WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 363: Episode 68: Words That Can’t Be Heard (2)

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The stone trembled on my palm as if it were alive.

[You have acquired a new fable!]

[The fable Stone and Me wants to continue its story.]

This was my first time experiencing something like this.

A fable had formed just because I touched a stone?

All kinds of complicated hypotheses flashed through my mind, but no suitable answer came to me.

[The Plausibility of the First Generation is lingering around you.]

[The Fourth Wall is currently extremely thin.]

Those two system messages were the only suspicious things I could think of.

Yoo Hoseong, who had been glaring at me suspiciously, spoke.

"I see. You're a Reincarnator too, aren't you?"

It seemed he had come up with some strange hypothesis about me in the meantime.

"Did you get struck to death by a thrown stone in a past life or something? Is that why that stone..."

"No."

"Aha, you've got rocks for brains. That's why a stone of all things..."

Without a word, I picked up the branch Hoseong had thrown.

[Fable material responds sensitively to you.]

[The fable Kim Dokja Like a Tree Branch begins its story!]

I spoke to the dumbfounded Hoseong like a humble junior martial artist.

"Forgive me for saying so, but my head isn't that bad."

Jihye glared at me as if I were obnoxious.

Hoseong cried out, his eyes wide.

"Here, hold this too!"

I accepted the flower he handed me.

[Fable material feels fondness for you.]

[The fable Kim Dokja Holding a Flower begins its story!]

Hoseong kept handing me things that might become fable material, and I accepted every one of them.

[Fable material is curious about you!]

[Fable material is curious about you!]

Hoseong finally made a decision when my surroundings had filled with singing flowers and stones.

"Hold me."

"Where?"

"Here. Grab my shoulder."

Hoseong's eyes burned fiercely.

I could understand his anger. As he said, genuine fables required ten years, a hundred years, even a thousand years of accumulation before they could form a single line. Yet they had blossomed so easily from me that he couldn't help being furious.

"If you insist... excuse me."

I sighed and placed a hand on Hoseong's shoulder.

Why was a child's shoulder so solid?

Hoseong said, "No particular change. Is it limited to inanimate objects? Hmm..."

[The character Yoo Hoseong feels a faint fondness for you.]

Hoseong flinched in surprise, shook off my hand, and stepped back.

"Wha-what did you do?"

Then a message sounded in my ears.

[You have acquired the fable One Loved by All Things.]

* * *

While Hoseong was still in shock, the other villagers began taking an interest in me.

"It's been a while since I've seen talent this insane."

"Huh, what a rare fellow. You really came from outside, didn't you?"

"Would you like some cattle feed too?"

In a daze, I accepted the cattle feed a village woman handed me.

Human Kim Dokja. In nearly thirty years of drifting through life, this might have been the first time I'd received this much attention for something good.

I had talent?

「(Dokja-ssi, you definitely have talent. You kept reading a novel like that to the end for over ten years.)」

Perhaps her work as a librarian had been difficult lately, because Sangah's voice sounded a little tired.

'Do you think it has something to do with reading novels?'

「(I don't think there's any other explanation.)」

'But nothing like this has ever happened before...'

Thinking about it, that wasn't entirely true. Some characters had felt fondness for me the moment they saw me.

「(Could it be related to the Wall becoming thinner?)」

Listening to Sangah, I thought that might be possible. I didn't know the exact reason, but perhaps the weakened function of [The Fourth Wall] had narrowed the distance between me and the world.

Then how far did this ability apply?

When I looked around, Jihye was gripping a branch tightly and muttering to herself, as if her pride had somehow been hurt.

I poked her arm with a finger.

"Urgh!"

Jihye jumped and snapped at me.

"Are you crazy, Misteeer? Where do you get off touching me with a finger covered in crap...!"

So it didn't seem to work on her. Then, let's see...

I poked Cheok Junkyung's shoulder. He was sitting cross-legged nearby.

"Is this a challenge?"

"No."

It didn't apply to him either.

What principle was it operating on?

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't understand how my talent worked.

"It's truly a damned talent. That's the only way I can explain it."

It was Hoseong, who had been lost in thought for a long time.

