Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint - Chapter 515

WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 515: Episode 99: The Oldest Dream / The Most Ancient Dream (4)

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It was Yu Junghyeok's true voice, the voice of someone who had lived 1,864 lives. A voice that bore witness to every year from the zeroth round to the 1,863rd.

Its owner was speaking.

That he was Yu Junghyeok.

That he was the true protagonist of TWSA.

"I-I-I..."

The child trembled but couldn't open his eyes, as if he knew his whole world would collapse the moment he did.

[The Oldest Dream denies its own dream!]

「This is an illusion this is an illusion this is an illusion」

"It isn't an illusion."

At Secretive Plotter's words, sentences began flowing out around the child. They were sentences from TWSA, the story he was reading and the story I had once read.

The sentences that had saved me and would ultimately kill me.

A man spoke within those sentences.

「"Lee Hyeongseong. It isn't over yet."」

「"Don't worry. I'll definitely bring an end to the Star Stream."」

「"I won't forget you, Shin Yuseong."」

Those vivid sentences soon became a story. The story became imagination, and that imagination was recreated as reality in another worldline.

Unaware that it was another reality, the boy continued longing for the story.

「"In the next round, and the one after that."」

The boy imagined things in order to live.

Wary of his relatives' reactions and tormented by bullies, he imagined the next story so he wouldn't hurt.

「"I'll survive and see the end of this Scenario."」

He found comfort in a protagonist who never gave up.

And in that comfort, he wished for the protagonist to never give up until the end.

「Author-nim, how long will Yu Junghyeok's regressions continue?」

He wished that journey of regression would never end.

Secretive Plotter said nothing as he watched the boy's memories flow out.

「They were all things he remembered.」

Resolves he had never forgotten from the zeroth round to the 1,863rd.

My Allies and I saw them too.

After Secretive Plotter left him, Junghyeok had collapsed and was groaning beneath the flood of memories. Yuseong wept endlessly, while Jihye sank to the floor. Hyeongseong and Huiwon barely held themselves up, leaning their trembling shoulders against each other.

Now they understood, too.

That Secretive Plotter's life deserved recompense.

"B-but, even so..."

Yuseong looked up at me, muttering as if speaking in tongues. As though pleading for me to tell her there was a way out of this.

"Secretive Plotter! Stop! Stop it!"

Only Han Suyeong resisted the sparks before her, continually swinging her fists through empty air.

Secretive Plotter didn't turn around.

「And so, "Pilgrim of the Lonely Apocalypse" arrived at the place where his pilgrimage would end.」

The Splitting the Sky Sword, which had broken again and again only to mend itself each time, hummed quietly.

「At last, his Patron was before him.」

"So it was you."

The child's shoulders trembled faintly, as though he was caught in a nightmare.

「He was a frail lifeform that could be cut down and killed at any moment.」

His Splitting the Sky Sword hummed fiercely once more. It was a blade that had cut down countless Constellations. Poseidon, Zeus, Nuwa, even the Dokkaebi King, none of them had been able to avoid his sword. No star could stand against him and survive.

A chance at revenge that had come after 1,864 lives.

The Splitting the Sky Sword slowly moved.

"Secretive Plotter! No, Yu Junghyeok...!"

Neither Suyeong nor I could stop him.

This was something that had to happen.

Yuseong was crying as she clutched my hand tightly, choking on sobs with her mouth hanging open.

Everything would end now. I wouldn't have to consume anyone's story anymore.

Junghyeok would be freed from his long journey of regression.

「Then why wasn't that sword cutting down the ancient enemy before it?」

Secretive Plotter's Splitting the Sky Sword still wandered through the air. The black blade that looked ready to cut through the boy's body only peeled away the eggshell-like barrier surrounding him.

「A bird whose shell had broken, yet couldn't fly anywhere.」

The boy's body shook uncontrollably. Nauseating fables circled him.

「"Hey, he's drawing something in that notebook again!"」

「"Tsk, tsk. He's exactly like his mother..."」

「"Are you Kim Dokja? Do you know where your mother is right now? Hmm... I see. Don't you resent your mother? What kind of person was she normally?"」

「"How long are you going to keep your mouth shut? If you don't say anything, the world will misunderstand you."」

Slice.

The blade of the Splitting the Sky Sword, which had been wandering through the air, cut precisely through those remembered sentences.

The child's trembling eased considerably.

「Why?」

My mind was in chaos.

「Why?」

That was when I heard a constellation's declaration.

【Is that the boy?】

A huge man rose from Secretive Plotter's shadow.

The 999th-round Lee Hyeongseong stood there.

Secretive Plotter nodded.

"That's right. This brat is my Patron."

【This pisses me off. That little brat was the cause of it all?】

The 999th-round Kim Namwoon and Lee Jihye were there, too.

Outer Gods who had endured the 999th round.

Junghyeok wasn't the only one who had wanted to destroy the Star Stream and end the Oldest Dream.

"No."

【What? Then...】

Instead of answering, Secretive Plotter looked around.

In the distance, I could hear the murmur of people pushing toward the platform to board the train, then being pushed back. When I turned around, the train we had arrived on had already vanished.

A Daehwa-bound train carrying people somewhere through an ordinary world.

People walked past us, as if they couldn't see us at all.

"This station is Daehwa..."

People boarded before the passengers could even get off. They shoved each other and hurled curses. An elderly woman was pushed over by the crowd getting off the train. No one helped her up. The first person to see her was an elderly person sitting in a priority seat for pregnant women. They watched her for a moment, then covered their view with a newspaper they pulled from their coat.

A headline was printed across the paper.

A Criminal's Essay Is Published.

