Kim Dokja (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thefaultinthestars) wrote2022-07-04 12:21 pm
thefaultinthestars) wrote2022-07-04 12:21 pmStory Time
[This post for the many threads of Dokja telling his story]
thefaultinthestars) wrote2022-07-04 12:21 pm
[Day 10]
So let's see. Last time is when that brat threw me off the bridge...
Re: [Day 10]
Re: [Day 10]
Ah, that's right. Even though you asked if it was possible, you decided you were quite sure.
[Constellation 'Demon King of Salvation' is activating 'Reading Again'.]
[Ability 'Reading Again' is reading the story '■■■■■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■■■■■'.]
Well, you're correct of course.
[around them there the dizzying effect of the story conveying the actions of Kim Dokja being carried through a rapid current through the gullet of the snake, along with a car and pieces of asphalt as big as he is.
When he pops out into the belly of the snake, Dokja grumbles to himself about what a psychopath Junghyeok is, while the narrative acknowledges that this was certainly a test from someone who had not accepted anyone as his equal since the first failed attempt to make it through the scenarios.
Dokja finds a piece of floating debris to call home, and appears to just be waiting there, though it seems they have a time limit of about thirty minutes before acid would start to spew into the snake's stomach to digest it's food.
Before long, the dokkaebi appears with a cackle, apparently to rub into Dokja's face his impending death, only to be surprised to find him waiting so calmly. Dokja mentions he knew the dokkaebi would show up to collect coins for failing the sub-scenario, and after further surprise that Dokja knew about this, the dokkaebi tries to charge Dokja every single coin he has.
Dokja tells him it is too much, and when the dokkaebi says he will simply let him die if it's too much, Dokja calls his bluff.]
[Dokja challenges him with a cocky grin, and the dokkaebi stops cackling, watching him, stunned]
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[Within the story, Kim Dokja smugly continues, calling the dokkaebi by his name and title 'Low Grade Dokkaebi Bihyung', and mentioning that Bihyung's career has been going poorly lately, hasn't it? The constellations have been stingy.
Just as Bihyung is getting riled up, and messages begin to flow in from the constellations wondering who this Kim Dokja guy is, Dokja whispers that Bihyung should be the stream on hold so they can talk.
Bihyung has no choice, and once he has put the stream on hold snarls at Dokja:]
[The Star Stream, naturally a reader of Three Ways to Survive would know, is the means by which everything that happens during the scenarios is broadcast to the constellations throughout the galaxies. The dokkaebis provide the service of streaming the actions of actors -- incarnations like Kim Dokja -- to the constellations.
Dokja doesn't answer how he knows, of course, instead making a truly wild suggestion to the dokkaebi. Enter into a contract with him and Dokja will make Bihyung the most successful dokkaebi there ever was, taking him all the way up to the rank of the dokkaebi king.]
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[I should have realized when you rejected all of the offers from the Constellations!]
[The dokkaebi continues to roll around and laugh while explaining that he isn't a Constellation, so he can't be a sponsor. But Dokja clarifies he's not interested in a sponsor contract, but a stream contract. In exchange for Dokja appearing on Bihyung's channel, he would earn a portion of Bihyung's earnings from his channel, and Bihyung would get a portion of Dokja's.
However, these are normally contracts between the constellations and dokkaebi. Incarnations are more or less slaves to the desires of the constellation, a human would never be in a position to negotiate this for themselves.
The dokkaebi finds Dokja quite arrogant, to be proposing this when he has no constellation. But Dokja points out that this is actually better for the dokkaebi.
Constellations, he goes on to explain, join channels for one of two reasons. Either they are incarnation hunting, and once they find their incarnation the one sponsor will stay but the rest will leave. Or they are simply looking for entertainment and will change channels as soon as they get bored.]
[Rather impressive for a human, but how does that concern you?]
"How thick are you? No wonder your subscriber count is only in the three digits."
[Shut up and get to the point.]
"What if there was a channel that could both entertain it's subscribers, and showcase incarnations?"
[There's no way that's possible.]
"Constellations that are looking for incarnation to sponsor... eventually leave the channel as soon as sponsor selection is over. But what if there is an incarnation who refuses to take a support constellation? And what if that incarnation still outperforms the incarnations that do have a supporting constellation?"
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[The Dokkaebi still thinks this human is foolish, but Dokja pushes aggressively, that it can be done and Bihyung will become the dokkaebi king if only he does as Dokja wishes. Trying to regain his footing, the dokkaebi says that to start, Dokja needed to pay what he owed for failing the scenario, but Dokja smugly tells him he didn't fail, and almost at the same moment a new sub scenario appears:]
+
[Hidden Scenario – Commander Slayer]
Category: Hidden
Difficulty: A+
Clear Conditions: Kill the ichthyosaur ‘sea commander’ and escape from its stomach.
Time Limit: 10 days
Compensation: 9,000 coins
Failure: Death
+
[Now clearly getting caught up in Dokja's pace, the dokkaebi has to endure Dokja smugly berating him for not even knowing there was a sub-scenario here. In one breath Dokja ridicules him, then claims that if he can beat this A+ level sub-scenario, it will be proof he is able to do as well as any incarnation with a supporting constellation, and the dokkaebi will have to accept contracting with him. Even though technically nothing is forcing the dokkaebi, he agrees.
