WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 556: Episode 2: Rewrite (1)

──────

「Author, do you know what a living creature is?」

- From a comment on Episode 6 of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint.

* * *

I had once joked about something like this with Ji Eunyeu. If we were dropped into the first Scenario of ORV, would we be able to survive?

Eunyeu had answered like this.

- Honestly, I'm not confident. What about you, Author?

What had I said in response? I couldn't remember.

What was certain was that our joke from that day had now become real.

「Good lord.」

I touched my reflection in the screen door over and over.

It wasn't because I was handsome. There was nothing strange smeared on the screen door, either.

My face had literally changed.

Gently smiling eyes and thin lips with a subtle hint of cruelty.

I realized where I had seen this face before.

There had definitely been a life-size standee with this very face at the entrance to the event theater.

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

[The Main Scenario has begun.]

Bewildered voices rose from all over the subway station.

"What is this?"

"I'm not the only one seeing this, right?"

"What? It's blocked. Hey, can you feel a wall here too?"

A transparent wall surrounded part of the station. It was a wall I knew well.

"Where are the subway employees? Aren't they going to make an announcement?"

"Someone will come. Let's wait."

There was no room for doubt now.

「I had possessed someone in ORV.」

A tremor slowly climbed up from my toes.

「And it was an extra character I didn't know.」

It was a common development in web novels, but no matter how hard I thought about it, I couldn't find a reason why I should be the one possessing someone.

Why me? Had I earned someone's grudge? Had one of the characters shoved me in here?

Could the Han Suyeong I saw at the event theater have been real?

Then was Suyeong the culprit?

It was possible. Suyeong hated that I acted like I was ORV's author, so she had finally thrown me in here.

Yu Junghyeok was another possibility. I was the one who wrote that he had regressed 1,863 times, after all. He had more than enough reason to hold a grudge against me.

Maybe it was Kim Dokja. I had broken the protagonist down into nanoscopic pieces and scattered him across the universe, so perhaps he was trying to get revenge on me. Even if that wasn't the reason, he might have done it simply because he had a bad personality.

I didn't know. What was the point of thinking about this crap now?

I pushed the uncertain information out of my head and kept only what I knew for sure.

First, the world of ORV was real.

Second, I had entered ORV.

Third, I had possessed someone other than myself.

Fourth, the Scenario would begin soon.

That meant I first needed to figure out what I could use.

This was a subway station. The orange line meant it was Line 3. And the station name was...

「Geumho」

I quietly frowned.

My starting point differed from the original ORV storyline.

Information about Geumho Station came to mind. It was the protagonist Kim Dokja's first Shelter Zone, and the place where a massacre would occur.

[Ah, ahh. ^&@@#%.]

At the voice from thin air, I reflexively looked up.

The sight was completely unreal.

I never thought the day would come when I saw that dokkaebi with my own eyes.

Two small horns. A monster in a short straw cloak, its body covered in soft fuzz.

It looked exactly as I had described it.

[Can you hear me?]

Bihyeong, Dokja's Stream Contract partner.

[Oh? This place is quieter than the others. Hmm...]

Bihyeong turned at that moment, and our eyes met. I quickly lowered my head.

The Bihyeong from the beginning of the novel was a crazy monster who cracked Incarnations' skulls for fun. It was best not to draw attention.

[This is nice. In other places, I have to blow up a few heads before they quiet down. It's such a hassle. Now, I'll briefly explain the situation, so listen carefully.]

I knew exactly what Bihyeong was about to say.

Naturally, since I had edited those lines dozens of times.

He was probably broadcasting a similar script simultaneously throughout the Scenario areas he managed.

[You've all lived for free until now. Life has been far too generous, hasn't it? You were born, breathed without paying any price, ate, pooped, and reproduced however you pleased! Ha! You've lived in a really wonderful world!]

I hadn't realized it while writing those lines, but hearing them made me feel strangely wronged.

[Anyway, the reason you've been able to live for free until now is because the Constellations in the distant sky have watched over your planet with great generosity. But that ends today. It's time for you to repay the Constellations. You need to repay the debt for all that warm care you've received. Rather than me going on and on, wouldn't it be better for you to experience the situation yourselves?]

As though he couldn't be bothered to recite the tiresome speech any longer, Bihyeong snapped his fingers.

[#BI-7623 Channel has opened.]

[Constellations are entering.]

Small windows appeared above the people as they blankly looked up.

[The Main Scenario has arrived!]

+

Category: Main

Difficulty: F

Clear Conditions: Kill at least one living being.

Time Limit: 30 minutes

Compensation: 300 coins

Failure: Death

+

Bihyeong's body turned transparent as he slowly vanished, a faint smile on his face.

[Then, good luck, everyone. Please show me an entertaining story.]

The Scenario window floating before me made it feel real.

The time limit was ticking down in real time.

