WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 646: Episode 18: A reader's fight (4)

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Why was Shin Yuseong in this dungeon right now?

I pushed the question aside and slid into the Nagak shell where Yuseong was hiding.

As soon as I entered, Yuseong closed the lid.

Dududududu!

A rapid drumming sound rang out, and I felt the air pressure around my ears shift. Other than that, though, I wasn't hit by anything.

This Nagak shell had blocked the Ancient Nagak's ensemble attack.

"If you stay in here, you won't get attacked. I don't know why, but..."

It was a method I hadn't expected.

Come to think of it, the Nagaks here would hear each other's ensembles, too. Was that why they didn't hurt one another?

We lay flat and held our breath inside the cramped shell. Once the sound died down a little, I carefully lifted the lid and looked around.

An Ancient Nagak was wandering around the terrarium in the distance.

It didn't seem to have found us yet.

"I think we're safe now."

Dim light slipped through the gap in the shell, and Yuseong's face came into view again.

It was a magical moment.

Yuseong seemed flustered by my gaze and began to stammer.

"W-well, it was almost at the end of its life. It happened to communicate with me, and it said it wanted to give me its home..."

Only then did I realize she was talking about the Nagak shell.

I see. There must have been a hermit crab inside it, too.

It seemed to have passed the shell on to Yuseong before it perished.

Something like that was entirely possible if it was Yuseong. She was an Incarnation who could communicate with monsters.

+

<Character Profile>

Name: Shin Yuseong

Age: 11

Patron: None (1 Constellation is currently showing interest in this character).

Exclusive Attribute: Beast Tamer (Rare), Introspective Killer (Common)

Exclusive Skills: [taming Lv.5], [Inter-Species Communication Lv.6], [agile feet Lv.5], [Interspecies Affinity Lv.3]

Stigma: None

Overall Attributes: [Constitution Lv.15], [Strength Lv.12], [Agility Lv.18], [Mana Lv.27]

Overall Evaluation: She has decent Mana, but her overall attributes are low. She possesses exceptional talent and a rare Attribute, but she has not blossomed due to environmental circumstances.

+

I recalled the main story of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint and compared Yuseong's attributes to what I remembered.

I didn't know what had caused the difference, but some of her Skills and overall attribute levels were slightly different from what I knew.

The question I had set aside surfaced again.

Why was Yuseong here?

As I remembered it, Yuseong had lived as a Wanderer for quite some time, and she only met Dokja after the fourth Scenario had ended.

Yet in this 41st round, I had met Yuseong while the fourth Scenario was still underway.

"Thank you for saving me."

When I bowed, Yuseong stammered in surprise.

"Ah, y-yes... It was nothing!"

Whatever the circumstances, if it hadn't been for this child, I would have been eaten by the Ancient Nagak.

[The Constellation Naval Warfare God admires the Incarnations' resourcefulness.]

[The Constellation Demonic Judge of Fire is moved by Incarnation Shin Yuseong's good deed.]

Messages from Constellations arrived from the air.

[The Constellation Demonic Judge of Fire has sponsored Incarnation Shin Yuseong with 100 Coins.]

"Ah, ah..."

Yuseong caught the glittering Coins as they fell and turned toward me with a helpless expression.

I quickly nodded to show that she should accept them. Blushing, Yuseong bowed toward the air.

"Thank you. Thank you."

[The Constellation Demonic Judge of Fire is touched by the cute Incarnation.]

[An anonymous Constellation says this is a ploy to swindle all their Coins.]

[The Constellation Prisoner of the Golden Headband laments that these Constellation bastards have forgotten their innocence.]

It was a strange feeling.

Was this what Yuseong had been like before she met Dokja?

I lowered my voice so the other Nagaks wouldn't notice us.

"I should've introduced myself sooner. My name is Inho Cheon."

"I'm... Shin Yuseong."

After saying that, Yuseong hesitantly added,

"You're an adult, so you can speak casually."

"No. You're my benefactor."

Yuseong opened her eyes wide, her gaze darting around.

