WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 658: Episode 19: Person from Long Ago (10)
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「"I'm going to marry Yu Junghyeok."」
After losing his daughter to some fictional character, No Gyeonghwan's life changed.
He had no energy to get angry or grieve. He merely accepted in silence that a single meteorite, which had flown in for no reason, had destroyed his entire life.
And the most tragic thing about life was that it didn't end easily, even after it had been destroyed.
No Gyeonghwan endured life.
Somehow, he lived through each day and ate. He worked and received his pay.
If he endured today, tomorrow would come.
If life was a book, the next chapter would arrive someday.
But not every book had a complete structure of introduction, development, twist, and conclusion.
Just like his wife, who had been struck and killed by a meteorite.
「"It's cancer."」
He had gone for a health checkup without much thought. Gyeonghwan thought he had misheard and asked several times.
「"It's cancer."」
It was far more plausible than a meteorite, but no easier to accept.
「"Cases like this do happen. Some people hardly notice any warning signs. Haven't you been especially tired lately?"」
He wondered if there was anyone who wasn't tired all the time, but after hearing the doctor's words, he realized he had been more tired than usual lately.
「"You should prepare yourself."」
How was one supposed to prepare oneself?
I'm going to die soon.
Was accepting that fact what it meant to prepare oneself?
"I won't kill you. I won't kill you."
If he prepared himself for that, what would happen to his daughter?
"No Jiyoon. No Jiyoon."
He didn't know.
Where had things gone wrong?
Why did misfortune after misfortune keep befalling him alone?
"I'm looking for someone."
It was a meaningless question.
He knew that too.
This was the life of an ordinary human being.
"Uncle! Uncle Dansu!"
Since no one cared about his life, there was naturally no one to point out its Plausibility.
[The Constellation Secretive Plotter gazes at its Incarnation.]
Gyeonghwan didn't tell his daughter about his illness.
Instead, he spoke less and less, like someone trying to hide his own life.
His daughter also spent more time talking by herself in her room. More accurately, she wasn't talking to herself, but to friends on the internet.
He was glad that his daughter, who had always been alone, had found a way to communicate with others. At the same time, he worried she might be keeping company with bad people.
Still, he couldn't interfere with what happened inside her room.
All he could do was prepare her meals and cautiously ask questions he normally wouldn't have asked.
「"When are you going back to school?"」
Jiyoon had stuck out her lips in a sulk.
「"You said I didn't have to go before."」
Had his way been right?
Had he raised his daughter properly?
Had he tried to prepare for an apocalypse that would never come, only to destroy his daughter's life instead?
Looking at the half-eaten sandwich Jiyoon had left behind, Gyeonghwan suddenly thought of that.
「Perhaps the meteorite that had ruined his daughter's life was himself.」
That was around the time he secretly began reading the novel his daughter had been reading.
Before he died, he wanted to understand his daughter, even a little. He was also curious about what kind of person this Yu Junghyeok she liked was.
「There are three ways to survive in a ruined world.」
Gyeonghwan read the first sentence again and again. Then he lingered over the next paragraph for quite some time.
「I've forgotten some of them now. But one thing is certain. You, who are reading this, will survive.」
Perhaps his daughter had begun reading this story because she wanted to live too.
With that thought, Gyeonghwan began reading again after a long time.
But having become something of a "person from long ago," he found the novel quite perplexing.
「Kim Dokja (the sole reader). My father gave me that name because he wanted me to grow up strong even on my own.」
Kim Dokja.
He was the novel's protagonist.
Even to someone who wasn't deeply versed in literature, it felt like a name with rather forced symbolism.
「"I believe everyone has roughly figured out what's going on, even if no one's said it out loud. Attributes Window, Exclusive Skill, a game-like interface. Is there anyone who still doesn't get it?"」
The protagonist spoke of things he didn't know. System windows. Game systems. Regression, reincarnation, Possession...
Ridiculous, absurd concepts.
Did kids these days like this sort of thing?
As he scrolled down, familiar stories occasionally appeared.
The Three Kingdoms period and the Later Three Kingdoms period. Gung Ye and Gyeon Hwon. Kim Yushin and Yi Sun-sin.
He wondered if this wasn't a distortion of history, but familiar stories made him oddly excited, and he turned the page.
When Olympus mythology or Journey to the West appeared, he wondered if it was a fairly educational novel. Whenever complicated settings or worldbuilding came up, he wondered whether Jiyoon understood all of it.
When brutal descriptions of the apocalypse appeared, he nearly left a brief comment out of concern, but stopped himself.
As he read, one line became a page, and one page became an episode. Two episodes, three episodes, four episodes. He read the story.
Stories had a strange power.
The protagonist had no connection or common ground with him whatsoever. Yet while reading, Gyeonghwan felt connected to him.
He became Dokja, cleared Scenarios, ventured through the world, and accumulated fables.
He gradually began to understand why his daughter liked Yu Junghyeok.
「Perhaps Jiyoon wanted to go back.」
Even if it meant regressing hundreds or thousands of times and reliving tragedy again and again.
Even if it meant destroying this world for a single person.
