WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 637: Episode 16: The Fifth Scenario (6)

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The Ark Master's eyes were filled with confusion. As he slowly blinked, a fragment of the scenery that had flowed around him until just before brushed past the tip of his nose like an afterimage.

「When the Martial World was still thriving, White Purity Sect Leader Kyrios met Dragon-Head Ark Master Cheon Gae.」

What the Ark Master truly wanted was to fight Kyrios in the Martial World one more time.

But Kyrios had achieved transcendence and gone far beyond the distant sky, while the Ark Master had chosen the path of a Constellation and forgotten most of the emotions he had felt as a human.

That was why I had recreated this "story."

To resolve a star's unfulfilled wish.

Honestly, it had been absurd from the start.

[Your Incitement has encountered an opportunity for evolution.]

A few words and one spar couldn't possibly create a story that would persuade a star.

Even so, I placed my hopes on it.

Some stories aren't completed by their writers, but by their readers.

The Ark Master slowly approached and pointed his broken Dog-Beating Staff at me.

If he brought it down now, I wouldn't be able to avoid it.

"Ark Master!"

Realizing the situation was taking a dangerous turn, the beggars climbed onto the sparring platform one by one and stood beside him.

Then Huiwon, who had been gripping her sword hilt outside the platform, stepped in front of me.

I placed a hand on her shoulder to show that I was fine.

The Ark Master asked, "Tell me. Why did you show me that scene?"

"Don't you already know?"

"I know?"

The Dog-Beating Staff pointed at me trembled faintly.

[The Constellation The Last Hero of Hwangsanbeol groans.]

[The Constellation King Heungmu lets out a soft sigh.]

[The Constellation Bald Army General quietly wipes his head.]

"I..."

[The Constellation Goryeo's Top Swordsman wants the Last Ark to show the dignity of a star.]

The Ark Master slowly raised his head at the Indirect Message from the air.

Deep resentment filled his eyes as he looked up at the sky.

From the moment I first met him, I had wondered why he had manifested in the Scenario.

「Why had the Last Ark, Cheon Gae, returned to a lower Scenario?」

Had he truly descended to aboveground solely to revive his Beggar's Sect?

Maybe.

This naive star might have genuinely believed that if he started the Scenarios "from the beginning," he could become stronger.

Perhaps he had entered this trial to build enough strength to challenge Kyrios and the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint in the heavens once more.

「"Paradoxical White Purity and the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint. One day, I will meet them again and make them acknowledge me."」

But there was a contradiction in that story.

[The Constellation Naval Warfare God says it is time for him to be honest.]

[The Constellation Demonic Judge of Fire slowly shakes her head.]

Why had he insisted on starting everything over "from the beginning"?

If his only goal had been to meet Kyrios or the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint and take revenge, he could have done that while maintaining his Status as a Constellation.

"What do you know to babble like that! I am different from you. I am wholly present here. Unlike you, who watch from beyond the sky..."

The Ark Master's gaze swept roughly over the area before stopping.

A boy stood at the end of it.

Wonsik, the freckled boy.

The possession vessel of the Ark Master before us was that boy's father.

[The Constellation King Heungmu says that if he truly wanted to be proud, it was a mistake to begin in a possession vessel.]

[Few Constellations point out the Ark Master's contradiction.]

The Ark Master hadn't truly risked everything he had.

The sparks flying through the air were proof enough.

Tzzzt.

He was a star who had descended to aboveground for a moment. An audience member who had only stepped onto the stage for a brief happening.

That audience member spoke to the other audience members.

"Yes. You're right."

A faint rumble of thunder sounded beyond the distant sky, and rain poured through the hole in Seoul Station's ceiling.

As the tents began to get wet, a massive stone covered with cloth beside the sparring platform revealed its outline.

I recognized it immediately.

「A meteorite.」

That meteorite, which had fallen from the sky, must have been the culprit behind the hole in Seoul Station's ceiling.

"I ran away."

The Ark Master hadn't come here for some righteous cause, nor had he sought this place for noble revenge.

He was only a meteorite that had despaired at the height of the sky he had to climb and fallen to the ground.

"I... only..."

"You just wanted to see a story. Like the other Constellations."

The Ark Master turned toward me weakly.

I could have called him a coward.

I could have condemned him as pathetic, miserable, nothing more than someone who had run away.

But everyone dreamed of vicarious satisfaction and catharsis.

Just as Dokja read TWSA, which featured Yu Junghyeok, and the stars watched Star Stream broadcasts.

Just as Great Sage Equaling Heaven, Uriel, and Black Flame Dragon had no choice but to watch Dokja's story.

By reading stories, beings became someone other than themselves again and again. Without doing so, they couldn't survive in this mad world.

"Can you see this story clearly now?"

Some people wanted to run away but lacked even the courage to do so.

The Constellations must have envied him because Cheon Gae at least had the courage to run away.

The Ark Master held his head as if dizzy, then asked me, "Who are you? What is it you want that makes you do this to me?"

"What I want is..."

I'd already said what I wanted.

A Lesser Restoration Pill-grade elixir, and the purple flag he possessed.

But that wasn't the answer that suited this story.

[The Constellation Bald Army General awaits your answer.]

[Few Constellations listen to your words.]

As all the stars waited for the final touch to the fable, I said, "Chivalry."

[The Constellation Goryeo's Top Swordsman sighs.]

The Ark Master's eyes slowly widened.

"I want the chivalry of the Beggar's Sect, an orthodox faction and one of the Nine Sects and One Gang."

The characters meaning "chivalrous" and "righteous."

The banner of the old Martial World, a word no one spoke anymore.

The Ark Master's lips twisted slightly.

Was my appearance, saying such words while drenched in rain, ridiculous to him?

Or was his own appearance, hearing them now, miserable?

The Ark Master let out a low laugh toward the air, then fixed a bright gaze on me.

"Disciple of the White Purity Sect."

The moment I heard his voice, something tickled around my heart.

It was a sensation I hadn't felt in a long time.

The feeling of staying up all night to write an episode, then finally seeing its ending before me.

"You said you wanted an elixir."

I nodded.

At last, the ending of the episode I had worked so hard on was before me. Everything would have been perfect if my mouth hadn't started moving on its own.

"And the flag, too."

I tried to cover my mouth belatedly, but it was already too late.

[Incitement is activating.]

Damn it, my mouth was still Kim Dokja, the insane Disciple of the White Purity Sect.

The Ark Master looked dumbfounded.

"Don't you think you're asking for too much?"

"I'm only asking for two things."

Despite this cheeky reader's words, the Ark Master's expression remained serious.

"Accepting my flag means taking responsibility for the Beggar's Sect I created."

Following his gaze, I slowly looked around.

The beggars around the sparring platform murmured among themselves. Fear and dread filled every pair of eyes.

"There are three hundred beggars here who follow me."

Three hundred.

More than all the Incarnations at Chungmuro Station combined.

"Are you prepared to take them in as your people?"

"Honestly, I'm not."

"You dare, without even that resolve..."

"I'm not, but..."

I looked at the people and thought.

No matter how many times I considered it, leading all of them was impossible. I was different from Ark Master Cheon Gae.

"If they're people struggling to survive somehow in this damned world... then I think I want to write the future they will live in."

After everything that had happened, part of me was still a writer.

The writer who had written the sentences of this world.

That was why I felt responsible.

Responsible for making them live here. Responsible for carelessly placing life and death on their shoulders.

"I want to write the future."

As if he found those words strange, the Ark Master muttered, "You're a strange one. Are you truly an Incarnation living in this world?"

Maybe there had been no special meaning behind his question.

Even so, I held my breath for a moment.

Perhaps the sentences of this story were still being written in my head.

「I want to write a story.」

As though continuing the next sentence, I answered with a neat smile.

"Yes. My world is here."

"..."

"So you should return to your world now."

The Ark Master's eyes shook, as if he hadn't expected me to say that.

"Your place is still left in that sky. You came here through Possession, not Reincarnation."

All stories existed to send readers back to their original worlds.

"You reached that place through your own efforts. Even if you lost the Beggar's Sect, the Martial World, and even your desire for revenge, the stories you built to reach that place don't become meaningless."

"You arrogant Incarnation. Who are you to dare lecture a Constellation?"

His tone was fierce, but the Ark Master didn't look particularly angry.

After glaring at me, he looked up at the sky for a moment and spoke in a tired voice.

"I'll give you the elixir first."

Watching him take an elixir from his robes, I thought this was enough.

「With this, the story of the forty-first round had changed.」

Now Eunho could live.

And perhaps Huiwon, too...

Tzzzt.

That was when sparks flew through the air.

