[Lost Chapter Progress: 36% → 48%]
The train door opened.
Not to fire or ruin this time, but to silence. A long, silver corridor stretched into the distance, flanked by mirrors on both sides. Perfect reflections. Too perfect.
"This is bad," Han Sooyoung muttered. "This is a narrative trap."
Kim Dokja felt it too. The oppressive pressure of a space where reality bends inward.
[Trial 3 Initiated: Narrative Integrity Challenge]
[Objective: Confront the Internal Paradox]
Before anyone could respond, a man stepped into view.
He looked… familiar.
Too familiar.
Black hair. Sharp eyes. The weight of thousands of regressions in his gaze. A weathered coat, torn at the shoulder, and a long blade slung over his back.
"Yoo Joonghyuk?" Shin Yoosung whispered.
But Yoo Joonghyuk was already shaking his head.
"That's not me."
The figure approached. His stride was deliberate. Mechanical. Like he wasn't walking through a hallway, but through time.
"Kim Dokja," the stranger said.
Kim Dokja stared. "Who are you?"
"I'm Yoo Joonghyuk," the man replied.
"No, you're not," their Yoo Joonghyuk said. "You're a mimic."
The man chuckled softly. "In one version, I never stopped. I rejected the ending. Kept regressing. Kept walking. Until I became the version no one wanted."
Kim Dokja felt his pulse spike. "You're from an abandoned ending."
"Not abandoned," the mimic said. "Buried."
[System Warning: Identity Overlap Detected]
[Your current reality cannot sustain two Yoo Joonghyuks]
Han Sooyoung gave a bitter laugh. "Well, that's new. A Joonghyuk so stubborn he broke through the trash bin of canon."
But the mimic wasn't joking.
"Your Yoo Joonghyuk accepted companionship. Accepted an author. I did not. I chose to walk alone. That makes me purer."
"You're not purer," Yoo Joonghyuk said coldly. "You're broken."
"Broken? Or uncorrupted?"
The mimic turned to Kim Dokja. "Tell me. If you had read my version to the end, would you still have chosen this one?"
Kim Dokja didn't answer.
[System Message: Narrative Conflict Must Be Resolved]
[Only one Yoo Joonghyuk can continue in this timeline]
Shin Yoosung gasped. "Wait — are they saying we have to erase one of them?"
Han Sooyoung clenched her jaw. "No. They're forcing us to pick a canon Joonghyuk."
The corridor rippled. The mirrors reflected a hundred versions of Yoo Joonghyuk, all frozen mid-battle, mid-betrayal, mid-regret.
And in the middle of it stood the two — the current and the condemned.
"This trial isn't about power," Kim Dokja realized. "It's about consistency."
Only one version could align with the evolving narrative.
"You have a choice," the mimic said. "Keep him. The one who let you live. Who compromised. Who forgave. Or accept the truth — that I would've saved the world faster, cleaner… without ever needing you."
He stepped forward, his blade already half-drawn.
"I won't let you take my place," Yoo Joonghyuk said.
"You can't stop me. Because we both know the same truth—" The mimic's eyes flared. "We're the same person. But I never failed."
"Then why are you here?" Kim Dokja asked quietly.
The mimic paused.
"If you never failed," Kim Dokja continued, "why did the story discard you?"
The mimic's hand trembled.
"You're not the purer version. You're the one who couldn't change. And that's why no one read your ending."
The mimic's blade froze mid-air.
And behind him, the mirrors began to shatter — one by one — as if the truth was too much for them to reflect.
[System Update: Narrative Stability Restored]
[Accepted Canon Identity: Yoo Joonghyuk (Mainline)]
The mimic opened his mouth, but no sound came out. His body began to blur — dissolving, not in pain, but in quiet, bitter resignation.
"I… could've saved you," he whispered, eyes locked on Kim Dokja.
"You didn't," Kim Dokja replied.
And with that, he was gone.
The corridor reformed. The mirrors turned black. And the silence that followed was deafening.
[Trial 3: Complete]
[Lost Chapter Progress: 48% → 59%]
The party stood still.
Yoo Joonghyuk did not speak. But his hands were clenched tight, and Kim Dokja saw the blood where nails bit into flesh.
"You okay?" he asked.
"I don't want to see that version again."
"You won't," Kim Dokja said. "We chose you."
That seemed to calm something inside him.
Han Sooyoung exhaled. "That makes three trials. I don't like how close we're getting to the core."
"We're almost there," Kim Dokja said.
"Yeah," she muttered. "But who's waiting for us at the end?"
As they stepped back onto the train, the door behind them sealed shut.
And somewhere, deep in the system:
[Narrative Conflict Index: Critical Threshold Approaching]
[Warning: Unstable Author Fragment Detected]
[Prepare for Final Divergence]
End of Chapter 23