WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 552: Episode ■: Dumplings Made by Someone Else
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* * *
This side story contains major spoilers for the main story of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint.
Readers who have not finished the novel, please keep this in mind.
* * *
"When's your birthday, mister?"
He could no longer remember when he had first heard that question.
Had it been in the second round? Or the third?
From a certain round onward, he stopped answering questions like that. He thought hearing the answer would not help those asking.
Still, there had been a time when he answered, like now.
"August 3rd."
"August 3rd? Are you sure?"
"I promised that would be the date."
The child frowned.
"A promise? Who decides their birthday like that?"
He took out the Splitting the Sky Sword and began polishing it.
The child was right. No one decided their birthday that way. But was that really important?
"Who did you promise?"
"You don't need to know."
"A woman?"
He looked at the child with a slight frown. In the distance, Kim Namwoon was grinning to himself. He had a rough idea of what was going on.
* * *
As the wheel of time turned, many memories disappeared. Some were caught between its spokes and vanished, while others Yu Junghyeok deliberately threw between them.
Yet some memories remained.
For instance, the memory of when he had first learned the sword from the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint.
"Again? You're a persistent little bastard."
The Sky-Splitting Sword Saint looked down at Junghyeok with displeasure. A large smoking pipe hung from her mouth as she examined his face from every angle with an arrogant expression, then blew out a puff of smoke.
"This isn't a recruitment period. You can't become my disciple."
Without a word, Junghyeok brought over the paper posted on the signboard.
<Disciples Recruited at All Times>.
The Sky-Splitting Sword Saint frowned.
"It's true that I recruit disciples at all times, but that doesn't mean I accept just anyone."
"I'm not just anyone."
"You certainly don't look like it. Your face is quite usable, so if you want, I could take you on as a slave."
"Teach me martial arts."
At Junghyeok's shameless tone, the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint swiftly looked him over from head to toe. Then she clicked her tongue.
"Even if I taught you, you couldn't learn it."
"You're deciding that without even trying?"
"My martial arts aren't meant for little brats like you."
"I'm not little."
"And they aren't martial arts suited for a man to use."
As she said that, the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint casually waved her pipe through the air. It looked thoughtless, but Junghyeok could sense a profound technique woven into the trail of smoke.
"Even if you learn my martial arts, you won't become as strong as me."
"You won't know unless you try."
"Why are you so obsessed with my martial arts?"
Junghyeok slowly raised his head. His eyes burned.
"Because they're the only true 'martial arts' left in this martial world."
It wasn't as if he had never tried to learn other martial arts.
He had visited the Namgung Clan, said to house the Sword Emperor, and the Zhongnan Sect, said to cut even the setting sun. Yet they had all been amateurs.
No proper martial arts remained in the <First Martial World>.
The techniques once called martial arts had all been standardized into [Skills], then distributed as [Skill Books] that anyone could conveniently learn.
But Junghyeok knew it. Those ordinary Skills could never bring down the stars in the sky.
"I need power that can kill Constellations."
A human capable of killing Constellations.
Beings <Star Stream> called Transcendents.
And among them, the strongest was the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint standing before him.
The Sky-Splitting Sword Saint sighed lightly before speaking.
"If you defeat that one, I'll consider it."
Growling as the watchdog appeared, the Sky-Splitting Divine Dog blocked Junghyeok's path.
* * *
Thinking back, that was the start of their tiresome master-disciple bond.
After much trouble, Junghyeok succeeded in taking the Sky-Splitting Divine Dog's food bowl. The first task the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint gave him was this.
"Do thirty thousand slashes."
"You can't do thirty thousand slashes in a day."
"Thirty thousand is nothing. There's someone in this world who performed ten billion thrusts over forty years."
"Don't lie."
"I suppose I should teach you some manners first."
All while he was being smacked on the backside, Junghyeok wondered if this was really how he was supposed to become stronger.
He got smacked every day.
Another week passed that way, then half a month.
"How many thrusts have you done?"
"About ten thousand, ma'am."
"And slashes?"
"I did twenty thousand, ma'am."
"I told you to do twenty thousand of each."
"Don't hit my butt."
Junghyeok got hit again.
Even though it was only a few strikes, it hurt as though he had been hit twenty thousand times.
A month passed that way, then two.
To give the conclusion first, Junghyeok did not learn [Sky Splitter Sword Art].
After taking Junghyeok in as a disciple, the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint did little more than lie back against the wooden veranda and admire his sculpted muscles, put him through basic training, or send him on strange errands.
"When are you going to teach me the sword?"
"Go to Azure Sky Peak in the <Second Martial World> and pick some Baekryeong Herb."
Junghyeok climbed Azure Sky Peak with every ounce of his strength while being pursued by the Nine Sects and One Gang. He crossed swords with Taoists from Wudang and Kunlun, then slipped in the rain and fell off cliffs dozens of times.
At last, he obtained the Baekryeong Herb.
"I brought it."
"Oh, just put it there for now."
"Why did you make me bring this?"
The Sky-Splitting Sword Saint smiled contentedly at the Baekryeong Herb, which filled the air with a fresh fragrance.
"This herb purifies the air."
"Are you going to teach me the sword now?"
"A treasure map appeared in the <Fourth Martial World>. It's the Hidden Realm of Master Mystic Crane. Enter it and bring back the pill the master left behind."
"What?"
The Sky-Splitting Divine Dog barked beside them.
Woof, woof.
The Sky-Splitting Sword Saint said, "She's been weak lately. She needs an elixir or something."
Junghyeok set out to obtain an elixir for a dog.
He had assumed the <Fourth Martial World> would be full of weaklings because of its name, but its masters were formidable. In particular, those considered among the Top Ten Masters were far beyond the current Junghyeok.
Still, returning after meeting a Top Ten Master was the easy part.
"Go to the Demonic Cult in the <Third Martial World> and obtain some Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Ice. It's been so hot lately that I have no desire to teach martial arts."
He almost died when he went to the Demonic Cult. He met the cult leader called the Heavenly Demon, and it seemed even all the Top Ten Masters of the <Fourth Martial World> gathered together would not have been able to kill the Heavenly Demon.
Even that Heavenly Demon was only the Heavenly Demon of the <Third Martial World>. According to the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint, the real Heavenly Demon was several times stronger.
"Go to Shaolin and steal a Greater Restoration Pill. Watch out for those bald monks."
Junghyeok had heard plenty about Shaolin Temple's reputation. Still, he thought it was just a place where bald monks gathered. He had already faced the Top Ten Masters and the Heavenly Demon. There couldn't possibly be a bald monk capable of standing against him.
...That was what he thought, but after lowering his guard for a moment, he was ambushed by a monk, had his head completely shaved, and was locked in the repentance chamber for three months.
He barely escaped and stole the Greater Restoration Pill, but he truly almost died breaking through the Eighteen Arhat Formation.
"That took you a while this time. And what happened to your hair?"
Junghyeok's bald head was the work of Shaolin's strongest master, the Divine Monk.
Fortunately, there had been something to gain in exchange for losing his hair.
He had learned Shaolin's [hundred-step godly fists].
Three months passed that way, then six, then a year.
His hair soon grew back.
Even after that, Junghyeok completed errand after errand, narrowly escaping death each time. They were difficult enough that he sometimes thought it would be better to regress and start everything over.
The <Star Stream> was vast, and there were countless masters.
How much stronger did he need to become to see the end of this cursed Scenario?
At times, he simply grabbed his sword and charged at the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint.
He nearly died.
The Sky-Splitting Sword Saint was someone even the Divine Monk, the Heavenly Demon, and every one of the Top Ten Masters combined could not defeat.
Though his backside was beaten to pulp, Junghyeok was satisfied. His master was stronger than the Divine Monk and the Heavenly Demon, after all.
"Why did you decide to teach me in the first place?"
"Because you're handsome."