At first, I thought it was only the result of overusing the Plausibility of the possession vessel.

But the Ark Master's expression was strange.

I instinctively sprang to my feet.

「Something was wrong.」

Amid the sound of rain pounding in my ears, I heard something ominous begin to speak.

I reflexively raised my head and saw a black portal rippling in the sky above Seoul Station.

"Great Hole."

But the Fifth Scenario hadn't begun yet, and the only things that could cross through that "Hole" were lower-species monsters.

So...

「I was wrong. There was one more kind that could cross over.」

I reflexively looked at the meteorite that had fallen in the center of Seoul Station.

A sinister premonition rippled through my mind.

「Where had the Last Ark borrowed Plausibility for his possession vessel?」

If that meteorite...

「Who would dare lend Plausibility to a Constellation like him?」

If it had flown in from another world.

Rumble!

Dark red Mana flowing from the meteorite wrapped around the Dragon-Head Ark Master and the Four Beggars.

The Ark Master rose about a handspan into the air and spoke to me.

"Do not inter fere with the set sto ry."

A voice that made my skin crawl just from hearing it.

What dwelled within it wasn't the Ark Master.

The eyes of the corrupted Ark Master had turned pitch-black.

"Recor der of the fool ish wor ld."

It wasn't a constellation's declaration.

Even so, the moment I heard that voice, nausea rose in my throat.

"Outer God."

Thinking about it, it was only natural.

A Constellation, even one who had lowered his Status, possessing someone in an early Scenario.

Of course, I had considered that there might be an unusual force behind it.

The scattered beggars screamed in panic, and I heard Huiwon calling me.

When I looked back, I saw Master Sergeant Jeong Munho behind her, with Eunho on his back.

How had this "story" originally been destined to end?

A black fable seemed to flow from the Ark Master's entire body before covering the whole sparring platform.

"That kind of sto ry..."

The pitch-black ground boiled up as if it would swallow me whole.

"We do not al low i t."

[The Constellation Naval Warfare God warns you of danger!]

[The Constellation Goryeo's Top Swordsman shouts!]

[The Constellation Bald Army General...]

...

[The Constellation Last Ark apologizes to you.]

Ignoring the Constellations' messages, I ran forward.

Dangerous or not, this was my only chance.

If I had truly been destined to die, Snowfield would have activated already.

[You have activated Exclusive Skill Incitement Lv.6!]

Activating Incitement twice in a row hurt as if the muscles throughout my body were being torn apart.

My eyes had become bloodshot, and pain squeezed around my heart.

But I didn't stop.

[Thought of Almost Everything has mimicked Broken Faith (Mass-Produced).]

‘Thought’ changed into ‘Broken Faith,’ and

[You have activated Exclusive Skill White Pure Star Energy Lv.1!]

I used [White Pure Star Energy], which I had learned from Literary Girl 64, to activate the special option of Broken Faith.

[Blade of Faith has activated!]

The power controlling the Ark Master's body was flowing from that meteorite.

In other words, if I removed the meteorite, the Ark Master would no longer be able to use his power.

"Use less."

The Ark Master, consumed by the Outer God, blocked my path as though he had been waiting for me.

Without hesitation, I swung my sword.

Crash!

My decisive strike was helplessly blocked when the Ark Master swung his palm.

I'd expected it.

Even with the combination of White Pure Star Energy and Broken Faith, the Ark Master was now a mad monster with the soul of a Constellation mixed with the protection of an Outer God.

Tzzzt!

At least while he could withstand that Plausibility, even Yu Junghyeok would have had difficulty facing him.

But I smiled.

"Useless, my ass."

Because I'd already accomplished my goal.

[You have acquired the flag of the Seoul Station Group.]

My goal from the beginning hadn't been to remove the meteorite.

[Your white flag has absorbed the accumulated achievement points of the purple flag.]

[Your white flag has evolved into a purple flag.]

It had been to pick up the Seoul Station "flag" that had fallen to the ground.

[You have gained control over the Seoul Station Group through the effect of the purple flag.]

I'd always wondered.

Was the Outer God that existed outside the Scenarios stronger, or was the Plausibility of the system that constituted the Scenarios of this world stronger?

I saw the Ark Master's eyes slowly widen as he looked at me.

I grinned at him and opened my mouth.

"Kneel, you bastard."

[You have used Punishment.]

Footnotes:

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