WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 653: Episode 19: Person from Long Ago (5)
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Finally, a new Attribute?
[You have acquired a Legendary-grade Attribute!]
It was even a Legendary-grade Attribute.
I muttered "Attributes Window" to myself.
[The Attributes Window cannot be activated due to a current system error.]
Only then did I remember that, like Kim Dokja, my access to the Attributes Window was restricted.
Damn it, at this rate, I wouldn't even know what I had acquired...
[You have acquired the Attribute Record Mender!]
This time, however, the name of the Attribute I had acquired immediately came to mind.
"Record Mender."
It was an Attribute I had never seen before.
[The Attribute Record Mender has activated!]
[Record Mender is affected by the disappearance you acquired.]
[Record Mender has begun mending your vanished records.]
It would mend my vanished records?
[Record mending will be completed in 1 hour and 30 minutes.]
I didn't know what that meant, but something would apparently change in an hour and a half.
[Someone has noticed the birth of a new Record Mender.]
[The Recorders of Fear have recognized your existence.]
A suspicious message followed.
As far as I knew, "Recorders of Fear" was a collective term for writers who left records about Outer Gods.
But what did it mean for them to recognize me?
There was far too little information to know that yet.
All I knew now was that the people of Geumho Station, who had died in the third round, had survived here.
"Inho! You're alive!"
"Kuh! Hyung!"
Shin Yuseong, the golden light fading from her eyes, asked me,
"Are they people you know?"
I nodded lightly.
More importantly, Bang Cheolsu had been clinging to me for disgustingly long.
I lightly smacked the back of his head as he buried his face in my shoulder.
[The Constellation Monarch of the Small Fries has sponsored 100 Coins.]
Still the same.
* * *
Perhaps he had a lot to say after everything that had happened. Cheolsu grabbed hold of me and chattered on about it all.
"The tunnel suddenly collapsed, so we couldn't get to Chungmuro, where you were. Whew, I really thought I was going to die then..."
A tunnel collapse, followed by sudden Scenario changes.
From what I heard, they had gone through quite a lot.
In a round with this many variables, it was almost admirable that they had survived.
As I listened to Cheolsu, I watched the Geumho Station people looking this way from afar.
The first ones I noticed were the mother and daughter known as the Heartless Mother and Daughter, Dayeong and her mother.
In the third round, Dayeong's mother had struggled to save her daughter, only to become nourishment for Paradise. Could she protect Dayeong in this round?
"What's your total ability score?"
"I'm not telling you."
"Must be lower than mine."
Dayeong and Yuseong were chattering away as well.
When I turned back, Cheolsu was still giving his long-winded speech, talking about what the first joint monster hunt had been like and how strange it felt to watch people gradually come together...
[The Constellation Monarch of the Small Fries wants you to keep spending time with his Incarnation.]
I looked at the flag tucked into his waistband and spoke.
"Bang Cheolsu."
"Yes?"
"You became a king."
Cheolsu's mouth fell slightly open. Then he lowered his head with an embarrassed smile.
"I-I'll hand this flag over to you, hyung. I was holding onto it to give it to you anyway."
I looked down at the flag he suddenly held out.
Its color was lighter than mine, but it was a purple flag.
If I took that flag, I would immediately fulfill the black flag requirement.
Then I could complete the King's Path Scenario and officially receive the King Attribute.
Naturally, that would be the easier path.
But.
"I don't need it."
"What?"
[The Constellation Abyssal Black Flame Dragon demands to know why you won't accept something given for free.]
[The Constellation Demonic Judge of Fire nods at your judgment.]
[The Constellation Naval Warfare God admires your camaraderie.]
[You have received 500 Coins.]
I couldn't bring myself to take that flag from him.
Maybe it was because Dayeong, her mother, and the others were watching from afar.
I wanted to watch Cheolsu's and these people's stories a little longer.
"It's yours."
"Hy-hyung."
Cheolsu looked up at me, his eyes brimming with tears.
[The Constellation Monarch of the Small Fries is moved by your noir spirit.]
[You have received 500 Coins.]
Before the atmosphere could get too serious, I quickly waved my hands.
"More importantly, I'd like to hear about the dungeon now."
* * *
Thirty minutes later, I stood at the entrance to the dungeon.
[Would you like to enter the Labyrinth?]
As expected, even the entry notification sounded different from the main story.
