WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 546: Epilogue 5: Eternity and Epilogue (1)

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Han Suyeong and Yu Junghyeok were admitted to the hospital where Kim Dokja was staying, carried in on stretchers.

After enduring a thorough scolding from Lee Seolhwa, Suyeong calmly organized the plan she had been considering. Exactly an hour later, she conveyed it to the others using the most precise words she could find, without any leaps in logic.

Still, just because someone spoke precisely didn't mean the listener would understand precisely. The Allies' reactions were as follows.

"What are you saying we should do?"

Huiwon asked that, while Yuseong and Gilyeong opened their mouths slightly.

Suyeong said, "Put simply..."

"You do know what you're saying, right?"

"Huh? You understood?"

"We can't do something like that again. Have you already forgotten what happened two years ago? What happened to us during Group Regression..."

"I'm not saying we should regress."

"That's basically the same thing! If we cross worldlines again..."

"I'm not saying we should twist the future of another worldline. You know what I mean. All we have to do is give them a novel."

Jihye, who had silently listened to the conversation, spoke up.

"So, we show the novel written here to Dokja ahjussi in another worldline? Did I get that right?"

"Yeah."

"But what would that accomplish?"

Suyeong began explaining in a calm voice.

"The Oldest Dream is Kim Dokja. That Kim Dokja was broken into small pieces, scattered across worldlines, and reincarnated as other beings. You understand that much, right?"

"You think I'm an idiot just because I got an F? So?"

"Here's the important part. The newly reincarnated Kim Dokja might no longer be Kim Dokja. But that doesn't mean they aren't the Oldest Dream. They might not know it themselves, but those souls are still the Oldest Dream that sustains this universe."

When they had escaped the Final Wall for the last time, no one remained in the subway.

Even so, time in the universe had not stopped.

In other words, the Oldest Dream had not disappeared.

The souls that had once been Kim Dokja had scattered throughout the universe and reincarnated. Wherever they had been reborn, they were dreaming of these universes without realizing it.

Sangah nodded as though she understood.

"We'll use their imaginations."

"Because the Oldest Dream's imagination becomes reality."

"We'll make the reincarnated Dokja-ssis dream of the ending we want..."

"That's right. We'll provide the source for that imagination, so they can dream of this world's ending."

Suyeong looked at each of their faces.

"No one will get hurt. No one born in another worldline will be harmed. We just have to make them read a certain story."

She imagined the countless Kim Dokjas scattered across the worldlines. They would have been born in different environments, in different forms.

There was no point in meeting them now, nor in bringing them back.

The only thing the Allies could hope for was a miracle.

A miracle that would call back the Kim Dokja they remembered.

Even if it was fiction, even if it was a lie, if he could imagine his own happiness.

If those countless Kim Dokjas could imagine one single universe.

Silence fell for a moment. Similar expressions had appeared on all their faces.

They all knew a plan like that could never be realized. There were too many impossible obstacles to overcome.

Lee Hyeongseong, who had returned to Korea thirty minutes earlier, spoke for the Allies.

"Suyeong-ssi."

He had rushed back to Korea after hearing about Junghyeok and Suyeong. A deep shadow lay over the eyes that had always burned with justice and determination.

"We are tired. Hope frightens us now."

What truly exhausted people was not despair. It was hope that seemed close enough to grasp, but never came true in the end.

Suyeong knew that as well. Her slowly clenched fist tightened.

"I know. That's why I'm asking you."

Hyeongseong's eyes trembled at the word asking.

Suyeong had never used that expression with him before.

"I know the chances of it working are low. So this is just... a kind of ritual. Something I have to do, to properly bring the past to a close and somehow live the rest of my life well."

Huiwon asked, "What do you need us to do?"

Instead of answering, Suyeong placed a laptop on the small table in the hospital room and opened a text file. It was a file they all knew well.

A novel whose title was still Untitled.

Slowly, Suyeong typed in the novel's title.

* * *

From that day onward, Suyeong began writing with the Allies. She didn't possess every memory perfectly either, so she had no choice but to borrow their memories to complete the story.

"We're going to make Dokja ahjussi read this novel... but how do we get him to read it?"

"It has to feel natural, without making him feel anything is strange. So natural that he doesn't realize he's imagining this world."

"Then we'll have to write a really fun story."

"Dokja hyung supposedly read even boring novels to the end. Wouldn't he read it if we just wrote whatever?"

Suyeong shook her head at Gilyeong's teasing.

"We should do our best, just in case. Kim Dokja in another world might not have much patience."

"I'll help too!"

"Me too! Noona, you don't know how teenagers talk these days, do you?"

The novel was mostly written in Dokja's hospital room. Suyeong taught classes at school, then visited Dokja's ward whenever she had time. The other Allies took turns coming to the room as well.

"Sorry I'm late. I have a presentation tomorrow..."

