WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 266: Episode 50: The Reader’s Fable (1)

──────

"Bookmark No. 4."

[Exclusive Skill Way of the Wind Lv. 11 (+1) has been activated!]

I dodged the poisonous stingers flying at me from the Goddess of Scorpions. If the strength of the Incarnation body hadn't been suppressed, the poison from a single strike would have been enough to melt the entire area. However, as long as I had [Way of the Wind], I would be fine.

Stepping over the melted gorge, I unleashed [White Pure Star Energy]. The Last Pharaoh's sturdy bandages blocked the sword strike. The moment the bandages and blade collided, a sound like a drumbeat rang out, and I was thrown back.

Oedipus King's flash cannon flew in without missing the opening.

[You are activating the Exclusive Skill Beast Lord's Sensitivity Lv. 10 (+1)!]

Ssssss!

Ordinarily, this would have been an impossible fight.

Originally, only one [Bookmark] could be used at a time.

But things were different now.

[The effect of the fable One Who Peered into the Abyss has greatly improved your proficiency with all skills!]

[You are currently using 2 Bookmarks simultaneously.]

[The duration of Bookmark has been reduced by half.]

"Bookmark No. 5!"

[Exclusive Skill Electrification Lv. 12 (+2) has been activated!]

Through [Miniaturization], I instantly shrank and became a point of light, piercing through the Last Pharaoh's torso.

Aaaah!

The critically wounded Last Pharaoh screamed and collapsed to the ground. The great fable left behind by a hero of humanity was scattering. Faced with myths piled up layer upon layer, the only thing I had to oppose them with was the history I had lived through.

The time I had spent reading and enduring. That alone was everything I had.

How many flashes had blazed? How much blood had spilled?

Oedipus King spoke in a slightly weary voice.

[Impressive, Demon King of Salvation.]

"......"

[Honestly, I didn't know you had grown this strong.]

There was no trace of defeat on his face. Shadows began gathering one by one above the gorge. They were the other Constellations affiliated with Meledon and Berkan.

[Duke of Berkan]

[Monstrous Bird of the Nile]

[Exalted God of Light]

......

Even at a glance, the number of Constellations that had appeared was close to ten. The Constellations looking down at me from the high ridges of the gorge made my breathing seize up, but I didn't back down.

"Are you just going to watch?"

Instead, I drew out the Status sleeping inside me even further.

I was a Constellation too. When it came to Status, I wasn't inferior to those bastards at all.

A few Constellations staggered back, crushed by the fabled-grade Status I was spewing out. But not all of them did.

[What an interesting child.]

In an instant, the Constellations above the gorge bent at the waist and withdrew.

Someone was coming forward through the Constellations.

Every time he took a step, his long golden hair scattered, and his four arms painted a beautiful rainbow. The third eye on his forehead looked down at me haughtily, like the sun looking down upon the earth from the heavens.

[I heard Mitra intended to bestow his feast day, so I wondered what kind of fellow you were.]

An appearance so dazzling it felt blinding just to look at him embodied his modifier.

The Exalted God of Light.

I even knew his True name.

"Surya."

The moment I mentioned his True name, brilliant sparks flew.

It was proof of the Status contained within that name.

[Child, do you know my name?]

"I do."

There were eight great Lokapalas in the nebula Veda.

Gods of the eight directions, including east, west, south, and north.

"Surya of the southwest."

[The Constellation Mass Production Maker frowns.]

[The Constellation God of Wine and Ecstasy criticizes the Constellation Exalted God of Light!]

[The Constellation Queen of the Darkest Spring points out that the Constellation Exalted God of Light is not acting in a manner befitting his Status!]

A powerful being comparable to one of the twelve gods of Olympus.

That being was looking at me.

[Then you also know that you cannot win this game.]

I forcibly suppressed the urge to step back in the face of the thousands of years of Status pouring from his body.

He wasn't a Constellation I could oppose.

Lokapala Surya was a being on an entirely different level from human-born Constellations like Oedipus King or Cleopatra.

[Child, come to Veda. Even if a miracle occurs and you win this game, if this continues, you will die in the end.]

"I refuse."

[You do not know what kind of world lies beyond a Great Fable. Do you think you can endure while carrying that power alone? That is not a story a mere single star can bear.]

I knew what he meant. The world Surya saw was probably different from the world I saw.

Merely obtaining a single Great Fable completely changed the dimension of the world a Constellation could perceive.

"No. I can bear it because I'm not alone."

[The possibility of a new fable is budding!]

