WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Editor: ChaoticRain

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 209: Episode 39: The Unidentified Wall (4)

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「Kim Dokja thought, I wonder if everyone is doing well.」

I hoped the screen panel might show another story from Earth, but no footage appeared. The Hunchbacks probably couldn't steal videos from the dokkaebis' channels that easily.

Night approached quickly.

I had barely gotten any proper sleep for days, but thanks to Aileen mending my fables whenever she could, my Incarnation body wasn't in terrible condition.

"I've patched things up for now, but you need to be careful when you're outside. You know that, right? You're still someone who has left the Main Scenario."

"You sound just like a doctor."

"I'm not working on clocks right now, so I can't exactly sound like a clockmaker, can I?"

Aileen shot me a look and stood up with her repair tools. So much had happened in the past two days, yet she didn't seem particularly dissatisfied with the current situation.

「Kim Dokja thought, If I hadn't come to the Demon Realm, Aileen would have continued living as a clockmaker.」

In the many rounds where Yu Junghyeok never came to the Demon Realm, Aileen had likely lived just like that. Quietly making clocks that told the time in her hometown, reflecting alone on the time of a vanished planet. Occasionally bickering with Jang Hayoung and eating the food Mark made...

Maybe that would have been a happier life for Aileen.

When I glanced up, Aileen was watching me with an unreadable look.

"Did you know? More people have been coming in looking for clocks these past few days."

I hesitated for a moment before asking, "Did everyone's clocks break at once or something?"

"People in the industrial complex didn't use clocks to begin with."

"Why not?"

"Because there was no point in knowing what time it was."

I remembered reading about it in TWSA. I also remembered someone calling the Demon Realm "the city that lost time" because of it.

"But they still need to know when Night is coming, don't they?"

"Would knowing when Night comes change the fate of those who are going to die?"

A fear that lasted too long became a law.

For countless years, Night had been a natural part of this industrial complex. Every three days, someone died, and their fables became fertilizer for the Factory. It didn't matter what kind of life they had lived, what stories they had, or what kind of future might have awaited them.

Then the people left behind lived through another three days with someone missing.

"But then a night came when nobody died. Because of you."

"..."

"People can fear Night again. They can think it isn't something natural, that it might be something they can solve. That maybe they can live while thinking about tomorrow."

When I lowered my gaze, I saw that Aileen was wearing a watch too.

There were now three hours until Night arrived.

Aileen and I fell silent as we listened to the ticking second hand. Somewhere in the industrial complex, people were probably looking at their clocks just as we were.

Tonight would be fiercer and harder than last night.

Even so, I felt slightly comforted just listening to the second hand ticking away. Even though I wasn't the one who needed comforting.

"Thank you."

"I didn't tell you that to make you feel better. It's just unpleasant to look at a depressed Revolutionary."

Aileen abruptly turned away. I gave her a bitter smile, then quickly added, "Ah, wait a second."

"...What is it?"

"Since we're talking about clocks, can you make something else too?"

"Like what?"

"A smartphone... I guess?"

"What's that? A magical device?"

I wondered how to explain it, then gave her a rough description of a smartphone's features. Aileen nodded as if she understood.

"So it's like a communication device with a small panel?"

"That's right."

"But there are no dokkaebi channels here, so communication would be impossible..."

Based on my past experience, it didn't matter whether it could actually connect. The phone I held would synchronize on its own and generate the novel files.

"Don't worry about that. Can you make one by today?"

"One day would be difficult. It would probably take at least three days... but I'll do my best."

"All right. Thanks."

I left Aileen's workshop and headed toward the tavern. As I walked down the street, I felt people watching me with strange looks. A few greeted me with their eyes, while others lightly clasped their hands together.

Just as Aileen had said, every one of them wore a wristwatch.

「Looking at those clocks, Junghyeok felt lonely. They had regained time, but he still wasn't living within that time. Junghyeok suddenly wondered, Then where among those countless moments am I living?」

It was Junghyeok's monologue after he saved the Demon Realm.

It was also one of my favorite scenes in TWSA.

Suddenly, I thought I understood a little of how he felt.

To Junghyeok, the regressor, time in every world didn't belong to him. In a life where he could regress over and over, there was no way the present could hold any meaning...

Once this was over, maybe I should ask Aileen to make him a clock. Something like that might make him grow more attached to this world. Maybe his regressor's depression would even improve a little...

I knew this world wouldn't disappear just because he regressed, but clearing the remaining Scenarios would become much harder without him.

"Ahahaha! This is seriously hilarious."

When I opened the tavern door, I saw Hayoung cackling. From this far away, they just looked like a middle school student going through puberty.

"What are you doing?"

This time, Hayoung didn't let out a frightened squeak. Instead, they avoided my eyes like a child caught doing something bad by their parents.

"I-I was doing what you told me to!"

"What about the Fighters?"

"Well..."

Hayoung hesitated, their lips twitching for a moment before they finally confessed.

"...The Fighters didn't respond?"

"It's true! Nobody replied!"

