WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 474: Episode 90: A Lone Person (3)

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Han Suyeong couldn't believe what was happening before her.

The Transcendents fell in an instant, and the Judges of the Underworld were knocked down one after another.

"Fall back, Han Suyeong!"

With a sharp clang, Huiwon, who had been blocking the way ahead, was sent flying through the air.

A man with a mischievous smile was releasing his fables as though he were playing a game.

[The Great Fable Delusional Design begins its story!]

The Great Abyssal Lord. An aura of [Black Flame] spread from the body of Kim Namwoon of the 999th round. It soon took the shape of a dragon with many heads. Its maws opened, and a destructive torrent engulfed every direction.

"Yuseong! Gilyeong!"

The children were caught in the chain of exploding [Black Flame]. As Sangah rushed to save them and left the battlefield, the spacetime debuff binding Uriel of the 999th round weakened.

Kwooooh!

Uriel of the 999th round, who had been suppressed for a moment, was recovering her strength.

Namwoon of the 999th round cackled at the sight.

【What would've happened if I hadn't helped you?】

【Shut up. Once I find the Secretive Plotter, you're next.】

Uriel of the 999th round shot Namwoon a terrifying glare, then swung the Flame of Karma toward the battlefield.

Great Sage Equaling Heaven faced her. His Ruyi Jingu Bang moved brilliantly as it deflected her sword forms.

Namwoon stared in admiration at Great Sage Equaling Heaven, who was fighting evenly against a King of the Outer Gods. What especially caught his attention was the jet-black energy flowing from Great Sage Equaling Heaven's body.

【Chaos Status? Did that guy become an Outer God too?】

【More precisely, it seems one of his avatars underwent Outer God Transformation.】

【Hahaha, what is this? What kind of worldline is this?】

【I'll handle him. You take care of the riffraff and the King of the Underworld.】

【Tch, I finally got a chance to fight the Great Sage, too.】

Perhaps offended by the nonsense he heard, Great Sage Equaling Heaven roared and poured out his Mana. The golden aura filling the sky swept aside the [Black Flame] attack in an instant. The price was a fatal backlash tearing through his body.

[Damn it, Handsome Monkey King! Get it together!]

It seemed the temporarily fused fables of Great Sage Equaling Heaven were clashing.

Great Sage Equaling Heaven was gradually driven back by Uriel of the 999th round's relentless attacks.

The Mythical Constellations, their final bastion, were being pushed back.

Hades's side was in even worse shape.

Kwaaang!

Whether because Olympus was keeping him in check or because of some issue within the underworld, Hades's battle was strangely lackluster.

【Hahaha! Is this all the King of the Underworld, one of Olympus's Three Gods, can do?】

As Hades silently wielded his scythe with a grim expression and was forced on the defensive, Persephone, who had been narrating a Great Fable behind him, stepped in.

[Did you know? Your soul in this worldline is trapped in the underworld.]

【What nonsense is that? Why would I be trapped in the underworld?】

Namwoon of the 999th round snapped and unleashed a massive amount of [Black Flame]. Hades's Incarnation body, struck by the attack that melted even space, fell into the sea.

Suyeong trembled. That was undoubtedly a type of [Black Flame] she knew. Yet what kind of training, and how much of it, would it take to wield [Black Flame] like that?

【Strange. The Black Flame Dragon chose something like you as an Incarnation?】

When she looked up, Namwoon of the 999th round was already standing before her. Before the startled Suyeong could pull back, Namwoon's palm came toward her. Just as she thought it was too late to dodge, sparks flew through the air and knocked his fingertips aside.

[The Constellation Abyssal Black Flame Dragon growls.]

【Hey. What's this? I'm the real one, Black Flame Dragon.】

Namwoon's eyes curved gently, as though he were looking at a cute puppy.

[The Constellation Abyssal Black Flame Dragon declares that you aren't his Incarnation.]

【Ah, so you got yourself a decent new car here?】

A cold madness crossed Namwoon's eyes.

【Then I should scrap the old heap first.】

The explosion that burst right in front of her sent Suyeong flying backward. Even though she curled up to lessen the impact, blood poured from her mouth. She had only survived the blow thanks to her Patron.

[The Constellation Abyssal Black Flame Dragon shouts for you to run away!]

Abyssal Black Flame Dragon had manifested directly in the air and wrapped around her protectively.

An enormous dragon of noble bearing, as though sculpted from obsidian. His eyes, burning like carved rubies, let out a fierce roar at the world.