As if reacting to my words, the 73rd Demon Realm was stirring.

Surya felt that tremor as well and spoke.

[Not alone... Interesting. Who is with you right now?]

"For someone who should understand the law of dependent origination better than anyone to say that... it's laughable."

A powerful Status began to flow out from Surya's Incarnation body. Even the surrounding Constellations were turning pale from the sheer presence of it. However, no matter how much of a Great God he was, he couldn't wield this kind of power without paying a price. Sparks bursting out in real time were condensing across Surya's entire body.

In this game, Meledon had gained 2 points. With 2 points, Surya might be able to unseal at least one of the many Stigmas he possessed.

I couldn't allow that.

The moment I moved, the Constellations blocked my path.

Boom!

A fist imbued with the power of [Electrification] exploded against the Constellations' faces. "Broken Heart of a Young Gold Dragon" kept pumping, generating an enormous amount of Mana.

Craaack!

More. I had to squeeze out Mana past my very limits.

[H-how can there be such a technique...]

The Constellations that couldn't withstand the power of [Electrification] were flung away as bloody pulp. The power of a Transcendent that humiliated even Constellations. Blue-white lightning was burning up their Incarnation bodies.

[Participant Demon King of Salvation has killed Helper Goddess of Scorpions!]

[Participant Demon King of Salvation has killed Helper Last Pharaoh!]

Perhaps even "Broken Heart of a Young Gold Dragon" alone couldn't handle the Mana, because the energy throughout my body started to fade rapidly. I gritted my teeth and swung my fist. I landed a blow on the charging Duke of Berkan, then immediately turned and struck the Monstrous Bird of the Nile with Electrification.

[You have immersed yourself too deeply in that character!]

[Excessive use of Bookmark may leave permanent damage on your soul!]

But even as I came closer, the Exalted God of Light showed not the slightest sign of panic.

[We have watched you for a very long time. You always borrow the power of another being.]

I wrapped my body in [Beast Lord's Sensitivity] and prepared a strike with [Electrification].

[From the First Scenario to this very moment, you have never once fought with your own power. Do you dare think you can establish your own fable?]

The transcendent fist wrapped in countless blue trails finally reached Surya's body.

[A history you learned by stealing is nothing more than a history learned by stealing.]

To be exact, it only seemed to reach him. Excruciating pain surged from the end of my fist. It was the miserable sensation of striking solid steel.

The Exalted God of Light was blocking the strike of [Electrification] with just one of his four arms.

[That power is not yours.]

The god's third eye shone as brightly as the sun.

In that instant, I realized which Stigma Surya had unsealed.

[The Constellation Exalted God of Light has opened the Stigma Third Eye!]

My vision twisted, and in an instant all the light around me vanished. In the darkness, I could feel the edges of space slowly crumpling.

[There is no "you" in your fable.]

This was Surya's zone.

[You will die alone.]

The contracting space-time was being crushed inward from the outer edges. The power to dominate the space-time of the entire area. That was the authority possessed by Surya's [Third Eye].

I hadn't expected Surya to release his power this quickly, so I panicked. The fragments of rock around me that had been dragged in with me twisted into unnatural shapes and began to crumble apart. If this continued, it was obvious I would end up the same way.

How was I supposed to escape from here? [Electrification] wouldn't do it, and even if I used [Way of the Wind], there was no chance.

[You have activated the fable Arbitrary Interpreter!]

I couldn't get a handle on which fable I should use.

"King of a Kingless World" wasn't suitable.

"One Who Opposes the Extraordinary" was also questionable.

The same was true for "One Who Hunted the King of Catastrophes."

Before I knew it, the darkness around me had shrunk to barely three square meters.

What the hell was I supposed to do...?

[The fable Arbitrary Interpreter screams.]

That was when my back stung and I heard a crunching sound.

The familiar sound of someone devouring a fable.

「Ve ry de li cious.」

A chill ran down my spine as I turned around. Something like a small mouth was clinging to my back and gnawing away at my fable.

「Kim Dok ja is stu pid.」

It was [The Fourth Wall].

Instead of helping, this damned bastard was getting in my way? The torn-apart "Arbitrary Interpreter," now nearly unusable, was being sucked into its stomach.

The absurdity of the situation made me forget even my urgency, and I shouted.

Or rather, I tried to.

[The Fourth Wall said, "Ku waa aa aa ang!"]

Kuwaaaah!

The explosive sound collided with the surrounding space. The space trembled as if it were a living thing, and enormous cracks spread through the points that had been crumpling.

