Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint - Chapter 516

WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 516: Episode 99: The Oldest Dream / The Most Ancient Dream (5)

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[The Fourth Wall has activated again!]

The light of the world flickered on and off several times. It felt as though my body was being pulled somewhere, and the sound of train wheels scraping against the rails filled my half-faded consciousness.

I couldn't accept it.

I knew it wasn't a matter of whether I accepted it, yet I still couldn't bring myself to accept that fact.

「Why did Secretive Plotter make that choice?」

I couldn't forget his expression at the end. How could he have worn that expression when he hadn't even achieved what he truly wanted?

「What did Se cretive Plot ter want?」

Images of Secretive Plotter as I remembered him passed through my mind.

The story I had known only through the original text. After enduring all those distant years, what had Yu Junghyeok wanted to see at the end?

What had he truly hoped for?

「【Even if it is an ending you don't want... don't think of this world as a failed round.】」

Only those words remained lodged in my mind like a curse.

「Kim Dok ja」

As if punishing my arrogance, [The Fourth Wall] warned me in its hard voice.

「This isn't a mat ter you can judge」

It was right. Even after he left, I still couldn't escape that damned Constellation.

Within the brilliant rays of light, Uriel, Hyeongseong, Namwoon, and Jihye of the 999th round scattered away.

Could he truly become happy?

Since he had chosen it himself, would that be his happiness?

Could someone born into tragedy fail to realize it was tragedy?

The fables of my younger self and Secretive Plotter drifted farther away.

At the final moment, the one who looked back this way was no longer Yu Junghyeok from TWSA.

「Be cause one was born in tragedy, one may al so be able to end tragedy」

「"This is the epilogue of this story."」

That was how the long story I had read came to an end.

[You have reached the ■■ of all Scenarios.]

[You have learned the secret of the world.]

All that remained was to somehow live through the story that came after.

The story TWSA had never told me.

[The Oldest Dream has ended.]

A thought suddenly occurred to me.

I had forgotten amid everything that had happened. The Dokkaebi King had said that all these worlds had originally been the Oldest Dream's dream.

「Then what happens to the people in the dream after the dream ends?」

The people of the 999th round and Secretive Plotter had escaped their status as characters and been freed from the dream through their own will.

Then what happened to everyone else?

After the dream ended, the people within it...

[The reward for clearing the Final Scenario has arrived.]

* * *

The sound of slaps striking cheeks. Kim Dokja slowly opened his eyes beneath the flickering lights of the subway.

"Hey, are you with us?"

Han Suyeong's face came into view. She had a rough grip on his collar.

"What happened?"

"I want to ask you that."

As if a headache were coming on, Dokja held his head and rose from his seat.

"Where are we?"

"On the subway. It's time for us to go home too."

Han Suyeong looked strangely refreshed as she said it.

The train rattled and swayed. Darkness rippled beyond the window.

"Dokja-ssi, are you okay?"

The Allies approached after spotting Dokja. Sangah was there, as were Hyeongseong, Huiwon, Yuseong, Gilyeong, Jihye, Hayoung...

And Yu Junghyeok, too.

「Everyone was safe.」

Dokja slowly looked around. There was no sign of anyone else inside the train. This was probably the train they had boarded when they came here.

「Are we truly safe now?」

"We treated your injuries. Once we return to [The Fourth Wall], we'll need to have Seolhwa-ssi look at you again..."

Sangah, who had been checking Dokja's pulse, gave him a faint smile. The Allies approached one by one. Yet even with Dokja right in front of them, no one could readily speak.

Unexpectedly, Junghyeok spoke first. Rather than approaching Dokja, he sat crookedly in a subway seat and looked outside.

The fables of the universe were unraveling beyond the window. A tangled skein of threads turned to dust, one strand at a time, and drifted away.

"It's the Star Stream."

The fables that existed across countless worldlines shone brightly all at once, illuminating the universe. The Star Stream they had lived in was there. The world they had cursed and resented, yet never given up on in the end, was disappearing as it gave off its brightest light one last time.

Yuseong tightly held Dokja's hand as he stared blankly at the sight.

