WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 507: Episode 97: Stars That Can’t Be Seen (4)

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[tls123?]

The Dokkaebi King's expression was strange as the Dokkaebi King muttered the name. Blue sparks flew from trembling lips, as though an error had occurred.

I changed my question.

"I'm asking if he's the writer who created this world."

The Dokkaebi King tilted their head.

[The Oldest Dream is closer to a reader than a writer. The Oldest Dream isn't a being that writes stories for anyone. The Oldest Dream is lazy and greedy.]

The Oldest Dream wasn't tls123? Then who had sent me that file? The writer who had written the novel I'd spent more than a decade reading was...

[You seem curious about the beginning of all this. But there's no point in speculating about it. No matter how this world began, it might as well not exist if no one is there to see it.]

The Dokkaebi King looked out over the universe of the Star Stream. Dazzling fragments of fables drifted along the currents of the galaxy. Wherever the Dokkaebi King's gaze fell, the fragments repeatedly gained and lost meaning.

I looked up at Junghyeok, still bound in chains. Behind him stretched the empty galaxy of the Star Stream.

"Some things exist even when they can't be seen."

The darkness of the universe was so vast and distant that it couldn't be crossed even at the speed of light. Yet that light would reach its destination someday. Just because something couldn't be seen didn't mean it wasn't there. Some things shine where no one is watching.

「Faint starlight began to appear amid the darkness of the universe.」

Stars rose in the darkness. They were stars that had not yet lost themselves. Their light became fables, then sentences. The sentences spread across the Final Wall and opened the door to a story that had already closed.

「Bleeding black blood from all over his body, the Abyssal Black Flame Dragon rose.」

The instant I saw that sentence, my breath caught.

Soon, the sentences painted an image. Before long, I saw the Abyssal Black Flame Dragon rising from the ruined battlefield.

Suyeong had been right. He had lost the power of the Apocalypse Dragon when the Stage Transformation disappeared, but he was still the Black Flame Dragon.

「In the fallen heavens, the Great Sage Equaling Heaven opened his weary eyes.」

Amid flashing thunderclouds, the Great Sage Equaling Heaven fought fiercely against the surviving Constellations.

「The final "Great War" advanced toward the conclusion of good and evil.」

And Uriel.

She swung the Flame of Karma, illuminating the extinguished night sky of the Star Stream...

[No. If there is no one to see them, they do not exist.]

The images of the fables scattered with that declaration.

Without thinking, I reached for the fables as they vanished.

As if mocking me, the Dokkaebi King continued.

[Nothing is more futile than a story continuing when no one reads it. Everything is created the instant it is observed. This universe is structured that way. When there is no observer, a fable cannot prove its existence.]

"They definitely exist."

[Do you still want to see what comes next?]

[The Star Stream awaits your choice.]

[The Final Wall awaits your choice.]

Every world was waiting for my answer.

"I..."

I hesitated.

Beyond the transparent wall, I could see Suyeong shouting.

「If this fable continues, will I be able to see what I want?」

The Dokkaebi King smiled as though they understood my hesitation.

The Final Wall stirred violently. Sentences flowed across it. The fables replayed slowly, as though offering a service.

The Great Sage Equaling Heaven, the Abyssal Black Flame Dragon, and Uriel began fighting again.

「[Flame Dragon, don't cry just because your big sister isn't here!]」

「[Heh heh, you give up quickly, Archangel! I still have one arm left to use...!]」

「[It looks like that arm was already cut off, Black Flame Dragon.]」

「[This body can handle losing an arm, you stupid monkey!]」

Constellations of good and evil, and Constellations who belonged to neither, had gathered for their final battle. Watching them, the Dokkaebi King said,

[Your fable was remarkable. Even the greatest Great Fable, the Star Stream, took your side. Much of its epic remains empty, but it is enough to serve as the foundation for the beginning of a new world.]

"I didn't keep this story going to become something like that."