"But it feels wrong to have an adult speak politely to me..."

It seemed Yuseong was uncomfortable being spoken to politely by an adult.

After hesitating for a moment, I answered,

"Later. You still don't know what kind of person I am."

"I know... a little."

She knew?

Looking troubled, Yuseong fidgeted with both hands for a moment, then pointed to my coat pocket.

"You collected the belongings of the people who died."

When had she seen that?

While hunting the Nagaks, I had collected the belongings of the Incarnations who died. I wondered if Uncle Dansu or any Incarnations I knew might be among them. If I recognized someone, I would need to deliver their belongings to people from the same group.

"You were going to tell the others outside about them, right?"

"I was just collecting items. Anyone who entered a one-person dungeon probably doesn't know anyone outside anyway."

The people who entered the one-person dungeon, the Hall of the Nagak, were likely in relatively isolated positions within their groups.

If they had allies, they would have entered a three-person, five-person, or seven-person dungeon.

Choosing a one-person dungeon meant they had no choice but to enter alone.

People alone here, and alone outside.

People written that way, with no one to remember them.

Yuseong pointed precisely at my pocket and said,

"If that was really your purpose, you should've only collected expensive items."

"I just like collecting things. Why did you come in alone, Yuseong-ssi?"

"Ah, I..."

When our eyes met, Yuseong quickly lowered her head and stammered.

"The adults didn't want to form a team with me..."

As expected. Those words explained everything.

Why Yuseong was here alone, and why she had hidden and watched what I did.

"They're bad adults."

"No. They said if I cleared this place and got ancient coins, they'd travel with me. They said they'd let me join their group, too."

They had made a child who hadn't even joined their group do something like this?

"They really are bad adults."

"Ah, no. They really aren't. From their perspective, it was a natural choice."

"A natural choice?"

"Someone said adults and children are equal in this world. That children aren't children anymore... But someone like me doesn't really help their fighting strength, and I'm grateful that they gave me this chance, even if it was like this..."

I felt deeply confused.

[The Constellation Demonic Judge of Fire's eyes blaze with fury.]

[The Constellation Bald Army General laments that the virtues of the Korean Peninsula have fallen to the ground!]

As Kim Dokja had once said, there wasn't much difference between children and adults in an apocalyptic world.

Children could become strong, too, if they raised their attributes with Coins.

So Yuseong could say something like that, as though she understood the adults' circumstances.

Still, was that really all right?

Just because a new world had opened, could people so easily place such burdens on children?

Was it right to decide that children and adults were completely equal just because their physical abilities were the same?

"Which group said that?"

The children in this world were frightening.

There were even children, like the children of the Beggar's Sect, who specialized in hunting adults.

So even as I asked, I couldn't rule out the possibility that all of this was Yuseong's acting. When she met Dokja, Yuseong had also been a child capable of using "adult sympathy."

Still, if this entire situation had been designed by this small child, I thought that would be all right, too.

Knowing a child's desire and pretending not to notice.

That might be the only consideration an adult living in this mad world could offer a child.

"Um... I don't remember the name very well, but it's a group that belongs to an organization called the Alliance."

The Alliance.

It was a name I had heard from Ye Hyunwoo.

Wasn't it a group of kings led by the Tyrant King?

"Let's get out of here together first."

I would get Yuseong out alive somehow.

Then I would see with my own eyes the faces of those wonderful adults who had pushed this child into danger.

[You have hunted 504 Nagaks.]

[Dungeon Escape will be available in 1 minute.]

The time when escape became possible was drawing near.

I had reached my target of hunting 500 Nagaks, so all I had to do was wait. Then Yuseong murmured weakly,

"I'm sorry. I haven't even come close to meeting my quota. Only the one that gave me its shell..."

It was a dungeon even adults hadn't been able to clear. Yuseong was talented, but it was nearly impossible for a child to clear it alone.

"I'll help you."

In the Hall of the Nagak, hunting only 100 Nagaks fulfilled the escape condition.

The problem was the Ancient Nagak looking for us in the distance.