"It's all over now."

Perhaps something welled up inside him, because Hyeongseong suddenly began to cry, his shoulders shaking. The bear-like man, who had never shed a single tear no matter what happened, wept without end. Huiwon bit her lip as she watched him, her nose stinging, while Jihye tilted her head back as if she didn't want her tears to fall.

"It really is over."

It was over. The story that had been so long and grand had finally come to an end.

Dokja watched the receding meteor showers. He watched them, then watched them again.

As though she knew what he was thinking, Suyeong said, "It didn't happen because you read it. You didn't know anything."

The Allies nodded as well. Every one of them knew that this might not be something they could simply move past.

Still, they looked at Dokja and his fable.

「A world where one couldn't live without reading.」

A child who had to read something in order to survive.

They had been saved by that child many times.

「Everyone had needed to read something in order to keep living.」

"You could've just read it, but you tried to change that story yourself, Dokja-ssi. I think that's enough."

It was Huiwon.

She had never reached the end of the world, from the beginning of TWSA to its end.

She smiled faintly and patted Dokja's shoulder.

"How about it? Is this the ending you wanted?"

Dokja couldn't answer. He had to wipe his eyes several times.

「So that he could see for himself the world he had achieved.」

When Dokja slowly opened his eyes, the black subway window reflected in his vision.

The faces of the others appeared on the glass, like a photograph set against the universe.

「The ending of the world he had wanted to see so badly.」

"I'm looking at it now."

As though they had been waiting for those words, Yuseong and Gilyeong wiped Dokja's tears. Dokja tightly embraced them both.

Someone asked, "We can be happy now, right?"

Only the vibration of the train leaving the station echoed now and then through the silence.

This train would probably never turn back again. They would never revisit the stations they had passed. From now on, they would head toward a new terminus.

While everyone was lost in their own thoughts, Jihye unexpectedly asked the practical question.

"What happens to the worldline we lived in?"

Under the others' gazes, Jihye awkwardly scratched her cheek.

"I mean, if what the Dokkaebi King said was right, this world is the Oldest Dream's dream. If that dream has ended..."

When the Final Wall shattered, time in the world they had lived in had stopped. If they took the train back to that world again―

[It's okay. Our world is fine.]

"Oh, I see. That's a relief then... Huh?"

Jihye looked at Dokja, then Hyeongseong, then Huiwon and Sangah. Yet no matter whom she looked at, they wore the same expression she did.

"Who just answered that?"

Everyone looked up into the air at once.

A ball of fluff was floating there.

[Baat?]

The Allies narrowed their eyes.

[Eo... baat.]

Biyoo, sweating profusely in midair, let out a sigh only after a long while.

[You all knew, so why are you surprised?]

* * *

The Allies listened to Biyoo's explanation. In short, this was what had happened.

[The worldline hasn't been destroyed yet. I don't know why, but... time in that stopped world has begun to be written again. Although the Great Fables collapsing all at once has shaken the worldview, even if we leave it alone, it'll take thousands of years before it naturally reaches destruction.]

Beyond the subway window, they could faintly see the world they had lived in. Time in that frozen world was moving again.

「Uriel slowly opened her eyes amid the ruins.」

「Black Flame Dragon slept with his tail curled around himself.」

「Great Sage Equaling Heaven, who had been wrapped within Cloud Somersault, looked up at the sky.」

The Constellations were alive.

Naval Warfare God, Goryeo's Top Swordsman... they were all alive.

They had lost the radiance they once possessed, but they were still alive and breathing on that worldline.

Biyoo watched those Constellations and said, [The Star Stream still remains. The channel system has collapsed, and the Constellations can't use power like they once did, but it was such a massive fable that it'll take a little longer to break apart completely.]

A few Allies let out sighs of relief. They were sighs even they couldn't understand.

Jihye asked again, "But the dream ended. How can the world keep going?"

[I told you I don't know that much either. Try to understand when I tell you once.]

