The higher one ascended the Tower of Miracle, the thinner reality became. By the 90th floor, the walls were no longer made of stone or parchment, but of flickering lines of code and unread sentences.
Kim Dokja leaned against a pillar of solidified Probability, his breath hitching. It had been more than a week since he entered this forge, and his coat hung heavy on his shoulders.
His status as a Sequence 7: Cryptologist hummed within his mind, a constant stream of decrypted data that made the very air feel like a puzzle waiting to be solved.
"How many more?" he whispered, wiping a streak of black blood from his lip.
The Fourth Wall rumbled in response.
['Fourth Wall' says that the end is near.]
['Fourth Wall' is looking at the 'Final Floor'.]
"I'll take that as a 'get moving,' then," Dokja muttered.
Before he stepped into the light of the 95th floor, he did what any persistent Reader would do.
He checked the "Broadcast."
He pulled up the localized Star Stream, his eyes scanning the chaos occurring outside the tower's isolation.
He saw it.
The Journey to the West Remake. He saw Kim Hajin, the man who shouldn't exist in the original script, leading a Fable Chamber of "Extras" toward a conclusion that defied every law of the Bureau.
"You're doing well, Hajin-ssi," Dokja smiled thinly.
Then, his gaze shifted.
He saw Yoo Joonghyuk.
But it wasn't the brooding, black-coated Supreme King he knew.
It was a man wielding a divine, ten-meter-long mop, wreathed in the golden lightning of the Great Sage.
The "Monkey King Janitor" was currently "sweeping" the Castle of Baal with a level of focused, murderous dignity that only Joonghyuk could pull off.
Near him was fighting another man, no less handsome. Dokja guessed that it was Kim Suho, MC of Hajin's novel.
Dokja let out a genuine, jagged chuckle.
"... Are you finally cleaning up your life? I should have bookmarked that."
But the laughter died as he reached the 99th floor.
The air turned cold.
The Star Stream messages vanished.
The only thing remaining was the heavy, rhythmic thrumming of a heartbeat that sounded exactly like his own.
The final floor was not an arena.
'I'm already tired of subways…'
It was a subway car.
It was the 3807 carriage of the line 3 train, heading toward Bulgwang.
The lighting was flickering, and the smell of ozone and old dust filled the air.
Standing at the far end of the carriage, near the doors, was a man.
He wore a white coat.
His eyes were cold, sparkling with the logic of a man who had died more than two times and called it "Salvation."
[The Trial of the 100th Floor has begun.]
[Target: The 'Demon King of Salvation' / 'Watcher of Light and Darkness'.]
Dokja used [Character List] on the figure.
===
Name: Kim Dokja (Doppelganger)
Stats: …
Attributes: King of No Killing (Heroic), Eight Lives (Heroic), Scenario Interpreter (???), Lamarck's Giraffe (Legend), Demon Realm Duke (Legend).
Skills: Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, Song of the Sword, Demon King Transformation, Angel Transformation
...
===
The only thing missing was the Fourth Wall.
The Tower could replicate the power, but it could not replicate part of the Final Wall.
"Was I really this powerful?" Dokja whispered.
"You're a true monster," Dokja said, his hand moving to the hilt of his Unbroken Faith. "Not as strong as Joonghyuk, but... close enough to be a nightmare."
He inwardly praised himself.
As the two versions of the same man stood at the precipice of narrative collapse, a sickening sound of tearing parchment echoed through the subway carriage.
A swarm of blindingly bright, frantic paragraphs—'King of a Kingless World', 'One Who Opposes the Extraordinary', 'Lone Messiah', and even the roaring 'Demon King of Salvation'—stripped themselves from Kim Dokja's soul in a violent exodus, surging toward the doppelganger as they recognized the "Original Owner" they had been written for, leaving only the cold, alien weight of his convergence-born fables—'The Last Witness of the Unwritten End', 'Those Who Defy the Immutable', 'The One Who Guarded the Edge of the Galaxy', and 'Those Who Ride the Bus of Fate'—to flicker alongside the trembling giants of 'Most Ancient Evil' and 'Most Ancient Good' that remained anchored to his new, paradoxical nature.
Dokja watched with a face twisted in white-hot fury as his own history abandoned him to embrace a robotic ghost, his voice a low, dangerous snarl that vibrated with the sting of a thousand sacrifices as he whispered, "I poured my lifeblood into your sentences, and yet you choose the comfort of the script over the reality of the real Kim Dokja... I didn't expect such a pathetic betrayal from my own stories."
[Giant Story 'Season of Light and Darkness' is ashamed of its brothers and sisters!]
'Oh?'
Though, looks like, one story remained with the original Dokja.
The Doppelganger didn't speak.
It didn't need to.
It raised its hand, and the carriage erupted in brilliant blue-white lightning.
