WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 271: Episode 50: The Reader’s Fable (6)

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Baat! Baaat! Ba-ba-ba-baat!

My cheek hurt.

Baaaaaat!

It hurt quite a bit.

I could feel something wriggling violently inside my clothes.

I opened my eyes to the violent rumbling of the earth. When I reflexively raised my head, I saw dazzling flashes scattering everywhere. Sparks of Plausibility coloring the sky were falling across the Demon Realm like bolts of lightning.

"Dokja-ssi?"

Yu Sangah's voice jolted me fully awake. Like a severed current reconnecting, thoughts began flowing through my head again. Incarnations lay sprawled everywhere. No matter how I looked at it, this wasn't the stage of the Mythical Battlefield.

The fallen Incarnations were all living humans. I could see the industrial complex being half-destroyed by Thunder-Eating Bird.

"Have the Constellations come?"

Sangah, who had been about to say something, wiped the blood from her cheek and nodded.

"......Yes."

System messages floated in the air. My companions were in terrible shape.

"So they still haven't announced the winner."

I'd expected trouble outside. Junghyeok's final message from the 'Library' had suggested as much. But I hadn't expected the situation to be this serious.

"Urgh......"

Lee Hyeongseong, badly wounded in the side, staggered. I quickly climbed down from his back and bought several recovery items from the Dokkaebi Compendium.

I split a Greater Restoration Pill between Hyeongseong and Sangah, who were the most seriously injured, and fed Shin Yuseong a large quantity of superior Mana recovery potion since she wasn't wounded but had exhausted her Mana. I also gave Han Myeongoh, Sky-Splitting Divine Dog, and Hayoung medicine for external injuries. It cost more than 400,000 coins in total, but this wasn't the time to care about that.

"Mister......"

Panting as she drank the potion, Yuseong leaned against a rock and looked up at me. I watched her for a moment before speaking.

"Rest here for now. But......"

Far away, the thunderous noise created by the Constellations was shaking the ground itself. Even from the rough pressure I could sense, there were well over a dozen of them. A bad feeling came over me.

This many Constellations had gathered here, and my companions had still managed to escape all the way here?

"Junghyeok......"

None of them answered. I looked over the battlefield, where explosions were going off one after another. Everyone except Junghyeok was here.

And someone was still over there, fighting the Constellations.

[The Fourth Wall trembles faintly.]

"You stupid bastard......"

"Mister! No!"

Yuseong clung to my waist as I tried to run off.

"You'll die, mister. If you go there, you'll die."

She had always been a child who was upright and brave. Yet deep fear had seeped into her eyes. When I pulled the struggling Yuseong away, tears burst from her. Amid the barrage on the battlefield, her crying scattered like dust.

She must have seen it.

The terror of a giant fable no human could ever overcome.

"Take care of Yuseong."

I entrusted Yuseong to Hayoung, who was still in relatively good condition, then activated [Way of the Wind]. I heard voices calling after me from behind, but I didn't have time to look back.

Rumbleee!

The faster I hurried my steps, the stronger the pressure of the status erupting from the center of the battlefield became. It was a terrifying storm of Mana unlike anything I'd ever experienced before.

Junghyeok was definitely at its center.

「Kim Dokja thought. Is there a way?」

The pages of TWSA flipped through my mind.

「This won't work.」

The intervals between the Mana storms grew shorter and shorter.

「That won't work either.」

I bit my lip hard. I'd prepared for a situation like this to come someday. But it was too soon, and I'd been asleep for too long.

At this rate, I'd be too late.

Junghyeok was still far away, and the wind wasn't on my side. Even if I bought a new skill from the Dokkaebi Compendium, there was no guarantee I could use it properly.

I made my decision.

"Invest 3,000,000 coins into Constitution, Strength, Agility, and Mana."

[All your combined stats are growing abnormally!]

[The coins you invested have exceeded this Scenario's stat restrictions.]

[Abundant Plausibility partially lifts this Scenario's stat restrictions.]

[The growth of your stats relative to the invested coins is adjusted at random.]

Huge sparks shot up from my entire body. It felt as if my muscles were tearing, as if I were growing a little taller, as if my bone density were changing, and then horrifying pain swept over me all at once.

"Urgh......"

I'd been putting this off until the absolute last moment because the cost efficiency was terrible, but there was no other way now.

[Your mind cannot withstand the evolution of your Incarnation body.]

[The Exclusive Skill The Fourth Wall has activated!]

[Your Incarnation body is evolving to a new stage!]

After the early Scenarios, combined stats no longer had much influence in battle. Fables, Stigmas, and skills had far greater impact.

Besides, once combined stats rose past level 100, the number of coins required for each bracket increased exponentially, so if you were spending the same amount of coins, buying skills was naturally the better deal.

But a situation like this was different.

[All your combined stats have surpassed 200!]

[Your Incarnation body can now withstand greater status.]

What I needed right now wasn't a powerful skill, but a durable body.

[Your Agility reduces air resistance.]

[Your Mana opens your blocked acupoints.]

An enormous amount of coins was being transformed directly into my Incarnation body.

[Your Strength undergoes an explosive change!]

The force of each step and the speed of the scenery slipping past me changed completely.

"Yu Junghyeok!"

Of course, even this kind of obscene spending couldn't let me surpass Constellations or go beyond Transcendents. But for a brief moment, I could at least have a body strong enough to stand against them.

[A considerable number of Constellations envy your Incarnation body.]

As I cut across the wasteland at terrifying speed, the center of the battlefield finally came into view. And at its center, I saw a dying man.

