WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 415: Episode 78: The story's turning point (7)

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The Oldest Dream's puppet.

Yu Junghyeok frowned at the words he had heard so many times.

"You're going on about puppets again. What the hell does that mean?"

【You can't grasp its meaning because you're still in the third round.】

"Don't talk like you know everything. What do you know about this round?"

【Far more than you do.】

At that moment, Junghyeok bristled, and his right eye flared golden.

[The Exclusive Skill Sage's Eye Lv.??? has been activated!]

Junghyeok was now a Transcendent, his Status having risen to the point where he could fight fabled-grade Constellations.

Considering that [Sage's Eye]'s identification level rose in proportion to its user's Status, he should have been able to read even a Constellation's fragmented information by now.

Until then, only two people had completely defended against his [Sage's Eye]. One was the Prophet Anna Croft. The other was Kim Dokja.

But if Junghyeok was right, there was one more being he could never read.

【Your judgment is as dull as expected of the third round.】

The same brilliant golden light swirled in Secretive Plotter's right eye.

Junghyeok's right field of vision turned red for an instant, and bloody tears ran down his cheek.

[The Exclusive Skill Sage's Eye has been completely blocked by Sage's Eye!]

[The Constellation Secretive Plotter is looking at the Incarnation Yu Junghyeok.]

"Someone like you can't be Yu Junghyeok."

He couldn't accept it.

"No Junghyeok, no matter which round he's from, would make another being's Scenario into entertainment."

He was certain of it. Even if he existed in another round, no matter how many regressions he experienced, that conviction would never change.

Secretive Plotter's eyes gleamed quietly.

【You're right. Right now, I am only Secretive Plotter.】

Only Secretive Plotter. It was something Secretive Plotter had repeated time and again.

【The Junghyeok of the third round existed to destroy the Star Stream.】

"You know a lot."

Secretive Plotter gave a faint smile as he watched the Black Heaven Demon Blade let out a fierce cry. No, rather than a smile, it was more like a strange movement of his lips.

【If the Star Stream is destroyed, every Constellation will fall. That means this one will die too.】

At the end of Secretive Plotter's gaze was Dokja, hanging limp.

Junghyeok charged at the sight of him swaying as though he might breathe his last at any moment.

Kaaaang!

The Splitting the Sky Sword and Black Heaven Demon Blade collided, scattering black and blue flames.

Fresh blood flowed from Junghyeok's mouth.

The third turn's Yu Junghyeok clashes swords with Secretive Plotter

[The Great Fable Holy Flame That Devoured Myth roars!]

Without wiping it away, Junghyeok swung his sword again. It was a movement to cut away needless thoughts, a desperate attempt to simplify his thoughts and focus only on the target before him. But his opponent had already seen through him.

Secretive Plotter dodged the Black Heaven Demon Blade as if teasing him and asked,

【Why are you trying to save Dokja? Isn't he also one of the Constellations you hate so much?】

The Black Heaven Demon Blade's edge wavered faintly.

As the Status of the Great Fable Junghyeok was releasing faltered, Secretive Plotter took a step forward instead of exploiting the opening.

【By your convictions, this one should have died long ago. There are no good Constellations in this world.】

Constellations. Beings who coveted the Star Stream's Scenarios, watched Incarnations voyeuristically, and devoured everything in the world as material for fables.

Strictly speaking, the Demon King of Salvation was only one of those Constellations.

And Junghyeok's goal was to destroy them all.

Yet Junghyeok hadn't killed Dokja after he became a Constellation.

「Why?」

It wasn't a question he could answer lightly.

That was why he had kept putting it off.

「Why doesn't Junghyeok kill Dokja?」

Countless relationships surrounding Dokja passed through Junghyeok's mind.

Shin Yuseong and Dokja. Lee Gilyeong and Dokja. Dokja fighting Constellations.

Dokja risking his life for his companions.

And so Dokja, now dying after all those sacrifices...

"Dokja..."

The fable fragments floating around Dokja told the story of Dokja, who had lived as the Demon King of Salvation. They were fables Junghyeok knew well.

Fables he had lived through alongside him.

[Baaat...]

Biyoo's voice came from far away.

Junghyeok opened his mouth as he listened to it.

