WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 517: Epilogue 1: The Zeroth World (1)
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The sight of a galaxy stretched beyond the pitch-black window. With my forehead pressed against the cold glass, I watched that dark scenery endlessly.
I couldn't tell how much time had passed. I wanted to look back. If I did, it felt as though they would still be there.
「Kim Dokja had finally stopped crying.」
"I wasn't crying, you brat."
「He lied, too.」
"How long are you going to keep narrating? The story's over now."
[The Fourth Wall] giggled. Drawing a little strength from that laughter, I looked back at the rear window once more. What I wanted to see was no longer reflected there. The Earth where I had lived had drifted beyond my reach.
Of course, that didn't mean I wasn't there.
[The Avatar skill is active.]
[Your connection to the Avatar has been severed due to the separation of worldlines.]
[Your Avatar will continue its life through an arbitrary self-process.]
Forty-nine percent of me.
[That Avatar is now completely beyond your control.]
He would never know he was an Avatar.
He would simply live out the rest of his life as Kim Dokja, with my allies.
「Why 4 9 percent?」
"I tried to split it exactly fifty-fifty, but it didn't work out."
「Why 4 9 percent?」
The same question. I couldn't hide anything from [The Fourth Wall].
"You already know."
「Th at is n't like you.」
"No, this is exactly like me."
A pathetic, childish, selfish thing that 'Kim Dokja' would do at a decisive moment.
「Two percent.」
That number proved that I remembered my allies better, and it was the self-deception that I was closer to the Kim Dokja my allies remembered than the Avatar was.
Even if no one knew me here, even if my allies' story one day came to an end... it was my vow that at least I would never forget them.
「Do you re gret it?」
The subway rattled softly. It was empty, and the hand straps that no one held swayed weakly.
「Don't be lone ly.」
"I'm not lonely."
I slowly took a deep breath.
I'd experienced something like this before. When I became the Demon King of Salvation and first fell onto the Horizon of the story. In some ways, this was better than then. I didn't have to suffer something like a Scenario departure penalty now.
There was one difference, though.
「You can never meet your allies again.」
"Do I have to stay on this subway forever?"
「Sta y?」
"I'm asking if there's any way to leave."
[The Fourth Wall] fell silent for a moment, as if trying to understand what I meant, then answered.
「There is no con cept of en tering or lea ving here.」
"What are you talking about?"
「This is the Dream Sanc tuary. The place where the Old est Dream sleeps.」
As I listened, I realized something.
Every worldline related to TWSA was a dream of the Oldest Dream.
「Every world is a dream born here.」
Pop!
Every subway window changed into a screen at once.
At first, I thought they were advertisements inserted into a particular section of the train. But there was no way there could be advertisements here. A faint headache washed over me, and scenes from worldlines scattered across the universe began to flow across the windows.
Countless Scenarios unfolding in other worldlines were there.
Only then did I truly realize what I had become.
「He was the Oldest Dream.」
With trembling steps, I approached the window. The screen quivered lightly like water and looked so fragile that I felt I could break it at any moment.
「Kim Dokja was afraid.」
I knew without anyone telling me.
Every story in this world existed only when a reader read it.
「If he did not watch, the world would stop.」
To watch the world without end, and to dream.
「That was the burden borne by the Oldest Dream.」
I slowly closed and opened my eyes. I had chosen all of this. And being able to see was naturally better than seeing nothing at all.
After all, I had become the ultimate Constellation, capable of casting a lecherous gaze over every worldline.
"Fourth Wall."
「Why?」
"The Oldest Dream could act as a Constellation too, right?"
The previous Oldest Dream had sent messages to the round where I lived as a Constellation. Although the previous Oldest Dream was the subconscious of a child who knew nothing, that subconscious had clearly intervened in the system.
「That 's right.」
"Then contacting the worldline I lived in again as a Constellation..."
「Do you think that would be pos sible?」
"Isn't it?"
