Han Sooyoung/Synopsis

## History

Han Sooyoung was the daughter of an affair between an unnamed actress and a member of the National Assembly. Her parents provided her with a three-bedroom house to herself and visited her every weekend, hiring a housekeeper and a guard but otherwise staying distant. Han Sooyoung believed this was because they did not want their relationship or her existence to be known to the outside world, and generally did not consider them to be her family.

She used to often feel sleepy during the daytime, and was prone to falling asleep in class. She also struggled with what she believed to be a sleepwalking problem. At age 13, she began to write minifictions, winning the top prize in a writing competition hosted at her school. She claimed that the story just flowed out of her; in truth, the story was formed by her subconscious, which was currently occupied by her future self from the 1863rd round.

Sometime after she turned 16, she allegedly had a "dream" that inspired her to begin writing the novel SSSSS-grade Infinite Regressor. (In truth, this was once again the activity of her future self, writing Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World, filtering through to her consciousness.) Infinite Regressor was similar to Ways of Survival in many ways, with the names of their protagonists being merely one letter apart (Yoo Joonhyun in Infinite Regressor and Yoo Joonghyuk in Ways of Survival). Due to Infinite Regressor's superior writing, though, the novel's readership was much higher than Ways of Survival's.

By her early 20s, Han Sooyoung's writing career was fairly lucrative, landing her with a monthly salary of around ₩200,000,000 after taxes. Around this time, she was contacted by Kim Dokja, who had found out about Infinite Regressor and noticed the similarities between it and Ways of Survival. He accused her of plagiarism. Taken aback and not recognizing the unfamiliar novel name, she read up to chapter 99 of Ways of Survival; she found the novel absolutely terrible, even creating an anonymous account with which she posted toxic comments on Ways of Survival. She denied Kim Dokja's plagiarism accusations, but as she looked through Ways of Survival she began to focus more on reading Kim Dokja's comments, even skipping the actual chapters just to see his feedback. Though she was envious of his loyalty to the novel, she doubted anyone would read such a bad novel, and began to believe that he was simply a persona constructed by tls123 to boost their own content.

On the morning of the day that the scenarios began, Han Sooyoung awoke to find herself having "sleepwalked" to a subway station near her home. Unbeknownst to her, this was due to the 1863rd round's Han Sooyoung having attempted to chase down and make contact with Kim Dokja, who left on a train shortly before she awakened.

## Synopsis

### Original round

Han Sooyoung disguises herself using her Avatar clones, which leads to her appearing multiple times in different roles. Her first appearance is in her role as the First Apostle, allegedly the last person to stop reading Ways of Survival. She is in a male body, dressed in a dark cloak with "1" written on it. She commands the Second, Third, Fourth, and Seventh Apostles to attack Chungmuro Station where a number of Kim Dokja's party members are stationed. Han Sooyoung is the King of the Apostles, revealed by the purple flag she carries. This clone is presumably killed by Yoo Joonghyuk when he awakens.

The next time she encounters Kim Dokja's team is as Maitreya King Cha Sangkyung's assistant, once again using a male clone and attempting to gain the trust of Kim Dokja and his comrades. She and Kim Dokja speak to each other, upon which they both realize the other's identity; Kim Dokja accuses her of being a plagiarist and kills her clone. Shortly after, she appears in her true form, killing a number of kings and stealing jewels from others in order to summon the Four Yin Demonic Beheading Sword.

She reappears after the events of the Absolute Throne, showing up in the coin farm run by Mino Soft's ex-employees. After Kim Dokja helps rescue her, she accompanies him throughout the fifth main scenario.

TBD

### 1863rd round

Han Sooyoung's Avatar ability allows her to make clones of herself, although she must supply them with her own memories. In one of her first attempts at using Avatar, she accidentally gave too many of her memories away to one of her clones, and it went rogue. A version of Han Sooyoung is present in the 1863rd round, although it is unclear whether she is this rogue clone and the 3rd round's Han Sooyoung is the original, or vice versa. It is later implied that Han Sooyoung gave away exactly 50% of her memories to a clone she created, thus splitting herself into two perfect halves, neither one the original or the clone. This caused both halves to gain autonomy and act independently.

The 1863rd round's Han Sooyoung has traveled from the 3rd round by making an Outer World Covenant with the Secretive Plotter and has taken Yoo Joonghyuk's place as leader of the main party. She is startlingly successful in her progress, with many more allies surviving to the 95th scenario than in the original 1863rd round. Kim Dokja describes her as being smarter and more knowledgeable than her 3rd round counterpart. She is also calmer and more tight-lipped. It is revealed that, like Kim Dokja, she has no sponsor and is herself a constellation with the modifier "Director of the False Last Act".