"Idiot! What are you doing?!"

In front of Surya, who was radiating blazing light, Junghyeok was dying. His left arm was nowhere to be seen, and steam was rising from his charred body.

Even so, Junghyeok didn't budge a single step as he gripped the Black Heaven Demon Blade. He slowly raised his head and looked back at me. He seemed to have no strength left even to part his lips, and I couldn't hear his voice.

[The Fourth Wall shakes violently.]

Mass Production Maker's words came back to me. That the Constellations, too, were merely part of this huge story. That they did things like this because they were just as lonely and isolated.

......Bullshit.

[Stand back!]

Manu blocked my path, swinging the Spear of the Primordial Age.

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

White-blue lightning exploded from the tip of my fist, and the battlefield was dyed blue.

[Kyaaaah!]

The startled Constellations caught Manu as he flew back and began releasing their status. The Mana of the Constellations poured down like a waterfall and surged toward me like a tidal wave.

Craaash!

My enhanced body endured the Constellations' violent Mana. The skin on my fist split open, and blood flowed from torn flesh, but it was still bearable. When the dust settled, the Constellations were glaring at me with wide eyes. They looked shocked, as if they hadn't expected me to possess this much power.

[Stop him!]

I fired white-blue qi at the charging Constellations. In an instant, abrasions opened up across my back and thighs, and a long gash cut into my side.

"Yu Junghyeok!"

My shout didn't properly reach him. Junghyeok, kneeling on the ground, was now hovering on the brink of death. I couldn't feel even a scrap of Mana from him.

Yu Junghyeok was dying.

I drew in a deep breath and shouted the loudest constellation's declaration I could.

[Asmodeus!]

The declaration burst forth like a Lion's Roar, and for an instant, the Constellations clapped their hands over their ears. The Historical-grade Constellations driven back by the pressure frowned for a moment. I shouted again.

[If you're a 'demon king' too, keep your promise!]

Now that things had come to this, I wasn't expecting much. If he was the sly bastard I knew, then he'd understand just how dangerous it was to side with me right now.

But if it was that Asmodeus.

As if he had been waiting, a flash lit up the sky. A pitch-black storm swept in, and something was descending.

[The Demon King Demon God of Lust and Wrath is manifesting in the Demon Realm!]

An enormous amount of Plausibility flooded in, and an overwhelming being was manifesting before my eyes through an Incarnation body.

A small girl raised her head from within the darkness, exuding a black aura. The king of the Demon Realm who had subdued the Transcendence Form-awakened Junghyeok in a single blow. The being who would later become the head of Seekers of the End, the biggest and worst organization in this world.

[D-demon king!]

Asmodeus, the king of the 32nd Demon Realm, began rampaging.

[Ahahahahahahahaha!]

Along with the laughter, huge claws sprouted from the Demon King's fingertips. Asmodeus's Stigma, Bloodied Hand, raked across the entire zone and tore through the Constellations.

[Kyaaaaah! You crazy demon king bastard!]

[What the hell are you doing?!]

The moment the stunned Constellations turned their attention that way, I activated [Way of the Wind] and snatched up Junghyeok.

[Chase him!]

The enraged Constellations came rushing in as they closed the distance, but my enhanced Incarnation body was a little faster than theirs. I threw Junghyeok over my shoulder and ran with all my might.

"Get a hold of yourself, please."

Junghyeok's breathing was faint.

His body was lighter than usual.

He must have gone through unbelievable pain. It felt as though even the structure of his body had twisted out of shape. Listening to the sound of his heartbeat growing fainter and fainter, I shouted desperately.

"Hey, don't screw around! You can activate Recovery, can't you? Do something!"

But Junghyeok didn't move.

As I ran, I called for Biyoo and bought several more Greater Restoration Pills. Supporting his body with my left hand, I forced the pills into Junghyeok's mouth with my right. There was no sign of recovery. He no longer had the strength even to swallow them.

His breathing gradually faded. Junghyeok's feet began crumbling away, and his body was disappearing. I used [Way of the Wind] to wrap around the fragments so they wouldn't drift away. But I couldn't stop the faint light rising from around his heart.

I knew exactly what phenomenon this was. I'd seen that scene hundreds of times. There was no way I couldn't know.

「Yu Junghyeok thought.」

"Don't think."

「This life ends here.」

"Goddammit! Don't think!"

Fables were falling away from Junghyeok's cheek. I hurriedly gathered them and pressed them back onto his cheek as I shouted into empty air.

"Damn it! Don't make him regress! Leave this bastard alone!"

[The Patron constellation of the Incarnation Yu Junghyeok looks at you.]

"He can still come back to life! This round isn't over yet! He can fight again! I can save him!"

Junghyeok's Patron constellation said nothing. What it always did was the same. It watched Junghyeok suffer in death, then stuffed his horribly broken soul back into a worldline of the past.

[The Stigma Regression Lv.3 has activated!]

Cruel. Was it really going to end like this?

After everything I'd done to get here, Yu Junghyeok was going to die here?

That was when a single message appeared.

[The Incarnation Yu Junghyeok looks at his Patron constellation.]

"......Yu Junghyeok?"

Junghyeok, so mangled that his shape was barely recognizable, was staring at his Patron constellation with blood-smeared eyes.

His disappearing body began to shine amid the sparks.

[The Incarnation Yu Junghyeok resists his Patron constellation.]

[All the fables of the Incarnation Yu Junghyeok resist death.]

And then something happened that had never happened in any round I had seen.

[The Incarnation Yu Junghyeok refuses regression.]

Footnotes:

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