WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 657: Episode 19: Person from Long Ago (9)

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[Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint] was Kim Dokja's main skill, an absurdly powerful skill that gained new abilities according to its user's understanding of a "character."

Level 1 allowed its user to read a character's basic actions and emotions.

Level 2 allowed its user to hear a character's inner thoughts.

Finally, Level 3 allowed its user to share a character's surrounding field of vision or directly immerse themselves in the character.

No matter how I looked at it, it was definitely [Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint].

My question was this.

「Why was this skill activated by the Record Mender's repair?」

There was no way Inho Cheon had possessed [Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint] from the beginning. If he had, the main story of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint would have changed. Perhaps the answer had been obvious all along.

「This is a skill that activated during the process of repairing my "record."」

When I thought about it, it wasn't entirely absurd.

Just as Uncle Dansu and the other readers had "Kim Dokja fragments," perhaps I had one too.

In a sense, a "Writer" was also a "Reader" of their own writing.

If I had somehow acquired a Kim Dokja fragment that had learned [Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint]...

But why me of all people?

Enough. I shouldn't dwell on complicated thoughts.

For now, I needed to think about how to use this skill.

"Yuseong-yang."

I called Shin Yuseong, who was beside me.

As I remembered it, [Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint] had three conditions for use.

First, the target had to be a "character."

Second, my "understanding" of the target had to reach a certain level.

Third, the target and I had to be thinking about each other at the same time.

If I spoke to Yuseong now, there was a good chance all three conditions would be fulfilled at once.

Yuseong's small eyes rolled as she looked up at me.

But why?

No matter how long I waited, [Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint] didn't activate.

Was my understanding insufficient?

Then some kind of message should have appeared.

Or was Yuseong not thinking about me right now?

Yuseong, who had been staring at me, spoke first.

"You called me something else earlier."

"Something else?"

A memory came back to me.

「Get down, Shin Yuseong.」

When I used [Incitement] to make myself Yu Junghyeok earlier, I had definitely said that to Yuseong.

I hadn't done it on purpose.

At the time, I truly believed I was Yu Junghyeok.

That was the kind of skill [Incitement] was.

"You didn't speak formally either."

"That's... I'm sorry. It's a side effect of the skill."

"You can just call me casually."

Hearing the anticipation in the child's voice, I didn't know what to say for a moment.

"I'll try."

"Really?"

It was only a matter of not speaking formally.

Calling the child simply by her name.

It should have been such a simple thing, yet it was strangely difficult for me.

I knew why. Looking at Yuseong before me brought back too many memories.

Shin Yuseong of the forty-first round.

To me, she was the "Shin Yuseong" who had wandered through the Labyrinth of the Wordlines for thousands of years, descended as the Calamity of Floods, then reincarnated as a dokkaebi.

What I was seeing was a grand tragedy that had not yet come for this child.

Maybe I still wasn't ready to properly face the Yuseong of the present.

"Have you found a way?"

Literary Girl 64 spoke to me.

"Not yet, Yerin-ssi."

It had been a while since I called her by her real name.

Literary Girl 64, Cha Yerin, was the only reader here whose real name I knew.

She was the person who had read the books written by "Lee Hak-hyeon."

Although she didn't know I was Lee Hak-hyeon, I still felt strangely close to her whenever I looked at her.

Yuseong tugged on my sleeve and asked,

"Is she your friend, Mister?"

"Yes."

"Are you close?"

Why did Yuseong ask that about everyone she saw?

Maybe it was because she was naturally wary.

"Yeah. We're close."

The answer came not from me, but from Literary Girl 64.

Yuseong looked up at Literary Girl 64 with an odd expression, while Literary Girl 64 looked down at Yuseong with an unreadable gaze.

Literary Girl 64 spoke again.

"Both of us like books."

"Books?"

Yuseong's golden eyes blinked fiercely.

Literary Girl 64's expression stiffened. Then, the next moment.

「That's strange.」

For an instant, my ear tingled, and a soft voice reached me.

「Shin Yuseong of the third round didn't have golden eyes. The forty-first round would be the same. That means this Shin Yuseong is...」

"Yerin-ssi?"

"Yes."

[Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint has been released.]

The voice I had been hearing stopped when Literary Girl 64 looked at me.

There was no doubt about it.

What I had just heard was Literary Girl 64's inner thought.

But how was that possible?

「Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint is a skill that can only be used on "characters."」

Yet Literary Girl 64 wasn't a character. She was a "Reader."

A chilling realization immediately formed into a clear sentence.

「What if this [Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint] can also be used on "Readers"?」

I immediately turned to Killer King. Killer King was looking at me too.

[The Exclusive Skill Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint Level 2 has activated!]

Then, as if it had been waiting, a voice reached me.

「Right now, Inho Cheon is closer to "Kim Dokja" than any of the Apostles.」

Hm?

「Does that mean if I get rid of that bastard, this body will become Yu Junghyeok's closest companion?」

「No. I could hand Kim Dokja's place over to that bastard, then this body could take on Yu Junghyeok's role...」

The ridiculous fantasies continued, so they were definitely Killer King's inner thoughts.

Next, I thought of Uncle Dansu.

But I couldn't hear Uncle Dansu's inner thoughts.

Maybe he was too far away, or maybe he wasn't thinking about me.

「If I can make Uncle Dansu think about me.」

If I could, wouldn't it be possible to estimate his location in the labyrinth?

I immediately reached into my clothes and took out an item.

"Horn of Provocation."

It was loot I had obtained after killing the Ancient Nagak.

