A/N: Sorry it's a late chapter.

"Now that we are cooperating as per our deal, I have a few questions to ask." I felt dead tired, sighing and aching as I supported my hands with them resting on my waist.

"Hmph." Mrs. Wang snorted, her arms folded over her chest.

"What is your ability?" I asked the stout lady.

Reluctantly, she answered.

"...I'm able to set up a field beforehand that can influence gravity. It puts a strain on my body and stamina, however, so I need a lot of Physique stat."

Gravity? Well, it was no wonder that none of the thoughts that played out of my head didn't slow down either. 

"Huh? But the ground and the pillars weren't affected. Old grandma, you aren't hiding the true information, are you?" Christina narrowed her eyes.

The stout lady exploded.

"Rascal, you don't understand! I can't influence objects, only living things! And who are you calling a grandma?!"

Christina didn't get mad at that this time, nodding her head in smugness at wringing information out of her opponent.

"Spy, you see that? This is how you get answers to your questions." Christina smiled at me and raised a piece sign.

It ticked the stout lady off so much she immediately threw hands at Christina, but Christina easily pushed the stout lady back and taunted her a little more.

From this, it appeared the stout lady invested everything in her physique stat, because her other stats were not very strong.

"Another question I hope you will answer, Mrs. Wang. Why did you only choose now to steal a flag, and not earlier, or even before we took over?" I asked Mrs. Wang, leaving the scuffle between Christina and the stout lady. 

I wasn't too worried, because the stout lady had exhausted her stamina too much to activate her ability again.

Toward Mrs. Wang, I was genuinely curious as to why she didn't stage a coup d'etat when she was stronger than the previous station representative.

"I was waiting for a chance. Gravy's ability is special, and we only had one chance. She has to stay in one place for a long time before being able to use it. I wouldn't have done this if it weren't for you taking over this place." Mrs. Wang spat out each word, still looking at me with hostility and contempt.

"You somewhat used your head in that game, I'll give you that, but you're still too green." Mrs. Wang added on.

"Is that advice for me?" My eyes widened slightly.

Mrs. Wang just looked at me with a warm smile. "Sure."

"Spy friend, are you finished talking with them? There's something I think you should check out." Jie Kushin tapped my shoulder after coming back from his search.

"Yes, just a moment." I raised my voice after that.

"Attention! The vice representative of this station will be Cho Youngran and Mrs. Wang. You can look for them to sort out some things."

I clasped Mrs. Wang's shoulder before she could say anything, and then tacitly shook hands with Cho Youngran.

[You have transferred partial authority to Incarnation Cho Youngran and Incarnation Wang Leehyun. They will be able to mete out punishments on station members on your behalf.]

"Wait a minute-" Wang Leehyun was probably trying to say something after that, but I was speed walking out of there with Jie Kushin at that moment.

"Jie Kushin, what is it that you're concerned about?" I began.

"There were some people that showed up that were already aware of our station. I captured two of the scouters, but one of them is kind of weird." Jie Kushin's eyebrows scrunched themselves as he progressed in his report, "He was saying something about the fact that the 'Tyrant king' will not let us off, and the fact that he knows the future...Spy friend, who is the 'Tyrant King'?"

I froze mid-stride but resumed smoothly a moment afterward.

This was something I expected as soon as I met another existence who knew of that novel, but this meant things were not going to be so simple from now on.

I immediately eliminated the knowledge of that person being a prophet, because the only known prophet in the entirety of [Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World] was Anna Croft, separated by an ocean, who was on another continent.

So the knowledge of the other person being another reader remained.

"Is this your representative? Looks weak as hell." As soon as we approached the two figures tied up by vines, courtesy of Jie Kushin, one of them tried to provoke me.

Ignoring the jab, I crouched down to their tied-up forms and stared straight into each one's faces.

"You've mentioned a 'Tyrant King'? Who is he? And you mentioned knowing the future...well, what do you mean by that?"

The man on the right laughed.

"You ignorant little girl, the 'Tyrant King' is Jung Youngho. Do you even know what a king is? It's a person who has conquered ten stations! I am someone who knows the future, and crucially important. I am his advisor. You better let me go if you know what's best for you."

I raised my brow.

"An advisor? All the way out here? Seems more like you've been abandoned." I ridiculed him.

His face changed ever-so slightly, and because I was staring at him intently, I caught onto the fact that I hit the nail right on the head.

"Try me, little girl, and you'll see. In fact, you should run before your station gets captured. I've seen it in your future." The captive said in false bravado.

This time, it was my turn to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation.

"Okay, I'll get to the point. Tell me all that you know." I leaned over and whispered in his ear, "Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined world."

