WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 255: Episode 47 — The Demon King Trials (7)

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Kyrios had taken in a total of three disciples so far.

Once after he first rose to the rank of Transcendent, and once more fifty years later. After that, he didn't take in any disciples for a long time.

Every disciple he had taken in was dead.

One had gone on to become the successor of the Heavenly Demon Cult.

The other had become the Blood Demon Cult's chief protector.

It was those two deaths, and the events they set in motion, that made Kyrios Lordgrime, the Paradoxical White Purity, famous. Enraged by his disciples' deaths, Kyrios stormed straight into the headquarters of the Heavenly Demon Cult and the Blood Demon Cult.

No one knew exactly what had happened then, not even the histories of Murim. But one thing was certain...

Half of the Ten Thousand Great Mountains, the headquarters of the Heavenly Demon Cult, had been laid bare.

And the Blood Demon Cult had withdrawn its forces from the First Martial World.

Then, a hundred years later, Kyrios took in another disciple. Looking at the disciple he had taken in at long last, Kyrios asked,

[...What happened to you?]

"Your unworthy disciple greets you."

Kyrios frowned as he looked at his disciple. He had taken this disciple in thinking it would be his last.

[I asked what happened to you.]

The bastard wasn't especially talented, nor was there anything about him Kyrios particularly liked. Still, the moment Kyrios saw him, he felt a strange familiarity, as though he had known him for a very long time.

For the Paradoxical White Purity, even that sense of familiarity was a paradox.

That paradox was so bizarre that all Kyrios had wanted was to learn a little more.

"I went to the First Martial World."

Kyrios glared at his disciple, whose body was covered in blood from head to toe. The bastard had always been full of schemes, even in peace land. Kyrios hadn't pressed the charge of stealing martial arts and running away only because, whatever the case, he had saved his homeland.

So he had waited. For the day the bastard would reflect on his own and show himself again.

Yet the disciple who had finally reappeared was in that state...

Kyrios narrowed his eyes.

[Those are traces of Sky Splitter Sword Art.]

"..."

[Did you clash with the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint's disciple? Or with the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint personally?]

His disciple didn't answer. Kyrios's pressure grew even sharper.

[Answer me.]

With a heavy stamp of his foot, the entire industrial complex writhed like an insect being crushed underfoot. The aftershock forced the Kim Dokja aspirants throughout the industrial complex painfully to their knees. A mere Mana wave had the same effect as Constellations opening their status.

That was the presence of the Paradoxical White Purity.

Only one person didn't kneel.

His disciple.

"I didn't want you to see me like this."

[What do you mean?]

"I've disgraced the name of the White Flash."

[...]

"Please kill me."

Kyrios's brows twitched sharply. It was because he remembered the message he had received on his way here.

"Please kill me."

A grinding sound rose from between Kyrios's small teeth.

[It's true that I came to punish you. But...]

His disciple had returned after getting beaten half to death somewhere. And now the disciple himself couldn't endure that humiliation and was asking to be killed.

In that situation, what kind of master could possibly punish their disciple?

There were surely masters who could.

At least, Kyrios wasn't one of them.

[...Why does a bastard asking to be killed look so proud?]

"..."

[Hopeless fool.]

With those words, Kyrios turned his back on his disciple. He didn't know what had happened to that proud disciple. But whatever it was, he would find out if he went there.

[Did you say the First Martial World?]

His disciple didn't answer, but Kyrios had already started walking.

[The world will learn that above Sky-Splitting stands Paradox.]

* * *

Once Kyrios disappeared, the battle tension hanging over the industrial complex vanished as though it had been washed away. In the wake Kyrios left behind, Kim Dokja aspirants were strewn all over the place.

"It hurts! It hurts!"

Seeing people who claimed they aspired to be me lying there in that state left me feeling strange too. Hayoung asked,

"...Wasn't that too much?"

It wasn't a question about the Kim Dokja aspirants. I looked toward the portal Kyrios had disappeared through and said, "He was the kind of person who'd only move if I went that far."

Kyrios had already lost two disciples in Murim. If I wanted to send him to the First Martial World, I had no choice but to give him a cowardly pretext.

"What if he kills the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint?"

"Don't worry about that."

I answered as I rubbed Fable Fragments over the wounds Hayoung had given me. Right now, it looked as though he was going to avenge me, but how things would actually turn out remained to be seen. A Transcendent on Kyrios's level would have already sensed that something had gone wrong in the First Martial World.

[A new Sub Scenario has been triggered because of you.]

By now, Kyrios had probably received a new Sub Scenario and gained the Plausibility to intervene in the First Martial World.

Kyrios was also someone who held a grudge against the Outer God. Once he learned what had happened, he would have no choice but to side with the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint. And he would learn that all of this had been a scheme of my making. I was afraid of the consequences, but for now this was the best option.

"More importantly, our side is the bigger concern right now."

"What? Why?"

"Kyrios wasn't a card I was supposed to use here."

Despite the countless crises so far, I hadn't called Kyrios through Jang Hayoung. I had originally planned to summon him on one of the fiercest battlefields of the Demon King Selection.

