WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 492: Episode 93: Omniscient Author's Viewpoint (6)
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With the declaration of paid content, a deep silence settled over the channel.
The only sound in the pitch-black darkness was Han Suyeong's ragged breathing.
"If you want to keep watching this tragedy..."
What Kim Dokja Company lacked right now was Plausibility.
Plausibility. The natural, convincing flow of a story.
A law that could only be changed through the attention of countless Constellations and the coins they sponsored.
"You have to pay the price, too."
Only then did she understand all of Kim Dokja's plans. Because she understood, she could say it.
He intended to sell the entire tragedy he had lived through to save his allies, just as his mother once had.
Dokja wanted to change this Scenario by selling the tragedy Kim Dokja Company had created.
[The overwhelming majority of Constellations are greatly shaken!]
The Constellations hesitated at Suyeong's declaration. She remembered the first time her novel went paid.
「Author, it begins tomorrow.」
She had felt the same way that day, as though she had no idea what the future held.
How many people would read my writing?
How long could I survive by selling this story?
'That damn Dokja. So this is the role he gave me.'
What she had to sell now wasn't a novel.
[The Great Fable Spring of the Demon Realm wants to tell its next story!]
[The Great Fable Holy Flame That Devoured Myth wants to tell its next story!]
[The Great Fable Season of Light and Darkness wants to tell its next story!]
[The Great Fable Liberator of the Forgotten wants to tell its next story!]
Sentences written in Kim Dokja Company's blood and tears.
What she had to sell was their lives. Fables that couldn't be carelessly revised or treated like a joke.
Even so, Suyeong placed those fables before the Constellations.
Biyoo looked down at her from the air with worried eyes. Suyeong grinned as if to reassure her.
"Nobody? That's a shame. It's just about to get really fun."
This was something only she could do. A story only Suyeong, the one responsible for playing the villain in Kim Dokja Company, could sell.
As if responding to her, the Outer God King's movements slowed. Maybe the Outer God King was grieving.
[How laughable. Who would be interested in a story like yours?]
The one who broke the silence was the Mythical Constellation Poseidon. In the distance, she could see other Mythical Constellations. Every one of them was laughing at Suyeong.
[Do you truly believe your fables hold that much value?]
The Great Dokkaebis were no different. They seemed to think Suyeong's choice at the brink of the end was a mistake.
Tzzztztztzt!
As Constellations left, the channel's scale diminished. Other channels sprang up to seize the opportunity, created by dokkaebis hostile to Kim Dokja Company.
[End it.]
The Constellations who had held their ground in the rear began to move. They were Mythical Constellations, or Constellations with nearly equal Status.
[The Constellation One Responsible for the Cycle of the Universe observes the Scenario battlefield!]
[The Constellation Smoking Mirror has manifested on the Scenario battlefield!]
[The Constellation Master of Thunder and War has manifested on the Scenario battlefield!]
Brahma of Indian mythology.
Tezcatlipoca of Aztec mythology.
Even Perun of Slavic mythology.
They were Constellations from other massive nebulae who had never appeared in the lower Scenarios. What moved them, too, was fable. As the Great Fables began to stir, the current pressing down on the battlefield grew even fiercer.
Gyaaaaaah!
Crack!
The Nameless Ones desperately blocking the Constellations approaching Dokja were bursting apart indiscriminately.
Mythical Constellations held major shares in their respective nebulae's Great Fables. As they moved Plausibility, the battle swiftly tilted toward the Constellations.
Suyeong watched the approaching waves of stars and murmured, "We'll survive somehow, even where you aren't watching."
The screen had gone dark, but the audio remained. Her voice would still reach every Constellation in the channel.
「Han Suyeong knew that, too. Not every Constellation liked them.」
Kim Dokja Company had many enemies. Some supported their fables, while others envied or even hated them. There was also malice with no traceable origin.
Yet all those feelings had one thing in common.
They belonged to those who had watched that fable for a long time.
「A story shared for a very long time eventually becomes a part of someone.」
Just like TWSA and Dokja.
"But the moment you close your eyes, the story you've been watching ends there."