「She must have wanted to get her mother back.」
Now Jiyoon would be alone.
What sort of fable could he leave his daughter?
「"Dad."」
What kind of story would the human No Gyeonghwan be recorded as for his only daughter?
「"Can you give me a ride?"」
Jiyoon said she had somewhere to go with an internet friend.
After dropping his daughter off in front of a theater in Chungmuro, Gyeonghwan headed to the hospital. It was the day of his checkup.
He remembered arriving safely at the hospital and going to the reception desk. But his memories after that were scattered.
Collapsing in dizziness. A gentleman in a fedora supporting him. And...
Thinking that this was the end.
If only he had a little more time.
If only he could talk to his daughter one last time.
If only he could tell her that he had read the story she liked too.
「There are three ways to survive in a ruined world.」
As his consciousness kept fading, Gyeonghwan recalled the novel's first sentence, then its final sentence, and prayed.
「This is a story for just one reader.」
If this really was a story for me, then please grant me just one miracle.
"I won't kill you. I won't kill you."
The voice coming from his throat felt unfamiliar.
"I won't kill..."
"Uncle!"
The fog in his mind cleared, and Gyeonghwan gradually regained consciousness.
But his vision had turned completely black, and he couldn't see anything.
Instead, certain memories surfaced.
「He entered Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint.」
Had a god granted his final wish?
He had entered this world and was still alive. He had survived and was wandering in search of his daughter.
"Run!"
"Crazy, crazy-"
"Don't be scared, everyone. You won't die even if he hits you! He said he won't kill anyone either!"
Memories gradually returned to his jumbled mind.
The massacre at Geumho Station.
He remembered meeting Inho Cheon too.
「Inho-ssi.」
What had happened to Inho-ssi?
The possessor he had met after coming to this world. The only person he trusted.
A man he had met for the first time, yet who somehow didn't feel like a stranger. A man who reminded him of the protagonist in a novel.
"Enough. Throw it! Give him one more!"
"Now!"
He felt something flying toward him, followed by a crashing sound beside his ear.
[You have acquired 1 additional Star Gem!]
[You have acquired a total of 5 Star Gems.]
[You have entered Berserk Stage 5.]
He vomited blood.
Flooding memories tore through his mind without restraint.
[The Constellation Secretive Plotter shouts at you to get a hold of yourself!]
Why did it have to turn out like this?
He only wanted to get his daughter back.
To get her back, he could do anything.
「"Can you really do anything?"」
That was why he gave in to temptation.
「"There is a way for you to find your daughter."」
The image of a theater filled his mind.
A fluttering white coat.
Representative Dokja.
「"Bring me the Four-Tiger Evil-Cutting Sword. Then I'll tell you where your daughter is."」
The Four-Tiger Evil-Cutting Sword.
Right. He had come to this dungeon to obtain it.
"No Jiyoon. No Jiyoon."
Within his hazy memories, Gyeonghwan asked Representative Dokja.
「"Why did you bring me into this novel?"」
He wanted to know.
「"Why did the meteorite fall? Why did my wife have to die? Why did I get cancer?"」
He hadn't expected an answer.
But then...
「"Do you want to know?"」
An answer came back.
「"Is there... a reason for my misfortune?"」
「"Well, I don't know if that's the answer you wanted."」
Representative Dokja provided him with a few pieces of equipment and Skills. He even told him the coordinates of the Four-Tiger Evil-Cutting Sword.
「"If you bring back the Four-Tiger Evil-Cutting Sword, you might be able to hear it."」
「"Why are you helping me?"」
「"You remind me of someone."」
For the first time, something like emotion appeared on Representative Dokja's face.
「"That person was also a father who cherished his daughter very much."」
Gyeonghwan couldn't understand what that meant.
All he knew was that there was a cause behind all his misfortunes.
"W-what is this? Where did these bastards come from?"
"Apostles! They're Apostles!"
"Argh!"
"It's White Pure Star Energy! K-Kim Dokja?"
Someone had made him suffer like this.
"Uncle! Please get a hold of yourself!"
The distant voice sounded as though it came from the other side of the universe.
"I won't kill you. I won't kill you-"
Gyeonghwan thought.
I won't forgive anyone responsible for making my life this way.
"I'll kill you."
His hand grabbed something.
Crunch.
A voice rang out alongside the sound of muscles tearing.
"Uncle."
It was clearly a voice he knew, but he couldn't remember whose it was.
"I don't want to do this either. But..."
The owner of the voice spoke through the pain.
"I'll deceive you just this once."
At that moment, the voice sounded...
"I'm..."
Like the first sentence of a certain novel.
"I'm No Jiyoon."
His vision suddenly cleared.
A pure white page appeared in the darkness where he couldn't see anything.
Someone was writing a sentence on that blank page.
「A girl was there. She was small, with a round face. Her eyebrows were a little lighter than other people's. Her plump cheeks still hadn't lost all their baby fat.」
The sentence soon became someone's face.
Gyeonghwan reached out toward that face.
Jiyoon.
「His beloved daughter said.」
"Give me the Star Gems."
Footnotes:
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