The complaints of the constellations then rise and the dokkaebi is torn between being bullied by the constellations and bullied by Kim Dokja. The constellations are complaining about the channel being shut down, accusing him of favoritism, accusing him of incompetence. He tries to appease them. At the same time.
Kim Dokja demands the dokkaebi fix whatever is preventing him from being able to see his attribute window, only for Bihyung to be slammed with the sparks created by his abilities being blocked by the 4th Wall, the same as Yu Junghyeok had experienced.
Bihyung doesn't know his abilities were blocked by the 4th Wall, just that inexplicably he is unable to use his system maintenance skills on Kim Dokja. He tries again and again, while Kim Dokja actually gets quite pleased to know he has such a ridiculous defensive ability, that even the arbitrators of the system can't get past it. It's bad that he can't see his own attribute window, but amazingly good to have this level of defense.
Eventually Dokja agrees to forgive the dokkaebi for his failure if he opens up the shop that will let him buy items with his coins. And after some quibbling over whether or not that is allowed for an incarnation that doesn't have a sponsor (it is, once again Dokja is right) he stands around browsing the shop while the dokkaebi enables streaming again and apologizes to the constellations profusely for the interruption.
In short, despite being in the belly of a snake that is going to start digesting him soon, Kim Dokja appears to be having a good time.]
Re: [Day 10]
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[the demon king is dry]
[Dokja plays around with the item shop for a bit, making a point to search for items he knows exist under the argument that 'clearly these are just generic fantasy items that anyone with some meta knowledge could look for'.
After a bit of this he simply buys four bags of Mucus of the Hammer Sea Horse and four Stone Hog’s Pointed Thorn. The mucus is some foul smelling stuff in simple bags and each of the thorns are shaped like an icepick but longer than Dokja's arm. This costs him a meager 800 coins.
The dokkkaebi expresses disbelief in whatever Dokja is up to, reminding him that he hasn't yet agreed to the contract, and Dokja is unconcerned. The constellations express everything from anticipation to displeasure at seeing what he will do, but Dokja ignores these as well. Eventually the dokkaebi disappears with a huff and dokja is left alone in the darkness of the belly of the snake, with only the soft blue light of the thorns to navigate by.
For a little while, Dokja just swings the thorns around in the dark, until he is apparently comfortable with the grip. The story subtly speeds up for the first time so that they don't have to endure several silent minutes of Dokja swinging at nothing in the dark.]
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What are you doing...
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[The Demon King of Salvation does in fact look. a little embarrassed by this. But he faithfully lets the story tell itself.]
[Before long, the story slows it's pace again, and it is digestive juices begin to spring from the walls of the stomach. Using the thorns to create handholds in the walls, he climbs up to where the digestive juices are leaking out. Some splashes onto his arm and instantly eats through his skin, but the 4th Wall ability offsets the pain and he is able to keep going.
Once he is near one of the openings, with one hand he smooths mucus over a thorn and then jams it with all of his strength into the hole emitting the digestive fluid. It slowly begins to back up, and the narrative reveals this mucus is powerful enough to repel the digestive fluid.
Dokja does this twice more, plugging up two more such holds with mucus and thorns, and by the time he has finished the third the first one is bulging dramatically. This veins begin to grow out from the side of the hole as the thorn begins to take root inside the beast.
The last of the mucus Dokja pours over himself and swallows, giving himself as much immunity to the monster's dangerous digestive fluid as he can, and then... he waits.
The story begins to speed up again, as Kim Dokja does little other than quietly hang from a thorn, above the stomach full of acid, and the thorns grow thicker into the stomach lining of the beast.]
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[The scene speeds up once again, it is mostly just Dokja cleaning to a wall in the dark, sometimes he drinks a liquid from the edge of the thorn that seem to pour out some kind of life giving sustenance that increase his stats and gives him energy, sometimes the constellations send him messages, sometimes he is knocked about by the snake doing some bizarre maneuver and has to struggle to regain his footing, but mostly he just clings there desperately and does nothing.]
The truth is, sometimes it's like this. It can't be all action all the time.
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[Eventually the snake falls and Dokja lets it continue to fast forward through the next scene of the dokkaebi harassing him a bit, earning a lot of coins for killing a monster, harvesting some key items from the snake and listing them on the auction house, and then on to negotiating the contract with Bihyung.]
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[but okay she's done complaining and returns to watching the story]
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[The scene slows down again, in the middle of Dokja and Bihyung negotiating a contract. Dokja argues that he doesn't need to give Bihyung a single coin because he gets payment from the constellations every time they even send a single message to him, and essentially is so overbearing and ruthless that Bihyung backs down from a 50/50 split of the profits to leaving Bihyung with nothing but the fees he collects from the constellations.
And then, when Bihyung is at his limits, Dokja demands an additional fee of 5,000 coins.
In short, this is how he negotiates. ]
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