WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 609: Episode 11: Work (4)
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* * *
I made my literary debut when I was twenty-three.
「Announcement of the 24th Newcomer Award winner. Winning work: “The Origin of Memory.” Writer: Lee Hakhyun.」
It wasn't as though I had extraordinary talent that let me debut so early.
Honestly, how much could someone that age know when they wrote?
The vague hostility toward the world and youthful recklessness that any young person might have, sentences like semi-dried squid that imitated established writers poorly.
There were literary figures who thought highly of such things, and that year, I happened to be the one they evaluated favorably.
Of course, my luck ended there, and I was quickly forgotten by the world. More precisely,
“He walked toward his own origin. I like that line.”
I thought I had been forgotten.
Until this person appeared.
“I liked the works that came after, too. ‘The Origin of Faith,’ ‘The Origin of Lies’... the Origin Trilogy.”
“How do you know those novels? They aren't well known.”
Exactly three.
She had read every short story I had written on commission.
I was shocked that such a reader existed in the world.
“There were always old literary magazines among the books donated to the orphanage.”
Orphanage.
At that word, which she had said so naturally, I quietly drew in a breath.
“I asked my brother to read me any novel from the bookshelf, and the first one he read was that story from the literary magazine.”
“I see.”
“Have you read that novel?”
I nodded and answered.
“It's the story of a protagonist who lies about his childhood.”
“That's the highlight.”
“I can't tell you the whole thing.”
If I told the entire story here, every Constellation listening would fall asleep.
[The Constellation Abyssal Black Flame Dragon picks his nose, asking what on earth you are talking about.]
[A Constellation that has yet to reveal its modifier listens intently to the story.]
Of course, there might be Constellations with niche tastes...
After giving it some thought, I added a little more substance to the story for those niche Constellations.
“‘The Origin of Memory’ is about a writer who fabricates his own childhood, sells books, and goes on lecture tours. Is that enough of an explanation?”
It was my first time telling someone about my debut work, and it felt strange.
Literary Girl 64 urged me on.
“Tell me what happens next.”
I didn't know why she wanted me to tell her a story she had already read, but I continued anyway.
“In the end, the protagonist's scam is exposed by a former classmate and revealed online.”
“That's right. I found the protagonist's reaction in that part interesting. ‘No one suffers because I had such a past. Doesn't everyone have the right to have their own story?’”
I replied in admiration.
“You remember the dialogue exactly.”
“I also found it interesting that the protagonist's lie turned out to be true in the end.”
“I remember that part being left somewhat ambiguous.”
“It wasn't ambiguous. It turned out that even the former classmate who exposed the protagonist online had mistaken him for someone else. Since only the protagonist remembered the story no one else did, he was the only one with the right to wish for the origin of memory.”
Listening to her clear interpretation brought back, for the first time in a while, the days when I wrote that novel.
I had always felt empty somehow, wondering where I came from and what I existed for.
There had been a time when I wrote sentences to find out.
“The works after that had a similar tone. They always dealt with lies or origins, and I found that interesting. I wish the writer had kept writing.”
I did keep writing.
Literary Girl 64 thought for a moment, then continued.
“I also read all the web novels that writer wrote.”
“The web novels too?”
“My brother complained a lot about having to read them to me... but later, he started reading them diligently himself.”
“Um, which web novel?”
“‘Orc Philosopher.’”
The moment the title of my disastrous first web novel came from her mouth, I wondered if all of this was a hallucination created by my paranoia.
“Thinking about it now, I don't think the writer really knew what web novels were when he wrote it.”
No hallucination could give such an accurate evaluation.
“‘Infinite Warden.’ The metaphors were a little simple in that one, but still...”
It felt like someone kept chopping off my neck and stitching it back on.
“‘Mage of the World That Never Ends.’ It's about a mage who trained hard after predicting the world's destruction, but no matter how long they waited, the world never ended, so they went to destroy it themselves...”
“...”
“And then there was...”
Literary Girl 64 continued sharing her thoughts on the novels I had written.
Sometimes, she paused to choose her words.
‘Method Master,’ ‘System Breaker’...
Was this how Kim Dokja felt when his companions discovered his secret tastes?
“‘How to Become a Star Writer’...”
When even a title I had temporarily erased from my memory came up, I felt like I might faint.
“Some parts felt like they came from personal experience, but I liked it. Though I knew it would eventually be discontinued.”
Surprisingly, she had mostly good things to say about my previous works.
Except for one.
“Was Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint... not very good?”
Why did I ask that?
I didn't know.
Maybe I'd been waiting all this time for a moment to ask someone that question.
“It wasn't so much that it was bad...”
Literary Girl 64 seriously chose her words for about twenty seconds before continuing.
“That novel didn't feel like it was written by that writer.”
I listened to her without saying anything.
“In all the other works, I could vividly feel the writer. But that work alone made the writer feel like a spectator of the story.”
Too many thoughts rushed in and out of my mind at once.
Only then did I realize I had been preparing for this moment all along.
「I knew it. This story wasn't one I had written.」
I had only been waiting.
Waiting for someone to tell me a fact I already knew in cold, clear words.
Hiding my disappointment, I asked, “You must've been disappointed.”
“I wasn't disappointed.”
Literary Girl 64 spoke without any change in expression.
“My brother liked that story more, and I liked the writer's other stories more. That's all.”
“...”
“Come to think of it, my brother said something like this. Maybe the writer came to this world through Possession, just like us.”
At those casually spoken words, I flinched, then smiled calmly.
“Maybe.”
“I hope the writer is alive.”
The long thirty minutes were already coming to an end. Looking up at the clock in the air, she finished.
“I need to ask when he'll write the next story.”
For a moment, I wondered if that expression was the highlight of this Scenario.
* * *
[You have entered aboveground floor 7.]
We carefully continued up through the movie theater.
An hour had passed while we went through all sorts of things. We had to clear the dungeon within the remaining hour. Otherwise, Killer King would be in danger.
Judging by the atmosphere, the battle on the rooftop still hadn't been decided.
After walking past the torn posters for some time, we finally arrived at the door leading to the eighth floor, the Sky Garden.
But then.
“Huh?”
The exit to the eighth floor was blocked.
It was covered in white crystals that resembled frost, and I quickly realized what they were.
[Steel Transformation].
They were unmistakably traces of [Steel Transformation].
Either Lee Hyeongseong himself or someone borrowing his Stigma had blocked the door.
Judging by the crystals, [Steel Transformation] was in its earliest stages. The crystal coating was thin, too.
Literary Girl 64 activated [White Pure Star Energy] and struck the door experimentally.
Clang!
Even [White Pure Star Energy] could only leave a tiny scratch.
Was [Steel Transformation] this tough even in its early stages?
“There is a way.”
Literary Girl 64 spoke in a calm voice.
“But I can't do it alone.”
I wondered what that meant. It didn't seem like the door would break just because we struck it together.
“Are you good at games?”
Ah.
[The Incarnation Lee Seyeon has activated Fighting Action Mode!]
That was what she meant.
[The Incarnation Lee Seyeon has temporarily transferred Command Controller to you.]
A coin slot appeared before me. When I inserted 300 coins, a controller identical to the one Killer King had used materialized in front of me.
[Command Control has been activated.]
I gently laid Jeong Huiwon down and picked up the controller.
“I'm not exactly confident... Do I just do what Killer King did?”
Literary Girl 64 shook her head.
“With that level of durability, we need to use a finishing move.”
As she told me the command for the technique, Literary Girl 64 added, “My brother practiced it many times too, but he failed.”
Just hearing the command told me why he had failed. The timing was difficult, but the command was far too complicated.
“Have you memorized it?”
“More or less.”
“More or less isn't enough. If you get it wrong, your qi circulation will be disrupted, and you'll die.”
She said something terrifying as if it were nothing.
“Can I practice on my own?”
“I'll give you three minutes.”
After saying that, Literary Girl 64 sat cross-legged and closed her eyes. She seemed to be concentrating the Mana in her entire body.
I let out a small sigh and looked down at the controller.
Was I good at games?
I didn't know. I thought I was about average, though. If we were talking online game ranks... maybe Gold.
Yes, I knew.
Of course, that wouldn't be enough.
Killer King had excellent control skills. There was no way I could succeed at a technique that even Killer King couldn't pull off.
But.
「I know someone who can do it.」
Literary Girl 64 opened her eyes and asked, “Have you memorized it all?”
“I have.”
“Then let's start.”
I had memorized the command.
The problem was timing.
And not making a mistake.
Literary Girl 64 took the preparatory stance for a straight punch. Quiet Mana gathered in her right fist.
I focused on the flow of Mana she was giving off.
Then I recited the finishing move command.
「From now on, I am.」
I imagined it.
[Exclusive Skill Incitement Lv.6 has activated!]
The person who was better at games than anyone I knew.
「Yu Junghyeok, the Pro Gamer.」
At that moment, a new world opened in my mind. The world changed like a simulation, and time slowed ever so slightly.
[Your imagination has been activated to its limit.]