"The Demon King of Salvation is a Constellation, but..."

There were no good Constellations in the world. It was Junghyeok's unchanging creed through four lives, from the zeroth round to the third.

The only good stars were fallen stars, the only good dokkaebis were dead dokkaebis, and no good Scenario existed. Even so, Junghyeok was betraying that belief now.

"Kim Dokja isn't a Constellation. That bastard is just human."

Even though he knew it made no sense.

Grrrk.

Something cried in the darkness.

Grrrk. Grrrkgrrkgrrk.

It sounded as though the darkness itself were crying. Or laughing.

Secretive Plotter stood at the center of that darkness.

【Puppet of the Oldest Dream, you know nothing about Dokja.】

The Splitting the Sky Sword in Secretive Plotter's hand let out a lonely cry. It was a sword cry only someone who had lived a life no one could understand could possess.

Junghyeok raised his fighting spirit as if refusing to lose.

"Don't talk as though you know something."

Instead of answering, Secretive Plotter gave the unconscious Dokja a light poke.

Then fables poured out of Dokja's body like tears spilling from a child who had been holding back their sobs.

「“I am Yu Junghyeok.”」

There was a young Dokja repeating those words.

Dokja leaving his cousin's house, earning less than minimum wage.

「“I am Yu Junghyeok.”」

It was a shabby, clichéd story.

Common poverty. Common misfortune.

A story so common it could not even be told as a novel.

Dokja, living through that story, was there.

「“I am Yu Junghyeok.”」

There was a character who repeated those words as he moved from high school to university, then the military, then a company. He read web novels, identified with the protagonist, drew strength from the story, and felt moved, angry, or sad.

「“I...”」

That was how Dokja lived.

He read Junghyeok's fables and survived an unremarkable life.

He consumed Junghyeok's misfortune in place of his own. He consumed Junghyeok's deaths in place of his own. He wrote comments and interfered with the story.

「“Author-nim, will the next episode perhaps...”」

【Kim Dokja was a Constellation from birth.】

Secretive Plotter's form was becoming unstable. As if stained by deep darkness, the hem of his white coat scattered into blackness.

Dokja's life crumbled along with that hem.

【He was a Constellation who prolonged his own life by consuming the lives of others.】

Junghyeok looked into Dokja's life as well.

They were fables he had seen before. Junghyeok had seen those fragments of memory in the place called the Library, where Yu Sangah had forcibly dragged him.

【Third round. You remember nothing...】

"I don't care how Dokja survived in the past."

Golden aura flowed from Junghyeok's body, as if he had listened to Secretive Plotter's story only for this moment. Junghyeok slowly opened his eyes, and his entire body was dyed gold. The Status of fifth-stage Transcendence Form radiated from within him.

"What matters is that I need him to see this world's end."

The Black Heaven Demon Blade's Sky-Splitting conclusion was changing.

"And if he has to die, I'll be the one to kill him."

Junghyeok's [Air Walking] stepped into space.

[The Ark is calling the Incarnation Yu Junghyeok!]

[The Constellation Mandala's Protector is summoning the Incarnation Yu Junghyeok!]

There truly wasn't much time left.

[The Great Fable Spring of the Demon Realm begins its story!]

[The Great Fable Holy Flame That Devoured Myth begins its story!]

Two Great Fables settled into his blade. Above them, the Status of light and darkness he knew well joined them. Mana passed on by Han Suyeong and Jeong Huiwon.

[The Constellation Demonic Judge of Fire is bestowing protection upon the Incarnation Yu Junghyeok.]

[The Constellation Abyssal Black Flame Dragon is bestowing protection upon the Incarnation Yu Junghyeok.]

At that moment, Junghyeok wasn't alone.

As opposing Status settled into a single blade, the Black Heaven Demon Blade's radiant light began releasing a destructive fable. Junghyeok ran along the path guided by that blade. Every moment Kim Dokja Company had lived through permeated that path.

Sky-Splitting Sword Lightning.

Blue lightning wrapped around Junghyeok's blade.

It was the Secret Technique of the Sky Splitter Sword Art, which he had saved even when the Apocalypse Dragon's Electric Shockwave came crashing down. To it, Junghyeok added the secret transmission he had honed with all his heart.

