#wrote this on notes app because i don't trust tumblr after it deleted my last post

[lee-hakhyun]

before lhh can enter, the receptionist tells him to pick a mask. looking at them, they have the designs of the 12 zodiacs... lhh tries to pick the rat

turns out it's sold out. most of the masks are sold out actually, except for a blank mask which provides no benefits except for hiding your identity. picking that, lhh heads on in to the recycling center.

lhh is the last of a group of 12, most wearing blank masks except for a child in black wearing a rat mask. he ends up talking with wang weirong (flying fox) who is in the same group, and they agree to team up for the qualification scenario <- it's a race, where the last of the 12 incarnation gets kicked out of the recycling center. the rewards are shown, with 2nd place having 'the right arm of the poor sword master who was stabbed in the back by a colleague' (kdj...) and first place being... 'noble one's battle boots'. lhh is shocked at this. why is this item here..?

when the scenario starts, the boy with the rat mask starts gaining speed due to the story of the rat influencing him (the rat came first in the zodiac race: https://www.historicmysteries.com/myths-legends/chinese-zodiac/29205/ ) but is attacked by the other incarnations and beat up. since only one person loses in this scenario, the other incarnations picked the boy to gang up on. lhh goes up to the boy, and tells him to get on his back. the boy protests a little, and his way of speaking is rude.. but lhh says he's not doing this for the boy's sake. when the boy gets on lhh's back, a simple stage transformation begins. the incarnations knew about the rat being first, which is why they attacked him, but they failed to account for how the rat won: carried on the back of the ox.

lhh, carrying the boy, gradually overtook the other incarnations. he was still attacked by the other incarnations who used story fragments, but he manages to beat them as instead of a story fragment, he has a real story. at the end of the race, he tells the boy to go on ahead and take first place. as lhh has taken the role of the 'ox', he has to be 2nd or else he'd be hit by the aftermath of the simple stage transformation.

lhh gets the 2nd place reward, and as soon as he uses it, he hears a voice.

"good job, maknae."

the heir to the eternal name then declares it will eat the story fragment. lhh is shocked for a moment, but as it eats the story he gains 15 days on his death timer (he still has that..!!!) and instead of the story disappearing, his understanding is increased. right, htten's goal is one kim dokja, so of course he would keep kim dokja's skills.

flying fox, the only incarnation who didn't attack lhh during the race, came 3rd. flying fox asks if lhh is in a group with the little boy, and lhh says no, but soon. he goes over to the boy, who was staring at the battle boots. scenes go through his mind. throughout all the regressions, these boots had never left his side. lhh asks yoo joonghyuk how he's turned out like this. yjh says he doesn't know what lhh is talking about.

?

he remembers something then. the 'confinement of truth' was something that sealed memories in exchange for its use. no way...

the kid asks who yoo joonghyuk is. lhh pauses before he answers. he thinks about yoo joonghyuk of the 1863rd turn. his favourite yoo joonghyuk. he smiles as he answers: "a friend who loves dirt."