"There also were a lot of important information which was automatically filtered from the beginning."
This article contains hidden, major spoilers for later sections of the story. Continue at your own risk.
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The Oldest Dream, also translated as The Most Ancient Dream, is the most powerful entity in the whole story and is the constellation sponsor of Yoo Joonghyuk who gave him the Regression stigma.
Later, it was confirmed that the entire world was a daydream of the Oldest Dream,[2] and that should the Oldest Dream ever cease to read or imagine their world then the whole world's time would simply stop.[3]He was dubbed the most omniscient yet the most powerless god[4][5] as his creation of the worldlines were recognized by the 999th regression Uriel as a helpless child's cry for help.
The Oldest Dream's true identity is that of a younger Kim Dokja, whose desperate loneliness and love for Ways of Survival created an entire set of world lines where Kim Dokja the character could go on an adventure with his companions as the undefeated hero. Because of that, the coincidences and luck are always by Kim Dokja's side as the hero of the story.[5]
The Oldest Dream resides in a subway beyond the Last Wall that can only be reached by collecting all pieces of the Last Wall. This wall has been reached before by the 999 Round's party members and 1863 Round's Yoo Joonghyuk but none of them could cross it because the 4th Wall doesn't exist in their worldline and thus the Wall cannot be completed. The first one to cross over and realize the truth of the Oldest World and the secret of the world was <Kim Dokja's Company>.
The Oldest Dream is not seen in person by anyone until the end of the novel. Furthermore, the Last Wall acts as a physical barrier between them and the rest of the world; as such, nobody knows what he looks like for the majority of the story.
The Oldest Dream appears as a much younger version of Kim Dokja.
He is pale-skinned with black hair and long eyelashes. He is small-statured enough to be mistaken for an elementary schooler despite being at least 15 when he first found Ways of Survival.
At the time of his encounter with <Kim Dokja's Company> he has a large bruise on his right arm and hand from the abuse in his daily life.[4]
Personality[]
Not many beings in the <Star Stream> know much about the Oldest Dream; the most intimate with him is the Dokkaebi King who describes him as a lazy and greedy reader.[3] And yet, even though the Dokkaebi King is the closest to the truth than anyone in Star Stream he was still nothing but a speck of imagination to the Oldest Dream.
The Oldest Dream lived through a harsh childhood. This caused him to be a deeply traumatized and withdrawn child who spent a lot of time reading Ways of Survival and imagining himself going on an adventure with the characters. Whenever he was in a painful or scary situation, he would repeat the mantra 'I am Yoo Joonghyuk' as he perceived the protagonist as someone undefeatable.[5]
History[]
The Oldest Dream's name was not yet known before the advent of the scenarios, with them often being referred to simply as "???". Kim Dokja observes that their identity was never revealed at any point in Ways of Survival; he also notes that they had massive amounts of probability, having the power to turn back time itself without any constellations catching on[6]
The Oldest Dream suffered a childhood in an abusive household, was stalked by the mass media and faced serious bullying in school.
After Lee Sookyung was jailed for the accusation of killing her husband, Kim Dokja was bounced between various relatives who didn't care for him. This drove him to a suicidal depression, jumping out of his classroom window at the age of 15. In order to keep him alive, 1863 round's Han Sooyoung started writing the webnovel Three Ways to Survive in A Ruined World, causing the beginning of every tragedies born within the story.[7]
Synopsis[]
The Oldest Dream's name was not yet known before the advent of the scenarios, with him often being referred to simply as "???". The Oldest Dream's identity was never revealed at any point in the webnovel Ways of Survival despite being the protagonist's sponsor and an incredibly powerful entity that has enough probability to turn back time without any constellations catching on.[6] He only appears sometimes to answer Yoo Joonghyuk's questions[8] and Yoo Joonghyuk claims to be able to feel the his gaze when he regresses.
After finishing the scenario and overcoming the Last Wall, Kim Dokja Company searched for the Oldest Dream with the intent of stopping his dreams. They found him sitting on a subway bench writing notes about Ways of Survival.[4] Crushed by the knowledge that he was the origin of all the world's suffering, Kim Dokja tried to kill the Oldest Dream by killing himself due to Disconnected Film Theory bounding their existences together. Kim Dokja was stopped by his companions who even then couldn't come closer to the Oldest Dream because of the mix of Probability storm caused by the Oldest Dream's rejection of their existence and the impregnatable barrier the boy erected around himself.
At that moment the Secretive Plotter emerged from Yoo Joonghyuk's body. He was not affected by the Probability storm and easily cut away Oldest Dream's barrier due to the Oldest Dream's subconscious belief that nothing could stop the protagonist of Ways of Survival. He stopped the Oldest Dream's mantra of "I am Yoo Joonghyuk" by declaring that he was the true Yoo Joonghyuk and then cut away the Fables of suffering that entrapped the Oldest Dream.[9] The Outer Gods, in turn, appear through Secretive Plotter's shadow and saw the Oldest Dream's Fables, causing them to understand that the tragedies that occurred were just a boy's coping mechanism of him imagining a world where he could be happy. They decided to put an end to the dream by embracing the Oldest Dream, giving him the companionship and love that drove him to the daydreams and left the subway together [5]. Later on, the Outer Gods appeared one last time to help the 1864th Regression Yoo Joonghyuk escape from the Hounds while bickering about who gets to go to Kim Dokja's school on parent's day, hinting that the Oldest Dream now lives the life of a normal, well-loved child.