A vicious fury had seeped into his innocent face. Hoseong strode toward me with a child's gait.

"You may not know it, but I hate fortuitous encounters more than anything in this world. I especially despise bastards like you, who gain something easily without putting in any effort."

That was the kind of person One-Punch Invincible Yoo Hoseong was.

A martial artist who liked people who charged forward with grit and cherished those who worked to overcome talent that seemed impossible to surpass.

To Hoseong, someone like me probably looked like a heinous criminal who insulted the First Generation with nothing but natural talent.

"Today, for the first time, I will go against my conviction."

Huh?

"I will teach you Fable Control."

* * *

I didn't know why Hoseong had changed his mind. One thing was certain, though. He had seen some kind of potential in me.

As if he intended to leave behind a once-in-a-lifetime disciple, Hoseong tormented me day and night from then on.

"Phenomena and truth are not the same. To use fables properly is to understand phenomena through your own language."

"A firm foundation for leaping into abstraction. That is the detail you must build into your fables."

And so on. It was such incomprehensible gibberish that I thought rereading TWSA would be more useful.

I peeled and ate the tangerines a villager had brought me one by one, nodding diligently for the time being.

"Idiot. You have the face of someone who doesn't understand a thing."

"I'm sorry."

"If you don't understand, there's no need to force yourself to. Not everyone learns the method of control in the same way."

"Then what should I do?"

He flicked my forehead.

"You insolent brat. First of all, your manner of speaking is the problem. You lack respect for your elders."

"..."

"First, you need to learn how to listen."

"I don't think I could be listening any better."

"I mean listen to the words of the fables you possess!"

The words of fables? Had TWSA mentioned something like that?

"You already possess the talent to communicate with fables. The talent to listen to their feelings and words."

Now that I thought about it, that was true. I didn't know when it had begun, but I had become able to read the intentions of fables, as if they were people.

"But I want to control fables, not make small talk with them."

"Fables aren't something you can control."

That was quite a thing to hear from someone teaching Fable Control.

"Can you control your own thoughts?"

"Of course. They're my thoughts..."

"Then don't think about anything for the next five minutes."

I nodded as if that would be easy.

Don't think, don't think...

Damn it, I was thinking about not thinking.

I tried desperately to escape my own imagination, but it wasn't easy. Before five minutes had even passed, an incredible number of things had happened in my head.

For example, Junghyeok turning into a beautiful young woman for some cause lacking Plausibility and cutting down demon kings, or Han Suyeong suffering from unexplained delirium and bowing her head as she said, "Kim Dokja-nim, I'm sorry I plagiarized back then too"...

I admitted it honestly.

"I can't."

"You scatterbrained fool."

[The fable Demon King of Salvation grins at you.]

"That will be your task from today onward. Listen to the words of your fables."

"But..."

"Don't be afraid. No matter how great they are, they are still fables you have built."

As Hoseong turned away after saying that, he wore the expression of a teacher for the first time.

"Fables sometimes try to rule us, but they can also show us the way."

That was how I began training in fable control.

More precisely, I began practicing listening to the voices of fables.

[The Great Fable Holy Flame That Devoured Myth finds your attention bothersome.]

The fables found my behavior strange at first, but after a day passed, then two, they slowly began opening their hearts.

How long had I listened? The fables that had restrained their emotional expressions until now began speaking to me.

[The fable King of a Kingless World says those days were truly fun.]

Fables told stories, and I listened to them. The stories became memories we had built together.

The starlight of the Four-Tiger Evil-Cutting Sword that had embroidered the sky, and the exhilarating moment when I shattered the Absolute Throne.

Right. That had been really fun. You were my first fable.

[The fable One Who Opposes the Extraordinary says that Returnee was truly troublesome.]

Right, Myeong Ilsang had been a real pain. Even with Junghyeok and Suyeong there, I'd nearly died.

[The fable One Who Hunted the King of Catastrophes misses the taste of snake wine.]

[The fable One Who Slayed an Outer God asks whether you remember this too.]

With each added word, I sank deeper into half-formed memories. At the same time, I felt impatient. It would be a problem if I spent too much time here.

Han Suyeong, Yu Junghyeok, Anna Croft.