It was an article I knew well.

An article countless people had read, discussed, and forgotten.

「It was an insignificant tragedy. A tragedy that had only happened in a single life.」

Secretive Plotter and the Outer Gods watched my fable. They looked sadly at a tragedy not even a dozen years long.

【Poor child.】

I shuddered at those words.

My tragedy couldn't compare to their suffering. I couldn't be forgiven for creating an even greater tragedy because of the one I had endured.

【My God, I endured so many years to meet you.】

The 999th-round Uriel placed a hand against my younger self's cheek.

【You are the most helpless being in this universe.】

The child's body trembled again.

I staggered to my feet.

【Is that why you needed us? What a terribly cruel cry for help.】

【You can't even control your own imagination?】

Something was wrong.

The sword. I had to find the sword.

The figures from the 999th round exchanged glances.

The 999th-round Jihye spoke first.

【I don't mind. But will you be okay? You came all this way for this.】

It was clear who she was speaking to.

After a moment, Secretive Plotter replied.

"It was a difficult time."

It wasn't a story that could be summed up in a single sentence. His tragedy couldn't be put to rest like that.

"I wondered why it had to be me. I wanted to give up. I wanted to die more times than I could count."

Secretive Plotter, who had been silent for a long time, continued.

"But someone wouldn't let me give up."

His hate-filled eyes weren't aimed at the boy. He was looking at the boy's fable.

The 999th-round Uriel and Hyeongseong knelt down and held the child in their arms. Jihye and Namwoon took the child's cold hands.

Secretive Plotter spoke as if making a declaration.

"Open your eyes now, Kim Dokja."

The child was covered in cold sweat, his eyelids trembling. His body shook violently as though he were fighting a long nightmare.

Then, after some time, his eyelids slowly opened.

"Ah, ah, ah..."

The child's eyes saw the world. They saw what he had believed was a delusion. They saw the Archangel and Steel Sword Emperor holding him, the Delusional Demon and Naval Commander holding his hands.

And then.

"Really, really..."

The protagonist of the story he had watched for so long stood before him.

"That's right. It isn't a dream."

Amid the silence, where no one spoke, I heard the sound of something breaking.

Tears streamed from the child's eyes. I knew what those tears meant, and I knew what Secretive Plotter and the Outer Gods had done. That made me suffer all the more.

「That couldn't be their true choice.」

Someone who had lived with a story for a very long time would eventually become unable to escape it. Agares had been like that. Metatron had been like that. The Apocalypse Dragon and the Dokkaebi King had been like that. The Outer Gods were no different.

Perhaps even the choices being made now had already been decided.

I shouted in anguish.

"He's the Oldest Dream! You have to kill him. If you don't kill him, your tragedy won't end! Your regressions, the Star Stream..."

Don't let yourselves be consumed by that story.

I didn't need sympathy. This wasn't the story I truly wanted.

[The individual in question is not a Character.]

Secretive Plotter was looking at me.

They were eyes I knew nothing about. From a story I hadn't read, he was looking at me.

It wasn't only Secretive Plotter. Uriel, Jihye, Namwoon, and Hyeongseong were the same.

[The individual in question is not a Character.]

I stared blankly at those messages as they appeared one after another.

「The most righteous soldier in the world.」

「The noblest Archangel.」

「A commander who couldn't tolerate injustice.」

「A demon consumed by hatred for the world.」

「The regressor who had fought against a system called the Star Stream.」

Secretive Plotter and the Outer Gods were looking at the child's world.

A world brimming with malice, impossible to see clearly unless you looked closely.

Namwoon glared at the fable of that world and muttered.

【Even without the Star Stream, the world is still the same.】

As though he understood what they would have to fight from now on.

The fables Secretive Plotter and the Outer Gods had built bared their teeth at the reality surrounding the child.

「At the end of his distant pilgrimage, the regressor chose the world he had discovered.」

The Characters who had reached the end of the story were finally stepping beyond it.

Holding their god, they walked toward a new story.

I shook my head wildly and crawled toward them.

They couldn't do this.

I had promised to end the Oldest Dream, to end this tragedy.

My hand, groping across the floor, finally found the broken sword hilt.

Good. If I had this...

【Kim Dokja.】

Secretive Plotter called to me.

When I looked up, he continued.

【Do you remember your first Scenario?】

The first Scenario, Proof of Value.

In that Scenario, Secretive Plotter and the Constellations had seen me for the first time.

【You told people then that the Scenario's Clear Conditions weren't Kill people.】

I remembered my promise to him.

“End the Oldest Dream.”

The world was covered in blinding light, and my vision began to blur.

My startled Allies gathered around me.

[You have kept your promise to Secretive Plotter.]

The young Kim Dokja, held by the Steel Sword Emperor and the Archangel, was looking at me. Light was returning to the child's eyes, which had been steeped in a long dream.

When did a dream end?

It was when...

「A dream stopped being a dream.」

Only then did I begin to understand everything.

The moment Yu Junghyeok from TWSA arrived here, the Oldest Dream had, for all intents and purposes, ended.

In the distance, I heard the next train arrive.

[The Constellation Secretive Plotter has reached his ■■.]

At Secretive Plotter's signal, my Allies and I were pulled into the arriving train.

"This is the epilogue of this story."

Those who had saved my childhood disappeared beyond the doors. Like the 1,863rd-round Yu Junghyeok, who had killed himself and crossed into a new worldline, they walked toward a world I didn't know.

Within those rays of light, I saw Junghyeok's faint smile.

He looked free.

[The Constellation Secretive Plotter's ■■ is Oldest Dream.]

Footnotes:

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