Even though the Oldest Dream has been saved from his fate, the world-lines he created would stop existing without a dreamer. Kim Dokja created a free-willed Avatar of himself using 49% of his memories to live out the happy ending with the rest of the companions while he stayed inside the subway to become the new Oldest Dream, fulfilling his double ■■ of 'Epilogue' and 'Eternity'.
Inside the subway, Kim Dokja dreamt of the various world-lines and finally found the 0th Regression Turn with a Yoo Joonghyuk who has never regressed. Even though knowing that the predetermined tragedies would continue to exist and that this Yoo Joonghyuk would be unable to go beyond the Final Wall, he desperately wanted to create the most suitable and happy ending for this turn, unlike the tragedies that he brought upon the man during his other regression turns. While Yoo Joonghyuk never took any constellation sponsors during the 0th Turn, Kim Dokja aided him under the modifier Demon King of Salvation by sacrificing an incredible amount of probability every time he conveyed prophecies with information to clear the scenarios. After the scenarios ended, Kim Dokja continued to watch Yoo Joonghyuk's story of his post-apocalyptic life of rebuilding the world, running an orphanage, and his eventual marriage to Lee Seolhwa. In the 0th Turn, Yoo Joonghyuk grew old quickly due to the use of his attribute Life Lived to the Fullest, which exchanged the full use of his latent powers at the cost of a fixed lifespan, which leads to his early death in his sixties.
However, right before dying, Yoo Joonghyuk questioned the nature of his existence and the Demon King of Salvation's identity and goodwill towards him. He wished to overcome the Last Wall he saw during the Final Scenario, to find out about the secret of their world, his own identity, and to finally meet him, the Demon King of Salvation. Kim Dokja warned him that it would be a truly arduous path and would need to regress 1864 times before he could witness the conclusion and find his answers. Even though informed that his odds of successfully seeing the conclusion were low and that he would no longer be able to help him, Yoo Joonghyuk persisted. Which lead Kim Dokja to become his Constellation Sponsor and create his Regression Stigma by sacrificing his arm. Right before his final moments, Yoo Joonghyuk prayed for Kim Dokja's well-being and their eventual meeting. On the 1st Regression turn, Yoo Joonghyuk had a fragmented memory of the complete 0th turn and went through the scenario as depicted in the Ways of Survival. Meanwhile, inside the subway, Kim Dokja continued to lose his Fables, resulting in his body becoming smaller. He recognized that he would continue to become smaller and lose his memories until he became the Oldest Dream he met in the Final Scenario.
Abilities[]
Skills[]
Overwrite: This allows the Oldest Dream to interfere with the worldview.[10] Overwrite has mastery levels, and excessive meddling will cause the world-line to become dissatisfied and for the Oldest Dream to lose part of his story.[11] Overwrite has a limitation that it doesn't extend to the next regression turn, thus Joonghyuk forgets his constellation and all memories related to him. Yoo Joongyuk only remembers them in the epilogue.[12]
Reality-Bending: As the omniscient being who turned the world of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint into reality by dreaming it, The Oldest Dream can turn reality into non-reality and vice versa. He can cast an impregnable barrier by wishing it into existence and erase the existence of various characters by rejecting them.
Final Wall: A physical barrier that separates the reader (the oldest dream) from the stories. The Final Wall is also where all stories go to when they are complete and where stories are made. The oldest dream uses this wall to breathe life into new universes to be made and houses all concepts, such as: gravity, death, life, time etc. The Final Wall can only be opened when the 4 fragments come together, Wall of Impossible Communication (Jang Hayoung), Wall of Samsara (Yoo Sanghah), Wall that divides Good and Evil (Jung Heewon and Lee Gilyoung), and the Fourth Wall (Kim Dokja).
Stigmas[]
Regression: The stigma that serves as the foundation of Ways of Survival, this allows the user to turn back time to a fixed point. The Oldest Dream has never himself used this stigma; Yoo Joonghyuk, their sponsored incarnation, is the only known user. This stigma can only be activated if the incarnation is severely injured and close to death, as well as if both the sponsor and the incarnation have consented to its use; Yoo Joonghyuk has been able to stave off regression by outright refusing to regress.[13][14]
Transmission: Allows regressors to gradually recover the abilities (skills and stats) that they possessed in previous regressions.[15] Likely designed exclusively for users of the Regression stigma.
The Oldest Dream has an interest in Yoo Joonghyuk, though the nature of this interest is unclear, as is what the Oldest Dream desires from him. They have a vested interest in his continued existence, given that they relentlessly continue to have him regress life after life despite he's losing the will to continue. They are angry and sad as well when he refuses to regress at one point where he is near-fatally injured, likely due to concern for him.[8]
Yoo Joonghyuk hates the Oldest Dream for a long time however, when he comes face to face with him and sees his true identity he does not wish him harm and instead protects him from Kim Dokja's attempts to kill him.
The Most Ancient Dream is a version of Kim Dokja. Kim Dokja hates him and tries to kill him to atone for all the things he's caused. When he is prevented from doing so he is willing to kill himself in order to kill the Oldest Dream through the disconnected film theory.
Trivia[]
Out of the constellations sponsoring the main members of <Kim Dokja's Company>, the Oldest Dream is among the few who has the least amount of contact with their sponsored incarnation. This is mainly due to the Wall that separated his reality and his incarnation's.
Taking the year that ORV started (2018) to be the same calendar year in-text, and assuming that all ages are given according to the Korean system, the Oldest Dream's date of birth is February 15, 1991.
Gallery[]
Chapter 513 Ebook illustration
Korean promotional art
Part 5 cover
Oldest Dream on the cover of volume 12 Taiwanese edition