They would pursue endings different from mine. They might already have been knocking on the door to the next Scenario.

[The fable Demon King of Salvation says you must not run away any longer.]

I focused on the stories again.

More and more voices of fables poured in, and I could no longer distinguish reality from fiction. My sense of time and space was blurring. I couldn't tell whether I was inside the fables now, or listening to their stories in reality.

[The fable Silver Screen Revolutionary hungers for a new revolution.]

Yes, I'm sorry. I'd neglected all of you for too long.

[The fable Heterodox of the Gourmet Association complains of hunger!]

[The fable Miracle Gambler says we should play another big round.]

Dreamlike scenes sometimes passed before me.

"Dokja-ssi. We almost died, you know?"

"Misteeer!"

The faint voices of my Allies came from somewhere.

"Wow, that's unfair. You'd already started training on your own?"

"Let's hurry and learn it too! Who do we go to so we can learn?"

Hearing those voices, I thought to myself.

If this really was a dream, it was a sweet one.

"Why am I not getting a fable? Dokja-hyung got one by doing this, right?"

"Take your hand off him, Lee Gilyeong."

"You get away, Shin Yuseong."

In the dream, I heard the children diligently muttering things like "Mister and Me" and "Dokja-hyung and Lee Gilyeong."

I had no idea what they intended to do with fables like that...

[The Great Fable Spring of the Demon Realm watches your story with you.]

Why was that? Hearing the children's voices made my heart grow warm without me realizing it. In my hazy vision, countless fables watched the scene with me.

[The fable One Loved by an Archangel likes your story.]

[The fable King of a Kingless World watches the children.]

[The fable Liberator of Giants looks at your Allies with affectionate eyes.]

All these fables resembled me, and I resembled all these fables in turn.

Then that one standing apart from the rest must surely be part of us too.

[The Great Fable Holy Flame That Devoured Myth turns away from you.]

I spoke.

'Stop sulking and come here.'

But it didn't answer. The fable, which had been threatening the others with its mountain-sized body, had curled itself up and turned its back.

It lowered its head like a child reading something.

Perhaps that back was familiar to me. A small child absorbed in its own story.

Yet, as always, a fable couldn't exist alone.

I carefully approached from behind and said, 'That looks interesting.'

Startled, "Holy Flame That Devoured Myth" turned toward me and enlarged its body.

「You...!」

The fable glared down at me with its enormous body.

Strangely, I wasn't afraid of it.

It was a fable. And all fables flowed somewhere.

'Where do you want to go?'

It opened and closed its mouth, unable to answer.

It probably couldn't answer. I understood that feeling.

'Come with me.'

「Where to?」

I slowly opened my mouth and spoke.

The ■■ I wanted for all my stories.

The fable asked.

「What is at the end of all those stories?」

'I don't know either. But at least I won't be alone.'

[The fable Eternal Hellscape looks at you.]

Then, a moment later, I felt fables winding around my fingertips.

My body, which had been carried along in the waves of stories, gradually grew heavier. I slowly opened my eyes. I had no idea how much time had passed.

When I looked down because my legs had gone numb, Gilyeong and Yuseong were sleeping soundly against my knees. They weren't fables. They were children with real bodies.

I gently stroked their heads.

[The Great Fable Holy Flame That Devoured Myth listens to your story.]

At last, I was ready to leave for the next Scenario.

* * *

At that time, the sole survivor of the 331st Island was moving toward the next Scenario.

[You have slaughtered every participant on the Island.]

[You are the sole survivor of the 331st Island.]

[You have gained the qualification to enter the next Scenario.]

A black coat fluttered around him, and the Black Heaven Demon Blade shone behind his back.

As he looked at the portal leading to the next Scenario, Yu Junghyeok recalled the sinister being he had met just before coming here.

An Outer God whose identity even he, who had lived through the third round, could not determine.

【I cannot tell you all the contents of the Revelation. Even for me, that would violate Plausibility too greatly. But I can give you this much. It will make this a fair fight.】

When he turned on his smartphone, a text file appeared.

『Han Suyeong - Records of the 1,863rd Round (Part One)』

As Junghyeok walked toward the portal, he turned the first page of a story he did not know.

Footnotes:

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