WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Editor: ChaoticRain

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 213: Episode 40: Hatching (2)

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It suddenly felt like I could breathe freely. As if someone had kept my mouth sealed with tape until now, then ripped it off in one go.

[The constellation Demon King of Salvation is looking at the Seisvitz Industrial Complex.]

My vision widened, and I began to see things I couldn't see with my Incarnation body.

Seen from above, the industrial complex resembled a circular dome. A circular city built around the Factory at its center. The city's Incarnations all looked up at the sky at once.

"Th-this...!"

"It's a channel! A channel has opened!"

It seemed they had received the message announcing the opening of a temporary channel as well.

"The dokkaebis have come! Our Demon Realm is finally going to get some attention too!"

Their faces were almost overcome with emotion. It made sense. This was where people abandoned by the Scenarios gathered. Incarnations who had once hated Constellations and coins had come to the Demon Realm and become beings who longed for them more than anyone.

"Hey! Are you okay? Did you hear that message too?"

With Jang Hayoung supporting me, I barely managed to stand.

[The collapse of your Incarnation body has been temporarily delayed due to entering a temporary channel.]

I let out a sigh of relief. A channel was an important mechanism at the heart of a story.

Just entering the channel was gradually stabilizing the fables throughout my body. Of course, I hadn't completely escaped my status as an Exile, but... this should buy me some time.

[Enter the Main Scenario to prevent the collapse of your fables.]

For me, an Exile, to enter the Main Scenario, I ultimately had to kill the Real Revolutionary. I carefully touched my crumbling arms and legs. Fortunately, my core fables seemed to be intact. I could repair the damaged parts somehow.

[The damage to your Incarnation body's fables is currently severe.]

[New fables are required for repairs.]

I hadn't properly checked my inventory yet, but I had taken many fables from the nobles. Most were Historical-grade, and I thought there had been at least one Legendary-grade mixed in. Either way, I had to move quickly before the temporary channel closed.

Aileen approached from a distance, and I asked, "What about the injured?"

"There are more than we expected."

Aileen's expression darkened. Even at a glance, dozens of people were lying on the ground. Many industrial citizens had suffered fatal injuries, and it looked like quite a few wouldn't survive the day.

"Dokkaebi Compendium."

At my words, the familiar holographic window appeared in the air.

I hadn't realized how frustrating it was to go without this. This must be how a rich person felt when they had money but couldn't spend it. After briefly checking whether any useful items had arrived, I spent around 30,000 coins to buy a large quantity of Ellain Forest Essence.

"Distribute this to the people."

"Th-this is... How did you get something like this?"

"Don't ask for details."

Aileen accepted the essence with wide eyes.

Of course she was surprised. Ellain Forest Essence could only be obtained through the Dokkaebi Compendium. In the channel-less Demon Realm, it could only be a rare item.

[There is little time remaining for the temporary channel.]

I took the Dokkaebi's Egg from my pocket. Fine cracks had appeared on its surface.

A sign of hatching. To baby dokkaebis, a temporary channel was something like the first stirring of life. In other words, it was breathing practice.

When I gently stroked the egg, I felt a tiny vibration from inside the shell.

[The Dokkaebi's Egg will soon hatch!]

[Feed it healthy fables.]

I quickly took out several Fable Fragments and held them against the egg. The egg trembled, then let out a little gurgling sound.

[The Dokkaebi's Egg is satisfied.]

[The Dokkaebi's Egg wants the warmth of its parent.]

What a troublesome little thing. Come to think of it, Bihyeong had told me something.

"Just in case the egg starts hatching, you have to keep it warm right before it hatches."

"What? Why?"

"I don't know for sure either. But they say that's how a healthy dokkaebi is born. So we all do it."

It seemed strange that dokkaebis believed in such a superstition, but then again, did superstition even exist in this world? This was a world where every fable became reality.

I looked toward the Factory in the distance.

Two marquises had died, so the Seisvitz Industrial Complex had now fully entered its revolutionary phase. I had broken both their arms and given them a proper warning at the end, so the Factory wouldn't be able to act rashly now.

My body wasn't in any condition to fight them anyway... this should hold for a few days.

"Aileen. Close the industrial citizen quarters from now on."

"What?"

"The nobles won't be moving for a while anyway. Let's rest and prepare on this side too."

I looked down at the egg, whose stirring was growing stronger. From now on, the duke wasn't the only problem. Once the channel opened, the real monsters would appear.

Before then, I needed to make a few preparations.

* * *

With my Allies' help, I set up a space inside the clinic where I could maintain a suitable temperature and humidity. Aileen examined my condition and sighed repeatedly.

"Don't move for the rest of today. Your condition is terrible."

"Okay."

"Don't say that halfheartedly. You nearly died. I've never seen anyone use five Historical-grade fables just for repairs..."

This body really wasn't cost-effective. I could only barely survive by slapping fables all over it. Still, it was better than dying.

