WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 573: Episode 4: The Road Not Taken (1)

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「Therefore, we are each other's past, each other's future.」

- Prophet Anna Croft.

* * *

Even though I raised my Constitution with Coins just before hitting the water, I felt like I was about to lose consciousness.

[You have invested 1,800 Coins in Constitution.]

[Constitution Lv.4 → Constitution Lv.10]

[Your Constitution level has greatly increased!]

[Your body's durability has greatly increased!]

[Coins held: 1,800C]

Nothing from the back of my neck to the tips of my toes was unhurt from the impact, and my ears were muffled. I could feel my body temperature dropping rapidly.

Ironically, the Constellations' messages were what kept my fading consciousness from slipping away.

[The Constellation Sinister Strategist highly values your survivability.]

[You have received 500 Coins in sponsorship.]

[The Constellation Rice Cake-Eating Tiger supports you!]

[The Constellation Primeval Ox supports you!]

[The Constellation Nail-Eating Rat supports you!]

[The Constellation Dog Who Threw Himself into the Flames supports you!]

[You have received an additional 800 Coins in sponsorship.]

I could also see the modifiers of the animal Constellations that had returned.

[The Constellation Abyssal Black Flame Dragon likes your ruthlessness.]

[You have received 300 Coins in sponsorship.]

[The Constellation Commander of the Red Cosmos praises your repentance.]

[You have received 100 Coins in sponsorship.]

Even Black Flame Dragon and Jophiel were here.

I gritted my teeth.

I just had to make it out of here alive.

[Coins held: 3,500C]

Holding my breath, I calmly looked around and spotted Huiwon's figure.

She had completely lost consciousness and was sinking deep into the water. I paddled desperately toward her, but I couldn't save her with my injured arms. There was only one way.

I bit down hard on her arm.

River water flooded my mouth, choking me. It felt as if my eyes would burst from their sockets. Still, I couldn't give up.

If Jeong Huiwon died here, this round would be over.

Strength slowly drained from my whole body. Even as my breath faded, I didn't let go of Huiwon's arm.

Wake up, please.

That was when a powerful current swept in from somewhere. My breath caught, and I saw a massive monster approaching from far away.

A Sea Dragon.

A Tier-7 Monster, a Sea Serpent.

Sharp teeth flashed before my eyes, and black silence swallowed my vision.

* * *

rlaehrwk25 : I miss it.

* * *

"Inho-ssi. Inho-ssi!"

Something slapped my cheek over and over, and my consciousness slowly returned.

The first things I saw when I opened my eyes were a dazzling phone light and Jeong Huiwon's face.

"Huiwon-ssi?"

"Hah... seriously."

Huiwon let out a relieved sigh. When I staggered to my feet, the ground suddenly tilted beneath me.

Huiwon grabbed my shoulder.

"Be careful. You'll fall in."

River water splashed in the pitch-black darkness.

Looking closer, I realized we were sitting on a small plastic structure. It seemed to be a fragment of a yacht used by the Han River rescue squad.

The air was strangely damp. When I turned on my phone's flashlight, I saw crimson walls surrounding us on every side.

Only then did I remember what had happened before I lost consciousness.

We had been swallowed by the Sea Dragon.

"Why do you look so relieved? We're about to die."

I spat out water and gave a bitter smile.

The phone's light cast our shadows onto the Sea Dragon's crimson stomach.

"Huiwon-ssi."

"It's fine."

As if she already knew what I was going to say, Huiwon continued without looking at me.

"You're kind of a strange person, Inho-ssi."

"I guess I am."

"You only ever say strange things."

First I said I loved her, then this time I said we weren't even Companions.

Huiwon must have been confused too. If Inho Cheon were my friend, I would've cut him off long ago.

"I'm still sorry. I didn't mean it. I thought he would only let you go if I said that to him."

"Is that guy a psychopath?"

I thought for a moment before answering.

"Yes."

"A friend?"

"Not a friend, though."

"But you do know him."

I nodded lightly.

