WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 66: Episode 14 - Master of the Throne (2)

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In my head, the pages of TWSA flipped over. With a rolling rumble, light surged through my mind, and radiant strings of text began to line themselves up. They were the text of TWSA.

[Huh......?]

Kim Yusin seemed to realize something, and his cry of shock came almost at the same moment his presence rapidly faded. As expected, the old fox was quick to catch on.

[The blessing of the constellation connected through Echo of the Stars is disappearing.]

At the very last moment, Kim Yusin's stunned voice echoed out.

[Just who are you......?]

Then Kim Yusin's presence vanished completely. Honestly, even I was surprised. I had expected [The Fourth Wall] might make it possible, but I hadn't thought it would sever the constellation connected through the Ganpyeongui this easily.

What happened in the Cinema Dungeon last time had given me the hint. Back then, the Cinema Master who tried to peer into my head had been annihilated the instant it encountered [The Fourth Wall]. I had hoped a constellation might be brought down the same way too, but unfortunately, sharp-eyed Kim Yusin seemed to have fled first.

[The constellation Great King Heungmu harbors doubts about your existence.]

[The constellation Great King Heungmu will be watching you closely from now on.]

The general really knew how to hold a grudge.

"......Is it okay now?"

"Yes, I'm fine. But......"

What was this now? When I came to my senses, I found my limbs wrapped up tight in Mana threads. I looked like a cocoon. Yu Sangah, her face bright red, stammered out an explanation.

"Well...... I couldn't just leave you behind, and if I stayed next to you, I thought I might get attacked."

I thought I understood what had happened. Who would have guessed she'd use [Thread Binding] on me in that brief gap? I thought she'd frozen in shock, but had she actually been using a skill instead?

"Your reflexes are incredible."

"......I'm sorry."

"That was a compliment. If I ever do something reckless again, tie me up like this."

"I'll untie you right away!"

Yu Sangah looked completely flustered, but I meant it. When I turned around, King of Beauty Min Jiwon was looking back and forth between me and Yu Sangah with a strange expression.

"......I'll be going now. I came to help, but in the end, it looks like I was the one who got help instead."

I nodded.

"The next time we meet, we'll be enemies."

"Aren't we on the same side now? Normally this is where people get closer in dramas."

"That's in dramas."

"'Make friends through trust! By believing, one gains companions.' That's the banner of our Hwarang."

With those words, Min Jiwon walked away, wearing a smile so hard to read that I couldn't tell where the sincerity ended.

Could the King of Beauty of this round become a good king? I didn't know. Probably the King of Beauty didn't know either.

"Let's go too. Lee Seongguk-ssi! You can come out now."

At my shout, Lee Seongguk finally emerged awkwardly from behind the building, clutching Lee Gilyeong. This guy had boldly declared he would stop Gyebaek, so when had he hidden himself over there? I gathered my Allies and started moving north.

Everything Kim Yusin's Great Gathering of the Hwarangs had swept through had been turned into ruins. The minor kings who had been brawling there were strewn across the roadside like rags, their skulls split open. So this was what the dignity of a true constellation looked like. Kim Yusin might be cowardly, but he was a strong constellation.

I went around picking up the free flags one by one and steadily raising my contribution points.

[Your Brown Flag absorbs the accumulated contribution points of another Brown Flag.]

[Your Brown Flag has evolved into a Purple Flag.]

[You can now use the benefits of the Purple Flag.]

As expected, the best thing was to grow stronger without fighting. Looking around, most of the available flags had already been collected. Once you got to purple, a flag's contribution points didn't rise easily. In other words, from here on out, taking down just any king wouldn't be enough.

"Jeong Minseop-ssi, are you there?"

The next moment, Jeong Minseop's figure appeared out of thin air. The Cloak of the Recluse I had handed him beforehand covered his entire body. On this mission, Jeong Minseop had been in charge of scouting the National Palace Museum.

"How many have gone in so far?"

"Including the Tyrant and the First Apostle, a total of nine kings have entered."

Nine. A suitable number.

"What kinds of flags do they have?"

"Seven purple and two brown. Even among the purple ones, two were especially dark."

"That would be the Tyrant and the First Apostle."

"That's right."

Jeong Minseop was a more useful talent than I'd expected. Satisfied, I opened my mouth.

"This time, only Yu Sangah, Gilyeong, and I are going in. The other two of you wait outside and keep standing by. You can stay hidden under the cloak."

"Will that be all right?"

"Yes. Right now, three is all we need."

"If you call for us, we'll come in at once."

I appreciated the sentiment, but they would only get in the way here. If what I knew was correct, the National Palace Museum had now become a dungeon.

[A new hidden scenario has arrived!]

Category: Hidden

Difficulty: A+~F

Clear Conditions: Clear a Relic Dungeon suited to the proper number of people.

Time limit: None

Rewards: 500~5,000 coins

Penalty for failure: Death

The moment we entered the museum, a pure white marble lobby spread out before our eyes. There wasn't a trace of anyone's presence in the lobby. Yu Sangah spoke in a tense voice.

"I don't think I'll ever be able to enjoy culture again after this. Even the museum looks like this......"

"Hyung, did we come here to get that legendary sword or whatever?"

"No, not right now."

Of course, the Four Yin Demonic Decapitator could also be found inside this dungeon. I was the one who had spread that information in the first place.

[Choose the type of dungeon you will enter.]

