WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 448: Episode 84: 1864 (4)

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Why had Secretive Plotter watched our fables all this time?

"Answer me."

He was the king of the Outer Gods, a being who had seen his own conclusion.

If he'd wanted to remove me, he could've killed me even at the cost of immense Plausibility.

「But he hadn't done that.」

Secretive Plotter was looking at me, at Yu Junghyeok.

His mind was so deep and vast that I couldn't understand it even if I used [Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint]. Even so, at that moment, I felt as if I could understand Secretive Plotter.

"If my novel is plagiarized from TWSA, then what are you plagiarized from?"

Han Suyeong of the 1,863rd round had asked me that.

I knew the answer, but I hadn't answered because I didn't want to admit it.

In some ways, the world Suyeong created in the 1,863rd round was more complete than the round I had lived through. The original allies had survived, and Seoul had the infrastructure to resist the Final Scenario.

The only thing missing from that picture was Yu Junghyeok.

I thought it was unfair. I thought a world made by excluding the protagonist and copying the original couldn't possibly be right.

「Some copies surpass the original.」

Even so, I couldn't look away from the world Suyeong had made. Though I thought it was wrong, her story contained the things I had been striving for.

[The Constellation Secretive Plotter is looking at you.]

Did copyright exist for a life?

Could a single life be called a work?

【Demon King of Salvation.】

A being who had given up his own life for the success of another worldline was looking at me.

The only man in this world qualified to see the ending.

Yet the one who couldn't see the ending he wanted held Junghyeok's Black Heaven Demon Blade in his hand and spoke.

【Is a story that failed to reach a proper conclusion a failed story?】

Fables flowed from the fingers cut by the blade. They were fables I knew well.

The story I had read for more than ten years.

【Do you really think there is such a thing as a proper ending in this world?】

When Junghyeok swung the Black Heaven Demon Blade again, Secretive Plotter's figure shot far away.

‘Get a hold of yourself, Kim Dokja. This time, he's coming for real.’

[The Attribute Demon King Slayer has activated!]

[The Attribute Fear of the Stars has activated!]

The sword created to cut down Demon Kings and Constellations howled.

[The fable Eternal Hellscape howls!]

[The Great Fable Pilgrim of the Lonely Apocalypse continues its story!]

Before us stood a being who had completed a Great Fable with nothing but his own life.

Krrrraaaang!

We were pushed back, unable to withstand the approaching fable. Our body felt as heavy as cotton soaked in water. The waters of Tongtian River churned and reversed, exposing the riverbed.

We stood on the riverbed and swung our sword at empty air.

Sky Splitter Sword Art.

Ultimate Technique.

Sky-Splitting Meteor Sword.

Sword Lightning that pierced the sky rose from the tip of the Black Heaven Demon Blade. Bundles of Sword Aura, strengthened by the Status of a Demon King, a Constellation, and a Transcendent, shot into the air like scattering meteor showers.

At the same time, the Splitting the Sky Sword moved on the other side as well.

Kwooooom!

The other side possessed the same techniques we did. Identical meteor showers collided in the air, causing a massive explosion.

When techniques were identical, victory or defeat was decided by proficiency and the Status of one's fables.

[The Great Fable Pilgrim of the Lonely Apocalypse recalls its story.]

Unfortunately, we didn't have the advantage in either.

‘Kim Dokja!’

That didn't mean we could retreat.

Desperately controlling "Eternal Hellscape," I released my other fables at the same time.

[The fable One Who Slayed an Outer God begins its story!]

The other side held the advantage in Status because of the Attributes Demon King Slayer and Fear of the Stars. Then all we had to do was release fables that could oppose an Outer God.

Kugugugugugu!

Status collided with Status. Blood streamed from Junghyeok's nose. Still, he didn't retreat. Junghyeok wasn't the only one who seemed to know it. The fables seemed to know it too: if the story stopped here, every story would end.

【It's useless.】

Secretive Plotter's fable moved.

