WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 536: Epilogue 4: Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint (1)

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I remember the moment I first read that novel.

A stifling hospital ward. The only PC in the lobby.

When I lined up to use the computer, a gentleman in a fedora gave up his seat for me. The novel platform I liked happened to be open on the monitor.

I stared blankly at the screen and typed in a few keywords. I think there were three of them, though I no longer remembered what they were. Still, I remembered the scenes that had come to mind then. Mechanical pencil lead scattered across a classroom floor, and an indigo sky spreading beyond the window.

The only thing I knew for certain was that, with the hand that had opened the window, I typed something in and found that novel.

「Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World」

I survived because of that story.

「It was never your fault that this story was born.」

My stomach churned. Unable to bear the dizziness, I sank to the floor. I couldn't see the text in front of me clearly.

「Han Suyeong was tls123.」

I lay there, gasping for breath, for a long time. Only one question circled through my mind.

Why? Why?

「For someone like me」

I lay there for a long time. I think I cried, too. But no matter how much I wailed and screamed, the sentences already written wouldn't change. Han Suyeong had lived thirteen years for me and saved me with sentences carved from herself. Then she vanished.

「Kim Dok ja」

[The Fourth Wall] was calling me. I quietly listened to what it said next.

「You have to rea d」

I slowly got to my feet. My reflection in the window looked awful. My frame was too small to call it the body of an adult man. I had grown shorter, and my face had become younger. The coat I had been wearing no longer suited me. I stared at my face for a long time before taking the coat off.

"How many years has it been now?"

「Time on Ear th has no mean ing.」

I knew what that meant.

This subway was where the Oldest Dream dreamed. The time that flowed here couldn't be measured by the time of other worldlines.

In fact, I had completely lost my sense of time after coming here.

"Still, there has to be a subjective sense of time."

「A bout 21,763 years.」

"That's not as long as I expected. I'm still younger than Secretive Plotter."

「Still just a ki d」

I heard [The Fourth Wall] snickering. If I didn't have that thing, I would've gone mad here long ago.

With a soft crumbling sound, the tip of my little finger shrank.

Since when had it begun? Even when I did nothing, my body had been slowly getting smaller. Strictly speaking, it wasn't as though I was doing nothing, though.

"Am I going to keep getting smaller?"

I watched fragments of fables drift beyond the window as I asked.

"Where are all those fables going?"

「The uni verse's uncon scious」

"Where is that?"

「Worldlines you aren't con sciously aware of」

The Oldest Dream's duty was to imagine every worldline. Even when my conscious mind was inactive, my unconscious watched over worldlines without rest.

「Those fa bles will be born as another Kim Dok ja」

"As Kim Dokja?"

「It's a fi gure of speech」

All at once, I thought I understood what [The Fourth Wall] meant.

Fables flowing beyond the galaxy toward other worldlines.

Those fables were me.

Like the 49% of me who would remain somewhere in the 1,864th round with my companions, those fragments might also be born as "Kim Dokja" in some worldline. That was how this universe revolved.

"With so little of it, it would be hard to call them Kim Dokja. Fragments that small won't resemble me."

「That's ri ght」

They would have names and faces different from mine. Even so, they would be born somewhere, imagine the universe, be moved as they read stories, and watch over worldlines.

That was how they would sustain this universe.

"Yeah."

Somehow, I felt like I understood a little of this universe's principles.

I pressed my crumbling finger against the window. The speed of its collapse gradually began to increase.

「If you do tha t」

"This is my atonement for this story."

Fables began scattering not only from my fingers, but from my shoulders and legs as well.

The scattered fables would fly through the universe and become sentences that sustained it somewhere in a worldline.

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

That was what Suyeong, the author of TWSA, had said.

She had clearly conveyed those words to me, yet I couldn't follow them. After seeing a story like that, how could I possibly make a different choice?

When I closed my eyes, I could see the whole universe.

Suyeong had written the story.

Junghyeok had lived it.

And I had read it.

It was a world barely completed through all of that.

「"Dokja-ssi."」

Because of this tragedy, some people had been able to meet.

Someone could be saved.

「Kim Dokja looked out at the endless universe.」

Now I knew my future. Every time I read something, I would break apart. The fables scattered from me would spread through countless worldlines and become gazes that sustained this universe.

I would lose my memories, and I would lose the things I loved. In the end, only the desire to see the next story would remain.

Without that desire, this universe couldn't continue. It was a universe that could only continue its story when someone watched it. In this universe, standing still was death.

Tsssssss...

