WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Editor: ChaoticRain
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 179: Episode 33: Re-reading (8)
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As Cheok Junkyung's fables began surging through my body, I started hearing stories of him scattered throughout the Star Stream. A good fable could raise the status of one's existence simply by being read.
[You have learned the fable One Who Inherited the Dragon's Blood.]
[You have learned the fable One Who Routed an Army with a Single Sword.]
[You have learned the fable Butcher of the Battlefield.]
...
「He was a mighty warrior from birth. They say dragon blood ran through his veins.」
「"It's Cheok Junkyung! Cheok Junkyung has appeared!"」
「"He cut down thirty-six enemy commanders by himself."」
From Cheok Junkyung's birth until the present, I heard histories that the public had never known were Scenarios, though they had truly been part of the Scenarios.
[You have learned the fable Exile of the Scenario.]
「"He's too strong. Exile him from the Scenario. Use every means available and send him to another world."」
Watching that history unfold, I raged, grieved, rejoiced, and despaired as Cheok Junkyung had. Once I had ridden through that torrent of emotions, its contours became Cheok Junkyung's face and sturdy body. I had never seen him even once, yet I felt as though I knew him better than anyone.
This story was Cheok Junkyung himself.
"Why are you helping me this much?"
[Who knows. Why am I?]
As payment for possessing me, Cheok Junkyung had taken five stars from the Ganpyeongui. Yet what he was giving me now couldn't be compared to five stars.
No constellation revealed every last fable it possessed to an incarnation. Besides, Cheok Junkyung wasn't even my Patron.
[I was once like you.]
One of Cheok Junkyung's fables flowed into my mind.
[You have learned the fable One Who Fights Against Fate.]
「"Bind him with [Fate]. He has to die here."」
I froze at the voices of the wandering constellations. I knew Cheok Junkyung had been treated unfairly, but I hadn't known it was because of the same [Fate] as mine. Long ago, Cheok Junkyung had suffered at the hands of the constellations just as I had.
[The fable One Who Fights Against Fate has begun!]
A fable like Cheok Junkyung's own. He laughed.
[It wasn't as great as the Fate you bear now. There was only one nebula that did that goddamn thing to me.]
Cheok Junkyung looked upon the world through my eyes.
[I survived then with Hongik's help. But even now, I sometimes think I shouldn't have accepted help from any nebula.]
Cheok Junkyung's mighty presence burst forth from within me.
[That is why I am helping you.]
He gripped the sword with my hand and took a swordsman's stance with my feet.
Grrrrrraaaaaah...
The Outer God, which had nearly swallowed Mother of the Founder whole, let out a roar. Cheok Junkyung released his own power in response. Unbreakable Faith in my hand gave a fierce cry.
[A fine sword.]
The blade trembled as if answering those words. My Mana drained like water from a bottomless vessel, and particles of pure Aether began gathering at the sword's tip.
Kiiiiing!
An Aether Blade more than ten meters long formed before me. I trembled at its terrifying power, but tried not to let down my guard.
[I will borrow this for a moment.]
Cheok Junkyung fully possessed my body and began running with Unbreakable Faith clutched in both hands.
It was an overload that even total attributes of 100 couldn't withstand. Every joint in my body creaked, and the ground beneath my feet exploded as I ran, leaving enormous craters behind.
With power like this, it felt as though I could cut through anything. Yet the moment I leaped into the air and saw the enemy, a faint despair gripped me.
It was a feeling I knew from living in the human world.
Could something that enormous be killed?
The Outer God beyond the Great Hole was beyond imagination in size alone. Its body had a diameter of at least a kilometer. The twelve limbs attached to that body each had a diameter of dozens of meters.
It hadn't even crossed over by one-fifth yet, and it was already that large. If that thing came all the way through, who could possibly kill it?
Perhaps sensing my despair, Cheok Junkyung laughed.
[I am Cheok Junkyung.]
It was as though he wanted the entire world to hear.
Or as though he were declaring it to the whole Star Stream.
[I am the strongest military commander of the Korean Peninsula.]
Then the sword moved. There were moments when I was moving, yet I couldn't understand what I was doing. Cheok Junkyung's Swordsmanship was like that.
Second Form: Two Swords Cleave a Mountain.
Cheok Junkyung's second sword moved. It wasn't a sword meant to cut humans.
It wasn't even a sword meant to cut monsters.
It was, in a sense, a sword meant to cut nature itself.
The blade over ten meters long came down twice in quick succession. There came the sound of something huge, like an internal organ, bursting apart.
