WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 532: Epilogue 3: Author's Words (1)

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My slowly outstretched thumb touched the cold screen.

At that moment, something like sparks rippled across it.

[A new file has been updated.]

―Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World (Final Revised Version).TXT

The filename had changed in that brief moment.

Final revised version?

Almost unconsciously, I opened the file.

But why was the scroll bar almost at the very bottom? The file felt as though editing had just been completed. Without thinking, I scrolled down further.

Had an epilogue to TWSA that I had never seen been added?

The file continued even after the main story had ended. It was a story I had never seen before.

Without thinking, I read it aloud.

Epilogue 3: Author's Words

Every round reaches its ending in its own way.

Suyeong's 1,863rd round, which had begun with Secretive Plotter's scheme, was no exception.

[You have cleared every Scenario in the Star Stream.]

She had done it. Countless sentences flashed through her mind the moment she saw that message.

The fallen Dokkaebi King before her, and the Allies of the 1,863rd round whom she had led here.

"Captain! We won!"

Namwoon sobbed uncontrollably. As Hyeongseong approached to support her, Suyeong finally felt the reality of her success.

「This was the end of the 1,863rd round.」

It had been a long fight. The Suyeong of the third round had suddenly been summoned to the 1,863rd round, and she had struggled until reaching an ending of her own in this world... There had been several times when she nearly gave up. Yet she had not given up until the very end because of what that guy had said back then.

「"It's better to move on to the next Scenario than sleep forever."」

The guy who had come from the same third round as her.

The man who wore the same coat and used the same weapon.

「"Just because the Apocalypse Dragon has been released doesn't mean it's all over. You know that, don't you?"」

He had ruined her plans, released the Apocalypse Dragon, and ultimately forced even Junghyeok out of the Scenario. Even now, she could vividly recall that moment whenever she closed her eyes. A single "character" breaking free of their story and finding freedom...

"Captain, we did it. We really did it!"

Suyeong extinguished the cigarette in her hand and spoke to the overjoyed Hyeongseong.

"Help the others and get back already."

"What about you, Captain...?"

"I'm going to have one more cigarette, then I'll go. You all go ahead."

"I can't do that. Captain, you should come with us-"

He was dull, but he caught on quickly.

Suyeong signaled to the Archangel beside Hyeongseong.

"Jophiel."

Jophiel, Commander of the Red Cosmos.

The Archangel who had crossed into this worldline with that guy from the third round.

[Let's go, lump.]

"No, Captain!"

Watching the Archangel return to Earth with the Allies, Suyeong took out her last cigarette. The TWSA Allies drifted farther away. Watching them weep with the fulfillment of having cleared every Scenario, Suyeong gave a bitter smile.

Jophiel spread their wings and looked back as they flew away.

―Are you planning to go alone?

Instead of answering, Suyeong waved her lit cigarette.

Once every Ally had disappeared, Suyeong slowly turned around.

「The Final Wall.」

It was the wall that prevented the end of this worldline, a wall that recorded everything in the universe.

Suyeong knew this wall existed. She even knew how to open it. There were glimpses she had caught after connecting with the Suyeong of the third round, but above all, the information she had gained through Dokja's visit to this round had been decisive.

[The Wall That Determines Reincarnation has returned to its place.]

Suyeong began fitting the walls she had collected in advance into place, one by one.

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

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

Still, one piece was missing.

The piece possessed by only one person in the entire universe, [The Fourth Wall].

Suyeong stared down at her hand for a while, then slowly placed it against the indentation in the wall.

[The fable Predictive Plagiarism begins its story.]

She did not have that wall.

But could she not at least create a similar piece?

[The fable Ultimate Lie begins its story!]

Suyeong began squeezing out every fable she could imagine.

Once, she had seen the true form of [The Fourth Wall]. When she had used [Eye of Truth] and been blocked by [The Fourth Wall], she had clearly seen a part of that wall.

[The fable Predictive Plagiarism has activated to its limit!]

Suyeong's rapidly moving fingers began writing fables. The fable of the wall as she imagined it. The one story that must make up that wall.

「"I am a reader."」

「Kim Dokja (Gold, Alone, Child). My father gave me that name so I would become a man strong even on my own.」

The next moment, Suyeong's fingertips slipped into the wall.

Then came her arm, her shoulder, her head and torso... and at last, every part of her seeped into the wall.

[The system of the Final Wall is startled by your fable information!]

[The system has temporarily malfunctioned!]

Holding back the nausea rising in her throat, Suyeong groped across the floor.

She had succeeded.

She had safely entered that damned wall.

The first thing she saw when she raised her head was a small room. Inside were several tightly packed bundles and a few small video panels.

The fable playing on the panels was one she knew as well.

「The Constellation Demon King of Salvation has reached his ■■.」

「The ■■ of the Demon King of Salvation is Eternity.」

The ending of the third round. That guy had also carried out the Scenarios to the end in his worldline.

And so, he had finally chosen to become this world's only reader.

「"In a world without Scenarios, a baby with a dreadful imagination, left with nothing but the desire to see the next story..."」

He would continue growing smaller until one day, he became this world's subconscious. Then he would continue the never-ending story.

The Suyeong of the 1,863rd round knew that. As for how she knew, she simply did.

'I would have reached an ending that way, too.'

This world was a world for stories.

Junghyeok's story and Dokja's story were, in the end, only stories moving toward a single completion.

Suyeong watched the subway moving farther away on the screen. For a long time, she watched the god of this universe as he headed toward a world no one knew or remembered.

A few steps ahead of her stood a being dabbing at its tears with a handkerchief as it watched the screen.

[Eek?]

"Are you really the Dokkaebi King?"

