WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 680: Episode 22: Name (2)
──────
Hello, everyone.
This is Yi Hakhyeon.
It's been a while.
You've probably all forgotten my name by now. That's only natural. It isn't a particularly cool name, after all.
If you're a protagonist, your name should be something like
Yu Junghyeok.
But then, all of a sudden, it's
Yi Hakhyeon.
It feels as if someone from the real world suddenly possessed a character in a web novel, doesn't it?
But as you all know, I really did possess a character in a web novel.
And I didn't just possess any character. Of all people, it had to be a minor villain...
Inho Cheon-ssi.
That's right. That name.
Inho Cheon.
The name of the villain I possessed.
"He still hasn't woken up."
"Seolhwa said it's a miracle he's alive."
I don't know who you are, but thanks for saying what I was about to say.
That's what my life has been like since I possessed a character in Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint.
It's a miracle I'm alive.
At Geumho Station.
In Chungmuro.
In the Cinema Dungeon.
At Seoul Station and Gwanghwamun.
I nearly died for real.
Maybe I've gone a little crazy from surviving so many brushes with death, but lately, I haven't really known what's what.
Most of all, I don't know who I am.
It sounds like the sort of concern a second-year middle schooler would have, but I'm serious.
Was it because I used [Incitement] too much? Or because I didn't think enough about my identity when I was in my second year of middle school?
Or perhaps...
【How lo ng are you go ing to keep tal king li ke th is】
Ah, right.
That's true.
I can't keep acting so half-heartedly anymore.
Please forget everything I said while introducing myself.
I'll do it properly this time.
Hello, everyone.
I'm Kim Dokja.
It feels really awkward to say that, but it's true.
I'm the reincarnation of 49% of Dokja.
But, everyone, I'm a little scared.
Think about it.
One day, I suddenly possessed a character in a novel, only for it to turn into 『The Reincarnation of My Novel's Protagonist Turned Out to Be Me』.
Does that kind of light novel development even make sense?
If my editor, Ji Eunyu, heard this, she'd never stop making fun of me.
Eunyu would definitely say something like this.
"Wow, Author! The readers used to tease you by saying Kim Dokja was your self-insert, but he wasn't a self-insert. He was real! Wow, wow."
Eunyu.
This is really unfair.
First, let's make one thing clear. I didn't even write that novel.
The author who wrote that story was Han Suyeong...
Han Suyeong?
.
.
.
With a spasmodic scream, I shot upright from my bed. My heart pounded madly as the breath that had risen to my chin came pouring out.
Someone's shadow flickered through my hazy vision.
"Inho-ssi?"
Feeling slowly returned to my fingertips. The sensation of a soft bed and blanket. The distinctive smell of hospital disinfectant.
My mind was a mess.
What had happened?
What about Suyeong?
The Outer God?
Junghyeok?
Had we succeeded?
When I struggled to open my eyes and look ahead, I saw someone familiar.
Kind eyes shone beneath dignified brows.
"Inho-ssi!"
Uncle Dansu, who no longer called me his friend, pulled me into a tight embrace.
Why was that? The moment I weakly sank into his arms, all the strength left my body, and tears poured out before I knew it.
"What a relief. What a relief."
There were so many tears that it was surprising a villain had that many stored away.
As I listened to Uncle Dansu repeat that it was a relief, I realized again that this truly was something to be relieved about.
"Uncle."
I had survived again.
After sacrificing someone in my place again.
* * *
A few people were the first to rush over after hearing the news.
They were all people I knew well.
It felt like it had been a while, so a brief introduction was in order.
"Aaaah! Inho-ssi!"
The muscular girl running toward me was Gyeong Sein.
Though Sein looked like a woman, he was actually a reader with a man's soul inside him.
"You've awakened, Kim Dokja."
The man in the black coat posing against the doorframe was the Second Apostle, Killer King.
Despite how he looked, he was a crazy person who had read Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint over a hundred times.
He had a habit of calling me Dokja. I didn't know whether he did it knowingly or not.
For the record, he had a younger sister who used the ID Literary Girl 64. Unlike her brother, Killer King, Ms. Yerín was a very normal person.
"Inho-ssi, how are you feeling? How many fingers am I holding up? Can you say your name? How old are you? What's your real name in the real world?"
That boy taking advantage of my muddled mental state to dig up information about me was Ye Hyeon-u.
He looked like the kind of prodigy who would appear on a gifted education program, and he was the commander of the Chungmuro group and the brains behind the readers.
"Yes. I'm fine."
"You still have a slight fever. I think you should rest more."
Lastly, the handsome uncle taking my temperature was Lee Dansu.
He was the first reader I had met, and someone living in this world to get his daughter back.
The rest of the allies...
Had they not arrived yet?
I counted their names one by one in my head.
Jeong Huiwon, Cha Yerín, Eunyu, Gu Seona...
"Inho-ssi."
Uncle Dansu was the first to speak again after a brief silence settled over the room.
Why was that? The looks in everyone's eyes felt unfamiliar.
It was as if they were watching for the right question to ask, or struggling with what they should say to me.
I smiled lightly and spoke first.
"Could you tell me what happened while I was out?"
* * *
"I was unconscious for forty-five days?"
As I listened to Sein make a fuss, I tried to gauge just how long forty-five days was in Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint.
No, wait.
Then what Scenario were they on now?
"The seventh Scenario is currently underway on the Korean Peninsula."
I doubted my ears.
