since he's supposedly died/disappeared on them several times now, usually for years at a time. I'd knock him over the head and tie him up as well.

wistful, like how I like it.

Getting into spoiler territory, I'm going to discuss the developments of the leads and the side characters - what I enjoyed and what was underwhelming

**Kim Dokja** was our main character, the reader that had read all about the life of Yoo Joonghyuk, the other main lead. His arc consisted of him developing an appreciation for the story outside of viewing it as simply a story. At the beginning of the story, Dokja treated it just as another novel, quite literally "reading" the event as they happened with the traditional emotional detachment as expected of a reader. This was the story that had "saved" him after all, so he approached it with equal amounts of wariness and excitement. This was exemplified by the presence of the "Fourth Wall", which dulled the emotional impacts from events that were considered "part of the story". However, as the scenarios progressed and he began developing more emotional bonds with the different "characters" he met, his perception gradually changed. Sacrifice after sacrifice, Kim Dokja began to care for these characters as people more than tools to clear the scenarios. What began as a desire to get the "team he'd want to beat the scenarios" changed to "wanting to see the ending with the people he loved the most". His appreciation for them developed from mere satisfaction to a genuine appreciation. He represents the epitome of a reader - one who starts of detached, but gradually gets immersed into the world they read about, giving life to the characters and the world through their imagination and immersion. This is the entire premise behind the "Oldest Dream" - the reader that gives life to the world. The fusion of Kim Dokja's meta nature as the reader and his persona as a character was well-melded - he wasn't too overpowered as to make the scenarios trivial, rather in the same boat as the others. The author focused more on his emotional attachments and development rather than any major power scaling, which I found a refreshing positive. However, his character did have his flaws. One of his primary actions was continuously "sacrificing" himself for his comrades in order to convey his selflessness and magnitude of care for his companions. However, this was way too overdone, to the point of sort of ruining the tension every time such a moment arrived. Sure, the first two times or so, it was good, no, great - we got to see peeks of how the companions truly felt about KDJ and cared for him, and we realized how KDJ would give his life up for those he had considered words in a novel up until recently. After the third time, this novelty went away. Instead, it became a sort of common occurrence, almost expected - KDJ dies, somehow magically revives but not before having all the companions go through another "sad but whatever" arc, he comes back, gets told down for it, then repeat. I feel as if it took away from his character more than it added - if he really cared, he wouldn't keep killing himself for them. Unbelievably dense.

Yoo Joonghyuk was the character Kim Dokja read about, the one who "saved" him just from his story being written down. He's a regressor, but not in the traditional sense - he's the essence of regression depression. Going through a few regressions before this, he's been stripped of most emotion - all that remains is an iron-willed determination to "save the world" from the Star Stream. His arc focuses him on regaining his care for the world, what motivated him in the first place. Through his experiences with Kim Dokja, he begins to value the meaning of life - something he had so easily discarded previously. He realizes his actions do change the lives of others - each of his turns leaves everyone else abandoned. Through watching Kim Dokja, he gradually has a change of heart - maybe living his life to the fullest was the method to salvation. His character takes another turn when he's faced with the fact that Kim Dokja had known him as a character before. Betrayal, confusion, anger - how do you treat someone who knows everything about you, but continued to act like someone normal towards you? Manipulation. This leads to one of the most impactful scenes in the novel - Kim Dokja abandoning his identity as a reader and treating this world as reality, and Yoo Joonghyuk breaking free of his constraints as a character and finally exercising his free will, doing what he wants to instead of being bound by his regression turn. Watching YJH change from an uncaring shell of a man to someone filled with loyalty and care regarding life, his companions, and his freedom was amazing. When the Secretive Plotter - YJH if he hadn't met KDJ - appeared, these differences were all too evident, illuminating just how much YJH had changed, and for the better. Sacrificing pure strength for something more - emotions.