Fables shone behind the Constellations' backs.

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

[The Great Fable Season of Light and Darkness continues its story!]

[The Great Fable Liberator of Forgotten Things continues its story!]

Our Great Fables.

They did not belong only to Kim Dokja Company.

Those who watched a story for a very long time eventually came to shine with the same light as that story. The Constellations who had watched over our story also gave off that same light.

[That is the end of the story you created.]

「The Black Flame Dragon, his tail severed, let out a fierce cry.」

「Uriel's shattered Flame of Karma scattered like ash.」

「The Great Sage Equaling Heaven swung his broken Ruyi Staff at the Emperor's Constellations.」

The sentences written on the Final Wall were losing their light.

I reached toward that light.

[You are not qualified to interfere with the Final Wall.]

Pain surged through my fingertips. My fingers had been burned black by the sparks.

I gritted my teeth and shouted.

"I'm qualified to control this story. I cleared every Main Scenario."

The reward for the final Scenario was the Final Wall.

The Dokkaebi King smiled.

[Yes, you are qualified. But you have no authority to change that story. It goes against Plausibility.]

As I watched sentences appear on the Final Wall in real time, I opened my constellation's declaration.

[Stop that story.]

Every fable I had built up was crying out.

It wasn't too late yet.

Uriel, the Black Flame Dragon, and the Great Sage Equaling Heaven.

They were all alive.

「[Hades. Our ■■ is approaching.]」

I could change it now. I could revise the flowing sentences. I could seize the end of an unfinished sentence and write another.

[Do you want to save them?]

The Dokkaebi King asked.

[I was once like you as well.]

The world the Dokkaebi King had lived in unfolded behind them.

It was a planet I didn't recognize. A Scenario was unfolding on that planet.

[I, too, lived through terrible tragedies. When misfortune no longer felt like misfortune, I finally arrived here.]

Part of the wall burst toward me like a broken dam. The enormous stories contained within the Final Wall flowed into me.

It felt as though my mind were breaking.

Stories I knew. Stories I didn't know.

Every fable in the universe accumulated inside my soul.

[The Fourth Wall strongly resists!]

[The Fourth Wall protects your collapsing mind!]

The deaths I had experienced and the deaths I had witnessed overlapped.

[Why did so much misfortune happen to you?]

Stories that could be easily categorized as misfortune pressed down on my mind.

[Do not become drunk on fables. That is only one of the countless worldlines you will create in the future.]

Little by little, my sense of sorrow began to dull. Grief and despair. All that sadness clumped together like a lump of clay until it became impossible to distinguish.

「There are so many misfortunes in the world. Is there a reason to grieve for every one of them?」

Anything in excess eventually becomes mundane.

[You asked who the writer that created this world was. You could become that being.]

The Dokkaebi King continued.

[If you want to save them, acknowledge that everything you love is meaningless. Acknowledge that fables already written are illusions that can be easily revised, and that they are only shadows of a great daydream.]

Along with the Dokkaebi King's whisper, the Plausibility of the Great Fable stirred.

[Become the designer of a new world, so that you may lead the next generation of the Star Stream.]

It was a truly terrifying temptation.

If I accepted the Dokkaebi King's offer and became the new designer of the Star Stream, I could save everyone. I could rewrite all these fables and save this worldline.

There was only one condition for that salvation.

「Only if I gave up loving that story.」

Then someone grabbed my hand. A hand soaked in blood, as though it had been pounding on something for a long time. It was the hand of someone who had spent a very long time writing.

"Get a grip. You're not a writer."

When had she escaped the barrier? Suyeong retied the bandage she had torn apart with her teeth.

"You're the reader who promised to read my novel first."

At those words, fables exploded from Suyeong's entire body.

[The fable Predictive Plagiarism begins its story!]

The sentences written on the Final Wall began to tremble.

[The Incarnation Han Suyeong's Attribute has activated!]

