WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 479: Episode 91: A Single Fable (3)

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[The fable Ruler of Steel begins its story.]

The wall of steel created by 999th-round Lee Hyeongseong began to grow, covering the surroundings.

It was the power that had defended an entire planet in the nebula Oz.

Rumbleee!

The growing steel soon merged with 「Stage Transformation」, forming the subway's partitions. It was a stage I knew all too well. Even now, if I closed my eyes, I could clearly see the train car from the first Scenario.

[A Mythical Constellation's stage has manifested!]

Originally, 「Stage Transformation」 was something close to augmented reality. In other words, even if Stage Transformation occurred, the surrounding terrain and structures didn't actually change.

This time, however, things were different.

[Star Stream is paying attention to your stage.]

[The overwhelming majority of Constellations are watching the stage.]

[Great Dokkaebis are jealous of your stage.]

[The stage grade of Stage Transformation has increased due to the many eyes upon it!]

In the Star Stream, Plausibility was directly tied to the number of watching eyes.

A Scenario watched by many created powerful fables, while a stage watched by many created influence. The expectations held within countless gazes moved Plausibility.

「That day, the Delusional Demon and the Demon King of Salvation met there for the first time.」

And sometimes, Plausibility in motion turned the false into the real.

[The manifestation of Stage Transformation is incomplete due to the effects of Broken Film Theory!]

[The character Kim Namwoon and the character Great Abyssal Lord are regarded as the same person on this stage.]

[Great Abyssal Lord's stage compatibility is 87.351%!]

[There is a possibility the stage will close abruptly.]

Even on a stage, the false could become real only briefly.

Before the mystery of this stage came apart, I had to finish everything while everyone was focused on it.

【You...!】

Without hesitation, I approached Namwoon.

I didn't feel any stronger under the effects of Stage Transformation. Still, confidence surged through me, like the certainty a wolf had when hunting a rabbit.

【What the hell are you doing?】

The enraged 999th-round Kim Namwoon rushed at me. Directly affected by 「Stage Transformation」, his movements had become painfully slow. He was like Namwoon from the first Scenario, when his average stats hadn't even reached 10.

The problem was that my body wasn't much different from what it had been back then.

Whoosh!

I ducked beneath the dagger. Since I could read the direction of the attack through [Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint], evading it wasn't difficult.

[The rules of the First Scenario apply to this stage!]

[Each time you kill a living being, the Incarnation body on the stage will be strengthened.]

Memories came flooding back.

That was how we had fought in the first Scenario.

People died for a Survival Fee of only 100 Coins.

To obtain 100 Coins, people killed one another.

We survived in a world like that.

[Many Constellations recall their own First Scenario.]

As if a headache had struck him, the 999th-round Namwoon pressed a hand to his temple and chuckled.

【Haha... So this is how you want to play it? This is pretty fun.】

"You don't look like you're having any fun."

Killing intent prickled from Namwoon's gaze.

[Great Abyssal Lord's stage compatibility has slightly decreased!]

No matter how absolute the influence of 「Stage Transformation」 was, it had been manifested through a trick. As time passed, the connection between the 999th-round Namwoon and the third-round Namwoon would weaken.

[What is this, Grasshopper Man? What happened?]

In one corner, I saw the third-round Namwoon getting to his feet. Turned into a tiny toy robot by 「Stage Transformation」, he awkwardly clung to my leg.

Seeing him, the 999th-round Namwoon muttered.

【Pathetic. To think I died to someone like that and became a tin-can robot.】

[What the hell are you talking about? You want to die? Hey, Grasshopper Man! Kill that bastard!]

Namwoon clung to my shin and shouted at the top of his lungs.

[If no killing occurs within the next 5 minutes, all Incarnation bodies inside the train car will be annihilated!]

It was the first time 「Stage Transformation」 had imposed such a powerful restriction.

This was practically on the level of a Main Scenario.

【Die!】

A dagger tore through the air. I used the terrain to avoid it. Even if Incarnation bodies moved slowly, I wasn't the Kim Dokja from back then.

Namwoon's attacks scraped against the subway's metal doors and floor.