"I still have a Legendary-grade fable, so it's fine."

I checked the Legendary-grade fable I had obtained after killing one of the marquises earlier.

[You possess the Legendary-grade fable God of Dice.]

The Legendary-grade fable "God of Dice". According to TWSA, it was roughly like this.

「One of the fables possessed by the King of Gambling. It was said that the owner of this fable could choose the result of the first die they rolled.」

Sometimes, there were fables that made me wonder why they had become Legendary-grade. Even if there were ranks within Legendary-grade, how could a fable like this be on the same level as my "King of a Kingless World"...?

Aileen stared at me in disbelief.

"You're saying you'll use a Legendary-grade fable as a repair fragment? Do you have any idea how valuable that is?"

"..."

"No, how have you even survived this long? Is the blessing of stories following you or something...?"

The blessing of stories. That was a greeting dokkaebis often used.

"Enough nagging. I can't move today because of this little thing anyway."

I stroked the egg in my pocket. Every plan from here on depended on this thing hatching safely. Hayoung, who had been staring intently at my pocket, asked, "What's that?"

"An egg."

"An egg? What kind of egg?"

"A dokkaebi egg."

"What? Really?"

I nodded and looked down at the egg.

Hum.

Whenever the egg stirred, the temporary channel repeatedly opened and closed.

[Constellations currently in this channel: 1]

It was a lonely number now, but this channel would soon be saturated. I would make sure of it.

"Wait! This is really a dokkaebi egg? You're not joking?"

"Do I look like I'm joking?"

"...Is this little thing why the channel opened too?"

"Yes."

Unlike Hayoung, whose mouth hung open in shock, Aileen wore a serious expression.

"Wait, if this really is a dokkaebi..."

"I'm only giving the Demon Realm an opportunity. They can't remain slaves to the industrial complex forever."

I could feel the determination in the way Aileen bit her lip. In truth, she probably knew it too. I pointed it out anyway.

"Are you afraid of the next Scenario?"

After every Scenario, another Scenario was always waiting. A Scenario that could be better than this one, or even worse.

Aileen spoke as if she didn't want to admit it. "This is a world with no best choice."

"I think it's worth considering whether a life that only chooses the uncertain lesser evil is even worse."

"I'm very grateful that you started this revolution. But..."

Aileen stopped there and looked into my eyes. I didn't know what she saw or felt in that brief moment.

"...What are you doing all this for?"

Still, that was what she asked.

"Because I want to see the ending of a story."

I answered as I always did.

"Does that mean you want to reach the end of the Scenarios?"

"Something like that."

Aileen murmured, "Seekers of the End..."

"...?"

"I once heard stories about them from the Constellations of my home planet. They said there are beings in this Star Stream who seek the 'end' of every story."

Seekers of the End. Come to think of it, there were people like that.

It wasn't time for them to begin moving in earnest yet, but it seemed the stories were already spreading on Aileen's home planet. Aileen fell silent, apparently lost in thought. As Hayoung stroked the egg with fascination, they asked, "But if this is a dokkaebi too, won't it eventually become like the ones we know?"

"I won't let that happen. Not every dokkaebi becomes the same kind of Streamer."

"True, people are the same way. But how did you get this egg? I've never heard that even the Hunchbacks have something like this."

"Well..."

As I hesitated over how to explain it, I glanced to the side and saw Han Myeongoh looking back and forth between me and the egg with a strange expression.

"It seems you had difficulties you couldn't speak of. Giving birth is painful."

"...I think you've misunderstood something, so let me make this clear. I didn't lay it."

"I understand."

It felt like an uncomfortable sense of mutual understanding had formed between us. Just as I was about to explain that I had never received a Demon King's curse or anything, the egg suddenly floated out of my pocket.

Tap, tap.

The cracks in the egg deepened, and a faint light began to leak out.

[The Dokkaebi's Egg is about to hatch.]

The moment I had been waiting for had finally arrived.

[The Star Stream watches the birth of a new Streamer.]

At that moment, Han Myeongoh, Mark, Hayoung, Aileen, and I all felt the same way. There was something wondrous about birth.

A tiny back slowly appeared between the breaking pieces of shell. Looking at that little back covered in snow-white down, Hayoung wore a helpless expression.

"...I really hate dokkaebis. But seeing one like this feels different."

Still, this birth wasn't something to bless so easily. The newborn dokkaebi twisted its face and cried, as if its very existence here was painful.

I remembered something the Dokkaebi King had once said in TWSA.

「"Listen. You pitiful beings, given Fate at birth, forced to live loving stories whether you wish to or not."」

The newborn dokkaebi was crying.

It had been born into a world like this, where stories existed even here, and where it would have to live loving them.

Yes, I made you this way.

So resent me.

[The baby dokkaebi looks at you.]

[The baby dokkaebi recognizes you as its parent.]

[The baby dokkaebi's soul resonates with yours.]

Then I heard a voice.

"I've waited a long time, mister."

Footnotes:

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