If Yuseong could hunt the Nagaks one by one while I bought time...

[The character Shin Yuseong feels intense mental anguish.]

"I'm sorry. I can't do it."

Yuseong's first Scenario suddenly came to mind.

The child who had to kill the puppy she raised in order to survive.

Yuseong's trauma was still fresh.

"I'm really sorry. You can go alone. I can stay here by myself, so..."

Whether it was acting or not no longer mattered to me.

If this was Yuseong acting to survive,

[Some Constellations are curious about your next choice.]

then this world, which had made Yuseong act, was wrong.

"You'll die if you stay here alone."

"..."

"You don't want to die. You don't have to say things like that."

Yuseong still had her head lowered.

"They teach you what to do in dangerous situations at school."

But not everyone could do what they had been taught, even if school told them.

Everyone knew they should care for the old and weak. They knew they shouldn't hurt people.

They knew they should ask someone for help when they needed it.

But some people couldn't say it, even if they knew.

There were people who had become that way.

"Yuseong-ssi helped me even though I didn't ask for help. So I'll help you, too."

It wasn't because I was an adult. It wasn't because Yuseong was a child.

I helped because she was someone I could help right now.

"But I'm not confident I can kill monsters..."

"That isn't the only answer."

I looked over the Nagaks scattered throughout the terrarium.

Was it because I had already slaughtered so many?

There weren't many living Nagaks left in the Hall of the Nagak now.

There was no sign that their numbers would replenish, either.

If so, there was one method worth trying.

"You don't have to kill them. It might hurt a little instead."

But this method required Yuseong's cooperation.

"It might be harder than killing them. Your body will suffer, not your heart."

"If it's something like that..."

Yuseong carefully raised her head and looked up at me.

"I want to try. If I don't have to kill anything."

I nodded.

"Then let's try it."

"But are you sure? What if you get into trouble because of me..."

"You won't cause any trouble. And don't worry too much."

I smiled lightly, as if soothing a frightened child.

"No matter what happens, you'll be safe. I'll make sure of it."

I briefly explained the plan.

Smart as she was, Yuseong quickly understood what I meant.

"Will that really work?"

"It will."

This plan depended entirely on Yuseong's talent.

It would only work if Yuseong trusted me.

"Let's begin."

I immediately threw open the Nagak's lid and began to run.

After splashing through puddles for several dozen steps, the nearby Nagaks noticed me and turned toward me all at once.

[The Nagak Ensemble has begun.]

Sound waves poured heedlessly after my footsteps.

I accelerated, then signaled Yuseong, who was watching from afar.

[The character Shin Yuseong has activated taming Lv.5!]

[The character Shin Yuseong has activated Inter-Species Communication Lv.6!]

The plan was simple.

While I drew the Nagaks' attention, Yuseong would activate [taming] and tame the Nagaks in the terrarium.

The idea had come from Yuseong's status message.

[The character Shin Yuseong has hunted 1 Nagak so far.]

Yuseong clearly couldn't kill even a single Nagak. Even so, there was already a record of her having killed one.

There were two hypotheses I could infer from that record.

One, Yuseong could actually kill Nagaks.

Two, simply taming a Nagak counted as hunting it.

Whichever hypothesis was right, this plan was worth trying.

Even if it failed,

「"I'll send Yuseong. It'll be a chance to increase her monster army."」

At the very least, Yuseong would be able to secure monsters that could protect her from adults.

[The character Shin Yuseong has failed at taming!]

The problem was that Yuseong's Skill proficiency was too low.

An anxious expression appeared on Yuseong's face in the distance.

"Ah, mister..."

I shouted loudly.

"Stay calm and try again, one at a time! You can do it!"

It was probably difficult for Yuseong at this point.

Even in the main story, Yuseong only tamed Sea monsters of Tier 7 or higher after receiving Dokja's special training and growing stronger.

Unfortunately, Dokja didn't exist in this world.

But.

[The Exclusive Skill Incitement Lv.9 has activated!]

Yuseong had me now.

Footnotes:

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