WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 191: Episode 36 — Horizon of the story (1)

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That day, Seoul Dome was bathed in dazzling light.

[Someone has cleared the tenth Main Scenario.]

[Congratulations. You have passed the tenth Scenario.]

The people lucky enough to hide in the corners of Seoul Dome from the demon people, along with those who had barely survived while roaming Dark Castle 1st Floor and 2nd Floor, all received the same message. Every Incarnation somehow clinging to life amid the Scenario's threats received it.

[You have achieved the Seoul Dome Liberator achievement.]

Liberation. At first, people didn't understand the word, but their bodies accepted it before their minds did. Their limbs trembled, their pupils dilated, and their lips quivered.

[You may escape Seoul Dome.]

Their long-held wish had finally become reality.

Everyone on Dark Castle 1st Floor and 2nd Floor was summoned outside the castle at the same time. Then they all saw the same sight.

Dark Castle was collapsing.

That terrible nightmare that had taken over all of Seoul was crumbling like a sandcastle. The broken chunks soon turned to dust and scattered on the wind. Watching it happen, people were overcome by an indescribable sorrow.

"It's over."

Someone said it.

"We can get out... We can live now..."

"Hell is over!"

Some sensed the tragedy was ending.

Rewards poured down from the sky. Joy filled people's faces. Even if another tragedy were to begin, this was their moment to enjoy freedom. But not everyone shared that feeling.

"...What happened to Mr. Dokja?"

Kim Dokja's companions had escaped Dark Castle. Jeong Huiwon, Lee Hyeongseong, Lee Jihye, Pildu Gong, Lee Gilyeong, Shin Yuseong, Han Suyeong... People who had survived because of Dokja, or owed him a debt.

"Does anyone know? Please, tell us! Master! What happened to Mr. Dokja?!"

Guided by instinct, each of them searched for someone who might be able to explain the situation. Yet the only person who could answer remained silent. Yu Junghyeok stared at the collapsing Dark Castle.

Dokja had been there, and he had died there.

With empty eyes, Junghyeok could only repeat that fact to himself.

Dokja was dead.

"Mr. Yu Junghyeok! Please tell us!"

Junghyeok looked blankly at Hyeongseong, who was shaking him.

Not in the first round, nor the second... Junghyeok had never seen that expression on Hyeongseong's face. He rarely remembered the expressions his companions wore when they lost someone truly precious.

Because he had always been the one to make that expression. He had always been the only one left alive to despair before tragedy.

Yet this life was different. People still stood beside him, experiencing someone's death with him.

"Mr. Yu Junghyeok!"

"Master!"

Everyone was looking at him. Their faces begged him to say it wasn't too late. The answer Junghyeok could give them was already decided.

"I don't know either."

It was the answer that shattered their last remaining hope.

Miserably, that was the role left to Junghyeok.

"I don't know what happened to Dokja either..."

In truth, he could have told them more. He could have explained what being expelled from a Scenario meant. He could have shared what he knew. He could have spoken of the faint hope that something might still be possible. But Junghyeok didn't.

He knew that speaking of it would only be a long way of telling his companions this.

'Dokja is dead, and there's nothing you can do for him.'

Some words reach the heart more desperately when left unsaid.

Some accepted Junghyeok's silence, while others rejected it. In the end, they all understood that silence.

"Dokja hyung said so! He said he wouldn't die! He said he'd come back to life! Then why...?!"

"Mr. Yu Junghyeok! Please tell us how to save Mr. Dokja!"

Even at Gilyeong and Hyeongseong's cries, Junghyeok only shook his head.

If there had been a way to save Dokja, he would have already done it.

But he couldn't.

Nor could anyone else.

[The constellation Prisoner of the Golden Headband falls into profound emptiness.]

[The constellation Abyssal Black Flame Dragon lies down where he stands.]

[The constellation One-stroke Scholar breaks his pen.]

[The constellation God of Wine and Ecstasy stares blankly into the abyss.]

...

[The constellations of the Korean Peninsula mourn the death of a constellation.]

[The constellations of the Korean Peninsula remember someone's name.]

Junghyeok had never seen so many constellations mention someone before. Those lofty, arrogant beings were expressing emotions other than frustration or delight.

As if they, too, knew such feelings.

The night sky, painted in more vivid colors than in any of his past lives, shone brightly.

Sorrow, grief, despair, anguish...

The night sky, made of countless modifiers, shone mournfully. Perhaps Dokja had been hope to them as well. Hope that would show them a story unlike any before. Something that would bring new change to the Star Stream.

'It isn't entirely impossible.'

As he watched the dazzling stars' requiem, Yu Junghyeok the regressor thought.

'If I regress again now...'

