I've gotten this question a lot, and have decided to make a propaganda post on the side story so I can direct everyone here instead of repeating myself :) The side stories are chapters 553+ of ORV, with 140+ chapters currently. There are 200-300 total chapters planned!
Although it's labeled as a 'Side Story', it is a continuation of the main story and is post-epilogue content. This is still Kim Dokja's story, but it's not for just that one Kim Dokja.
Spoiler Free Synopsis
The protagonist of the side story is Lee Hakhyun, the author of ORV from another worldline (think Singshong), who ends up transmigrating into TWSA along with other readers of ORV.
Lee Hakhyun?
Lee Hakhyun was actually in ORV's main story for a grand total of half a chapter. Other than that, he's also the protagonist of Singshong's currently untranslated second work 'How to Become A Star Writer', which was discontinued after 22 chapters.
Where can I read it?
There's no official translation, but there are fan translations offered for those who purchase the Korean chapters on Munpia/Naver Series! Here is a guide on how to sign up to Naver, purchase chapters, and a way to unlock chapters for free
@/vapolunes on twitter is offering a translation of season 1, requiring purchase proof. I am also offering my ongoing translation of season 2+ if you've purchased the chapters, send me a message :)
If you're not able to read the chapters, i am summarizing the chapters as i read them under the tag #side story rambles for season 1 (Masterlist) and #side story lb for seasons 2+ ( Newest / Chronological)
Things that might sell you on reading (spoilers):
I mentioned transmigrating into TWSA, not ORV, because this isn't the 3rd regression. as a result, Kim Dokja is not physically there.
If it's not the 3rd regression, then which is it? ...The 41st.
As for kim dokja's fate after the epilogue, it's complicated. we do see what happens after the door opens, though.
Kim Dokja kkomas.
JUNG HEEWON ENJOYERS. YOU WILL LOVE THE SIDE STORY.
New incarnations! New attributes, skills, everything! More worldbuilding!
yoohankim will never have peace
Do you like 49!KDJ? He's expanded on. A lot.
This is my personal opinion, but I find Lee Hakhyun an incredibly charming character. I haven't stopped thinking of the description of him as a mix of Shen Qingqiu and Shang Qinghua: "Author transmigrated into his own novel as a minor villian character except that villain is deeper than was first thought"... his personality is his own though <3 if you like those two characters you will most likely like LHH!!
This story is about you, dear reader. These transmigrated readers are just as devoted to this story as you are.
For more information, including some frequently asked questions, check out Vy's post (A little outdated as of season 3, we have new information on KDJ's situation~)
todays chapter included astronaut yjh pov. while he's resting in another world, biyoo tells him to imagine a life without the scenarios, which he can't do well. after some conversation (biyoo: "maybe in another life you wouldn't be unemployed. i feel sorry for captain.") he hears a boy's voice in the distance and immediately gets up and runs to grab his shoulder. as he reaches the boy, a gruff boy grabs his arm, while a small girl moves to protect the boy. he apologizes and lets go.
watching the three walk off, he starts to think. that boy who sounds like kim dokja, the gruff boy with a strikingly similar aura to himself, and the small girl with a mole on her cheek... he knows they couldn't really be who he's thinking of. even so, somewhere out there, a story like that might just exist.
a plot hole in witch hat atelier seems to be that while magic is supposed to be hidden from people without magical background, and we see in the first chapter that quifrey didnt want coco to see him drawing, glyphs are everywhere in the world around them, not very hidden at all.
keeping that magic is accessible to all hidden relies on a finely weaved set of lies and reliance on non magic folk to not look closer. You can see this in chapter 46 where they're fixing roadside glyphs, normal humans could definitely run into these things, and surely they would know the source of the magic was these glyphs, and through observing a lot work out how it is used. Coco managed to do this in just a few hours.
there's also magic items, which anyone can purchase and use, albeit for a price, they don't seem to be fully rare in the world and a lot have their glyphs fully visible to the user.
it would only take a child like coco, looking into these things and drawing their own glyphs, slowly building it up, to them possibly performing magic. especially since there's human/witch events like the silver night festival, where we see witch vendors selling things like magic pens and ink, that could be stolen, or if a human had studied magic through glyph observation, they could trick someone into thinking they were a witch.
Most of the facade looks to be on adults telling children that witchcraft is inate to witches and that witches aren't inherently human in some way.
while the magic Council tries to wipe out peoples memories who know of magic, the idea that people can be surrounded by magic source and not work out how it works or study it unless they
see someone perform magic like coco did with quifrey, or
get told directly about the nature of magic like most witches do through lineage or as custas did.
implies the magic Council may be doing something slightly more sinister than just wiping memories. Especially considering how interested non-magic people are about magic.
Even if they studied the glyphs and from there, correctly deduced how spells work, normal people wouldn't be able to cast spells. It's the ink, y'all. Without magical ink, spells don't work.
Ink is brewed using sap from dying branches of the silverwood tree. Coco had never seen one of those in her life, or heard of it...
According to what we know of the lore of the land, silverwoods are rare. We're told they "decide themselves where to grow", wether this means the trees have free will or a fairytale metaphor for them only growing in rare unexplained places is unknown and doesn't matter much so far, but the thing is they aren't a crop. It's fair to assume they rarely occur in nature and the few places where they do grow are known by the witches - this way they would be heavily regulated, not being a common sight in the first place.
Sap also can't be used just like that, there's a whole method to refine it into ink, which is again held by witches, and thus easily gatekept. How would unknowing know how to make it, or how would an unknowing who somehow learned get access to a tree without being found out? Similarly I find it hard to imagine someone deciphering glyphs could do so publicly without a mind wiping visit from the Knights...
With this in mind, even in the hypothetical scenario where an unknowing would figure out and reproduce a seal, it wouldn't work without ink. And in that case, how do you verify if it's indeed the chemical composition of the ink, or if it's something innate to witches instead? Considering the entire world believes in the latter...
Also worth noting, magical items are under heavy regulations and glyphs are well hidden in the first place. Coco's cape is interesting because she hides the glyph in plain sight among other decor. I doubt a very obvious glyph on an item would be authorized.
This being said, this whole ink debaucle is my personal theory for what Iguin's group is planning. We see him use his own ink several times - both at the labyrinth and at the riverside, it's the same ink, that magnifies magic. We later learn it's made at least partially using his blood. If it /was/ his blood, that would entirely eliminate the need for the silverwoods and make magic accessible to anyone who's undergone whatever he went through to gain these abilities and it would become nearly impossible to regulate who can cast... which would fit very well his talk of turning the world upside down.
tangentwithtanner
stormborns
