WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 298: Episode 56: Reader and writer (2)

──────

Overwhelming dizziness hit me, and for a moment, I felt as though the entire history I had lived through was crumbling away.

Yu Junghyeok's Patron. I didn't know exactly what it was. I couldn't describe it or explain it. All I knew was this.

Something immensely powerful and pure was there, like the very origin of desire.

Something like a baby's laughter lingered by my ear. When I came to my senses again, the broken Four-Tiger Evil-Cutting Sword lay on the ground.

Junghyeok's link hadn't been severed. I had failed.

When I looked up, Han Suyeong was walking toward me.

"You saw it too, didn't you?"

Suyeong wore a subtle smile. An identical Four-Tiger Evil-Cutting Sword hung from her waist.

"...You tried it already?"

"Of course. I tried it on a much larger scale than you did. I borrowed the power of a nebula and cut at it."

Perhaps Suyeong had seen the true form of the Patron more clearly than I had.

"What the hell was that?"

"Who knows? I don't know exactly. But can't you make a guess?"

I didn't answer. Suyeong continued.

"Now that your final plan has failed, you know there isn't a way."

"..."

"I told you earlier. Junghyeok agreed to this plan too."

"Junghyeok agreed?"

"You can read thoughts, can't you? Didn't you read his too?"

Clang!

Junghyeok knocked Suyeong's sword away.

I looked at Junghyeok's back as he stood in front of me. Surely, I could use the second stage of [Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint] on him now.

After hesitating for a moment, I activated the skill.

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

[Your understanding of the individual is sufficient. The second stage of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint has activated!]

Then Junghyeok's thoughts reached me. His consciousness had sunk so deeply that most of his words drifted through the air like dust. One by one, they fell around me like snow before soon pouring down like a blizzard.

...

「I want to die.」

「I want to die.」

「I want to die.」

...

What I was seeing now was the inner self of a human being, suppressed within the text of TWSA.

As I stood there blankly, Suyeong strode over. Her hair brushed my chin, and her hand slipped into my coat and took Arondight. Having finally gathered all five swords, Suyeong took one cold-eyed step after another away from me.

Junghyeok stood there, staring vacantly at me.

If Suyeong drove all those swords in, Junghyeok would be trapped in this round forever. He would receive the eternal rest he had desired so desperately.

This was the ending suited to this world.

That was when I heard something by my ear. It was a tiny voice, very faint amid the countless voices pouring down.

I tucked the broken Four-Tiger Evil-Cutting Sword into my coat and ran toward Suyeong. When I gripped her shoulder hard enough to wrinkle her coat, Suyeong frowned and turned her head.

"Are you still going to be stubborn?"

I looked at Junghyeok.

I had heard it clearly. Even now, I could hear it.

「I want to live.」

A single sentence, faint but unmistakable.

Junghyeok was clearly saying it.

Suyeong shook off my hand in irritation.

"Let go while I'm asking nicely. If we're going to get what you and I want, we have to kill Junghyeok."

"You don't know what I want."

I gripped Unbreakable Faith.

Hummm!

As the blade rang out, Suyeong's expression hardened and she stepped back.

"What are you plotting? You don't have a way anyway."

That was right. I didn't have a way. There was no way for me to resolve the Otherworld Covenant while saving Yu Junghyeok. There hadn't been such a method anywhere in the TWSA I had read through all night.

"There is a way."

But there was another way.

"Junghyeok!"

At my shout, Junghyeok rushed in like lightning and struck Suyeong.

In that brief opening, Junghyeok collected the four swords Suyeong had been holding.

Holy Sword Ascalon.

Thunder Sword Gram.

Dragon-Slaying Sword Ridil.

Dragon-Slaying Sword Arondight.

Swords bearing the fable of dragon slaying.

Every one of them was a key to this Scenario.

"Go, Junghyeok! Release the Apocalypse Dragon!"

"What the hell are you trying to pull?"

Furious, Suyeong rushed toward Junghyeok. I threw myself at her, wrapping my arms around her as we rolled across the ground. Suyeong kicked me and shouted.

"You only have four swords! You can't even clear the Scenario!"

"No, there's one more."

I pulled a sword from inside my coat.

Grass-Cutting Sword.

It was the sword Junghyeok and I had gained after hunting Yamata no Orochi in peace land long ago.

The Grass-Cutting Sword had fully inherited the fable of dragon slaying because it had been made using Totsuka no Tsurugi, the sword used to kill Yamata no Orochi.

"Catch, Junghyeok!"

Junghyeok caught the sword launched along the [Way of the Wind]. At last, all five swords that had accomplished dragon slaying were gathered together. Suyeong cried out in shock.

"You crazy bastard...!"

Suyeong's Status collided with the Status I unleashed. I activated [Electrification] and poured [White Pure Star Energy] into Suyeong at the same time. As she forced back that Mana, Suyeong shouted.

"Everyone, catch Junghyeok!"

At Suyeong's words, the allies fighting separately all turned their eyes toward Junghyeok at once.

"I'll get him!"

Kim Namwoon, the first to spot Junghyeok, launched himself forward.

"Damn it, I knew you'd betray us...!"

Jihye and Hyeongseong moved a beat later.

Three of the hundred strongest people in TWSA were rushing Junghyeok at once.

Suyeong radiated a terrifying aura as she glared at me.

"Do you know what you've done? If this Scenario is cleared..."

I couldn't hear what Suyeong said next. I was watching Junghyeok's back as he headed for the Sealing Orb.