The momentum of the Great Fable, which had existed as an indistinct wave, was changing. "Pilgrim of the Lonely Apocalypse," which had taken the form of a giant, began pressing down on us with its enormous palm.

Junghyeok growled in defiance.

"We have Great Fables too."

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

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

Scenes from the Great Fables flowed before my eyes.

"Spring of the Demon Realm," containing the Demon King Selection and the battle against Surya.

"Holy Flame That Devoured Myth," gained during "Gigantomachia."

The two Great Fables, shaped like a massive lion and dragon, resisted as they tore at the giant's palm.

[Yu Junghyeok of the 41st round is looking at you.]

[Yu Junghyeok of the 666th round is looking at you.]

[Yu Junghyeok of the 999th round is looking at you.]

Countless Yu Junghyeoks inside Secretive Plotter were watching this battlefield.

I thought of [666] and [999]. They had to be in there too. The bastards who, together with Secretive Plotter, had watched over me from the beginning of this worldline.

They were shaken as they watched the duel between the two Junghyeoks.

[Stage Transformation has activated!]

The sky split apart, and light and darkness began gathering their forces.

[The Great Fable Season of Light and Darkness begins its story.]

"Season of Light and Darkness" was our Great Fable. Yet at the same time, it was Secretive Plotter's Great Fable. And in that Great Fable, Junghyeok had lost to Secretive Plotter.

【You cannot win.】

The influence of Stage Transformation was absolute.

A defeated history only produces another defeated history.

「The man in the white coat looked up at the sky. Then the man in the black coat met his gaze.」

Secretive Plotter's pupils shook.

It was clearly the same battle between Yu Junghyeoks as before, yet something was different.

Secretive Plotter looked down at his coat.

A black coat.

The coat's color was the complete opposite of what it had been then.

「Light and darkness were colliding. Only one observer watched all those stories.」

A massive Status was gathering in Junghyeok's right arm. The technique he was about to use was obvious. The strongest technique the current Junghyeok could use.

Meteor Slash.

In the battle against the Apocalypse Dragon, Junghyeok hadn't been able to defeat Secretive Plotter with this technique.

[The Incarnation Jeong Huiwon has temporarily transferred her share of the Great Fable.]

Everyone in Kim Dokja Company was lending us their strength from the nearby battlefield. Every being with a share of the Great Fable was joining this battle.

[The Incarnation Han Suyeong has temporarily transferred her share of the Great Fable.]

[The Incarnation Shin Yuseong has temporarily transferred her share of the Great Fable.]

[The Incarnation Lee Gilyeong has temporarily transferred his share of the Great Fable.]

All of Kim Dokja Company's fables gathered in Junghyeok's Black Heaven Demon Blade.

As Junghyeok's fables grew ever larger, Secretive Plotter poured out his own Status.

They were the same Junghyeok, but the fables the two men had created were completely different.

「Who is Yu Junghyeok?」

The fables they possessed were the answer to that question.

[The Great Fable Pilgrim of the Lonely Apocalypse continues its story.]

Secretive Plotter's fable was Junghyeok of the first round, the second round, the hundredth round, and the thousandth round. A fable made from the accumulation of one being alone.

「Every tragedy became tedious, and only one being grew enormous.」

The strike of the Black Heaven Demon Blade stood against that fable.

[The fable Companions in Life and Death continues its story.]

This was Junghyeok's answer.

[The fable Child of the Past and Future begins its story.]

Junghyeok was Shin Yuseong.

[The fable Judge of Destruction begins its story.]

He was Huiwon.

[The fable False Savior continues its story.]

He was Suyeong.

[The fable Demon King of Salvation continues its story!]

And he was me.

Kwooooom!

Meteor Slash collided with Secretive Plotter's Great Fable. It was a perfectly even fight.

A battlefield where a brief lapse could decide victory or defeat.

Every fable we possessed surged forward. Then,

[Yu Junghyeok of the 666th round...]

