WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 575: Episode 4: The Road Not Taken (3)
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We stood side by side, each holding one end of a thorn.
"Don't pass out, no matter what!"
"Don't worry!"
I said that, but I wasn't sure my Constitution would hold out.
Normally, I would've used Ellain Forest Essence to treat my injuries and keep moving, but even [White Pure Star Energy] had been taken from me, so I was in a hurry.
I had to escape this place as quickly as possible and claim the other Hidden Pieces before anyone else if we were to be safe.
Especially if this world was the "round" I knew.
What had happened to Gyeong Se-in and Mr. Dansu? I had to tell them about the Yu Junghyeok I saw as soon as possible.
My eyelids kept drooping.
How many times had my mind faded before returning?
"Stay awake!"
Huiwon pinched my waist.
"Inho-ssi!"
"Ah."
The Sea Dragon's movements had slowed without me noticing. Its stomach walls, once bright red, had turned almost grayish white.
"I think it's almost done. Just a little more..."
That was when something unexpected happened.
A sound like air leaking through a crack came from somewhere, and then large, sharp teeth appeared, tearing through the Sea Dragon's organs from the outside.
I shouted instinctively.
"Hold your breath!"
Black river water rushed through the tear.
Still gripping each other's arms, we drew in a breath.
[A Hidden Scenario error has occurred.]
[The Hidden Scenario has been partially completed.]
Something had attacked the Sea Dragon.
It had targeted the stomach where we were with perfect precision.
The Sea Dragon's torn organs scattered through the dark river. Two vicious eyes glared at me through the swirling blood.
A monster that looked at least twice as large as the Sea Dragon that had swallowed us.
I immediately realized what it was.
The Sea Dragon that had swallowed Kim Dokja.
The Sea Commander.
Seeing the fear on Huiwon's face, my heart seemed to sink.
「Jeong Huiwon dies.」
Everything I had done, from the first Scenario to being swallowed by the Sea Dragon, passed through my mind like a film.
All the times I'd changed the story as I pleased, arrogant because I'd written the original.
I shouldn't have tried to reform the Ironhead Gang.
I shouldn't have stepped forward to search for Dokja or Yu Junghyeok.
「“Are you really Inho Cheon, you bastard?”」
What if I'd acted like an evildoer as I had in the main story, then died at Huiwon's hands?
Then Huiwon would've safely awakened as the Judge of Evil.
She would've survived.
I began untying the knot in the shirt connecting Huiwon and me with my teeth.
Once I'd made up my mind, I felt strangely at peace.
「This is a fitting end for the villain Inho Cheon.」
As the knot came undone, my body slowly sank beneath the water.
Air bubbles escaped Huiwon's mouth. She was shouting something at me.
The Sea Commander opened its mouth toward me as Huiwon reached out her hand.
In my fading consciousness, I heard the sound of time stopping.
Tick.
[A new day begins now.]
[Your creativity has been replenished.]
I realized what was about to happen.
[The character Jeong Huiwon wants to take an unexpected action.]
[The Exclusive Skill □□ has activated!]
[You have entered the Snowfield.]
Even in my hazy state, I gave a bitter smile at the blanks spreading before me.
Goddammit. Was I supposed to keep writing until I died?
+
# Jeong Huiwon's Awakening
「Jeong Huiwon □□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□······.」
* Based on your current proficiency, you can add a total of 180 characters.
+
[You can remain in the Snowfield for a total of 4 minutes.]
I looked at the first sentence in the endlessly continuing blank space.
「Jeong Huiwon」
Was it really all right for me to continue from here?
[3 minutes remain.]
For some reason, I wasn't confident.
Something felt different from when it had been Kim Cheolyang or Bang Cheolsu.
It felt like the first time I'd received manuscript paper as a child.
As I looked at the vaguely spreading blanks, I naturally remembered the Snowfield I'd seen with Dokja.
Dokja from my dreams said,
「Isn't it dazzling?」
Was that what he'd said?
「Anything can become real here.」
Snow fell heavily from the sky, and we sat side by side in the Snowfield, looking back at the footprints we'd left together.
