WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 505: Episode 97: Stars That Can’t Be Seen (2)

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[Star Stream wishes to name your final fable.]

[You have been given options for your final fable.]

[The epic of the nebula Kim Dokja Company has become a final candidate for A Single Fable!]

[Every star to be born in the Star Stream will praise your fable!]

As I read the messages appearing one after another, my allies and I assessed the situation. Everyone still looked shocked, but they understood this wasn't the time to stop.

Pildu Gong asked, "Does this mean the Main Scenario is over?"

Unlike usual, no linked Scenario activated despite the Main Scenario ending. Instead, a system message appeared.

[Star Stream's Main Scenario system has entered its termination sequence.]

It was a message I'd never heard before.

The grand world of Scenarios was finally coming to an end.

No one seemed to know what to say.

"What happens to the world once this ends?"

Pildu stared blankly at the wall. The countless sentences blooming across it seemed to sense his gaze, scattering and gathering again and again.

One of those sentences was about Pildu Gong.

「A man who lost his family at the beginning of the Scenario.」

He looked exhausted. Maybe it was my imagination, but his eyes seemed wet.

After hesitating, I spoke.

"There is still someone who controlled all these Scenarios."

"Do we have to... kill that bastard too?"

"If it's too difficult, you can stay here."

"At a time like this?"

Anger appeared on Pildu's face.

"I can't forgive him. Tearing him to pieces and killing him still wouldn't be enough."

The moment I saw those eyes, I felt as though I were the one under attack. Behind him, I could see the fables of ordinary people who had died in the Scenarios.

「It was as though all those fables resented Kim Dokja.」

"That bastard took my family and every piece of land I had. I, I will definitely...!"

Pildu collapsed mid-sentence, foaming blood from his mouth. Seolhwa quickly caught him and checked his pulse.

"His Incarnation body is badly damaged."

Pildu had protected the group alongside Hyeongseong during the battle in the cabin. The [Armament Fortress] he had been so proud of was completely wrecked. I could barely feel the Status of his Patron, Defence Master. This was probably as far as he could fight alongside us.

"I'll bring him along. This old man deserves to see the end too, after all."

"Please."

Seolhwa activated her special skill, [Sleeper Car], then laid Pildu on a bed made of a Mana net.

Jihye and Huiwon, who had recovered some strength in the meantime, rose to their feet as well.

"Let's go, Dokja-ssi. No matter what comes out, we have to see this through."

I felt ashamed that Huiwon was the one saying it. She was probably the one here who resented me the most.

Tap.

A hand lightly struck my shoulder as it passed.

"Don't think such useless things. Didn't my Patron say the story we saw only went that far?"

"..."

"No one knows what'll happen after this."

Hyeongseong, carrying Gilyeong on his back, nodded at her voice, filled with cold resolve.

"Huiwon-ssi is right."

Yuseong and Jihye felt the same way.

「Even after everything that had happened, the allies still believed in Kim Dokja.」

Could the others see that sentence right now?

Did I even deserve to read a sentence like that?

[Would you like to enter the interior of the Final Wall?]

At last, the message appeared.

Sparks of Plausibility raged over the wall. Centered on those sparks, the wall was collapsing inward. The letters on the pure white wall retreated all at once, creating a small entrance for us.

Suyeong asked suspiciously, "Do you have another plan beyond there?"

The entrance was filled with pale fog. It was fog I knew well, from a sentence I'd reread so many times that I had memorized it.

「At last, Yu Junghyeok, who had lost everything, looked beyond the fog.」

That passage was the very one the 1,863rd-round Yu Junghyeok had crossed.

"You said what comes after this doesn't appear in TWSA."

I nodded.

All that remained was to enter. The last thing holding us back was...

"Go on. This is as far as Zarathustra can go. We don't have permission to enter."

Unlike Anna Croft, the Zarathustra followers did not possess many Great Fables connected to Kim Dokja Company.

They looked at me with somber eyes for a moment, then silently stepped aside and made way for us.

[The Incarnation Selena Kim has accepted her ■■.]

[The ■■ of the Incarnation Selena Kim is Unattainable Dream.]

"Please take care of Anna."

Selena's voice came through Telepathy. I gave a heavy nod and turned away. Behind me, I heard the footsteps of my allies. They had become a single constellation, but not all of them shone in the same direction.

"Let's go."

「Even so, everyone here had an ending they had to see for themselves.」

Anna's platinum hair spread through the air. Her red eyes drifted through the fog, guiding us like a beacon. But Anna was not the one moving her body.

