Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint - Chapter 559

WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 559: Episode 2: Rewrite (4)

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I couldn't understand it.

The bug was dead. It had definitely been crushed to death in my pocket.

If this bug was still judged to be ‘alive,’ then the <Star Stream> system was broken.

"So now we just wait, right? We did what it told us to do."

The others had done the same.

Whether they had slapped the bugs to death with their palms or stomped on them, they had clearly killed them.

"Hey! We completed our assignment! Let us out already!"

Then why wasn't the Scenario completion message appearing?

As expected, a system message should have appeared the moment the bugs died.

[A problem has occurred in the Main Scenario system.]

With a crackling sound, Bihyeong appeared in midair. He looked over at me and the others with an awkward expression.

[Well... everyone.]

The moment I saw Bihyeong's face, I realized what I had missed.

I was an idiot. Why hadn't I noticed sooner?

―There's someone here who's trying to be clever, too.

Bihyeong had said that through dokkaebi communication earlier.

That meant someone besides me was carrying out the Scenario in an unusual way.

At first, I thought he meant Dokja.

But there was something I hadn't considered.

There wasn't just one ‘reader’ in this Scenario.

Bihyeong's lips twitched before he spoke in an irritated voice.

[You all seem to think this is some kind of ‘kill the bugs’ game. This Scenario is really strange. How can the same thing happen so often, all at once...?]

The same thing happening simultaneously.

I quickly looked at Reader Uncle. He seemed to have come to the same conclusion.

"Don't tell me..."

Somewhere in this world, there were readers who had read ORV, just like him.

They knew the solution to the first Scenario, just as we did, and they had chosen to catch bugs and clear it.

What we hadn't known was that too many people had used that solution.

[The Administration Bureau has detected the Scenario's unnatural flow.]

[The Scenario's Plausibility is beginning to tilt.]

[The will of Star Stream is moving.]

It was a shortcut that had been tried so often it had lost its novelty.

[Humans really are cruel. Just to save themselves, they kill those poor bugs...]

I stared down at the bug corpses strewn across the station. They had been miserably burst and trampled.

If bugs were recognized as ‘living creatures,’ perhaps they had also been ‘Scenario participants.’

If so, what did we look like through the bugs' eyes?

Bihyeong shook his head as he looked at the bug corpses covering the floor, then vanished.

"W-What was that supposed to mean?"

"Didn't killing bugs mean we could live?"

"It'll be fine. He was probably just trying to scare us."

"That's right! We followed the rules!"

In this world, the rules of a ‘Scenario’ were absolute.

The ‘Main Scenario’ in particular held an authority that even dokkaebis couldn't touch.

No matter how displeased Bihyeong was with this situation, the Main Scenario couldn't be changed unless the entire Administration Bureau intervened.

Crackle.

That was how it should have been.

"W-What is this?!"

Nothing like this had ever happened in ORV.

Not even when Kim Dokja Company entered the 1,865th round through Group Regression.

Instinctively, I looked up into the air.

No stars were visible in the sky blocked by the ceiling. Still, somewhere beyond that unseen sky, there had to be Constellations watching this struggle underground.

[The Plausibility of Star Stream is moving.]

I remembered the fundamental principle of <Star Stream>, one I had forgotten over the past three years.

「The Plausibility of <Star Stream> moves toward whatever interests the stars.」

[The Main Scenario conditions have changed.]

It felt as though the celestial bodies of the universe were tilting. Along with that tilt, I heard the laws of the world twisting.

[For this Scenario only, ‘bugs’ are excluded from ‘living creatures.’]

[Within this area, ‘killing bugs’ will no longer be recognized as ‘killing living creatures.’]

People screamed from all around.

At the center of that chaos, I saw my reflection in the screen door.

A strange man was smiling at me from within the screen door.

「Now this is more like ORV.」

* * *

I once wrote in ORV, "Reread it, and it becomes a different story." I still thought that was true.

I hadn't meant it in this sense, though.

Category: Main

Difficulty: F

Clear Conditions: Kill one or more living creatures.

Time Limit: 30 minutes

Reward: 300 coins

Failure: Death

* In this Scenario, ‘bugs’ are not considered ‘living creatures.’

* The Clear Conditions of this Scenario will not change again.

I reread it, and the Scenario really had changed.

Dokja's method of ‘killing bugs’ could no longer be used in this Scenario.

"W-What kind of nonsense is this?!"

"Did anyone else get another message?"

Judging by their expressions, no one seemed to have cleared the Scenario.

When I glanced at Reader Uncle, he lowered his voice.

"It says I cleared it."

Fortunately, he had killed a bug before anyone else, so his Scenario clear had been recognized.

"Don't show it. Pretend you haven't cleared it either."

"All right. But what about you...?"

When I shook my head, his face turned pale.

He probably thought I was going to die because of him.

"What do we do, then?"

"Don't worry about me. I'm not the one you should really be worried about."

"What?"

"Because the rules changed, someone who was supposed to live might die."

Someone who was supposed to live.