Han Sooyoung is not a very interesting character. While being considered a lead in technicalities, she isn't developed as much as the other two. She is the "writer" of the reader-character-writer trio, and her whole arc is about the nature of an author. If you can even call it an arc. Most of her "epiphanies" happen in the last few chapters. She's initially introduced as an antagonist - someone who wrote a story very similar to Ways of Survival and read the original, though not as much as Kim Dokja. However, due to a turn of events, she ends up becoming KDJ's ally. Inexplicably, they develop a really close relationship seemingly out of nowhere, and it's not really expanded upon besides "they both read novel". It's kind of frustrating, especially considering how much the side characters, which are arguably more interesting, are usually sidelined by the author. She doesn't develop much besides serving as KDJ's stand-in when he commits su*cide every few chapters, and just being... there? Not as interesting or meta as the other two, for sure. The message of her character, along with Asuka Ren, is the responsibility a writer has as a writer, and the idea that a story is independent from the writer. As HSY says, the writer is the medium by which a story expresses itself - the writer is only a tool themselves. Their affinity at translating their world into readable text is what sets apart good and bad writers. HSY herself had "visions" of what she wanted to write. Besides this point, we don't really see much development regarding her. She's just kinda... there.

The side characters are arguably the most disappointing part of the novel. They had so much potential, but just fall short. Many of them are only there to provide reactions to the antics the leads do, or just serve as comedy relief. While introduced as having much potential, they take the sideline way more than any other characters do. When JHW and LHS have their little romantic subplot, it feels really forced because there just wasn't much obvious buildup to it - it felt like a slightly unwelcome surprise. While they were entertaining to read, that was about it - for most of the story, they just felt like filler, following KDJ mindlessly without many goals of their own to complete. The constellations were slightly better, admittedly only a few - specifically Uriel and the Prisoner of the Golden Headband. However, both of them had entire arcs they were a part of, and contributed a lot to the progression of the plot, so they can't really be compared to KDJ's literal companions. It seems unfair that these constellations, who only popped up for real midway through the story, got more development than the people KDJ has been travellng with since the other half.

For example, the Demon Castle arc was one of my favorites. Especially the ending of it, where the prophecy introduced at the start came full circle, even with them trying to avoid it. The issues introduced at the beginning of the arc were all resolved by the end in a somewhat satisfying way, and left me wanting to know what happened so bad. The settings in this arc were also really cool (like Paradise and the 73rd Demon King area). The Journey to the West was also really unique - I enjoyed the whole "please the Sun Wukongs" thing, and though the reasoning for the whole thing was blurry, the ending with the culmination of the giant war and The Most Ancient Liberator was awesome, even though it felt surreal.

Most of the other arcs, though I can't really call out specifics, were a bit underwhelming. The whole Nirvana arc was pretty pointless, as it somehow devolved into a 1v1 between YJH and Nirvana where KDJ kills himself because he's somehow the "most powerful person" and he knows it. It felt really forced, just to introduce the "third way of survival" and shove Nirvana into the Fourth Wall's Library to set it up for later. The actions of Nirvana (such as the whole JHW and LSY issue) are mentioned, yeah, but pretty much overlooked as they emerge just fine. The tension in that arc was so sudden that it almost felt unreal and forced. Though it might be a personal preference, the Kaixenix Archipelago arc and Dokja's return arcs also felt kind of forced. I didn't really like the trope where Dokja suddenly comes back after a few years and the companions, who had begun to exude development that I so dearly desired, just reverted back to their 2D selves after a few words from Dokja.

Overall though, most of the arcs were pretty good, but nothing amazing. They progressed the plot forward enough to be valid, though I wish some of them were expanded more upon (like the entire inter-galactic city of the 50th (I think?) scenario).

