WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 528: Episode 101: Something That Exists Nowhere (3)

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I stared blankly up at the naked man with gleaming eyes.

I couldn't make sense of the situation.

"I asked if you're Big Brother."

"No, wait. I'm the one asking questions here. Who are you? And what's Big Brother?"

"Doesn't look like you're Big Brother. How did you break through the Time Waterfall? And what is this train? A subway... Some kind of Tower of Nightmares? What principle does it operate on?"

He was impossible to talk to. He'd broken into someone else's train, yet all he did was rattle off whatever he wanted to say.

I immediately activated [Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint].

Then I saw a message I had never seen before.

[This individual is a Character from a worldview you do not know.]

A Character from a world I didn't know?

That was when a brilliant light burst from the man's pupils.

[Someone is using power not registered in the system!]

A circle spun furiously across his retina.

[An existence from another dimension is peering into your essence!]

[Warning! This power cannot be completely blocked by The Fourth Wall!]

What?

Sparks flew before my eyes, and the fables inside me exploded at once, as if responding to the other side's power.

The one reacting most fiercely was...

[The essence of the Stigma Regression writhes.]

[The fable Eternal Hellscape bares its teeth!]

In an instant, the subway's interior changed into the hellscape Yu Junghyeok had lived through. The man looked startled as he took in the world stained red with blood.

"This Unique World... Could you be a regressor?"

Unique World?

Just as I was about to ask what kind of Kim Namwoon nonsense that was, hatred rippled through his dark sword.

"You're someone who turns away from the present. Die."

The moment the flash gathered at the sword's tip moved toward me.

[The train has entered its normal track.]

[The authority of the Oldest Dream has activated!]

[Expelling impurities within the system!]

Whoosh!

The man who had aimed his sword at me was sucked out through the doors.

"Where do you think you're going!"

Yet he endured the subway's acceleration with his sword embedded in the doorway.

That was when my body was transported to another car.

[Activating the emergency power system!]

[Discarding one subway car for ejection.]

When I turned around, the last car, with the man still clinging to it, was floating through space. I saw the furious man leap toward us. As he charged after us with every muscle in his body bulging, I felt an inexplicable fear.

"Move! He's chasing us!"

「D on't w orry. H e c an't l eave the T ime S tratum」

The man pursued the subway at incredible speed, but he couldn't board the train again. It was as if an invisible wall stood between him and the train. He ran desperately along the tracks, then eventually stopped and glared blankly at us.

Only after his figure receded into the distance did I finally catch my breath.

"What the hell was that?"

「M onarch S layer J aehwan」

Monarch Slayer?

「A m onster w ho h as t rained f or b illions o f y ears o r m ore i n t he T ime S tratum」

For a moment, I thought I'd misheard.

"How many years?"

「I d on't k now e xactly. H e's b een t here s ince b efore I w as c reated」

Someone older than even The Fourth Wall. The sheer length of time was enough to give me chills.

Could a human endure billions of years without going insane?

Then again, he already didn't seem sane.

"Why has he been trapped there for billions of years?"

「T o d estroy t he s ystem o f t he u niverse h e b elongs t o」

"We won't run into him again, right?"

The Fourth Wall didn't answer, perhaps because it was tired. It seemed to be repairing the damaged train.

I dusted off the coat Jaehwan's sword had grazed. That thrust had been truly incredible. None of the Constellations or Transcendents I'd met so far could have delivered a thrust like that.

Could billions of years turn a human into something like that?

Once the system restoration was complete, fables from the worldlines began appearing in the train windows again. There was Yu Junghyeok from the first round, glaring up at the sky with fierce eyes. I glared back at him for a moment, then suddenly felt afraid of something.

"The Fourth Wall."

「What」

"How old is Junghyeok now?"

* * *

"We leave in a week."

Yu Junghyeok's Stigma had finally finished evolving. Everyone who had decided to join Project <Squid Capture> began preparing to leave.

"Aileen-ssi, Boksun-ssi, Yeongran-ssi. Please take care of the industrial complex."

"So you've decided to go after all."

As people saw her off, Lee Sukyeong smiled faintly.