At some point, those footprints had become difficult to see.
「Because no one remembers what they were.」
Had he said that, too? I couldn't remember clearly.
Still, the place where I'd lain beside Dokja felt strangely comfortable and warm.
If I could, I wanted to curl up there, write nothing, and remain there forever.
But I couldn't.
Because I was a writer.
「Jeong Huiwon」
Because I was someone who couldn't live without writing.
「Jeong Huiwon remembered that day for the first time in a long while.」
So I wrote a sentence.
I chose words as if choosing clothes that suited Huiwon, and sentence endings as if choosing shoes that suited her.
I imagined Huiwon wearing those shoes as she walked down a road no one remembered.
[You have described something that may be possible.]
[The chance of successfully recreating this description is 50%.]
[Current accumulated Plausibility: 10]
[You can invest additional Plausibility to increase the chance of successful recreation.]
'Invest it.'
[10 Plausibility has been consumed.]
[You can add 160 more characters.]
I kept writing.
Could these lies I'd written save her?
I didn't know.
Still, I had no choice but to do everything I could.
[You have described something plausible.]
[The chance of successfully recreating this description is 88%.]
[Would you like to check reader feedback?]
'Check it.'
There were three pieces of feedback this time.
+
rlaehrwk37 : Hang in there
rlaehrwk61 : Hang in there
rlaehrwk99 : Hang in there
+
I thought, my mouth hanging open helplessly.
Thank you.
[Scene recreation has succeeded.]
[You are leaving the Snowfield.]
Time began flowing again.
As my breath escaped, weak bubbles leaked from my mouth.
I hadn't written anything about whether I would survive. There had been no room to write that.
But I had written one thing for certain.
「Jeong Huiwon remembered that day for the first time in a long while.」
You, who live through this story, will surely survive.
「‘Huiwon, you're too aggressive. This is a sport. You can't really hurt your opponent.’」
「‘Three people quit this month alone because of you. One even suffered a fractured arm. If you keep this up, I won't be able to protect you forever.’」
Pure white light flowed from Huiwon's body.
「Jeong Huiwon couldn't understand what the coach was saying. Wasn't a sword made to kill an opponent?」
Dokja once said that the moment he liked most was when a character's Attribute blossomed.
「When you fight with a sword, isn't it stranger if no one gets hurt?」
I agreed with Dokja.
[The character Jeong Huiwon's Attribute is on the verge of blossoming.]
There was no other way to describe it.
The sight of Huiwon parting the current as she approached was truly
dazzling.
Her hot hand tightly gripped mine. I felt my body become firmly secured.
Huiwon grasped the Ground Rat Sword and turned toward the Sea Commander.
Riding the current, she charged at the Sea Commander as if she had wings.
[The character Jeong Huiwon is using Swordsmanship Lv.3!]
[The character Jeong Huiwon is using Demon Slaying Lv.2!]
No matter how strong Huiwon was, she couldn't defeat the Sea Commander with only [Swordsmanship] and [Demon Slaying].
But I'd written that she could.
So she had to be able to.
She would be able to.
「Jeong Huiwon wanted to ask the coach.」
She could.
「‘It's okay to kill this, right?’」
The sentences tangled in my fading consciousness.
It felt as if I could hear Huiwon's battle cry somewhere.
「The senses sleeping within her soul were awakening.」
In an instant, the Ground Rat Sword broke through the spray and embedded itself in the Sea Commander's left eye.
The bleeding Sea Commander let out a harsh roar.
Without stopping, Huiwon pulled a thorn from my waist.
The Sea Commander's tail, approaching through the current, brushed Huiwon's waist.
The tremendous impact violently shook my vision.
Huiwon opened her bloodshot eyes wide, held me tightly with one arm, and drove the thorn into the Sea Commander's tail.
「‘This isn't a sport.’」
That wasn't a sentence I'd written.
「‘If I don't kill this monster, someone else will die.’」
[A Constellation that has not revealed its modifier agrees with the will of the Incarnation Jeong Huiwon.]
Then a message came from somewhere.
