WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 670: Episode 21: Kim Dokja (6)
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A shadow flickered beyond the swirling Great Hole.
[The Constellation Bald Army General wipes his head in shock!]
[The Constellation Naval Warfare God glares at the Outer God.]
[The Constellation Pig Living in a Brick House hides in the brick house.]
[The Constellation Dog Who Threw Himself into the Flames pants as he retreats.]
[The Constellation Demonic Judge of Fire frowns.]
[Many Constellations are shocked by the Outer God's intervention in the Scenario!]
The channel's Constellations stirred at the mere sight of that shadow.
[Some Constellations are preparing to leave the channel.]
Some Constellations were even preparing to flee.
It made sense.
The divinity revealing its presence in the sky wasn't one of the Nameless Ones. It was clearly a named entity.
[The Constellation Prisoner of the Golden Headband glares at the Founder of the Absolute Throne.]
The first owner and creator of the Absolute Throne.
Once, Dokja had wielded the Four-Tiger Evil-Cutting Sword against that divinity and destroyed the Absolute Throne.
‘That was what Dokja fought?’
Han Suyeong didn't know the Founder of the Absolute Throne in detail either.
More precisely, she had known, but forgotten.
‘Damn it. I shouldn't have given him TWSA.’
When she had met Yi Hakhyeon on the Theater Dungeon rooftop not long ago, she had given him the TWSA she knew.
‘That bastard. I wonder if he's still alive.’
Yi Hakhyeon wanted to write this world's story in her place.
That was why she had passed on the most important history she knew.
【O O O O O O O O O】
The fear of something once familiar becoming unknown.
Still, Suyeong wasn't consumed by that fear. Even though she had forgotten the story, she was still an excellent Writer.
The air rang ominously, Status seeping into every syllable.
Watching the shadow ripple beyond the Great Hole, Suyeong roughly gauged the Outer God's level.
It wasn't a divinity as insane as Indescribable Distance or the Calamities of the 999th round.
But it was at least on the level of The One Who Devours Dreams. Perhaps even higher.
Rumble...
If that thing descended above Seoul, the Korean Peninsula would be destroyed. Not just the peninsula. Earth itself might be destroyed.
Even so, Suyeong spoke brazenly.
"Don't act tough. You can't cross over anyway."
As though such an ending would never come.
"Right?"
That question wasn't directed at the Constellations in the sky, nor the Incarnations aboveground.
"Are you going to let that thing destroy your playground?"
The next moment, a tiny portal appeared in an ambiguous stretch of empty space that belonged neither to the ground nor the sky.
A gentleman in a black suit emerged from the comma-shaped portal.
The being who called himself the Kim Dokja Representative.
Suyeong knew his True Name.
"Asmodeus."
With a faint spark, the Kim Dokja Representative frowned.
A strange light shone from Suyeong's eyes.
[Predictive Plagiarism.]
Every sentence she had read and written was projected onto her eyes, telling her who the being before her was.
"How long are you planning to keep playing Kim Dokja?"
【You······.】
The master of the 32nd Demon Realm, Asmodeus.
The Demonic God of Wrath and Lust.
In Suyeong's worldline, he had clearly been annihilated by Kim Namwoon of the 999th round.
【It seems you've already lost many memories, yet my name must have been quite important to you.】
Asmodeus watched the sparks running through Suyeong's body.
Her memories were breaking apart between those sparks.
"I'm good at remembering debts."
【You are no longer the Han Suyeong I met before.】
Suyeong held out her left hand.
"Shut up and hand over the Four-Tiger Evil-Cutting Sword you have."
The Four-Tiger Evil-Cutting Sword.
She didn't know which worldline it had come from, but Asmodeus had used that sword in their last battle to sever her Avatar link.
"If you give me that, I'll grant you what you want."
Suyeong thought.
All she had to do was somehow take his sword and sever only the Constellation Bond tied to the Absolute Throne.
Then the Outer God would lose its connection to this world, and its Descent would naturally be canceled.
To do that, she first had to persuade the Asmodeus before her.
【Do you know what I want?】
"You don't want this worldline to follow the original development."
Suyeong had been pondering it ever since she first encountered Asmodeus.
「Why did Asmodeus cross from the third round into the forty-first round?」
Why had he sought out and parasitized, of all things, an unrecorded worldline?
「Asmodeus wanted Kim Dokja but never obtained him.」
「Asmodeus used Han Myeongoh's daughter as an Incarnation body.」
「Asmodeus wanted to leave his name in a Great Fable.」
「Asmodeus was one of the Seekers of the End.」
Countless pieces of information related to Asmodeus flowed through her mind in real time. As Predictive Plagiarism activated, her overflowing consciousness analyzed, combined, and mixed the information flooding her mind.
「Asmodeus is a character who read TWSA.」
Suyeong slowly blinked.
"How did it feel to learn what this world really is?"
Asmodeus's expression gradually stiffened. Suyeong read everything behind that expression at once.
"You didn't just read TWSA, did you?"
His eyes wavered, faintly but clearly.
Suyeong was certain.
Asmodeus hadn't only read TWSA. He had read Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, too.
He had read every sentence written for Dokja and even seen his own death written there.
