WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 511: Episode 98: Have you protected everything you wanted to protect? (4)

──────

Surya's sunlight turned the night sky into White Night in an instant.

Just as on the days we fought in the Demon King Selection and Gigantomachia, Surya's train was racing toward us.

"We'll pay the fare later!"

With Suyeong's bold cry leading the way, we boarded Surya's train. Rough sparks flew from its wheels. Wrapped in black smoke, the train made one wide turn through the air before charging toward the transparent barrier, a sonic boom erupting from its rear.

Hyeongseong shouted.

"It's breaking!"

Crrrack!

The transparent wall collapsed one layer after another.

We kept racing forward, destroying the layered walls. The Final Wall, where the Constellations' fables were recorded, was drawing closer.

The Dokkaebi King's shouts and the fables of the 999th round tangled together in chaos.

[The Constellation Exalted God of Light is releasing all of his Status!]

Surya, seated in the locomotive's cabin, shone as brightly as a blazing sun. Fables dripped from the wounds scattered across his body. Perhaps he, too, had already paid a price to come here.

[The Constellation Exalted God of Light's ■■ is Final Conductor.]

Even so, he didn't stop his fable. Without showing any sign of it, he drove the Sun Chariot with his own body as fuel, as if it were the duty he had lived by as the Exalted God of Light.

[The Great Fable Spring of the Demon Realm sees you off on your path!]

[Insufficient output.]

Despite his burning resolve, the train was gradually slowing down. The closer we came to the heart of the Final Wall, the denser the barriers became. At last, when a wall like a net of printed characters collided with the front of the train, Huiwon moved.

"Leave it to me!"

"H-Huiwon-ssi! Ack!"

The moment Huiwon seized Hyeongseong by the neck, his body rapidly shrank and transformed into a steel sword. Soon, its blade began burning white with the light of [hellfire inferno].

[The Great Fable Holy Flame That Devoured Myth sees you off on your path!]

Succession.

The holy flame that had illuminated the battlefield of <Gigantomachia> was now shining to burn the Final Wall.

Dense flames spewed from the front of the train, and its surface was engulfed in terrible heat. Huiwon, releasing [hellfire inferno] from her whole body, shouted in a voice that burned like lava.

"Fables or not, it all ends now!"

Whenever her blade flashed, the net of printed characters ripped apart.

Huiwon swung her sword again and again. Even as backlash sparks tore through her body, she didn't forget to carve out her own path of Swordsmanship.

The path Huiwon's life had created. We were running across that path.

But it still wasn't enough. We needed far greater power.

In the distance, a sentence was unfolding across the Final Wall.

「At the final moment, Uriel reached her hand toward the sky.」

「My fable ends here, but」

「There will be a star that does not forget this story.」

[The Great Fable Season of Light and Darkness sees you off on your path!]

Uriel's and the Abyssal Black Flame Dragon's fables were reaching us across the wall.

As the fables of good and evil collided fiercely and protected us, wings made of printed characters began sprouting from both sides of the train. Like a roaring Apocalypse Dragon, the train charged forward, devouring the walls before it.

[Stop!]

The Dokkaebi King, who had been chasing us, came into view. Fables poured from his limbs as he was chased by the figures of the 999th round and reached for us.

Tztztztztz.

Sparks of Plausibility rising from the floor shook the train's central axis. The train tilted, about to lose its balance. Then another sentence appeared on the Final Wall.

「Watching the lightning spear fly toward his neck, the Great Sage Equaling Heaven said,」

「Don't stop, youngest.」

The Great Sage Equaling Heaven, refusing to yield even before his own end, was within that sentence.

At the same time, the man in the black coat at the rear of the train rose to his feet.

"Yu Junghyeok!"

The Secretive Plotter, possessing Yu Junghyeok, raised a hand into the air. Then countless Outer Gods rose amid the backlash on the floor.

They weren't simply the Nameless Ones.

[The Great Fable Liberator of Forgotten Things sees you off on your path!]

【Gagagagagaga】

【Helphelphelphelphelphelp】

【Didn'tforgetdidn'tforgetdidn'tforget】

The Nameless Ones who had helped us in "Journey to the West," or opposed us, were holding up the shaking train. Like a boat riding the raging current of the Tongtian River, they carried our train toward the Final Wall.

[You have approached the core of the Final Wall.]

At last, every barrier protecting the Final Wall collapsed.

The locomotive had been damaged all over, and Surya no longer gave off fables, perhaps because he had lost consciousness.

