WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 369: Episode 69: Archangel Hunt (4)
──────
[You are a first-round regressor.]
When he chose Regression for the first time, he thought he'd been given a chance.
A chance to survive the Scenarios with more information than anyone else.
[You are a second-round regressor.]
When he chose Regression for the second time, he thought this life might not be easy.
As he watched his companions die again and again.
As he lost the one he loved.
He realized how many more times he'd have to go through this. In exchange for knowing more than anyone else, he would lose his precious companions over and over again.
[You are a third-round regressor.]
At his third Regression, he thought this might be a curse.
「How many more times must I live a life like this?」
He realized he had to kill his emotions to reach the end of all Scenarios.
He must not live his own life.
So he chose to become not Yu Junghyeok, but the regressor.
The fourth, the fifth... Perhaps there were more days he could have gone on living.
What stopped his Regression were the words of an unexpected person.
"Being able to regress whenever you want must mean death has no meaning. But if death has no meaning, then life loses its value too."
"Yu Junghyeok, get ahold of yourself. Don't fool yourself into thinking things will get better if you repeat it enough times."
So Junghyeok didn't move on to the next round. He gave up a life where he could live again and again, where he could begin from a more advantageous position with better information.
[You have advanced to Middle Island No. 3!]
He arrived at Middle Island No. 3 amid dazzling rays of light.
The participants who had arrived on the Island with him murmured among themselves.
[What is this place?]
[Weren't we supposed to go straight to the Main Island?]
Junghyeok drew his sword.
[The Hidden Scenario Steal a Modifier has begun!]
The slaughter began. Constellations lost their heads to the storm of bloody sword winds. There was no hesitation in Junghyeok's sword. He carved out the hearts of Incarnation bodies and smashed the backs of fleeing Constellations' heads.
[You have acquired a modifier syllable from the Constellation Crow of the Gloomy Night Sea.]
[You have acquired a modifier syllable from the Constellation Tactician of the Beach.]
There were difficult enemies as well, enemies who would have been hard to deal with in the original third round. Yet Junghyeok dealt with them easily.
「The weak point of the Scorpion of the Birch Tree is beneath its tail.」
「Attack the Lord of the Crescent Moon when the starlight on its head disappears.」
They were pieces of information the original Junghyeok wouldn't have known.
Information that could only be learned after reaching the fourth round, the fifth round, the hundredth round, and then the thousandth round.
[You have acquired a modifier syllable from the Constellation Scorpion of the Birch Tree.]
[You have acquired a modifier syllable from the Constellation Lord of the Crescent Moon.]
The Junghyeok of the third round knew information from a future he hadn't yet reached.
『Han Suyeong - Records of the 1,863rd Round (Part 1)』
『Han Suyeong - Records of the 1,863rd Round (Part 2)』
Records from the 1,863rd round, a distant future he might have reached had he continued living as he originally did.
Less than an hour later, silence fell around Junghyeok.
Pshhhk!
After finishing off the last Constellation, he continued onward. It wasn't simply because he wanted to hurry through the Scenario.
After walking for some time, he came across a battlefield soaked in blood.
The Forest of Abundance.
Countless Incarnation bodies lay dead. It looked as though someone had massacred them.
Junghyeok gathered the modifier syllables he needed and followed the slaughterer's trail. Before long, he found a huge cocoon wrapped in black smoke.
Junghyeok knew what that cocoon was.
"A monster made by Eden."
Michael's cocoon. It appeared when Michael was killed by someone while undergoing Demon King Transformation. Michael would be reborn inside this cocoon, just as Junghyeok began the next round after every death.
The difference was that Michael lost some of his memories every time he came back to life.
Evil created to eliminate evil.
Michael's existence was why Junghyeok could never like Eden.
As rain drizzled down on him, Junghyeok examined the area around the cocoon.
Michael being in this state meant someone had defeated him.
Before long, Junghyeok found Fable Fragments from a powerful Demon King.
Someone had fought Michael and been severely injured.
Traces of a white-glowing fable shimmered through the hazy rain. They belonged to someone Junghyeok knew well.
Twitch.
That was when Michael's cocoon began to stir. Its top was opening amid an ominous aura.
Junghyeok frowned.
'Already?'
Dark emotions rapidly seeped through the purple mist. Michael's naked form, newly shaped into an Incarnation body, emerged from the cocoon.
Junghyeok prepared to leave.
[Demon King... of Sal... vation...!]
If Michael hadn't said those words, Junghyeok would have left without a second thought.
After hesitating briefly, Junghyeok approached the half-open cocoon. Michael, not yet fully awake, slept defenselessly inside.
Flash.
The moment Michael opened his eyes, Junghyeok's sword moved.
"You'd be better off sleeping a little longer."
Thrust!
