In an Instant

12: In which a Vow was borne from lies (+1 Trauma)(33 - 34)

Happy birthday Kim Rok Soo! And Choi Han, Choi Jung Soo too!!!!

I am so glad I made it in time for your birthdays!!!!!!!

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Peering out from the various invisible cameras situated strategically all over the auditorium – which, creepy, not going to lie – Cale watches as his people silently face the screen as if they are all going to the gallows.

Cale frowns.

Has something happened in the few minutes he takes to sneak into here and smack some bastards on the back?

They don't look hurt though. Neither have their positions really changed much since the moment he went to sleep.

There are no more restrictions keeping them in place – he has made sure of it.

So. What is happening?

Why are they being like that?

Cale squints at the screen a bit more, before a distinct sense of 'is this really necessary' rears its head.

Giving up, he looks at the control panel and sighs tiredly.

Of the three tabs, two are so greyed out he can't even see their titles, and the other one......

"The Birth of a Hero"

At first, Cale had been excited. Would this be the complete records of the first run, he had naively wondered.

With ignorant giddiness, he had clicked on the first chapter of the 6th volume – chapter 501 – like a fucking idiot.

Damned words had appeared right before his eyes.

[You shouldn't have thoughts like destroying the entire maze's ceiling! ]

The Super Rock raised his voice in shock.

Cale listened quietly as his gaze deepened while quietly focusing on the high ceiling.

Instinctively slamming the record shut, Cale blinks.

......Huh?

What did he just read?

Cale who? Super Rock what?

[Cale,] Super Rock says pityingly, [You're not hallucinating.]

'Shut up, figment of my imagination,' Cale wants to retort, but instead just raises a shaky hand to press "Prologue".

'Please,' he inwardly prays, 'I just want to be a slacker–'

When I opened my eyes, I was inside a novel.

He slams the record shut again.

Ah.

Motherfucker.

So.

This version of "The Birth of a Hero", which he assumes is currently being shown to everyone and their mother (literally, in Dodori's case), is not about Choi Han, no.

It, all seven hundred and seventy-six chapters of it, is about him.

Cale stares at the console for a long, long moment.

[......Cale,] Super Rock says hesitantly, [You cannot destroy everything.]

Cale doesn't answer.

[......Unfortunately, the old man is right.] the Cheapskate grouses.

[This console is tied to the foundation of both this space and the outside room,] the Thief explains. [Destroying one is destroying all.]

So now not only is he unable to destroy this, he has to protect it???