Huiwon fell silent for a moment, as if she were thinking something over. Then she continued in a complaining tone.

"Anyway, it hurts like hell. How hard did you bite me?"

Clear human bite marks were left on Huiwon's right forearm.

Flustered, I answered, "I'm sorry."

"Still, it saved my life. It hurt so much that I woke up."

"Are you hurt anywhere else? The wound from the fight earlier..."

"I'm fine. It was only a shallow stab."

...A shallow stab? From Yu Junghyeok?

"Anyway, what do we do now? We're completely trapped."

I gauged the size of the stomach surrounding us. Fortunately, this didn't seem to be a Sea Commander-class Sea Dragon like the one that swallowed Dokja.

"This is better. It's safer here than in the Han River."

"We're about to dissolve in digestive fluid."

"Then we'll escape before that."

"How? It's not like we're Pinocchio."

"Pinocchio?"

"You don't know?"

"No, I do."

She meant the wooden puppet whose nose grew whenever he lied.

"Pinocchio gets swallowed by a whale and escapes, too."

Come to think of it, I had read a fairy tale like that long ago.

Huiwon seemed to think we were in a similar situation.

[The Constellation Long-Nosed Liar nods.]

I stared blankly at the message before coming to my senses.

"Give me a moment to sort out my thoughts. I think we need a plan."

"Okay. What should I do?"

"Um... tell me if you remember how Pinocchio escaped from the whale's stomach."

"Will that help?"

"You never know."

Of course, Pinocchio wouldn't tell us how to escape a Sea Dragon.

「Because that's something that happens in Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint.」

While Huiwon seriously thought it over, I closed my eyes and recalled, step by step, how Dokja escaped from here.

But to use that method, I needed someone's help.

'Bihyeong.'

Soon, I felt dokkaebi communication connect.

"Hah... so it came to this."

Bihyeong sounded resigned when we met again.

"I don't know why only strange things keep happening this season."

'Have you considered my proposal?'

"I sent you a message saying I'd agree to the contract. Didn't you get it?"

At those words, a window appeared before me.

+

1. Incarnation Inho Cheon (hereinafter, Superior) enters an exclusive contract with dokkaebi Bihyeong (hereinafter, Subordinate) until all Scenarios have ended or he dies.

......

+

Seeing this contract again made me feel strange.

"I'm only doing this as a special favor. I originally wasn't going to..."

It wasn't hard to tell when Bihyeong had made up his mind.

It was probably right after he saw my confrontation with Yu Junghyeok. Considering the Coins I received earlier, the Constellations seemed to have watched the fight with great interest, too.

I quickly looked through the contract Bihyeong gave me, checked the strange parts, and passed over what I could concede.

"You seem really good at this."

'Contracts are all pretty similar.'

In truth, the Stream Contract was much like the management contracts I had always signed.

I suddenly remembered my days as a rookie writer. Back then, I got caught in plenty of contract scams.

"The split is eight to two. You get eight, and I get two."

'I'm happy with that, but isn't it normally seven to three?'

"You seem worth giving more to."

He was probably worried another dokkaebi would take me away.

It was a wise decision, but it would give me the upper hand.

'Then, since you're making concessions anyway, I have one more request.'

"No more adjustments to the split. This is my best offer."

'Forget the split. Give me a Scenario.'

"A Scenario?"

'There's a Hidden Scenario here, isn't there?'

Bihyeong fell silent for a moment.

"How do you even know that?"

'Is that important?'

Bihyeong sighed deeply once more, then muttered to himself about the Administration Bureau, Plausibility, and sanctions.

"Well, fine. Someone else has already received it anyway."

Someone else had already received it?

[A new Hidden Scenario has arrived!]

I checked the Scenario window.

+

Category: Hidden

Difficulty: B

Clear Conditions: Kill the Sea Dragon Sea Serpent and escape from its stomach.

Time Limit: 5 days

Compensation: 4,000 Coins

Failure: Death

+

The reward wasn't as good as the Hidden Scenario Dokja received, but the difficulty was lower.

At this level, Huiwon and I could manage it even while injured.