"You can help after it's over."

"No! Today is my awakening scene!"

Jihye's voice was full of enthusiasm. As she examined Suyeong's previous draft, she kept chattering.

"Wow, this part really... Ha, I seriously almost died here."

"..."

"Whoa, even reading it again, this is incredible. Unni, is there another scene with me in it..."

"If you're going to keep interrupting, get out."

"Why are you being so cold? I even found a continuity error."

"An error? Where?"

"I never said anything like this!"

Jihye pointed at the screen. Suyeong glanced at Jihye's phone and realized it was the scene where Jihye spoke in the Theater Dungeon.

"There were some unavoidable adaptations, so it might be a little different from reality. But that part..."

「"Why are you alone? We're together!" "No, wait..." "I'm always by your side! Don't lose hope! Think of our child..."」

"I wrote it exactly the way Uriel told me."

One day, two days, three days. The sentences steadily piled up.

Whenever Suyeong had trouble recalling the past, she occasionally stretched Dokja's sleeping cheeks. When resentment welled up for no reason, she wrote strange things into the novel.

「"I heard we just had to find the ugliest king."」

Well, it didn't matter. He wouldn't know it was his own story anyway.

The Allies took turns visiting the hospital room as if they were confessing their sins.

"Actually, I cursed Dokja-ssi a little here..."

"Ah, don't write what I just said. Got it? Don't write it."

They seemed surprised to realize they still remembered so many stories.

"Noona! I do respect hyung, but how could you write me like some zealot...?"

They also seemed comforted by the fact that they still remembered that story. Sometimes, they cried or read notes containing fragments of stories that still needed to be written.

Yuseong asked, "But why did you portray regression so negatively?"

"Because Kim Dokja only has one life in that world. He might be influenced strangely after reading this. He could still be a child."

Yuseong's expression darkened at Suyeong's words.

"But we regressed. Shouldn't we write this part differently from what really happened?"

"No. I'll write it."

"Why?"

"Everyone is a regressor."

It was a sentence Suyeong had thought of while fighting Junghyeok not long ago. Honestly, she hadn't said it expecting Yuseong to understand.

Yuseong quietly stared at the sentence, then turned to look out the window.

"Our regression didn't affect this worldline at all. When I think about it sometimes, it feels just like a dream from last night. What's the difference between a past that couldn't change the present and a delusion that can't change anything?"

Suyeong opened and closed her mouth uncertainly. Yuseong shrugged and smiled.

"What if Dokja ahjussi doesn't understand because you wrote it too difficultly?"

"Kim Dokja will understand."

"You trust him more than you'd think."

"If you're going to interrupt, leave already."

"I organized everything that happened! Even the Catastrophe of Floods you asked me about before..."

Not everyone was as cooperative as Yuseong. In fact, most of the time, the Allies only got in the way of the writing.

Jang Hayoung was one example.

"Hey! You said I was the protagonist of Part Two! What's with my role? Are you kidding me?"

"I only said that. You aren't actually the protagonist."

"Still!"

"I'll write you a side story. It'll be nice and long."

"Deal."

Lee Seolhwa, passing by while pushing a Sleeper Car, added, "In stories like this, healers usually end up as healing shuttles."

"Lee Seolhwa side story too."

Then there was Gilyeong, who had skipped school to come over, and Hyeongseong, who protested as though deeply wronged.

"You left out everything I went through when I contracted with Abaddon! And I have so many skills, but my portrayal only features cockroaches..."

"My military service story was edited out entirely! I diligently explained everything from when I was a private...!"

"Everyone, stop it already! This is a story where Kim Dokja is the protagonist. It isn't your story."

Constellations who heard about Suyeong's work began visiting one by one as well.

Uriel arrived wearing sunglasses and a mask, holding a huge stack of unidentified documents.

[If you were writing something like this, you should've told me first! I have such an enormous amount of material!]

"Are these materials really reliable? They're different from what Jihye told me."

[Well, they might be a liiittle inaccurate, but the universe is vast, and there are many Kim Dokjas in many worldlines...]

Then Great Sage Equaling Heaven appeared.

[If you're going to write about my fable, you've at least read a complete translation of Journey to the West, right?]

"I read the comic."

[Then you must know who the protagonist of Journey to the West is.]

"Isn't it Master Sanzang?"

Abyssal Black Flame Dragon came next.

[I'm disappointed. Have you forgotten my True name? Why is my True name still not included even though it's Part Two...]

"You never told me. And don't tell me now."

By the time Suyeong had completed a draft of more than 250 chapters, she was nearly collapsing from accumulated exhaustion. She had never found writing a novel so difficult. There were many parts she disliked, and many parts that needed revision.

For now, though, building up the length came first.

Because...

"Han Suyeong, it's this Saturday."

There wasn't much time left.

Footnotes:

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