Junghyeok tightly gripped the hilt of the Black Heaven Demon Blade and watched the Hunchback King's movements.

"You aren't trusting the Hunchback King, are you?"

Junghyeok hadn't lowered his guard for a moment, constantly directing killing intent at the Hunchback King.

I didn't like Hunchbacks either. They had once tried to kidnap Biyoo, and they had tried to scam me in the Demon Realm.

"I don't trust him. We only formed a temporary alliance. We made a contract earlier."

"A contract?"

I didn't explain. The other party to it was right in front of us anyway.

A sinister shadow took form above Anna's head.

[It seems you distrust me greatly, regressor.]

Watching the Hunchback King speak through Anna's mouth, I thought there couldn't be a worse combination. They had combined the two Junghyeok hated most.

Without a word, Junghyeok channeled his Mana into the Black Heaven Demon Blade. He looked ready to draw blood at the slightest provocation.

[I heard stories from the other Hunchbacks. They say you cut off my children's humps.]

"Do you want yours cut off too?"

The Hunchback King chuckled in delight.

"What's so funny?"

[I like your needless pride. You were the same in the Demon Realm and Murim. I had been whiling away a long, dull time there, but thanks to you, I had great fun.]

"Say one more word and I'll really cut off your hump."

"Hey, Junghyeok."

Junghyeok seemed more agitated than usual, so I stopped him. There was nothing to gain from fighting the Hunchbacks here.

Why was that? Something about his bearing was different from usual. Maybe the thought of the end had made things complicated for him too.

The Hunchback King looked between Junghyeok and me before speaking.

[You two seem like good friends.]

Junghyeok glared again, but the Hunchback King continued.

[I had someone like that too. Like the Demon King of Salvation over there, they loved stories very much.]

"I'm not interested in your stories."

[We carried out Scenarios together. We escaped death countless times and fought against absolute beings who mocked us. We amassed fables to create Great Fables, then amassed Great Fables to create grand epics. With the grand epic we created, we finally reached the Final Wall.]

The Hunchback King had reached the Final Wall before?

This information didn't appear in TWSA, either.

[It's a story you've never heard, isn't it? It no longer remains even as a fable. Only the Apocalypse Dragon, driven mad by the repeated years, would barely remember it.]

"Did the Star Stream exist back then too?"

[It had a slightly different name then. The Star Stream is only the name decided after we saw this world's end.]

An existence that had seen the world's end before us.

What had their ■■ been? What had happened for him to remain as the Hunchback King, drifting through the Scenarios?

[That damned bastard is now called the King of Stories.]

Craack!

Something collapsed beyond the fog.

[That is why I look forward to your Final Chapter. I am curious. Which of you will become this Scenario's final victor―]

The fog before us began to tremble all at once. The Hunchback King smiled bitterly.

[It's almost time for me to meet my old friend.]

With those words, the Hunchback King's afterimage vanished. Yet the message continued to reach us.

[You should get moving. Before you are all devoured.]

Devoured?

"Mister!"

Jihye, who had been following behind us, suddenly sank beneath the floor with a strangled cry. Hand-like shapes emerged from the nearby floor and walls, seizing our arms and legs.

"Jihye!"

[The Character Lee Jihye has become part of a great story.]

Huiwon reached for Jihye as she was sucked into the floor. But it was already too late. Huiwon's body was being pulled into the floor too. The wall swallowed her like deep quicksand.

[The Character Jeong Huiwon has become part of a great story.]

"Huiwon-ssi!"

Watching Hyeongseong rush toward Huiwon, I lost my bearings for a moment. Had something like this happened in TWSA? What the hell was this...

「Yu Junghyeok had crossed this passage alone in TWSA.」

I had overlooked that fact.

Not once had Junghyeok crossed this passage with others.

"Everyone, gather over here!"

But it was already too late.

Hyeongseong, Seolhwa, and Pildu were swallowed next. Then Sangah and the children were caught by the wall's hands and dragged in as well.

[The Character Shin Yuseong has become part of a great story.]

[The Character Yu Sangah has become part of a great story.]

My heart pounded violently.

Even amid all this, the word "Character" grated on my nerves even more.

"Han Suyeong! Junghyeok!"

Junghyeok had already been sucked halfway into the floor. There was no time to resist.

"Get back!"

The sword wind Junghyeok sent out pushed me away. I barely avoided the letters clutching at my ankles.