It said thirty minutes now, but if people spent too long panicking, the penalty would begin soon enough.

"What does that mean?"

Voices rose from people who still hadn't grasped the situation. Some were making calls, while others struck the transparent wall blocking the exits.

After taking a light breath, I muttered inwardly.

'Attributes Window.'

[The Attributes Window cannot be activated due to a current system error.]

I narrowed my eyes.

It didn't work?

Then perhaps...

'The Fourth Wall.'

Dokja from the main story possessed the skill [The Fourth Wall] from the beginning, and its penalty restricted him from viewing the Attributes Window.

So, if I possessed [The Fourth Wall] too...

'The Fourth Wall.'

...

Nope.

Then why couldn't I open the Attributes Window?

Damn it, I didn't know.

Still, if I predicted my Attributes based on my profession, I was an author, so I should have the [Writer] Attribute... Perhaps I even possessed [Avatar] or [Predictive Plagiarism], like Han Suyeong.

I focused and tried to use author-exclusive skills, including [Avatar]. But nothing changed, aside from my sphincter tightening.

[The remaining time has decreased.]

[Current remaining time: 28 minutes.]

While I was wasting my time, the people in the station had split into two large groups.

One group wore sweatshirts stamped with the same logo.

"Brothers, please don't panic and gather over here!"

"Everyone, let's go to the deacon!"

Across from them, a burly person with a roly-poly tattoo on their arm was gathering people.

"Hey! Come over here and help!"

They pushed against the transparent wall with both hands and shouted at the people around them.

"Let's all push this together! We might be able to get out!"

"What if that monster from earlier attacks us for doing something strange?"

"Then what are we supposed to do? If you won't help, get lost. Push! Harder! More!"

Before long, some of the people who had been hesitating joined in and began pushing the wall. Their cries of exertion rang out several times, and even the churchgoers watching them began to move one by one.

"Everyone! Let's lend that brother our strength!"

At the deacon's signal, the churchgoers rushed in and pushed the wall. More than ten people clinging to the transparent wall as though performing a pantomime made for quite a spectacle.

While they wrestled with the wall, I slowly walked toward the edge of the station. My slender figure reflected in a screen door a few steps away.

It seemed I had possessed a hopeless character.

No matter how closely I looked, this body had Strength, Constitution, and Agility that didn't even average 1. I wasn't sure I could win even if I fought the early Dokja.

Dokja.

I had to meet Dokja somehow.

I didn't know why I had possessed someone, but according to ordinary web novel conventions, I would probably return to reality when I reached the end of the Scenario.

So I needed to win over ORV's protagonist, who kept dying and coming back to life for his Companions. It was the only way to raise my chances of survival, even slightly, in this brutal world.

「The first Scenario's Clear Conditions were to kill at least one living being.」

In the first Scenario, Dokja fulfilled the Clear Conditions by crushing the grasshoppers and grasshopper eggs Lee Gilyeong had gathered.

But he was the protagonist, so he had been lucky. An extra character like me had no chance of getting that kind of luck.

That was why I thought of this method.

I stared at the vending machine in front of me.

If I hadn't been dropped into the same train car as Dokja, then perhaps being dropped in a subway station was lucky instead.

At least here, this vending machine was my insect jar.

"Push! Harder!"

"Hyahhh!"

Matching the rhythm of the people shouting as they pushed the wall, I discreetly shook the vending machine.

「Many insects live in subway vending machines equipped with cooling and heating systems.」

Had it been when I had written around two hundred chapters of ORV? I remembered reading an article like that.

After I shook it several times, something made a light sound.

Plop.

An unidentified insect scurried out from beneath the vending machine.

I hurriedly cupped both hands around the fleeing insect.

Lucky.

I was about to crush the insect in my hands.

「Wait. What if it was pregnant?」

It wasn't that I was philosophically considering an insect's right to live.

A passage from ORV had simply come to mind.

「An egg is a living thing.」

The Scenario recognized insect eggs as living beings, and Kim Dokja secured an advantage in the Scenario by crushing hundreds of eggs.

But what if Kim Dokja had given those insect eggs to everyone on the subway?

I slightly turned my head and looked at the people striking the transparent wall.

People striking the wall to survive.

I knew what kind of people Geumho Station's passengers were. They could easily take another person's life for their own survival.

For a moment, I thought as though I were Dokja.

「If Dokja returned to the first Scenario, what would he do?」

A rattling sound suddenly rang out, and I nearly dropped the insect.

It wasn't a Plausibility Spark.

My phone was vibrating in my pocket.

After hesitating for a moment, I put the insect in my clenched hand into my coat pocket and tightly zipped it shut.

A message appeared when I opened my phone.

[A new note has arrived.]

A note?

- Sender: Kim Dokja Representative

- Author. Congratulations on the serialization of the side story.

I stared at the message, doubting my eyes.

- In anticipation of your serialization, I am sending you a small gift.

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried