WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 665: Episode 21: Kim Dokja (1)

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「“Junghyeok-ssi, why are you so hostile toward Anna-ssi?”

Lee Seolhwa asked. Normally, it wasn't a question she would have asked. She knew well how much Junghyeok hated Anna Croft.

Still, she wanted to ask today.

Perhaps it was because the final battle of the Great war of Angels and Demons was tomorrow.

Once tomorrow passed, Junghyeok might be alone again.

“Why don't you try getting along with Anna-ssi, even for a little while?”

“She has sinned.”

“You're talking about a previous round.”

“She inherited the memories of the previous round.”

“Didn't she only receive the memories? You said Anna-ssi in this round didn't personally do any of those things.”

Junghyeok knew it too.

The Anna Croft of this round wasn't the Anna Croft of the previous round.

She had only read the memories of the previous round as though reading a novel.

Was it right for that Anna Croft to bear Junghyeok's anger?

“I lived through the previous round.”

Seolhwa fell silent for a moment.

Normally, she would have ended the conversation there. No matter what anyone said, Junghyeok was the one who had undergone Regression.

“The previous round... was that really you, Junghyeok-ssi?”

“...”

“Junghyeok-ssi isn't the same as the Junghyeok-ssi of the previous round. Just as the Lee Seolhwa of the previous round and the Lee Seolhwa of this round are different.”

Every human was defined by the world around them.

Whether it was the 1,600th round or the 1,700th.

He was still called Junghyeok, but the meaning carried by that name was different each time.

Because the people of the 1,600th and 1,700th rounds were different people.

People with different memories, experiences, and histories shared with him.

Since the world around him had changed, Junghyeok was also a different person from the one in the previous round.

That was what Seolhwa meant.

It was time to escape the past. It was time to release the curse he had been holding on to.

Without answering, Junghyeok looked up at the sky. Seolhwa looked at the same place alongside him.

The deep, distant Star Stream.

A world that turned everything beneath the sky into stories.

The side of Junghyeok's face she glimpsed looked lonely, sorrowful, perhaps even as though he understood everything.

A man who had lived one story for a very long time.

At that moment, Seolhwa realized it.

Only Junghyeok was unique. Everything else was nothing more than phenomena.

Lee Seolhwa, Lee Hyeongseong, Lee Jihye. All his other companions were merely single sentences written and erased within this repeating story.

“Then and now, I am Yu Junghyeok.”

Hearing those words, Seolhwa parted her lips slightly.

A name didn't originally belong to its owner.

Someone called him by that name, and so he became Yu Junghyeok.

“I will continue to be Yu Junghyeok.”

To call one's own name meant remembering the people who had called that name.

So that the people he had met wouldn't remain mere phenomena, so that he could remember the meanings accumulated within that name.

[The eternal, imperishable fable stirs.]

And unfortunately, by saying that name, he would once again become the protagonist of a fable.

Dawn was breaking in the distance. Beyond the rays of light erasing the pitch-black night, armies of nebulae were rushing in.

Watching the scene, Seolhwa asked,

“Will you come find me in the next round too?”

Without a word, Junghyeok reached into his clothes and took out a pipe.

A pipe left behind by his master. It was an item he hadn't used even once in this round.

With the end of the pipe between his lips, Junghyeok let the words drift out as though lightly smoking.

“Of course.”」

―From TWSA

Episode 21: Kim Dokja (1)

Tyrant King Jeong Yonghu belonged to the Readers' Association.

His hard drive contained thousands of Fantasy novels. All of them were novels he had illegally shared or received without a shred of guilt.

Of course, even he bought books sometimes. It was so he could make text files from scans or typed copies.

He had known long ago that what he did violated copyright law. But what did he care about copyright law?

He was the one who bought the book, so he had the right to use its contents.

That was what he thought.

As if to prove he was right, he gained a skill as payment for his long history of piracy.

[The Exclusive Skill Illegal Library has activated.]

The thousands of Fantasy novels in his head would have been useless in reality, but their knowledge had value in this world.

Whenever something happened, he pulled out the novels he had read illegally and examined them. As a result, he gained the qualifications of a king faster than anyone else and rose to become one of the Seven Kings of Seoul.

“Is everyone here?”

The black flag fluttering behind him proved his qualifications.

Yonghu slowly turned his gaze toward the National Palace Museum.

The Four-Tiger Evil-Cutting Sword they sought was probably inside.

“Shouldn't we wait a little longer before going in? Are you planning to charge in now?”

The Assassin King at his side spoke with concern.

“We released a Calamity, so it should be hell in there by now. We should send a Search Party first and find out what's going on inside―”

“They'll all be dead. Unless Kim Dokja is in there.”

Kim Dokja.

Hearing that name, the Assassin King's expression turned uneasy.

“Wouldn't it still be better to check?”

“The Throne Struggle will begin soon.”

The Throne Struggle.

The main event of the fourth Scenario, fought over the one and only Absolute Throne to appear on the Korean Peninsula.

+

<King's Qualifications>

1. 「The owner of the throne shall be braver than anyone else.」

―The Absolute Throne does not desire a weak king. To challenge the throne, you must be a king who possesses at least a [black flag].

2. 「One who dreams of the throne must also be worthy of that desire.」

―The number of kings who may challenge the Absolute Throne is limited. To earn the right to challenge it, you must eliminate the other kings around you.