At the center of that battlefield, the scales of power creaked and began to move.

[Yu Junghyeok of the 362nd round...]

A deafening roar erupted, and the river water thrown up by the explosion formed a pale mist.

The surging water swept over Junghyeok's staggering body.

Junghyeok's consciousness was growing hazy.

Acting in Junghyeok's stead, I moved the Incarnation body and hauled it onto some nearby debris. Looking closer, it wasn't debris. It was a small island formed from the piled corpses of dead Outer Gods.

Then I heard a voice.

【There is only one difference between you and me.】

As the mist of river water faded, I saw Secretive Plotter sitting on the island of corpses.

【You were lucky, and I was unlucky.】

His black coat was torn to shreds.

Sparks flew from all over his body.

[Yu Junghyeok of the 1,562nd round...]

[Yu Junghyeok of the 1,321st round...]

The Junghyeoks within him were resisting. They were rejecting Secretive Plotter's will.

[Yu Junghyeok of the 999th round wants to see the end of the 1,864th round.]

Secretive Plotter's Status was gradually diminishing. His body began shrinking little by little. His swollen muscles shrank, and he grew shorter.

Having lost his Status, Secretive Plotter had become a boy before I knew it.

I staggered as I raised Junghyeok's body.

"You..."

I wanted to say something, but no voice came out.

[An absolute majority of audience members are thrilled by your duel!]

[Some audience members...]

We had won.

Countless Indirect Messages flew into my head, but I couldn't hear any of them.

Secretive Plotter sat alone on the island. Only the Splitting the Sky Sword, embedded in the ground, was holding him up.

Holding the Black Heaven Demon Blade tightly, I approached him.

Why did he have to live such a different life, even though he was the same Junghyeok?

Why did that bastard have to endure all these tragedies alone?

[The Great Fable Pilgrim of the Lonely Apocalypse stammers through its story.]

Was it because he had no companions?

Companions.

[Yu Junghyeok of the 41st round is wary of you.]

It wasn't that he had none.

He had companions too.

One by one, little Junghyeoks who had separated from his body stood there.

【NoNoNoNoNoNoNo】

The little Junghyeoks surrounded him. Beyond them, Outer Gods surrounded the little Junghyeoks.

【OnlyOneOnlyOneOnlyOne】

The history Secretive Plotter had lived through.

Everything from the TWSA he had lived through was protecting him.

【Don'tKillDon'tKillDon'tKillDon'tKill】

Stories abandoned because they failed to reach their conclusion.

I moved Junghyeok's body and lowered my stance toward them. When I held out my hand, one of the small Outer Gods bit Junghyeok's fingertip. Bright red blood gathered at the tip of his finger and dripped down.

It was a lie that this worldline was a new story.

Junghyeok's story, TWSA, still hadn't ended.

‘Kim Dokja.’

Junghyeok spoke to me, apparently having regained consciousness.

Without answering him, I pushed through the Outer Gods and approached Secretive Plotter.

Secretive Plotter, now a boy, looked up at me as he sat surrounded by Outer Gods.

Watching me grip the Black Heaven Demon Blade, Junghyeok said,

‘You'll regret it.’

「I won't regret it.」

I slowly sheathed the Black Heaven Demon Blade I had raised.

「You aren't going to kill him either.」

Junghyeok's answer came a little later.

‘...Even if I kill him, he'll only regress again.’

He said that, but it was obvious what Junghyeok was thinking.

There had been enough tragedy.

[Many Constellations are watching you.]

[Many Constellations do not understand your choice.]

This choice wasn't to build fables.

I knew it could offer not even the slightest consolation for the 1,864 lives he had lived.

But.

"Secretive Plotter."

At my call, Secretive Plotter looked up at me.

Even if this world had changed from the original, even if this world was no longer a novel... without the story he had lived through, this world wouldn't exist.

「Without him, Kim Dokja as he was now wouldn't be here either.」

I was certainly indebted to him.

It was a debt I couldn't repay with anything.

