WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 439: Episode 83: The Reader’s Incarnation (1)
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The seething power of chaos invaded every capillary in my body. My fables resisted the invading chaos one after another.
[The fable One Who Opposes the Extraordinary dreams of a miracle.]
[The fable One Who Slayed an Outer God resists your transformation!]
[The Great Fable Spring of the Demon Realm protects you!]
Barely holding on to my fading consciousness, I staggered toward the scriptures.
「...」
Was this a side effect of Outer God Transformation? Something like voices drifted in from somewhere. My consciousness must have splintered, triggering Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint on its own.
This time, though, it wasn't just one person. The voices came all at once, as if I were sensing several viewpoints simultaneously.
「I knew it.」
Yu Junghyeok.
「It was too obvious from the start. I thought it might be the case.」
Jihye.
「If you didn't tell us first, you must've had a reason.」
Yuseong.
「I-I actually expected it too, you know? Dokja hyung! Dokja hyung!」
Gilyeong.
「Dokja-ssi?」
Huiwon.
What could I say to them when they already understood everything without being told?
「He's an incredibly strong Sun Wukong. Who could he be?」
Hyeongseong.
A laugh slipped out of me. Yes, it was better that Hyeongseong didn't know.
I could feel my memories beginning to collapse. Once my Outer God Transformation ended, my memories would scatter like cosmic dust.
「Kim Dokja was afraid.」
The Fourth Wall must have known.
All my grand declarations were the declarations of a coward.
「After losing every memory, would I truly still be ‘me’?」
I had died many times, but I had never lost all my memories at once.
What would become of the ‘me’ who remembered everything now?
「What I truly feared wasn't death.」
If I read it again, could I regain all these feelings exactly as they had been?
[The fable Companions in Life and Death looks at you.]
[The fable One Who Hunted the King of Catastrophes looks at you.]
[The fable Liberator of Giants looks at you.]
Could I feel these precious stories again as I had the first time?
「And before Dokja stood the scriptures.」
『Journey to the West Remake』.
The scriptures were the Great Fable itself.
The moment I took hold of them, this Great Fable would belong to Kim Dokja Company and the Outer God.
「Dokja reached for the scriptures.」
With this, our 『Journey to the West』 would be complete.
That was when something strange happened.
[Outer God Transformation is being delayed due to a Scenario anomaly.]
Delayed?
The sparks around me rapidly thickened, and the Constellations' shouts grew distant. The flow of space and time bent in a bizarre way. Powerful Plausibility moved with enough force to send chills down my spine. It felt as though the entire Star Stream was stirring.
Someone was breaking through the distorted space to interfere with the Scenario.
[The Great Dokkaebi Heoju has manifested in the Scenario!]
[The Great Dokkaebi Heoche has manifested in the Scenario!]
[The Great Dokkaebi Harong has manifested in the Scenario!]
[The Great Dokkaebi Haram has manifested in the Scenario!]
[The Great Dokkaebi Haesol has manifested in the Scenario!]
The Great Dokkaebis had manifested.
Tzzzzzt!
My fingertips, reaching for the scriptures, froze as though petrified.
It was impossible.
[You cannot have that story.]
Dokkaebis couldn't intervene in a Main Scenario.
No, they had picked fights indirectly before, but a Great Dokkaebi had never directly twisted a Scenario like this.
Yet they had interfered with the Scenario, even staking their own Plausibility.
[The Star Stream is convulsing!]
The Great Dokkaebis were also part of the Star Stream.
Even those who governed the system couldn't escape the consequences of such abnormal use of Plausibility.
Perhaps because of that, intense sparks burst from the Great Dokkaebis' bodies as well.
[What has been forgotten must remain forgotten.]
I thought I understood, at least a little, why they were going this far.
If I claimed these scriptures and gained the Great Fable...
【Aaaaaaaahhhhh!】
【Ooooooooooh...!】
The Outer Gods they had kept excluded from stories would officially be incorporated into the Great Fable.
The Outer Gods were a force their system couldn't fully control.
If Outer God-class beings, not merely mid- or low-grade Old Ones, began joining Scenarios indiscriminately, the Star Stream would become complete chaos.