+

The number of kings remaining hadn't been displayed yet, but there was no harm in reducing their numbers beforehand.

“We'll wipe them all out before the final condition opens. It would be even better if we can obtain the Four-Tiger Evil-Cutting Sword too.”

Just as they finished preparing to enter, a messenger shouted urgently.

“The Chungmuro Group is approaching!”

Along with the report, a group of Incarnations approached from the opposite side.

The Chungmuro Group.

It was a group led by Ye Hyeon-u of the Seven Apostles and the Armament Lord, Pildu Gong.

One of the most powerful forces at present, possessing a black flag.

Yet the Tyrant King looked completely unconcerned. The Assassin King spoke in admiration.

“Oh, it seems you're confident.”

“Of course. One of the Seven Apostles won't be a problem.”

A powerful wave of Mana rippled from the Tyrant King's entire body.

“Because I am not the Tyrant King from the original work.”

Even in the main story of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, the Tyrant King was a king who had risen to power by using prophets.

A powerful Incarnation with Yeonsangun as his Patron, wielding the S-grade item Three Wheeled Ring as his primary weapon.

Yet he possessed the knowledge not of TWSA, but of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint.

“As I am now, I'm confident I could kill even three or four Yu Junghyeoks from the third round if they came at me.”

He had consumed elixirs from early on and decked himself out in hidden items. Even if that Supreme King appeared, he wouldn't be able to defeat him now.

As though validating his confidence, thunder cracked in the distant sky.

The Tyrant King looked up at the sky and smiled smugly.

“It seems the Star Stream knows too. Who the strongest king is.”

Now that he said it, it sounded like an obvious villain's line. The Assassin King muttered, sounding slightly sick of it.

“I can't get used to that way you talk, no matter how often I hear it.”

“Ahem, it's because I've read too many novels...”

The Tyrant King's lips twitched. Just as he was about to say, “You'd end up like this too if you read thousands of mass-produced novels to analyze this world,” thunder struck again.

Lightning intermittently fell toward the ground. Between those bolts, a pitch-black shadow was flying toward them.

What was that?

The Tyrant King reflexively gripped his weapon, and the shield-bearers guarding him stepped forward.

The Assassin King was the first to sense something strange.

“That is―”

When the Tyrant King turned around, the Assassin King, his face drained white, was already fleeing far away.

Just as the Tyrant King was about to shout at him, black lightning fell over their heads.

The Tyrant King swung the Three Wheeled Ring and released his own Mana.

“This little thing―”

He couldn't possibly be defeated by a mere bolt of lightning. He was Tyrant King Jeong Yonghu.

“This little―”

Something was wrong.

The moment the Three Wheeled Ring touched the lightning, it began to break apart. It wasn't only the Three Wheeled Ring.

His arms, torso, legs. More precisely, everything in the surrounding area was breaking apart.

“What is this―”

After Yonghu delivered the final line of a formulaic villain, his soul was extinguished by the black lightning.

Standing tall in the pitch-black, burning crater was, as expected, a man holding a black spear as he stared proudly into the sky.

The man swung his newly acquired spear as if testing it, then muttered,

“I thought I sensed an aura from this direction. Was I mistaken?”

The little girl clinging to his back climbed down to the ground and asked,

“Brother, who are you looking for?”

“There's someone I'm looking for.”

The man placed the girl back on his shoulder and lightly jumped to the top of the crater. The nearby Incarnations cried out in shock.

At the head of the Incarnations, Hyeon-u muttered,

“Yu Junghyeok?”

Junghyeok looked at Hyeon-u.

At that chilling gaze, Hyeon-u quickly raised both hands.

“We didn't come here to fight.”

Junghyeok gave Hyeon-u a brief, indifferent glance, then turned toward the collapsed National Palace Museum.

“The Scenario has changed again. Why did the museum collapse?”

“...”

“Is someone inside?”

After hesitating, Hyeon-u nodded.

“Inho Cheon?”

Hyeon-u didn't know how to answer.

Several renowned powerhouses had already entered the museum.

Still, if it was Inho Cheon, there was little reason to worry, no matter who the opponent was.

At least, that had been true before seeing Junghyeok in person.

That was impossible.

He had been surprised when he saw him before, but not to this extent.

It was only the forty-first round.

Not the 1,863rd round, but the forty-first round, still part of the early stages of TWSA.

Then what in the world was that fighting spirit?

The murderous aura was so fierce that it felt as though his neck would be severed just by approaching. Hyeon-u swallowed.

Could he be targeting the other kings?

The second King's Qualification had already been announced.

If Junghyeok was moving to reduce the number of kings, revealing Inho Cheon's whereabouts could be dangerous.

As Hyeon-u hesitated for too long, Junghyeok's eyebrow twitched.

Just as the angle of his spear slowly began to turn.

[Hmm, I didn't realize the number of kings had already decreased this much.]

Tststst―

A dokkaebi appeared in midair.

[I suppose it's about time to begin the final task.]

The mid-grade dokkaebi Paul had appeared at the perfect time and announced the final task.

+

<King's Qualifications>

3. 「Therefore, the one king is one who stands tall alone, without anyone's help.」

―A king who can challenge the Absolute Throne must be able to prove their strength with their body alone.

+

[The final King's Qualifications have begun.]

[Eligible kings are moving to the final testing ground.]

At last, it was time to determine the owner of the throne.

Footnotes:

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