In other words, the people who had survived in ORV by ‘killing bugs.’

"Don't tell me."

Reader Uncle seemed to have finally reached the same thought.

「Kim Dokja might die.」

I still didn't know whether the changed rules applied only to some areas or to every Scenario area.

Still, I had to consider the worst-case scenario. If Dokja died because of this change...

「Someone had to take Kim Dokja's place.」

Reader Uncle asked with trembling lips.

"What do we do now?"

"We have to figure it out from here. And it isn't certain yet."

Frightened people raised their voices toward the air.

"We killed living creatures! Why the hell...?"

[Few Constellations are snickering.]

It was the first message from the Constellations.

Startled, people looked around with horrified eyes.

Deacon Kim Cheolyang, who came running over, grabbed my shoulder.

"Brother, what do we do now? Isn't there another way besides bugs?"

Not only Cheolyang, but everyone who had been searching for bugs gathered around me.

"This happened because of you! What are you going to do now?"

"You take responsibility!"

They pressed me as if this entire situation was my fault.

I answered calmly.

"Because of me?"

"W-Well, you have to take responsibility! We're all going to die because of you..."

"Calm down. No one is going to die. Just because bugs didn't work doesn't mean there isn't another way."

"That's right. If it comes down to it, we can kill you."

The big man who had stopped stomping on bugs dragged the sole of his sneaker across the floor as he approached me.

I looked at him and said, "That is one way, if you're confident you can handle the consequences."

"What?"

"Once this is over, people will remember the murderer."

If he had been Kim Namwoon, that logic wouldn't have worked.

But the big man didn't seem as crazy as Namwoon, and he stopped midstep.

Only murderers would survive in the world to come. But ordinary people couldn't easily imagine such a future.

I had exploited that lack of imagination.

"Then what are we supposed to do? It says we have to kill a living creature to survive."

"Then kill one. Something that isn't a bug or a person."

"What if the conditions change again? We failed just now."

"They won't change this time."

"How do you know that?"

"Didn't you read the Scenario?"

At my words, people hurriedly opened their Scenario windows.

"It's true. It says the conditions won't change again."

"Can we trust this?"

I hadn't planned to step up this much, but things had changed.

"The Prime Minister's speech will be on the news soon. A level-one national disaster will be declared."

"What?"

"It'll go something like this."

Remembering the beginning of ORV, which I had revised dozens of times, I spoke like a news anchor.

"To the respected citizens of this nation, we announce that unidentified terrorists are currently active in Seoul and other unspecified areas."

People opened their phones and began searching the internet.

Before they could find the video, I quickly added, "The President is already dead, by the way. And the Prime Minister will die during his speech."

Barely ten seconds later, someone screamed.

"The Prime Minister is really giving a speech!"

The Prime Minister's voice flowed from phones throughout the station.

―To the respected citizens of this nation, we announce that unidentified terrorists are currently active in Seoul and other unspecified areas.

The words were exactly as I had said them. The rest of the speech was the same.

The current government would use every possible means to fight the terrorists, and there would never be negotiations. Therefore, citizens should remain calm and continue with their daily lives...

As they listened to the Prime Minister's speech, people glanced at me as if spellbound.

Then...

"Aaah!"

A startled citizen dropped their phone.

The Prime Minister had died.

His head exploded in real time.

"What the hell is this...?!"

As events unfolded exactly as I had said, the big man voiced an objection.

"He probably looked it up on the internet beforehand."

"W-What are you talking about? That was a livestream!"

"How does that brother know all this?"

I didn't answer.

A few gunshots rang out shortly after, and Bihyeong's face appeared on the screen in place of the Prime Minister.

People gasped all around us.

[Everyone, didn't I tell you? This isn't some joke like ‘terrorism.’]

Other readers were probably watching the same scene I was.

But from this point on, they would see something a little different from the main story.

[You still don't get it, do you? Does this situation still feel like a game to you? Killing a few bugs won't solve anything.]

Originally, the remaining time would decrease by ten minutes here. If the first killing didn't occur within five minutes, a penalty that exterminated all living creatures in the area would begin.

This time, it wouldn't.

「Because the Scenario's Clear Conditions could no longer be changed.」

The Administration Bureau had intervened once to exclude ‘bugs’ from the Scenario, so the Clear Conditions of the first Scenario had been completely locked.

That was why the time penalty wouldn't activate this time.

[There are 20 minutes remaining.]

With a beep, a timer appeared in the air, and Bihyeong smiled.

[You have 20 minutes left. If you don't want to die, you'd better do your best. Unless you want to end up like your leaders.]

Along with those words, images of lawmakers whose heads had exploded appeared on the screen.

Terrified people collapsed in shock.

"What the hell is this...?"

"Aaah!"

A heavy fear filled the entire station. Strangely, that fear only made me feel more elated.

I suddenly wanted to write so badly I could go mad.

「Since I bought ten minutes, ‘killing bugs’ wasn't entirely useless.」

If I made it out alive, I might even be able to write a side story.