Even so, I had to see this through.
[Stop.]
The Great Dokkaebis' Status bound my whole body like chains. My outstretched hand stopped with only a handspan left before the scriptures.
I didn't panic.
The Great Dokkaebis had appeared in violation of Plausibility, so another being would appear to balance the distorted scales of Plausibility.
Rumble!
Something began swirling in the sky the instant I thought that.
The Great Hole.
A being appeared through it and looked down at me.
[Take hold of the scriptures, Apostle of ■■.]
It was the Hunchback King I had met in N'Gai Forest.
The Great Dokkaebis spotted the Hunchback and cried out in shock.
[How dare you...!]
[Demon of the Horizon, how dare you come here!]
[There is no Plausibility for you to appear in this Scenario.]
The Hunchback King sneered.
[The same goes for you bastards.]
The Statuses of the Great Dokkaebis and the Hunchback King collided, and my restrained body began moving again.
Then my hand moved the remaining handspan toward the scriptures.
[Outer God Transformation has resumed.]
The Hunchback King smiled brightly.
[Star Stream, the worlds you erased will arrive.]
The moment my fingertips touched the scriptures, my consciousness also began fading amid the brilliant electric current.
I could vaguely sense what would happen next.
I turned around and slowly closed my eyes.
「Now, all I can trust is...」
* * *
Light scattered across the distant sky.
The Nine Luminaries Star Lords and all the Constellations, including those of the Twenty-Eight Mansions, couldn't help staring at the explosion.
[All Constellations of the nebula Emperor are aghast!]
Gilyeong, who had been fleeing the attacks of the Nine Luminaries Star Lords, pulled his Dragon Horse to a stop.
“Yuseong?”
Yuseong opened her eyes in the saddle. The moment she regained her senses, she looked up at the western sky with Gilyeong. Her heart pounded wildly.
[Something's wrong. Finish off the small fry and hurry up...]
The Nine Luminaries Star Lords and the Historical Constellations of the nebula Emperor, who had hesitated for a moment, charged at Gilyeong and Yuseong again.
Gilyeong kept his eyes fixed on the western sky.
“I'll clear a way. Go.”
No one had explained it to them, yet they knew.
The story they had been searching for was there.
“Go save Dokja hyung!”
Dokja was there.
Yuseong felt it too. Maybe more clearly than anyone else there.
The moment Gilyeong jumped from the Dragon Horse and released his Status, Yuseong urged it onward. The Dragon Horse transformed into an Azure Dragon and raced across the river like a speedboat.
From far away came the scent of a fable she longed for.
She could see the starlight of the Patron constellation that had protected her for so long.
It had been shining so clearly... Why hadn't she been certain?
Countless questions rushed through her mind.
Why was Dokja here? Why hadn't he revealed who he was to them?
Yuseong didn't know the answers to those questions. She only knew this.
She felt that if she lost Dokja there, she would never see him again.
A beam cannon fired by the Nine Luminaries Star Lords struck the Dragon Horse. Yuseong fell into the river with a scream.
Then several beings pulled her from the water.
【Kim Dokja Kim Dokja Kim Dokja Kim Dokja Kim Dokja】
【Us us us us us us】
When had it begun? The monsters of fable floating on the river had formed a group and were crossing it.
Yuseong found herself climbing onto their backs. The monsters of fable rose like stepping stones, making a path.
【Save us save us save us save us save us save us】
As Yuseong ran across the monsters of fable, she realized it.
「Ahjussi is there for them.」
The realization made something surge up inside her.
Dokja's fables were breaking apart amid the blinding rays of light. No one had to explain that he was in danger.
「Why does Ahjussi always do everything alone...」
The first feeling that rose in her was resentment.
Why didn't Dokja ask them for help?
「He must've had a reason he couldn't ask.」
She knew that.
「He must've thought it was the best option.」
Still, some things were hard to accept.
It had been the same in Dark Castle, in the Demon Realm, and even in the Great war of Angels and Demons.
Their long Scenario had been a history of Dokja's sacrifices.