"No matter how many tragedies there are in the world, sad things are still sad, idiot!"

When Suyeong struck the ground, some of the fables clinging to the Final Wall fell away in clumps. The Dokkaebi King's eyes widened.

[How dare you do that to the wall...!]

The Dokkaebi King could not continue.

From the gap in the wall where the fables had fallen, someone's hand forced its way out. It was a long, pale hand, belonging to someone more upright and strong than anyone I knew.

"That's right. Sad things are sad. Just as happy things are happy."

[The Wall That Determines Reincarnation distorts a gap in the Final Wall.]

Sangah smiled as she emerged from the wall. Yuseong and Gilyeong were beside her.

"Mister!"

"Hyung!"

The crack Sangah had created gradually spread, eventually reaching the wall on the opposite side. From beyond it, I heard the voices of people I knew well.

[The Wall of Impossible Communication amplifies unheard voices.]

"De-mon-King-of-Sal-va-tion!"

It was Hayoung's voice.

Craaack!

Something small appeared through another gap in the wall. It was Kyrios.

"Pathetic fool. Have you been swallowed by nothing more than fables?"

Then came the sound of a bulldozer pushing through the ground, and a person-sized hole opened in the gap.

[The Wall That Determines Good and Evil resets the boundary between good and evil!]

"Dokja-ssi! We've come to find you!"

It was Hyeongseong and Huiwon. The gaps through which the Allies emerged were restored in an instant. The stories recorded on the Final Wall had filled them in.

The stories of the stars flowed across the wall again.

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

"Hyeongseong-ssi, over there!"

At Huiwon's cry, all the Allies looked at the Final Wall. The stories of the Constellations still fighting in the sealed cabin were displayed there.

A hellscape where there were more dead than living.

Uriel had fallen to her knees, and the Abyssal Black Flame Dragon had collapsed. The Great Sage Equaling Heaven was fighting to the very end to protect them.

「[Get up. The youngest's story isn't over yet.]」

The sentences flowed on mercilessly. If this continued, they would all die. Uriel, the Abyssal Black Flame Dragon, and the Great Sage Equaling Heaven. All of them would die.

In pain, I reached for them. The agony consuming my soul prevented even my voice or constellation's declaration from coming out.

「St op」

[The Fourth Wall speaks in your stead.]

「St op that sto ry from flow ing」

The Allies ran toward the Final Wall. I didn't have to tell them. They already knew what they needed to do.

That story wasn't over yet. If they could only stop the next sentence from being written...

A violent backlash ignited the Allies' bodies. The Dokkaebi King's power was restraining them. Still, they did not stop. Enduring the dazzling sparks, they walked forward one step at a time, each at their own pace.

[All Great Fables of Kim Dokja Company refuse to be recorded on the Final Wall!]

The fables we had created were speaking.

As though answering them, the Dokkaebi King said,

[I see. Do you still wish to carry out Scenarios?]

The Dokkaebi King looked at me with delight. The moment I met their gaze, chills ran down my spine. The Dokkaebi King was the strongest being in this worldline. No Mythical Constellation could stand against the Dokkaebi King.

Everything in the Star Stream was no more than the Dokkaebi King's toy.

With a gesture from the Dokkaebi King, the details of a new Scenario began appearing on the Final Wall.

[The final Scenario of the Star Stream is being reset!]

[The final Scenario of the Star Stream is...]

Craack!

The flowing sentence stopped.

A sword was embedded where the sentence had been cut off. An aura holding the power of ominous chaos disturbed the order of the sentences.

Then a new sentence formed.

「After coming a very long way through time, the only being who had seen the end of this world.」

Broken chains fluttered through the air. As though thousands of afterimages were overlapping into one, shadows from countless rounds were layered over a black coat.

At that moment, I realized I had been wrong.

「There is one person.」

A being who had already killed the Dokkaebi King once.

[The fable Eternal Hellscape begins its story!]

Footnotes:

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