She hadn't directed those words at anyone in particular. Which meant they were, in truth, a declaration aimed at everyone.
The Constellations who had wiped out the front line of Outer Gods surged forward. Kim Dokja Company's allies stood in their way.
Kwooooooong.
A baptism of Status, with Zeus's lightning added to Poseidon's waves, bore down on them. Outer Gods died as they burned like food on an electric grill. Not even Kim Dokja Company could withstand those waves in their current condition.
Still, Suyeong believed in her companions.
"I won't stop serializing, even if I die."
Suyeong fired [Black Flame] with all her strength. Under the suppressive force of Plausibility, [Black Flame]'s destructive power was less than a quarter of what it usually was.
Then, just as Poseidon's wave surged right up to them and crashed down:
「For a brief moment, it felt as though the world had stopped.」
Something fundamental that made up this world changed, as if a fine brush had painted over it. The world that had stopped began moving again.
And then
[An issue fatal to the Final Scenario has occurred!]
Poseidon's waves and Zeus's lightning struck Suyeong and Kim Dokja Company.
Kwadadadadad.
More precisely, they struck the barrier blocking the attack before them. A solid, vast wall of steel. It was Lee Hyeongseong's fable. The fable that had once covered an entire planet in Oz was protecting the allies.
Hyeongseong was still bound by the Administration Bureau's restrictions. So how?
"Suyeong-ssi."
Terrifying sparks coursed through Hyeongseong's entire body.
It wasn't just Hyeongseong. Blue sparks flew from everyone in Kim Dokja Company, who had been growing exhausted under the Administration Bureau's sanctions. Their constricted muscles loosened, and their bound Mana was being released.
[The error in sponsorship payments within the channel has been corrected.]
The next message arrived.
[The overdue sponsorship payments are being issued all at once!]
Biyoo was crying softly in the air.
At the same time, an enormous number of Indirect Messages rang in Suyeong's ears.
[The Constellation Demonic Judge of Fire happily sponsors half the coins she possesses!]
How much could half the coins gathered by a Constellation nearly at the Mythical grade possibly be? Suyeong couldn't even guess.
[The Constellation Abyssal Black Flame Dragon grumbles as he pays an enormous amount of coins!]
[The Constellation Oldest Liberator...]
Countless stars shone.
The balance in the nebula treasury rose rapidly.
[Nebula treasury total: 83,112,540C]
[Nebula treasury total: 162,423,800C]
.
.
.
[Nebula treasury total: 1,041,512,080C]
The total amount of coins passed one hundred million, then one billion.
What Suyeong had to do now was clear. She had to pay every bit of that sponsorship toward Plausibility.
"Everyone, hold on a little longer!"
[The Constellation Mass Production Maker smiles.]
[The Constellation Mass Production Maker has sponsored an amount of coins exceeding the sponsorship limit!]
The old man in the pineapple T-shirt.
Suyeong had spoken with him briefly once, when she went to film a Ferrari commercial.
「Do you really think cars will sell because of an ad like this?」
Mass Production Maker gave her a strange answer.
「You don't advertise in order to sell something. You advertise what will sell.」
Now, Suyeong thought she understood that statement a little.
[The Constellation Joseon's Greatest Sorcerer sponsors 5,000 coins!]
[The Constellation Lord of the Beautiful Beard, Marquis Zhuangmou sponsors 5,100 coins!]
[The Constellation Father of the Rich Night sponsors his entire slush fund!]
[The Constellation Queen of the Darkest Spring sponsors half the underworld's balance!]
[The Constellation Exalted God of Light sponsors 2,100,000 coins!]
[The Constellation Lily Blooming in Aquarius sponsors 1,500,000 coins!]
There were Constellations whose modifiers they had long known.
[The Constellation Limping Trickster sponsors 15,000 coins.]
[The Constellation Monarch of the Small Fries sponsors 450,000 coins.]
[The Constellation Adventurer Who Stood an Egg on Its End sponsors 18,000 coins!]
[The Constellation Master of the Niten Ichi-Ryu sponsors 4,000 coins!]
