WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 555: Episode 1: The World After the Ending (2)

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"Ah, ah. Mic test."

Was this how the characters felt when they first saw Bihyeong appear in the subway?

"Can everyone hear me?"

The woman on the screen was so exactly like the Han Suyeong I'd imagined that it gave me chills.

I wasn't the only one who thought so. The other readers were staring at the screen with their mouths open, too.

"People still remember that bastard's story. Well, you were all Kim Dokja too, weren't you?"

Even her uniquely irritating way of speaking was perfectly Suyeong. It looked like they had used deepfake technology to make the video, but whoever played her was incredible.

Then Suyeong started saying something strange.

"I sent a short side story through the Cloud a while ago. Did you all read it?"

Huh?

No, wait.

"Of course you did. I know. But that was only a preview. Now the real ‘side story’ is about to begin."

What short story? What side story?

Who had made this video?

I wasn't even ready to begin serialization yet.

"So please keep supporting it. I'll take one last question."

The readers staring at the screen looked at one another.

Suyeong added, "Don't ask me where Junghyeok bought his boots, whether Gilyeong eats grasshoppers, or things like that. I don't know either, so keep that in mind."

Someone let out a disappointed sigh.

The readers looked hesitant, as if they weren't sure they were really allowed to ask questions. It was a prerecorded video to begin with, so there was no way it could answer them.

Still, someone raised their hand.

"Did Kim Dokja come back to life?"

It was a small girl fan sitting in the front row.

A brief silence fell over the audience.

It was a question anyone who had read the ending would wonder about. In a sense, everyone knew the answer, which made it impossible to answer.

Yet, to my surprise, Suyeong opened her mouth.

"Ah, right. I knew someone would ask that. Well, you see..."

Tzzzt.

The screen went dark in a shower of sparks, and disappointed groans rose from the audience.

I couldn't help admiring it. I didn't know who had made the video, but the timing was thoroughly in the spirit of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint.

"What a shame, the signal has been cut off. As for whether Dokja came back to life, let's all find out together in the side story!"

As the host smoothly wrapped up the situation, the readers began talking in excited voices.

"Is a real side story coming out?"

"I don't think there was ever an announcement."

Of course not. There hadn't actually been one. Though I had written a hiatus notice in advance.

Eunyeu, sitting beside me, whispered playfully, "Maybe it's a cute threat to pressure you into serializing again?"

"..."

"So you'll have to write diligently, won't you?"

As I let out a quiet sigh, the host introduced the final segment.

"Now then, it's time for today's final event, the Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint quiz! We've prepared plenty of prizes so everyone can receive one, so if you answer a question correctly, please come straight up to the stage."

Judging by the readers' shining eyes, this seemed to be the main event.

The host standing before the screen read the question.

"The first question is..."

Before the host could even finish, readers shot their hands into the air.

That was unexpected. It seemed like a fairly difficult question.

When the selected reader gave an answer, the host applauded.

"Congratulations. Please come this way."

The flushed reader followed the host's directions and went behind the curtain behind the screen.

A moment later,

Tzzzt.

The reader's presence vanished with the sound.

I laughed. The readers laughed too.

It was an interesting production.

All right, maybe I'd try this one.

"Now, the second question. How many times does ■ appear in the entirety of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint?"

I wondered if the question was mistaken.

There was no way anyone could know the answer to that.

No, more importantly, even I, the Writer, didn't know. Who could possibly...

"Me!"

...?

"The answer is..."

I assumed they would just say a random number, but to my surprise, the host applauded.

"Congratulations. Please come this way."

They weren't even Kim Dokja, so how had they gotten that right?

The reader who answered the second question followed the host behind the curtain as well.

The host smiled brightly.

"Oh dear, were the questions too difficult? This time, it's an easy one!"

I pulled myself together and focused on the host's words.

Fine. This time for sure.

"The third question. In TWSA, Yu Junghyeok regresses 1,863 times. What does the number 1,863 symbolize?"

I went blank for a moment after hearing the question.

Did that number have some kind of symbolism?

I tried to guess why the Writer of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint had used the number 1,863.

In my opinion... the Writer had no intention behind it whatsoever. That was certain. I knew because I was the Writer of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint.

This time, quite a few readers raised their hands.

The host pointed to one of them, and the reader answered, "1,863 was the year the world's first subway opened, symbolizing Yu Junghyeok's repeated regressions within a subway that keeps going in circles."

Huh?

"Oh, right, right. That was it."

"What a shame. I saw that in Representative Kim Dokja's analysis post too."

The host applauded, and the reader who had answered grinned as they climbed onto the stage.

Eunyeu asked as I blankly watched them leave, "Did 1,863 really have that meaning?"

"Of course. Every number in my writing has meaning. Every device is brilliantly connected."

The quiz continued.

Some questions covered things even I knew. Others, I had no idea how to answer.

Yet as I listened to the words passing back and forth, I felt something I couldn't put into words.

Stories I remembered. Stories I didn't remember. Even stories I had never intended.

The story I hadn't written over the past three years was still continuing here.

A question suddenly came to mind.

Could I really say that I loved this story more than they did?

"What was the name of the sword Jeong Huiwon received from Dokja in the Theater Dungeon?"

"Me! Me!"

Judge Huiwon, sitting beside me, finally got a question right.

As he excitedly pulled back the curtain and disappeared, Eunyeu muttered anxiously, "At this rate, we'll be the only ones left. Damn it, this won't do."

From then on, Eunyeu began enthusiastically raising a hand.

Ten questions, then twenty questions passed before Eunyeu answered one correctly.