Not far away, I could see the true body of the Final Wall. It was thicker and vaster than any wall I had ever seen.

【This is the wall I couldn't cross.】

The Secretive Plotter spoke.

「'Is it impossible this time, too?' That was the end of Yu Junghyeok of the 58th round.」

「'It was a mistake. In the next round―' Yu Junghyeok of the 96th round closed his eyes like that.」

The endings of countless Yu Junghyeoks passed across the wall.

It wasn't just Junghyeok.

「The Last Hero of Hwangsanbeol, Gyebaek, shook his archenemy, who would not wake.」

「Goryeo's Top Swordsman and the Naval Warfare God, each missing an arm, stood back-to-back and released the last of their strength.」

It was a wall that recorded the endings of every Constellation in the world. The final moments of all the stars, including Uriel and the Great Sage Equaling Heaven, were being written upon it in real time.

My allies and I got off the exhausted locomotive and ran toward the wall.

「If only I could erase those sentences. If only I could stop all those tragedies.」

[You cannot interfere with the sentences of the Final Wall.]

[This document cannot be overwritten.]

[Release the code.]

The Secretive Plotter spoke.

【It won't work by ordinary means. I tried confronting it with force, but I couldn't break the wall.】

Huiwon shouted.

"We came all this way. There has to be some way...!"

【From here on, it's his turn.】

The Secretive Plotter was looking at me. Within that gaze was also the gaze of Junghyeok from the third round, who had cleared Scenarios with me.

「What conclusion do you desire?」

This was what I had to do to give him that answer.

Jihye spoke.

"You said it couldn't be done even after living through the 1,863rd round. Can you really do this, Mister?"

She was right.

I wasn't a protagonist like Junghyeok, nor was I a writer like Suyeong.

Still, perhaps there was something I could do precisely because I was neither a protagonist nor a writer. Perhaps I could remember what the protagonist couldn't see and the writer had forgotten.

「Something only the one who had read TWSA for a very long time could do.」

I quietly examined the Final Wall. With my concentration sharpened to its limit, I read its surface again and again.

Before long, the wall gave off a brilliant light, like the screen I had once read over and over.

「Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World.」

Everything in that vast story was taking shape within me.

I still hadn't read the Final Version of TWSA. So I didn't know how this story was supposed to end.

But.

「[Unfortunate puppet. You came too early. I'm sorry, but beyond this point does not yet 'exist'.]」

The Dokkaebi King of the 1,863rd round had said that in the Secretive Plotter's memories.

「What if all of this had been passed on to me unwritten?」

I ran toward the wall with my allies.

「What if someone wanted me to complete this story?」

[The Exclusive Skill Reading Comprehension has activated at its limit!]

My overheated head felt like it would burst, but I stared straight at the wall with my eyes wide open.

The fables written on the Final Wall. In my mind, those fables were connecting.

I could see how the fables linked together. I could see the elements cleverly planted within them, and the contexts surrounding those elements.

「Things that appeared in the novel but were never used.」

Then I began to see the gaps in the story that had seemed perfect on its own. Things that hadn't been filled in yet. Things that had to be retrieved someday.

Things that had only been waiting for this story's epilogue.

「Kim Dokja knew what they were.」

[You have blossomed a new Attribute!]

[The Attribute Foreshadowing Retriever has activated!]

The empty gaps in the story, which only I, who had watched it from beginning to end as a reader, could find.

I looked at the five gaps in that vast wall.

"Hayoung."

"Leave it to me."

Jang Hayoung was the first to step forward. She placed her palm precisely over the gap in the wall that I pointed to.

[The Wall of Impossible Communication has returned to its place.]

[The first theme of the Final Wall has been completed!]

With a brilliant ray of light, a piece of the wall slid into place, and a sentence flowed out.

「That story is a story about 'impossible communication'.」

"Huiwon-ssi, Gilyeong!"

Huiwon and Gilyeong nodded, then each placed a hand over a gap in the wall. The Wall that Divides Good and Evil, which had been split in two, became one.

[The Wall that Divides Good and Evil has returned to its place.]

[The second theme of the Final Wall has been completed!]

「That story is a story about indistinguishable 'good and evil', and.」

Now it was Sangah's turn.

"Sangah-ssi."

Sangah slowly approached and reached out toward her place.

[The Wall that Decides Reincarnation has returned to its place.]

[The third theme of the Final Wall has been completed!]

「That story was about tragedies that repeat through reincarnation.」

Once the four gaps had been filled, only the final gap remained.

I quietly looked up at it.

