Ch.168Side Story) Left Alone

I was left alone.

The sky is dark blue, as if bruised.

Trees. Sky. Park.

Everything is crumbling like powder.

The wind blows, black snowflakes shoot up into the sky, creating a blizzard.

I caught one of them.

‘ㄱ’

It’s a letter.

Everything is turning into letters and crumbling.

“Haha…”

I failed.

That means another me from a different worldline must have succeeded.

As I smile bitterly, tears well up.

My hands are now stained with the blood of others.

“Serim…”

The wind slaps my ears as if reproaching me.

“Daju…”

I killed everyone who believed in me with my own hands.

After all this effort. I failed?

I sat on the park bench and looked into a puddle.

A fragile person who looks like a timid high school girl.

But the woman who killed everyone and brought about the end of the world is crying sorrowfully.

Lim Dabin.

I see myself reflected in the puddle.

The Professor’s proposal failed.

The world will soon be destroyed by Seven.

I buried my face between my knees.

Why did I trust the “Professor” and not the others?

It’s too late for regrets now.

The cold seeps into my bones.

I can’t even die.

Even if I die, it would be as if nothing happened, and I would return here again.

Forever in here.

Alone in this narrative layer that will soon be nothing.

I will live alone forever.

The Professor’s proposal was to act first.

If we killed all sentient beings before “Seven” moved, so that there would be no one left to be defeated, the narrative layer itself would remain.

Then, after a long time, someone would write a new story.

A story with a completely different background. And Seven would still remain here. The protagonist would be different too.

At least we could have a new chance.

Everyone who lived in this narrative layer would gain life again the moment a new story begins.

Serim. Daju. Yebin. And me…

We just had to wait until then.

A new story.

But that won’t happen.

Because I couldn’t die.

At the last moment, I couldn’t die.

It wasn’t because I was afraid.

No matter how much I tried to die, I came back to life.

And I, who survived, failed.

Everyone who would remember me is dead.

They were erased by “Seven” and became beings that never existed.

A final hope flashed through my mind.

Just before leaving the apartment. I met another “me” from a different worldline.

That one succeeded in saving the world.

Thanks to that, I ended up like this.

And thanks to that, I might be saved.

Thinking about being saved alone after killing everyone.

I smiled bitterly.

But that’s all. I had become too cold.

I spent my time thinking only about survival.

I thought only about preventing the end of the world.

And I learned to push aside feelings like guilt.

I picked up my phone.

I started the broadcast.

***

It was not long after all the stories had ended.

I called Serim to the Foundation’s laboratory to talk privately.

“I need your help with something.”

“What is it, Dabin?”

“It’s about the world. Before, I created a paradox through a contract, and as a result, I prevented the end. Because of the paradox, the world’s destruction and creation are now in perfect balance.”

“…Yes. You told me that before.”

“But this isn’t perfect either, and there are several potential risks.”

“So you want to prevent that.”

“Yes. I’m going to solve it.”

“Then shouldn’t we work with the Foundation? They’re much more expert in this.”

“Since I caused this, I want to fix it myself. And the Foundation people wouldn’t be much help anyway.”

“So you need me instead of the Foundation people?”

“Yes. Absolutely.”

“If you put it that way, of course I’ll go with you.”

Serim thinks for a moment.

“But! I have a condition.”

“What is it?”

“First, tell me I’m cute.”

“What?”

“Before, you told me not to think difficult thoughts and just be cute. I was excited when you said that. I feel like we haven’t had moments like that lately. Well. I guess we’ve been too busy?”

She brings it up herself.

But Serim is the one who’s embarrassed.

“You’re cute. It’s my first time seeing you this embarrassed.”

“Ah. No! That’s…”

“What? You asked me to call you cute.”

“And. One more thing.”

“Yes. Tell me.”

“…”

This request seems much more embarrassing than before, as Serim looks down at the ground.

As she bows her head, her hair falls forward, and I can see her reddened ears.

