Chapter 3: Scribbles and Imagination

The child scribbled with crayons on a notebook, an extreme expression of dedication and focus on his face. The child was in a train station, but all the adults and families around him ignored him, as if he didn't exist.

The child hummed.

On the notebook was a series of scrawls of drawings, of a very handsome tall man who would never give up, of a glowing white sword, of a fiery angel with a nice smile, and many other things. In the bottom right corner of the open notebook page, there was also a small scribble of a man wearing a top hat and cane, whose face had clearly English features and a somewhat deep outline.

This was Klein Moretti, whose presence the child had recently discovered.

Right above this, there was a tiny drawing of a warm apartment home, with a wafting, delicious stew, and a black cat that waited at its door.

The child smiled brightly, eyes glued to the notebook.

The child wondered what would happen next.

The noisy scene of the train station continued on relentlessly.

.

Meanwhile, the gray fog of Sefirah Castle flickered. In the Fool's seat, the amorphous body wearing a vest and top hat wavered, then solidified, eventually taking the form of a human with brown eyes and a somewhat deep outline. For the first time in six years, and far more years in the dream, the Fool blinked open his eyes.

Hmm, I made it back to Sefirah Castle…

Klein touched the pulsating crimson orbs, and caught up on the residual prayers of the Tarot Club, which had all already been largely resolved by the automatic prayer functionality. He smiled, somewhat proud of their growth. From a small cult, they had become a real organization.

It seems that they are doing well. In fact, they have even expanded our Tarot Club on their own. Now, in addition to the Major Arcana, we also have some Minor Arcana members.

He had already been somewhat cognizant of this fact, drifting in the back of his mind, but now, it came to full awareness.

And Celestial Worthy has been causing trouble…

There was a jolt. Klein's form then shook and wavered, his hand briefly bursting into tentacles, before he forcibly returned it back into a human form.

He frowned, heart beating quickly after the harrowing experience. Klein must have rushed the return process.

Yes, now that I'm back in the 'real world', I don't feel as clear and stable as I did earlier, in the dream. Perhaps the dream has an extra stabilizing factor?

So I'm still not fully stable. I still need to rest, and establish more anchors.

Klein quickly did more divinations regarding the situation regarding the apocalypse of the Great Old Ones, and then followed up with some more in depth divinations on Kim Dokja, the 'cousin' he was curious about.

The walls and pillars of Sefirah Castle suddenly shook, but he withstood it.

… The Most Ancient Dream?

… How strange. Is this the will of that child?

Having a very rough understanding of the situation, his first theories forming, Klein then slowly closed his eyes, and let his consciousness be drawn back to the Dream.

.

Kim Dokja's cousin had developed an odd habit of proselytizing.

"Praise the Fool!" Klein would exclaim, after using an odd artifact in the form of a cane he seemed to pull from nowhere. The cane would heal wounds instantly after touching a person with its tip. This had been very useful after the battle with the Disaster of Questions, where there had been many injuries, and also when passing nearby destroyed coin farms. "Would you like to hear about our lord and savior, Mr. Fool?"

The responses were varied:

"What are you talking about?"

"Uh, no thanks. But thanks for healing me."

"Mr. Fool? Sure, I'd like to hear about it."

"Praise the Fool!"

"Stop the bullshit."

The last one was Yoo Junghyuk, who Klein had taken pity on and also healed, after he had been continuously carried around by Kim Dokja. Kim Dokja was a bit nervous about letting the crazy regressor roam freely, but he had sworn to not kill Kim Dokja this scenario, only to hit him once… gently. In the end, Yoo Junghyuk followed them without doing anything, which was somehow even more nervewracking.

When Kim Dokja asked Klein about the identity of Mr. Fool, Klein seemed oddly embarrassed.

"Yes, well," he coughed. "I don't think I'm much worse than you, cousin. Please look past it."

"Yes?" Kim Dokja wasn't sure what this meant.

Meanwhile, Han Sooyoung, who had taken an odd liking to Klein and was always calling him so polite, laughed at Kim Dokja from behind without reserve. After Kim Dokja had regrouped with suddenly very competent and calm Yoo Sangah, Han Sooyoung's presence had caused some trouble as a previous 'enemy', but Klein had somehow smoothed it over with a calm chatter and introductions.

His cousin, as Kim Dokja remembered, had a very stable presence.

Even in the battle with the Disaster of Questions, Klein had remained calm, and only intervened in critical moments by calling down overly large ravens to block the destructive black cannon attack from harming other incarnations. The ravens had disintegrated one by one, but Klein hadn't looked bothered.