Of course, Asmodeus wasn't the only one who had gone through that. Kim Dokja Company had gone through all of it as well.
But Asmodeus wasn't Kim Dokja Company.
【So what if I did?】
He had never treasured Dokja, nor dreamed of the conclusion with him.
If such a Demon King had come to this worldline, there was only one reason.
"You want to escape our story. Isn't that right?"
【······.】
"But if you stop me here, this worldline will be destroyed."
This world's course hadn't been written, but its future was fixed.
Yu Junghyeok of the forty-first round would fail, and this worldline would be destroyed.
The incident where Yu Junghyeok took the Absolute Throne had been the beginning of that destruction.
"You don't want that either, do you? So help me. Let's cooperate for a moment. I'll destroy that throne, so hand over the Four-Tiger Evil-Cutting Sword."
【I don't know what you're planning.】
After a long while, Asmodeus finally spoke.
【Why are you trying to change the current development? I thought your goal was to destroy this world.】
"······."
【Only then would your worldline be safely preserved. Only then would the Kim Dokja you were searching for return.】
Suyeong was surprised. She hadn't expected Asmodeus to have already figured out that much.
【Is it because you saw that fragment? The Kim Dokja Fragment you turned away from and abandoned.】
"You're awfully mouthy today. So are you giving me the Four-Tiger Evil-Cutting Sword or not?"
【How ridiculous. Why are you only worrying about the Kim Dokja you abandoned now? He wasn't even the Kim Dokja you wanted.】
"You say one more word and-"
【Wasn't the Kim Dokja you wanted the Kim Dokja who was the Demon King of Salvation?】
At Asmodeus's words, fables surged around him.
【He was the Watcher of Light and Darkness.】
Dokja, who had ended the Great war of Angels and Demons and become the Watcher of Light and Darkness.
【He inherited the Prisoner of the Golden Headband.】
Dokja, who became Great Sage Equaling Heaven's youngest child and inherited his modifier.
【He dreamed of this world, and eventually became this world itself.】
Dokja, who remained on the subway after everyone had left and became the Oldest Dream.
【Are you planning to gather every Kim Dokja? Do you think that's possible?】
"······."
【You, who use Avatar, should know better than anyone.】
Suyeong closed her mouth.
The other members of Kim Dokja Company became angry in her place.
[The Constellation Lotus Blooming under the Moon glares at Asmodeus.]
[The Constellation Sinister Strategist lets out quiet fury.]
Asmodeus spoke as though mocking Kim Dokja Company.
【Is it truly your own will that makes you still chase Dokja's illusion?】
A one hundred percent Dokja couldn't exist, just as she wasn't one hundred percent Han Suyeong now.
It wasn't a matter of using Avatar or not.
Every human loses memories each moment and gradually becomes a slightly different being. The very idea of one hundred percent had been an illusion from the beginning.
Then what exactly was the Dokja they chased?
【Or is it the will of the fables dwelling within you?】
Suyeong looked down at her palm.
A hand that had written countless stories, and a fable dwelled within it.
【How are you now any different from the Constellations you hated so much?】
The fable continued telling its story in her place.
[The fable Kim Dokja Company looks at you.]
Kim Dokja Company was the fable of those who loved Dokja.
They had gathered for Dokja, and it was the story of those who could only be happy with him.
That was why those who possessed this fable couldn't help but search for Dokja.
"We're already past the point of worrying about that."
Suyeong clenched the fist containing the fable.
"Of course I know there can't be a one hundred percent Dokja."
How could she not know?
The woman who had written that story, and her companions who had lived through it with her, couldn't possibly be unaware of that fact.
【Then why do you keep repeating such foolish acts? Why deliberately continue a story bound to fail?】
When humans lost someone, they went through several stages before accepting that loss.
They despaired at the fact that person could never return, but before long, they accepted it and eventually went on living in that person's absence.
They understood that was the natural order of this world.
That was ordinary mourning.
The problem was that neither Dokja nor they were ordinary humans.
"Because I know Dokja's story."
Dokja had returned from death again and again.
When he returned, was he truly the same Dokja as before?
If a human who had once been dismantled at the particle level was reassembled, would that be the same human as before?
Suyeong didn't know the answer to such philosophical questions.
She only knew that Dokja had died for his companions, then lived again to protect them.
That will itself was Dokja.
It was the fable called Kim Dokja.
[The Constellation Sinister Strategist nods.]
That fable lacked Plausibility. It had many flaws, and its flow wasn't smooth. It was full of holes everywhere.
[The Constellation Lotus Blooming under the Moon closes its eyes.]
Yet that story had protected Kim Dokja Company.
It gave up everything it had and completed an ending where every companion survived.
Those saved that way could never mourn normally. Those who had witnessed miracles before their eyes again and again, who had survived through such a story, couldn't meekly accept the Final Chapter.
Just as Dokja had tried to protect every member of Kim Dokja Company, Kim Dokja Company couldn't help but search for every Dokja.
"Like you said, maybe we'll fail in the end."
Even if their choice now led them into an endless cycle.
Even if a story for only one person continued endlessly.
If it was for Dokja,
"Then we'll keep failing. That's how we honor Dokja."
They would remain this story's characters forever.
Footnotes:
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