「Whether it is pos sible or not is n't the is sue.」
I thought about those words for a moment, then bit down hard on my lip.
"Right. I shouldn't do that. I know."
I remembered everything my allies and I had gone through to reach this ending.
We had fought to get rid of the Constellations, to destroy the system of the Star Stream. And we had succeeded.
If I brought the Star Stream back to that worldline now...
「For tunately, even if you want to, you can't.」
"Why? I'm the Oldest Dream now. If I imagine something, doesn't it become real?"
「Even the Old est Dream can't con trol every thing.」
Tzzzzt!
Sparks leaped lightly.
It seemed that the current me wasn't in a state where I could exert enough influence as the Oldest Dream.
「You still lack con trol over dreams.」
That made sense. If dreams could be controlled so easily, they wouldn't be called dreams. Maybe it would become possible someday, but not yet.
I bit my lip for a moment before continuing.
"Then... what about just watching?"
Something inside me stirred.
A "me" I couldn't control. I could feel a vast subconscious coiled inside me. That subconscious extended its roots toward other worldlines and drew up their stories through those roots.
Scenes from worldlines unfolded like a kaleidoscope in my darkened vision.
「The scenery of the world he missed so dearly.」
The faint lights of the industrial complex glowed in the distance. I could see my allies from behind as they entered it. There wasn't a trace of darkness on any of their faces. At the center of the people walking shoulder to shoulder stood another Kim Dokja, wearing a white coat.
I knew. I knew, and yet.
My heart raced wildly, and my breathing quickened. Gasping, I screamed. Fighting back the nausea that surged up, I shook my head and opened my eyes.
When I braced myself against the floor in my dizziness, I was alone on the subway.
「Why? Don't you want to se e?」
I did.
I wanted to see my allies' happy faces, the expressions they wore after finally escaping the hell of the Scenarios.
I wanted to read the story I had wanted so badly. But I couldn't look at it.
If I did, I would definitely want to return.
"I have to watch, right? If I don't watch, the world won't move, right?"
「You are al ready wat ching.」
"What?"
「Con sciousness is only a small part of the sub conscious. You are al ready wat ching most world lines.」
"Then..."
「You don't need to force your self, Kim Dok ja.」
[The Fourth Wall] continued, sounding as though it pitied me.
「You don't need to do any thing. Your sub conscious is already wat ching.」
I could simply forget everything and close my eyes. Like a pure child without guilt, it would be fine if I only ran and played in my dreams. There was no reason to hurt myself by dwelling on tragedy again. That was what [The Fourth Wall] was telling me.
「But Kim Dokja was not a child.」
"I can't do that."
I wiped away my cold sweat.
All those worldlines were my sin. I created them, and I destroyed them.
"I have to watch."
This was the only atonement I could make.
As I slowly rose to my feet, scenes from worldlines appeared across the windows.
The countless worldlines of TWSA. The tragedies of those who had come into being because I had read TWSA were displayed there.
Perhaps there was something I had to see before my allies' story.
As though it knew, [The Fourth Wall] spoke.
「It will be a very long night, Kim Dok ja.」
It would be. I smiled.
"Don't worry. I can do this. This is my favorite story. I can enjoy watching it until I die."
「Some day, you may come to hate the sto ry you love most.」
"If that happens."
Reaching for the scene floating on the screen, I said,
"That will be the price I pay."
As I slowly pressed against the window, my fingerprint appeared on the screen.
[The world has received your gaze.]
[One worldline has gained vitality within your consciousness.]
.
.
.
When I opened my eyes again, my body was floating about a handspan and a half above the floor. It felt as though I had left my body.
At the murmur of voices, I turned and saw people gathering nearby. They passed through my body as if they couldn't see me.
Every one of them wore the exhausted face of an office worker heading home.
This was...
When I looked around, I saw the orange Line 3 stripe. I was standing on a subway platform. The current time and train information were displayed on an LED panel installed on the ceiling.