Thud! Thud!

The force of his repeated strikes was gradually growing stronger. A faint aura of chaos rose from him. The influence of 「Stage Transformation」 was already diminishing.

If time continued to pass, the advantage would likely shift to him.

Yet the 999th-round Namwoon looked increasingly anxious.

[The character Great Abyssal Lord is unsettled.]

[The character Great Abyssal Lord urgently looks around.]

Why?

His expression didn't look good.

Looking closer, cold sweat had gathered on his cheeks and the back of his neck.

[The character Great Abyssal Lord dislikes this space.]

【You rat bastard...!】

[Some Constellations doubt the Status of the King of the Outer Gods.]

[Some Constellations scorn the dialogue of a petty thug.]

Perhaps because of his anxiety, the 999th-round Namwoon's movements were becoming simpler and simpler.

[If no killing occurs within the next 3 minutes, all Incarnation bodies inside the train car will be annihilated!]

Three minutes remained.

"Dokja-ssi? What is this...?"

That was when I heard the voice. Namwoon and I turned toward it at the same time.

A chill ran down my spine.

「There was someone there who witnessed their fight.」

I had forgotten.

「That day, the most righteous person in Car 3807.」

Namwoon and I hadn't been the only ones on that subway that day.

【Hahahahahahaha!】

Namwoon burst into wild laughter, cast me aside, and charged toward Sangah. Under the effects of 「Stage Transformation」, Sangah was also wearing the uncomfortable outfit she had worn that day in the first Scenario. Namwoon closed the distance in an instant, his dagger rushing toward her.

Swoosh!

The blade sliced through the air.

Severed hair scattered through the air. Sangah's expression hardened as she fluidly evaded Namwoon's attacks. Her movements were even quicker than mine.

【Not bad!】

[The character Great Abyssal Lord has received the effects of Blackening!]

But as time passed, Namwoon's movements became faster.

「That day, the Delusional Demon realized his world.」

The influence of Stage Transformation was growing stronger.

「A new world needed new rules.」

Sangah's face was turning pale.

There wasn't any time. I had to find a way somehow.

"Hyung."

A small hand grabbed my collar.

「That day, if that boy hadn't caught insects.」

Gilyeong was there.

His face was still young, just as I remembered him from the first Scenario. The child who hadn't despaired even after losing his parents held out his palm to me, his expression firm.

[The Constellation Lord of the Abyss smiles wickedly.]

Several bright yellow grasshoppers rested on the boy's palm.

"Thank you."

Grasping the grasshoppers, I ran.

Crunch!

The grasshoppers burst in my hand.

[You have killed a living being.]

[The Incarnation body has been strengthened by the effects of Stage Transformation!]

[You have killed a living being.]

[The Incarnation body has been strengthened by the effects of Stage Transformation!]

...

With explosively increased Strength, I raced through the train car.

Namwoon was laughing like a madman, the back of his head right before me.

【Die! Die! Die! Diiie!】

I grabbed him by the nape and slammed him into the subway floor. Like a crushed insect, Namwoon's legs trembled.

【You bastard-】

Namwoon swiftly slipped from my grasp and swung his dagger at me.

I didn't evade it.

Clanggg!

There was no need to.

「The knife only left scratches. Blood flowed, but the blade couldn't dig beneath the skin.」

The final moments of the first Scenario overlapped before my eyes.

Namwoon's attacks were getting faster and faster, but they couldn't pierce Hyeongseong's strengthened [Steel Transformation].

【Wha-what is this...?】

The 999th-round Namwoon cursed as he swung his dagger. No matter how many times he swung it, it was useless. The end of this stage had already been decided.

"Two minutes left."

【Aaaaaaah!】

Namwoon's face twisted as he wildly brought the dagger down. Only the innocent blade snapped in half and rolled across the floor.

One minute 30 seconds, one minute 20 seconds...

As time dwindled, Namwoon's figure slowly collapsed. It wasn't simply because he had lost strength. A more fundamental Original Sin was assailing him.

「The foundational fable of Kim Namwoon, the Delusional Demon.」

The space around us began to distort.

Blood spread across the train car floor, where nothing had been before.