What flowed out looked closer to darkness than blood, and closer to tiny letters than darkness. I realized it was the story possessed by the Outer God.
In the end, the Outer God existed in the same way as the constellations.
Grrrrrraaaaaah!
With a scream, one of the deity's tentacles tore away from its body and crashed to the ground. It looked like a colossal building snapping in half.
The shocked incarnations fled in every direction, while I was shocked for another reason.
A human could cut something like that.
I was filled with awe for a being born human who had surpassed humanity beyond measure. Then terrible pain followed that shock.
"Huh, huff... Ghhhhh."
It hurt too much to hold back my groans.
A violent torrent of backlash swept through my body. I shook and drooled as if I had been electrocuted by hundreds of thousands of volts.
Every bone in the hand that had swung the sword felt shattered, while my mind shrank as if it were being crushed in a press. Great power carried great responsibility, and in this world, that responsibility was called Plausibility. I wasn't ready to bear it yet.
[The constellation Goryeo's Top Swordsman looks at you.]
Cheok Junkyung was sharing the burden of Plausibility with me, but my existence was still too fragile to contain his power. He sighed.
[You're frailer than I thought! I thought that, since you became a constellation, you could at least endure this much...]
I wanted to tell him that he was just absurdly strong, but I couldn't get the words out.
"Cough! Huff! Huff!"
Instead of food, I vomited wild currents of electricity. Only after sitting on the ground and gasping for breath for several minutes did I barely escape the storm of Plausibility.
When I raised my head, I saw the landscape Cheok Junkyung had made.
A sword that cut mountains.
With that one attack, Cheok Junkyung had torn two of the twelve limbs to shreds. It was like cutting down two mountains. Yet more than ten mountains remained, and even its body was still there. Cheok Junkyung's voice darkened.
[...Not enough. For the first time, I may have to go beyond the Third Form.]
"There's something after the Third Form?"
[I have never used it... Looking at your condition, though, I wonder if I can even use the Third Form.]
I clenched my teeth. The Outer God's summoning speed was accelerating. The scales of Plausibility should have been nearly balanced already, yet it kept summoning its true body into this world. It seemed the strike from before had truly enraged it.
"Can't we negotiate with that thing?"
[Negotiate? What could we possibly negotiate with those things?]
"It's also a deity..."
Cheok Junkyung cut me off after catching the meaning behind my words.
[If you mean to save your mother, give up. Even Mother of the Founder has had her shadow consumed. Your mother's soul has likely scattered long ago.]
"Not yet. That Outer God isn't a being that feeds that way."
[You speak as if you know that Outer God.]
Cheok Junkyung didn't know that I truly did know this Outer God.
I examined its appearance once more.
Twelve enormous tentacles and a body obscured by thick mist.
Its body, like an immense canal, inspired cosmic awe simply by looking at it. There was no doubt. This was the deity Yu Junghyeok had fought in the 136th round.
Rumble!
While I was sitting down and catching my breath, Junghyeok had stepped forward to fight another tentacle.
When he used Gigantification on top of a Transcendent's strength, Junghyeok looked like a demigod descending into the world. The force of sky splitter followed the path of Sky Splitter Sword Art and exploded atop the tentacle, making the massive limb writhe in agony.
Crunch! Crack!
With his strength alone, Junghyeok was injuring the Outer God.
He was still far below Cheok Junkyung, but Cheok Junkyung seemed genuinely impressed.
[He reminds me of myself in my prime. With talent like that, he may catch up to me before long.]
Dodging the tentacle's movements, Junghyeok reduced about one-third of it to pulp. Still, even after pouring all his strength into that attack, that was his limit. Junghyeok leaped back and exhaled through gritted teeth.
"Kim Dokja, that thing is called The One Who Devours Dreams. I met it in the previous round. If it eats you, you'll live inside its subspace forever while it extracts your fables. Never enter its mouth."
It was information I already knew, but I gave a noncommittal nod.
As Junghyeok and I desperately drank recovery potions, the Outer God's summoning speed gradually increased. Its true body was now almost one-third summoned.
Grrrrraaaaaah!
The summoned tentacles began thrashing about, and the surrounding area was reduced to ruins in an instant. Screaming incarnations were crushed beneath the tentacles and died horribly.
The One Who Devours Dreams wasn't a Great Old One-grade deity, but it was still a cosmic deity. Even Earth's fabled-grade constellations couldn't face it unless they joined forces. Cheok Junkyung spoke in a dark voice.