Han Sooyoung's success is due to a few resources that grant her knowledge of the scenarios to come. Her own novel, SSSSS-grade Infinite Regressor, is her primary reference for her understanding of how the scenarios function. Rereading her novel also helps ward off the probability storm and memory loss that she is at risk of facing, possibly due to overuse of Avatar or to having knowledge of Ways of Survival despite being a "character". Her ability [Predictive Plagiarism] also allows her to predict the nature of the scenarios and what events may occur next, acting similarly to a future-sight skill.

However, perhaps the most useful resource that Han Sooyoung has is a record of Yoo Joonghyuk's own experiences and memories of his previous regressions. Upon her arrival in the 1863rd round, Han Sooyoung made a deal with the war-weary Yoo Joonghyuk; in exchange for his cooperation, she would find a way to permanently kill him, so that he would never have to regress again. Killing Yoo Joonghyuk was the same condition that her Outer World Covenant bound her to. She had the regressor "become the enemy of the world" so that everyone who was against him would unite under her own banner. By working together and pooling their various talents, her party would have a better chance of surviving the scenarios than when they were all working in small independent groups.

At some point, Han Sooyoung attempted to complete her side of the bargain by trying to break Yoo Joonghyuk's link with his sponsor; to achieve this, she used the Four Yin Demonic Beheading Sword and had an unspecified nebula lend her their power, striking at the connection between incarnation and constellation. This plan unfortunately failed.

In order to finally fulfill her deal with Yoo Joonghyuk and additionally protect the Earth from having to face any more scenarios, Han Sooyoung devised a plan that focused on the 95th scenario, where the Apocalypse Dragon would be released. The Dragon's seal was supposed to be broken using five dragon-slaying swords; however, Han Sooyoung intended on substituting one of the swords with a false dragon-slaying sword, which would make the seal of the Apocalypse Dragon expand instead of breaking. The seal would cover the Earth, cutting off the constellations and dokkaebis in the process, and send everyone on Earth into an eternal sleep. This would stop the incarnations of Earth from having to participate in the scenarios, essentially ending their struggles. In this cut-off state, Yoo Joonghyuk would finally be able to rest either through eternal sleep or death, fulfilling Han Sooyoung's end of the deal.

However, Kim Dokja disrupts this plan by substituting her failed sword with a real dragon-slaying sword and sends Yoo Joonghyuk to break the seal of the Dragon. Han Sooyoung tries in vain to stop the two of them and watches helplessly alongside Kim Dokja as Yoo Joonghyuk eventually uses Avatar and splits in two, one half regressing while the other half dies. This fulfills her Outer World Covenant's condition, allowing her to return to the 3rd round; however, she declares her intention to stay in the 1863rd round, as the party will lack a leader if she leaves them behind. As a parting gift, Kim Dokja gives her a notebook of information on the coming scenarios, and she gives him her Infinite Dimension Space Coat with a number of items included in the pockets, including Kim Namwoon's cellphone and the star relic, the Old to New Toad.

At some point between Kim Dokja's departure and the end of the scenarios, Han Sooyoung sends the memory of Yoo Joonghyuk's death and regression to her 3rd round self, hoping to avert a similar outcome in her original timeline. She is able to transmit these memories as dreams through an unknown method. Upon realizing that her 3rd round self doesn't understand the implications of the dream, the 1863rd Han Sooyoung directly transfers her Predictive Plagiarism ability over.

The 1863rd round's Han Sooyoung eventually leads her party to the end of the scenarios, defeating the Dokkaebi King in a seemingly too-easy battle. She then sends her companions away before observing the Final Wall and inserting the lost pieces in one by one. Having previously gathered the Wall that Decides Samsara, the Wall that Divides Good and Evil, and the Wall of Impossible Communication, she uses her Stories [Predictive Plagiarism] and [Ultimate Lie] to provide a replacement for the missing Fourth Wall. This allows her to enter the Final Wall, where she finds a small room containing a few screens broadcasting Kim Dokja's ■■. She watches as he once again becomes the Oldest Dream, before looking around and spotting the Dokkaebi King's true body. Having known that the version of the King she defeated was false, she demands answers from him, only to be told that her world line is relatively unimportant and that he was planning on leaving soon.

