WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 386: Episode 74: Great war of Angels and Demons (1)

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Blue currents crackled through the air, and the last charging Android collapsed.

Pshhhhh.

Jihye pulled her sword from the severed cables and wiped her forehead.

[Your level has increased!]

Gilyeong, watching nearby, picked his nose and said, “Noona, you're getting pretty good, aren't you?”

Jihye nearly smacked him on the forehead for his sky-high arrogance.

[You cannot attack this target.]

The little brats were invincible in this world anyway. There was nothing to gain from upsetting them for no reason.

Jihye looked between Gilyeong and Yuseong.

“What levels are you two now?”

“I'm eighty-four.”

“I'm eighty-seven.”

“What? You were eighty-three just a few days ago!”

“That was a lie, idiot.”

Watching the two children bicker, Jihye sighed.

“I'm seventy-nine...”

Still, she had been leveling up quickly thanks to the two of them. Jihye's level had risen at light speed, as though she were flying, and they had even made it onto Next City's wanted list.

[Android Lee Jihye - 1,888G]

More precisely, only Jihye had made the list. The children couldn't be attacked in the first place, so they couldn't be put on a wanted list either.

“I think it's about time we escaped this world.”

“It'll probably end if we destroy that.”

Where Yuseong pointed stood a huge tower occupying the center of Next City. A warship floated at its peak, and whenever Jihye looked at it, she received a message from her Patron.

[The Constellation Naval Warfare God insists that they must have that constellation artifact.]

“What's gotten into our frugal general?”

[The Constellation Naval Warfare God clears their throat.]

Still, Jihye could understand how her Patron felt. Anyone who saw that warship would understand.

“I don't know why that's up there, but...”

If they could take it, then the skies of every world would become the Naval Warfare God's sea.

Jihye clenched the hilt of her sword.

“It might be fun to surprise ahjussi and master. Kids, shall we clear this now?”

“Sure. I was getting sick of using bugs anyway.”

“Let's do it.”

An unexpected message sounded just as the three, having made up their minds, began walking toward the tower.

[An emergency patch has been updated!]

[Beginning at midnight today, a shutdown system will be introduced to this Scenario.]

[From midnight to 6:00 a.m., adolescents under the age of eighteen will be unable to access this Scenario.]

Gilyeong and Yuseong, who had been running along cheerfully, staggered.

Gilyeong muttered in a flustered voice, “Noona, I'm sleepy.”

“Unni, run...!”

Those were the children's final words before they collapsed.

Jihye put a hand beneath their noses and found they weren't dead.

[This player is currently in a shutdown state.]

Jihye couldn't believe it.

“Wasn't this world rated adults-only from the start? Why are they introducing a shutdown system?”

There was no time to leisurely complain, though. Hundreds of drones deployed from the open tower all at once to capture her.

“Damn it.”

It looked like tonight would be especially long.

* * *

[The 113th local battle has ended.]

[No victor or loser has been determined in this local battle.]

There were no winners or losers in war. The heavily wounded demon kings withdrew while supporting each other, and panic-stricken Uriel was pushed along by low-grade angels until she disappeared from the battlefield.

The only ones left on the empty battlefield were Reincarnators sprawled out like defeated soldiers, along with five people lying among them.

“...I didn't think that would work.”

Suyeong muttered as though she couldn't believe it.

What Kim Dokja Company had done after participating in the local battle was simple.

They had entered the battlefield of good and evil and subdued every participant except themselves.

Then, the remaining people had continued fighting a war with no victor or loser.

[The victor or loser of this battlefield cannot be determined.]

[It has been confirmed that the participants in this battlefield have no will to fight.]

Kim Dokja Company's confrontation wasn't a fight to the death. It was play, sparring, a game with neither winners nor losers. That was why it wasn't a war of good and evil, and naturally, it wasn't the Great war of Angels and Demons either.

[This local battle has been excluded from the Great war of Angels and Demons classification.]

[A new 113th local battle is awaiting creation.]

The power to forcibly dismantle a battlefield. That was the power Kim Dokja Company possessed now.

“My Patron will be quite disappointed.”

“It couldn't be helped this time, Huiwon-ssi.”

“I don't want to fight Uriel if I can avoid it.”

“I feel the same.”

Huiwon wore a slightly bitter expression as she examined the Reincarnators on the battlefield with Hyeongseong. Many people had died and returned to the cycle of reincarnation, but some had survived. Huiwon and Hyeongseong divided the Ellain Forest Essence they possessed and gave it to them. Dokja also helped the nearby Reincarnators up one by one and used [Pressure Point] to staunch their bleeding.

Suyeong watched Dokja and said, “You thought this through before doing it this time, right?”

“I always think things through before I do them.”

“Then you know we can't keep this up forever.”

They had happened to enter the battlefield at a good time this time, but there was no guarantee they would be that lucky next time.

There would surely be Constellations and demon kings aligned with good or evil whom Kim Dokja Company couldn't handle through its strength alone. They could also be put in danger if they entered a battlefield where the gap in power was too large.

Yet Dokja looked calm.

―We don't need to hold out for long, so it's fine.

Their conversation naturally shifted to Midday Tryst, and Suyeong whispered back.

―Then?

―We only need to hold out until the chaos score surpasses ninety.

[The current chaos score is 56.]

The message appeared in the air as though it had been waiting, and Suyeong studied it closely.

―What's this score? It seems different from the good and evil score.

―It is.

Dokja briefly explained the chaos score.

It rose when neither good nor evil won, when the order of this world collapsed as a result.

―What happens when it fills up?

―The Calamity of the Apocalypse occurs.

―The Calamity of the Apocalypse? Wait, do you mean the Apocalypse Dragon?

