WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 652: Episode 19: Person from Long Ago (4)

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I silently stared at the door that had appeared at the end of the waiting room.

There should have been seven doors, but there was only one.

Was this how the forty-first round of TWSA had originally progressed, or had the Scenario changed because the readers and I had interfered?

If this was how TWSA had originally unfolded, then it would have been normal for the [TWSA] skill to activate around now.

However, the skill remained silent.

That meant the readers had interfered and changed the Scenario.

But would the readers I knew casually interfere with the Scenario's progression?

Uncle Dansu, Gyeong Se-in Ye Hyeon-u, Killer King, Literary Girl 64, Gu Seona, Kim Gyeongsik...

Even after calmly going through the list, I couldn't imagine any of them being responsible.

What put readers ahead of characters was information, and they wouldn't attempt excessive changes to the future in order to actively make use of the original work's developments.

In other words, the readers weren't the culprits.

Then who had changed the Scenario and caused an event called the "museum collapse," which hadn't existed in the original work?

I formed a hypothesis.

What if there were people who would be increasingly disadvantaged if the story followed the developments of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint?

What if there were beings who didn't want the Scenario to proceed "according to the original work"?

As I formed that hypothesis, the culprit's outline seemed clearer.

However, I still couldn't be certain.

Yuseong pressed close to my side with a tense expression.

"Mister."

A fight had apparently already broken out. The waiting room floor was littered with corpses.

I carefully walked forward with an arm around Yuseong's shoulders. I didn't forget to examine the dead people's faces, either.

Uncle Dansu.

Kim Gyeongsik and Gu Seona.

And my editor, whose host I didn't know.

Fortunately, I couldn't see any of their faces, but my strange unease didn't fade.

It felt as if someone were watching us.

That was when Yuseong flinched and turned around.

"Mister!"

I reflexively ducked and shielded Yuseong.

Three daggers grazed the back of my neck before flying across the waiting room and embedding themselves in the far wall.

I stayed low and looked behind us. Assassins were rising from among the corpses.

"Tch, did we miss?"

They were newcomer hunters.

The bastards who hid in waiting rooms instead of entering dungeons, then killed newcomers as they entered.

There had been villains much like them in the main story of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint.

I hid Yuseong behind me and activated the fable of the Dragon-Head Beggars' Sect leader.

[The fable Persistent Martial Arts Master stammers through its story.]

As the martial arts master's senses sharpened and spread out, the presence of enemies hidden among the corpses reached me vividly.

There were more than twenty of them.

That was enough people to call a group.

"Hm? That little brat."

A few of them seemed to recognize Yuseong and began whispering to one another.

I asked Yuseong in a quiet voice, "Do you know them?"

"Yes."

A small tremor passed through Yuseong as she clutched my sleeve.

The moment I read the child's expression, a possibility crossed my mind.

Fragments of the enemies' conversation reached me through the martial arts master's senses.

"That's the kid from back then, right?"

"She passed that dungeon alone?"

"I told you. Kids these days are more vicious."

I see.

They were the adults from the Alliance who had tried to bring Yuseong into their group.

One of the assassins watching us put away his dagger and stepped forward.

"Wait a moment. It seems there has been a misunderstanding on our side."

A misunderstanding. They threw knives at us without warning, and now it was a misunderstanding?

I thought he was shameless, but that thought vanished the moment I saw his face.

Not because I knew him.

It was because he had narrow eyes.

"An interesting misunderstanding."

What he hadn't expected was that I had narrow eyes, too.

When I calmly rose to my feet, his eyes narrowed further.

[Someone has used Peeking on you!]

Peeking again.

Too bad, but that skill wouldn't work on me now.

It had always been a skill that could be defended against, but now it would be impossible to cast at all.

Because...

[Peeking has failed!]

[Your Status is overwhelmingly higher than the caster's!]

[Peeking] can't be used when the target's Status overwhelmingly exceeds that of the caster.

"What..."

He was probably flustered.

His overall stats looked respectable enough.

But he was mistaken about something.

It wasn't overall stats that determined one's Status in the Star Stream.

An ordinary Incarnation couldn't compare to me in Status now that I had secured a fable.

Of course, that didn't mean I would hold an overwhelming advantage in a direct confrontation.

"Do you... have a group?"

"I do."

"Yet you came here alone despite having a group?"

"I'm confident in my abilities."

That was why I needed to be more forceful here.

A few assassins recoiled at my momentum and began exchanging opinions.