“What? What is it?”

“Call me… unnie…”

“What?”

“Call me unnie.”

“Okay.”

Habit was just an excuse. I could change how I address someone anytime.

The reason I kept calling Choi Serim “noona” was because I didn’t want to change.

I’m not talking about my body becoming female.

My heart.

I wanted to keep my determination to survive with everyone and see this moment.

“Serim unnie.”

For once, I became a cute girl.

The good thing is that I can do this as many times as I want.

“This might be a bit dangerous. No. It’s extremely dangerous. Still, I need you… will you come with me?”

“Of course! I’ll definitely go! I’ll go even if you tell me not to!”

“Thank you. Unnie.”

Serim smiles brightly.

Even though she tries to hide her expression by lowering her head, I can see it all.

“Let’s go now!”

I opened the door to the Foundation facility.

Passing through a particularly old-looking door, we’re greeted by a somehow familiar scene.

“We need to find it here.”

It’s a massive library.

The bookshelves soar to the sky, and countless books are densely packed within them.

“Recently. When we were at the apartment.”

“Yes.”

“Haewon found an internet broadcast, remember? My future self appeared in it.”

“That’s right.”

“To be precise, it wasn’t the future. It was Lim Dabin from another worldline… Depending on how she moves now, it could put us in danger too.”

“So. You want me to save her.”

“Yes. I like Serim unnie in any worldline.”

“…”

Serim looks at me silently for a moment.

Her lips move as if about to say something, but no words come out.

Finally, I speak first.

“You need to save me again this time.”

“Yes. Dabin.”

We entered the library, holding hands tightly.

It didn’t take long to find the story where my other self appears.

“Entering into a book. It sounds like something from a fairy tale.”

“It does.”

While flipping through the book, Serim suddenly asked a curious question.

“By the way, Dabin.”

“Yes, unnie.”

“Aren’t worldlines branching on the same narrative layer?”

“Ah. About that.”

After the world returned to normal, I was finally able to share the “dangerous” information.

About narrative layers, Seven, the ending, why we ended up like this.

Everyone found it complicated and either didn’t understand properly or chose to live without knowing. But Serim seems to have understood correctly.

“Hmm. How should I explain this.”

“So, even in novels, there are ‘if’ developments or stories that branch according to choices. But one novel is still one novel. So they’re in the same narrative layer, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Then Dabin from the failed worldline should also be in the same narrative layer. Can we change this story? Since it’s the same narrative layer.”

Serim is correct.

From a higher narrative layer, one can “look down” on stories in lower narrative layers.

Reading books or novels is an example of this.

In “reality,” we look down on the “world of fiction” through the medium of “books.”

Similarly, someone is looking down on our reality.

And one more thing.

With the right means, one can change the flow of a story in a lower narrative layer.

This is called “creation.”

That’s the basic explanation of narrative layers.

However, the current situation is a bit different from theory.

“What you know is correct, but to be precise, it’s a bit more complicated.”

Due to the ending I proposed, our narrative layer has risen about 0.2 levels higher.

This is because of my influence from a narrative layer above.

“The narrative layer of this worldline we’re in has become slightly higher than others.”

The worldline we currently exist in protrudes like a hill even within the same narrative layer.

As I mentioned earlier, it’s because of my influence.

The narrative layer of the failed worldline remains the same.

“So in this case, it’s possible to look down on the story and change it.”

“Wow. When you explain it like this, Dabin, you sound really smart.”

“…You didn’t understand, did you?”

“But I understood that we can save Dabin.”

Serim smiles brightly at me.

Then she returns to the pile of books and starts rummaging through them.

Even more enthusiastically than before.

It wasn’t long before she found the book she wanted.

“Dabin! I found it! Is this right?”

“Yes. You found it perfectly.”

Now we’re going to save the Lim Dabin who failed and was left alone.

Through “creation” of the same narrative layer—a tool that only I can use in this world.