[PM 6:55]
Exactly five minutes before the Scenario began.
Soon, the Bulgwang-bound train arrived with an announcement chime. People boarded one by one. If I could, I wanted to stop them. But nothing would change even if I did. The Scenario would begin wherever they were. All I could do was board the subway with them and watch every tragedy unfold.
「And there was a face Kim Dokja knew very well.」
Bulgwang-bound 3434 Train. Car 3707.
A man was there, blankly staring out the subway window.
I watched his face for a moment, then let out a small laugh.
It was obvious when I thought about it.
All these worldlines repeated through one person's Regression. So it was only natural that I would meet him at the beginning of the story.
「The protagonist of this world.」
Naturally, Yu Junghyeok didn't notice me at all.
He only stared out of the subway with an indifferent gaze, lost in thought. Though he knew the Scenario was about to begin, his face was calm. I couldn't help but admire him as I watched.
You really are incredible, you bastard.
Even I, who had already seen the end of the Scenarios, shuddered just from entering this scene again. You must have endured moments like this dozens, hundreds of times.
The train that had been stopped began to move, and time began to pass. If events unfolded as I knew they should, it would begin soon.
「In the third round, Yu Junghyeok began by killing everyone in the car.」
I recalled the beginning of the third round I knew. I didn't know which round this was, but the beginning shouldn't be all that different. As I slowly observed the area, I spotted a man acting suspiciously near the doors.
"Huff... huu..."
At the intermittent groans coming from him, a few people turned their heads. The man's face was twisted. He grinned as he looked around, then pulled a homemade bomb and a lighter from within his clothes.
「On the day paid content began, there was someone riding Car 3707 with Yu Junghyeok.」
"What's that?"
"Hey, you!"
「Subway terrorist Choi Hangyu.」
Startled passengers screamed and backed away.
Crackle, crackle!
Sparks leaped from the man's hand, and people recoiled in terror. The area descended into chaos.
Yu Junghyeok watched the man without moving.
Hey, what are you doing? Take that away from him already.
If events unfolded as I knew they should, Junghyeok should have subdued Choi Hangyu and taken the bomb the moment he boarded the train. Yet Junghyeok didn't.
Why? Junghyeok's previously calm face had gone pale.
Screeech!
The train went dark.
As sparks jumped in the darkness, people's screams became shrieks.
Something was wrong.
「Why wasn't Yu Junghyeok moving?」
Wait, could this be...
[PM 7:00]
Tick.
The laws of the world were changing.
[The free service for Planetary System 8612 has ended.]
[The Main Scenario has begun.]
Junghyeok's pale face was lit by the bright flame the terrorist had ignited. His pupils shook with fear. Junghyeok was still standing there blankly, unable to do anything. I was just as bewildered. The pages of TWSA began flipping through my mind.
Which round was this? Was it when he lost it in the 900s? Or the 1,200s?
In what round had Junghyeok been this dumb...
[Channel #BI-7623 has opened.]
[Constellations have entered.]
"Huff, hehe, huuuh...!"
As the terrorist gripped the bomb and glared around, people began running toward the other cars.
[Few Constellations have taken an interest in the Incarnation Choi Hangyu.]
And Junghyeok still didn't move. The Junghyeok I knew couldn't possibly be like this. In every round, Junghyeok was the one who controlled the situation from the beginning with perfect showmanship. Yet in the face of the terrorist's threat, Junghyeok wore a stupid expression I had never seen before.
Never seen before. Never?
It felt as though lightning struck my mind.
I see. This story...
Countless pages flipped forward in my head, then the book closed.
A round that had only been handled as a flashback even within TWSA.
Some stories began where nothing had been written.
"P-please... save me!"
"Aaaaah!"
「This story was the unknown beginning of TWSA.」
This worldline was Yu Junghyeok's zeroth round, one I had never read.
Footnotes:
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