WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 540: Epilogue 4: Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint (5)

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A dark space, like a stage after the blackout curtain had fallen.

Han Suyeong opened her eyes within it. As [Eye of Truth] expanded and gave off a faint blue light, she slowly began to make out her surroundings.

What the hell happened?

[You have distorted the decisive Plausibility of the worldline!]

[Your actions have affected the ■■ of the Oldest Dream!]

[The ■■ of the Oldest Dream is changing!]

More incomprehensible messages appeared.

But none of that mattered. The only thing that mattered was saving Kim Dokja.

Suyeong focused her vision on the presence she felt ahead of her. Then, she spotted something dark.

"Yu Junghyeok. Are you there?"

"I am."

Suyeong fumbled her way over, then screamed in shock.

"Hey! What are you doing holding a kid by the collar?"

"He's not a kid. He's Dokja."

"He's Dokja who turned into a kid!"

Suyeong hurriedly took Dokja from him and held a finger beneath his nose. She could feel the faintest trace of breath.

But why? Something was wrong with his condition. This feeling that he might break apart at the lightest touch...

"What's wrong with him?"

"His fables have been damaged too severely. I tried giving him a Life-and-Death Pill, but it had no effect."

They needed Seolhwa. Yet there was no sign of their other Allies anywhere. Only Junghyeok, Dokja, and herself had been trapped in this pocket dimension.

Suyeong glared around her with hostility. There was only one culprit capable of doing this.

"The Fourth Wall! Let us out already!"

Tzzt.

A pale figure appeared in the darkness. A young dokkaebi wearing a fedora stood there.

The boy's face was filled with incomprehensible sorrow and innocence.

Suyeong stared at [The Fourth Wall] for a moment before asking, "Is that what you really look like?"

「Y es.」

It wasn't the appearance she had glimpsed through his memories. There wasn't a trace of the middle-aged dokkaebi on his face. Then [The Fourth Wall] spoke.

「I t h as b een a v ery l ong t ime.」

Suyeong thought that perhaps [The Fourth Wall] was like Dokja, too. Maybe he had forgotten everything while enduring those distant years, becoming like a child.

As Suyeong straightened the collar of the unconscious Dokja, she asked, "You were protecting Dokja because you received my orders, right?"

「I th ink I w as.」

"You were the one who gave Dokja the TWSA file, too. You kept helping him after that."

[The Fourth Wall] didn't answer. He only looked at Dokja with wistful eyes, as though searching through old memories. A quiet anger entered Suyeong's voice.

"Then why did you let Dokja end up like this?"

「.......」

"Answer me! What the hell were you thinking when you..."

「You don't know what the reader wants.」

[The Fourth Wall] no longer stuttered.

「You truly know nothing.」

"We're taking Dokja with us. I can't let him live as the Oldest Dream."

Seeing that she was ready to fight if necessary, [The Fourth Wall]'s eyebrows twitched.

Junghyeok stepped forward in place of Suyeong, who had clenched her fists tensely.

"If we take him, will the position of the Oldest Dream become vacant?"

Suyeong's shoulders trembled.

It wasn't something she hadn't considered.

‘If Dokja is saved, who will replace the Oldest Dream?’

This world continued to exist because the Oldest Dream dreamed. In a universe that could only function through someone's sacrifice, someone had to become the one who dreamed.

Junghyeok spoke.

"I'll take his place."

"What? Hey! What kind of nonsense are you suddenly talking about?"

"I'm saying that I'll become the Oldest Dream."

"How could someone with no imagination at all do that? I'll do it instead. I could do it better than that bastard Dokja, so..."

Suyeong babbled without knowing what she was saying. Those words came from the thought that she had to stop that madman somehow. Fortunately, [The Fourth Wall] wasn't on Junghyeok's side.

「Puppet of the Oldest Dream. You can't become the Oldest Dream. You don't love this story.」

"Then I'll..."

「Suyeong, you're the same.」

"Then who's going to replace him? Let me make this clear, we're taking him out of here. Not even you can stop us."

[The Fourth Wall] looked at Suyeong and Junghyeok for a moment.

「Take him.」

"What?"

「Just take him. Even if you take that Kim Dokja, this universe won't be destroyed anymore.」

Suyeong blinked stupidly, never expecting that answer. When she looked over, Junghyeok seemed to be in a similar state.

What the hell did that mean? She had never considered an ending like that. Was it really all right for things to end this way?

It couldn't be.

<Star Stream> had never once been kind to them.

Suyeong's expression gradually hardened as she asked, "Why won't the universe be destroyed even if we take him?"

「The Kim Dokja you know has scattered throughout this entire universe.」

"What?"

Suyeong blankly looked down at the Dokja in her arms. His fragile body was small enough to encircle with one arm.

It felt like she had been struck in the back of the head with a hammer. Could the reason Dokja had become like this be...

"You... What the hell did you do?"

「It wasn't something I did. He wanted it himself. He knew you would do this.」

Goosebumps rose across her skin.

To save this universe, someone had to become the Oldest Dream.

If Dokja was saved, someone had to take his place.

Could Dokja... could that Dokja truly have not known that?

「You did something foolish. The ending the reader wants is the ending itself. Why did you try to change that ending?」

[The Fourth Wall]'s expression as he looked at them was chilling. A negative emotion that was neither hatred, resentment, nor sorrow was directed at her and Junghyeok.

「You shouldn't have been greedy. You should have been satisfied with h aving 4 9 % of K im D ok ja.」

As his voice slowly broke apart, the space-time around them began to distort.

「D id y ou r eally th ink y ou al one c ould b e sp ecial? D id y ou bel ieve th ere w ould b e a pr oper en ding f or y ou, w ho des troyed th e l aws of th e un iverse?」

Before she could answer, the surroundings began to brighten.

「Y ou r uined th e en ding, and y ou w ill b e un happy.」

.

.

.

When Suyeong opened her eyes again, she was in Seoul. Gwanghwamun of the 1,865th round, where they had prepared for the Scenarios. Snow was falling over Gwanghwamun, where every Scenario had ended. Suyeong quietly looked up at the snowflakes drifting down.

When she slowly lowered her gaze, she saw the small Dokja in her arms. His breathing came in a steady rhythm.

"Master!"

Jihye came running from afar. Sangah and Huiwon were sprinting beside her. Their Allies were safe.

"Suyeong-ssi! What about Dokja-ssi?"

Before Suyeong could answer, Jang Hayoung took Dokja into her arms.

"Kim Dokja! His hands are freezing! Does anyone have gloves?"

In an instant, their Allies surrounded Dokja. Each of them was caught up in their own emotions.

Huiwon cried as she held Dokja's pale cheeks, while Hyeongseong, with his bear-like build, carefully wrapped Dokja's bare feet. Even Sangah couldn't hold back her tears this time. Yuseong and Gilyeong already looked close to fainting.

Pildu was leaning against a nearby bench and smoking, as though he didn't know how to react.

"Is Dokja asleep?"

Suyeong nodded at Sukyeong's question. That tiny movement was all the energy Suyeong could squeeze out.

Once their Allies had gradually regained control of their emotions, they each began to speak. Huiwon, who had rolled up her sleeves, was the first.

"This time, I'm really hanging him up. I'll hang him in front of the industrial complex. I'm not joking, so don't any of you stop me."

"But Dokja-ssi is just a kid right now..."

"Is Mister going to stay like this?"

"Hyung, wake up! You're just pretending to sleep because you're embarrassed, right?"

"Did he become younger because of some side effect?"

After hesitating for a moment, Jihye cried out brightly.

"So what if he got a little younger? We can raise him!"

"Could I go to school with Hyung?"

"Hey, do you really think Mister became a kid?"

They bickered like that for several minutes.

Seolhwa's expression slowly hardened as she checked Dokja's pulse.

"Dokja-ajussi will remember us when he wakes up, right? He won't lose all his memories again or anything, will he?"

「Suyeong couldn't say anything to those Allies.」

Suyeong's trembling lips parted and closed several times.

Nothing was certain yet, and she couldn't believe everything that damned Wall had said. So...

"Why have you two been so quiet?"

Suyeong avoided Sangah's gaze at the question.

"Suyeong-ssi?"

Then Sangah looked toward Junghyeok and witnessed an astonishing sight.

"Junghyeok-ssi?"

Junghyeok's face had frozen pale. It seemed as though something had gone wrong with his Mental Barrier, and he was muttering something under his breath.

Sangah had seen Junghyeok like that before.

「When Kim Dokja had vanished alongside an Outer God in the 73rd Demon Realm.」

Sangah pushed through their Allies and took Dokja's wrist. It was so fragile that it seemed it could break, and his pulse was faint. But there wasn't much she could tell as someone who wasn't a doctor. Sangah asked Seolhwa, "Seolhwa-ssi, Dokja-ssi is..."

"His soul has been completely damaged."

His soul was damaged.

Similar shadows fell over their Allies' faces. But they didn't last long. Huiwon said, "There has to be a way, right? We fixed him before."

They had experienced similar things before.

Damage to the soul meant damage to one's fables, and furthermore, damage to one's theme. Sukyeong had once recovered from such an illness, too.

Yuseong hurriedly added, "There's no problem, right? It's different from back then! We can ask the Aileen in this world for help. And we already secured plenty of Star Relic Nectar in advance!"

Yuseong kept talking. She spoke of countless methods she knew, one after another.

And.

"So, so..."

Tears filled Yuseong's eyes. Sangah carefully wrapped an arm around Yuseong's shoulders as she kept shaking her head, as though it couldn't be true.

"Please tell us honestly, Seolhwa-ssi."

Seolhwa lowered her head and placed a hand over Dokja's chest. A small fragment of fable rose from his fragile chest. It was Dokja's last remaining fable.

[The Constellation Demon King of Salvation has reached a new ■■ of his own.]

His tiny fable gleamed like a small line of writing.

[The ■■ of the Constellation Demon King of Salvation is the Final Chapter.]

「That was how they reached an epilogue no one had written.」

Footnotes:

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