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"I won't get another chance to smack the backside of a handsome guy like this."
Another year passed.
During that time, Junghyeok met many masters, fought them, and defeated them.
Because his fame spread throughout the <First Martial World>, the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint's reputation rose by the day as well.
"I'm the one defeating these masters, so I don't understand why your reputation is rising."
"The world has recognized the shadow cast by an outstanding master."
"A master is someone who gives teachings."
"Come to think of it, you haven't been whining about wanting me to teach you the sword lately."
Chuckling, the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint sat on the wooden veranda as usual.
The young ladies from noble clans who had come to watch Junghyeok train gradually disappeared, replaced by the cool night air.
Two years had passed since Junghyeok came to the martial world.
Panting, the Sky-Splitting Divine Dog climbed onto the veranda and lay down beside his legs.
A dog stronger than him. A dog who had joined earlier and become his senior disciple. A dog who had eaten Master Mystic Crane's secret divine medicine and a Greater Restoration Pill, gaining the strongest internal energy in the martial world.
Woof, woof.
Junghyeok sighed lightly and petted her back. The Sky-Splitting Divine Dog wagged her tail happily.
The sound of water trickling from a nearby mill reached them. Insects chirped in the grass.
Junghyeok quietly exhaled. The swaying leaves of the Baekryeong Herb spread the cool chill of the Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Ice. Night had arrived as the heat of day faded.
The martial world's night sky was beautiful.
"Tell me about yourself."
Normally, Junghyeok would not have begun talking just because his shameless master told him to. He was always wary and rarely spoke of himself.
Perhaps he opened his mouth because he thought this life was already ruined anyway.
Or perhaps it was because of the soft fur of the Sky-Splitting Divine Dog touching his thigh.
Maybe the round puffs of smoke the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint playfully spread across the night sky had simply amused him. The insect calls and the sound of water were so loud, and the piercingly cold stars of that martial world were so dazzling, that perhaps he mistakenly believed no one would hear his story tonight.
Whatever the reason, Junghyeok began to speak, rambling without order.
He told her about the day he had first entered the Scenario.
He told her how he began to regress and repeat the world.
Junghyeok talked alone about a story no one could understand.
It did not matter whether the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint listened or not. Junghyeok simply wanted to talk for once, and there was someone there to listen.
Like a tree that had lived for an immensely long time, the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint listened to his story.
Only the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint's Clear Mirror Eyes, gleaming in the soft night air, revealed that she was listening.
Clear Mirror Eyes. Eyes that looked into another person's emotions.
Meeting those eyes, which neither carelessly comforted nor blamed him, Junghyeok felt an inexplicable peace.
How much time passed? Eventually, Junghyeok's story came to an end.
The Sky-Splitting Sword Saint thought for a moment before speaking.
"You looked like someone who had no parents from the beginning."
Junghyeok thought for a moment, then asked, "Are you insulting me?"
"You always looked like you fell straight from the sky."
Junghyeok silently looked up at the sky.
Perhaps the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint was not entirely wrong. He really did not know what his parents looked like.
"When were you born?"
"I don't know."
"Has no one ever told you?"
Junghyeok nodded.
He had, of course, been assigned a resident registration number. Yet he knew it was not his real birthday.
"I only know that I was born in summer."
The martial world's sky was beautiful enough to feel fleeting.
At the end of that dazzling <Star Stream>, there had to be a being who had made all these Scenarios.
"Why do you want to become a Transcendent?"
Junghyeok silently looked up at the sky. The Sky-Splitting Sword Saint also looked at Junghyeok's sky.
Sometimes, feelings could be conveyed simply by looking at the same place.
The Sky-Splitting Sword Saint slowly rose and drew her sword toward the sky.
It was a beautiful sword technique. Delicate yet strong, graceful yet restrained.
Her technique reached toward the sky and shattered it.
Was it an illusion? The stars in the sky she had cut seemed to be falling.
Junghyeok stared blankly at the falling stars. Even though he knew it was an illusion, he could not look away.