"There really are Star Gems inside, right?"
Cheolsu nodded at my question.
"Yes. I'm sure of it. I've seen people who gathered Star Gems."
"The Seven Kings of Seoul."
"Huh, you knew?"
Even in the main story, only the Seven Kings of Seoul had acquired Star Gems here.
"Even you should avoid the Seven Kings if you run into them, hyung. Those guys aren't ordinary."
"I suppose not. They're kings, after all."
This round was the forty-first, not the third. That meant the Seven Kings' level could differ from the ones I knew from ORV.
Still, whether the ones inside were the Seven Kings or the Readers' Association, I had to enter if I could gather Star Gems.
They were essential materials for summoning the Four-Tiger Evil-Cutting Sword.
"Hyung, can't you really wait? In just three hours, we'll be able to enter again."
"Three hours is too long. See you later."
It seemed this dungeon imposed a waiting time before re-entry if you left once.
It would have been nice to wait for the Geumho Station Group and enter together, but I didn't have that kind of time now.
The readers and Uncle Dansu were surely inside that dungeon too.
"I'm ready, Mister."
And I wasn't going alone.
"Are you really sure?"
"Yes. I want to go too."
Yuseong glanced back as she spoke.
About ten steps away, Dayeong waved with a kitchen knife in one hand.
"If I get stronger, I won't be scared even when I meet scary adults."
Yuseong held a small dagger as she said that.
Children who had to hold blades to survive. Perhaps the world reflected in their eyes looked quite different from the one I and the other adults saw.
"There are ways to meet good adults too."
"Good adults die quickly."
As I heard those strangely familiar words, a headache rose again from deep within my mind.
I lightly rubbed my temple and advised her.
"If it seems dangerous, escape right away. You understand?"
"Yes!"
It hurt my heart, but it was also true that Yuseong's help was essential if I wanted to clear the Final Chapter of the Scenario.
"Be careful, hyung!"
Leaving the Geumho Station group behind as they all bowed their heads, Yuseong and I entered the Labyrinth.
[You have entered the Star Labyrinth.]
The moment we opened the door, a pitch-black corridor that reminded me of an underground prison appeared.
Fortunately, there didn't seem to be any newcomer hunters like before.
I kept watch in all directions as I examined our surroundings when system messages arrived in quick succession.
[A new Sub Scenario has arrived!]
+
<Sub Scenario - Star Labyrinth>
Category: Sub
Difficulty: A++
Clear Conditions: Explore the Star Labyrinth and acquire the hidden Star Gem.
Time Limit: ―
Compensation: 3,000 Coins
Failure: This Scenario has no failure penalty.
* This Scenario has special rules.
+
I immediately checked the special rules.
+
1. A Labyrinth Keeper appears in this Labyrinth.
+
A keeper.
Was there a monster like a minotaur inside?
+
2. Every 3 hours, the Labyrinth undergoes Rearrangement. During Rearrangement, the entire Labyrinth is engulfed in flames and its internal structure changes.
3. During Rearrangement, you can avoid the flames by entering a nearby safe zone. Upon entering a safe zone, you may choose to escape the Labyrinth.
+
A time limit and even safe zones.
They were rules I had expected to some extent.
[1 hour and 54 minutes remain until the Labyrinth's Rearrangement.]
[Find a safe zone.]
It was troublesome, but the pattern itself wasn't difficult.
As long as we found a safe zone within the time limit, we could survive.
The issue was how many more rules there would be.
+
4. All Incarnations who enter the Labyrinth are given a Dust Man.
+
Something resembling a small clump of dust appeared in the air above my head.
The dust clump with tiny eyes looked around in every direction, then opened its little mouth and made a sound.
Star, star, star.
It circled above my head once, then began devouring the glittering specks scattered across the floor like gold dust.
[Your Dust Man has acquired 1 stardust.]
"Wow, Mister! Look at this!"
A small Dust Man had already appeared beside Yuseong as well.
Making little star sounds as it spun around us, the Dust Man greedily opened its mouth whenever it spotted glittering gold dust on the floor.
[Your Dust Man has acquired 1 stardust!]
Watching that scene, Yuseong suddenly spoke as if she had thought of something.
"Mister, could these things possibly...?"
I nodded as well.
+
5. When a Dust Man acquires a certain amount of stardust, it produces a Star Gem.
+
The rule appeared as if it had been waiting.