「Kim Dokja thought of Junghyeok of the third round, who would be silently making his way through the Scenarios.」

Jihye's sword cut across Junghyeok's back.

「He thought of righteous Yu Sangah and clever Han Suyeong of the third round.」

Hyeongseong rushed in and grabbed Junghyeok around the waist. Namwoon activated [Black Flame] and struck Junghyeok in the face.

「For a long time, he thought of the strong Jeong Huiwon; he also thought of his own children, Lee Gilyeong and Shin Yuseong.」

Junghyeok didn't retreat. Wearing a tattered black coat, he kept moving forward even as blood poured from him. The [Sky Splitter Sword Art] he swung sent Jihye and Hyeongseong flying.

「He thought of Jihye, who called him trash, and Hyeongseong, who was always losing his shell casings.」

...I miss them.

「And so, Kim Dokja finally made his decision.」

I said to Suyeong, "I'm not going back to the third round."

"What kind of bullshit is that? Do you even know what you're..."

"I'll stay here and see the ending with the people of this world."

The end of this world won't be the ending I want.

「It might take a very long time. And perhaps, he might never be able to return.」

But if I could somehow reach the ending anyway.

"Secretive Plotter isn't the only Outer God. There must be another way to return. If we clear the Scenarios and keep moving toward the end..."

"Don't talk bullshit! Nothing you do will matter! You don't know the end of this entire story anyway!"

"I don't. That's why."

I continued, watching Junghyeok soar toward the Sealing Orb.

"I'm going to make it myself."

Suyeong leaped into the air and hurled a jet-black spear at Junghyeok. I threw myself forward and took the spear in his place. The impact numbed my joints, but I didn't retreat.

Suyeong's eyes were filled with killing intent completely unlike before.

"So this is how you want it?"

Tstststst!

The Status flowing from Suyeong's eyes threatened me head-on. The power she had concealed until now was being released from within her.

[The Constellation Director of the False Finale is looking at you.]

Even though I had known, I couldn't help laughing.

Like me, Han Suyeong of this round didn't have a Patron. She had become a Constellation, just like me.

Hummmmmm!

She was even holding Unbreakable Faith just like mine. Unbreakable Faith in far better condition than mine, overflowing with jet-black Aether.

The instant black qi rushed toward me, I unleashed [White Pure Star Energy] and blocked the strike.

Crackkk.

Though I had clearly blocked it, the impact remained, as if the bones in my hand had been crushed.

Suyeong's body began to divide.

[Avatar].

Countless clones carrying her memories leaped toward Junghyeok and me all at once. I moved to stop her. Jophiel's 503rd Division was perfect for clones moving in every direction like that.

"Jophiel!"

But the Archangel Jophiel didn't answer.

I could guess the reason. My choice probably displeased Jophiel. The Archangels would want to return to their original worldline.

Then, the next moment.

[The fable One Loved by an Archangel has activated!]

[The Constellation Lily Blooming in Aquarius grants you a blessing.]

Along with Gabriel's Indirect Message, an Archangel's Status seeped into me.

At the same time, Gabriel's divine spear, Scales of Favoritism, appeared in one hand.

[The Constellation Lily Blooming in Aquarius is looking at you.]

[The Constellation Commander of the Red Cosmos is flustered.]

I didn't know why Gabriel had chosen to help me.

All I knew for certain was that I desperately needed her help now.

One of Suyeong's rushing clones shouted, "Don't get in the way just because you're a reader. This world has to end here!"

"You're not the owner of this story either. Make that kind of ending in your own world."

I swung Scales of Favoritism and cut down more than ten of Suyeong's Avatars flying toward the dark clouds in one stroke. The two Unbreakable Faiths collided in the air. Aether with the Divinity attribute and Aether with the darkness attribute tangled together, producing a strange crackling sound.

Kwaaaaaang!

With a powerful explosion, the lightning of [Electrification] shattered. Covered in wounds, I rolled across the ground.

Quite a few of Suyeong's Avatars had disappeared, but she was still standing. The instant Suyeong, enraged, charged through the dust toward me, I shouted.

"Go! Junghyeok!"

Junghyeok's body, leaping through the air, finally reached the Sealing Orb.

[The five keys connect with the Sealing Orb.]

Suyeong shouted.

"No!"

The five swords slotted into the enormous Sealing Orb as keys.

Click.

I heard the keyhole turn.

[Someone has released the Seal of the Apocalypse Dragon.]

[The Scenario's Clear Conditions have been fulfilled.]

The power of dragon slaying was waking the sleeping dragon. The entire sky flickered like an enormous light bulb. Half night and half day divided the heavens, and I felt the owner of a fable more tremendous than any I had ever seen awaken.

[All Constellations of the nebula Olympus are astonished.]

[All Constellations of the nebula Veda are aghast.]

[All Constellations of the nebula Papyrus are on guard.]

Amid the nebulae's messages, the shadow of the dragon imprisoned within the hemispherical dome began to emerge.

I knew what would happen next. Before long, the Apocalypse Dragon, fully awakened, would roar toward the sky and swing its tail at the Constellations of the distant Star Stream. A third of the night sky would vanish.

And perhaps, if I was really unlucky, I too...

「Kim Dokja.」

When I turned my head, Yu Junghyeok stood beside me, holding Splitting the Sky Sword. He looked as though he didn't care at all that the Scenario had been cleared. The moment our eyes met, chills ran down my spine.

...Since when had his regressor's depression lifted?

Those vividly open eyes were looking at me with unmistakable awareness.

That awareness asked me.

「Does the world you showed me really exist?」

Footnotes:

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