“what? “What’s wrong with you all of a sudden?!”
When I suddenly grabbed Jeong Ju-won by the collar, he looked embarrassed.
An expression that doesn’t understand why I’m doing this.
If this was acting, his acting skills were at a level that would allow him to be an actor.
My eyes sparkled and my phantom eye became active.
Then the status window of the guy I saw before popped up again.
[Jeong Joo-won]
-Title: Mystery Chung
-Talent: Information analysis
-Grade: B grade
-Characteristic: Interference
+Intimacy
Nothing changed.
I opened up about my level of intimacy with a guy I hadn’t checked in a while.
[Intimacy with Jeong Joo-won: 100]
‘what?’
Before I knew it, my intimacy with Jeong Ju-won had reached 100.
Originally, the person I was most intimate with was Yoo Ah-ram. However, I didn’t know why my intimacy with Jeong Joo-won reached 100 first.
‘The intimacy value is a value that represents the relationship between me and this guy.’
But, that made it even weirder.
I don’t know this guy 100%.
[Your intimacy with Jeong Ju-won is 100. You can check your potential talent.]
When I heard the system message saying that I could check his potential talent, I let go of Jeong Ju-won and checked his potential talent.
“No, what is it?”
[Potential Talent: Edit Settings]
“… … .”
I smiled helplessly after seeing the guy’s potential talent.
I should have increased my intimacy a long time ago.
‘Modify settings’. This was a special talent that could not be used by anyone other than a writer.
“Joowon.”
“why?”
“Let me ask you one question.”
“So what?”
“Did you enjoy watching me change the story?”
At those words, Jeong Ju-won’s expression changed.
A completely different expression from before.
Even the atmosphere changed. At the same time, I felt the space where Jeong Ju-won and I were becoming distorted.
“Seeing how confident you are, it seems like you have confirmed your level of intimacy.”
The fact that I could see the status window was something I didn’t reveal to anyone.
Among them, the author of ‘Ise’ is probably the only person who knows the special intimacy item.
Plus, this kind of space-severing ability.
“you… … .”
“That’s right, as you expected, I am the writer of ‘Ise’ who asked you to ‘ghostwrite’. Did you ask if it was fun? It was the best. Thanks to this, the story I created was becoming more and more perfect.”
Jeong Joo-won could have pulled out until the end, but he didn’t.
“You have no hesitation in revealing your identity.”
“Since you met with them, we need to have a close conversation for the future.”
Certainly, nothing changed when I found out that Jeong Joo-won was a writer.
I had already lived three lives, and it was I who said I would ghostwrite.
Saying anything about something that has already happened is just a waste of time.
What matters now is the future ahead.
“… Okay, I won’t argue with you about how you tricked me and watched me change my story here. “Because, as you said, a big problem has arisen in creating future stories.”
Joo-won Jeong, or rather, the ending that writer ‘Ise’ wants and the ending I want may be the same.
But at least it seemed different from the ending the ‘readers’ wanted.
So I asked.
“What ending do you want for ‘Ise’?”
6.
ending.
End of all stories.
The story that began continues to move toward the end.
Only those who reached the end knew whether it would be beautiful or miserable.
And the author of ‘Ise’ and I have reached the end twice.
Of course, the same goes for the ‘readers’ who will be watching this story.
The end everyone wanted was different.
The writer’s job was to match the ending desired by the reader, the writer, and the main character.
“First of all, before I tell you what ending I want, I have something to tell you.”
“what?”
“About how to get back home.”
I flinched at the word ‘home’.
This time, I realized it through the experience of entering the inner world.
After living here for so long, I had forgotten this fact.
I was Lee Do-yoon, not Lee Si-woo, and I was a person who had to return to reality, not the world in the novel.
As I lived through my third year, becoming closer to my friends and building bonds with many people, I was not aware of it.
No, I was worried about what would happen to the people left here if I went back.
In other words, I was consciously avoiding returning home.
“Looks like you don’t really want to go home?”
My expression hardened at Jeong Joo-won’s words.
Certainly, when I return home, I will have to go back to writing web novels that don’t sell.
Every day was a series of pain, and I didn’t even know if I would stop writing novels.
Rather than living like that, I might be happier living as Lee Si-woo, the first of the seven stars who is doing well here.
I shook my head at what he said.
“No, I’m going back.”
When I met the ‘author’, a thought suddenly occurred to me.
I was also a ‘writer’, and as a writer, you have to do your best until the world you create comes to an end.
From the time I accepted the ghostwriting offer, I had not been able to serialize the novel I was writing.
I have to go back and end it so that the main character and other characters I created can be happy.
I felt like only then could I be honest with the people I had relationships with here.
“How can I go back?”
“There has to be an ending. When the novel ends, there is nothing more for the author to do. Of course, this only happens if everyone likes the ending.”
I asked the author who created this world.
“I think we’ve already shown readers the ending they want. “What ending do you want?”
“I also want a happy ending. However, there are still some who are not happy.”
Who is left?
Everyone survived and saved the world once again.