As if I were glimpsing the future, every variable around me came into view at once.
I was naturally nowhere near the real Junghyeok, but I could imitate him well enough.
The flow gathering in her fist, where the fist would head, and even the Mana that would spew out at the point of impact.
Blood trickled from my nose.
I entered the command.
Literary Girl 64's fist moved. White-and-blue Mana swirled around it. Her straight punch pierced through space like lightning and struck the center of the door.
I hadn't asked for the technique's name, but I had an idea what Killer King would have called it.
「White Flash Collapse Fist.」
That had to be its name.
Boom!
Amid the thunderous noise, the crystals of Steel Transformation shattered.
Beyond the broken door, I caught a glimpse of the rooftop.
[You have successfully activated the Finishing Move command!]
[Fighting Action Mode has been deactivated.]
[Battle review: Combo score: 92! Are you a pro gamer hiding your true strength?]
As the messages rang out, Literary Girl 64 grabbed my shoulder.
“Wait.”
The moment I saw her pale face, I understood what had happened.
The technique had succeeded, but her qi circulation had been disrupted. It was probably because I wasn't the real Yu Junghyeok, the Pro Gamer.
“I'll be fine if I rest. But it'll be hard for me to help from now on.”
She looked at me as she panted.
[The Incarnation Lee Seyeon has activated the skill Secret Technique Transmission Lv.1.]
Secret Technique Transmission.
A skill that allowed someone to teach one skill of S grade or lower to another person, just once.
“I was going to give it to my brother, but I think you should take it.”
[You have received a skill transmission from the Incarnation Lee Seyeon.]
“Please save my brother.”
“Wait. This is...”
I hurriedly caught Literary Girl 64, but she had already lost consciousness.
I laid her beside Huiwon and slowly turned toward the door.
Ominous ripples of fable came from beyond the broken door. My hands and feet tingled, and the back of my neck felt cold.
The same deep fear and anticipation I felt when writing the first sentence on a blank page rushed over me at once.
Even before ‘□□’ activated, I knew instinctively.
「I might die beyond that door.」
As I breathed again and again, warmth returned to my fingertips. Before that warmth faded, I thought of my skills, my items, and my sentences.
「Even knowing that, Lee Hakhyun moved forward.」
That was the only sentence I could write right now.
I took one long step and stepped onto the rooftop.
[You have entered aboveground floor 8, Sky Garden.]
The eighth floor looked exactly as it had been described in the main story of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint.
A small dome, encircled by an opaque dome, like an opera house.
「The first thing I saw as I stepped onto the rooftop, carpeted in green grass, was the back of the regressor bastard I had searched for so desperately.」
“Yu Junghyeok?”
Before I knew it, my steps quickened.
Junghyeok of the 41st round.
The protagonist who had hunted a Tier-7 Monster right from the start and had even surpassed a Fabled Constellation in the previous round.
Junghyeok was frozen like a mannequin.
The moment I saw his vacant pupils, as if he had sunk into a deep abyss, and his pale lips, I realized it.
「Yu Junghyeok had lost.」
I held a hand beneath his nose. He was still breathing. There were no serious external injuries, either.
That meant he had been hit by a mental skill.
Tzzzt...
Sparks leaped up from all around.
I looked around the edge of the Sky Garden.
As expected, Simulacrum, the master of this Theater Dungeon, was sitting there.
[Cinema Master Simulacrum has revealed itself.]
The Theater Dungeon boss, specialized in mental skills.
But something was strange.
Junghyeok was weak against mental attacks, but by the 41st round, he shouldn't have been so helpless against Simulacrum.
Creak, creak.
On closer inspection, Simulacrum, sitting on the bench, also had unfocused eyes like a broken toy.
“Story. Story. Story. Story.”
Like an old projector, Simulacrum's mouth rattled as it spoke.
Looking closer, someone was gripping Simulacrum's head in the backlight.
A shadow seeped in like type pressed deep into a page.
I slowly followed the shadow with my eyes.
A spectacle of Status bore down on the surroundings.
I didn't have the courage to look at the shadow's owner.
「Some books overwhelm you before you even open them.」
Biting my lip hard, I slowly raised my head.
I had already come this far. If I didn't open the book, the story wouldn't begin.
I barely managed to look up beneath that pressure, and there was the first sentence.
“You're here already?”
Her voice was lofty, as if she had no interest in this world's story at all.
“I underestimated him because it was only the 41st round. He's pretty good.”
Through the wavering backlight was the face of the person I had imagined for so long.
「She was the writer who had written every sentence in this world.」
I called the author's name.
“Han Suyeong.”
Footnotes:
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