WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Editor: ChaoticRain
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Dokja’s Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 148: Episode 29 — Constellation Banquet (1)
Rain drizzled down on Gwanghwamun Square. The streets where the monsters had retreated were close to ruins. Collapsed media company logos rolled across the ground like garbage. The symbols of Gwanghwamun, the statues of King Sejong and Admiral Yi Sun-sin, were completely destroyed.
"Ah..."
The civilization Seoul had been proud of had collapsed, its culture lost. Only stories remained, but none of the people left in Gwanghwamun had wanted those stories.
Watching some Hwarang[1] go down and dig into the earth, Jihye spoke up.
"...Is he really dead?"
No one answered. Each person had a different reason for not answering.
Huiwon, Hyeonseong, Gilyeong, Yuseong.
Each had their own thoughts, but no one could bring themselves to say them aloud.
In case those thoughts were wrong.
In case... those thoughts were right.
"No... really?"
Dokja's body was discovered about an hour after the eighth scenario ended.
"Ahjussi! Snap out of it! You're joking, right?"
The cause of death was excessive blood loss. At first, everyone was bewildered. Dokja, who hadn't been visible throughout the whole situation, had suddenly died. Still, the companions didn't panic too much and waited. This kind of thing had happened several times before.
When they first hunted the Fire Dragon species, and when they faced the Catastrophe of Floods. Dokja had died and come back to life. So they waited this time too, naturally expecting him to come back to life as usual, look at his companions with that characteristic slight smile, and toss out a joke that was both somewhat timid and utterly trivial.
But Dokja didn't get back up.
An hour passed, then two hours. Finally, a day passed. Even when the second night came…
Dokja didn't get up.
His body grew cold. It was Jiwon, unable to bear watching, who rallied the dazed companions to make a coffin.
"...He was Seoul Dome's strongest."
She was the only one who began doing what no one else had done, what no one else could do.
The work that could be done because she knew Kim Dokja, but had only a thin connection with him.
Jiwon announced Dokja's sacrifice. While everyone was excited about the strongest's battle, she spread the story of the true strongest who had quietly chosen death alone.
People called Kim Dokja by different nicknames.
When the dokkaebi called out the strongest, people's ears heard that nickname as different names.
King of a Kingless World.
Lonely Messiah.
Ugliest King...
The words each person heard were different, but the direction they all converged toward was the same. Seoul Dome's strongest was Kim Dokja, and Kim Dokja had died for Seoul.
He had saved Seoul.
A savior who died in a place no one acknowledged. Jiwon made a coffin for such a man. As Dokja's body was laid in the coffin, some people watched with tears in their eyes. Some looked confused, asking who that was, while others heard the story belatedly and lamented.
Yuseong was crying.
"Yuseong."
Huiwon pulled Yuseong away from the coffin. Hyeonseong still looked confused, and Gilyeong wore a blank expression as if escaping reality.
"There's no way Dokja hyung is dead."
And Jihye, clenching her fists, cried out.
"Where did Master go?"
"..."
"Master can save this old man! Where was Seolhwa unni?"
But Junghyeok, who should have heard her resentment, was no longer there. Finally, even Jihye's eyes filled with sorrowful tears.
"Ahjussi..."
What they hadn't wanted to acknowledge, they now had to accept.
Kim Dokja was dead, and he would never come back to life again.
[A new main scenario will begin soon.]
They now had to live in a world without Kim Dokja.
"They now had to live in a world without Kim Dokja."
If this were TWSA, surely such a sentence would have been written.
"Hmm, to think they'd grieve this much for me."
I wanted to say that, but no voice came out.
Because I was in a state without vocal cords or a mouth.
At least whenever my mental energy recovered like this, being able to observe the situation with Third-Person Observer’s Viewpoint was my only consolation. It would have been nice if I could apply First-Person Viewpoint, but it was currently impossible to use, perhaps because I had been too immersed in Junghyeok.
[The use of First-Person Viewpoint is restricted due to excessive immersion.]
Soon, as dirt began to cover the coffin, some people shouted.
"Oh, Ugliest King!"
Damn it. Did those dokkaebi bastards really give me such a nickname?