It wasn't blood we had spilled.

【That can't be... It can't be...!】

The 999th-round Namwoon collapsed where he stood, trembling.

[The Great Fable Delusional Design is running rampant!]

His fable, Delusional Design, had sprouted here.

Namwoon had created a new world for himself to live in through [Abnormal Adaptability]. But now that he had seen the end of that world, what did it mean to him?

【Th-this garbage...!】

The corpses on the floor stared at us with wide-open eyes.

The people I had failed to protect. Those whose heads had been severed or hearts pierced.

Those who had died coughing up blood were looking at us.

Namwoon's face shook as if he were having a seizure. It was an expression that didn't suit him.

"Do you feel guilty now?"

The 999th-round Namwoon looked up at me, trembling, his lips moving.

「"That's right, I'm trash. So what?"」

The Namwoon from the early rounds would surely have said that.

But even Namwoon had once said something different in the 999th round.

「"Sometimes I think about it, too. That I should've been the one to die there. You think so too, don't you, Captain?"」

Kim Namwoon, the psychopathic Delusional Demon.

Even after reading all of TWSA, my assessment of him hadn't changed.

[Exclusive Skill Reading Comprehension has activated!]

Still, that couldn't have been all there was to Namwoon. The TWSA I had read was no more than a speck of that world, and there had to be a Namwoon I didn't know.

A Namwoon who could see the end of a world for someone else.

A Namwoon who could wander for forty thousand years because he loved someone.

A Namwoon who lived to uphold his loyalty to his Companions.

If such a Namwoon existed somewhere in the world.

And if that Namwoon was the one who had seen the end of the 999th round.

【I-I... I...】

Delusion was devouring him.

The years he had endured by switching personalities.

The self of second-year student Kim Namwoon from Cheongil High School, hidden beneath the mask, was spilling out.

【I-I killed them... That's right, I...】

Namwoon clutched the broken dagger and cried, trembling.

"That's right. You killed them."

As I spoke, I looked toward the rear train car. Hyeongseong's steel passage, merged with 「Stage Transformation」, was visible. That endlessly stretching passage was covered in countless corpses. The Nameless Ones, whose names I had long forgotten, were crying out.

"And they're the people I didn't save."

「A new world needs a new story.」

The price for A Single Fable to be completed.

We had lived to complete that pathetic beginning, development, turn, and conclusion.

[Your Hidden Scenario is nearing completion!]

[All your fables desire your conclusion!]

[All Constellations in Star Stream feel that your conclusion is near!]

And now, I had to see the end of that goddamn story.

【Ah, ahh, aaaah...!】

Namwoon, his eyes unfocused, raised the broken dagger to his own throat.

[15 seconds remain until the rules of Stage Transformation are enforced.]

[Once time runs out, all Incarnations who failed to obey the rules will be annihilated.]

Sangah and Gilyeong looked toward me. The third-round Namwoon, now a toy robot, was looking at me too.

If time passed like this, the 999th-round Namwoon would die on the stage. This stage was false, but every fable he had put into it was real.

He would die here.

Like those he had killed. Or like he had in the third round. He would die miserably, accepting his own life.

The problem was that the third-round Namwoon, connected to him by Broken Film Theory, would disappear too.

I couldn't allow that.

[Stage Transformation has ended!]

The scenery around us changed, and the stage vanished. The memories connected through Broken Film Theory were fading. The subway dissolved, and the actors returned to their places.

But the 999th-round Namwoon was still kneeling.

Some stories held the same power as the real thing, even when they were false.

The stage had ended, but Original Sin hadn't disappeared.

His fable, tattered and desolate, was scattering apart.

I silently looked down at him as he hung his head, then kicked the dagger in his hand away.

"Kim Namwoon, you can't be saved."

Then I drew Unbreakable Faith from inside my coat. Brilliant white-blue Sword Aura howled. I deliberately raised the sword high for everyone to see.

And then.

[All Constellations in Star Stream eagerly await the death of the King of the Outer Gods!]

【No!】

With a terrible scream from somewhere, Unbreakable Faith cut something.

Footnotes:

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