WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 228: Episode 42: Asmodeus (6)

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My hands trembled with panic, but I forced myself to take a deep breath and regain my composure.

No. There was no way Yu Junghyeok had died like that.

More than anything, the message floating before me proved it.

[You are currently waiting for the next Main Scenario.]

By all common sense, Junghyeok shouldn't have been in a position to receive the Exile Penalty.

After all, he should have entered a new Scenario just as I had.

Though each person's Scenario could vary, he had become a duke just as I had. That meant Junghyeok had also qualified as a Demon King Candidate, like me.

[Rewards are currently delayed due to a Star Stream system error.]

Still, that one message bothered me.

It was extremely rare for someone to gain fables or achievements through impersonation in the Star Stream. Yet this time, Junghyeok and I had impersonated each other and built achievements under each other's names.

What if the Star Stream's Main Scenario had gotten tangled up because of that?

What if I had safely entered the Main Scenario, but Junghyeok hadn't?

What if that was why the Exile Penalty had begun?

"Are you all right?"

"...Could I have a glass of water?"

Aileen looked at me skeptically for a moment before she spoke.

"Don't pull out your catheter again while I'm gone."

After Aileen disappeared from the treatment room, I calmly retraced the situation.

To be blunt, I still couldn't be certain whether Junghyeok was dead or alive. There was a high chance he had died, considering the Exile Penalty had begun just before Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint was deactivated, but in the Star Stream, it was dangerous to be absolutely certain.

First, I had to properly confirm whether Junghyeok was alive.

"Biyoo."

Biyoo had extended the channel all the way to Gilobat. If she helped me, I might be able to see that area through a Constellation's gaze.

"Biyoo. Can you hear me?"

Yet there was no response from Biyoo.

I couldn't even hear messages from the other Constellations.

A sudden anxiety washed over me.

Had something happened to Biyoo while I was gone...?

Snuffle, snuffle.

...Huh?

Huff, huff.

I listened closely and heard Biyoo's soft snuffling. When I lifted the blanket, Biyoo's pure white form was asleep with her face buried against my chest. I finally let out a sigh of relief. If something had happened to Biyoo too, I really would've despaired.

"...I'm sorry."

I stroked Biyoo's head.

According to TWSA, a newborn dokkaebi had to sleep for half the day. Her sleep schedule must have been thrown off because of me, so it wasn't strange that she had fallen asleep so deeply. Biyoo's Constitution was completely drained, and I couldn't push her any harder.

I decided to use a second method.

[Exclusive Skill, Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, has activated!]

Crackle.

My temples throbbed.

[Skill activation has been cancelled due to accumulated fatigue.]

...Damn it, that didn't work either.

It seemed losing my link with Junghyeok had hit me hard.

In the end, I picked up my smartphone again.

I'd never felt so helpless. I didn't even know whether Junghyeok was dead or alive, yet the only thing I could do was read a novel.

No, don't think that way.

Get a grip, Kim Dokja.

You've survived this long because of this novel.

I bit down hard on my lip and opened the TWSA file again. Everything had begun with this story. So the answer would be in this story too.

[Your reading speed has increased due to an attribute effect!]

I opened my eyes wide and read as though I wouldn't miss even a single sentence.

「‘Back then, we shouldn't have made an enemy of the Demon King Asmodeus.’」

It was difficult to say Junghyeok and I had become enemies with Asmodeus because of this incident.

He had dealt us a nasty blow at the end, but he had still seemed willing to cooperate with our side. So I couldn't be certain Junghyeok had died based on that sentence alone.

Thirteenth round.

Fourteenth round.

...

Junghyeok's regressions continued. Despite all the time I had spent urging him forward, his mind gradually wore down through the regressions that followed.

「‘This is hard.’」

Eighteenth round.

「‘I want to stop now.’」

Twenty-first round.

「‘Damn it, damn it, damn it.’」

...

As I read Junghyeok's despair, it felt as though my own heart were burning black. With every round, Junghyeok returned to his original cynical self. A regressor who dragged himself through each round with nothing but an inflated ego and sharp principles.

「‘I can't change anything.’」

He went back, and back, and back again.

Junghyeok's middle and later rounds weren't much different from the TWSA I had read long ago. Except for the early rounds I had influenced, he repeated similar mistakes and returned to his old tendencies.

「‘How many more times...?’」

The few months I had spent with Junghyeok had only had this much effect on the original story.

I wanted to help the despairing Junghyeok, but the Junghyeok inside the text was beyond my reach. Twenty-fifth round, twenty-sixth round, twenty-seventh round... Watching him regress endlessly, I eventually stopped reading.

Reading hurt.

Had TWSA always been this kind of story?

How had I once managed to read all 3,149 chapters?

Perhaps because of my uneven breathing, Biyoo shifted against my chest. I memorized the page and scrolled all the way down. Even if it was painful to follow this story right now, there was something I needed to check first.

Had Junghyeok reached a proper ending in the First Revision?

Had the Writer written an epilogue?

The smartphone was so slow that the screen stuttered badly as I scrolled. I wondered how long I had kept scrolling as the scrollbar shrank and stretched.

At last, I reached the place where the original ending should have been.

But all I found was a vast blank space.

「Currently being revised. T_T」

And one line of text.

I was swept up in an exhilarating mix of two entirely different emotions.

"...Haha."

The playful emoticon after "currently being revised" made me angry, yet the possibility within those words made my heart race.

This story could still change.