It was definitely Bihyeong's doing. Watching Yuseong throw flowers at me while sobbing made my feelings grow increasingly strange. The companions seemed to be accepting the fact that I was dead now. To see your own funeral while alive. I was probably the only person to do that.
"Hyuuuuuung!"
Even Gilyeong, who had been pretending to be calm until the end, rushed to the coffin once it was half-covered with dirt and started shedding tears and snot. Jihye was no less dramatic.
"Ahjussiiiii!"
To think this kid, who usually just acted prickly, would make such a fuss because I died... It was touching. If I burst out of the coffin now, an entertaining scene would unfold.
But I couldn't do that right now. Because I was currently on what you'd call cooldown.
[The effect of the attribute Eight Lives has been activated.]
The revival itself wasn't a big concern. The trait Eight Lives that I'd obtained by giving up King of No Killing in Peace Land.
This trait, which could only be obtained by drinking sake made from Yamata no Orochi's sacred blood and flesh, literally provided the user with eight lives.
[The serpent’s first head has been sacrificed.]
[The first head's special ability is Charisma.]
Each of Yamata no Orochi's heads had different abilities sleeping within them, and upon revival, one could obtain blessings related to those abilities. Looking at it this way, it wasn't bad. The problem was that, unlike with King of No Killing, there was a waiting period when reviving with this special trait.
[You need to wait 72 hours to be resurrected.]
[Remaining waiting time: 24:07:12]
Still more than a day left... The next scenario was about to start too.
I watched my funeral for a while longer, then changed my viewpoint. Somehow, if I kept watching, I felt I wouldn't be able to revive out of guilt.
[Changing the observed person for Third-Person Observer’s Viewpoint.]
Soon, a new screen appeared. An elegantly finished basement. A man and a woman were there.
"...Yu Junghyeok-ssi?"
The woman was Sangah. And it was needless to say that the one who had just untied her bound limbs was Junghyeok. He was probably trying to fulfill the last request I'd left before leaving his body.
"Where is Dokja-ssi?"
"Kim Dokja is dead."
At Junghyeok's blunt declaration, Sangah looked as if the world had ended. Still, Kim Dokja's twenty-eight years didn't seem to have been completely worthless.
"But he'll come back to life."
"Come back to life? How..."
"I don't know the method. But there's no way that bastard would die like this."
Well, Junghyeok had seen me revive with his own two eyes before. That guy would believe I'd come back to life even if years passed.
"...No, he must come back to life."
It would have been quite touching if not for the veins bulging in his fists. Junghyeok, muttering ominously as if making a resolution, asked Sangah, who was still in shock.
"Where is Kim Dokja's family?"
I was startled by those words. This bastard, he was trying to do things I hadn't even asked him to do? For a moment, worry crossed Sangah's face. She seemed to have something urgent to tell him.
"Ah, Dokja-ssi's mother is..."
Unfortunately, at that moment, the screen went out and a message came.
[All mental energy has been exhausted.]
[Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint Stage 3 is ending.]
This was the downside of being in spirit form. The recovery of mental energy once consumed was slow. It was probably natural since I had no body. A soul without a corporeal body was like a battery that had lost one electrode. The longer the period without a body, the more the mind deteriorates. Ghosts went mad for similar reasons.
"Did Nirvana kill Mother?"
Therefore, I too had to desperately continue asking questions to avoid going mad.
"Probably not."
It was Mother, of all people. And Nirvana also wasn't the type to easily kill or torture someone. At least while active as the Salvation Sect Leader, Nirvana had been somewhat gentlemanly.
But Nirvana's last words bothered me. That guy had said Mother was hiding a secret from me. A secret Mother had been hiding from me? No matter how much I thought about it, I had no clue.
...I didn't know. Maybe I didn't want to know.
An indirect message came at that moment.
[The constellation Master of Abydos[2] is calling your soul.]
...Master of Abydos? I carefully recalled the contents of TWSA. If my memory was correct, Abydos meant the capital of ancient Egypt.
[The nebula Papyrus wishes to bestow upon you the Fable of Resurrection.]
Oh, look at that? Papyrus was a nebula of Egyptian mythology.
[The constellation Scribe of Heaven is calling your soul.]