【Hahahahahaha! Yes! This is what my Black Flame Dragon should be like!】

Once the two began fighting, the sea around them heaved as though it had been bombarded. Fragments of the Island flew through the air, and Black Flame Dragon's Breath overturned the sea.

[The Constellation Abyssal Black Flame Dragon reveals his Status!]

Yet even Black Flame Dragon seemed unable to stop Namwoon after he became an Outer God.

He had descended as a Calamity to begin with. The total amount of Plausibility he could use was different from the start.

Han Suyeong wondered how she could stop that absurd being.

「What would Kim Dokja have done?」

[The fable Predictive Plagiarism begins its story!]

Her head tingled, and faint sparks formed around her.

「Pathetic. Even in a situation like this, you're looking for him?」

It was a voice she had heard before.

It was from the dream she had while they were still making their way through the Island of Reincarnators.

In the dream where a man in a white coat was killed by a man in a black coat, Suyeong had clearly heard this being's voice.

「You're like this, so that bastard got so full of himself in my round too.」

The fable was speaking to her.

‘You...’

「I wasn't planning to interfere anymore... but I'll help you just one more time.」

The voice sounded as though it were doing her a favor. Time seemed to slow, and her perception expanded. Countless Han Suyeongs woke inside her mind and spoke at once.

「Everything in the world has already happened. Nothing is surprising.」

A powerful sensation seized her thoughts, as though she had connected to the future.

It was the ability to create an unknown world from countless clichés, patterns, and combinations of given information.

The memories of TWSA she had read, the information Kim Dokja had told her, and the information she had acquired herself all came together deductively, writing a story.

Someone laughed.

「Yes, that's the real [Predictive Plagiarism].」

Then Suyeong realized how she had to act.

[The fable Predictive Plagiarism continues its story!]

She didn't know if this would work. But...

‘Kim Dokja would've done it.’

「Again... again...!」

Black Flame Dragon's rough cry filled the sky. After only a brief battle, large and small wounds covered his noble body. Black Flame Dragon spread his torn wings and prepared to unleash Breath once more.

"That's enough, Black Flame Dragon."

[The Constellation Abyssal Black Flame Dragon...]

"I'll handle this myself. Trust me and stay back."

Black Flame Dragon's pupils filled with confusion as Suyeong stepped forward as though to protect her Patron.

Instead of explaining herself to him, Suyeong took another step forward.

【Oh? You'll fight me yourself? With that chestnut-sized body?】

Namwoon of the 999th round released an overwhelming current. The Great Fable "Delusional Design," ready to cut Suyeong to pieces at any moment, sharpened his blades like a grinding wheel.

Yet Suyeong didn't look afraid in the slightest.

"Kim Namwoon. Even after becoming an Outer God, you haven't changed at all."

【What? You're talking like you know me.】

"I know you very well. Even after becoming an Outer God, you still couldn't get over your unrequited love and kept following a girl around."

Namwoon of the 999th round's lips slowly parted.

「All Outer Gods have lost their memories or have incomplete memories.」

「Then how do the Kings of the Outer Gods retain their memories?」

「Perhaps those memories are simply that precious to them.」

"Even when you got the chance, you couldn't make a proper confession. You always wore underwear with giant robots printed on it, just in case."

【Y-you... who are you? How do you know something even the Captain doesn't know...】

"You always wrapped one hand in bandages because you wanted to hide the cuts on your wrist. Because you didn't want Lee Jihye to find out."

For a moment, Namwoon was overcome with confusion, but he quickly composed himself.

"Why do you like Jihye?"

[The fable Forty-Thousand-Year Unrequited Love is shaken.]

【It's because Jihye is pretty...】

"No. You're trash, but being a womanizer isn't part of your setting."

【Setting? What are you talking about...】

"The reason you like Jihye is because she trusts and follows Yu Junghyeok."

【What bullshit...】

"You want Jihye to acknowledge you. You want her to see you as someone who can replace Yu Junghyeok."

[The Great Fable Delusional Design is greatly shaken!]

"The truth is, you only want to become Yu Junghyeok."

Suyeong watched Namwoon of the 999th round's eyes turn cold.

【That's an interesting... story. But I don't have much time, so I don't have time to listen to any more of your bullshit...】

Suyeong didn't know whether telling him this story was the right thing to do. No, she knew it wasn't. Even so, she had to tell it.

To save this world, she had to

"Even if that was all you could do, you wanted Jihye to forgive you."

cut open the wounds of another world.