"Yes."

Not everyone had decided to leave.

"We can't go."

The so-called Anna Team, led by Anna Croft, chose to remain in this worldline.

"The system is weakening, and the world closest to the ending I envisioned has arrived. So we'll stay in this world. But someone on our team wants to go... Will you accept her?"

The only member of Anna Team to join <Squid Capture> was Selena Kim. She smiled awkwardly and would only say that she owed Kim Dokja a debt she had to repay.

Han Suyeong made one final check.

"Anyone else going? Is that all from the industrial complex?"

Unexpectedly, Han Myeongoh raised his hand after glancing around.

"What? Old man, you're obviously going."

"I raised my hand to say I wasn't."

"What?"

She knew Myeongoh and Dokja hadn't gotten along at first. Still, after everything they'd been through in the Scenarios, she thought they had grown at least a little fond of each other...

"I can't go."

Only then did Suyeong notice the girl standing beside Myeongoh, holding his hand.

「There are those who can never join this regression.」

Suyeong quietly studied the girl's face. She looked like a teenage girl, but mentally, she probably wasn't even five years old yet.

Those born after the Scenarios began couldn't take part in the regression. Back then, this child hadn't even existed.

Suyeong gazed at Myeongoh's aged face, then spoke.

"Alright. You stay here, old man."

"Please take care of Dokja-ssi."

"Take care of yourself. Since you're staying, help out at the industrial complex, too. We'll be short-handed with all of us gone. If you hole up at home playing games, I'll cross worldlines and beat the shit out of you. Seriously."

That was when vehicles came rushing in from afar. A crowd poured out of black sedans and surged toward them like a tide.

"Representative Han Suyeong! Please give us an interview!"

Suyeong frowned.

"Is it true that you're planning a Group Regression with the regressor?"

Suyeong's face was displayed on the panel in the square, broadcasting live in real time. The bright LIVE indicator was attached to the screen. Her masked face was already being broadcast nationwide without her permission.

"We understand that Representative Kim Dokja values reality more than anyone. Why, then, have you made such plans?"

"What will happen to this worldline? Are you abandoning this world?"

Suyeong gave a bitter smile as reporters pressed her as though she were the greatest traitor in the world.

"Abandon the world? Us? Is the world our property or something?"

"But surely you have a responsibility to this world...!"

"Does this world still need us? The Scenarios are over."

The reporters' expressions changed in an instant. Their shining lenses zoomed in on Suyeong's face as though they'd landed a scoop. Checking her own reflection in the panel, Suyeong continued.

"What would change if we stayed? You'd just make more ridiculous laws to regulate us. Do you think I don't know Donghoon is desperately blocking bills in the National Assembly? You don't need us. You're afraid of us."

"But we don't know when the Scenarios might start again! If the dokkaebis appear in the world once more..."

Suyeong smiled. Since things had turned out this way, she figured it was for the best.

"You mean something like that?"

Where Suyeong looked, something floated in the air like a large hot-air balloon. The reporters who recognized it screamed as if they were about to faint.

[I am Biyoo, the Dokkaebi King of this worldline.]

It was as imposing as if the Scenarios were beginning again.

The origin of terror that had brought ruin to this world.

As if she understood their fear, Biyoo smiled.

[Everything born will one day perish. But this planet will be fine. Unless nuclear war breaks out, it will be okay for at least tens of thousands of years. As long as you avoid the occasional meteorite, that is.]

The reporters' eyes widened as they heard those words from a dokkaebi.

But the real surprise came next.

[Your Main Scenario is over. But... I still have authority over Sub Scenarios.]

At the words Sub Scenario, the reporters' faces turned pale.

"R-run! That dokkaebi is going to...!"

Then a message appeared before their eyes.

[A new■ Sub Scen■ario has arrived■!]

Perhaps because of the Administration Bureau's collapse, the message window wasn't clear. Even so, its contents were easy to read.

[Nothing about participating in this Scenario is compulsory. I'll accept only those who wish to join, and I'll carefully select only qualified applicants.]

[This Sub Scenario is voluntary.]