"You said a sentence, once written, can't be changed. I don't think so."

Sentences could change.

Just as TWSA had a revised version.

【My fable has already ended.】

"And?"

【There is nothing after that. That is what an ending is.】

"Some stories only begin anew after they end. In the world I lived in, there was someone who said every year, 'This year will be the conclusion,' then serialized the same story for over ten years."

That story had kept me alive.

"I was sure I heard it would end at chapter five hundred, but before I knew it, it had passed one thousand chapters, then two thousand."

【What are you trying to say?】

"That story was written up to chapter 3,149... but chapter 3,150 was never written."

Even after a period was placed, a story continued as long as the next sentence was written.

Secretive Plotter would know that better than anyone. He was a being who had continued a story longer than anyone else.

"Even now, I feel like that story is continuing. And maybe it really has been continuing. I think that's a relief."

【You...】

"Because I'm a Constellation."

Seeing Secretive Plotter's frozen expression, I added in a cold voice,

"That's what Constellations are."

This was the answer I chose. A way not to deceive him, even if it hurt him.

Secretive Plotter's two eyes glared at me.

【That story you saw.】

His burning voice spoke to me.

【In the end, it will kill you. It will show you the worst ending. And your nebula...】

"It doesn't matter."

I knew those might be irresponsible words. I knew my paltry atonement could bring great misfortune to everyone else.

Even so, this was the best I could do.

"Whenever that happens, I'll fight back with everything I have too."

Secretive Plotter's expression was changing. It was an expression I could never make. An expression of someone measuring the end of the distant universe. With that expression, Secretive Plotter looked over the battlefield.

The rain over the battlefield had stopped, and the dark clouds summoned by Great Sage Equaling Heaven were receding.

The Celestial War was coming to an end.

The fallen Constellations of the Emperor looked up at Great Sage Equaling Heaven and the monsters of fable. The deep sense of defeat on their faces proved who had won this battle.

[The fable room Became a Retired SSSSS-Grade Sun Wukong has obtained scriptures.]

[If the scriptures are protected for one hour, the Scenario will end automatically.]

[There are currently 10 seconds remaining until the Scenario ends.]

At last, the long Scenario was ending.

I looked up at the sky. The dazzling sky of the Star Stream. There, the Great Dokkaebis who would oversee the Final Scenario were glaring at me.

[The Scenario has ended!]

[The fable room Became a Retired SSSSS-Grade Sun Wukong has won the Scenario!]

Along with dazzling messages, enormous rewards and congratulations from Constellations began filling the sky.

In the distance, I saw Shin Yuseong running toward me with Biyoo on her head, waving the scriptures.

The title of the scriptures Yuseong held was this.

『Became a Retired SSSSS-Grade Sun Wukong』.

"Ahjussi!"

[The Outer God's share in this Scenario is immense!]

[The Star Stream has acknowledged the existence of the Outer Gods.]

[Outer Gods can now formally participate in Scenarios!]

(The bodies of the monsters of fable rose into the air amid dazzling rays of light.)

(The monsters of fable gathered around Sun Wukong and roared toward the sky like a single swarm.)

I heard their cries.

(It sounded like a song from a foreign land.)

I saw Huiwon carrying my Incarnation body on her back and waving her hand. I might have misheard, but I also heard, "Finally caught him," or something like that. Sangah, who had become Shakyamuni's heir, was there too, along with Hayoung carrying an exhausted Gilyeong.

When I looked beside me, Secretive Plotter was looking at the same scene.

(Here, Journey to the West comes to an end.)

Even when one Scenario ended, the story continued.

But that story, too, would inevitably have an ending.

[You have acquired a new Great Fable!]

[The fourth condition of the Hidden Scenario, A Single Fable, has been partially fulfilled!]

And so, very quietly.

[Your Great Fable has completed the first half of its conclusion.]

I heard a message heralding the end of this world.

[Your nebula has obtained the qualification for the Final Scenario.]

Footnotes:

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