The Star Stream is the main "universe", per say, that the story is set in. It provides a power called "probability", which decides how much power a character is allowed to exude in a setting. Probability always moves in the direction that the most people want it. In general, the Star Stream is a metaphor for a "stream", or a story. The Constellations are its readers, and much like KDJ, watch it for entertainment. They want the story to g some way, and they exercise probability in order to make it happen. This serves as an indirect comparison to KDJ, who did the very same thing to YJH in Ways of Survival, where his comments did end up shaping the story (somewhat). The story which he read for enjoyment, like the Constellations. However, this also explains the main difference between them - Dokja's empathy. He doesn't read for entertainment - no, he reads for genuine attachment. He empathizes with each character, caring for them as if they were real. Treating them as people though they are amalgamations of words. The Constellations view their stories as their playthings, to be engineered for maximum enjoyment without a care for those "characters" inside of it. The Star Stream is the very type of story that KDJ's company hates - a story written simply for the pleasure of the masses, and read by the masses that read it only for enjoyment and nothing more. With the Star Stream as a base, the author aims to argue that novels shouldn't be written to please - they should be written with meaning, to allow the reader to genuinely care for it. A story for everyone is a story for no one, after all. The setting itself is a foil for KDJ, which I find really cool. When factoring in how the Star Stream relates to the novel's overall theme regarding books, it becomes even cooler.

Besides this, the other settings in the novel are sort of unique. The whole concept of reincarnators, returnees, and other tropes are generally fine. The scenarios are all somewhat unique, though some of them are better than others. Nothing feels too repeated or dull - each setting has its own flair about it, and appeals to some aspects more than others. No setting is truly dismal to read and visualize.

All in all, the ending is the most meta part of the novel. KDJ splits himself into two halves, one to become the Oldest Dream and keep dreaming about the universe in order to keep the world moving, while the other half is dedicated to living out his life with his companions. This itself was a major reveal, though not unexpected - the function of the Oldest Dream was hinted at in many ways before this. The whole part after this was actually pretty satisfying and enjoyable - the companions, who had blindly followed KDJ before this, finally had a change of heart - they were tired, and rightfully so. I was glad they were finally acting like real people, not just robots. I admit, it was frustrating when HSY was suddenly the number one KDJ supporter and somehow rallied them all to literally go through another regression turn and save him, but I played along with it. However, what surprised me was that the author actually allowed them to fail. They failed at saving KDJ. Now, that was a refreshing plot development. They finally began to settle down, and genuinely reject the idea of abandoning their normalcy for another failed attempt. They were genuinely burnt out. Finally, they were acting like normal people.

Then, the mind-bending part of the ending began. Abusing the nature of the Oldest Dream, HSY decided to write a book regarding their story, and distribute it to all the world-lines KDJ had "reincarnated" into so, if they all dreamt of it, it'd come to reality. Alright, this required some mental gymnastics to understand, but alright. The whole ending was generally just confusing, with a whole lot of world line jumping and a whole bunch of despair. Felt like some Steins; Gate stuff. Anyways, the best part of the ending was the cycle it implied.

It was revealed HSY wrote Ways of Survival, as her regressed self had implanted the memories into her future self to do it. It was some weird stuff, but that meant the entire world was in an endless cycle, doomed to eternity. HSY would keep writing, KDJ would keep reading, and YJH would keep enduring, with no end. The snake bit its own tail. It was surprising - ORV's ending was more of a tragedy than anything else. A surprising, but welcome respite from the wave of gung-ho "for friendship!" stuff before this. Though I still felt really bad for KDJ.

The ending was open ended - YJH and HSY barely managed to distribute the novel due to some dues-ex-machina, and it was implied KDJ had fully woken up. I mostly ignored the ending's implications in favor of the grandeur of the majority of the story, though.

The main gripe many people focus on was the 51% 49% split. It was unique, KDJ (Oldest Dream) being just greedy enough to steal that bit of memories that made him more "real", more qualified to remember his companions just that bit better. It honestly fit his character really well, and I appreciated that addition

Originally, when I finished this story the first time, I was at a lost. The ending sounded impossible and the story itself felt like a gaping hole. I had to re-read the story again to grasp why the ending had happened the way it did. It was easily explained with 'disconnected film theory', a theory made-up in this story.

I don't mind open endings like these. An ending left to the reader, which solidify a story meant for the reader. It suits the story and I understand the writer's intentions this way.

As of now, the story picked up again this year on Kim Dokja's birthday with a sidestory. I plan to review it once the author is finished with it.

The story also started playing on meta-story themes, where it was a story of a story. Time travel and time lines were all over the place. It felt unsatisfying after such a thrilling ride.