「That was why this resentment wasn't really toward Dokja, but toward Yuseong herself.」
It was a sorrow only an Incarnation of Dokja could understand.
The pain she suffered now was nothing compared to Dokja's resolve.
「Dokja would surely say, “Yuseong, no grief weighs more than another.”」
Yuseong didn't agree.
Some grief weighed more than others. The despair of someone risking their life to save another couldn't possibly be the same as the grief of someone forced to despair at their own helplessness while watching.
In the end, every person cherished themselves most.
And Dokja had always put everything on the line.
That was when the river exploded before her eyes.
Constellations of the nebula Emperor descended, spewing fables as they fell.
[Come, vanished stories!]
As a sound reverberated through the world, the scenery itself began to change.
Great Holes opened throughout the sky, and beings with unimaginable Status began crossing over. They were no longer Outer Gods.
[■?■?■■ is participating in the role of an Extra!]
[■■?■ is participating in the role of an Extra!]
They were now monsters of fable from Journey to the West.
(The final war to decide the scriptures' owner.)
(The horde of yin demons that would adorn the final chapter of this long story was rushing in.)
It looked as though the world were ending.
At the center of that destruction, Dokja walked among the monsters of fable with unfocused eyes.
Was it an illusion? In that moment, Dokja no longer looked like Dokja, but like one of the monsters of fable.
‘I have to stop him.’
On the broken path of monsters of fable, Yuseong looked down at her small hand. It was a hand that had believed it could accomplish greater things than adults, and that truly had. Yet at that moment, it felt like nothing more than a child's hand.
【■■■■■■■■■■■■■■...!】
The sky split and the earth crumpled. The Tongtian River overturned in its entirety, and the living creatures on it died as they spilled blood and fables.
[The judge Heir of Shakyamuni is watching you.]
That was when Yuseong heard a voice accompanying the gaze.
[Yuseong, you have to do this.]
It was a voice Yuseong knew.
“Sangah-unni?”
[At this rate, Dokja-ssi will reach a point of no return. You're the only one who can stop him.]
There was no time to ask how this was possible. Yuseong asked the question she needed answered.
“How? What do I have to do?”
Sangah didn't answer right away. Instead, she spoke like a Buddha offering a koan.
[Don't forget your role.]
Yuseong stared blankly at the sky for a moment, then looked toward Dokja.
A faint golden band glowed atop Sun Wukong's head.
Yuseong looked down at her fist again. It was still a child's fist, but it was also Master Sanzang's fist.
“Can I do it?”
Her voice trembled.
Dokja's figure swayed in the distance.
[The fable Demon King of Salvation continues its story.]
The tears she had desperately held back burst free.
“What if that's what Ahjussi wants?”
Sangah spoke to the child.
[He's someone who has been alone for a very long time.]
Kim Dokja.
A name meaning “only son.”
[Someone like him doesn't suddenly change because you tell him once or twice that he isn't alone.]
Yuseong was an Incarnation of that Dokja.
[You have to tell him, stay by his side, and reassure him.]
Yuseong moved forward through her tears.
[Until he truly realizes that he isn't alone.]
Yuseong gathered all her Status and took a running start. Like Dokja using Way of the Wind, she raced across the river with all her strength.
Stepping onto the slowly sinking surface, Yuseong shouted at the top of her lungs.
“Ahjussi!”
Dokja didn't hear her. In the middle of the battle between monsters of fable and Constellations, Dokja, who was becoming a monster of fable, looked this way with empty eyes.
His body was changing. Dokja was scattering apart.
“Don't go! Please! Don't go!”
Watching her Patron constellation disappear before her eyes, Yuseong shouted until her voice went hoarse. It sounded less like words than a scream.
It was something words couldn't convey.
[A new fable is budding from you!]
Not everyone can use language in a special way, and that is why fables exist. Words that cannot be conveyed become stories.
The golden letters of the Tightening Headband Spell shone as they became a fable.
「I won't give up. Just as you've saved me again and again...」
Amid the falling meteors, Yuseong looked straight at her star and spoke.
「I'll save you too.」
Footnotes:
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