Only I Am A Reader

'It really does feel like everything is coming to an end…'

The words muttered by the Heavenly Demon might have come as mostly ambiguous due to the clear lack of context, but for Leo who was fully in the know, he felt like time was flowing even faster.

Having directly skipped up to one of the future events, the already shaky timeline map had almost exhausted all of its use in its current state. However, with Geochin likely on his way to finishing up the event where he was supposed to meet the Roc Parrot, Leo was sure that they had firmly pushed through two-thirds of the novel!

With the mention of the Demon Lord's advent, the monster invasion's end was naturally drawing near. Whether it would be humanity's win or not was still up to debate with so many changes in place, but either way, the final arc was supposed to follow and give the story a proper conclusion.

'I'm not even sure if I can consider this a good or a bad thing.'

Theoretically speaking, Leo's current quests had no time limits to speak of. Even if they went over the Epilogue, he wouldn't have failed the task to kill the protagonist just yet, but in the end, it wasn't realistic to speak in that manner…

A protagonist was always their strongest at the end of every novel, let alone the 'everything is now perfect' ending, rising against Geochin after all is settled would be like challenging an already difficult dungeon at Hell difficulty!

Although there was still the option to just take it as if the quest never existed and continue living in this world, a silent and happy life with Yeon till the last breath was similarly unrealistic thanks to the enemy-loving obsession that the author imputed into Geochin. Even if they were to withdraw from the final battle, the odds that the protagonist would chase after them until the end was high.

'I always desired more choices, but is freedom really nothing but anxiety fuel…?'

Admittedly, the odds that Geochin might have changed enough to let them go under Leo's influence weren't low either, but was running away from his duty as a Reader before he even knew what that entailed the right choice? Would it be right for only his second world to be the last stop in his journey?

On the other hand, did he truly have any obligation to leave? Now that he found the warmth and relations that he had been lacking on Earth, wasn't it the best time to lay his nest and fold his wings?

Just like he was having trouble deciding whether he should come here, Leo found himself caught in the same dilemma on this side. However, he quickly reached a conclusion this time.

'Running away shouldn't be an option.'

While it seemed like he was simply going with the flow in this way, Leo knew that he just couldn't stop here! He didn't belong to the worlds where everything was already written with one single person at its center. Even if he wanted to stay, he had to remove the focal point for the usual unpredictability of life would once again come into play!

In particular, Geochin had to die! As the reader who knew the most about the story's protagonist, Leo had already come to this decision. He would likely lose the option to remain in Murim by doing so, but his target was unchanged.

"It was about time you understood some things so I will get you the papers you need to look through at a later time. For now, you should get someproper rest."

After walking them back to their nice little home, Cheon Jeong left with Cheon Chang, leaving Leo and the others to wash away the fatigue of the journey.

'For Yeon's sake as well…'

`~~~`~~~`~~~`

Wishwishhhh…

Having done too much as of late, Leo simply spent the rest of the day doing nothing but lying on his bed while browsing through some books in his head. The next day, he did something out of the norm for the very first time, going down to the Heavenly Furnace!

'Been a while since I had a refreshing shower.'

By the time they had woken up, he, Yeon, Sohee, and Yong not only found the records that the Blade Spirit said she would send, but they also received the blood-red tokens of a Scarlet Sky Warrior!

Unlike the first token which only acted as an identification method, the Scarlet Sky Tokens contained actual information like the so-called instructing slips often used in Xianxia novels, albeit being limited to simply Internal Energy Sequences.

Although that didn't look like much, these sequences were like a chain of keys giving them the freedom to move around more in Mount Heaven. Rather than just having the ability to enter and exit, they could visit some isolated places like the Heavenly Furnace!

There were more places to shower above, but the speculations that haunted Leo made his nostalgia explode. Still, showering casually like he did as a child was a bit of a stretch, so he used his Internal Energy to cover himself up with barriers as if he was using a shower room.

'It would have been nice if I could go back there, but there is no helping it.'

Unfortunately, the 'chain' that he received didn't contain the key to his favorite place, the Heavenly Demon's Library! Now that he had this much experience, Leo believed that he could sweep the place even more effectively, but even authority wasn't enough to enter that place willy-nilly…

'It's more plausible to expect that in the future…'

Drying the water off his body, Leo put in his clothes and tied his hair back as usual. After his height started nearing 2 meters, his body's growth seemed to have settled down even when his strength kept on growing. In a sense, the current Baekho had the ideal physique that Leo once aspired to achieve by going to the gym.

"Cheon Baekho?"

Just when Leo was about to go on a stroll around the place to calm down his nostalgia, he unexpectedly came upon an old acquaintance.

'Oh?'