1. 1-Person Dungeon – Chamber of the Nagak

2. 3-Person Dungeon – Chamber of the Acupuncture Bronze Figures

3. 5-Person Dungeon – Chamber of the Donguibogam

4. 7-Person Dungeon – Chamber of the Dragon Jar

But the dungeon where the Four Yin Demonic Decapitator appeared couldn't be entered in an ordinary way. That dungeon could only be entered by collecting the ancient coins given as rewards for clearing each dungeon, which made it a hidden dungeon even among hidden scenarios.

"I'll choose the 3-Person Dungeon, the Chamber of the Acupuncture Bronze Figures."

[You have entered the 3-Person Dungeon.]

Lee Gilyeong looked a little disappointed. It seemed he'd been expecting we were about to get some amazing relic.

"Gilyeong. A relic isn't just what it looks like on the outside."

"......Huh?"

"Things that look flashy on the outside often turn out to have no substance."

The Four Yin Demonic Decapitator was one of those overhyped items. Rather, the truly good things in this place were the ones you could get from the ordinary dungeons.

The skill you could obtain in the 3-Person Dungeon, the Chamber of the Acupuncture Bronze Figures, was one of them.

The moment we entered the dungeon, Yu Sangah said in surprise,

"......I think there are other people in here besides us."

Sure enough, intermittent screams were coming from all over the dungeon.

"Aaaah! Get away!"

Monsters with human shapes and dull black bodies. The creatures packed so densely through the 3-Person Dungeon were those black bronze figures.

Tier-7 Replica Species, Acupuncture Bronze Figures.

After a set amount of time, these monsters reproduced on their own, and at the present point, no proper strategy for dealing with them was known. The Acupuncture Bronze Figures had sturdy bodies, no internal organs, and no nervous system, so they knew no pain.

"Help me!"

A few Incarnations slashed clumsily at the bronze figures, but the figures only spilled a little mercury and took no real damage. Instead, the bronze figures strode right up and yanked at the man's body.

Even a man whose Constitution, Strength, and Agility all seemed close to 50 was torn apart like paper in the Acupuncture Bronze Figure's grasp.

"......Dokja-ssi, how do we deal with those dolls? They aren't taking any damage at all."

Yu Sangah and Lee Gilyeong were both swinging blunt weapons and using skills as hard as they could against the approaching Acupuncture Bronze Figures, but none of it was having much effect. Once in a while, an Acupuncture Bronze Figure hit by Lee Gilyeong's club would actually take damage, but he looked like he didn't know by what principle he had managed to hurt them.

"Look closely at their bodies."

Every monster that appeared in the Relics of the Trials scenario had been created using the relics in the National Palace Museum as motifs.

For example, the Nagak in the 1-Person Dungeon was literally an instrument made from a conch shell, and the Donguibogam in the 5-Person Dungeon...... well, that one didn't need much explanation. The point was that the Acupuncture Bronze Figures in the 3-Person Dungeon were the same.

Yu Sangah, who had been staring hard at the figures, spoke first.

"There's something engraved on their bodies."

"That's right."

Originally, the Acupuncture Bronze Figures were relics used to mark the 361 acupoints across the entire human body, meaning the front, back, arms, legs, and head. In other words, they were Joseon-era instructional tools for acupuncture.

[Blade of Faith has activated!]

I activated the blade and stabbed one of the Acupuncture Bronze Figure's acupoints. Then the figure twisted in pain before crumbling away into powder with a dry crackling sound.

It was a hollow end for a Tier-7 Replica Species.

[You have hunted your first Acupuncture Bronze Figure!]

"If you look carefully, each acupoint has a subtly different color. Some are paralysis points, some are death points, and some are mute points...... Each Acupuncture Bronze Figure was made so that stabbing those pressure points produces a different effect."

"Ah......!"

The important thing was to find the tiny acupoints and block or sever their flow. After I demonstrated it a few times, Lee Gilyeong and Yu Sangah quickly picked up the trick as well.

Lee Gilyeong chose to use [Inter-Species Communication] to send small insects burrowing into the acupoints and shock them, while Yu Sangah applied [Thread Binding] by inserting her threads like tiny needles. Watching the bronze figures tremble once and then collapse limply in place, I was honestly impressed.

The two of them were both growing at an excellent pace.

[Your party is the first to hunt 100 Acupuncture Bronze Figures!]

[You have cleared the 3-Person Dungeon.]

[You have each obtained four ancient coins as a basic reward.]

[You have obtained the Exclusive Skill Pressure Point as a unique reward.]

I had obtained the skill I was after.

Pressure Point.

A signature technique of martial arts returnees, one that subdued enemies by pressing specific acupoints. For me, who needed to maintain the title of The King of No Killing for the time being, it was an essential skill. Yu Sangah looked down at the ancient coins she had received and murmured in wonder.

"Can we buy something with this?"

"You can exchange them for coins, or you can use them as dungeon entrance passes."

"Then......"

"Of course we're going to use them as entrance passes. All right, everyone hand over three each. I'll put in four, so let's make ten total."

"Ten? Wait, Dokja-ssi, surely you don't mean......?"

"We're going to enter the hidden dungeon where the Four Yin Demonic Decapitator can be obtained."

Yu Sangah asked in surprise.

"But didn't you say we weren't going to get the Four Yin Demonic Decapitator?"

"We aren't going there to get the Four Yin Demonic Decapitator."

We're going there to hunt the kings who are.

Footnotes:

Nagak is a conch-shell horn used in traditional Korean music.

Donguibogam is a Joseon medical compendium compiled by a royal physician.

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