Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint - Chapter 547

WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 547: Epilogue 5: Eternity and Epilogue (2)

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Under normal circumstances, completing the first draft would have taken a little over two years. However, this worldline didn't have that kind of time.

"The system is losing power too quickly. If we wait beyond this week, we may no longer have enough persuasiveness to launch the Ark."

In the end, Han Suyeong decided to begin the first transmission after completing the manuscript through Part Two.

The Companions were excited to hear that the manuscript would finally be sent out.

Sangah asked, "How are we going to carry the files? On a USB?"

"We'll prepare several methods, but we'll primarily have to take them in the form of fables."

"And who will deliver them?"

"Obviously, me."

"No. What will happen to Dokja-ssi here if you go, Suyeong-ssi?"

Even if nothing but a shell remained of Dokja, he was still Dokja. If something happened to him while Suyeong, who possessed the Administration Bureau's fables, was gone, his true body might collapse.

"I'll go," Sangah said. "I know the coordinates of the worldline where Dokja-ssi reincarnated."

Huiwon immediately tried to stop her.

"Sangah-ssi, you need to protect this place! I'll go. Tell me the coordinates."

"No! I'll go and see hyung!"

"Naturally, I, ahjussi's Incarnation, should go!"

"No, as the foremost authority on the Demon King of Salvation, I..."

Gilyeong, Yuseong, and even Hayoung stepped forward, turning the room into chaos. Constellations and Incarnations each clamored to be the one to go.

Watching them, Sangah sighed.

"It isn't something we can talk about so lightly. You all know crossing worldlines is dangerous, right?"

"That much..."

"If my tracking is correct, the worldline's coordinates are in the outermost zone of the universe."

"The outermost zone?"

"It might be a world where something called a Scenario doesn't exist."

No one knew what kind of place the world where Dokja had reincarnated was. Its fundamental system could be completely different from Earth's.

"The system's protection may become far weaker than it is now. Then the power of Skills and Stigmas will naturally weaken as well. The voyage will be long, too."

Anna Croft, who had been listening, nodded. Looking at the Ark undergoing a test flight in the air, she said, "It was made for one person, so its facilities aren't very good. Enduring the backlash, especially while passing through the Dark Stratum, won't be easy. It will take someone with exceptionally strong mental energy. One wrong move, and they could become an Outer God."

Outer God.

Several Companions' expressions darkened at those words. They remembered the Hounds Chasing the Abyss that had pursued them.

Anna wasn't finished.

"There are also too many worldlines with scattered souls. We may have to cross worldlines hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions, of times. Are all of you prepared for that?"

Hundreds of thousands of times. Even if they crossed one worldline per day, the voyage could take centuries. No matter how much it was for Dokja, could they endure that many years without going mad?

"None of you can."

Someone who could survive even with only the system's bare minimum protection.

Someone who wouldn't lose himself before that vast current of time.

The one among the Companions most likely to succeed at this mission.

"I'll go."

The passenger had already been decided.

* * *

At last, the launch day of the Final Ark arrived.

From afar, Suyeong watched Yu Junghyeok preparing to depart.

"I won't wear something like this."

"Supreme King, you have to wear it. You're not the same as you were before."

She wished she could show this sight to Dokja from five years ago. What would that bastard think if he heard a prophet was taking care of the regressor?

"You're being a real nuisance."

"You may say that now, but it will certainly help. Even Transcendents aren't completely unaffected by the system. A Transcendent is a being that exists in opposition to the system. If the system disappears, a Transcendent's power can only weaken bit by bit."

Junghyeok glared at Anna with a displeased expression before putting on the equipment one piece at a time.

"It's inconvenient attire for battle."

"You aren't going there to fight."

Junghyeok looked quite a sight in the thick spacesuit that made him look fat. Suyeong teased him.

"It suits you."

"Shut up."

"Think carefully. Are you really going?"

Even now, just before departure, Suyeong still wasn't certain.

「Does this really have to go this far?」

This voyage was completely different from the regressions and worldline leaps they had made so far. They wouldn't change the past, nor would they steal materials to open the [Final Wall] from another worldline.

This journey was closer to a pilgrimage. A pilgrimage to honor the person they had searched for all this time.

"Hand over the manuscript."

"Even after you stopped Regressing, that way of speaking hasn't changed."

With a sigh, Suyeong opened her right hand. The power of the Stigma she had developed swirled around her fingertips.

[The Stigma Cloud System is awaiting activation.]

It was much like the method [The Fourth Wall] had once used to give Dokja a file.

It was a Stigma she had created by developing the power of [Predictive Plagiarism], which could communicate across worldlines despite its uncertainty.

"People who have this Stigma can share manuscripts. It'll be hard to make repeated trips back to Earth, so I'll keep sending you the manuscript through the cloud."

"You want me to learn your personal Stigma? There isn't time..."

"We don't have time. But there's a quick way to learn this Stigma. You don't have a Patron now, right?"

Junghyeok instantly realized what Suyeong meant.

"You..."

"Do you think I like doing this?"

Junghyeok frowned and opened his Attributes Window.

When his Stigma, [Regression], disappeared, his Patron disappeared with it.

Patron: None

He was now completely free.

"You want me to make someone weaker than me my Patron?"

"I beat you before."

"I have no idea what nonsense you're talking about."

"Want another round?"

They argued as though neither would yield an inch, yet they both signed the Behind-the-Scenes Contract. Both of them knew this was the best way.

[The Constellation Designer of the False Ending has become the Patron of the Incarnation Yu Junghyeok!]

