WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Editor: ChaoticRain

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Dokja’s Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 147: Episode 28 — The Strongest Sacrificial Lamb (5)

The moment the third and second rankings were announced above Seoul, the incarnations fell into a panic.

"Damn it! What the hell is going on?"

"Then who's the strongest? What's going to happen to us?"

The incarnations had naturally assumed either Junghyeok or Nirvana was the strongest incarnation and that they’d both die here. But the situation had changed. The incarnations who had been ready to unleash their full power to eliminate whoever ranked first and clear the scenario now found themselves floundering at this unexpected twist.

Graaaaaah!

To make matters worse, a single Tier-5 Monster broke through the defensive line and charged in. The incarnations who had let their guard down were torn apart by the monster's fangs.

"Aaaaaagh!"

The situation was spiraling toward the worst possible outcome. The number of incoming Tier-5 Monsters kept increasing, and the incarnations' unity was far worse than expected.

[Current number of incarnations: 89,041]

In that short time, several thousand more incarnations had died. Hyeonseong, who had rushed in after them, crushed the monster's head with Great Mountain Crush.

"Army man! What the hell is going on here?"

Jihye and Huiwon ran toward him. They, too, had been handling their own sections of the defensive line, taking down monsters.

"If Nirvana isn't the strongest, then the old man's prediction was wrong, wasn't it? What do we do now?"

The group's plan had been predicated entirely on the assumption that Nirvana was the strongest incarnation. But as things stood now, even if they killed Nirvana, the scenario wouldn't end. Hyeonseong stared at the stadium with a blank expression.

"I think..."

Hyeonseong's face turned deathly pale at the thought that crossed his mind.

"Kyaaaagh!"

Nirvana's body flew through the air with a scream.

"You'll show me death? Don't make me laugh!"

Even while being beaten helplessly, Nirvana refused to break.

"I don't die. No matter what you try, I can never meet true death! If I could die that easily, I wouldn't have suffered like this for so long!"

I was newly amazed that even after living for such a long time, they could still hold onto such varied emotions. Grabbing them by the collar, I spoke.

"You actually want to die, don't you."

"...!"

"Because you can't die, you comfort yourself by watching others die."

Every human dies only once, and it's because of that single life that they can assign such desperate value to it.

"That's why you spread the Salvation Sect to other incarnations. You wanted to watch them live their 'one and only life' and feel vicarious satisfaction through it. You wanted to become 'one' with them and share the emotions they feel."

[Your understanding of the character Nirvana Moebius has increased.]

I knew Nirvana. Not just because they were a character from the novel. Nirvana longed for something they could never become.

Nirvana resembled me.

"Don't talk like you know everything."

Before I knew it, Nirvana's voice had grown calm. It was the voice they used when they were truly enraged. Nirvana shook off my grip and staggered back.

"Not knowing death is the same for humans. There's nothing after true death, after all. Humans can die, but they can never truly 'experience' death in its real sense. That's something no one can do!"

"At least they can feel the fear of death. And that's what makes human life possible. That's the biggest difference between ordinary humans and you."

"You bastard...!"

Nirvana's fist came flying at me. But I easily caught their punch.

"So that's why you wanted to become 'one' with Junghyeok, wasn't it?"

"...?"

"By becoming 'one' with Junghyeok, you thought you could erase your own existence. Right?"

Nirvana's expression froze completely.

"Reincarnation is a stigma from a supreme constellation. To erase it, you have no choice but to rely on the authority of an even higher constellation."

Nirvana glared at me through gritted teeth.

"You exceed my imagination."

"I hear that a lot."

"Just kill me already. As you said, I'm not afraid of death!"

In Nirvana's fading eyes, a fire of vengeance was burning.

"But you'd better remember this. I will revive again and again. I'll come back to life again and again, kill your companions one by one, and show them the worst suffering imaginable. Just like I did to your mother."

"...You met my mother?"

"Yes, she was quite an admirable woman."