[How did you get in here?]

The Dokkaebi King they had clearly killed was standing there, perfectly unharmed.

Suyeong drew the Black Heaven Demon Blade from her bosom.

"No wonder you seemed so weak. Why didn't you fight properly? What are you doing here?"

[Uh, wait a moment. The Scenario has already ended. I have no intention of fighting you.]

There truly was no fighting spirit coming from the Dokkaebi King as they waved both hands.

The Dokkaebi King's eyes lit up upon seeing sparks lightly leaping from Suyeong's entire body. The King's gaze was fixed on the Final Wall, which had malfunctioned.

[You're copying the Final Wall? How can you possess such astonishing talent... Just who are you? Your soul is... It is like the sum of all talent.]

"What were you thinking, putting up a scarecrow like that? Are you looking down on this worldline?"

[Heheh, looking down on it? The stories of every worldline are precious. It is just... This worldline no longer has much meaning. Its most important fable has just ended.]

As they said that, the Dokkaebi King turned back toward the panel.

Suyeong quietly began to summon a fable, and the Dokkaebi King gave a crooked smile.

[Why are you so angry? Your story ended safely, didn't it?]

"Don't interfere with this worldline's ending."

The moment she said that, the panel showed the 1,863rd round.

Hyeongseong and Namwoon were supporting each other. The Allies' backs appeared in a wide shot.

[Ah, of course. It is not an important worldline anyway...]

Watching the Dokkaebi King shrug indifferently, Suyeong felt an inexplicable emptiness.

Was this how the story of this round ended?

Was it really all right for it to end this way?

[And above all... The new Oldest Dream probably would not want to see such a thing.]

At those words, Suyeong unknowingly looked up into the empty air.

The Oldest Dream.

The Dokja she knew had become such a being.

Which meant that guy might be watching this scene right now.

[Do you think he would answer just because you look up like that? There were people who believed in gods in your world, too. Did those gods answer every time humans called for them?]

"That's different."

[Well... Think whatever you like. More importantly, I'm about to make my escape. May I go now?]

"Where are you going?"

[The story of this worldline has ended, so I should go somewhere else. I have worked hard all this time, and there is somewhere I have always wanted to visit...]

"You're just going to toss the Scenario aside like that and run off?"

[You should have been born in a worldline with a diligent Dokkaebi King.]

Suyeong frowned and released her aura again.

"After coming all this way... shouldn't you at least give me a completion reward?"

The Dokkaebi King sighed.

[Fine. Granting one wish is easy enough.]

"I want to meet that guy."

For a moment, Suyeong did not understand why she had said that.

「"Because you're there, too."」

「"I trusted the you in the third round."」

She could not quite understand what this suffocating feeling was.

Still, she thought that if she met him again, she could find out what it was.

The Dokkaebi King tilted their head.

[By that guy, you mean...]

Suyeong gestured at the screen with her chin, and the Dokkaebi King cried out in shock.

[Are you blind? He is no longer someone I can meet.]

"A version of him from another worldline is fine. It doesn't have to be the guy who saw the end."

Dokja was no longer visible on the screen.

"I want to meet that guy just one more time."

[There is only one of him in this universe.]

If the Dokkaebi King was being that firm, then it truly must be impossible.

Seeing Suyeong's disappointment, the Dokkaebi King opened their mouth with a mysterious expression.

[Well, there is one way to grant your wish.]

"What?"

[It is a worldline that is normally off-limits, but when the Oldest Dream was newly enthroned, I memorized its access coordinates. ...But the Oldest Dream there will not recognize you.]

Suyeong brightened.

"Where is it?"

[The place I intended to visit. Once this universe's grand epic ended, I wanted to go there first.]

As they spoke, the Dokkaebi King stretched both arms high into the sky. The lofty universe of the Star Stream spread out there. Looking up at that sight with a solemn expression, the Dokkaebi King said,

[Aren't you curious? Where did this universe begin? Who built this galaxy of intricate fables? Who created something called a Scenario in this world? Who completed this contradictory world, where the result creates the cause and the cause gives birth to the result?]

Suyeong realized the Dokkaebi King's purpose. The King was trying to head for the worldline where this universe had begun.

「The place where Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World began.」

"You!"

「The universe where tls123 exists.」

[I am going to meet my god. If you wish, I will let you join the journey!]

With a roar, the Plausibility Backlash began raging between Suyeong and the Dokkaebi King. In the pain that felt as if her entire soul were being torn apart, she caught a glimpse of the Dokkaebi King's smile.

[Let's survive and meet again.]

That was the end of the 1,863rd round Suyeong remembered.

* * *

When she sat upright with a gasp, it was two in the morning. Her back was soaked in sweat. The ticking sound of a clock's second hand reached her ears.

Was it a dream?

Suyeong groggily got out of bed. Soft blankets wrapped around her limbs. For some reason, the bed felt unfamiliar. She drank the water on the nightstand, then entered the bathroom connected to the bedroom and switched on the light. The orange light pushed back the darkness, revealing her face in the mirror. A bob that had grown to her shoulders. A beauty mark that stood out more whenever she narrowed her eyes. It was unmistakably her face.

It was her face, but...

"What is this?"

Her chest suddenly felt tight.

[You have entered the First Worldline.]

Plastic models and comic books were displayed on the dressing table. Suyeong rushed out of the bathroom. A familiar-looking school bag lay beside the bed. The darkness in the house no longer felt unfamiliar. She opened the school bag with trembling hands and found textbooks inside. The following was written in neat handwriting.

―Grade 6, Class 2, No. 2, Han Suyeong.

Suyeong had become thirteen years old.

Footnotes:

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