Countless versions of me, divided into particles, spread across innumerable worldlines. The fables were scattering faster and faster.

"When I forget everything... it won't hurt anymore, right?"

「You won't remem ber」

There was no loss for someone who had lost even the traces of loss.

"I'll have time to read it one more time, right?" I said as I picked up the smartphone that had fallen to the floor.

I opened the file of TWSA and scrolled down through the Author’s Note I had struggled to read.

「Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World」.

I began reading the novel from the beginning.

I read Junghyeok's third round. Some of the story I already knew, while some of it felt new now.

The Final Version was exactly the original novel I had known.

There was no "Kim Dokja" in it.

Fsss...

As my fables scattered, the sentences of TWSA filled me again. Whenever I grew tired, I closed my eyes and rested for a while. Once I had rested, I began reading again.

The fifth round, the sixth round... the 64th round... the 129th round...

The 672nd round.

The 914th round.

The 1,642nd round...

The pages scrolled past, and I felt happy or sad more than once. I regretted that I couldn't leave comments. I wanted to tell Suyeong how I felt one more time. That I had made it this far because of the story she had given me. That I loved her story more than anyone else in the world.

I read and read and read again. How long had I been reading that story?

「...」

When I finally reached the epilogue, my vision suddenly blurred.

I wondered if I had gone blind from reading so much.

[The update has been completed.]

My sight gradually returned. What I saw before me were no longer proper sentences. The sentences and paragraphs had each been broken into fragments.

It was writing not in the form of a complete novel.

Yet for some reason, I could read it.

「One world was being destroyed, and a new world was being born.」

My heart pounded wildly.

A story I knew very well was there.

「I was the only reader who knew the ending of this world.」

I was in that story.

「"I am Yu Junghyeok."」

「"Ah, come to think of it, I haven't introduced myself. I'm Han Suyeong. In the group, I assist Cha Sanggyeon."」

They were there, too.

「"If the Scenario had never begun, what would have happened to us?"」

「"Dokja-ssi, your Patron isn't something like the One-Eyed Fortune Teller, is it?"」

「"Dokja-ssi, have you ever thrown a grenade before?"」

「"Mister, do you have a favorite food?"」

I cleared Scenarios with them.

「"Hyung, are you a god?"」

「"Load."」

「"Everyone, fight without worry. I won't kill anyone."」

「"You bastards! Leaving only me out again...!"」

「"What I like isn't you, it's the Demon King of Salvation..."」

「"[Baaat!]"」

I lived a life with them.

「"The next Scenario is..."」

We went through trials and faced death countless times.

I met Constellations.

We cleared impossible Scenarios.

At last, we reached the end of that hellish story.

「[Your ■■ is Eternity.]」

My allies returned to their everyday lives.

「There were people rebuilding the ruined PC café. People putting torn game posters back up. In a world that had overcome the apocalypse, people turned their eyes toward amusement once more. Watching them, Junghyeok quietly clenched his right hand, which had not held a mouse for a long time.」

「Shin Yuseong and Lee Gilyeong enrolled in a temporary school. Not an elementary school, middle school, or high school, but a literal "temporary school." Yuseong was astonished that such a place could exist in the world.」

「After staring at the ruined grounds of Taepung Girls' High School for a long time, Lee Jihye walked across the field. The very field where she had once run around with her friends. Jihye quietly looked at the worn lines on the field, then carefully took a starting position.」

As I read the stories that followed my allies, I wiped my eyes again and again.

This was the ending of the story.

The allies were definitely living there. Eating, sleeping, meeting one another and talking. I was there, too.

The 49% of me. Kim Dokja, who remembered my allies but didn't know TWSA...

「And Kim Dokja read that sentence.」

But then.

「"Who the hell are you?"」

What was this?

「"Tell me. Who are you?"」

It couldn't turn out this way.

「"I'm sure of it. Kim Dokja is still there."」

Why?

「"Do you think you'll be able to see clearly if you run one more time?"」

Why?

The story continued. The story that should have ended hadn't ended.

More precisely, they had chosen not to end it.

「[The Stigma Group Regression Lv.1 has activated!]」

I practically screamed as I read that sentence.

It was something that shouldn't exist. A sentence that should never have been written.

The sentence indifferently continued to the next one.

「"Remember this. You only get one chance."」

My allies were fighting again.

The hell of that Scenario was a place they should never return to, no matter the reason.

Yet my allies went back there.

「"Kid, aren't you tossing a coin this time?"

"Whether I toss it or not, it'll be the same."

"Why?"