Now, he could not steady his face, which contorted into one of absolute shock, as if he had seen a ghost. The final blow to the nail that ascertained my assumption.

"How-! No, when did you get off?"

What was this strange question? A code of some sort?

I simply stared at him in non-comprehension.

The man took it in another way at my lack of reaction and dead-pan face, for he then testily spoke,

"What was the password to being accepted in the chatroom?"

 It was another piece of information packaged in a question that let me know I was completely out of the loop.

A chatroom when there is no internet? 

No, there was a way. The future Hermit King, Han Donghoon possessed a special skill that allowed him to reign over social media.

In this world where communication with others over long distances plummeted, Han Donghoon was both crucial and held the advantage over knowledge.

Was this man actually under Han Donghoon or...?

In any case, there must be a spread of information about [Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World] that I was oblivious about. This was a bad start.

"I think you're forgetting your position here." I shook my head. "I can kill you at any time. Or are you begging me to kill you?"

I unsheathed my dagger leisurely.

"Judging by how you don't seem to know what I'm talking about, it seems you don't know much. If you set me free, I can tell you information about the future." The man eyed the dagger warily, shifting his back to put distance away from the dagger as much as he could.

His partner, silent thus far, shifted away from the man all the same.

I guffawed at him.

"I don't know about that. But I certainly know more than you."

"Um, spy friend, he's suspicious-" Jie Kushin began.

[Lie Detection has proven your words to be true.]

He has this skill? My eyebrows rose.

"W-wait! Are you an apostle? There's no way you know more than me otherwise! Why are you pretending not to know anything?"

"Apostle?" I grew more confident at realizing the captive was going down a rabbit hole of his own assumptions. In that case, I could try bluffing a little more. There wasn't anything to lose anyway.

I tossed the dagger upward and caught it by the handle with ease.

"I'm more than that. In fact, out of all of you lot, I've read 'till the last chapter."

[Lie Detection has proven your words to be true.]

"N-no way..." The man couldn't stop his mouth from opening into an 'o' in perpetual shock.

Snapping it shut, he suddenly said,

"First Apostle-nim?! But what are you doing here?"

I don't understand whatever you're talking about, but continue.

"And why should I answer you?" I drew the blade close to his neck, snarling. "Stop asking questions. And if you keep using that skill on me, I'll gut you."

"Update me on what's happening. No lying." I smiled at him.

"Are you testing- ah, yes, my apologies, I'll tell you everything you want to know. Just..." The man looked down at the dagger's blade reflecting his face.

I retracted it and sheathed it.

"In exchange for telling you an update, can you take me and my buddy under your wing first apostle-nim?"

I nodded.

Despite a layer of relief flooding his face, the man remained tense, evident facts about the level of trust he had to me.

"It-it's like this. We are on the run from being found out by the tyrant king, and had to leave our station. Beginning our trek, we found no shortage of troubles. It's been days since we've last eaten anything..." He glanced up from his emotional storytelling, only to find an impassive expression on my face.

"...We encountered monsters, and had to hide from people searching for us. One day I even had to-"

"To the point, please." I interrupted, finding the narrative going nowhere.

The man, knowing that he wasn't going to get the sympathy he was expecting, hardened his expression and sighed.

"The Tyrant King has become aware of others reading the Divine Revelation, and has been scouring the stations for them. In turn, they've been enslaved and forced to use the knowledge to his advantage. Now he's too strong, and is an active threat. So us readers scheduled a 'Night of Prophets'...someone told us that we were going to learn about a secret weapon that can get rid of him at the meeting."

"Hm."

"...It's held at Anguk Station in a few days. Will First Apostle-nim be going?" There was something testy about the way he was looking at me.

With this information, I thought about it.

Secret weapon? I've not heard of it. Was this something in the novel that I forgot about?

An ominous promotion filled me when I thought about going to the 'Night of Prophets'.

I don't know what the other readers are planning, but it can't be anything good. After all, people act on a plan to get rid of one trouble, only to notice the problem they create by getting rid of that trouble with something else.

Nevermind that. I'll leave the other readers up to their own plans.

Still, I needed more information on them to know what they were up to, and if they would affect me. I sighed internally at yet another load on my to-do list. Surviving is hard.

"No. That's not what I'm interested in. Give me more information on the Tyrant King. How many stations has he conquered?"

Therefore, I put off the load to do later, focusing on the pressing issue at hand, like I always did.

"...Well, he's gotten six stations already." 

Six already?

That meant we didn't have a lot of time left.

"Speed? How fast has he gotten to those stations?" I pressed on.

A flash of suspicion came across the man's face that did not go unnoticed.