[The Target has activated 'Electrification'!]
The subway car shattered.
The "Old Dokja" moved with a speed that defied human perception, a blur of white light.
Dokja barely managed to trigger [Thought Misdirection], tilting his head a fraction of a second before a bolt of lightning incinerated the air where his eyes had been.
"I know how you think," Dokja hissed, his mind racing. "Because I was you."
The Doppelganger lunged, summoning the [Song of the Sword].
[Today I am prepared to die. I pray to God in Heaven, may I destroy the enemy.]
The Old Dokja's status tripled.
He swung a blade of pure mana, aimed at the "New" Dokja's heart.
But the New Dokja didn't dodge.
He smiled.
['Theft' is activated!]
He didn't steal the sword.
He stole the focus.
For one micro-second, the "Logic" of the Song of the Sword was interrupted.
The New Dokja stepped into the Doppelganger's guard, his hands glowing with a strange, pearlescent light—the Nephalem Transformation.
Unlike the Demon King or the Angel, the Nephalem was a bridge.
It didn't fight with the weight of a Great Story; it fought with the rejection of it.
"You're obsessed with 'Salvation,'" Dokja whispered, his fingers touching the Doppelganger's chest.
['Mental Disruption' is active!]
The Doppelganger staggered.
Behind his eyes, the "Old Dokja" saw the faces of the people he had sacrificed himself for—Yoo Sangah, Lee Gilyoung, Shin Yoosung.
But they weren't smiling.
They were crying.
They were asking why he kept leaving them.
"That's the flaw of mine," Dokja said, his voice cold. "You care too much about the ending, and not enough about the people who have to live in it."
The Doppelganger roared, triggering Angel and Demon King transformations.
Combined status of an Angel and a Demon King pressed on Dokja.
The subway car—or what was left of it—collapsed into the abyss of the Tower.
He lunged with [Electrification] at full output, a suicidal strike meant to take them both down.
Dokja closed his eyes.
['Annihilation'!]
He annihilated the lightning.
He struck.
Not with a sword, but with a palm strike to the Doppelganger's forehead.
In a single, fluid motion, it activated every primary storytelling engine in its arsenal.
[Giant Story 'Demon World's Spring' has begun its storytelling!]
[Giant Story 'Torch That Swallowed the Myth' is roaring!]
[Story 'Hell of Eternity' is looking at you with bloodshot eyes!]
Dokja was thrown back by the pure narrative status.
'I'll show these riots that I don't even need their help to win.'
[The Target has activated 'Way of the Wind'!]
Blue-white lightning trailed behind the figure like a tattered cape, and the air in the void was sucked into a localized vacuum.
Before Dokja could even raise his hand, the doppelganger was already behind him.
Its sword wasn't the Unbroken Faith—a replica of the [Dark Heavenly Demon Sword]—was wreathed in the White Purity Star Qi.
Dokja barely managed to trigger his own Bookmark, his body a blur of wind, but the lightning strike clipped his shoulder.
The Doppelganger didn't pause.
It acted with robotic precision. It knew exactly where Dokja would dodge because it possessed the same [Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint Stage 2]. It was like fighting a chess engine that had already played out the next thousand moves.
[The Target is combining 'Angel' and 'Demon King' transformations!]
White, feathery wings erupted from the Doppelganger's left shoulder; black, skeletal wings tore through the right. One horn curled from its forehead, dripping with demonic magic, while a halo of cold, divine light flickered above its head.
The gray coat Dokja dissolved into a shroud of Twilight. His body didn't grow wings or horns; instead, he became a pillar of oscillating pearlescent light—neither light nor shadow, but the bridge between them.
['Twilight Incarnation' is active!]
[All stats increase proportionally to 'Light'- and 'Darkness'-based entities within 5 km!]
Because the Doppelganger was a dual-alignment entity of extreme Holy and Demonic status, Dokja's own stats surged. He felt the raw power of the 800-level monster becoming his own fuel.
[Lv.1 Gray Dominion is active!]
A shockwave of "Equilibrium" rippled outward. The Doppelganger's blinding lightning dimmed. Its divine halo flickered, and its demonic aura felt... heavy.
[The hostile entity's power is reduced by 30% due to Gray Dominion!]
"It was an unfair fight to begin with," Dokja said. He was obviously more powerful than his old self, even with all of his Stories chopped away.
The Doppelganger unleashed [Electrification] at 200% output, cracks of light appeared on its incarnation body, a spear of lightning aimed at Dokja's Narrative Core. At the same time, it activated [Bookmark: Hour of Judgement], its blade glowing with the white fire of absolute justice.
"Annihilation," Dokja whispered.
He reached out his hand.
The space between him and the lightning simply... ceased to be. The bolt of lightning was deleted as if the author had hit the 'backspace' key on that specific sentence. The "Justice" of the blade hit Dokja's chest, but the Nephilim trait kicked in.