[...Once it fully descends, even I cannot handle it. We must attack now.]
The situation wasn't favorable to us in the slightest. The moment Cheok Junkyung raised his fables again, a barrage of sparks seized my heart.
[That damned Plausibility has never helped us even once.]
The Outer God was being summoned, yet this was all the Plausibility I could use. Its meaning was simple. Someone else was using the Plausibility allocated to us.
It would have been foolish to ask who that was.
Biting my lip until it bled, I shouted, "We still have to do it. Use the Three Sword Forms!"
[Your existence may disappear if you do.]
"This is our only chance. Yu Junghyeok, join your strength with mine this time."
Junghyeok nodded. I gripped Unbreakable Faith in my recovered right hand and began running again.
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!
Sparks of Plausibility lashed out with every step I took. Could I endure it? I didn't know. This time, my existence might truly be crushed in the storm.
But I had to do it. I had always done it, so I had to do it this time too.
"Cough..."
Before I could even take ten steps, Plausibility caught my ankle again.
The backlash was far stronger than before. I couldn't do this alone. I needed someone's help. But who could help me now?
This wasn't like the Absolute Throne.
Any constellation who helped me now would surely make enemies of the great nebulae.
[The constellation Naval Warfare God looks at you.]
The sparks constricting me began to lessen little by little.
Admiral Yi Sunsin the Great.
The leader of the Korean Peninsula's Historical-grade constellations had lent strength to my Plausibility. Cheok Junkyung sounded slightly moved.
[Admiral. People used to say you were closer to fabled-grade than I was.]
[The constellation Naval Warfare God gives a small nod.]
[Fine, we can discuss that later... Is there no one else? Are there no more constellations brave enough to stand against that vermin of a deity?]
The sky remained quiet. Other than the Admiral, who alone had acted, no one shared the burden of my Plausibility. Cheok Junkyung bellowed in rage.
[Baldy! Hurry up and help too! Do you still dare call yourself a righteous army general?]
[The constellation Bald Army General bows his head.]
[Where the hell is that one-eyed bastard hiding?]
[The constellation One-Eyed Maitreya grips his eyepatch tightly.]
Cheok Junkyung shouted at the world, unwilling to care that his Plausibility was being consumed and his status damaged.
[Are you still hiding inside those paltry modifiers even in a situation like this? And you call yourselves constellations? Righteous Army? Maitreya? King? You do not deserve to remain within those names!]
[The constellations of the Korean Peninsula ponder Goryeo's Top Swordsman's words.]
Still, no constellation acted. Then I saw a figure staggering toward us from afar. A woman, gasping for breath as she stretched a hand toward me.
It was Min Jiwon. The moment I thought, Thank goodness she's alive.
[The constellation Lady of the Sleeping Brocade looks at you.]
Messages began to appear.
[Constellations from Shilla share the burden of your Plausibility.]
The weak constellations of Shilla whom I had helped were looking at me. Their help was pitifully small, but they were still constellations.
[The nebula Veda is enraged at Lady of the Sleeping Brocade.]
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!
[The constellation Lady of the Sleeping Brocade has consumed excessive Plausibility and fallen into a deep sleep.]
For a constellation to close its eyes meant accepting grave damage to its existence. Yet the resolve of Lady of the Sleeping Brocade seemed to have affected the other constellations of the Korean Peninsula.
A sharp tingle ran through me, and one gaze after another began turning toward me.
[The constellation Bald Army General looks at you as if saying, To hell with it.]
It began with Venerable Samyeong.
[The constellation One-Eyed Maitreya looks at you with one eye half-open.]
[The constellation King Heungmu looks at you while hurling curses.]
[The constellation Joseon's Greatest Sorcerer looks at you with a sigh.]
The sparks covering me rapidly diminished. Implausibility was finally becoming Plausibility.
[The nebula Olympus declares Naval Warfare God its enemy.]
[The nebula Papyrus is enraged at the constellations of the Korean Peninsula.]
...
Because of me alone, the entire Korean Peninsula was being covered in the clouds of war.
Cheok Junkyung laughed.
[That is why I cannot leave this land, even as I curse it. Only a few need to die, yet they all charge in ready to die together...]
Amid the gathering gazes of the constellations, Cheok Junkyung's fables shone brightly from my right hand. Waves of fables churned as roughly as the sea.
[This should be the minimum preparation we need.]
At last, Cheok Junkyung's Three Sword Forms were ready.
Footnotes:
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