Feeling somewhat let down, she asks for a reward, specifically requesting to meet Kim Dokja once again. The Dokkaebi King is unable to interfere with the adult Kim Dokja's timeline, but offers to take her to the past, when Kim Dokja first became the Oldest Dream i.e. when Ways of Survival first started. She is transported back in time and possesses her 13-year-old self's body, waking up in her childhood home. The adult Han Sooyoung explores her house before finding the Dokkaebi King at her door; he has taken a human form and has been stripped of the majority of his system powers. The two plan on searching for tls123, but Han Sooyoung points out that the novel has not yet been uploaded, and states that she intends to stop its creation in the first place. Offering some additional evidence, she suggests that she thinks tls123's true identity is in fact Kim Dokja himself. The Dokkaebi King thus sets out to locate Kim Dokja; Han Sooyoung does not accompany him, as she can only control her body when her younger self is asleep, and relinquishes control (though not awareness) during the daytime.

The adult Sooyoung whiles her time away during this search, watching her younger self go about her life and writing minifictions at night to keep herself occupied. She quickly notices, however, that her younger self (unaware of the adult Sooyoung's presence) is unconsciously replicating said minifictions, causing her to gain acclaim as a writer.

Months pass, nearing the end of Kim Dokja's 15th year, and Han Sooyoung grows worried due to tls123 and Ways of Survival still not having appeared. She wonders if the novel's nonexistence might be a good thing, since the terrible future she has lived might not come to pass. Moments later, the Dokkaebi King calls her, having found Kim Dokja in the emergency ward of a hospital. She rushes to the hospital, where she finds Kim Dokja lying unconscious (accompanied by his irate and defensive cousins), and learns from the King that he attempted suicide. They leave to avoid detection, and while the Dokkaebi King is excited over finally finding Kim Dokja, Han Sooyoung recalls his terrible state, as well as his past admittance that he might have died without the novel.

Not wanting Kim Dokja to die, Han Sooyoung tries to think of a way to save him and eventually realizes what she should do. She uses the Dokkaebi King's money to get into an internet cafe and registers on the webnovel platform as tls123, rapidly writing out and uploading the beginning of Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World, using her memories of the novel in combination with [Predictive Plagiarism] to put together the story in what limited time she has. She expends enough mental energy in this endeavor that she falls unconscious. Waking up back at home a day later, she finds Kim Dokja's comment on the first chapter of Ways of Survival and is somewhat conflicted, wondering if she should continue writing the novel. However, knowing that this novel will keep Kim Dokja alive, she responds, promising to upload another chapter the next day.

Han Sooyoung continues to write in the upcoming months, spending enough time on the novel itself that she delegates posting to the Dokkaebi King. Han Sooyoung works hard in the next few years, deciding what to include or leave out, enduring despite her young body's low stamina. She responds to a few of Kim Dokja's comments, amused when he contacts her about her younger self's creation of SSSSS-grade Infinite Regressor. However, as time passes, she grows more and more tired, less able to spend long amounts of time conscious and gradually forgetting her memories of the scenarios. Painfully aware of her diminishing existence, she asks the Dokkaebi King to protect Kim Dokja at all costs, should anything happen to her. Near the end of the novel, she realizes that the Dokkaebi King has been proofreading and editing the novel, as well as responding to Kim Dokja's comments on her behalf, and that he intends to turn the story into a paid service, triggering the scenarios. The duo discuss the stable time loop created by her own authorship, Kim Dokja's readership, and Yoo Joonghyuk's regressions.

The next day, Han Sooyoung finishes the final chapter of Ways of Survival. She confirms with the Dokkaebi King that the advent of the scenarios is inevitable, as is her own disappearance: she has spent up her entire Story and being on writing Ways of Survival. Tired and knowing her end is near, she reminds the Dokkaebi King to hand over the text file of Ways to Survival to Kim Dokja at the right time, as well as the revised versions of the text that she wrote part of. She then leaves her house, running all the way to where she knows Kim Dokja walks as part of his daily commute. Spotting him, she attempts to shout for him, but her voice does not work. Wanting to tell him that what will and has happened is not his fault, she chases after him and tries to grab his shoulder, but he is swept away by the crowd in the subway station, and Han Sooyoung of the 1863rd round's Story and self finally dissolve, becoming her waking self's subconscious.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Chapter 533
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Chapter 534
3. ↑ Chapter 75
4. ↑ Chapter 487
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Chapter 535
6. ↑ Chapter 55
7. ↑ Chapter 67
8. ↑ Chapter 68
9. ↑ Chapter 73
10. ↑ Chapter 170
11. ↑ Chapter 291
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Chapter 297
13. ↑ Chapter 290
14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Chapter 292
15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Chapter 296
16. ↑ Chapter 293
17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Chapter 295
18. ↑ Chapter 298
19. ↑ Chapter 299
20. ↑ Chapter 313
21. ↑ Chapter 317
22. ↑ Chapter 318
23. ↑ Chapter 301
24. ↑ Chapter 369
25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Chapter 532
26. ↑ Chapter 538