"Well, it's a relief, but... when did you start being able to talk like that? And you've gotten awfully rude too. Mister! Look at Biyoo! That thing, so creepily, all this time―"

When Dokja looked at Biyoo, she immediately put on an innocent act as if nothing had happened.

[Abaat?]

The Allies burst into quiet laughter. Just as Jihye huffed and prepared to shout something, Dokja reached out and silently hugged Biyoo.

The ball of fluff that had been so small at the beginning of the first Scenario had now grown too large to hold in one embrace.

Junghyeok, who had been watching, said, "Perhaps it is the final miracle."

Miracle was a word that didn't suit Junghyeok. It was the word he trusted least in this world. Yet because of what he said, the others' expressions relaxed.

"Then everything really has been resolved."

"Now we just need to buy a huge house for all of us to live in!"

Suyeong scolded the children at their excited voices.

"That'll take an even bigger miracle. Our nebula is broke now. That guy spent everything in the final Scenario."

"We can earn it again! Who do you think we are?"

The Allies laughed as Gilyeong proudly shouted. As though afraid the laughter would stop, someone quickly asked, "Is there anything everyone wants to do?"

At those words, Yuseong and Gilyeong looked at each other and shouted.

"The Han River!"

"The ocean!"

"Pizza!"

"Chicken!"

Someone spoke between the children as they wrestled each other.

"I want to visit the place where I used to live."

It was Hayoung.

"The place where you used to live..."

Sangah's expression darkened at those words. It wasn't only Sangah. They all knew. The places where they had lived were gone now. Every place that had held their stories from before the apocalypse had vanished.

Was it magic? The scenery reflected beyond the window suddenly changed. The view of the universe scattered, and in its place was...

"Could it really be a miracle...?"

The Seoul they knew so well.

Station names began to reappear on the route map where the names had disappeared.

[This stop is Hongje, Hongje Station.]

Hayoung walked toward the door. Beyond the ruins of the destroyed terminal, the neighborhood she had lived in came into view. The subway was slowing down.

Huiwon asked, "There won't be anything there. Are you still going?"

Hayoung nodded. Huiwon gave a bitter smile.

Everyone has things they need to confirm, even when they know the outcome.

"Okay. Then let's meet again at the industrial complex later."

The train doors opened, and Hayoung walked out. Hayoung looked around in a daze before suddenly turning back, as if she had remembered something she wanted to say.

"Kim Dok―"

Before Hayoung's words could even be heard, the train started again.

The next to speak was Jihye, who had been quietly looking at the route map.

"There's somewhere I want to visit too."

As though she knew where Jihye wanted to go, Huiwon asked, "Want unni to come with you?"

"I'll go alone. I want to."

Jihye's smile was light. Huiwon's hand, which had risen awkwardly, lowered again.

"See you soon."

Jihye got off. In the distance, they could see the school she had attended.

The subway doors closed once more. Huiwon asked, "Anyone else want to go somewhere?"

No other Allies answered. Most of them had nowhere they wanted to return to.

But that didn't mean they had nowhere to go.

Sangah asked, "The rest of us are getting off together, right?"

"Can't we transfer from this train? We'll have to get off at Jongno 3-ga and walk."

Suyeong grumbled as she looked over the route map.

They were headed to Gwanghwamun, where the industrial complex was located.

"Everyone think about what you're going to tell people. We can't tell them everything."

[This stop is Jongno 3-ga, Jongno 3-ga Station.]

They said everything had been resolved, but that probably wasn't true.

Once they returned, they would have to face new daily lives.

「The train doors were opening.」

Sangah held the children's hands and stepped onto the platform with a heave.

When Dokja looked back, Hyeongseong and Huiwon had also jumped out, standing beyond the safety line.

"What are you doing? Aren't you coming?"

Three people remained.

"Kim Dokja."

It was impossible to tell whether Suyeong or Junghyeok had called him first.

Suyeong continued, eyeing him suspiciously.

"You're getting off with us, right?"

[Someone has activated the skill Lie Detection Lv.???―]

Dokja grinned.

"Of course. I have to get off."

[Lie Detection has confirmed that Kim Dokja's words are true.]

"Let's go."