[The Constellation Nail-Eating Rat agrees with the will of the Incarnation Jeong Huiwon.]
The light flowing from Huiwon's body gradually grew stronger.
[The Constellation Rice Cake-Eating Tiger agrees with the will of the Incarnation Jeong Huiwon.]
[The Constellation Monarch of the Small Fries agrees with the will of the Incarnation Jeong Huiwon.]
[The Constellation Pig Living in a Brick House agrees with the will of the Incarnation Jeong Huiwon.]
[The Constellation Primeval Ox agrees with the will of the Incarnation Jeong Huiwon.]
[The Constellation Sinister Schemer agrees with the will of the Incarnation Jeong Huiwon.]
......
It felt as if an invisible scale were tilting.
[All Constellations in the channel have agreed to the use of this skill.]
[Hour of Judgement has activated.]
Hour of Judgement.
A skill that displayed invincible power when activated against evildoers.
But the enemy before us was a monster.
[The character Jeong Huiwon's Attribute has blossomed into Demonbane Judge (Hero).]
With a dazzling flash, a blood-red aura wrapped around Huiwon's body.
Demonbane Judge.
There certainly had been such an Attribute. It was one of the Three Great Judge Attributes, though it never appeared in the main story.
It wasn't a class specialized for fighting people like Judge of Evil, but against monsters, it was an all-powerful Hero-grade class whose combat ability increased severalfold.
[You have greatly contributed to the Attribute blossom of Crouching Figure!]
[The character Jeong Huiwon will not hesitate to become your sword from now on.]
The thorn, drawing a chilling path, began advancing as it stabbed wildly into the Sea Commander's body.
Like a madwoman, Huiwon stabbed the Sea Commander again and again.
From its tail to its body, its neck, and then the top of its head.
When she finally stabbed out its second eye, the Sea Commander twisted as if electrocuted before going limp.
The Sea Commander's powerless body floated to the surface of the Han River.
With me on her back, Huiwon stepped on the Sea Commander and leaped high into the sky.
Along with the surging river water, the sight of ruined Seoul filled my vision.
Gun smoke rose everywhere. Collapsed buildings. Even the indifferent moonlight cast over the ruins of civilization.
The words of destruction I'd written had become a landscape spread out before me.
「‘Beautiful.’」
Looking at the ruin of our world, Huiwon was thinking the same thing I was.
Perhaps this was the view Dokja and Huiwon had shared.
[Hour of Judgement has ended.]
And now I could see that view, too.
Huiwon landed aboveground with me on her back, then collapsed forward.
Deadly poisonous fog was drifting in from the distance.
I tied the knot around the unconscious Huiwon's arm again, then dragged her to the basement of a nearby building and hid.
[You have purchased 2 Ellain Monkey's Lungs.]
I put a lung in Huiwon's mouth, then put one in mine as well.
Starlight streamed in through the basement window.
It was a little cold, and strangely, my heart wouldn't stop pounding.
The night of destruction was long.
As I watched the sleeping Huiwon, I thought for a long time about the lies I'd written and the lies I would write from now on.
* * *
On the Han River beneath the lonely moonlight.
The belly of the dead Sea Commander heaved several times, then someone crawled out through its faded scales.
"Ha, I almost died. Seriously."
She brushed the bloodstains from her coat, then looked around with a light sigh.
"Still, this is the first time someone's stolen a Scenario from me. Who was it?"
But there was no one to hear her.
No, there was one.
[The Constellation Sinister Schemer giggles and says this place is a little unusual.]
"What are you laughing at, asshole? What's with your modifier, anyway?"
[The Constellation Sinister Schemer protests, asking what's wrong with their modifier.]
"What about the others?"
[The Constellation Sinister Schemer says not yet.]
As if dissatisfied with something, she twitched her lips slightly and let out another deep sigh.
A moment later, she raised her head with a strange smile on her lips.
"For now, since it's been a while since I've had a Scenario."
Her eyes searched the empty sky as though looking for a star somewhere in the night, then flashed intensely for a moment.
"First, shall I try living for myself alone?"
Footnotes:
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