[The exclusive skill Fourth Wall is wavering.]

"It was fun breaking her down. As you know, I enjoy corrupting noble spirits."

[The exclusive skill Fourth Wall is wavering.]

"The sight of her writhing before my eyes, begging me to spare her life, is still so vivid."

There are provocations like that in the world. The kind you know are provocations but can't help falling for anyway. Even though I knew my mother wouldn't have done that.

[The exclusive skill Fourth Wall is violently shaking.]

"Hahaha! Got you!"

My vision shook, and the world turned pitch black.

[The character Nirvana Moebius has activated the skill 108 Kleshas Lv.2!]

My consciousness was sucked somewhere, and the next moment, I was thrown into a world that wasn't the stadium. Familiar voices echoed from the darkness.

「Master, run away!」

「Please, please save this world.」

「You can just abandon this world and be done with it. But I...!」

Voices filled with deep resentment and grudges. I had a feeling I knew where this world was. The place that appeared when the Fourth Wall wavered. This was Junghyeok’s inner world, seething with 108 Kleshas.

"Yu Junghyeok! You finally accepted me! And... as expected, you came along too."

A grotesquely disfigured Nirvana stood before me. I smiled bitterly as I looked at them. To prepare such a counterattack at the very end, a reincarnator was truly a reincarnator.

"Coming here was your mistake."

A mandala pattern appeared at Nirvana's feet. The inner world of a soul was a place less affected by Plausibility. Here, Nirvana could use the full power of the story they had accumulated.

Kugugugugugu!

Nirvana's body instantly grew to the size of a giant. The oppressive presence of a soul that had lived through countless lives was truly tremendous. Well, of course it would be, given the story they had built up.

Hundreds of arms sprouted from their back like wings, and their legs were covered half in bird feathers and half in snake scales. Their snout jutted out like a wolf's, and unidentifiable horns grew from their head. It was as if they embodied every reincarnation they had ever experienced.

[I am Nirvana Moebius.]

That was Nirvana's true form.

[The one who guides unfortunate beings to nirvana.]

They looked quite confident. But Nirvana didn't know. I had deliberately let myself be caught by his 108 Kleshas.

I smiled and opened my mouth.

"Nirvana, do you know the principle of 'reincarnation'?"

Nirvana's gaze turned toward me. Just from them looking this way, the space trembled ominously. I continued speaking without backing down.

"Your soul is bound to Mandala's Protector, so when you die, you don't go to the underworld. According to that great constellation's unique law, you simply inhabit different bodies that have just been born in the current life, over and over again."

[...What are you trying to say?]

"You're not immortal. Even if your body is reborn, your 'soul' isn't."

[Nonsense!]

The hundreds of arms that had grown from Nirvana poured toward me. Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara cascading like a waterfall. If I had been hit by that in reality, my entire body would have burst and I would have died instantly. But here, it was different.

I was possessing Junghyeok now. That meant this place was also my 'inner world.'

Tssssssst!

The waterfall of the Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara charging at me melted away right before my eyes with sparks of electricity. Nirvana's bewildered expression. I saw the countless pages surrounding me.

[The exclusive skill Fourth Wall has been activated.]

Along with the sound of turning pages, pages began scattering wildly around me. White text floating across white pages. The countless texts I had read formed a massive wall that covered the surroundings.

The shocked Nirvana quickly tried to escape, but it was already too late. Nirvana's body, upon hitting the wall, melted away with bright blue sparks.

[What have you done?]

The Fourth Wall could even deflect constellations. I had been curious. Perhaps using this, I could permanently destroy a reincarnator.

[Open this wall at once! Th-this is...]

The flustered Nirvana looked at the wall again. A blindingly bright light poured from the text on the wall.

「If I keep reincarnating because the world exists, then I will just erase this world.」

[This is... could this be...!]

Looking at the sentence on the wall, Nirvana let out a shocked cry.