Sky Splitter Sword Art.

Secret Transmission Secret Technique.

Meteor Slash.

The technique that had even split Indra, a Lokapala of mighty Veda.

The sword strike drew a line of destruction so dazzling it was almost intoxicating as it moved to cut down a single star. It was a strike on which Junghyeok had staked his entire third round.

【You really don't understand a word I say.】

Then Junghyeok saw it.

Space and time twisted around him, and a fable began its story.

「“I will kill you without fail.”」

It was a voice Junghyeok knew well.

A voice filled with hatred for the sky.

「“Again and again.”」

From the zeroth round to the 1,863rd round.

A fable created by 1,864 lives.

「“I will rise again, again and again.”」

It was an eternal, undying hell.

「“I will kill every last one of you.”」

When sword met sword, Junghyeok felt as though he was being erased. The gap between them inspired awe beyond mere overwhelm.

Junghyeok understood the despair, regret, sorrow, and hatred carved into every part of that fable.

Yet he couldn't understand them.

He couldn't measure the depth of those unfathomable emotions.

That was why Junghyeok despaired, like the countless Junghyeoks within those fables.

Before that fable, he was only the Junghyeok of the third round, just as Secretive Plotter had said.

What more must he do across that unfathomable span of time...

When he came to his senses, Junghyeok was flying through the air. The wings Huiwon and Suyeong had given him were torn apart. His Black Heaven Demon Blade, broken in half, spun as it fell like his shattered life.

The Splitting the Sky Sword moved slowly toward his heart.

[The chaos score is rising rapidly!]

[Someone is wary of Secretive Plotter's existence!]

[The Hound Chasing the Abyss has appeared!]

That was when the unexpected happened.

From the angles of warped space, grotesque lifeforms as ominous as Outer Gods emerged. They howled like well-trained hounds and charged at Secretive Plotter, ignoring the laws of space and time as though they had accelerated.

【Those troublesome hounds...】

The Splitting the Sky Sword, which had been falling toward Junghyeok, changed direction and struck the hounds away.

But it couldn't block them all.

Junghyeok understood that these hounds were beings Secretive Plotter was wary of. Bitten by one of them, Secretive Plotter hurried away toward the Great Hole.

Dokja, held in his hand, went with him.

Junghyeok reached out weakly, but the star was already disappearing into the distant reaches. He no longer had the strength to move toward it.

His two broken wings crumbled like sand, and Junghyeok fell toward the darkness of the ground.

* * *

[We must leave now.]

"Wait! Master and Ahjussi still haven't come back!"

Master of the Ark looked troubled and broke out in a cold sweat as Jihye stubbornly protested.

[The end of Main Scenario #89, Last Dragon of the Apocalypse Dragon, is imminent.]

Thirty seconds remained until the Island closed. They had to leave within twenty seconds at the latest. Master of the Ark finally made a decision and was about to row.

"He's coming!"

Something fell from the air.

"Junghyeok!"

His coat was in tatters. The unconscious Junghyeok was falling toward the ground.

"Master! What happened?"

Jihye caught the falling Junghyeok and returned to the Ark.

Suyeong and Huiwon approached and shook him.

"Junghyeok! What the hell? Why are you alone? Dokja...!"

"Where's Dokja-ssi?"

Junghyeok didn't answer. The moment Huiwon and Suyeong realized what that meant and looked up into the sky, the Ark began to move.

"Wait, wait! One person still hasn't come back!"

"Stop it!"

But their words were swallowed by the rolling shockwave and the dark fog of "indescribable vastness."

[The Scenario area is closing!]

[Warp has begun!]

Constellations screamed. Amid falling meteor showers, a world was coming to an end.

A small destruction to prevent a great destruction.

The Island of Reincarnators was disappearing into eternity.

"No! Stop! I said stop!"

The Ark vanished into a vivid beam of light. People inside the Ark stretched out their hands.

Someone sank down. Someone screamed.

And someone watched it all.

"Kim Dokja!"

[You have acquired Scenario settlement rewards.]

[Someone in the Star Stream has completed the story's turning point.]

[The Great Fable Season of Light and Darkness has been born!]

Only the story no one wanted remained there.

Footnotes:

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