Even if Junghyeok was dead, there had to be a way.

Somehow, I had to bring him back to this round.

With grim determination, I slowly moved the scrollbar.

Then I noticed sentences written in the episode before the ending.

「As the end of the Scenario approached, Yu Junghyeok recalled countless memories of times he had nearly died.」

「‘Come to think of it, I nearly died when I first met Asmodeus in the third round too.’」

Too many thoughts rushed through my mind at once.

...Huh? Wait. Then the "third round" he's talking about is...

Knock, knock.

I looked up at the sound of knocking, and Mark peeked through the door with an awkward expression. When he saw that I was awake, his face brightened and he waved.

"Oh, Revolutionary! You're awake? That's a relief."

"What is it?"

"It's nothing much. Someone came looking for you, so I came to let you know."

I was about to tell someone to send the visitor away because I was busy when Mark continued.

"The owner of the industrial complex came looking for you."

"What?"

"The owner of the industrial complex came looking for you."

What did that mean? I was the owner of the industrial complex.

"Move."

The next moment, someone shoved Mark aside and entered the treatment room.

A presence that changed the entire atmosphere around him just by standing there. I stared up at the man with my mouth hanging open.

Junghyeok, whom I had thought dead, stood there.

* * *

It took me a little longer to come to my senses.

Aileen brought tea, cautiously read the room, then cleared the table and left. Mark, who had been standing around awkwardly, also excused himself. Only after things grew quieter did I finally organize my thoughts and speak first.

"When did you get here?"

"Two days ago."

I was so embarrassed by the last ten minutes that I could've died.

That bastard was alive and well, even walking around the same industrial complex, but I hadn't known and had been worrying myself sick over the delusion that he was dead.

"How did you survive? There was no way you could've lived through that."

"I got some help."

"From who? Don't tell me it was your Patron."

"That one has never helped me even once."

Well, I had asked for help too, but I hadn't believed for a second that Junghyeok's Patron would help him. All that one had done until the end of TWSA was make Junghyeok regress.

Perhaps his wounds had healed considerably, because Junghyeok looked quite healthy.

"A Constellation helped me."

"A Constellation? Who?"

"You don't need to know the details."

"What did you give them in return? There's no way those bastards helped you for free."

"I only have to endure a small penalty."

"A penalty?"

"Until the Demon Realm Scenario ends, I... disappear for ten minutes every day."

"Disappear? What does that mean?"

"Anyway, I've entered the Main Scenario now, and the Scenario error has been resolved. You don't need to worry about pointless things."

If Junghyeok was saying that much, it seemed something had been resolved.

For some reason, I felt hollow. During the week I had spent unconscious, Junghyeok had survived with the help of people who had nothing to do with me. Then he had come here and been recognized as the ruler of the industrial complex.

"..."

Maybe it was because I had rarely talked with him like this before. An awkward silence filled the treatment room. Junghyeok looked down at the table expressionlessly and drank my tea without asking.

Part of me wanted to ask why he had come here.

Another part wanted to ask what he planned to do from now on.

But something completely different came out of my mouth.

"Are the others... doing well?"

In truth, there was no way Junghyeok would know something like that. He was someone who only cared about himself, with his mind always filled with clearing Scenarios.

A guy like that wouldn't care what the others were doing. That was why I wanted to nag him a little. Tell him to stop living his life alone. Tell him that he would never reach the end of the Scenario if he kept going like that. I had meant to say something along those lines. But then...

"Lee Hyeongseong went back to the military."

Junghyeok began to speak.

"Jeong Huiwon and Lee Jihye are training new Incarnations. They're strengthening the forces around Gyeonggi in preparation for the Great Apocalypse Scenario to come."

"...What?"

"Yu Sangah and Han Suyeong seem to be meeting with government officials."

"Those two are going around together?"

It was the first time I'd ever seen Junghyeok talk so much. Maybe that was why I gradually became absorbed in what he was saying.

"Pildu Gong bought land around Seongnam and is building a huge castle. It seems he thinks he's really a king."

"Haha, that man really is..."

"The two little ones are doing well. I saw them tossing things like coins around whenever they were bored."

I occasionally snorted, and Junghyeok continued in his blunt voice. Some stories were easy to understand, while others took me a moment to grasp.

Still, every one of them was a story about people I knew, people I liked living their lives somewhere I wasn't. As I listened, I felt strangely sweet, aching, and nostalgic.

"Everyone is busy living their lives."

When he finished, I felt an odd loneliness.

I see. Everyone was doing well.

[Exclusive Skill, The Fourth Wall, is shaking.]

I felt anew that I was an outsider to this story.

「Yu Junghyeok of the twenty-fifth round said, ‘I can't change anything.’」

Even without me, people would continue through the Scenarios.

Just as Junghyeok kept regressing.

Fourth round, fifth round, sixth round... As the endless story continued, I would be easily forgotten. Then everyone would move toward the ending. It was only natural. But even knowing it was natural hurt.

Biting my lip, I tried to force the words out.

That's a relief.

In the end, my lips didn't part.

Then Junghyeok's voice reached me.

"And everyone talks about you."

At those words, I slowly raised my head. Junghyeok still wore the same expressionless face.

"They talk about you a lot."

I covered my eyes with both hands and laughed quietly. Even if it didn't look like I was laughing, I wanted to say that I was. Within the little darkness made by my hands, Junghyeok's voice came again as he quietly drank his tea.

"Let's go back to Earth, Kim Dokja."

Footnotes:

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