「Yu Junghyeok could take me to the end of the world.」

[H-how do you know this?]

I walked toward Nirvana and spoke.

“There’s no need to go to the end of the world.”

Every time text appeared on the wall, Nirvana's massive body began to disintegrate bit by bit. Nirvana's torn body was separated into countless letters and began being sucked into the Fourth Wall one by one.

“Because you will die right here.”

Watching their own soul being torn apart, an unfamiliar emotion appeared on Nirvana's face.

「After hundreds of years of wandering, the reincarnator Nirvana finally reached the end of their 'one life.'」

Looking at the string of text appearing on the wall, Nirvana let out a hollow laugh.

[Ha... haha, hahaha.]

「They were experiencing true 'death' for the first time.」

Nirvana wore an expression of ecstasy.

「So this is... dying.」

[I see. This is it.]

「In that moment, Nirvana realized this was the moment they had been waiting for all along.」

Hundreds of years. The place reached at the end of countless reincarnations. Like a devout monk who had waited for this day for so long, Nirvana closed their eyes. But even with their eyes closed, their inner thoughts continued to be written on the wall.

「But why? This is what I wanted so much for so long.」

Nirvana's entire body was covered in fine cracks. Feet, legs, thighs, torso... The shattered pieces were sucked directly into The Fourth Wall.

「Why am I afraid of this?」

Feeling the fear of death for the first time in their life. Dying. Having no afterward. Being unable to think, move, speak, or even feel one's own existence.

「That I won't exist.」

Suddenly, Nirvana's closed eyes snapped open.

「No... I don't want this!」

「But Nirvana, whose mouth had scattered, could not cry out.」

「The arm stretched forward vanished futilely.」

「From the beginning, existence was never a beautiful thing.」

No mortal is at peace with death. All beings are powerless before death.

「No! Please! Stop! Don't kill me!」

「Yes, your mother's secret. I know it! The story your mother never told until the end, I know it—」

「Save me. Please. If you spare me...!」

I just watched them quietly.

As if witnessing the final moments of a character in a novel.

「Struggling pathetically, Nirvana repeated the words they had hated most in their final moment.」

「I don't want to die.」

At last, Nirvana's soul completely disappeared.

[The Fourth Wall has devoured the character Nirvana Moebius.]

It was a message I was hearing for the first time. The wall was reacting differently than when I had killed the Cinema Dungeon boss. For a moment, I felt afraid.

[The Fourth Wall laughs with satisfaction.]

Killing Nirvana had been fine. But thinking about it, I didn't really know what the Fourth Wall was either.

[The Fourth Wall looks at you with greedy eyes.]

The wall writhed as if it were alive. As if devouring Nirvana alone wasn't enough, the wall licked its lips at me. With a tsssst sound, something appeared on the wall's surface.

"In that moment, Dokja thought, 'Someday, won't I too be devoured by this wall?'"

[The skill 108 Kleshas is being released.]

My vision began returning to normal.

The wall, Nirvana, Junghyeok.

As if nothing had ever been there from the start.

Gasping for breath and blinking, I found myself back at the Gwanghwamun stadium.

Before my eyes, Nirvana was scattering into dust. At the end of their long wandering, they had finally found rest. The arena was as quiet as if cold water had been poured over it. I slowly moved Junghyeok's feet and walked forward. A dokkaebi was speaking.

[Oh my. The scenario's end is already approaching. I should announce who the strongest incarnation is, shouldn't I?]

Perhaps from fatigue, even taking a single step felt taxing. The dokkaebi's booming voice echoed in my head.

[The strongest incarnation is...]

My consciousness rapidly blurred, and the voice faded. It seemed my time was up. My senses cut out before I could hear the final words.

[Your mental strength has been excessively depleted. Deactivating Omniscient Dokja's Viewpoint Stage 3.]

[First-Person Protagonist's Viewpoint has been deactivated.]

...

[You have died.]

And two days later, my funeral began.

Footnotes:

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