His cousin seemed to have become a very mysterious and strange figure.

Why did both my mother, and my cousin, who I told about the plot of TWSA, become so strange and powerful?

Kim Dokja vaguely felt this was his own fault, and was annoyed by it.

[Your exclusive skill, the 'Fourth Wall' is shaking!]

[The 'Fourth Wall' is confused.]

[The 'Fourth Wall' has stabilized.]

Klein always followed them from behind after that second chance meeting in the ruins of Seoul, smiling all the while. Kim Dokja, however, couldn't help but feel an inexplicable sense of distance which was very frustrating.

When Kim Dokja was being poached from Biyoung's channel to the Chinese streamer Dokgak, Klein had watched him quietly, then at the end said with some relief, "That was well done."

When Kim Dokja cooked the Yanaspleta sunflower monster for Klein and Han Sooyoung, he had smiled deeply and his eyes looked bright. "The flavor is very good," he commented.

When Kim Dokja had given Yoo Sangah the sedative Yanaspleta skewer, without the juice antidote, and then threatened the Olympus nebulae with her life, Klein had at first frowned, then walked away to chat with Han Sooyoung.

When Han Sooyoung faked her death and left an avatar behind, Klein had said heavily, "So she decided to leave."

When Kim Dokja met the child Shin Yoosoung and made her his incarnation, Klein had only remarked, "It's good she has a reliable protector."

When Kim Dokja had scammed the constellations during the Second Sponsor Selection and was chased around by incarnations for his punishment, Klein had briefly looked at his wrist.

When Kim Dokja had landed on the island with the Disaster meteorite, flabby and wet after riding Queen Mirabad to escape his pursuers, Klein was somehow already there, and tapped Kim Dokja with his mysterious cane. "Thanks," Kim Dokja had gasped. "No problem," Klein had said, smiling.

When this and that happened…

Even though he was there for all those moments, his cousin seemed simply to drift along with Kim Dokja with no clear motive, only watching him curiously from time to time, helping him sometimes, and occasionally enjoying food he pulled from nowhere.

Then the meteorite containing the Disaster of Floods broke, and even in that heartbreaking moment when Kim Dokja reached for the older Shin Yoosoung, the Disaster of Floods, trying to turn a tragedy into a happy ending…

He had looked back, and Klein, though his eyes were deep, though he had again nonchalantly defended the incarnations around them with odd tricks, Klein did not act to change the story.

In the end, Kim Dokja had wondered briefly if he was looking at a stranger.

In the end, Kim Dokja once again resolved the situation on his own.

Afterwards, Yoo Sangah remarked to Kim Dokja,

"He really is like you, Dokja-ssi. He is always calm. Ah, I didn't mean that in a bad way."

Embarrassingly, this was said right after Kim Dokja had confessed his trauma to Yoo Sangah. It had all bubbled out after he met and argued with his mother for the first time after the genre of his life changed. Then he also mentioned Klein, who had been the only one who had given him a place to belong in his late teenage years, even if it was only a shabby dorm room that even his cousin did not fully own.

That was now a very long time ago.

"I'm sorry. It was all a joke. My family was very normal, and…." Kim Dokja reverted his words.

Yoo Sangah didn't say anything after that. She only offered a hand to hold as they walked.

"Dokja-ssi!"

The kids came running over then.

.

Klein observed the situation in the Dream methodically and unhurriedly.

Traveling like this across the broken Seoul had been interesting, and it was especially comfortable to be able to chat and move with other people.

Han Sooyoung had been bold and unapologetic, and was easy to start a conversation with about history and fantastical events—she was a writer. Shin Yoosung was a young child who harbored a lot of guilt—Klein would softly talk with her, and secretly fulfill some wishes like magic tricks while flipping a coin. Yoo Sangah was thoughtful, and though she had noticed some oddness about Klein, she hadn't commented—instead, they chatted about classics and books of First Era Earth. Klein, as a formidable keyboard warrior of the past, could just barely keep up with the titles she knew.

Yoo Junghyuk was impossible to talk to.

Kim Dokja seemed to have difficulty chatting about normal topics, so instead, Klein would occasionally mention the scenery and ask about the cookable monster recipes.

Of course, then there was the matter of the apocalypse.

On the way, Klein was heartened to see his group help other survivors, especially Yoo Sangah, who always took the initiative against the more cynical Han Sooyoung. They even shared food and acted like volunteers in distributing supplies. Kim Dokja also helped.

[The Demon-Like Judge of Fire is pleased by your continuous good deeds.]

[Constellations that like family smile at the brotherly bonds.]

