WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 570: Episode 3: Protagonist(?) (7)
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"Apparently, there's nothing ahead."
Thanks to the cockroaches warning us about dangers in advance, we were able to move at a quicker pace than before.
Gyeong Se-in spoke admiringly.
"Cockroaches are OP."
"What's OP?"
"Uh... It means ridiculously good. Your Patron might be more useful than I thought, Uncle."
[The Constellation Sinister Schemer grumbles, asking if you only realized that now.]
The situation really wasn't bad.
At this rate, Uncle Dansu could adequately fill Lee Gilyeong's role from the main story.
After walking for around ten minutes, Uncle Dansu stopped for the first time.
"There's something ahead."
We all held our breath at once.
A few cockroaches scurried toward Uncle Dansu, violently twitching their antennae.
"I think it's a Ground Rat. Just one."
I never expected a Ground Rat to show up in this section.
After thinking for a moment, I said, "Let's wait. It might've gotten separated from its group and be wandering around."
There was no need to take on a danger we could avoid. We hid our presence and waited.
One minute, five minutes, ten minutes.
The Ground Rat showed no sign of moving.
Perhaps because he'd used [Inter-Species Communication] too often in such a short time, Uncle Dansu looked a little tired.
"What should we do?"
Oksu Station was just ahead. It felt like a waste to turn back now.
"Let's get it. It's only one."
Gyeong Se-in made the suggestion first.
"We'll have to fight eventually anyway. We can't clear the Scenario without killing a single Ground Rat. Yu Sangah and Gilyeong killed this monster too, so let's not chicken out."
She had a point.
Se-in lightly stretched her shoulders and neck before continuing.
"If you have any useful skills, don't hide them. Each of you, show us one. For the record, I have [Average Correction]."
As expected, anyone who had finished Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint would have at least one hidden card.
[Average Correction], huh.
It wasn't an ability that had been explained in detail in the main story, but I remembered creating its setting.
"It's a little complicated to explain. If you raise even one of Constitution, Strength, or Agility, the other stats are adjusted to seventy percent of your highest stat. For example, if you raise Constitution to Level 10, you'll perform at around Level 7 in Strength and Agility even if you don't invest in them at all."
"Huh. That's an incredible skill."
It really was a broken skill. From now on, Se-in could pour everything into one main stat.
At this early stage, when spending coins on stats was burdensome, there was no better skill.
"The [Inter-Species Communication] I showed earlier is all I've got... What about you, young man?"
I checked through my skills one by one.
[□□]
[Character Profile]
[Incitement]
Those were the only three I'd personally confirmed.
Sometimes, I could hear a character's inner thoughts, so I might have had a skill similar to [Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint], but I still hadn't figured out how to activate it.
"Unfortunately, all my skills are related to words. As you can see, I'm Inho Cheon."
"Well, can't be helped. This isn't a bad situation, though. There are three of us and only one Ground Rat. On the count of three, we rush in and beat it together."
"Let's be careful not to get hurt."
After exchanging looks, we cautiously approached the Ground Rat.
We had taken around thirty steps when the monster's shadow appeared in the darkness.
「A monster the size of a fully grown wolf, like a mole with developed forelegs.」
There was no mistake.
It was a Tier-9 underground species, a Ground Rat.
But... had it always been that big?
"Uh, wait a second."
Se-in must have noticed something strange too, because she stopped walking.
Guuuuuu.
An ominous cry.
The instant two yellow eyes gleamed in the darkness, the boar-like creature charged at us. The ground shook lightly, and stones bounced off the railway tracks.
The frail Kim Dokja really killed a monster like this?
"Hiyooooop!"
Worked up, Uncle Dansu let out a strange battle cry and swung his pipe.
But the pipe, swung by a man with low Strength, grazed the Ground Rat's face and bounced away.
"Uncle!"
Uncle Dansu barely rolled aside to avoid the collision.
I was next.
Come on.
I might not look it, but my Strength was Level 10. There was no way I couldn't kill a monster that even a little kid like Gilyeong had killed.
Yet the pipe I swung with all my strength missed pitifully. The Ground Rat had nimbly lowered its head at the moment of impact.
Huh?
I spun unsteadily and landed on my backside.
By the time I hurriedly raised my head, the Ground Rat had run past me toward its target. It had instinctively chosen the prey that looked weakest among us.
"Se-in-ssi!"
Terrified, Se-in stood trembling with the pipe in her hands.
"A-aaaah!"
She threw away the pipe, turned around, and started running.
"What are you doing? You have to kill it!"
"H-how am I supposed to kill something like that?!"
The novel and reality were this different.
Was that really the beast species Yu Sangah and Gilyeong had faced?
Se-in, who had been running well, even tripped on the tracks. Seizing the opening, the Ground Rat howled and rammed her.
Thump.
Se-in was flung away, crashed into the wall beside the tracks, and tumbled to the ground.
I thought she was certainly dead, but to my surprise, Se-in staggered back to her feet.
"Aaah! It hurts! It hurts!"
The reason was obvious.
Se-in had gone all in on Constitution.