In the first and second rounds, joy and sadness coexisted, as the demons were defeated and the sacrifices were commemorated.
But not now. No one died, and everyone was happy.
However, the author was saying that there are people who are not yet happy.
“Who is that?”
“What if you ask me that? I guess I forgot, but you said you would ghostwrite for me and show me the end of this story. “It’s your job to find it.”
I couldn’t say anything at that.
Obviously, like he said, I accepted the ghostwriting offer.
I sighed and looked at Jeong Ju-won.
“Then Joowon, can I get some related information?”
This time, Jeong Ju-won flinched at my words.
This is because I recognized that I had decided to treat him as Jeong Joo-won, not as a ‘writer.’
Sigh.
Jeong Joo-won said while drawing a line around his mouth.
“See them again. And then go back again. “If we want everyone to be happy, we have to start from there.”
“… … what?”
Are you telling me to go back and repeat step 4?
7.
After finishing my conversation with Jeong Joo-won, or rather the author of ‘Ise,’ I went up to the rooftop of Awakening High School.
The view of Gakseong High School from the rooftop was different.
As I was looking at the panoramic view, I heard someone coming up to the rooftop.
“Siwoo? “What are you doing in a place like this?”
It was Yoo Ah-ram.
“huh? “I was just getting some air. What brought you to the rooftop?”
“Ah, I’m stressed from filming and I want to be alone for a while. I went up because I thought there would be no one on the rooftop. “I didn’t know there would be passengers.”
Yoo Ah-ram has become the world’s best YouTuber.
As popularity increased, a variety of content had to be shown to people, which seemed to make Yoo Ah-ram quite stressed.
“If it’s okay with you, you can rest here.”
“thank you. Chilseong and all, I talk so much that I can’t even show others that I’m resting comfortably. “I don’t know how the Seven Heroes withstood this pressure.”
“Why heroes?”
When I tilted my head and asked, Yoo Ah-ram scolded me.
“Live with some awareness! Our popularity now is the same as that of the Seven Heroes, no, even better! “Your daily life and interests become issues to people!”
So, in short, it seemed like I had become a celebrity.
When I thought about it that way, it felt like a pain in the ass.
So Yoo Ah-ram is also stressed like that.
Suddenly, I thought of the Seven Heroes.
They betrayed their father and became heroes, but knowing the truth, they may have been bothered by being treated as heroes themselves.
“ah.”
Suddenly, are they happy? I thought:
My father was no longer bound by the barrier.
They would not have been able to face Lee Si-hyeon, as they had lived their whole lives being treated as heroes instead of Lee Si-hyeon.
“why?”
In response to Yoo Ah-ram’s question, I held his hand and said,
“Thank you, Aram. Thanks to you, I figured it out!”
“uh? huh. okay. “I don’t know what I found out, but I’m glad it helped.”
“Yeah, I’ll go out for a moment!!”
After saying that, I quickly started running, and Yoo Ah-ram looked at me running away with a red face.
***
I had to meet my father.
People who are not yet happy.
To make them happy, I had to change everything from the beginning.
That may have been the reason why Jeong Joo-won recommended the 4th episode to me.
The author, who didn’t want any of the characters he created to see a sad ending, was telling me to change the story so that they could be happy.
‘wait for a sec… … .’
Crack. Crack.
I thought about slowing down my running speed.
‘If you repeat the fourth round again… … .’
The bonds that have been built so far are falling apart.
“uh? Siwoo. What are you doing here?”
Dabin Hwang saw me standing in the hallway and called me.
It looked like the teachers had ordered him to do something as he was holding a lot of things in his hands.
Hwang Da-bin said after checking my gaze.
“Oh, this? It’s a report. “Hero Dahee Yoo is writing a thesis on why healers use their fists, and he asked me to help him with it.”
Those of us who ended the Gate Incident and became known as Chilseong were still students.
As students, there were still many things we did not know, and everyone was working hard to learn what they wanted to become an awakened person worthy of the name Chilseong.
So I wanted to ask.
Is my choice truly the one that can bring happiness to everyone?
“Hwang Da-bin.”
“why?”
“What if? “If we go back to the past, will we be able to become friends again?”
“What happened all of a sudden…” … .”
Hwang Da-bin, who was about to tell me if it was nonsense, looked at my serious eyes and looked like he was thinking for a moment and said.
“Now, we are called the same Chilseong, but we weren’t close from the beginning. Because you were a genius, I tried not to lose to you, and we accepted each other. “Maybe that was the starting point?”
“What is genius?”
“Anyway, the important thing is. Even if I go back in time, if you were first and I was second, I would do my best to beat you. “This is all I want to say!”
We didn’t talk about becoming friends, but it was helpful enough.
“Thank you, Dabin.”
Life is a series of choices, and becoming friends with friends was also a series of choices.
They will still be there when we go back.
What matters is my actions.
I said hello to Dabin Hwang and ran back to see my father.
There was something I wanted to ask my father so that the author, readers, and everyone in the world of the novel could be happy.