[You are immune to all classifications of 'Good' and 'Evil'!]
[Holy and Demonic damage has been nullified!]
The Doppelganger's eyes—usually cold and hollow—widened for the first time.
He saw the Doppelganger preparing to use [Sacrificial Will] to overload its own story for a final strike.
"You're Kim Dokja after all," Dokja said. It was funny, since the real Kim Dokja was standing right in front the doppelganger.
[Lv.0 Narrative Intervention is activating!]
He used the Special Skill from the Tower of Wish.
"The Demon King of Salvation does not die here," Dokja commanded. "The script says he is... exhausted."
[Probability is being consumed!]
[The Target's 'Will to Live' has been rewritten as 'Temporary Slumber'!]
The Doppelganger stumbled. The massive, roaring Giant Stories suddenly went quiet, their narrative volume muted by Dokja's Special Skill.
"Birth," Dokja countered, touching the Doppelganger's forehead.
The impact was silent.
He restored its "Initial State".
[Backlash of Paradox is occurring!]
[User's HP is falling rapidly!]
Dokja's vision blurred as his own heart gave a painful spasm, but he didn't stop. He watched as the demonic horns and angel wings of his old self dissolved into gray ash.
The Doppelganger looked at Dokja, its eyes—once cold and analytical—now filled with a strange, tired clarity.
The old self offered a faint, philosophical smile.
"So... this is the 'Next' me," the old self said, his voice a fading echo. "Don't... don't make them sad this time."
The Doppelganger dissolved into a flurry of white sparks and black ink, a small, obsidian-like crystal stone floated above the mahogany floor.
[You have defeated your 'Previous Narrative'!]
Fables recoiled from the doppelganger's hollow, robotic core and limped back to Dokja like shamed children, the scar of their hesitation remained.
"I'll teach you a lesson later."
[Story 'Demon King of Salvation' is embarrassed.]
[Giant Story 'Torch That Swallowed Myth' lowers its head.]
[Story 'The Stone and I' says that it was forced to leave!]
…
[You have cleared the 100th Floor of the 'Tower of Miracle'!]
[A Giant Story is being compiled...]
[Quasi-Giant Story 'Forge of Miracles' has been acquired!]
The Tower began to tremble.
Great cracks spider-webbed across the conceptual sky.
In the center of the arena, a single, glowing crystal floated.
[Item Information]
===
Name: Stone of Convergence
Rank: Myth-grade
Description: A stone that allows the user to converge a true miracle: disparate concepts, stories, or items, or basically anything into a singular, unified existence without the risk of narrative collapse.
===
Dokja tucked the stone into his pocket.
He felt the Tower dying around him.
The scenarios were shifting.
Suddenly, a massive, semi-transparent window manifested in front of him.
It wasn't a Star Stream message.
It was the Miracle itself.
[The Tower of Miracle is cleared.]
[As the challenger who cleared the Tower, you are granted one 'World-Level Miracle'.]
[Please choose from the following three options:]
1. Unseal the Fog Barrier: Remove the veil protecting the Western Continent. This will unify the shattered worlds but expose Earth to the 'Outer Existences'.
2. Mend the Astral Barrier: Repair the shield protecting Earth from the Cosmos. This will grant humanity one week of peace before the barrier is inevitably destroyed.
3. The Author's Gift: Receive any single item the user desires, provided the Probability of the Star Will allows for its creation.
Dokja looked at the options.
He looked at the cracked sky of the Tower, and through it, the "Eyes" of the universe staring down at a fractured Earth.
"A week of peace is just a delay," Dokja murmured. "And items won't save us from what's coming."
He reached out and pressed the first option.
[The Miracle has been accepted.]
[Unsealing the 'Fog Barrier' of the Western Continent...]
A massive earthquake erupted.
It was a conceptual shockwave that rippled through the Continents.
The thick, gray-white fog that had divided Pandemonium and Central Asia from the world since the Convergence began to disappear. The "Western Continent" was finally laid bare to the world.
But the price was immediate.
High above, the Astral Barrier—already destabilized by the clash against Baal and the Shadows of the Sunken Epoch Scenario in Paris—finally shattered. The geometric violet dome turned to dust.
The sky of Earth turned into a kaleidoscope of terrifying, impossible colors.
[System alert!]
['Gaze' of the Cosmos is now unrestricted!]
A new window appeared, bleeding a deep, vibrant red.
[You have entered the stage of Main Scenario #??? – The Apocalypse]
['End of the Unwritten' has begun.]
Dokja stood amidst the falling ruins of the Tower in the Fog Sea, looking up at a sky that was no longer his.
"Let's see," he whispered, his eyes glowing with the light of a Cryptologist who had finally found the secret key.