[Because the Star Stream has perished, I have nothing to offer you as a reward. But if you help Kim Dokja Company.]

Biyoo smiled as though satisfied with her image on the panel.

[At least, you'll be able to relive the time you regretted.]

* * *

A week passed.

[There is a new applicant for the Sub Scenario Squid Capture.]

Those who had barely survived until the end of the Scenarios.

Those who had lost something precious gathered in Seoul one by one.

Junghyeok frowned as he looked at the crowd.

"There are too many. This may be difficult."

"We need to take as many as possible. That way, we can save more people."

At a glance, there were over five hundred applicants. Kim Dokja Company's Allies carefully interviewed them and analyzed their rounds to identify those with disqualifying issues. Junghyeok and Suyeong trained them for the most part, teaching them the necessary skills.

After filtering them again and again, a hundred people remained. Those hundred were all they could take with them in this regression.

"Can we really go back to the past?"

The one who asked was Julius, who possessed the Three Great Judges Attribute.

Ranked fifty-second among the Strongest Hundred. His epithet was Judge of Wrath.

He had lost his family in his homeland, along with all his friends and Companions, and had survived until now with his resentment and rage toward the world.

He wasn't the only one.

Asuka Ren of Japan was there. Even Peihu of China and Rannvir Khan of India had come. The strongest Incarnations to survive the Scenarios had all gathered there.

Julius pressed them.

"Tell us now! We've held back and endured all this training, haven't we? Is it really true that we can return to the past?"

"No. It's a lie."

"What do you mean...? Then why did you gather us here...?"

"The place you're going isn't the past. It's just another worldline. No matter what humans do, they can never go to the past."

"I didn't come here to hear something so obvious..."

"What has already happened can never be changed. Everyone you love is dead."

At that calm voice, everyone fell silent. It was the voice of the only human in this world who had experienced regression.

"They won't remember you. They are different from the people who died in your memories. They won't remember a single moment they spent with you. Whenever you speak to them, you will realize that the time you lived through will never return."

Every word carried profound pain. They were the words of someone who had lived alone, remembering a vanished world.

"You will grow lonelier, and eventually you will be alone. No one will understand your pain. Instead of understanding it, the world will call you regressors and curse you for stealing someone's future. You will belong nowhere and die while still alive."

That was the curse of regression.

"Will you still regress?"

This was the final test for becoming regressors.

The people who had come to become regressors looked at one another. Some, frightened by the warning, stepped back. Others who had already made their decision slowly took a deep breath. Then someone stepped forward.

It was Asuka Ren.

A Japanese woman who had fought alongside Kim Dokja Company in peace land.

Someone who had lost more Companions there than anyone else.

"I know that no matter what I do, I can't get back what I've lost. But if I regress..."

Asuka gripped her katana tightly and raised her head.

"At least, I can save that worldline."

Then people began to gather around her, one by one.

"It doesn't matter if my pain is meaningless. Even if everything is an illusion."

"If I can save them just once, even one time...!"

That was their will. Some were overcome by passion, while others were steeped in sorrow.

All of them longed for the past.

Junghyeok knew.

「They will regret it in the end.」

He could have told them. He could have repeated the words his Companions had told him through countless regressions.

「"Captain. You must live in the present. Do not remain bound to the past."」

「"It's all just a delusion."」

The Companions who died in the previous round said such things in this round.

Whenever he heard them, Junghyeok endured in silence as he polished his sword.

They didn't understand.

There were people in this world who could never live in the present.

"Take us with you, Supreme King."

That was why Junghyeok, the regressor, understood the people before him.

The past alone was the present they had chosen, and no one could call that choice wrong.

No, perhaps one person would call it wrong.

「"Don't delude yourself into thinking the next round will be better because you abandoned this one. Maybe this round you're trying to discard is the one and only round where you can see the end of the world as a human."」

Junghyeok slowly closed his eyes.

Could he answer Kim Dokja's words now? He didn't know.

But at least one thing was certain.

「There were people in this world who wanted to see a certain story, even if it meant giving up being human.」

Junghyeok stood and spoke.

"We're leaving. Call the Constellations."

Footnotes:

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