It appeared I was asking some questions that the 'first apostle' should have known the answers to, or I was asking too many questions.

My only solace was that the man was not close to the 'first apostle' so the information he should know on them was limited as well, giving me more space to move in.

"I've heard he's gathered them in 2 days..."

Please kill me.

I was seriously contemplating throwing myself off a building to escape from the current situation pressing itself down on me.

"It seems you guys are making the situation worse by feeding that guy information. Are you trying to destroy this world?" I curled my lips in frustration.

"N-no! They were the guys who were making a mistake."

"Says the guy who was preaching he was a certain someone's advisor." I wanted to roll my eyes.

 "I wasn't one in the first place. I mean, I am now loyal to you." The man hurriedly spoke.

I took those words as a grain of salt.

"Prove your loyalty. Words are words."

At these words, his partner subtly looked upward at me.

[Incarnation Tai Jeong is asking your consent to midday trust.]

Hm?

[You have agreed to midday trust. You two can now begin conversing.]

Tai Jeong sent a message first. [Don't trust him. He wanted to send you into a trap at the 'Night of Prophets'.]

The man, who swore loyalty, prattled on about all sorts of miscellaneous information, which I couldn't put full attention towards.

[How so?] I replied.

[In fact, the secret weapon is also supposed to get rid of you guys, the apostles.]

I was surprised.

Suddenly, I wasn't sure of who to trust in which piece of information was true.

[I swear that whatever I've said is the truth.]

An Oath of Existence.

Like the ones in Xianxia novels of swearing under the heavens, if the person swearing the Oath goes against their words, they would die.

It was also the Oath I forced the ones at Indegwon Station to swear to prevent them from getting any bad thoughts about Lee Sookyung and her community.

[I trusted him]

I could feel the resentment hidden in those words.

[But I'm now a 'Slave' to him. He gave me poison. If I go against his words, he won't give me the antidote. Trust me, you should kill him!]

The wrath radiated off of those words in waves.

But I only answered coldly.

[And why should I?]

[He'll stab you in the back! Are you saying you can ignore that?]

[Tai Jeong-ssi, what makes you so sure that we're close enough for me to kill a man for you? I believe you haven't said everything.]

"...first apostle-nim, what do you think?" The captive man smiled ingratiatingly.

"I'll think about it." I replied.

[...Fine. So we were using each other. What would you like to know?] Tai Jeong spoke after a while.

It seemed he was determined to bring the other down with him.

[What does it mean to 'get off'? And how many are there of you?]

Tai Jeong scoffed.

[I had a feeling you weren't the first apostle. No clue what came over that bastard to wildly trust that you were.]

So, it appeared Tai Jeong didn't know his traveling buddy had used the Lie Detection Skill on me. Or, perhaps he did know, but still didn't trust it.

[The term 'get off' refers to which portion of the novel that you dropped it at. The people who held on longer generally have larger numbers. The people who read the most are called the apostles, and there are twelve of them. For me, I'm the 658th person to get off.

As for the number of prophets...we had 63, but now I'm not sure, as some got captured by the to-be Tyrant King.]

[And the chatroom password?]

[...YooJungHyukTheSupremeKing1!1!]

I took a moment to appreciate the password people came up with.

[I'll get the antidote for you in exchange for this information.]

[No, you must kill-!] Tai Jeong was getting agitated again.

[You have temporarily withdrawn from midday trust.]

I leaned down and pretended to take Tai Jeong's pulse.

"Oh Loyal man, care to explain what state your partner is in?" I turned to the guy.

"He got poisoned by one of the beasts we encountered. I'm afraid it may be too late for him." He looked regretful, playing the good-friend card.

"The Antidote." I kept it precise and short.

"Huh?"

"The antidote. I know you have it on you."

"No, I don't!" He shouted, then realized he gave himself away by saying that.

Resigned, he sighed and gestured to his pocket.

"I-I wasn't - I was afraid if you had this information, you would destroy it before I could give it to my good pal. Not that I don't trust you, First Apostle-nim, but it was just a habit." The man was trying to give a reasonably justified excuse, but I wasn't going to buy it.

I carefully withdrew a vial, and basically force-fed it down Tai Jeong's throat.

Tai Jeong sputtered, but it was swallowed in the end.

"Well, I welcome you as people of my station." I stood up and extended my hand, like they would be able to shake it despite being bound tightly.

[You have accepted two incarnations to your station. You now have a total of 18 members.]

"Just so you know, I'm not the first apostle." My first sentence was aimed at the one person whose assumption flew off the rails.

"What?" He said, taken aback.

I ignored it.

"And if you try anything, you know what's coming."