They seemed to think they were whispering, but after activating the Dragon-Head Beggars' Sect leader's fable, I could hear everything.

"If he came through with that brat, there's a high chance he's from a solo dungeon. Even Peeking couldn't reveal his abilities."

"Solo dungeons are harder."

"He's worth bringing into our side."

The assassins quickly reached an agreement, and their leader nodded.

"We respect the strong. Leave your current group and join ours."

Yuseong's words came back to me. The Alliance valued strength above all else.

"We'll accept both you and that child. You two seem to have become quite close."

He spoke as if he were doing us a favor.

It was interesting that he didn't look intimidated even after realizing I was strong.

Let's find out where that confidence came from.

[Exclusive Skill, Character Profile, has activated!]

At least he wasn't a reader.

+

Name: Wi Junghun

Age: 35

Patron: Legendary Assassin

Exclusive Attribute: Assassin (General)

Exclusive Skills: [Sneak Attack Lv.3], [Prayer Concealment Lv.3], [Weapon Mastery Lv.2], [Peeking Lv.3]...

Stigmas: [One-Point Kill Lv.1], [Silver Screen Bullet Lv.2], [Shadow Stealth Lv.2]

Overall Stats: [Constitution Lv.20], [Strength Lv.25], [Agility Lv.25], [Mana Lv.21]

Overall Evaluation: An Incarnation under the Alliance. He serves as the Alliance's field commander.

+

The narrow-eyed man was a character I had never seen before. He was probably one of the extras from TWSA.

His Patron was... Legendary Assassin.

It was a Constellation that had never appeared in Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint.

[Exclusive Skill, TWSA, has activated!]

But what about TWSA?

「Legendary Assassin. The modifier sounds grand, but there isn't a Constellation among those who became Constellations that doesn't have a legend. In other words, an ordinary Historical Constellation.」

It was the answer I expected.

「A Patron that commonly attaches itself to assassins. Like the Monarch of the Small Fries, it distributes patron selection to random Incarnations, then recruits them as assassins. It also lends grown Incarnations to other Constellations as mercenaries.」

I had a rough idea of what kind of Patron it was.

"I'm sorry, but I have no intention of joining your group."

"Even though we're the group of one of the Seven Kings of Seoul? You've heard of the Alliance, haven't you?"

"I've heard of it. The group with the Tyrant King."

The man frowned slightly at the name Tyrant King.

"We serve under the Assassin King."

The Assassin King?

There was no King by that name among the Seven Kings of Seoul I knew.

"It seems you don't understand what a great opportunity this is... At this point, there is no force larger than ours."

I didn't know who the Assassin King was, but it wasn't normal for the Alliance to have several people on the level of the Seven Kings of Seoul.

If this went wrong, a huge war could break out.

"Think carefully once more. If you want to survive in the new world, joining our Alliance is your best option. Someone as capable as you could rise to a high position."

It seemed the narrow-eyed man's confidence came not from his Patron, but from the Alliance itself.

I nodded indifferently.

"I've thought about it enough, and I won't serve under you. I don't intend to fight, so withdraw your men."

I meant half of it.

The exhaustion from passing through the Field of Nagak remained, and even for me, it wouldn't be easy to subdue twenty assassins without a single injury while protecting Yuseong.

More than anything, I didn't want to kill people if I could avoid it.

There were limits to controlling myself with [Incitement]. No matter the reason, killing people was never a pleasant experience.

Only now did I understand that Kim Dokja at the beginning of the story hadn't chosen no killing solely to obtain The King of No Killing.

Even if they faced the same tragedy, someone who discarded their humanity from the start and someone who resisted to protect it until the end would ultimately become entirely different beings.

Unfortunately, the assassin before me was closer to the former.

"Then you'll die here."

I smiled with my eyes half-closed.

"No social negotiations? We're members of society, aren't we?"

"Society has already collapsed."

I didn't know who controlled the Alliance, but their ideology seemed strangely similar to Kim Namwoon's.

"I'm still a member of society."

"Then die as one."

That wouldn't do.

I began calculating quickly.

Should I use [Incitement]?

Or should I start by taking that bastard out with the Blade of Faith?

Just as I was about to quietly put the strategy I had formed in my head into action, Yuseong tugged at my sleeve.

"Mister."

Golden light rippled in Yuseong's eyes. My head throbbed, and a strange sensation passed through my mind.

I felt like something similar had happened before.

"I'll just finish this."

Why was it?