[sky splitter] pierced Michael's heart. The frail Incarnation body, which hadn't activated either [Demon King Transformation] or [Angel Transformation], crumbled helplessly beneath Second-generation Plausibility.
Grrraaaaaah!
[You have defeated the 177th Incarnation body of the King of Fallen Angels.]
Michael's cocoon rapidly shrank before returning to its original form.
He would probably be reborn in his 178th Incarnation body.
[The nebula Eden reveals hostility toward your actions!]
[The Constellation Scribe of heaven glares at you.]
Under the gaze pouring down from the sky, Junghyeok said, "I told you, didn't I? I'm the one who will kill Kim Dokja. Don't do anything unnecessary."
The sky gave no further answer.
Junghyeok sheathed his sword and hurried along the path marked by fragments scattered through the forest.
* * *
After Junghyeok disappeared down the forest path, a small shadow appeared beside Michael's cocoon. A short bob swayed beneath a pitch-black raincoat.
Seeing the items scattered all around, the shadow's owner grinned broadly.
"Getting carried by the protagonist is the best kind of bus ride."
Han Suyeong hurriedly stuffed the surrounding items into her pockets, laughing gleefully.
"That regressor bastard really doesn't know how precious items are."
[The Constellation Abyssal Black Flame Dragon stares at a Fable Fragment on the ground.]
"What are you looking at?"
Han Suyeong picked up the fragment Black Flame Dragon was pointing at. Then she froze.
[You have acquired the Fable Fragment King of a Kingless World.]
"This can't be..."
There were countless types of fables in the Star Stream, but as far as she knew, only one person possessed a fable with that name.
She threw down the item she'd picked up and immediately ran down the path Junghyeok had taken.
* * *
Junghyeok would kill me.
「(Dokja-ssi.)」
In three hours, Junghyeok would kill me.
「(Dokja-ssi!)」
I snapped my head up and answered.
'Yes, Sangah-ssi.'
「(How long are you going to keep spacing out? This isn't like you, Dokja-ssi.)」
'I wasn’t spacing out. I was thinking.'
「(About what?)」
'How to persuade him.'
Honestly, I wasn't confident. The Junghyeok coming to kill me wasn't the Junghyeok from TWSA that I'd read about for over a decade.
The Junghyeok who would come looking for me now was Junghyeok who had learned that he was a character.
Like the Junghyeok of the 1,863rd round.
「(Is it because of guilt?)」
Sometimes, Yu Sangah seemed like someone who could see straight through me.
Maybe she really could right now.
'No. It's because it's something I have to do.'
[The Fruit of Good and Evil stimulates your guilt.]
Perhaps this emotion had been forcibly stirred up by the Fruit of Good and Evil. In other words, perhaps it wasn't mine. Even so, I believed I had to do this.
Anna Croft, who was supporting me at my side, said, "We'll reach the center of the Island soon."
I nodded.
The center of the Island.
It was where the portal to the next Scenario stood, and where I would meet Junghyeok in three hours.
"I don't want to interfere with the future you've chosen, but my [future vision] rarely changes."
"Are you cursing me?"
"I'm only telling you the truth. If you don't want to die, you should find the syllable 'god' and move on to the next Scenario while you still can."
"I'm deliberately not going. There's something I have to discuss with him."
It was a conversation I'd put off all this time. But it was one we had to have.
"A conversation. Does the Supreme King even know how to do that?"
"If he doesn't, then I'll have to teach him."
Anna was silent for a moment. Her eyes turned toward the dark blue night sky, as though she were lost in thought.
A few Constellations were looking down at us.
"As you know, you can't always persuade everyone."
Anna was a Prophet. She had probably faced situations like mine many times. She must have deceived Selena Kim and Iris to get this far.
"I think you should only say something like that after trying everything you can."
"Those who know the future must bear the responsibility that comes with it."
In the distance, the center of the Island came into view. A huge portal leading to the next Scenario stood there.
I removed Anna's hand from my arm and said, "Then this is where we part ways."
Anna had gathered every modifier syllable. She was now qualified to pass through that gate. She would continue toward the destination she sought.
The moment I turned my back, Anna called out to me.
"Kim Dokja."
Not the Constellation Demon King of Salvation, but Kim Dokja. She was calling me by my name.
"My goal is to change the owner of this Star Stream."
At that moment, I felt deeply troubled. I could guess what she was about to say.
"What is your goal?"
"Do I have to answer?"
"I think I need to hear it before I decide whether to keep you alive."
She had put me on her scales. Whether I would help her achieve her goal or stand in her way. If I stood in her way, she would mercilessly eliminate me here.
I quietly looked into Anna's eyes.
Could I tell her?
What I truly wanted in this world.
Would she, a Prophet, understand me?
"I..."
Before I could finish speaking, someone's voice rang out.
"His goal is to see the end of some trivial story."
A voice steeped in cold anger.
It was a voice I knew better than anyone.
Footnotes:
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
