WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 192: Episode 36: Horizon of the story (2)

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"...Ugh."

「Every bone in his body ached as if it had been crushed, and his skin had hardened like the hide of a dead animal.」

Listening to the voice of [The Fourth Wall], I slowly opened my eyes. The bastard's voice, which had irritated me so much before, had never sounded so welcome.

「Dokja thought. I'm alive.」

It seemed the plan had worked. Calling it a success was almost unnecessary.

In a way, it had been inevitable.

The Fate they had given me was the death of "Kim Dokja the Incarnation." Therefore, it was only natural that Dokja as a "Constellation," the Demon King of Salvation, hadn't died. If I were going to disappear that easily, I wouldn't have gone through all that trouble accumulating fables to become a Constellation.

The question was what state I would be in after coming back as a Constellation without my Incarnation body...

"...Where am I?"

All I could see were ruined buildings and a partially destroyed eight-lane road. It was somehow a familiar sight.

"This is...?"

Not long after I muttered to myself, I noticed my situation. The night sky had always been filled with the glow of constellations. Yet now, there was nothing there.

I was as surprised by the profound silence that followed my muttering as I was by the fact that I had spoken to myself at all. Looking up at the night sky, I let out a hollow laugh.

"Ha ha..."

Normally, countless Indirect Messages from constellations should have appeared.

The Prisoner of the Golden Headband, who liked my muttering to myself. The Abyssal Black Flame Dragon, who loved picking fights. The Demonic Judge of Fire, who liked me for reasons I still didn't understand. Surely one of them should have answered me.

But no one did.

The Bald Army General, who polished his head, was gone. So was the One-Eyed Maitreya, who threw away his eyepatch whenever he got bored, and the Lady of the Sleeping Brocade, whose shameless way of speaking was strangely charming.

Once the messages from the constellations I had dreaded were gone, all that remained for me was, absurdly enough, a terrible loneliness.

「Dokja thought. I really am alone now.」

[You have been expelled from the Scenario.]

I slowly looked around again. Beings who remained alive after being expelled from a Scenario were sent to the nearest area outside the Scenario's jurisdiction.

[You are currently in an area outside the Scenario's jurisdiction.]

And this area outside the Scenario's jurisdiction was a place I knew very well.

「Seoul.」

This was Gwanghwamun Plaza in Seoul. The place where the War of Kings had taken place, where I had destroyed the Absolute Throne. Yet if Seoul had become an area outside the Scenario's jurisdiction...

My companions escaped safely.

With an inexplicable swelling in my chest, I looked at where Seoul Dome had once stood. The place that had once been covered by a translucent membrane was now sealed beneath something resembling a thick barrier.

The Scenario of Seoul had completely ended. My companions were moving on into a Scenario without me, creating a new story. They were still living there.

That was enough.

「Dokja felt happy, yet somehow lonely.」

After thinking of my companions for a moment, I slowly turned around.

「Dokja, now alone, had something he had to do. For that, he had chosen a miserable death.」

* * *

「As he walked through the streets of Seoul, Dokja sank into memories that had not yet grown old. Everywhere he went were places where he had carried out Scenarios with his companions. Dokja realized once again that he had become part of TWSA. He had clearly lived this story.」

"...That's moving and all, but can't you stop now? How long are you going to keep muttering?"

「Dokja became irritated with the pitiful Fourth Wall.」

At first, it was nice to feel like someone was talking beside me. But it kept explaining every little thing I did, and it was starting to annoy me.

「How much time had passed? Dokja wanted to ask, but there was no one to answer him.」

"Goddamn it. You can answer me."

After arguing with the bastard, I decided to check my condition first.

[Many of your fables have been damaged.]

[Your Incarnation body has completely collapsed.]

I had survived through my status as a Constellation, but I had completely lost my Incarnation body. In other words, my existence was no longer physical. I was only a highly unstable mass of fables.

[Your main body is in a critical condition.]

[No method to preserve your main body can be found.]

I was in such an unstable state that one touch could make me collapse completely. Living like this wasn't really living. I decided to try everything I could.

[This is an area where Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint cannot be used.]

...As expected.

[You are currently unable to communicate with your Incarnations.]

This didn't work either. I had expected it, but knowing it for certain still made me feel stifled. It was like I had come alone to a place with no signal.

[You cannot use the channel system.]

Since I had been expelled from the Scenario, I had naturally been expelled from the channel as well, and my contract with Bihyeong had naturally been terminated. As I stared at the starless sky, a hollow freedom came over me.

...I'm really alone now.

As I realized that, something like a chill slowly began to seep into me.

「No one is watching me, and I cannot see anyone either.」

No, perhaps I wasn't completely alone.

「In that silence, Dokja suddenly realized it. I see. Existence can only be felt through someone's gaze.」

"I don't think about things that deeply, idiot. More importantly, how long are you going to keep this up?"

「Foolish Dokja did not know why the great Fourth Wall was going through such trouble.」

...Oh?

"You can do more than explain things? What the hell are you? Are you really a skill?"

「Foolish Dokja muttered to the empty air.」

Oh, screw you.

「Foolish Dokja...」

"Will you stop already? I'll turn off the skill."

At that moment, a crackling sound came from the air.

「The Fourth Wall says, 'Th en sh ou ld I st op?'」

I was a little surprised. This bastard could express its own thoughts more clearly than I'd expected. Come to think of it, last time too...

"Yeah, stop. I don't want to be disturbed right now."

[The Exclusive Skill The Fourth Wall has fallen silent.]

The next moment, though, I immediately regretted that choice.

