Chapter 589, orv side story.
"Do you mean to say that in your next life, you will have me as a colleague? The body of the Ten Evils, Evil Sophist, your arch enemy?"—Cheon Inho
"That wasn't enough to be my arch enemy."
"If the world were to repeat itself once more, would you be willing to live a different life?"
In hindsight, these lines would have sounded so cruel to Cheon Inho.
Your efforts weren’t even enough to be acknowledged by Yoo Joonghyuk despite being obsessed with him to the point of rising at the top of the Ten Evils and repeatedly fight against him. It was a one-sided rivalry in Cheon Inho’s head, and even though he killed his colleagues, YJH made that proposal.
Being able to stand as YJH’s equal.
Finally, in the last fight, after the world was ruined, the thing he wanted all along was offered in the next life.
But accepting it would also make all his efforts until now meaningless, and deny everything he had done.
He felt angry at YJH. It was far too late to hear such a thing.
"Why would you need my help? You can repeat the world infinitely anyway. No matter how difficult the scenario is, if you try again and again, you'll eventually clear it."
"Don't think of making me your colleague. I will be your enemy in the next round, and I will be your enemy again, and again, and again."
"Hurry up and press the reset button. Face me as an enemy forever."
So he continued what he had done until now—to be a villain.
The truth is, there was no way he wouldn’t have refused it at that moment, no matter how much he wanted to accept it.
Chapter 1014:
"I fought life-or-death battles with him several times. We nearly killed each other, and nearly died again."
"Do you miss him?"
"…"
"It feels just like you are talking about an old friend."
"I killed him with my own hands."
"…"
"I saw with my own eyes the moment he breathed his last and left this world."
"You said your life's goal was to surpass that man, didn't you?"
"That is correct."
"Then you achieved the goal you wanted, Father."
His father did not answer with a simple 'Yes' as usual. Kim Dokja asked again.
"Weren't you happy?"
"He left me behind and moved on to the 'next story'."
Regardless of the part where he found out the truth of the world beyond the Final Wall—after ending up alone in that world, killing YJH and literally being the only human left standing; how lonely it must have been.
Would he have been happy to have achieved his goal?
To defeat his lifelong rival, in a world where no star was present to witness it, and the only person he proved it to was himself.
But also knowing that YJH had only regressed.
He won this fight—but lost.
"In his long journey to prevent the destruction of the world, I was merely a minor villain decorating a single episode. The residue left behind in a world abandoned by the protagonist. That is me."
'Are you satisfied to have ruined this world?'
No.
And Yoo Joonghyuk never understood him.