Dokja stepped forward and gave their backs a smack. The two stumbled forward at the same time. Suyeong frowned and muttered something at him, while Junghyeok glared as he gripped his sword hilt.

Dokja said, "You know the Scenario is over now, right? Carrying swords is illegal from here on out―"

"You're talking nonsense. It isn't over yet, Kim Dokja."

"That's right. We still haven't found out who tls123 is―"

The doors were slowly closing. Amid the noisy voices, the story of a new world flowed onward. Dokja smiled happily, and the children chattered.

The story of a new world flowed onward.

At the final moment before the doors closed, Suyeong turned back. Her face looked uneasy and strange, as though she had left something behind there.

Junghyeok turned around with her.

Dokja was the only one who didn't look back.

Han Suyeong and Yu Junghyeok look back at the subway where Kim Dokja remained

Suyeong and Junghyeok met each other's eyes and growled at the same time.

"What are you looking at?"

"You should be asking yourself―"

Then the doors closed. The subway began to move through the silence. Leaving the station that had received a new story, it entered the infinite tracks once more. The station names written on the route map disappeared one by one.

In the distance, Junghyeok and Suyeong were bickering. The children smiled brightly as they held Dokja's hand, and Sangah looked up at the sky beneath her sunshade.

「And I quietly watched all of it.」

Then [The Fourth Wall] asked me.

「Are you re ally okay?」

The next moment, my transparent form began to appear in midair.

With a slight wave of dizziness, my materialized body fully appeared atop the subway.

[You have retained 51.00% of your memories.]

I gave a bitter smile.

"There was no other way."

When I looked up into the air, all the backlogged message logs appeared at once.

[You have cleared the Final Scenario.]

[You are the only person who knows every secret of this world.]

[The Oldest Dream is currently absent.]

[If the dream does not continue, time in the world will not flow.]

They were messages only I could see.

[You have gained the qualification to take the place of the Oldest Dream.]

[Would you like to continue the dream?]

If I stopped this dream, the world would freeze forever.

「It was cruel. The world that had barely become able to find happiness would stop forever.」

It was a universe that had begun in tragedy, yet it had already been born.

There were people in that universe who wanted to find happiness, and they had finally arrived at the stations they wanted.

「Yu seong and Gilyeong will be sad」

"I know."

「You de ceived them」

"At least I didn't lie."

I looked into the air and said, "A part of me certainly got off with them."

It was a skill Secretive Plotter had given me when I had once visited the 1,863rd round.

「[What will you do about the skill? You won't be able to acquire a new skill.]」

「"That's right. In exchange, can I receive my reward in this form?"」

「[That is possible.]」

Strictly speaking, what I received then wasn't a skill.

[The Bookmark skill is currently active.]

[With the protection of the Oldest Dream, the activation time limit for this skill has been changed to unlimited.]

[Bookmark No. 6 is currently active.]

[The character registered to Bookmark No. 6 is Director of the False Finale.]

Director of the False Finale, Han Suyeong of the 1,863rd round.

[Your understanding of this character is quite high!]

[The Exclusive Skill Avatar Lv.??? is currently active!]

[You have created an Avatar using 49.00% of your memories.]

[Your connection to the Avatar has been severed due to the influence of the current worldline.]

[That Avatar will act with an independent will.]

"This is right."

I staggered as I searched through the fragments of my fading memories.

The other me would live without knowing that he was an Avatar.

He would live in a huge house with the others.

He would go to the sea with Gilyeong and eat pizza with Yuseong. He would see Jihye enter university, give bouquets to Hyeongseong and Huiwon, go house hunting with Sangah, and search for tls123 with Junghyeok.

He would read the novel Suyeong wrote.

Through that, I am saved. From beginning to end, I had always been the one who was saved.

So this was my small atonement for them.

「You will re gret it you will never see them again」

I smiled silently.

"But I can still watch them."

Just as it had a very long time ago, the story would continue.

"That's enough."

I watched the rear of the train disappear into the darkness.

I could no longer see the others clearly.

「And they all lived happily ever after.」

I had always hated that sentence.