"You don't have any objections to the contract now, right? Is there anything else you need?"

'You need to give me the right to use the Dokkaebi Compendium, too.'

The Dokkaebi Compendium.

In fact, that was the greatest thing I could gain through this Stream Contract.

Bihyeong immediately displayed the Dokkaebi Compendium screen before me.

'Don't you need to run any advertisements?'

"Advertisements?"

'Wouldn't it be troublesome if people found out I was using the Dokkaebi Compendium by myself?'

Bihyeong sounded uncomfortable, as if he couldn't understand why I was worried about that.

"Well... it's not illegal. Besides, you're not the only one receiving the benefits of the Dokkaebi Compendium, so it doesn't matter."

In fact, the Constellations didn't pick a fight with me despite my using the Dokkaebi Compendium.

[The Constellation Pig Living in a Brick House is curious about what you will buy.]

If anything, they seemed excited to see what I would purchase. The atmosphere really had changed from the main story.

Anyway, I had gotten everything I needed.

'Let's sign it.'

[The Stream Contract has been concluded.]

[You have received 1,000 Coins as a contract fee.]

Even the contract fee I hadn't mentioned...

That bastard Bihyeong, was he actually a nice guy?

Maybe Dokja was the worse one for swindling such an honest dokkaebi.

"I need to check on other areas, so contact me if anything else happens."

It seemed Bihyeong had many areas other than mine to pay attention to.

That was actually reassuring. It could mean there were many readers who had survived in this world.

'Take care.'

After dokkaebi communication ended, I immediately opened the Dokkaebi Compendium.

[The product search function has been activated.]

[Product searches are limited to five per day. Each additional search consumes 100 Coins.]

The Compendium's benefits were just as stingy here as in the main story.

I recalled a list of items that would be good to secure in advance.

Heart of the Ancient Dragon, Arch-Demon's Eyeball... There were also a few items I had only created as setting details, but the first thing I needed to search for was this item.

[The relevant product search has been completed.]

It was the White Purity Sect's Ultimate Technique, the first one Dokja obtained in the main story.

+

* White Pure Star Energy - Stock: 0

+

...It seemed another reader had succeeded in opening the Dokkaebi Compendium before me.

This wasn't a good situation.

"I think Pinocchio..."

Huiwon suddenly spoke in a serious voice, making me turn to look at her.

"Would've escaped by lying really hard, growing his nose really long, and poking a hole through the whale's stomach."

I couldn't believe she had still been thinking about Pinocchio.

"That's a good idea."

At my praise, Huiwon narrowed her eyes.

"It isn't."

"No, it's really a good idea. What I was planning is similar."

I opened the Dokkaebi Compendium again and searched for items.

Hammer Seahorse's Mucus. And Stone Hog's Sharp Thorn.

They were both items Dokja purchased when he escaped from the Sea Dragon.

Dokja in the main story bought four of each.

I bought eight of each.

[You have consumed 1,600 Coins.]

With my right hand, which had little strength left in it, I tucked one thorn into my waistband. Then I handed Huiwon the remaining seven thorns and eight pouches of Mucus.

"Take these."

Huiwon asked in surprise, "Where did you suddenly get these?"

"This is the core of the Pinocchio plan."

"What?"

Again, I couldn't carry out this plan alone.

[The Constellation Sinister Strategist looks at you with interest.]

Both my arms were as good as crippled right now.

That meant someone else had to drive these thorns into the stomach wall, unlike Dokja in the main story.

Looking up at the digestive fluid vents scattered across the stomach wall, I said, "From now on, think of these thorns as Pinocchio's nose."

Fortunately, it seemed I could borrow Dokja's wisdom this time.

* * *

That night, I had a dream.

It wasn't that I had tried to sleep. More accurately, I had briefly passed out.

When people dream, they usually give it a name. If a pig appears, it's a pig dream. If a dragon appears, it's a dragon dream.

Then this dream could have a name, too.

This dream was,

「Inho Cheon.」

A Kim Dokja dream.

Footnotes:

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