In that instant, I realized what had happened.

[Third Eye] was a mental-type ability that controlled space-time by manipulating perception. And [The Fourth Wall] I possessed was, when it came to mental abilities, quite literally the strongest skill.

[The Constellation Exalted God of Light is aghast!]

The darkness collapsed all at once like shattering glass. When the light returned, the first thing I saw was the Exalted God of Light with bloody tears running from the eye on his forehead.

[What in the world are you...?]

At the same time, the shocked constellation's declaration rang out, and the Constellations that had faltered for a moment charged at me.

I was out of Mana. I didn't even have the strength to open [Bookmark] again.

But there was no need for that anymore.

Twenty minutes had already passed since the game began.

[The fog of the gorge is growing thicker.]

At the eerie cry coming from somewhere in the gorge, the movements of the Constellations stopped all at once. The tense Constellations looked up toward the gorge, and at that moment, a pitch-black shadow loomed over us. Depleted of strength, I slid down against the rock wall and sank to the ground.

It had really been a long time since I'd seen something like that.

A body three kilometers long and dozens of meters around came crashing down toward the ground as it destroyed the upper part of the gorge. The startled Constellations issued warnings, but the larger Constellations didn't even have time to dodge before they were pinned beneath the great monster's scales.

[Helper Monstrous Bird of the Nile has been killed by Apocalypse Imoogi!]

The monster that burst Constellations like insects coiled around the entire gorge and let out a cry into the air.

[Apocalypse Imoogi]

It was the name of the great monster I had been waiting for.

[Damn it! Don't any of you fall back!]

Thrown into chaos by the sudden catastrophe, the Constellations began attacking the imoogi with the Stigmas each of them possessed.

If they took down that monster, they could obtain a powerful team buff. But there was no way they could bring it down.

Kuaaaang!

According to TWSA, the Apocalypse's Red Dragon that had appeared in Harmageddon possessed the terrifying authority to wipe out a third of the stars in the sky with a single swipe of its tail.

[Kyaaaak!]

Of course, that imoogi wasn't on the same level as the Apocalypse's Red Dragon it was modeled after, but even so, there was no Constellation in the early part of the game who could deal with that monster.

[Kuooh!]

The Constellations torn by the imoogi's teeth spewed fables as they perished, and the Constellations swept by its tail died with their bodies bursting apart. Only the system messages rising nonstop testified to the tragedy in the gorge.

In an instant, seven Participants and Helpers died in the gorge.

A few Constellations, including Surya, were hastily escaping the gorge by using the other Constellations' sacrifices.

Surya's cold voice echoed through the gorge.

[You have devised a vicious scheme. But you will not come through unscathed either.]

The Apocalypse Imoogi, which had crushed the Constellations until they burst, was now looking at me with yellow eyes blazing. As if it intended to melt away the final bug, a red sphere gathered at the corners of its mouth. Apocalypse's Crimson Flame was the flame of judgment said to borrow the fires of hell and melt everything aboveground.

...The plan was fine.

Meledon and Berkan had suffered fatal damage, and the game that had been tilted against us was now almost evenly balanced.

It would have been nice if I had left myself just a little more strength.

Because of my death, our crest would be taken here.

I felt regretful and hollow.

If we made it to the third game, would we have a chance?

The moment I slowly closed my eyes, the dense crimson flames spat out by the apocalypse dragon poured down over my head. A scorching heatwave engulfed my entire body, and I heard the rocks around me sizzling as they melted. Yet no matter how much time passed, I didn't die.

[A new Helper is being summoned into the game!]

When I opened my eyes, someone was standing in front of me.

A soldier in a neat special operations uniform, with a special forces emblem on the shoulder, was holding up a giant shield and blocking the falling flames.

[The Constellation Master of Steel is looking at you.]

The man who had endured even [hellfire inferno], the hottest thing in the world.

"Republic of Korea Great Monster Special Operations Command, Captain..."

Watching the man swallow back trembling words, I let out a sigh.

I wanted to ask something, anything. How? Why? But no words came out. In front of the countless voices pouring from him through [Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint], every word I might have spoken was meaningless.

Then I saw the huge Chimera Dragon falling from the sky.

[A new Helper is being summoned into the game!]

Kroooaaar!

Looking at the little girl sitting on the dragon's head, absurdly enough, I felt like I might cry a little.

"Mister!"

The Helpers Yu Junghyeok had called had finally arrived on the battlefield.

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried