WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 614: Episode 12: □□ (5)
──────
Han Suyeong asked,
"Why did you come?"
This had been their chance to finally be rewarded for all those long years.
Yet Yu Junghyeok had abandoned that chance and come here with Biyoo.
"If it's him..."
Junghyeok continued, looking at the hospital room door.
"I had a feeling he'd pull some other strange stunt."
"You know you can't regress anymore, right?"
A regressor who had lived for countless years.
Now that even his Regression had stopped, Junghyeok had made the same choice she had at the end of this story.
Suyeong couldn't help speaking.
"Then again, even if you went through the first door, you'd just end up an unemployed bum again. You don't even play games anymore, do you?"
"I'll open it this time."
Junghyeok's rough palm touched the hospital room's doorknob.
Just as the door began to move, Suyeong grabbed him.
"Wait."
Junghyeok looked at her.
"He won't be there anyway."
"I know."
This was a world where Kim Dokja had failed to return. So even if they opened the hospital room door, he wouldn't be there.
Having prepared herself, Suyeong let out a light sigh.
"Open it."
In the end, to get Dokja back, they had to begin with the fact that they had “lost” him.
Even so, Suyeong couldn't completely abandon hope.
Maybe Biyoo had been wrong. Maybe this was all some cruel prank by Dokja.
What if, like a sentence he had accidentally omitted and added later, the person she had searched for so long was standing in the scene before her?
A breeze blew in through the wide-open window, scattering her hair.
Just as expected, no one was on the bed.
But it wasn't that there was nothing there.
As if possessed, Suyeong approached the bed with Junghyeok.
A small note had been left on the mattress, which was sunken as though someone had been sitting there moments ago.
The familiar handwriting was neat and precise.
- There's still a story I haven't read. I'll be back soon.
Suyeong read the note over and over.
Those letters weren't lying.
She heard Junghyeok quietly draw breath.
Without realizing it, Suyeong clutched the note to her chest and sank to the floor.
Kim Dokja hadn't returned.
Even so, Suyeong thought she could forgive him.
"You fucking bastard..."
He was there. He was definitely alive.
Though she couldn't see him, he was somewhere in that distant universe.
Dokja was still reading a story that had yet to end.
* * *
Amid faintly crackling sparks, I read Suyeong's fable.
「"I'll find him with Biyoo. Now that the system has opened, we should be able to search the lower reaches of the worldline again."」
The fables came to me in scattered, fragmented pieces.
Some carried Junghyeok's voice, some Suyeong's, and some belonged to no one I could identify.
「"Then you check that worldline over there."」
...
「"If he's really Dokja-hyung, I figured he'd definitely be here."」
...
「"What if I told you where Dokja is, in exchange?"」
Beyond the flowing fables, I saw Suyeong's frozen face.
Listening to the voices of the fables gradually fade, I spoke.
"You would've been fine choosing the first portal."
She could have been happy.
She could have met Dokja again and reached the ending she had wanted for so long.
"Maybe there's an ending like that somewhere."
Suyeong answered as she watched the disappearing words.
A “happy ending” already existed.
She simply hadn't chosen that option.
"There are two choices. One is obviously an 'end,' and the other is a suspicious 'continuation.' If you were choosing what the real Dokja would choose in that situation, isn't it obvious? That fucking bastard likes 'stories' more than anyone."
In a sense, her choice hadn't been wrong. She had found traces of Dokja in the end and made it all the way here.
"Dokja can make fantasies real. The dreams he dreams become reality. The Dokja at the first portal must have been real, too."
"Maybe he was."
Suyeong nodded.
She must have acknowledged that possibility, which was why she hadn't forced her choice on Huiwon or the other members of Kim Dokja Company.
Still, Suyeong must have considered another possibility.
The possibility that Dokja had trapped Kim Dokja Company within “Happy Memories” while shouldering the tragedy of that distant universe all alone.
With her powerful imagination, she couldn't bring herself to turn away from that possibility.
"I just chose the one that felt more like Dokja to me."
The firm certainty in her voice almost made me jealous of Dokja.
"Is Dokja in this world?"
"I don't know either. But... at least he'll be watching this world."
At last, her Great Fable stopped telling its story. Every wound I had inflicted upon the fable had been repaired.
"I don't like it. This isn't a story 'I wrote.'"
The story she had once begun was now unfolding in ways she didn't know.
Suyeong and I looked up at the sky at the same time. Color was gradually returning to the sky of the Snowfield, which had been filled with monochrome hues.
The skill's time limit was already running out.
"For him to return, this story has to end."
Having seen the Great Fable, I could agree with her to some extent.
But that “end” wasn't now. At least, not yet.
That was why I kept writing sentences in my head.
[You have described something with insufficient Plausibility.]
[The success rate for recreating this description is 8%.]
...
[You have described something with insufficient Plausibility.]
[The success rate for recreating this description is 1%.]
Throughout my fight with Suyeong, I kept writing and erasing sentences.
I was searching for the one sentence that could persuade the Suyeong before me.
How many times had I revised and rewritten those sentences?
[You have described something plausible.]
[The success rate for recreating this description is 78%.]
I gambled to raise the success rate, just as I had sacrificed both arms to increase Plausibility on the day I first met the 41st-round Yu Junghyeok.
[The scene's title will change because of the sentence you added.]
I wagered everything I could write.
[The success rate for recreating this description is 95%.]
[The success rate cannot be increased any further.]
[Checking reader feedback.]
[No reader feedback exists.]
[All the readers in the Theater have viewed your story.]
[You have secured additional Plausibility through at least a certain number of recommendations.]
Looking at the sentence I had written in the Snowfield, I said,
"Dokja might want to keep watching this story."
"Maybe he would, but not this story."
"What if Dokja's tastes have changed by now? What if the story you wrote isn't interesting anymore?"
"That."
Suyeong snickered and asked.
"Are you seriously saying that?"
Rumble.
The landscape of the Snowfield collapsed.
[You are exiting the Snowfield.]
Time, which had stopped, began to flow again.
Taking advantage of Suyeong's surprise, I shouted toward Huiwon.
"Huiwon-ssi!"
Huiwon, still resisting the mental attack, creaked as she turned toward me.
I wasn't sure whether I could place any more mental strain on someone already affected by [Incitement].
Huiwon's lips moved.
'Inho-ssi. Hurry.'
[Exclusive Skill, Incitement Lv.6, has activated!]
I drew a deep breath, then poured out the words all at once.
"From now on, you won't be affected by 'mental attacks'!"
[The Incarnation Jeong Huiwon is affected by Incitement!]
[The Incarnation Jeong Huiwon is already affected by Incitement!]
[The effect of Incitement has stacked, increasing its penalty!]
[The duration of Incitement has become extremely short!]
Huiwon vomited blood, then swung her sword forward again.
Now, Simulacrum's mental attacks could no longer torment her.
"Interesting. You can even do this with just [Incitement]?"
Suyeong blocked Huiwon's sword with her left hand, wrapped in [Black Flame].
"But Huiwon will die if this keeps up. You know that, right?"
Her complexion turning pale, Huiwon growled,
"I won't die."
She must have realized she couldn't approach Simulacrum without dealing with Suyeong first, because the trajectory of her [Swordsmanship] twisted.
[Hour of Judgement] unleashed explosive combat power for a brief time. Her masterful [Swordsmanship] joined it.
Her sword aura, capable of cutting apart even a Tier-7 Monster in an instant, launched a full assault at Suyeong.
"Well, look at that."
For an instant, Suyeong was pushed back by the relentless assault.
I immediately sprinted forward and shouted.
[Exclusive Skill, Incitement Lv.6, has activated!]
"Turn into 'Broken Faith'!"
At my words, Thought shone brightly and took the form of a sword. It was the mimic form I had obtained when I killed that text copy author.
[Thought of Almost Everything has mimicked Broken Faith (Mass-Produced).]
Simulacrum was already right in front of me.
Suyeong, who noticed me too late, narrowed her eyes.
"You-"
Broken Faith's special option was Blade of Faith.
But I didn't have the Sword Aura Art skill, so I couldn't use Blade of Faith.
Normally, that would have been true.
I drew up all the Mana in my body and focused it into Broken Faith.
「"Please save my brother."」
It was the skill Literary Girl 64 had passed on to me.
[Exclusive Skill, White Pure Star Energy Lv.1, has activated!]
[Blade of Faith has activated!]
The Aether Blade, scattering dazzling white light, moved. Simulacrum reflexively curled up.
With a brilliant flash, both of Simulacrum's arms flew through the air.
I continued swinging my sword as I chanted.
[Exclusive Skill, Incitement Lv.6, has activated!]
"...is Yu Junghyeok."
Just as the successive arcs of my sword finally reached Simulacrum's neck, someone yanked me back hard.
When had she summoned them?
Two of Suyeong's [Avatar] copies were gripping my shoulders.
A powerful impact struck my side and shin in quick succession. The blade flew through the air in an instant, and I dropped to my knees.
As I collapsed in a dizzy haze, I saw Huiwon, who had vomited blood, lose consciousness as well.
[The effect of Incitement has ended.]
A massive backlash was consuming Huiwon's entire body.
「It was a failure.」
Even after accepting such powerful restrictions and fighting through them, I still couldn't defeat Suyeong.
Suyeong let out a light sigh.
"That was a little dangerous."
I felt once again just how enormous the gap between Suyeong and me was.
Certain of her victory, she looked down at me.
"Now you understand well enough, right?"
I had known from the beginning.
Even if a truckload of people like me came, the current me probably couldn't defeat Suyeong.
So I thought.
「I don't have to be the one who wins.」
An enormous resonance of Status came from behind me.
Suyeong's eyes widened as she looked behind me.
A man in a pitch-black coat was awakening from deep depression.
「The person who ends this story is its protagonist.」
[The effect of Incitement has activated!]
「"You are Yu Junghyeok."」
Only now had the effect of the [Incitement] I used when I cut off Simulacrum's arms appeared.
Yu Junghyeok began to run.
He didn't seem to have fully escaped his regressor's depression yet, but he appeared to know what he had to do.
The spear in his hand traced a straight line and unleashed destructive Mana.
For the first time, Suyeong hurriedly drew her sword.
I marveled at the pure white sword in her hand.
So Suyeong had made that after all.
“Unbreakable Faith.”
I didn't know how she had made it.
Unlike mine, though, her sword was neither mass-produced nor fake. It was real.
The moment I saw that dazzling radiance, I shuddered.
「The author of this story really is Han Suyeong.」
Even if I spent my entire life trying, I would never become a writer like her.
I drove the Mana through my whole body into a frenzy and shook off the [Avatar] copies holding me.
Then, gripping the Broken Faith that had fallen to the floor, I ran toward Suyeong.
Suyeong, who was clashing swords with Junghyeok, turned toward me in surprise.
"You told me to try persuading you, didn't you?"
The two fiercely clashing “faiths” rang out.
"Are you ready to be persuaded?"
Suyeong's eyes wavered.
Seizing the opportunity, Junghyeok's figure calmly passed us and moved to finish Simulacrum.
Tsssss!
Panicked, Suyeong shouted at me.
Normally, she could have easily shaken me off and stopped Junghyeok.
But this time, it was impossible.
「Because this was that kind of story.」
Suyeong seemed to finally realize what was happening.
"You, don't tell me..."
Perhaps my role in this story was nothing more than a bridge.
"If you're a writer, you should understand."
But that was enough.
If even one more reader could survive. If, after passing through the “main story,” they could see the story's end even in the “side story.”
"What you're trying to do isn't end the story. It's giving up."
I could willingly break if it meant completing this story.
Suyeong's Unbreakable Faith spewed fierce [Black Flame], and I desperately blocked its path.
The blade of Broken Faith crumbled helplessly, and I felt Blade of Faith disappear.
「There is no magical sentence that can persuade someone.」
Like a writer revising the ending of a story that had already been decided, I smiled at Suyeong.
「Because every miracle demands a price in Plausibility.」
I heard Junghyeok's spear pierce Simulacrum's head.
Dokja's face suddenly came to mind.
Was that bastard still reading this story even now?
Come to think of it, I had always envied him.
「Then, have I become a little closer to him this way?」
[Scene recreation has succeeded.]
At the moment a sharp blade dug into my chest, I remembered one thing I had forgotten.
「Give this to him.」
I barely managed to reach into my pocket, but I had no strength left in my arm.
In the distance, Simulacrum disappeared and Junghyeok collapsed.
The dome surrounding the rooftop garden deactivated.
[Someone has cleared the Theater Dungeon.]
My vision blurred.
My heart gradually grew colder, and strength drained from my entire body. I fell to the ground.
Suyeong's shout echoed as if from far away.
「Readers died and became “Little Kim Dokjas.”」
As my consciousness slowly faded, I saw the night sky.
「Then what will I become after I die?」
At the last moment, the final sentence of my debut work came to mind for some reason.
「He walked toward his own origin.」
Clutching the item in my pocket that I had failed to deliver, I closed my eyes.
Somewhere, I thought I could smell lemons.
Footnotes:
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