When is a little knowledge more of a problem than none at all? Dokja Kim is about to find out. In the middle of navigating the Capture the Flag scenario in what used to be the webnovel Three Ways to Survive the Apocalypse (TWSA), Dokja finds himself faced with a group of self-proclaimed Renouncers – people who read some of the novel, but not all. These Renouncers (and the later-introduced Disciples) are ranked by how much of the book they read; most, as Dokja remembers from the comments on the novel, dropped out very early on. That means they have a grasp of the basics of TWSA without understanding the plot or characters on a deeper level, and while Dokja would be the first to say that TWSA wasn’t exactly well-written, it’s hard to argue that knowing what happens later changes the way you view any story’s beginning.

That makes these Renouncers profoundly annoying for Dokja. Not that he finds anyone not irritating for the most part; he’s really only attached to his core group, and most of them aren’t book-original characters. It makes sense that he’d care more about Sangah and Gilyeong, because he knows they’re “real.” They weren’t written into existence by an anonymous author; he worked with Sangah before the apocalypse. So the Oracles muscling in and acting like they know everything is an issue, not just because they risk gumming up the works, but also because they’re acting like authorities when they actually know almost nothing. It’s another example of how Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint is a remarkably relatable reading experience: we’ve all had conversations with someone who insists they know what’s going on in a work of fiction they haven’t finished yet, and how annoying that is.

The introduction of the Renouncers also adds to the infrastructure of the story’s world. Previously, Dokja could only use his Character Profile on people who began as fictional characters – so Jihye and others like her. Character Profile doesn’t work on so-called real people, and thus doesn’t work on the Renouncers…until the story progresses to a point past where they’ve read. At that moment, they become “characters” rather than “people,” and their profiles become accessible. This, obviously, has some interesting implications for how the world works. While there aren’t answers yet, it seems possible that the Renouncers are being punished for giving up on (renouncing) TWSA – they think they’re special, but that only gets them so far, and once they’ve passed that threshold, they devolve into NPCs. People like Sangah aren’t similarly punished because they never started reading TWSA; given the enormity of the Korean webnovel space, it wouldn’t make sense to punish someone for not finding a specific book. Dokja is rewarded because he both found it and bothered to read it to the end; the Renouncers are punished because they didn’t have the wherewithal to keep going. The answers were in front of them, and they couldn’t be bothered to find them.

This is in keeping with the entire Star Stream setup of the world. As we have reinforced in this volume, the story operates within the barriers of “plausibility,” meaning there has to be at least some logic to how everything happens. Implausible actions lead to a plausibility review, which can be enacted by goblins or constellations, and while this can be nitpicky, it really does seem to be intended to not only keep things interesting, but in the name of fairness. Dokja can cheat, but it has to work with the story’s logic.

There are definitely some interesting implications with this, because part of the point of TWSA is that the protagonist is overpowered. Is Dokja allowed to usurp that? It’s certainly called into question in this volume as he begins truly using his knowledge and partnership with the goblin Bihyoung for his own benefit. But it also calls into question the entire sponsorship situation and how that works, because the constellations involved in this section of the game are clearly more out for themselves than their incarnations. That’s because these games all revolve around the idea of kingship and ruling. Most of the constellations are historic figures; specifically, they’re rulers from the Three Kingdoms period of Korean history. The fact that the present act of TWSA currently taking place involves kings and throne claiming means that these constellations see it as a chance to overcome past failures or solidify ancient triumphs. It also means that you may want to read with a Korean history book (or Wikipedia) close at hand, because you’ll get more out of this if you know who the last queen of Silla was, for example.

singNsong‘s writing continues to be very readable (which is also due to the translation, of course), and even the unavoidable stat windows don’t derail the story, largely because they tend to have new information rather than just updating old. There are a ton of named characters, as well as plenty who go by both a name and a title, so it can be hard to keep track of everyone, which may be this book’s besetting sin. But it’s still some good escapism and a good enough riff on both the isekai and death game genres that it doesn’t feel too clichéd. It’s worth reading before the anime adaptation airs.