"What did you send them?"

"..."

"Tell me properly."

"A fifteen-year-old girl looking for a texting buddy, any gender..."

A vein throbbed in my forehead.

"Hey."

"But it worked before..."

"Do you think they're all like the Abyssal Black Flame Dragon? How many did you send?"

"About three hundred in total..."

Maybe they thought they were spam messages and blocked them. Damn it.

"This is bad. That's every Fighter I know of."

Only then did Hayoung's expression change as they realized how serious this was.

"Then what do we do now?"

This was why I needed TWSA.

If I had the files, I could reread the parts I hadn't examined closely enough and search for more information on the Fighters.

"We'll have to find out whether there are other Fighters. For now..."

I thought of a few Constellation modifiers that came to mind. A Constellation who might be willing to help us.

"Send a message to the Prisoner of the Golden Headband."

"...Isn't that an incredibly powerful Constellation?"

I didn't know whether he had any skills related to Fighters. Still, this was the time to grasp at any straw available. Hayoung diligently typed out a message.

Then we waited. One minute, two minutes... five minutes.

Hayoung shook their head.

"There's no reply. Isn't there something we could say to provoke him?"

"Hmm... I don't know."

"What is that Constellation interested in? Any traits like that?"

I thought about it for a while. Even if I was a master of TWSA, there was no way I could remember such trivial details.

"Well, he's a male Constellation, and he's pretty old..."

"So an old man."

"That's one way to put it, but strictly speaking-"

"Wait a second."

For some reason, Hayoung looked smug. Smacking their lips, they quickly typed up and sent another message.

I honestly wasn't expecting much, but a notification appeared in less than ten seconds.

[A reply has arrived!]

"A reply came!"

"...What the hell did you send?"

Hayoung smiled sheepishly, then proudly showed me the screen.

[Grow, hair, grow!]

"Hey, you-!"

...He actually reacted to a message like that?

Whenever I did anything, he would pluck out his hair through Indirect Messages, so I had wondered if he was suffering from hair loss. I rubbed my throbbing temple and asked, "What did he say?"

"He said he'll kill me if we meet."

"What else?"

"He's asking who you are. Should I say Yu Junghyeok?"

"...Don't answer."

Calling myself Yu Junghyeok would be funny, but it would only create more problems for no reason. It seemed Great Sage Equaling Heaven was a dead end, so I needed to find another Constellation.

The Demonic Judge of Fire would be awkward to call in the Demon Realm. Or the Secretive Plotter... I still didn't know what that guy really was.

This was difficult.

The Queen of the Darkest Spring and the God of Wine and Ecstasy were connected to Olympus...

If I simply revealed that I was alive, one of them might help. The problem was that revealing my identity would also let the nebulae know I had survived.

"This is a problem."

It was the first real obstacle I had faced since entering the Demon Realm. There wasn't much time left until Night. If Hayoung couldn't inherit the Fighter position now, every plan I had made for tonight would fall apart.

Then Hayoung said, "The Black Flame Dragon says he can help."

I paused for a moment, wondering who the hell "the Black Flame Dragon" was referring to.

"...You're still talking to that guy?"

"Yeah."

"Forget him. He's probably a total screwup."

"No, he says he was a Fighter in the Demon Realm for a while too."

...The Abyssal Black Flame Dragon had once been a Fighter?

There had never been a story like that in TWSA.

Then again, the Abyssal Black Flame Dragon had never been covered in that much detail, so it wasn't impossible...

"But he says he didn't like the Scenario rules, so he killed everyone."

"What?"

"He says he killed the duke, the Revolutionary, and the Executioners. All of them."

Something suddenly came to mind.

Was it when the 64th Demon Realm was integrated? I vaguely remembered there being some lunatic like that in the Demon Realm's history.

But that had been the Abyssal Black Flame Dragon?

"Ask whether he can transmit the Fighter skill."

The Abyssal Black Flame Dragon was an evil-aligned Constellation, so it wouldn't draw much attention if he sent something to the Demon Realm. If I could get his help, he would be the best possible choice.

Hayoung's face brightened rapidly as they typed something.

"He says he doesn't use it anyway, so giving it to us isn't a problem."

"Really?"

...This was an unexpectedly helpful turn of events.

Maybe this problem could be solved in a way I hadn't anticipated.

It almost made me think the Black Flame Dragon and Kim Namwoon were both good guys. Once I got the files again, I would have to read their parts carefully.

But Hayoung wasn't finished.

"He says there's one condition."

Of course. That stubborn bastard wasn't going to give it to us for free.

"Transactions through the Wall require payment anyway. What's his condition?"

"He says he's been worried about something lately."

"Worried?"

"His relationship with his Incarnation isn't very good..."

"With his Incarnation?"

"He says his Incarnation keeps looking down on him."

The Abyssal Black Flame Dragon's Incarnation was...

"He says even though his Incarnation is in danger right now, they have no intention of listening to him..."

...In danger?

I quickly cut Hayoung off and asked, "Tell him to explain that in detail."

Footnotes:

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