WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 574: Episode 4: The Road Not Taken (2)

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The Kim Dokja in my dream called me Inho Cheon. Yet when I listened closely, it also sounded like he was calling me Lee Hakhyun.

No, when I listened again...

「■■■.」

I couldn't make out what he was saying.

Kim Dokja was there, and I stood beside him.

We were looking at a vast snowfield.

A snowfield where letters floated through the air.

It was so vast that no matter how many letters there were, they could never fill it all.

「How long have you been here?」

It felt like I asked that, though perhaps I hadn't.

「A very long time.」

It felt like Dokja answered that, though perhaps he hadn't.

After looking at the snowfield for a while, I noticed something like footprints.

They were human footprints.

Dokja gestured toward me with his chin, as if suggesting we try walking along them, then began following the tracks. I followed after him.

「They must have really big feet.」

We walked by placing our own footprints over the large ones. Sometimes we stepped wrong and left footprints somewhere else.

「Ah.」

Dokja smiled brightly, and I smiled too.

「■■■ will get mad.」

It seemed like he said something like that.

After we had walked for some time, the large footprints split in two directions for some reason. One set continued straight ahead, while the other began heading diagonally.

Had there been two owners of the large footprints from the beginning?

I couldn't be sure.

All the footprints were the same size.

For some reason, the owner of the large footprints had suddenly become two people. One walked straight ahead, while the other walked diagonally.

I stared quietly at the path of footprints leading forward, then matched my steps to it and walked a few paces.

Had I walked about ten steps like that?

「It stopped.」

The footprints had ended.

Where had their owner gone?

As I stared at them, a strange thought occurred to me.

What if the owner was still standing on these footprints?

When I turned around, Dokja was standing there, looking at me.

I waved at him and asked,

「Can I keep walking this way?」

Dokja nodded.

I asked again.

「I might step wrong like earlier.」

「That's okay.」

「The snowfield might get all messed up.」

「So what?」

Was that really okay?

I wanted to ask again and again.

Dokja grinned and said something. Unfortunately, I couldn't hear his final words clearly.

「I'll keep watching.」

That was roughly what it sounded like.

* * *

"Inho-ssi! Inho-ssi!"

My entire body hurt. The wound in my side stung, and excruciating pain surged from my severed left arm.

"You said you wouldn't sleep! It's already started!"

"Ugh, I'm sorry."

It seemed I had dozed off. Of all dreams to have, why did it have to be one like a fairy tale?

"Even Pinocchio didn't nod off during an operation."

It was probably because I had heard about Pinocchio.

When I looked around, digestive fluid was already being expelled from the stomach.

Huiwon poured Hammer Seahorse's Mucus all over my head. The sticky liquid ran down my body, making me hunch my shoulders involuntarily.

"Stay still. You said we'd be safe if we put this on."

Huiwon smeared Hammer Seahorse's Mucus over her own body as well.

Our plan was simple.

Firstly, cover our entire bodies in Mucus that resisted the Sea Dragon's digestive fluid.

Secondly, once the digestive fluid began being expelled, insert Stone Hog's Sharp Thorn into the outlets.

It was the exact same plan Kim Dokja had used in the main story.

The difference was...

"By the way, who is Kim Dokja?"

"Pardon?"

"You mentioned him while you were asleep."

"Ah."

I thought for a moment before speaking.

"It's just a friend's name."

Huiwon squeezed the Mucus-coated top of my head and asked,

"Then what about Ji Eunyu?"

"Did I say that name too?"

"Yes. You were asking them to save you."

Had I been working to a deadline in my dream?

"That's the name of my assigned editor."

"An editor?"

Maybe it would be okay to be a little honest. I didn't even know what Inho Cheon's original job had been. It was probably something like a con artist.

"I used to be a writer."

Still, being a writer was better than being a con artist.

Huiwon's face lit up.

"Wow, a writer? What kind of books did you write?"

"Um... do you know what web novels are?"

"Web novels? Are they like webtoons?"

"Um... something like The Lord of the Rings..."

"Ah, The Lord of the Rings! I've seen the movies! You wrote something like that?"

"Well, kind of..."

I didn't know why my voice kept getting quieter.

[A Constellation who hasn't revealed their modifier tells you to speak openly.]

Easy for them to say.

I let out a quiet sigh and said,

"Could you keep it a secret from the others?"

"Why? I think it's cool."

"...Let's start over there first. Hold these, and put one into each outlet."

"You really know how to dodge questions. Must be because you're a writer."

Huiwon grumbled, but she inserted the thorns where I pointed.

A protagonist-level physique truly was something else.

There were four outlets in total.

Huiwon inserted one thorn into each of three outlets, plugging them firmly so that no digestive fluid could flow out.

"There's only one left."

"We're putting all the remaining ones into a single outlet."

"Can we do that?"

"Yes. It'll probably work even better."