How long did he watch those lights scatter beautifully like fireworks? At some point, the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint returned from somewhere with a small paper bag in her hand.
"Eat. It's my favorite food."
Steam rose from the swaying bag.
Junghyeok frowned.
"I don't eat things made by others."
"I bought them especially for you. Eat."
"I don't want to."
"Let's see. Today is..."
Among the brightly shining summer starlight, the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint's sword drew an eight and a three.
"From now on, today is your birthday, disciple."
* * *
It would have been nice if that had been the end of his memories about birthdays.
But as always, this <Star Stream> did not like happy endings.
Exactly one year after the fireworks of that summer night, it happened on a hot, humid summer night as a storm raged.
"Master."
The Sky-Splitting Sword Saint had been attacked by the Heavenly Demon and the Blood Demon together.
More than several thousand masters had died, and the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint had defended her martial world alone against the Returnee Alliance.
Junghyeok ran through the air, carrying the fallen Sky-Splitting Sword Saint.
Both he and the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint knew her wounds could no longer be healed.
"Sky-Splitting Sword Saint!"
The Sky-Splitting Sword Saint did not respond to Junghyeok's cry.
After laying her down in a safe house, Junghyeok poured every elixir he possessed into her mouth. They were the elixirs he had collected over that time. Baekryeong Herb. Mystic Crane Pill. Greater Restoration Pill...
But the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint's energy only grew weaker.
The Sky-Splitting Sword Saint's fable was breaking apart.
Junghyeok cursed.
Please.
She had been a being so immense that she seemed like a forest. Yet she, too, was a tree. A tree that could fall when a typhoon blew and lightning struck.
What if he turned back time instead?
What if he regressed here?
If he could only save his master...
If he turned back time, the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint he remembered would disappear.
His master slowly opened her eyes and looked at him. Her large hand cupped Junghyeok's cheek.
"Disciple."
"I still haven't learned [Sky Splitter Sword Art]."
"Don't you already know it?"
The Sky-Splitting Sword Saint knew Junghyeok's talent. His demonic talent, which absorbed everything as soon as he learned it, had already taken in even the [Sky Splitter Sword Art] he had watched from the side.
Junghyeok shook his head.
"You said you would make me a Transcendent. You said you would make me capable of killing Constellations, make me capable of shattering that <Star Stream>..."
Without you, I cannot become strong.
I...
"Junghyeok."
His master's eyes were on him.
"You're already stronger than me."
Junghyeok's shoulders trembled. He tried to say that was not true.
"You are refusing to become stronger than me."
Junghyeok's head slowly lowered. His breathing grew ragged, and his fingertips trembled.
The past year had been so peaceful that he had forgotten this feeling.
Everything was about to repeat again.
"Sky-Splitting Sword Saint, I..."
"I know."
His master's large hand covered Junghyeok's head.
As if she truly understood Junghyeok's heart, the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint smiled faintly.
"My handsome disciple. I hope you don't learn [Sky Splitter Sword Art] again."
His master's words echoed in his head.
He should not have come looking for the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint. He should not have tried to learn [Sky Splitter Sword Art]. He should not have come to the martial world.
"I hope you live idly, lying on the wooden veranda and eating dumplings made by someone else."
His master knew what he was about to do.
She knew what sky he intended to shatter with her [Sky Splitter Sword Art].
That was why she had not wanted to teach him swordsmanship. She had hoped he would give up somehow.
"But you will go pick Baekryeong Herb again. Even knowing why I sent you, you will insist on accomplishing it."
That was why she had sent him on such difficult errands.
"You will conquer the Hidden Realm of Master Mystic Crane, and go steal Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Ice and Greater Restoration Pills. Again and again. You will turn twenty-nine, then thirty."
Junghyeok's hands shook. He wanted to say something, but no voice came out.
The Sky-Splitting Sword Saint continued.
"I will ask your birthday again, without knowing anything. When you turn twenty-nine, then thirty, people will celebrate you. Without understanding at all what that means to you..."