"If you hadn't made that mistake, Yu Junghyeok of the 999th round wouldn't have died."

Tzzzzzt!

Sparks surged from Namwoon's entire body. She heard something creaking. The foundational fables at Namwoon's core were cracking. It was the sound of memories breaking.

【You...】

Enraged, Namwoon shouted as he tried to rein in his confused fables. His eyes repeatedly clouded over, then deepened.

Suyeong silently watched him.

「No matter how powerful [Predictive Plagiarism] was, it didn't know everything.」

Her overheated head felt as though it had been burned by fire.

Unlike Kim Dokja, she hadn't read all of TWSA, and unlike Yu Junghyeok, she hadn't truly lived through the 999th round.

Still, there were things she could know without hearing or seeing them.

That was the power of imagination. The power to infer context even without knowing every detail of a story. Given the situation, the expected developments, and the existence of something called Plausibility in this world, her "Predictive Plagiarism" could exert a power close to omniscience.

"Kim Namwoon."

Step by step, Suyeong walked through the air toward him.

Namwoon staggered as he clutched his fables and growled like a wounded beast.

「Han Suyeong looked at Kim Namwoon's fables.」

Yu Junghyeok was the same, and so were the Constellations. Beings who had lived for a very long time all became alike. Just as their strength came from their history, so did their weaknesses. It was the fate of beings whose stories were told and told again.

Like a writer crossing out unnecessary passages with a pen, Suyeong reached toward Namwoon.

「Just as Kim Dokja had brought Yu Junghyeok of the 1,863rd round to his knees.」

"You want to go back to that time. But you're despairing because you know you can never return."

【You, if you keep talking...】

"But you need to know now. The worldline you lived in is over, and the people you loved will never return. Someone like you can never become Yu Junghyeok. You can't save anyone, and you can't atone for anything."

Namwoon's cheeks trembled. The foundation of the being who had seen the conclusion of the 999th round and become one of the Kings of the Outer Gods was shaking.

At that moment, Namwoon looked like a seventeen-year-old boy cast into the world for the first time. His fables, which had continued for tens of thousands of years, and the solid delusion he had built up were crumbling from a few words alone.

【N-no. I-I...】

As though putting a period at the end of that tiny crack, Suyeong said,

"You have to live as an eternal sinner, trapped in this damned Star Stream."

Patzzt!

【Kim Namwoon!】

Uriel of the 999th round issued a constellation's declaration, and Namwoon's fading consciousness awoke again.

[The fable Companion of Deadly Resolve begins its story!]

Only a fable could mend a broken fable. Namwoon's fables, which Suyeong had barely managed to throw into disarray, regained their original form. Light returned to his eyes. Suyeong gave a bitter smile.

‘Damn it. I thought it was working. Still, did I hurt him at least a little?’

Namwoon's eyes were filled with deep anger.

【Haha, I almost fell for that. I guess there was a reason Black Flame Dragon chose you.】

A powerful sense of impending death gripped her. Predictive Plagiarism, which had been spinning tautly, sagged like a severed tape. A dreadful certainty that there was nowhere she could escape.

Tzzzt.

A voice spoke.

「That should be enough. The protagonist has arrived.」

The sensation of being connected to the future rapidly faded. Namwoon's fist, raised abruptly toward the sky, had stopped. Everyone on the battlefield felt it.

Something immense was approaching.

Kugugugugu!

A Status capable of leading an entire world to annihilation through its existence alone.

Uriel of the 999th round was the first to react.

【It's him!】

She let out a dreadful roar toward the sky, left the battlefield, and flew toward the source of that Status.

Namwoon looked in the same direction.

【You're... incredibly lucky. When I see you next, I'll definitely...】

Namwoon of the 999th round hesitated as he looked at Han Suyeong and Black Flame Dragon. Then he vanished in the direction Uriel had gone.

With the tension gone, Suyeong collapsed atop Black Flame Dragon's massive body. Looking beyond the horizon where the two beings had vanished, she remembered Kim Dokja's last words.

"Han Suyeong, if something really does go wrong..."

"Would you stop setting up such ominous foreshadowing?"

She had thought nothing like that would happen.

"Just hold out somehow until that bastard gets here."

"That bastard sure knows how to make an entrance."

Thunder rumbled in the distance.

The night sky was stained by the auras of [hellfire inferno] and [Black Flame].

A man with a familiar face was descending into the apocalyptic sky.

Footnotes:

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