Stone Hog's Sharp Thorn was an item that grew by absorbing a Sea monster's bodily fluids.

Kim Dokja had blocked one outlet with only one thorn.

In theory, though, more thorns were better.

The more thorns we inserted, the more would grow at once, and the faster the Sea Dragon would collapse.

"One first."

The digestive fluid abruptly stopped flowing from the outlet where the thorn had been inserted.

When Huiwon inserted the second thorn, the Sea Dragon's stomach began squirming grotesquely.

The third thorn wasn't as easy. Huiwon frowned after trying several times to insert one into the outlet.

"The third one's getting a little difficult... Can you support me from behind?"

"I'd like to, but my arm is like this."

"Support me with your back. Like this."

I stood with my back against Huiwon's. She took in a sharp breath and pushed the thorn into the outlet with all her strength.

The piece we stood on tilted for a moment, but the thorn went in properly.

Huiwon caught her breath and asked,

"Is it done now?"

"Yes. Now we wait."

"That was really simple."

It ended faster than I expected. Kim Dokja from the main story had even practiced stabbing it alone to pull this off... Anyway, he had struggled quite a bit.

[The Constellation Sinister Schemer admires your composure.]

[A Constellation who hasn't revealed their modifier says that's a Sea Serpent, so it's easy.]

By my calculations, it would take anywhere from half a day to a full day for the Sea Dragon to be subdued.

We had inserted more thorns than in the main story, and above all, this Sea Dragon was smaller. It might collapse even sooner.

Was waiting really all that remained now?

Perhaps because the tension had left me, the cold suddenly swept over me. I was completely soaked from the river, after all.

Huiwon looked at me shivering with pity, then made an unexpected suggestion.

"Should we sit back-to-back?"

"If you don't mind, could I ask you to?"

"Sit facing that way."

We sat quietly with our backs together. Huiwon's warmth reached me through our backs, easing the cold a little.

Huiwon asked,

"How did you come up with a method like this?"

"It's just something that appears often in web novels."

"You did say you were a writer."

As my back grew warmer, drowsiness slowly crept in.

It would have been nice if I could use the Ellain Forest Essence sold in the Dokkaebi Compendium, but I couldn't use it now.

Ellain Forest Essence was an item that completely healed bodily injuries, though it put the user to sleep when consumed.

I couldn't leave Huiwon alone when I didn't know what might happen.

Perhaps she understood my condition, because she continued talking to me.

"Tell me something interesting."

Moments like this were the most difficult part of being a writer.

Writers weren't particularly interesting people. None of the writers I knew were interesting either.

Still, I squeezed out a thin strand of humor.

"There's a character named Jeong Huiwon in a novel I wrote."

"Pardon?"

"She looks incredibly strong on the outside, but she's actually a delicate person. She's so strong-willed that she doesn't avoid fights, and that makes her break often."

I thought of the Jeong Huiwon I knew.

A question suddenly occurred to me.

Could I really say that the Jeong Huiwon I knew was the Huiwon behind my back right now?

I continued.

"She's good at physical work and has quick reflexes. When she was in high school, female underclassmen confessed to her."

"......"

"She can hardly stand injustice, and she's good at kendo. She attended a kendo academy from a young age."

Huiwon, who had listened until then, clapped her hands. She seemed genuinely impressed.

"That's amazing. You got almost everything right."

Of course I had. It was almost all from the main story.

"But you got the last part wrong. I never attended a kendo academy. I was just in my school's kendo club."

I knew. I had said it wrong on purpose.

"That's too bad."

"I even competed in the National Sports Festival and was selected as a district representative, but I quit."

"Why?"

"Because of an injury."

This was a story I didn't know.

More precisely, one I had never written.

"An injury? Were you badly hurt?"

Huiwon didn't answer for a moment, then replied a beat late.

"Yes."

It struck me anew that there were definitely stories in this world that I hadn't written.

I suddenly remembered that Huiwon's Attribute was Crouching Figure.

How had Jeong Huiwon become a Crouching Figure?

Crouching Figure was originally an Attribute created from a powerful mental shock.

Yet Huiwon had already been a Crouching Figure before she met the Ironhead Gang.

"How did you become a writer, Inho-ssi?"

"Ah, I..."

I was about to continue naturally, but my mouth closed.

A chilling sensation brushed past my chest.

「How did I become a writer?」

That was when the Sea Dragon's stomach began squirming ominously.

I quickly steadied myself and said,

"I think it's about to begin."

There was no longer time for stray thoughts.

The fight was only beginning.

Would the Sea Dragon collapse first, or would we?

I took off my shirt and used both sleeves to tie Huiwon's wrist to mine.

Huiwon asked worriedly,

"Won't you be cold? Ah!"

The floor suddenly shook violently.

The Sea Dragon was twisting in pain.

The thorns had begun digging into its body in earnest.

Footnotes:

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