"Even if it comes up only once in a hundred tosses, even if only 1% of hyung remains there. We still have to go save him. That 1% is still hyung."」

And so, the Scenario began. In a feast of coins bursting through the air, the dokkaebis of the Star Stream were aghast.

Amid the explosive attention of the Constellations, my allies shouted.

「"Hey, Abaddon! Choose me! From now on, I'll definitely become a hundred times stronger than that dark bastard!"」

「"General! Are you there? You're watching me, right?"」

「"I don't need a Patron, so just give me coins."」

「"Black Flame Dragon, stop sending messages while I'm still asking nicely. I told you I wasn't choosing you this time."」

They were insane.

「"Heh heh, it sure took you a long time to get to Chungmuro. Do you think you can even save that weakling? For your information, this entire area is already this body's territory..."

"Shut up and hand over the flag, Pildu Gong."」

The people who had gone mad were clearing Scenarios in insane ways.

Crises came more than once, but my allies didn't yield.

「[The Incarnation Lee Jihye has activated the Stigma transmission Lv.1!]」

「"This dark bastard! No wonder he got strong all by himself, using something like this!"」

[transmission]. A skill exclusive to the regressor that lets them reacquire skills by vividly recalling memories of their past lives.

「"Uriel! Great Sage Equaling Heaven! Abyssal Black Flame Dragon!"」

With the Constellations' aid behind them, my allies cleared Scenarios in a rush. It was a truly terrifying pace.

「"We can clear this one with Avatar. Nobody has to die."」

But they didn't always keep winning.

「"Supreme King. I'm sorry, but you'll have to die here."」

There were traitors among those who had regressed with them.

「"If you regain your original power, even the three of us won't be able to face you."

"But right now, it's different."」

I bit my lip.

They were people who had joined the regression with impure motives from the beginning. Of all times, they targeted the point when Yu Junghyeok was with Yu Mia in the early Scenarios. They must have judged that to be when he was weakest.

「But they were mistaken.」

What?

「"Mia."」

At the same time as Junghyeok's voice, a long blade emerged from Yu Mia's mouth.

「Black Heaven Demon Blade.」

A top-grade item that could only be obtained in the middle Scenarios was in Junghyeok's hand. Chills ran down my spine. I never imagined Yu Mia's "inventory" could be used that way...

Junghyeok, radiating terrifying killing intent, declared,

「"Goodbye."」

Even after that, the sentences continued in fragments.

「"The Demon King of Salvation of this round is me!"

"No, I said I was doing it! That modifier is mine, noona!"」

My allies gave way to no one.

「[Multiple Constellations show hostility toward the Incarnations of Kim Dokja Company!]」

They compromised with no one.

Kim Dokja Company without Kim Dokja cleared Scenarios at a pace that was neither too fast nor too slow.

Some scenes were described, while others had been omitted. The further it went, the more pronounced the gaps between scenes became. It was as though rough idea sketches had been left behind as they were.

The allies who had been in the 20th Scenario were also in the 15th Scenario, then in the 35th Scenario again. Yet they were definitely there. I could imagine them.

「They ran across blank spaces.」

My allies ran across the Snowfield of Scenarios. They moved forward, one sentence and then another, drawing closer to me.

Watching them, I repeatedly cried and fell asleep. The hazier my consciousness became, the clearer my desire grew. I knew I shouldn't think that way, but I couldn't stop.

「I want to read this story a little longer.」

I read the broken sentence, then read the next sentence. Like I was feeling my way forward, I imagined the gaps between those sentences.

A point the Writer couldn't control, and the reader couldn't predict.

Within the spaces between lines unrecorded in sentences, my allies gradually completed the Scenarios.

「Within the spaces between lines where no one could trespass upon their lives, they were the gods of this story.」

As I read that story, I lost consciousness more than once. My reading pace grew slower and slower, while my fables gradually disappeared. The sentences of my allies steadily piled up. The 98th Scenario, then the 99th Scenario. The sentences they wrote with their lives piled up, exactly one sentence at a time.

And finally.

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

The final sentence came. It was the end of TWSA. A story that seemed unfinished. A story that, for that reason, hadn't truly been completed.

Beyond that story's final sentence, I heard something.

A sound like someone calling out to another person.

Or perhaps knocking on a door.

Thud.

The smartphone switched off, and my face, now that of a child, reflected in the black screen. I was crying.

「Kim Dokja slowly raised his head.」

The faint vibrations of the subway. Since when had they been there?

Bang!

Someone was knocking on the rear door of the subway car.

Footnotes:

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