The Story is Told to the Protagonist.

Chapter 6. Your True Feelings

“What value does this world hold for you?”

“Value?”

How perplexing.
A question befitting a once-renowned theologian of the universe.

Quite an honor, isn’t it? They must have stopped asking such questions long ago.

‘Oh, the floor color is changing.’

In response to the caster’s question, it changed to an opalescent color containing various hues.
The question can’t be answered with the ‘truth.’

This is actually the real usage of this skill.
[Reflected True Feelings] originally distinguishes ‘true feelings’ rather than truth.

That’s the method the protagonist used in the original work.

Even though I wrote the setting, seeing it directly is fascinating.

‘Value, huh.’

Faced with such an open-ended question before death, many thoughts arise.
I looked at the floor. Suddenly, I became curious about my own true feelings.

What value does my writing have?

‘I don’t know.’

To begin with, it’s not a world or anything; it’s just a novel that I wrote.

No, even saying I wrote it is slightly inaccurate. The characters seemed to create the story independently as if they were alive.

I was happy with their journey.
But I was sad about their pain.

‘Tsk.’

As thoughts were about to multiply, I decided to just speak what came to mind.

“A failure.”

“…”

“A failure that must be changed.”

I looked at the floor.
Indeed, this is my true feeling.

“A failure I definitely want to rewrite. I can’t accept such a miserable story. I will definitely change it.”

That’s why, even at the moment of death, I couldn’t give up on the story and conveyed words to the protagonist.

“The story I wrote must have a happy ending. Everyone must be happy, without exception!”

Ah, not everyone.
This excludes villains like the Demon King and Angel King, who accelerate destruction.

“A world where everyone dies fighting against destruction is just a failure!”

My shout echoes inside the white dome.

‘Phew… I said it all.’

Now that I’ve said it, this doesn’t seem quite right.
My answer must have been very important to them, but I called it a failure.

The floor color didn’t even change.
I’d have nothing to say even if they killed me right now.

Ah, I still have one more thing to say.

“… I’m sorry.”

It’s not because I’m sorry for what I just blurted out.

Who am I apologizing to?
To the protagonist Seol Ga-ram? Or to Bahram in front of me? I’m not sure.
I seem to have become unnecessarily honest in front of [Reflected True Feelings].

“…This is my last question.”

“You have so many. It’s been hundreds of years since you asked this many questions, right?”

“…”

“It’s the first time since you became a sage and cried while being congratulated by the villagers.”

Still no reaction.

Kid, you won’t laugh till the end?
Still, I was glad to converse with a character I wrote.

“Why did you save our planet?”

“Huh?”

Well, it wasn’t intentional, but…

“It’s good if many live. Don’t suffer more in this damn wrong world because of me.”

“…”

“You be happy too, man. Don’t listen to the kings too much. Oh, your older brother dies in 4 years? Make up with him. You, you regret it so much after your brother dies, and you wail and stuff.”

Oh, his eyebrow twitched. He’s showing emotion for the first time.

“…Nonsense.”

“It’s true.”

He doesn’t believe this.
There was a bit of a pause in his answer, I think he was checking the floor color.

“Enough.”

…Is he angry? Tsk, was the family talk too much?

Somehow, I ended up saying everything I shouldn’t. Once again, I acted on impulse.
But at this point, I feel relieved.

The sphere of light expands violently, making a threatening sound.
It’s been almost three minutes.

Bzzt-!!

“Be happy, Bahram.”

“…”

Thank you for the last question.
I hope you can live in a changed world.

I closed my eyes after saying goodbye in my heart.
I prepared for the real end.

Bzzt-!
Bzzt-
Bzzt….

‘….’

Why is the sound decreasing?
It should be getting louder.

Come to think of it, it was originally so bright that it was dazzling even with my eyes closed.

‘It’s not dazzling.’

I carefully opened my eyes.

“Huh?”

It’s an auditorium. Not a mirror dome.
I looked up. I see auditorium lights, not a sphere of light.

Bahram’s hands, which were forming a seal, were down.

“Hey, you…”

-

Ding!

[You have changed the predetermined flow. The trait ‘???’ grows slightly.]

Before I could ask any questions.

[Initiating the procedure for Earth’s climber incorporation.]

The floor silently disintegrates, and my body sinks.
The students inside the field fall below the sinkhole.

“Uh, ahhh!”

“Kyaaaa!! Mom-!”

“Sua! No, my daughter!!”

“Dohyun!!”

Numerous screams violently tear through the heavy silence.

Despite the noise and the fall, my mind was full of questions.
My gaze couldn’t leave Bahram, who was getting further away.

‘Why? Why would you?’

You aren’t that kind of character.
Cold, calculating, and abandoning all emotions…

‘Huh?’

Our eyes met.

‘You….’

These are the eyes described in the original work.
Around the middle to late part, Seol Ga-ram fails to save the planet.
When Bahram, who stayed to fight until the end, dies along with the planet.
Those eyes looking up at the sky while lying spread-eagled under the black rain.