Crack-crack-crack!

Before I could even ask what was happening, the air around me seemed to freeze. The cold immediately seeped into my skin, then penetrated deep into my bones. With a faint crackling sound, my lungs seemed to seize up.

"Urk...?"

Only then did I remember. The reason those bastards from Veda and Olympus had gone out of their way to send me to an area outside the Scenario's jurisdiction.

They had been aiming for this exact situation. Their scheme to kill Dokja the Incarnation and finish off Dokja the Constellation as well.

"Ghk, guuuugh..."

I screamed, but no scream came out. I wanted to breathe, but I couldn't. It felt as if someone had compressed my lungs shut. My mind turned white, and my thoughts began disappearing one by one.

The Star Stream was a world of stories.

Whether Incarnation or Constellation, there were no exceptions.

All beings breathe through stories and exist through stories.

[The rate of damage to your fables is accelerating!]

[Your existence has begun to vanish.]

Therefore, nothing could exist in a place where stories did not exist.

Not even me.

'Damn it, save me!'

I cried out in the bottomless terror of my own disappearance. Only then did I understand why [The Fourth Wall] had kept talking. It had been chattering endlessly to keep me alive.

In a place where no stories existed, it had kept telling me stories so that I could remain alive.

[The Exclusive Skill The Fourth Wall has activated!]

「The Fourth Wall says, 'Id iot.'」

At last, I could breathe again.

"Gasp, gasp..."

I knew those expelled from a Scenario met a terrible fate, but I hadn't thought it would be this bad.

Then again, even Cheok Junkyung hadn't been able to survive after being excluded from a Scenario without the help of a nebula... Damn it, I had underestimated the situation. I thought that if I gave up a few fables, I could somehow make it to the first destination. Without [The Fourth Wall], even staying alive might have been difficult.

「Dokja thought. I should never again mess with The Fourth Wall-nim.」

Even in my miserable state, I couldn't bring myself to argue with that.

"...But how long can you protect me?"

「The Fourth Wall says, 'No t fo r lo ng.'」

As soon as [The Fourth Wall] spoke, intense sparks flew up around me. It was strange enough that [The Fourth Wall] alone was enduring Plausibility that only a nebula-grade being could neutralize.

I didn't have much time. If I failed to finish this in time, I would wither away here.

That was when I heard a sound from somewhere. A sucking noise that reminded me of a vacuum cleaner...

「Dokja knew what they were.」

"Yeah, I know. Scenario cleaners."

The appearance of cleaners meant a large-scale cleanup of this Scenario area had begun.

「Dokja thought. Since the cleanup had begun, the Demon of the Horizon would soon appear as well. Those hyena-like creatures that roamed the ruins of Scenarios would never pass up ruins this appetizing.」

You really could read my thoughts frighteningly well. But before meeting them, there was something I had to find first.

「Dokja hastened his steps.」

Staggering, I gradually picked up speed. Small things resembling dark clouds were roaming the streets.

They were the Scenario cleaners.

They were dangerous, but I ran without paying them much attention. The cleaners were slow, and their range of perception was narrow. As long as I avoided them carefully, reaching my destination without being noticed wouldn't be difficult.

I left Gwanghwamun and headed south.

Euljiro 3-ga, Chungmuro, Dongdaeipgu, Yaksu, Geumho Station...

Like a salmon, I swam upstream through all the places I had passed through so far. At last, I arrived at Oksu Station.

There, I came face-to-face with the broken Dongho Bridge.

As I looked at the broken bridge, memories still vivid rose in my mind.

This was where Yu Junghyeok threw me into the mouth of an ichthyosaur.

...I wonder if he's doing well now. Han Suyeong is with him, so they're probably helping each other. All I could do was hope so.

Whoosh!

Without even taking a run-up, I lightly leaped over the broken bridge. In the past, I could barely cross it with the help of Deus Ex Machina, but now a single leap was enough. It was remarkable growth, but it was still too early to be satisfied.

The ones I had to overcome were waiting for me at a distance far greater than the gap in that broken bridge.

A half-destroyed subway train lay where I landed.

The place where all these Scenarios had begun.

I stared at the subway's exterior for a moment, then went inside and began searching through the ruins. How long had I searched? At last, I found what I was looking for.

A white-glowing item box.

A short Scenario message left on top of the box caught my eye.

―Dokja, I can trust you, right? I left it as you asked. Thanks for being the Incarnation of my channel all this time.

I knew exactly who had written it.

―Please, be alive.

Of course. I'm not going to die.

I opened the item box. Inside were the Attribute bought for a full 300,000 coins, along with all the items I had requested.

[You have acquired a new Attribute.]

[You have acquired the item Dokkaebi's Egg.]

[You have acquired the item Unbreakable Faith.]

...

After collecting all the items, I left the subway.

Dawn was breaking just then. Sitting on the edge of the bridge, I waited.

He would be here soon.

As soon as I thought it, a small lantern appeared over the horizon where the story had ended. Beyond its light, a deeply hunched shadow stretched out. An old man with a massive lump on one cheek walked toward me with a strange expression.

As if he knew I was here.

"Are you the Demon King of Salvation?"

I watched the old man for a moment, then turned my gaze toward the dawn light outside the Dome. Beyond that light, I thought of the nebulae waiting for me.

They probably thought I was dead by now.

Olympus. Veda. Papyrus...

I recalled their names and modifiers one by one. Every Constellation that had mocked and insulted the stories of Incarnations, then finally turned them into toys for their amusement.

Just wait.

「I'll drag every last one of you down from that goddamn sky.」

Footnotes:

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