If I used this item, I could broadcast my voice throughout the labyrinth.

If Uncle Dansu heard my voice, wouldn't he think of me, even for an instant?

It was a gamble worth trying.

The problem was what to do if Uncle Dansu was farther away than expected and Level 2 of [Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint] didn't activate.

"Yerin-ssi."

"Yes."

"You know that Iron Fist you used before?"

"Iron Fist."

The question mark was omitted from her words.

Killer King, who had been imitating Yu Junghyeok while polishing a sword beside us, said,

"It seems you mean the Secret Technique Dark Spinning Breaker."

That did sound like its name.

Anyway.

"Use it on me now."

If Level 2 didn't work, then I would use Level 3.

* * *

In the darkness, a man thought.

「Who was I again?」

The man was thinking about himself.

Who was I?

He thought it was a very philosophical question.

No human being knew who they were. They were only called something from the moment they were born.

He thought deeply about what he had been called.

「Lee Dansu.」

Right.

He had been called Lee Dansu.

That was his name.

「No.」

No, that wasn't actually his name.

It was someone else's name.

The name of the person who had once owned this body.

He was only borrowing that name.

Then what was his name?

His name was...

"No Jiyoon. No Jiyoon."

Memories surfaced one by one at the voice that flowed from his mouth.

"I'm looking for someone. Looking for someone."

Right. He was looking for No Jiyoon.

No Jiyoon's father.

「No Gyeonghwan.」

That was his real name.

「My father gave me that name so I would live cautiously, wary of even small misfortunes. Thanks to the name my father gave me, I somehow lived well without any great troubles.」

Thinking back, No Gyeonghwan's life had been smooth and peaceful.

It had been that way since childhood.

Gyeonghwan had been born with a handsome face by anyone's standards.

He had never caught the flu everyone else seemed to get, did well in school, and had good relationships with his peers.

By luck, he got in off the waiting list at a prestigious university. Even in the military, the random draw worked in his favor and he was assigned somewhere easy.

With the housing savings account he had been building since childhood, he bought a small but cozy home. Then, as if it were fate, he met a beautiful and wise wife.

Their daughter was also incredibly lovely.

His life had been so fortunate that Gyeonghwan sometimes wondered if he was borrowing someone else's luck.

Was he happy in this world because someone in a distant world he didn't know was unhappy?

Gyeonghwan often imagined someone who might have become unhappy because of him, and on every trip home from work, he sang a short song for that person.

His wife liked those songs.

Then one day, misfortune came for him too.

Maybe it wasn't anything extraordinary. It was the kind of tragedy that could happen to anyone. It had simply come for him too.

「My wife died.」

The problem was the cause of death.

If it had been a traffic accident or a heart attack, he might have understood, difficult as it would have been. He might have sent his beloved wife away while crying in resentment, telling himself she had simply been unlucky.

But what killed his wife was...

「"This is the stone."」

A stone.

A very small stone, small enough for even a child to hold.

「"They say it fell from the sky. There was a meteor warning the day before, but it's a strange thing. Our country wasn't even in the warning zone..."」

It was a meteorite that had flown from beyond the universe.

A small meteorite that had pierced through the darkness of hundreds of thousands of light-years and endured the heat of the atmosphere.

His wife had been struck by that stone. It pierced through her body, killing her instantly.

「"It was a disaster. All I can say is that it was terribly unfortunate..."」

Could that really be explained as "bad luck"?

Gyeonghwan couldn't understand.

He suddenly thought of that unfortunate "someone" who might be somewhere beyond the universe.

Was this really a disaster?

Had someone in the distant universe, envious of his happiness, thrown a stone at him?

「From then on, No Gyeonghwan often looked up at the sky.」

He thought about the unprecedented malice that had come from beyond the sky.

His father had been right.

He had to be wary of even small misfortunes.

Even now, he had to live in a way worthy of his name.

From then on, Gyeonghwan lived for his daughter's survival.

He personally took his young daughter to school. Afraid that he too might die or leave her because of a sudden accident, he wrote a will for her.

He always kept his daughter close and stopped any danger from approaching her.

His young daughter loved and understood Gyeonghwan.

Then, after understanding him too well, she began to hate him.

「"Can't you stop already?"」

At some point, his daughter stopped eating properly.

She stopped going to school too.

That was all right.

She could study later.

At least home was safe.

If she stayed home, she wouldn't be struck and killed by a meteorite that suddenly fell from the sky.

But Gyeonghwan didn't know that one could be struck by a meteorite even at home.

「"Yu Junghyeok."」

It was a name like a strange meteorite that had flown in from somewhere unknown.

「"I'm going to marry Yu Junghyeok."」

* * *

[Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint has been released!]

I sprang up with a wave of nausea.

The timer floating in the air showed that I had only been unconscious for around ten minutes.

Killer King supported me and asked,

"Did you find him?"

"I did."

"How?"

It worked.

[Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint] had really activated.

A moment ago, I had definitely become Uncle Dansu and glimpsed his memories.

After explaining Uncle Dansu's rough location to Killer King and Literary Girl 64, I said,

"We don't have time to explain in detail. I used the Horn of Provocation earlier, so the enemies have probably noticed us too."

Restless movements could be felt throughout the dungeon.

Some of those footsteps definitely belonged to the Readers' Association.

"We need to find Uncle first."

There was only one way to do that.

I vomited blood and looked at Literary Girl 64 again.

"Hit me one more time. This time, hard enough to really kill me."

Footnotes:

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