[All stars of the Northern Dipper Star Lords sponsor 300,000 coins!]
[The small constellation of a small planet sponsors 300 coins!]
There were also Constellations she knew of but hadn't expected anything from.
[Numerous Constellations who haven't revealed their modifiers lend their strength to the Plausibility of the nebula Kim Dokja Company!]
And even Constellations they had never known. Every Constellation that had shared Kim Dokja Company's fables was sponsoring their story.
Light returned to the darkened channel, and the broadcast began again.
[The broadcast of channel BY-9158 has resumed!]
The story was beginning again.
Every coin carried the will of a Constellation.
「The desire to see the end of this fable.」
Suyeong understood that feeling, too.
But there were those who couldn't.
[What in the world are you doing? Are you seriously sympathizing with those Incarnations? With the Enemy of Stories, of all people? Get a hold of yourselves! Have you forgotten who you are? Constellations, do not let filthy stories steal your attention!]
A Great Dokkaebi's roar burst forth. Then someone answered.
[The Constellation Demonic Judge of Fire says she has never been more clearheaded.]
Tzzztztztztzt!
A tremendous storm of Plausibility was pushed back, and Poseidon's waves subsided.
Suyeong slowly closed her eyes. The wind was blowing.
[The will of the Star Stream accepts the new flow of Plausibility.]
Something was changing.
[The Star Stream is considering a change to the Scenario's rules.]
All the Administration Bureau's Plausibility that had weighed down on her and her allies was disappearing. The balance of the Scenario, which had been unevenly adjusted, was finding equilibrium again.
[You still cannot understand the Enemy of Stories.]
Dokja was still difficult for her to understand.
[The Enemy of Stories wants to be understood by you.]
But it wasn't as though nothing had changed.
[The Scenario's rules have changed.]
[From now on, all Constellations may choose their faction in the Final Scenario!]
Suyeong slowly looked around.
The scenery around her changed as if a layer of the world's skin had been peeled away.
【■■■■■■... Go! Fight! This is our battlefield!】
A man on horseback passed by Suyeong.
The rider had clearly been an Outer God only moments ago. One of the Nameless Ones. Unknown monsters covered in tentacles and sticky fluid, terrifying to behold.
【We can win! Don't give up until the end!】
Their appearances were changing. Some became humans, others dwarves. They were different races, but they were no longer grotesque beings.
【Beomgak! Move! This is the Final Scenario we dreamed of!】
【Mark!】
All those who had been Nameless Ones had names there.
[You have joined the side of the Enemy of Stories.]
Beings charged toward the Constellations across the battlefield, where twilight was falling. They formed ranks and rushed at the Constellations.
【I'll go, too!】
Among them were a man who resembled Lee Hyeongseong and a child who resembled Shin Yuseong. There were others who resembled Jeong Huiwon, Lee Gilyeong, and Lee Jihye.
【Not bad. So you've made it this far in this worldline.】
For a moment, Suyeong saw a girl who resembled herself.
All of them were fighting on the side of the 「Enemy of Stories」.
Suyeong's blank gaze followed their retreating figures.
「All the abandoned worldlines were gathering.」
A world she couldn't express in sentences. A world she had only been able to imagine through a reader's eyes, and so couldn't read even with [Predictive Plagiarism].
「This was the world Dokja dreamed of.」
Suyeong slowly turned around.
The place where the Outer God King had stood until moments ago. A man stood atop the wall, so immense she couldn't even make it out properly, veiled in a deep-rooted incomprehensibility.
「"Han Suyeong, what does an extra have to do to get noticed?"」
A white coat showed faintly through the tears in his black coat.
「"An extra doesn't get noticed because they're an extra."」
Suyeong staggered toward him.
「"There isn't really a way. Usually, they get attention by sacrificing themselves, or else..."」
She walked and walked until she finally reached the man.
「"You have to give them a story, too."」
The man stood still, waiting for her.
Suyeong stopped in front of Kim Dokja. Tears almost came to her eyes, so unlike her. Her vision blurred, and she couldn't see his face clearly.
"You did well."
Kim Dokja was there.
Footnotes:
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