[200 coins have been sponsored.]

Events seemed to always happen, however, extreme beyond what he had noticed before in the previous resets. Klein was frequently divining the danger levels of the situation, only to realize each time he rarely needed to intervene, despite the situation often appearing quite bad. This happened both times when they encountered the Disaster of Questions, when Kim Dokja was being suddenly chased by other incarnations for 40,000 coins, and when they fought the Disaster of Floods, who had turned out to be an older version of Shin Yoosung.

Of course, this is rather convenient for me. I can use this opportunity to expand my anchors. After all, it's easier to cultivate believers and faith in extreme environments… This will be mutually beneficial to both the believers and me, Klein excused himself.

While Klein focused on minimizing the collateral damage without revealing too much to the Dream, in the end, each scenario's core was taken care of without him.

This was a rather strange feeling.

At some point, he felt he had reasonably confirmed this was because of Kim Dokja, his 'cousin', who was a unique existence.

.

Kim Dokja felt he was only truly able to reach his cousin once, when in one moment, after everything had calmed down, he noticed his cousin holding a fancy-looking letter and smiling deeply.

.

Klein paused one day, gathered in the train station after the 5th scenario had ended. A prayer had suddenly whispered in his ear. Confident, a male, it doesn't seem very urgent… Klein analyzed. Ah, it's Leonard. He was originally planning to let the automatic prayer functionality take care of it, but when Klein realized the contents of the prayer, he decided to accept the sacrifice personally.

Klein now held a finely adorned, golden-rimmed piece of paper in his hands. It was a poem. The poem read:

Mr. Fool, come wake up from your slumber

The world only seems to grow glumer

Your great exalted glory would brighten us all

As we all meet in your grand hall

And let Mr. World wake up too

Praise the Fool

Klein's lips twitched.

Poet Classmate, you haven't improved your poetry skills at all… he lampooned. Didn't I say to pray only if it was urgent? What gave you this confidence? Isn't this ending a little lazy?

"Hmm, what's this?" Before Klein could stop him, Kim Dokja had snatched the letter from his hands. His 'cousin's' nose wrinkled. "Someone back in England joined your church?"

Klein coughed.

"Something like that."

Kim Dokja hummed. "Your 'Mr. Fool' is sleeping? Who is 'Mr. World'? Is he also a god? Is there a Bible or text I can read to understand your religion?" Kim Dokja asked curiously, his face very innocent.

Klein was too embarrassed to talk.

Kim Dokja kept pestering him.

"So?" Kim Dokja asked. "Who's Mr. World?"

Klein, after thinking about it for a very long time, finally said, "That's me. It's a codename from a chat group I was in." And I was Mr. Fool too…

"Are you asleep?"

Klein coughed. "It's a metaphor. My poet friend, who wrote the letter, is not very good at them."

"Your poet friend?"

His 'cousin' seemed very interested.

"Yes, yes, Mr. Star." Klein smiled, amused. "I worked with him for some time. Perhaps, one day you can meet him."

"Hmm. Are there more people like this in that chat group?"

Klein slowly began to explain the different members of the Tarot Club, leaving many details out.

Finally, Kim Dokja returned the letter, which Klein quickly and urgently sacrificed to the junk pile of Sefirah Castle.

Phew, my 'cousin' can be very persistent…

.

It was because of his cousin's aimlessness that Kim Dokja, who had subconsciously become reliant on his cousin's stable and calm presence, was surprised when Klein told him he needed to go.

They had just had a meeting of Kings after the sixth scenario had been announced. Only ten people could enter. After Yoo Junghyuk had abruptly dumped the responsibility of picking the last four people on him, Kim Dokja had originally intended to include Klein to help him stop the rampage on the little planet, but in the chaotic meeting, Klein had raised his hand and shook his head, so Kim Dokja picked Shin Yoosung instead.

"I'm going to go visit China," Klein told Kim Dokja suddenly, after the meeting was over.

"What? Why?" Kim Dokja asked.

"I need to confirm something."

The look in his eyes was deep and sentimental, and so Kim Dokja found that he couldn't protest.

"... Just come back safely. How are you going there?"

"I have a way," Klein said nonchalantly, but his words came off as rather mysterious.

Kim Dokja hesitated.

I told him about the novel, so he should be fine.

"I'll see you later then," Klein said.

"Yes, we'll meet again soon," Kim Dokja said, acting confident.

Klein then left, walking away into the distance, holding his top hat and cane.

He would not return for a very long time, and in that time, Kim Dokja and his companions would complete the 6th, the 8th, the 9th, and the 10th scenario.