[The Character Yu Junghyeok has become part of a great story.]

In the end, Junghyeok had been taken too.

Only Suyeong remained. Even one of her arms was being swallowed by the wall.

"Hurry, this way...!"

I pulled her with all my strength.

The power of [Way of the Wind] settled in my feet, and explosive momentum wrapped around me.

[The Final Wall reveals its greed toward your grand epic!]

[The Final Wall looks upon a person not included in its story!]

Tsssssss...!

Suyeong's body shook as if she were having a seizure.

「Han Suyeong was now the only one, other than him, who was not a "Character."」

I moved my feet with all my strength. But the wall's pursuit was relentless.

More serious than that was the fact that I didn't know where to run. Ahead, behind, to either side, above. No matter where I looked, there was nowhere to escape.

Whoosh.

With the sensation of stepping into empty air, the floor gave way. It was the same way Jihye and Huiwon had been taken. The wall was swallowing me.

I began to fall with Suyeong as though plunging into endless emptiness. The pale fog rushing in with my ragged breaths constricted my throat.

「Kim Dokja feared stories he did not know.」

Text of immense density hindered my breathing. There were too many letters for me to make out the fables. A literal Great Fable was crushing me.

I struggled desperately to escape it. Yet the more I struggled, the more a vague fear burrowed into me. It felt as though everything inside me were being emptied.

Sentences were slipping out through my fingertips. The fables that made me who I was were disappearing.

Then.

「The fables that make you who you are exist because you see, experience, and feel them.」

One sentence caught on my fingertips. It was the Fable Control Yoo Hoseong had taught me on the Island of Reincarnators.

「Let it know that you are watching it.」

I held tightly onto that sentence. Then, one by one, the things that composed my fables came to mind alongside it.

「Kim Dokja calmly steadied his breathing.」

In that vast universe of sentences, I stopped running. The fables opened their maws as if they would devour me.

「They cannot even exist unless you look at them.」

There was no need to fear them. They were only fables.

Tsssssss...!

I looked at the words rushing toward me. To let them know that I had read them here, I glared at the sentences without blinking.

Then, in the next moment, the words scattered like fog began to gather.

「To avoid being devoured by fables, one must become a "reader."」

As though expressing gratitude to the one who had found them, the sentences drifted around my feet. Soon, they became stepping stones for me to walk on.

「One who can love fables, yet read them without becoming intoxicated by them.」

「Only then will fables become a means to confront formless emptiness.」

My fall stopped. I lightly stepped on the sentences piling beneath my feet. They were not sentences from TWSA.

「"I am a reader."」

「In fact, this is how I often introduce myself to people, and doing so tends to lead to the following misunderstanding.」

Even so, the sentences felt somehow familiar. I read them and took one step after another. Some were stories I already knew, some were stories I didn't know well, and some were stories I could barely remember now.

「When he was young, Kim Dokja had once thought this.」

The young me was scribbling something in a notebook. Carefully organized power-balance charts and Hidden Pieces from TWSA. And...

「What? If it were me, I wouldn't have done it this way.」

My own strategy guide for TWSA.

「Idiot, Sea Commander should have been handled like this. The item needed here is―」

「The key to clearing the Theater Dungeon is getting the ampoule from the laboratory.」

「You have to get Ganpyeongui here. It's more important than the Four-Tiger Evil-Cutting Sword.」

With every step, the sense of familiarity deepened.

「There is no choice but to kill all the Constellations. It has to be done here.」

「To become strong without regressing...」

「This is still the best route. The first Great Fable must be obtained in the Demon Realm.」

The sentences written by my younger self lit the way ahead.

As I walked along those sentences, I thought.

「To save everyone...」

Perhaps this path had begun before I could even remember.

Snap.

At last, the sentence broke off.

At the place where it broke off stood a small white door.

It was the very door the 1,863rd-round Junghyeok had opened.

「The "epilogue" of every story he could not read lay beyond it.」

I stared at the door handle.

「All for the sake of turning this door handle.」

Every story that had begun with Junghyeok passed through my mind.

Then a question surfaced, one I had held for a very long time but had never spoken aloud.

「How had tls123 wanted to write the epilogue of TWSA?」

As I reached for the door handle, I unknowingly looked back.

A path made of distant fables. Seen from afar, the scenery along that path felt strangely unfamiliar.

「I looked at that path for a long time.」

Then the door opened.

Footnotes:

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