Those eyes pray to God one last time at the moment of death.

‘Why such eyes….’

Do you really think I’m God?
Do you really think that the Earthling, whose life is mortgaged in your hands, is God?
You, who are so calculating and realistic?

Until he became a dot in the distance, I couldn’t find an answer to this question.

After an eternity-like moment passed.
I could finally break free from my thoughts only when Bahram was out of sight.

‘Ah!’

Seol Ga-ram. Seol Ga-ram!

‘I have to find her!’

I flipped my body by flailing my arms and legs.

I can’t open my eyes due to the pressure of falling wind.
Even the screams are drowned out by the fluttering wind sound in my ears.

Fortunately, as soon as I managed to squint, I saw her.

She sees me too.

“Hand…!”

No, even if I reach out, I can’t touch…! Too far!

Inevitably, I shouted again with all my might.

“You’re not the only one who knows about the destruction!”

Seol Ga-ram’s eyes widened.

In the original work, she was the only one who knew about the macroscopic destruction.
Not the destruction of each planet, but the real cosmic end.

Only because she knew about it could she prevent it.
That was a terribly big burden for a girl, just a high school student.

But not this time.

“This time, I won’t let you break! Just wait a little! I’ll come to meet you soon!”

Gradually, the students are transferred and disappear from sight one by one.
Only she and I look at each other from the endless sinkhole.

‘Ah, that’s right!’

I held out my left hand and crossed my index and middle fingers.

A gesture known as the crossed fingers in the West to wish for luck.
But it has a meaningful significance for Seol Ga-ram and her mother.

Her expression, which had been composed all along, turned to shock.

Just as Seol Ga-ram was about to open her mouth to say something.

“I’ll be there soon… Ah…!”

Neither she nor I could finish our words before we lost sight of each other.

And so my consciousness faded.

Time to enter the tower.
It was time to start the adventure, like the characters in the original work.

***

Ding!

[Welcome to the tower.]

“Heuheok!”

I came to my senses, floundering on the stone floor.

Ah… We all fell.
We must have been transferred from the sinkhole to the tower’s first floor.

‘First-floor waiting room.’

A room the size of a house’s living room.
A place where you check your information and receive minimal power before facing the first-floor trial…

Wait a minute.

“Huh?”

That’s right, climber information.

One of the roles of the field that appeared in the auditorium was to give growth systems to prospective climbers.
That’s how climbers are granted ‘System 9th Grade Access Authority’.

‘But I wasn’t inside the field.’

A terrible assumption sends chills down my spine.

“C-Climber information!”

…It doesn’t appear.
When you shout ‘Climber information,’ an information window showing my stats or skills should appear.

“Wa, waa….”

This is a major accident.
What should I do…

Ding!

[Confirming error. Granting System 9th Grade Access Authority.]

Oh, thank goodness. They’re fixing it.

[Unregistered user. Revoking authority.]

“No!!”

No, you said you’d give it! You just said so!
This really can’t happen; without a growth system, I’m just an ordinary person!

[Revoking System 9th Grade Access Auth]

“…?”

Auth what? Why did the text stop in the middle?

‘Is it broken?’

No way, really?
Because I did the crazy thing of breaking the field?

After what felt like an eternity of a few seconds.
Just as I was seriously considering throwing a fit at the system, the message window changed.

Ding!

[Activating trait .]
[Modifying content.]
[Sys#%&@Gra*!@ity#]

“Huh?”

New message windows kept appearing in front of my eyes.

[Modifying content.]
[Modifying trait .]

Ding!

[You have acquired the trait !]

Among the messages I couldn’t understand, I saw familiar characters.

‘Body that Defies Heaven?’

That’s the one, isn’t it? The final trait I scribbled in the lecture room yesterday.

‘Why is that…?’

Fortunately, the system that had been playing with my heart soon showed the information window.

[Climber Information]
Name: Kang Noah
Affiliation: Planet Earth (Outside the Tower)

Abilities
Strength: 0th Realm· 1st Level
Stamina: 0th Realm · 1st Level
Agility: 0th Realm · 1st Level
Endurance: 0th Realm · 2nd Level
Mana: 0th Realm · 1st Level

Skills:

Prayer:

Traits:

“Phew….”

That was really close.
My legs feel weak with relief.

After all these twists and turns, seeing the information window really makes me feel like I’ve entered the tower.

In the end, I twisted the original work and came here.

‘But….’

There were many puzzling parts in the information window.

[Rewriting Causality], [Body that Defies Heaven]. These are all traits that didn’t exist in the original work.

No, to begin with, it’s normal not to have traits.
Unless it’s an alien race, there’s no way Earthlings would have such special constitutions.

As far as I know, Seol Ga-ram is the only Earthling who starts with that.

‘But I have it?’

Above all, [Rewriting Causality].

As can be seen from the power shown in the auditorium and its name, this is clearly that.

‘The power as an author.’

I don’t know how my writing became reality.

But what’s clear is that my status as ‘the author of this world’ is acting on the world as some kind of power.