"I'll go ahead. See you outside."

Eunyeu waved and disappeared, but I didn't raise my hand.

The readers who had been struggling with the questions got them right one by one and rose from their seats.

Some suddenly wiped away tears.

For a long time, I watched their backs as they left the theater.

"Now, only the final question remains."

A voice echoed through the silent theater.

By then, I was the only person left in the seating area.

Looking at the countless empty seats before me, I thought about the character Kim Dokja for the first time in a long while.

"Then here is the final question."

I listened tensely.

Please let it be an easy question.

The host smiled and asked, "Who is the heroine of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint?"

I opened my mouth for a moment, then closed it again.

Perhaps noticing my confusion, the host added, "I'll give you one minute to think."

The heroine of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint.

Who would Kim Dokja consider the heroine?

I didn't know. Because I wasn't Kim Dokja.

「Who is the heroine of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint?」

Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint hadn't been written with a heroine actively in mind, so its romance plot had never been particularly significant.

Still, if I had to name one person...

"Ten seconds remain."

"The heroine of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint is..."

I said the name of the heroine I had in mind.

I wasn't sure whether this was the right person to name. Compared to the other main characters, she didn't have much screen time.

Even so, she was undoubtedly a character written for Kim Dokja.

The host fell silent at my answer for a moment, then asked, "Why do you think that?"

I might not be the person who loved this story most.

I might not even be the person who knew this story best.

Still, I wanted to say this at least once.

"Because I wrote it."

"Pardon?"

The host seemed not to have heard properly and asked again.

I gave a bitter smile and raised my voice.

"Because she's a character I like."

I didn't know whether my answer was correct.

The host simply nodded, then slowly applauded.

Did that mean I had gotten it right, or wrong?

Come to think of it, the host had never once said the words "correct answer."

"Congratulations."

At the host's words, I walked down the theater steps toward the stage.

As I followed the path the readers had taken before me, the empty seats of the theater came into view.

The words [The Fourth Wall] glowed faintly on the screen.

I remembered the readers who had walked down while wiping their eyes, the readers who had forced smiles and looked back once.

Only then did I think I understood how they felt.

They hadn't cried or laughed because they were happy to get a quiz question right. This was why the readers cried or laughed.

This was where 『Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint』 ended.

It felt as though I was finally walking down a path I should have taken long ago.

The readers had reached the final destination in their own ways, and now it was my turn.

When I stepped onto the stage, the host was waiting for me.

For a moment, we faced one another.

The host looked at the nickname written on my name tag.

[■■■]

"That's a very difficult nickname to pronounce."

I smiled and nodded.

Even from up close, I couldn't see the host's face clearly. Their voice was strangely androgynous, so I couldn't tell whether they were a man or a woman.

For a moment, I wanted to ask if they were Representative Kim Dokja.

But I didn't.

I didn't think I had the right to ask.

"Your prize is beyond the curtain. Please collect it and leave."

The word prize made my heart beat a little faster.

What could it be? A gift certificate?

I reached toward the curtain on the stage, then hesitated.

If I pulled back this curtain, it felt like this story would really end.

Wasn't there still a story left to write?

Weren't there sentences I had forgotten, words I had yet to write?

At the final moment, I turned around.

It felt as if someone might still be there.

And if someone really remained, I thought I wanted to write a story for them.

There really was someone there.

When had they moved all the way over there?

The host was standing in the middle of the seating area, waving at me.

The seating area was more visible from the stage than I had expected.

I waved back at the host, then slowly turned around and pulled back the curtain.

It was time to live in the world after the ending.

"Are you really ending it like this?"

Then, at that moment.

"If you selfishly decide the ending alone, what about everyone else?"

I heard the host's voice.

Just as I tried to answer, "What?"

Tzzzt.

A sound came from somewhere.

I reflexively gripped my phone.

It wasn't my phone vibrating.

"So please take good care of that story."

Something was swirling before my eyes.

Huh,

The vortex swallowed me whole, including the sound in my mouth.

Sparks flew before my eyes, and my vision flickered.

It felt as if someone had rolled my body into a ball and thrown me into a subway car that kept making endless emergency stops.

The breath I held tasted faintly of vomit.

Then I opened my eyes.

「I was really on the subway.」

My eye level was slightly higher than usual.

Lukewarm air blew from the air vent hanging from the ceiling.

I blinked as I smelled the strangely stale dust of the underground.

The vague sensation of floating slowly clung to my skin, and reality gradually returned.

「More precisely, I was in a subway station.」

Why was I here?

The answer rose from somewhere deep in my head as soon as I asked myself that question.

I already knew where this was.

「"But Writer, why did you start in the subway?"」

Eunyeu had asked me that once.

「"Because it was the most natural place."」

But I couldn't accept that answer.

"What the hell is this?"

The voice that came from my mouth sounded unnatural, startling me.

I reflexively looked ahead.

The reflection in the platform screen door wasn't Lee Hakhyun. An unfamiliar narrow-eyed man was staring back at me.

"No..."

An unfamiliar phone was clutched in my hand.

Without thinking, I pressed the power button.

「The moment I looked at the clock was pure coincidence.」

Tick.

The digits on the phone's clock changed.

PM 7:00.

The moment I raised my head, a message sounded from somewhere with a small explosion.

[The free service for Planetary System 8612 has ended.]

[The Main Scenario has begun.]

I knew the next sentence far too well.

「It was the moment the genre of my life changed.」

Those weren't words I had thought.

「And so.」

At that moment, I was being thought.

「I entered 『Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint』.」

Footnotes:

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