[The Incarnation Yu Junghyeok has inherited the Stigma Cloud System!]

[The virtual clouds of the two beings have connected!]

"I never thought I'd live to see the day. I need to tell that bastard Dokja."

"If I return, I'll kill you and terminate the Behind-the-Scenes Contract first."

"Try it if you can."

With that as their final exchange, the two looked at each other for a moment.

"Remember this. Never destroy another worldline. Just spread the story so the Dokja of that world can read it."

"I know."

"Don't die."

"I'll be back soon."

They both knew he might never return, but neither of them felt the need to say it. Except for one person.

"Oppa."

Mia, her voice trembling, clutched Junghyeok's spacesuit.

"You're lying! You won't come back! You can't come back!"

"I won't die and leave you behind."

Suyeong firmly held Mia's shoulders as tears poured endlessly from Mia's eyes. Junghyeok slowly bent down to meet his sister's gaze and spoke in a gentle voice.

"I promise. I'll definitely return."

As he turned away, Junghyeok sent Suyeong a message.

"Please take care of Mia."

After that, Junghyeok didn't look back even once as he boarded the Final Ark. At Anna Croft's signal, the Ark started.

The Companions who had heard the news late were watching the scene.

The Ark slowly rose into the air. With the cockpit sealed, their voices wouldn't reach inside.

Jihye, who had come running and gasping for breath, looked up at the Ark as it began to launch.

"Aren't you going to say goodbye?"

"If I say goodbye now, it somehow feels like a final farewell."

She said that, but Jihye's eyes were already brimming with tears. The other Companions only looked up at the Ark without saying a word.

Sangah said, "Everything we want to say is in the novel. Junghyeok-ssi will read it someday, too."

"Who cares whether he reads it? What matters is whether hyung reads it."

Gilyeong, Yuseong, Huiwon, Hyeongseong, Hayoung, Sangah, Seolhwa, Sukyeong, Pildu Gong. Even the Constellations watched the Ark's flight.

Yuseong asked, "Will Dokja ahjussi really read our story?"

No one knew. There was likely no one who did. This operation had a high chance of failure, and Junghyeok might return without any results.

Their story might simply vanish as dust in a distant universe.

Junghyeok, too, must have known that as he left. Even so, he departed. For himself, or for his Companions.

"Dokja will read it."

At least while they waited for Junghyeok, the people here could live on while waiting for news of him.

"He promised me."

Flames trailed from the Ark as it leaped toward the galaxy. Like people watching an exploration ship launched toward another world, the Companions stared endlessly at the Ark as it grew more distant. The story they had written with their lives was disappearing somewhere beyond their reach.

* * *

[The Ark is entering the atmosphere.]

[Awaiting destination settings from user Yu Junghyeok.]

Junghyeok entered the coordinates of the worldlines Sangah had given him. Even the closest worldline coordinates were unimaginably far away. As Sangah had said, there might be no <Star Stream> there.

[Dimensional acceleration has begun.]

[A portion of the required energy is being replaced with coins.]

The coins gathered from other worldlines were fed in as an energy source. Coins had also lost their value as the system weakened, but they had once been the most powerful fable in this world.

Earth soon vanished from sight.

[Passing through the Dark Stratum for a worldline leap.]

Junghyeok recalled what Sangah had said.

"The worldlines where Dokja-ssi reincarnated are incredibly far away. A normal worldline leap could take an unknown amount of time."

The world where Dokja had reincarnated was beyond TWSA. It was a place completely outside this worldline's influence.

"You'll probably have to pass through a gate that can leap between worldlines."

How much time passed?

Bubble-like shapes began appearing one by one ahead of him. Five-colored bubbles repeatedly expanded and shrank within ominous currents. Junghyeok faintly sensed something sinister, then realized where that feeling came from.

Tssssss...

The Sub-King of the Outer Gods and master of the dimensional gate that crossed worldlines. The being that had once opened the gate to the 1,863rd round for Dokja.

Junghyeok swallowed without realizing it. The being before him possessed a power that made even him, who had cleared every Scenario, tense.

【You are... not the Plotter.】

A massive eye appeared amid the sea of bubbles. Junghyeok didn't avert his gaze as he increased the Ark's speed. He had to pass through there to reach the worldline in the outermost zone.

【That place is outside the story.】

"I don't care. Move, or I'll cut you down."

Junghyeok drove the Ark forward, burning every one of his fables as fuel. The Sub-King didn't try to stop him. It only spoke in a hollow voice.

【O dreamer who dreams outside the dream, the dream you dream cannot be fulfilled.】

The moment the Ark collided with the gate, his vision twisted. Junghyeok gritted his teeth and endured the storm crashing over him.

Violent sparks gnawed at his entire body. Junghyeok held back a scream through the pain of feeling as though his whole body were being crushed to pieces.

"Can I ask you one last thing?"

Han Suyeong's voice drifted through his dizzy mind.

"Why are you trying so hard to save Dokja? You've already lost many Companions."

"Having lost many Companions doesn't make one accustomed to loss. And..."

An explosion rang out inside the Ark. Fragments from broken machinery drifted through space.

"I have something I need to ask him."

Another roar rang out, and something pierced deep into Junghyeok's chest.

[Failed to read the worldline coordinates!]

[Warning! An error has occurred in the coordinate recognition device!]

[An error has occurred in the internal temperature control device!]

[An error has occurred in the vessel's navigation system!]

Sparks burst out in an instant and consumed Junghyeok's entire body. His vision turned white, and his consciousness vanished completely.