At that moment, Yuseong didn't seem like the Yuseong I knew at all. She seemed like an entirely different person.

"Finish this... how?"

"I mean..."

A thunderous noise rang out from deeper inside the waiting room at that moment.

"Move!"

The waiting room door opened in the distance, and a crowd poured through it.

"What..."

Whoooosh!

The heads of two assassins burst apart.

The stunned assassins screamed.

"W-what is this?"

Whenever the sound of wind cut through the air, the number of assassins steadily decreased.

The terrified assassins backed toward the wall and shouted at the top of their lungs.

"Who is it? Who dares?"

A group emerged through the blood spraying after them.

A huge man led the group.

A metal pipe giving off a brilliant light rested on his shoulder. At a glance, it was an item comparable to S-grade.

"It's the Gangster King!"

Gangster King?

No matter how hard I searched my memories, there wasn't a King with that nickname.

Which meant...

「A person who didn't appear in the main story of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint.」

I watched the situation tensely. On closer inspection, blood was flying on the group's right side as well.

Four kitchen knives moved in zigzags, cutting through the air.

"Aaargh! It's the Heartless Mother and Daughter!"

Heartless Mother and Daughter. That was another nickname I had never heard before.

A dazzling knife technique wielded by a mother and daughter, each holding a pair of kitchen knives.

It was chilling even from a distance.

But...

Their appearances and clothing were familiar.

"It's the Inho Faction! The Inho Faction has returned!"

The Inho Faction?

"Aaaaargh!"

Several terrified assassins fled into the dungeon screaming, only to have their throats cut.

Fewer than five assassins remained in the waiting room now.

The narrow-eyed man who had threatened me earlier growled.

"Gangster King! We're the Alliance. Do you think you'll get away with this?"

"If all of you die, who'll know what I did?"

"T-there are people who saw us being attacked."

At that, the Gangster King's companions looked around the edge of the waiting room.

Several Incarnations sat by a campfire, watching the situation unfold.

"Will you say anything?"

The Incarnations shook their heads in unison at the Gangster King's question.

"We didn't see anything."

"Y-you bastards..."

Before the flustered assassin could say anything more, the metal pipe shattered his head.

The Gangster King spat as he watched the assassin collapse limply.

"Bah. Rotten bastards."

"Looks like they were bullying newcomers again."

"Alliance trash always does the same thing."

Honestly, I was surprised. The Alliance was supposed to be the strongest force at this point.

Yet there was a rebellious group willing to provoke the Alliance despite being just one force?

The Gangster King spotted us and swaggered over.

"Hey, are you all right?"

The man's blood-soaked hair had been roughly slicked back. When I saw him up close, a hollow laugh escaped me.

No wonder. Was that why they were called the Inho Faction?

"Huh?"

The Gangster King came close enough to reach me, then opened his eyes wide.

My guess that he hadn't appeared in the main story of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint had been wrong.

That was because I already knew him.

He had changed the Scenario, yet he wasn't a reader or part of the Readers' Association.

In the main story of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, he had died miserably, not as a King, but as a mere extra villain and grunt.

"Hyung?"

I nodded.

"Bang Cheolsu."

The field commander of Geumho Station.

[The Constellation Monarch of the Small Fries warmly greets you.]

People who recognized me ran over happily.

The Incarnations of Geumho Station, including Dayeong and Dayeong's mother.

In the main story, they had only cared about their own safety and killed one another. Now they had formed a group and were helping the weak.

Once again, I realized this story wasn't the Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint I knew.

[A new disappearance has been recorded in the Final Wall.]

Yuseong, standing beside me, blankly watched the same scene.

"Hyung! Uwaaaah! You're alive!"

"Uncle Inho!"

As I pushed away Cheolsu, who was grabbing me and shouting, and saw Dayeong and her mother waving at me, I found myself thinking again about what a story was.

"Do you know how long we've been looking for you?"

I no longer believed, as my parents had said, that stories could preserve world peace.

No matter how many entertaining stories there were in the world, people would still start wars and hate someone.

Even so, the reason I continued telling stories was...

[The Constellation Demonic Judge of Fire nods.]

[The Constellation Prisoner of the Golden Headband says stories like this aren't so bad sometimes.]

[The Constellation Abyssal Black Flame Dragon agrees with a twitch of his lips.]

Because at least someone would read those stories and change.

[The disappearance you recorded has borne a small fruit.]

[You have acquired a new Attribute!]

Footnotes:

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