Huh? Metatron[3] too? Before I could finish thinking, the next message appeared.
[The nebula Eden wishes to lead you to the Path of the Messiah.]
Fable of Resurrection, and Messiah...?
[The constellation God of Wine and Ecstasy wishes to take you as a lesser constellation.]
[The nebula Olympus is preparing a seat for you.]
...Well now?
[The constellation Master of December 25th is calling you.]
[The nebula Vedas[5] wishes to gift you the Feast of Resurrection.]
[The constellation Caretaker of the Land of Bliss's Flowers is calling your soul.]
[The Nebula Tamra[6] wants you.]
Indian mythology and even Korean mythology?
Besides those, countless messages were pouring out like bamboo shoots after rain.
From great nebulae to small-scale nebulae, numerous nebulae were sending me love calls.
Looking carefully, I could tell what these guys were thinking.
They were trying to overlay their myths onto me right now, weren't they?
[Several constellations are pointing fingers at each other.]
[Some constellations warn not to steal others' myths.]
Dionysus, Mitra[4], Hanrakgung... The constellations who had just called me were all related to resurrection.
[The constellations are having a war of nerves over your revival.]
In other words, these guys were now scheming to get a foot into my fable.
All fables were strengthened through transmission.
The more mortals transmitted and passed them down, the stronger that fable's influence became. But then one day, if a guy named Kim Dokja revived from the grave after three days and proclaimed the following...
"I am Kim Dokja! May the blessing of Christ be upon you all!"
It didn't matter if Mitra or Dionysus went in place of Christ. People would be shocked and collapse, and the myth would be recreated on the spot. The astonished incarnations would spread that story, and the fable's impact would be beyond imagination.
As a result, the nebula related to that fable would gain tremendous Plausibility and have the power to interfere with scenarios.
In other words, that was why the nebulae were making a fuss now.
I had inadvertently gained the power to control scenarios with just one revival.
[The constellations of the Korean Peninsula are paying attention to your choice.]
Footnotes:
[1] The Hwarang were an elite warrior group in the ancient Korean kingdom of Silla (57 BCE - 935 CE). They were young aristocratic men trained in martial arts, literature, and moral education.
[2] Abydos was one of the oldest and most important cities in ancient Egypt, closely associated with Osiris, the god of death and resurrection. It was believed to be the burial place of Osiris and became Egypt's most sacred necropolis.
[3] In Jewish and Christian mysticism, Metatron is one of the highest-ranking angels, often called "The Voice of God" or the "Chancellor of Heaven." His title "Scribe of Heaven" comes from the belief that he records all earthly and heavenly events in the celestial archives. Metatron is sometimes identified with the prophet Enoch, who was taken to heaven and transformed into an angel.
[4] Mitra, or Mithras, was a god in Persian/Roman mystery religions whose worship was particularly popular among Roman soldiers. December 25th was celebrated as "Dies Natalis Solis Invicti" (Birthday of the Unconquered Sun), associated with Mithraic worship. Many scholars note the parallels between Mithraic traditions and early Christianity, including themes of rebirth and salvation. The date was later adopted as Christmas, which is why this constellation is called "Master of December 25th."
[5] The Vedas are the oldest sacred texts of Hinduism, containing hymns, philosophy, and ritual guidance. Hindu mythology has numerous resurrection and reincarnation narratives, most notably the cycle of samsara (rebirth) and stories of gods like Shiva who destroys and recreates the universe.
[6] Tamra was the ancient name for Jeju Island, Korea's largest island, located off the southern coast. Jeju has its own distinct shamanistic traditions and mythology, somewhat separate from mainland Korean beliefs. The "Caretaker of the Land of Bliss's Flowers" likely refers to the Korean afterlife mythology, particularly the concept of Seocheonkkotbat (Western Heaven's Flower Garden), where the souls of the dead travel. This location is tended by Gangnim, a psychopomp deity, though here it's represented by a flower caretaker.
[7] Multiple mythologies feature a three-day death-and-resurrection pattern just like Dokja’s attribute: Christ rising on the third day, Inanna's descent to the underworld for three days before rescue, Odin hanging on Yggdrasil for nine nights (three periods of three), and various seasonal death-rebirth cycles.
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