kim Dokja would accept it.