This time, I used that card to save the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint. I didn't know whether it had been the wrong choice or not. But at the very least, it was a choice I could be proud of.

I looked up at the night sky.

[The Constellation Demonic Judge of Fire is looking at you worriedly.]

Some stars were worried about me.

[A few Constellations smile knowingly at you.]

And some stars were treating my crisis as an opportunity.

I gave the stars a bitter smile.

"If you've seen enough, then make your decisions already."

I slowly drew in a breath and declared to the sky, "I'm the real Kim Dokja."

Even my conversation with Kyrios had already been made public, so no further proof was necessary. The stars in the distant night sky twinkled all at once.

[The Constellation Demonic Judge of Fire has recognized you as the real Kim Dokja.]

[The Constellation Prisoner of the Golden Headband has recognized you as the real Kim Dokja.]

[The Constellation Queen of the Darkest Spring has recognized you as the real Kim Dokja.]

...

[A few Constellations refuse to accept that result.]

I wondered what was wrong with the bastards who disagreed, but this was a majority vote anyway.

[The majority of Constellations have recognized you as the real Kim Dokja.]

[You have been recognized as the real Kim Dokja.]

[The Hidden Scenario has been completed!]

[You have acquired 200,000 coins as a Scenario reward.]

The faces of the Kim Dokja aspirants around me began to change one by one. Wherever the mosaic scattered, people's real faces were exposed for all the world to see. Seeing the master of their industrial complex for the first time in their lives, the industrial citizens cried out in shock.

"It's Kim Dokja! The real Kim Dokja!"

"Th-the master of the industrial complex has returned...!"

More messages appeared.

[You have officially inherited the Old Gilobat Industrial Complex.]

[The Old Gilobat Industrial Complex has officially been proclaimed the Kim Dokja Industrial Complex.]

[Your fame is spreading throughout the Demon Realm!]

[Your fame strengthens the fables you possess.]

Brilliant rays of light wrapped around my whole body, and even stronger fables swelled up inside me.

[You have become the duke of a Demon Realm industrial complex.]

Now the lonely battle would begin.

* * *

After the situation settled down, the first place I went was Mark's office in the center of the industrial complex.

"...I have no excuse."

"No. You've done more than enough."

As the riot caused by the Kim Dokja Game broke out, Mark and the rest of the industrial complex's executives had all been detained. I patted Mark on the shoulder and said, "I know you did your best."

No matter who it had been, no one could have stopped the Kim Dokja Game. It was an event that had happened because I had left my position vacant in the first place. The only reason the industrial complex had held together this well was because Mark was here. Mark had once served as the captain of a mercenary company on his home planet, and because of that, he possessed an extremely high crowd command skill.

Mark gave me a brief report on the surrounding situation.

"News of war is coming in from all over."

Through the office window, I could see a group of people leaving the industrial complex. Some of them had participated in the Scenario just now, and some of them hadn't.

"You don't fight a war alone. Though you already know that."

"It's foolish to cling to people who have no will to fight."

Most of them would die from the penalty for leaving the Scenario region. Even so, they had chosen to migrate. That meant the situation was that desperate.

[The industrial complex's population has decreased, reducing the operating power of the Factory.]

The Factory, a fable weapon, was maintained through the labor of industrial citizens. So of course its power would decline as the workforce shrank.

Still, I spoke as if it were nothing.

"We can't decide this with the industrial complex's strength alone. The enemy's main forces aren't industrial complexes anyway."

The industrial complexes I had to face belonged to Meledon and Berkan.

Meledon had joined hands with the nebula Veda, while Berkan had joined hands with the nebula Papyrus.

Judging by the scale of the alliance, they probably hadn't formed direct alliances with the nebulae themselves. Most likely, they had made contracts with some of the Constellations in those nebulae.

Even so, it was strength I couldn't ignore. If I had to guess, in this Demon King Selection I would probably have to fight at least ten Constellations.

"Do you have a plan?"

To be honest, my odds weren't good.

I had only just become a rookie Constellation. Even with Junghyeok's help, facing them head-on would be suicide.

"I do have a way."

Even if I didn't, I had to say I did right now.

Because there were eyes watching.

[A considerable number of Constellations admire your spirit!]

[The Constellation Prisoner of the Golden Headband is curious about your method.]

[You have received a sponsorship of 2,000 coins.]

Besides, I did have a few ideas in mind. Methods that would have been impossible before, but had become possible now.

Before I used those methods, however, there was something I had to confirm first.

[The Fourth Wall stirs.]

As if it had read my mind, the bastard responded right away. I slowly blinked and thought,

'I need your help.'

It was a bastard that could read straight through my thoughts, so even if I didn't say it out loud, it would know what I meant.

'Let me see my Attributes Window.'

Until now, I had somehow managed to fight without properly knowing my own information.

Until now.

[The Fourth Wall trembles uneasily.]

But from here on, that wouldn't be enough. This was a fight that would be hard to win even if I knew the enemy and knew myself. I already knew a fair amount about the enemy, so what I needed to learn from here on out was about myself.

Footnotes:

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