The last fragment of the Final Wall.

It was a fragment that hadn't appeared in the original work.

「Kim Dok ja」

[The Fourth Wall] was speaking to me.

"The Fourth Wall."

It and I both knew what we had to do.

Brilliant fragments of printed characters rose above my hand. The characters spoke.

「I li ke your sto ry」

I couldn't say anything. Without saying a word, I ran toward the wall and fitted it into the final gap.

「That story was a story about a reader who wanted to change the ending.」

The next moment, enormous sparks erupted from the wall.

[The code has been released.]

The wall's authority was opening itself to me. The secret of the wall Junghyeok couldn't cross was flowing into me.

The Constellations' sentences appeared right before my eyes. The final sentence of the Great Sage Equaling Heaven and Uriel that I had wanted so desperately to stop.

「The incoming blade, the necks of the Great Sage Equaling Heaven and Uriel―」

I grabbed that sentence with all my strength. It felt like my hand was burning. Fables tangled together like blades were cutting my hand to pieces. But I endured. I couldn't let this sentence end like this.

[The Final Wall is puzzled by your actions.]

[The Final Wall asks if this isn't the story you wanted.]

I don't want it.

Who in the world would want an ending like this?

[Stop! Stop right now!]

The Dokkaebi King, who had pursued us relentlessly, approached with fables dripping from him. His eyes were filled with deep murderous intent.

[You must not touch the wall! You will regret this! There is nothing beyond this wall! Nothing you want, nothing you wish to see!]

He was wrong. Beyond this wall was the Oldest Dream.

"Hunchback!"

The Hunchback King, who had been hiding in my shadow, bound the Dokkaebi King's body.

[We've finally met, my old friend.]

[Hunchback King!]

[Continue your work, Kim Dokja. Keep your promise.]

I didn't let go of the sentence.

「The incoming blade, the necks of the Great Sage Equaling Heaven and Uriel c」

I held on to the c, preventing the next letter from forming.

Pshhhk!

My fingers were severed. The fables spilling out in streams screamed.

[You are not the Dokkaebi King.]

[You cannot stop the progression of that fable.]

Baat!

It was then that something soft wrapped around the back of my hand. Like an eraser, Biyoo rubbed her body against the sentence with all her strength.

「The Streamer took the reader's side.」

Together with Biyoo, I struck the sentence with all my strength again and again. I swung my fists at the sentence that wouldn't stop and drove my sword into it.

Please, please. Please.

「And.」

A very faint crack was forming in the characters. The sentences already written were scattering apart.

The ending was changing.

「The in com ing blade, U riel and the G reat Sage c…….」

The broken characters gave off intense sparks, then all began changing into things I couldn't read.

「■■blade■■■■U■■■■G■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■…….」

【Ooooooooooooo―】

Countless Outer Gods howled. It was a solemn cry, as though they were worshipping a great god. Holding my hand as fables dripped from it, I watched the wall's surface change.

Shin Yuseong, who had come close without my noticing, was holding my hand.

"Mister..."

[You have acquired a new Great Fable!]

[You have acquired the Great Fable One Who Breaks the Final Wall.]

[The Great Fable One Who Breaks the Final Wall continues its story!]

[The Star Stream sees you off on your path.]

As messages exploded in my head, I saw the wall before me collapse. The fables written on the wall and our fables were mixing together all at once. Countless ■ were spinning in unison. They began to look like a circle.

It felt as if something might be visible beyond that pitch-black circle.

[Hahaha! Yes, this is it! As promised, I will be the first to check beyond the Final Wall!]

The Hunchback King pushed the Dokkaebi King away and leaped into the pitch-black circle. The blade of the Black Heaven Demon Blade pierced through the screaming Dokkaebi King's mouth.

My allies ran toward me.

「Everything in the world was collapsing.」

The Final Wall, the Star Stream, everything was collapsing.

「The shattered wall was mixing with the allies' fables.」

「It was gradually becoming impossible to tell what was a fable and what was existence.」

Something beyond the circle was looking this way. I looked at it, too.

「What is that?」

It was gradually becoming harder to breathe. Something was pulling me in.

Everything I experienced, felt, and judged was flowing across the Final Wall in clumsy sentences.

「Eve」

"ryone..."

I couldn't tell whether I was speaking or the wall was speaking. On that wall, I was only being narrated. Some sentences looked blurry, while some couldn't be seen at all. Before long, the flowing sentences began to disappear all at once.

Slowly, very slowly.

That way, all the sentences on the wall stopped●.

Footnotes:

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