WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 535: Epilogue 3: Author's Words (4)

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[The Star Stream looks upon its creator.]

Han Suyeong's tired eyelids slowly fell. In her drowsy haze, she heard the Dokkaebi King's voice.

"Please stop sleeping, noble god."

The next day, the final chapter of TWSA was finally complete.

* * *

「...There are three ways to survive. I've forgotten a few of them now. But one thing is certain. It is...」

After typing the final sentence, Suyeong kept her eyes closed for a long time. She had known a day like this would come. Yet now that it had truly arrived, it didn't feel real at all.

Her long-running serial had finally come to an end.

When she slowly turned around, the Dokkaebi King was standing there, just as expected. He stared at the monitor with eyes full of emotion.

"Hey."

"Yes."

"Does it have to become paid content?"

"My god, it is a story that will begin even if I don't make it paid content."

Suyeong gave a bitter smile as she looked at the Dokkaebi King, who spoke like a devout believer.

Dawn was breaking beyond the window. By the time the sun rose and began to set again, the end would come to the world.

「And Kim Dokja's story would begin.」

"I suppose it's my Fate to disappear now, right?"

Tzzt, tzztzt...

Her few remaining fables writhed. Some stories were neither outstanding nor special, yet could only be completed by devoting one's soul to them. To her, TWSA was that kind of novel too.

[Your Fable of Existence is in a precarious state.]

According to the future about to unfold, her sense of self would vanish deep within the main body's distant subconscious. Only after the main body learned the skill Avatar would she be born again with a few memories, then live through the 1,863rd round.

「Then what was my life for?」

Suyeong blankly approached the window. Light filled the pale sky, and the stars were retreating.

【Everything has already been written, and is being written at the same time.】

That was what the Outer God that had sent her to the 1,863rd round had said. A universe repeating its cycle. There, results created causes, and causes became results once more.

To create one complete story, results denied their causes, while causes existed by devouring their results. The moment she sensed that distant law, Suyeong thought this world resembled a chessboard. A board ruled by some vast will whose existence and origin could not be known, seeking only perfect completion.

Even she, who had created the apocalyptic Scenario, might be nothing more than a single chess piece on the universe's board.

Feeling sleep wash over her, she slowly stood.

[Your mental energy has reached its limit!]

Enduring the terrible fatigue, Suyeong clumsily dressed and left the room. It was early dawn, when those who rose early prepared for work. The Dokkaebi King followed her out. Without looking back, she said,

"You worked hard editing the novel all this time."

"If you go outside now, you will die."

She knew. After all, the sun was rising.

Looking up at the dawn sky, she said,

"My role is over anyway. You'll take care of the rest, won't you? All you need to do is give him the file at the appointed time. I also wrote a revised version we discussed before, just in case... It's incomplete, so deal with it yourself."

"But..."

"It's been over ten years."

Suyeong glared at the Dokkaebi King, who was several spans taller than her.

"Can't I do what I want just once?"

The reason she had come to this world was to meet Dokja, whom she had seen in the 1,863rd round, once more.

After slowly limbering up, she began to run.

「Han Suyeong imagined Kim Dokja on his way to work at Mino Soft.」

She had occasionally heard news from the Dokkaebi King, and Dokja himself had told her things through comments. By now, she knew a great deal about him.

―Author! I'm living on my own starting this year!

―I live around here too. It's strange seeing it in your novel.

―Do you know Mino Soft? It'd be great if your novel became a game, too. I'll suggest it sometime...

She knew when he had become independent from his tragedy, where he was facing another tragedy, and even what form that tragedy took.

[The main body's consciousness is about to awaken!]

[Warning! Your Self-Directed Activity has ended!]

[If you exercise control any longer, your sense of self will...]

Suyeong ignored the messages and ran. She ran until her breath caught in her throat, then ran some more. Thinking only of the words Dokja had written, she ran with all her strength.

―Author. I don't know how many times I've said this, but...

She would forget those words.

[Your actions severely violate Plausibility.]

She would forget the memories of the 1,863rd round.

She would forget that she had written a certain novel.

[Your fable is disappearing.]

She would forget that there had been a story for just one reader.

Even if she forgot all of it...

「Han Suyeong slowly stopped running.」

The person she had last seen in the emergency room, someone who had existed only as text for so many years.

「Kim Dokja was moving in the distance.」

It was Dokja, with the exact face she remembered.

The man who had come looking for her in the 1,863rd round. The person she had wanted to meet again. The person whose particular brand of flattery had annoyed her. The person who lied well. The person she had enjoyed trading lies and barbs with.

"―――."

The person who did not remember her.

"――!"

No voice emerged despite her desperate cry. She did not know whether it was because her throat had closed up or because she was gradually losing control of her body.

Suyeong staggered toward Dokja. A few passersby looked back at her warily.

Dokja was walking down the subway stairs.