Just as I had invested all my coins into Strength, she'd invested all of hers into Constitution.
"Don't run away, pick up your weapon already! Come at me, you bastard!"
[You have used the Exclusive Skill Incitement Lv.2.]
Half believing and half doubting, I activated [Incitement], and the Ground Rat turned toward me.
It didn't seem to understand my words, but at least I'd drawn its aggro.
With Se-in hurriedly picking up her weapon at the center, Uncle Dansu and I formed a ragtag formation around her.
Fortunately, the Ground Rat only let out a growling cry and showed no sign of charging again.
"How could you run away like that? You said you wanted to become a man worthy of Huiwon-ssi."
"Huiwon-nim is strong, so I can be her supportive wife!"
"If you run away like that even though you've killed someone..."
I shouldn't have said that.
Pale-faced, Se-in asked, "I killed someone? Who said that?"
"Huiwon-ssi did."
"I... I only shut my eyes and finished off someone Huiwon-ssi had already beaten half to death."
Looking at Se-in's trembling hand around the pipe, I finally understood everything.
Was that why Jeong Huiwon had worn such a vicious expression?
"If you really don't want to die, brace yourself."
The operation had been a complete failure.
Just because an ordinary reader who had lived in reality possessed someone in a novel didn't mean they could suddenly act like Dokja.
「Just how many people survived?」
As sudden anxiety swallowed my mind, Uncle Dansu called out to me in a trembling voice.
"I-Inho-ssi."
The Ground Rat standing off against us now had four eyes.
Damn it.
It seemed to have called another Ground Rat.
"Let's run."
We began running toward Geumho Station. But the Ground Rats chasing us were faster.
"Uncle! Hurry!"
Uncle Dansu, whose Constitution and Strength were relatively low, began to fall behind. I slowed down a little to match his pace.
Crunch.
That was when I heard it.
When I looked to the side, a Ground Rat was tearing at the hem of my clothes with its teeth.
It seemed like I was bleeding heavily.
Was I really going to die like this? Not to some other monster, but a Ground Rat?
Even then, I wanted to write this as a novel.
「The Ultimate TWSA Party. Wiped out by Tier-9 underground Ground Rats.」
But who the hell would read a novel like that?
With a shout, I smashed the Ground Rat's head with my pipe. Its bite force was greater than I'd expected.
"Uncle! Run! Hurry!"
We couldn't deal with two Ground Rats at our current strength. It would be even more impossible for me alone.
Still, I could at least buy some time.
[The Exclusive Skill Incitement Lv.2 has powerfully activated!]
The Ground Rats focused on me again because of my skill.
Holding the pipe in both hands like a baseball bat, I struck the torso of the Ground Rat biting into my side. It staggered away from me as if in pain.
The problem was the other one.
Where did it go?
The moment I felt a bad premonition, a large shadow leaped up behind me.
It was too late to react.
"Move!"
With that sharp warning, a pipe flying from somewhere pierced through the Ground Rat's eye.
Kuaaaak!
The sharpened end of the pipe pierced straight through the Ground Rat's skull and came out the other side.
The pipe was immediately pulled free, then traced an efficient path toward the second Ground Rat.
I knew what that trajectory was.
A skill dismissed as nothing special in Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint.
[Swordsmanship].
Yet there was a character who had trained that skill to its limit, eventually even cutting off a demon king's head.
The smooth arc of the pipe smashed the head of the staggering second Ground Rat.
[Ghost Slaying].
As the Ground Rat fell, the red ghost fire faded from the eyes staring at me.
"I knew this would happen."
Even if Ji Eunyu made fun of me later, there was nothing I could do about it.
This time, I really thought I might fall for her.
"Are you okay?"
It was Jeong Huiwon.
* * *
"Sniff, sniff, Huiwon-unnie, you have no idea how hard it was for us."
Se-in clung to Huiwon and complained for quite some time. She said she had thought she was really going to die, and asked why Huiwon had come so late.
"Thanks to you, miss, we survived. I never imagined those things would be so strong..."
Uncle Dansu, completely exhausted, offered his thanks as well.
I felt the same.
"You saved our lives. You fought really well."
"Are your injuries okay?"
"Yes. Fortunately, it's nothing serious."
Luckily, the Ground Rat's teeth had only scraped past my side.
Still, if Huiwon hadn't come, I would've definitely died there.
I'd completely misjudged our strength. Who knew a party of readers who had finished the novel would be this pathetic?
"I came to check because I was worried. You called yourselves a Search Party, then two scrawny men and one little girl just ran off... Honestly, I was nervous."
Apparently, Huiwon was the only one who had objectively assessed our party's strength.
Still, even thinking back on that battle, it was astonishing.
Had Huiwon always been this strong?
[You have activated Character Profile!]
+
<Character Information>
Name: Jeong Huiwon
Age: 27
Patron: None (Two Constellations are currently showing interest.)