An ability tied to his life, like the button of a nuclear missile he could press at any time. Junghyeok could use this ability to regress upon death whenever he wished, making better choices with the new information gained from the future.

If he regressed now, Dokja might live again.

But...

"Yu Junghyeok, get a grip. Don't fool yourself into thinking things will get better if you repeat it over and over."

What if he regressed again and Dokja wasn't there?

Or what if the Dokja he met again didn't act like this one?

For the first time, Junghyeok was afraid of something. The Dokja of this life was only the Dokja of this life.

Even Shin Yuseong of the forty-first round had never spoken of Dokja, and Junghyeok had never met Dokja in the previous round.

Even if he returned to the past, the Dokja of this life wouldn't return.

"So live this round properly."

Choices he had always been able to change had now become irreversible. He met Dokja in the third round, and they became Companions.

Then he lost Dokja.

"Perhaps this round you're trying to throw away is the one and only round where you can see the end of the world as a human."

Junghyeok gritted his teeth and rose. As always, only words remained. Just as everything in the Star Stream was a story, Junghyeok could no longer deny that Dokja's words had become a part of him.

[Ahem, why aren't you all moving? You received the system messages, didn't you?]

A dokkaebi dispatched from the Administration Bureau looked down at the companions from the air.

[Ah, I see. You're all mourning his death.]

The companions bristled at the mocking tone. Yet not all of them did. Huiwon, who had barely maintained her composure, asked.

"...What happened to Dokja?"

[He has been expelled from the Scenario.]

"What does that mean? Is he alive or dead?"

[I don't know either. However, whether an Incarnation or a Constellation, a being expelled from a Scenario cannot survive. That is all I know.]

Even a Constellation couldn't survive. At those words, the companions' expressions froze even colder than before. Jihye snapped.

"There has to be a way, right? A way to save him...!"

[There is nothing you can do now. Honestly, I'm surprised you still feel that way. Let me offer some advice. Stop entertaining useless thoughts and focus on the Scenario in front of you. You haven't completely escaped Seoul Dome yet.]

Leaving those words with a sneer, the dokkaebi lightly snapped its fingers.

Then messages poured down from the air once more.

[An Escape Scenario has been assigned.]

[Seoul Dome will soon close! Escape Seoul Dome within half a day.]

[An escape route will be provided automatically.]

[If you fail to escape the Dome within the time limit, you will die.]

"Goddamn it..."

The companions looked at one another, but no solution was written on anyone's face. There was no choice they could make anyway.

"...Let's move for now."

They began following the designated route.

They ran without stopping toward the outskirts of Seoul, running, swimming, and crossing broken bridges. At last, when the route markers disappeared, they came upon a large crowd.

"Those people..."

The Incarnations of Seoul Dome had gathered there.

There were perhaps a thousand of them. Some familiar faces stood among them. King of Beauty Min Jiwon and Han Donghoon, the shut-in, waved in their direction. Others they had met at Geumho Station and Chungmuro were there as well. Those who recognized the companions gave them slight bows.

Every one of them had been saved by Dokja.

"This is the place."

The companions stopped and looked up at the Dome's inner wall together. The massive cage that had imprisoned them until now. At last, their chance to escape this prison had come. Everyone seemed excited, yet no one readily stepped beyond it.

Like canaries unable to take flight from an open cage.

Instead, they turned their gazes as though looking for something.

Eyes gathered one by one. Before long, every gaze was focused on one person. Suyeong spoke first.

"Junghyeok."

Junghyeok turned to look at her. Suyeong said nothing, but Junghyeok read something in her eyes.

'Don't waste the chance Dokja gave you.'

Junghyeok blinked slowly and stepped forward. The crowd waited for him to speak. They expected some declaration to commemorate this moment of liberation.

Looking at the people focused on him, Junghyeok thought.

In his past lives, he had stood in such places several times. At times, he had been eloquent. At other times, he had been a charismatic leader. It wasn't difficult to find words to say to a crowd.

But why? This time, he didn't want to say those things.

Instead, he said this.

"...I won't give up on this life."

He thought that no one here would understand his words. In the terrible loneliness that came from that, Junghyeok continued.

"So don't give up either."

He didn't know whether his resolve reached them. Junghyeok turned away from the crowd and slowly walked toward the Dome's inner wall. Then...

Once, twice. His fists struck the wall in fury. From the point of impact, enormous cracks spread across the Dome's inner wall.

A wall no one had ever been able to cross since the Scenario began. It gradually collapsed, eventually opening an exit large enough for one person to pass through.

A sight that had always existed, but could never be crossed.

Junghyeok was the first to step into that sight.

"Let's go."

They stepped forward, toward a Scenario without Dokja.

* * *

「And in the darkness, Kim Dokja, finally alone, awakened.」

Footnotes:

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