With earphones in, he descended the stairs while reading something on his smartphone.

She knew what he was reading.

"―――!"

No voice emerged despite her desperate cry. Instead, she desperately chased after him.

―Because there was a story you wrote, I was able to keep living until now.

Suyeong, too, had been able to live because of her only reader's words.

She had managed to write Yu Junghyeok's next life.

She could endure her dull, tedious teenage years once again, those days she never wanted to return to.

―This train is... bound for...

Dokja stood on the platform, waiting for the next train. Hidden in a small world made of letters, one person was there, protecting himself.

Dokja, who knew nothing of the apocalypse that would soon begin.

Dokja, who would live through the grand world of TWSA.

Dokja, who would meet the protagonist he admired.

Dokja, who would become the Demon King of Salvation.

Dokja, who would sacrifice himself time and time again for his Allies.

Dokja, who would come to find her in the 1,863rd round as a result.

Dokja, who would become the Oldest Dream for having loved a story too deeply.

[Your mental energy is collapsing!]

[The main body is regaining control of the body.]

[Your fable is disappearing.]

Her legs grew heavy, and her arms would barely move. Her body was gradually no longer hers.

Even so, Suyeong wanted to tell him.

「The birth of this story was never your fault. What you will go through is never your sin.」

Because her thirteen years had existed only to tell him that.

「You grew up reading this story, but you don't have to become this story.」

Her outstretched fingertips barely touched Dokja's shoulder.

[Your sense of self is transforming into the subconscious.]

Feeling the tap on his shoulder, Dokja turned around.

But the rush-hour crowd swept him onto the subway.

Only Suyeong, with a blank expression, remained on the empty platform after the crowd had passed.

"What? Why am I here?"

Suyeong tilted her head, then scratched her head roughly.

"Did my sleepwalking kick in again?"

After checking the time on her smartphone, she scowled.

"I haven't even finished today's installment yet."

.

.

.

[The fable Predictive Plagiarism plagiarizes its lost memories!]

.

.

.

Tzztztztzt...

"Han Suyeong?"

Tzztzt...

"Han Suyeong."

Amid the piercing ringing in her ears, she heard a voice calling her name.

"Han Suyeong!"

Then, with a powerful impact, Suyeong suddenly came to. An agonizing pain throbbed in the back of her head. For some reason, she knew exactly which bastard had hit her.

"Junghyeok-ssi! How can you hit me that hard? I'm going to die the moment I come to!"

When she slowly raised her head, she saw Lee Seolhwa supporting her and Yu Junghyeok frowning. The other Allies of Kim Dokja Company were there as well. Huiwon, Hyeongseong, Yuseong, Jihye... all of them covered in dust.

Suyeong studied each of them closely. Finally, she turned to Junghyeok.

"Now I understand how you felt when you remembered the zeroth round."

"What nonsense are you talking about now?"

"I remembered too."

Suyeong's eyes darted around as though she still could not believe it, then she slowly turned around. A foggy zone made of dense letters stretched out behind her. It was the gate they had just passed through, and the gate where she had nearly died.

Looking her over, Jihye asked,

"Unni, are you okay? Earlier, you were saying nonsense about having to go sign a contract for a work or something..."

[The fable Predictive Plagiarism has stopped its story.]

Suyeong looked down at her trembling hands.

Why had this memory returned only now?

No, was this memory even real?

「Once, she had written a story with these hands.」

The memories were faint, yet vivid.

Suyeong carefully sorted through her thoughts. Why she was here, what had happened, and what she needed to say now.

"I... TWSA's..."

Suyeong barely took a deep breath and tried to speak again, but Junghyeok cut her off.

"Enough nonsense. Let's go."

Suyeong raised her head at his voice.

[The Main Scenario has been updated!]

[The Final Scenario has begun.]

Looking at the Scenario messages appearing before her once more, Suyeong still could not believe it. She knew very well why those messages were floating before her eyes.

「The Allies had once again made their way through 99 Scenarios.」

"What are you spacing out for?"

It was the tragedy she had started. The people who had endured that tragedy head-on were holding out their hands to her.

"Let's go, Suyeong-ssi."

Yu Sangah patted Suyeong's back and walked ahead.

The backs of the Allies walking before her were hazy.

It was impossible. It was not something they could do simply because they wanted to do it for someone. Yet they had done it.

Far away, she saw the wall of letters covering the world's end.

'Final Wall.'

As the Allies exchanged glances and drew their weapons one by one, the cries of Constellations rang out in the distance. Junghyeok watched the sight and drew the Black Heaven Demon Blade as well.

"He's on the other side."

The Administration Bureau dokkaebis blocked their way, while the Dokkaebi King guarded the Final Wall. Suyeong slowly drew a breath and rose to her feet.

It had been a very long story. At last, the end of that story was before them.

「At last, they had reached the ending she had written.」

Footnotes:

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