Exclusive Attribute: Crouching Figure (Common)
Exclusive Skills: [Ghost Slaying Lv.1], [Swordsmanship Lv.1]
Stigma: None
Overall Stats: [Constitution Lv.5], [Strength Lv.6], [Agility Lv.7], [Mana Lv.4]
Overall Evaluation: She is a Crouching Figure with enormous potential. Her Attribute information cannot yet be checked because her Attribute has not yet blossomed. She currently has Some trust in you.
+
To think that "Inho Cheon" was trusted by Jeong Huiwon.
Life was truly impossible to understand.
"By the way, why were you moving in such a hurry?"
At Huiwon's question, Se-in and Uncle Dansu looked at me at the same time.
"We need to rescue survivors."
"Survivors?"
"Someone I know is near Oksu Station."
Huiwon nodded as if she understood.
"That makes sense, then. Your parents? Family?"
"If you had to put it that way... people like family."
Se-in and Uncle Dansu nodded at me.
Huiwon said, "Then I'll help too."
"I'd really appreciate that."
Since things had turned out this way, it didn't seem bad to go with Huiwon. She would later become a core member of Kim Dokja Company, so there was no harm in traveling together beforehand.
There was something we had to do before leaving again.
I looked down at the bodies of the two Ground Rats.
"Huh? What are you going to do?"
There were two main reasons our party had been defeated so easily.
One was our lack of a main combat skill.
The other was...
"Let's make weapons."
As if they'd remembered something, Se-in and Uncle Dansu jumped to their feet.
They had probably recalled the main story's development.
But Se-in's briefly brightened face soon darkened again.
"But... Inho-ssi."
"Yes?"
"Do you know how?"
That was the problem.
* * *
"Ground Rat Spinal Sword! Ground Rat Spinal Sword!"
Se-in had been holding the Ground Rat's head and repeating those words like a spell for several minutes.
Uncle Dansu asked, "What are you doing?"
"Maybe if I say it like this, it'll turn into a sword with a poof."
She'd probably watched too many comics.
I left the two of them alone and pulled out the knife I'd borrowed from the Ironhead Gang beforehand. Then I used Incitement on myself.
[You have activated the Exclusive Skill Incitement Lv.2!]
「This isn't disgusting at all. I'm a professional butcher.」
Grabbing the Ground Rat's head, I began cutting away its hide.
Honestly, I'd never butchered anything before and had been worried, but it wasn't as hard as I'd expected.
On closer inspection, the Ground Rat had a dotted line along its hide, following the spine. It was like a creature designed to be cut along that line.
I thought even someone who hadn't read TWSA, unlike Dokja, could make one easily enough. When I looked to the side, Se-in and Uncle Dansu were dry-heaving.
Well, that was the normal reaction.
Huiwon, on the other hand, stood beside me and watched the entire process with great interest.
"Where did you learn to do this?"
"I taught myself."
"Wow..."
I couldn't help straightening my shoulders.
Did I have a talent for this? Huiwon smiled faintly and added, "Though maybe because you taught yourself, you're not very good at it."
"Don't take the wind out of my sails."
I struggled for around twenty minutes.
Crack.
The first Ground Rat's spine separated cleanly.
Uncle Dansu exclaimed, "This really looks convincing."
Even in its natural state, the Ground Rat's spine resembled a sword. It was only fitting for a creature whose spine had been made from solid bone, ignoring the evolutionary tree.
"I'll give this to you, Huiwon-ssi."
"Really? Can I have it?"
"You're the strongest member of our team."
Huiwon was a monster who had beaten two Ground Rats to death with a pipe. Give someone like that a Ground Rat Sword, and all that remained was for her to carry the party.
"Ah... thank you."
Huiwon accepted the sword shyly, then examined both sides of it for a long time.
"I suddenly feel like we've gone back to the Stone Age."
I paused, then looked up.
It sounded familiar, and when I thought about it, it was a line from the main story of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint.
I hesitated for a moment.
「Could I answer that?」
I took a light breath and spoke in a somewhat theatrical tone.
"If you sharpen it more, it'll be useful. Make good use of the blade."
"Hmm, got it, Chief."
Originally, this was a conversation Dokja and Huiwon had shared.
Se-in, who had come over late, whispered a rebuke into my ear.
"Aren't you getting a little too close to Huiwon-nim?"
"Someone has to look after her, at least until she meets Dokja."
As I said that, my heart gradually grew heavy.
Could I really do as much as Dokja did?
Could I help Huiwon survive safely in this world?
"This is a problem, though. At this rate, Huiwon-nim's growth will be slow too."
As if she'd read my mind, Se-in whispered.
"You remember, right? Huiwon-nim only gets really strong after awakening as the Judge of Evil. If things continue like this, even if she meets Dokja, Huiwon-nim might not be able to play the same role she did in the main story."
That was right.
Huiwon's strongest skill was [Hour of Judgement].
To obtain [Hour of Judgement], she had to become the Judge of Evil.
But for Huiwon to change classes as she did in the main story, there were two necessary conditions.
One was suffering cruel violence from the Ironhead Gang.
And the other...
"For Huiwon-nim to awaken as she did in the main story, Inho Cheon-ssi has to die."
It was my death.
Footnotes:
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