The light was fading from the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint's eyes, as if she were looking at the distant future of her disciple, who would repeat the same time.
"Even so, don't hate people too much, disciple."
He was the regressor.
A being who walked alone, remembering all of time.
"They are simply happy that you were born."
Watching his master's hand slowly fall, Junghyeok raised his head.
The sky of the <Star Stream> appeared again.
Only one gaze looking at the same sky had disappeared, yet the stars there looked different from before.
Junghyeok slowly rose.
Just as a tree grew only after receiving light and water, a fable grew by consuming tragedy.
Humans in Scenarios could only become stronger by losing something.
The martial world's night was no longer beautiful.
Junghyeok gripped his sword, and at last, he was born.
At that moment, he was neither a Constellation nor a star.
Even so, to the Constellations of the distant universe, Junghyeok looked like a brilliant star.
That was how Yu Junghyeok became a Transcendent.
* * *
The playback ended with a bright flash of light.
[41], who had been sitting on a park bench and watching the video with him, muttered, "Was there a memory like this?"
Secretive Plotter slowly shook his head.
It had long been his habit to review his entire life by borrowing the memories of small Yu Junghyeoks, but this was the first time even he had seen such a memory.
"Even you have memories you're seeing for the first time? You are the Yu Junghyeok who remembers every Yu Junghyeok."
【I, too, have memories I do not know, 41. Just as you have forgotten your own life.】
[41] fell silent at those words.
Yu Junghyeok of the forty-first round.
Of all Yu Junghyeoks, he was the only one who did not remember most of his life. Because of that, even Secretive Plotter did not know exactly what had happened during his life.
【Perhaps it is a memory newly observed this time.】
The memories of Junghyeok, who had lived 1,863 rounds, were as vast as the universe.
Some memories existed without ever being recorded. It might sound strange, but that was how this universe was made.
As though something had suddenly come to mind, Secretive Plotter took a book from his robes.
『Kim Dokja's Comment Archive』
[41] widened his eyes when he saw the title.
"What is that?"
【A book that records the comments he left behind.】
"I mean, why do you have something like that?"
Secretive Plotter turned the pages without answering, then stopped at one spot.
「Author, when is Junghyeok's birthday, anyway?」
Secretive Plotter stared at the comment for a long time.
Had Kim Dokja left this comment before or after the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint told him about his birthday?
That was when a text message arrived with a chime.
- Captain. You'll come at eight, right? Everyone's waiting.
A photograph was attached to the message.
Lee Jihye, her cheeks dusted with flour as though they were all making dumplings together, was flashing a V with her fingers. Beside her stood Kim Namwoon, frowning, Lee Hyeongseong, holding a burst dumpling and looking helpless, and Uriel, making a huge sheep-shaped dumpling. At the edge of the photograph, he could see the hand of a boy who looked to be in middle school.
Secretive Plotter sent a message.
- I don't eat things made by others.
The response came right away.
- What about this?
Jihye had sent a photograph of a giant dumpling the size of a person's head. It was a dumpling no human should have been able to eat, a giant dumpling beyond the limits of his aesthetic sense.
Written crookedly across it in what appeared to be ketchup were the words:
Dumplings Made by Someone Else
Secretive Plotter stared at the photograph for a long time before typing a reply.
- I said, things made by others...
Secretive Plotter pressed backspace and erased the entire sentence.
[41], who had watched the scene, gave a quiet laugh. The fading afterimage of [41] seeped into Secretive Plotter.
Secretive Plotter silently stood up.
The sun was already setting. It was seven in the evening when he checked the time. Normally, this was when the Scenario's paid content would begin. But no matter how long he waited, the Scenario did not start.
Beside the blinking clock, numbers showing the date appeared.
August 3rd.
It was a day in the solar calendar that had nothing to do with him.
The sun was not his Patron, so the solar calendar was not his time either.
No one lived through the same time as him, nor could they.
Even so,
the people who remembered him called today his birthday.
He was no longer sad about that fact.
Footnotes:
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