The Destruction Dragon of the Apocalypse, or the Final Dragon of the Apocalypse.

The being commonly called the Apocalypse Dragon.

A great calamity that had returned in the 95th Scenario of the 1,863rd round and swept away the Constellations of the Star Stream with a single flick of its tail.

Dokja grinned and nodded.

―That's right. You know your stuff.

―You're going to raise the chaos score knowing that? Are you insane? What are you going to do if the Apocalypse Dragon revives? Have you forgotten what happened in the 1,863rd round?

If the Apocalypse Dragon awoke in this Scenario, it would bring devastation on a scale that dwarfed the Great war of Angels and Demons.

Yet Dokja's expression remained firm.

―It won't revive.

―How do you know that?

Dokja only shrugged at Suyeong's question before turning away.

Just as Suyeong was about to shout back in anger, someone cut in.

“For a Writer, you sure lack imagination.”

“What did you say, bastard?”

Junghyeok casually caught Suyeong's small fist.

Suyeong growled, “Why are you butting into someone else's conversation?”

“I couldn't stand listening to you say something so pathetic.”

“What bullshit are you talking about?”

“Dokja isn't the only one who knows what happened in the 1,863rd round.”

Suyeong immediately understood what Junghyeok meant.

Dokja hadn't gone to the 1,863rd round alone. He had left with two Archangels, and an Archangel had accompanied him when he returned.

And what that meant was...

“...Eden knows what happened there too. And that bastard is using it.”

Dokja's intention was obvious.

When the chaos gauge reached one hundred, the Apocalypse Dragon would be released. Eden had already heard information about the 1,863rd round, so it knew what would happen if the Apocalypse Dragon was released.

If they didn't want to see Eden destroyed, they had to stop the Great war of Angels and Demons immediately.

That was the message Dokja was trying to convey.

Suyeong found it slightly absurd as she watched Dokja calmly comfort the Reincarnators. What Constellation would threaten a great nebula like that?

“That evil bastard... He's telling them to choose: either we all live, or we all die.”

“If it works out, yes. There could be a future where only we die.”

Junghyeok polished the Black Heaven Demon Blade with a hardened expression. He looked more serious than ever. Suyeong could read his resolve in that expression. By now, the worst possibilities must have been running one after another through Junghyeok's mind.

Dokja's plan failing, Kim Dokja Company's Allies being wiped out here, and Junghyeok regressing once more.

Suyeong grumbled, “Is imagining only terrible futures a regressor's special habit?”

“You have to assume the worst to consider what comes after the worst.”

“Anyone listening would think you've regressed around ten thousand times.”

“Maybe I have in some universe.”

“You can say things like that?”

Suyeong snickered and looked at Dokja standing some distance away. He still swayed unsteadily like a limp inflatable tube man.

Just as she couldn't see inside an empty tube man, Suyeong couldn't read Dokja's mind. Sometimes she felt like she understood him, but that was usually just like air leaking from the doll.

What was there to trust in someone like that?

Maybe the person she truly couldn't understand was herself. Why was she fighting alongside Kim Dokja? She might have found out if she activated [Predictive Plagiarism], but Suyeong didn't go out of her way to do that.

She didn't think she should.

When she looked back, Junghyeok was watching the same sight.

“Hey, there's something I want to ask.”

“It's remarkable that you think I'll answer obediently.”

“True, you're pretty stubborn. You didn't let out a single groan even after being tortured that much in Kaizenix Archipelago.”

Junghyeok's expression hardened.

“So it was your doing after all?”

“I didn't order it. Our kind Yuri understood what I wanted.”

[The fable King of Kaizenix nods.]

Even while enduring Yuri's brutal torture, Junghyeok hadn't revealed his identity or any related information. Suyeong brushed off her butt and stood up.

“Anyway, are you really okay now? You tried to kill Kim Dokja before.”

“It's none of your business.”

“Someone like you wouldn't change your mind that quickly. If you haven't changed your mind, that means you never intended to kill him from the start...”

“...”

“Who urged you on back then? Metatron?”

Junghyeok's thick eyebrow twitched slightly at Metatron's name.

“Hmm, so there is a connection.”

“Looks like you did some digging.”

“When would I have time for that? I only tested you because you suddenly brought up Eden. Judging by your reaction, Metatron doesn't seem to be the key.”

At Suyeong's deduction, both Junghyeok's eyebrows twitched this time.

“Hmm, who could it be? The one who got inside our damned regressor's head.”

“Not someone the likes of you could know.”

“As expected, Secretive Plotter?”

Junghyeok looked up at Suyeong. Suyeong curled her lips as if asking why he was so surprised.

“I'm not an idiot. I can figure out anything you can.”

[The Incarnation Han Suyeong is activating Predictive Plagiarism.]

“More precisely, we can.”

A fable in which hundreds, thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of Han Suyeongs gathered to predict what would happen next.

This time, Junghyeok asked, “Do you know about Secretive Plotter?”

“A very powerful Outer God.”

Junghyeok looked disappointed for a moment, then spoke as though he had accepted it.

“It seems gathering thousands of idiots doesn't make a genius.”

“Want to die? Do you know who he is, then?”

“There is someone I suspect.”

“Really? Who?”

Instead of answering immediately, Junghyeok seemed to search through his memories.

“He knew all the histories I had lived through. From the zeroth round to rounds far in the future that I haven't experienced yet.”

“Hmm...”

“If my guess is correct, there is only one such being in all these worldlines.”

Suyeong nodded.

“That makes sense. There's only one likely answer.”

The two looked at each other for a moment, then spoke their answers at the same time.

But...

“Who did you say?”

“What nonsense are you talking about?”

Their answers were different.

Footnotes:

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