The goal of this dungeon was to raise a Dust Man and obtain Star Gems.
+
6. Dust Men in the same group can be combined through [Fusion].
+
"Mister, it says they can combine."
"Should we try it?"
"They're cute... One of them won't die or anything, right?"
We were in the same group anyway.
There was no need to reduce efficiency by raising several Dust Men.
"Ah!"
When I selected [Fusion], my Dust Man opened its mouth wide and devoured Yuseong's Dust Man.
[You have absorbed the Dust Man of Incarnation Shin Yuseong.]
[The Dust Man of the Seoul Station Group has grown.]
Perhaps because the two Dust Men had combined, it gathered stardust much faster than before.
Yuseong, who had looked a little disappointed, quickly recovered.
"Let's keep moving."
We continued exploring the Labyrinth, calmly keeping watch in all directions.
Traces of brutal battles remained everywhere we walked.
Corpses stained with dreadful killing intent like blotches.
Near them, bits of stardust they had acquired in life lay scattered across the ground.
[The Constellation Abyssal Black Flame Dragon says this is finally getting interesting.]
[Some Constellations are looking forward to your performance.]
Silently, we collected the stardust as if gathering their remains.
Why did these people have to come all the way here and die?
Most of them probably didn't even know what the Four-Tiger Evil-Cutting Sword was.
[Some Constellations click their tongues.]
No, perhaps I knew why they died. They died to become a story.
"Good adults really do die quickly."
Yuseong, walking beside me, stared down at a dead woman's face.
I stopped beside her and looked down at the woman too.
"Did you know her?"
"She was someone who tried to stop me when I was going to enter a solo dungeon."
An unfamiliar face.
I didn't know who this person was.
I probably never would.
Instead, I placed a hand on Yuseong's shoulder as she stood there blankly.
"Yuseong."
"Yes."
"Are you all right?"
After hesitating for a moment, Yuseong nodded.
"People died all the time even before the Scenarios."
Yuseong was right.
People died before the Scenarios began too.
People killed people.
They killed each other, then chatted over drinks about those deaths. It was a world where that was acceptable, so back then I thought it was nothing special.
"Do you have a religion, Mister?"
"No."
"Me neither."
In a world where every god could theoretically exist as a Constellation, it wouldn't have been strange to follow some religion.
"Do people have souls?"
"Probably."
"Then where do souls go when they die?"
"To the afterlife, I suppose."
"Are there Scenarios there?"
"There could be."
"Then dying wouldn't be any different from here."
"In a sense."
Yuseong stared up at me.
"Don't die, Mister."
I nodded.
"You too, Yuseong."
Silently, we prayed for the woman's soul.
The ash drifting across the floor almost looked like the woman's soul scattering away.
[The stardust acquired by the Dust Man has exceeded 100!]
[Constitution has increased by 1 within the Star Labyrinth only.]
We encountered other Incarnations several times, but they ran away in fear the moment they saw my Blade of Faith.
Since it was a day when I didn't want to kill anyone, I was secretly relieved.
[Stardust acquired so far: 302]
Before I knew it, our stardust had exceeded 300.
Yuseong spoke.
"Mister, at this rate..."
"Don't say it's going smoothly."
"What?"
That was when the Dust Man in the air stopped.
Star? Star? Star?
[There is almost no stardust remaining in the Star Labyrinth.]
Of course.
I had thought it was about time.
There was no way a Scenario I knew would go this smoothly.
[To acquire new stardust, hunt other Incarnations.]
This Labyrinth was a stage created to drive Incarnations into a desperate battle.
Until seven Star Gems were gathered, we would have to keep repeating a war of killing and being killed.
But I had no way of knowing how many Incarnations I would have to kill before the Scenario ended.
That was when additional rules appeared.
+
7. Incarnations who acquire a Star Gem experience a dramatic rise in total ability scores.
8. Each time you acquire 1 Star Gem, your berserk level increases.
+
...Berserk?
Star! Star! Star!
Suddenly, the Dust Man above my head began shaking wildly.
[There is an Incarnation nearby who possesses a Star Gem.]
"Mister."
I nodded.
The presence of people rapidly approaching.
Even from the faint vibrations in the floor, I could tell clearly.
「One of the Seven Kings of Seoul is nearby.」
Footnotes:
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