"Not the fifth?"
"Come on, the fifth Scenario ended ages ago."
The last Scenario I remembered was the fourth Scenario, King's Qualifications.
"Wait a moment."
I held my head as I recalled the developments of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint.
Originally, the fifth Scenario in Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint was the Catastrophe of Floods.
The Catastrophe of Floods was a Scenario that could only end after defeating four Calamities, aside from the main Catastrophe of Floods.
I had defeated one at the National Palace Museum, but they had already dealt with the remaining four?
"Junghyeok handled the fifth Scenario himself. The protagonist truly was the protagonist."
"How did he clear it? Don't tell me he killed Shin Yuseong..."
"Have you forgotten this is the forty-first round?"
A chilling sensation rose through me.
Right.
This was the forty-first round of TWSA.
It was also the worldline before Shin Yuseong regressed to the second round to become the Catastrophe of Floods.
In other words, there was no Catastrophe of Floods in this round yet.
But the Catastrophe of Floods wasn't the only dangerous Calamity.
"The Calamity of Questions wasn't easy either. Still, thanks to this body's contribution, it was defeated without much trouble."
"It wasn't the Second Apostle's contribution. Yu Junghyeok killed it."
I roughly understood the situation.
I didn't know what Calamities had appeared, but it seemed Junghyeok of the forty-first round had crushed them with his terrifying strength.
"Fine, let's say the fifth Scenario went that way... What about the sixth Scenario? It must have been difficult too."
The sixth Scenario was peace land, which involved the Japanese Incarnations.
In some ways, it was a Scenario that could be even harder than the Catastrophe of Floods.
"Junghyeok went there and finished that one himself too."
"Junghyeok?"
I asked doubtfully.
Of all Scenarios, peace land was one where the small folk and Calamities split into separate sides and fought each other.
"Don't tell me Junghyeok became a Calamity?"
I asked while assuming the worst.
If Junghyeok of the forty-first round had chosen the Calamities' side, then peace land would be...
"Don't worry. Junghyeok-ssi sided with the small folk."
Junghyeok? Really?
"We entered earlier than expected, so there was far less damage. We worked well with the Japanese Incarnations too. Asuka Ren and Izumi are both safe! Isn't that amazing?"
Asuka Ren and Izumi, the King of Japan, were both safe...
Judging by what I heard, the situation wasn't bad.
"What about Kyrios?"
"We didn't meet Kyrios. It seems the events diverged in this round."
Of course. If one thing went well, another had to get tangled up.
My original plan had been to meet Kyrios Lordgrime in peace land and train to become a Transcendent.
But I had been unconscious, and Kyrios hadn't even visited peace land.
"The seventh Scenario is still underway. Ms. Yerín and Huiwon are at the Scenario area because of that. Ah, and Jiwon too..."
Maybe because the shock of what I had heard so far was so great, I found it hard to focus on the rest.
During the forty-five days I had slept, the world of the forty-first round had been thrown beyond the course of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint as I knew it.
But if someone asked whether that was a bad thing, it wasn't entirely bad.
The Disaster Scenario and peace land were Scenarios that would have been hard to clear smoothly even if I had taken part myself.
Yet Junghyeok had perfectly cleared two Scenarios by himself, without anyone's help.
Had this development existed in the original forty-first round?
Or had it appeared because Suyeong and I killed the Founder of the Absolute Throne?
Perhaps my expression had turned serious, because Sein added,
"Anyway, don't worry. The forty-first round isn't as terrible as we thought. The effect of the Absolute Throne is really something."
"The Absolute Throne?"
Sein nodded at my stupid question.
"Yes. The Absolute Throne."
"It still exists?"
"What? Well... it didn't break in this round."
That couldn't be true.
The Founder of the Absolute Throne had definitely died.
I had seen it clearly with my own eyes.
"Who... is the king? Is it one of you?"
At my question, the allies looked at each other.
Sein gave a bitter smile, and Dansu shook his head.
Killer King looked offended, while Hyeon-u let out a snort of laughter.
"Of course not, Inho-ssi. How could any of us become king when the true king is alive and well?"
I slowly got out of bed. Maybe because it had been so long since I had moved my muscles, my legs trembled precariously.
Beyond my unsteady gaze, I saw the hospital room's window.
「The tragedy of the forty-first round begins with the Absolute Throne.」
The view of Gwanghwamun spread beyond the window.
The Absolute Throne occupied the center of the plaza. In that chaos, who could possibly have claimed that throne?
No matter how much I thought about it, there was only one person who could have done so.
"Is it Junghyeok?"
"Yes. The Supreme King claimed the Absolute Throne."
Something crumbled inside me with Hyeon-u's quiet answer.
What had gone wrong, and where?
Had Suyeong and I ultimately failed to change this world's developments?
"Fortunately."
As though to reassure me, Hyeon-u gripped my shoulder and spoke.
"It's a little different from the forty-first round we expected. Junghyeok claimed the Absolute Throne, but he couldn't use the Absolute Throne's authority."
The Absolute Throne couldn't use its authority?
I quickly turned my head, and my eyes met Hyeon-u's.
The moment I saw the calmness in his eyes, I thought I understood why he had come here.
"That's why... this is what we want to know too. Inho-ssi, what exactly happened that day?"
Sein, Killer King, and Uncle Dansu. Everyone looked at me as if they had agreed beforehand.
"Junghyeok was the one who brought you back when the Great Hole opened that day. But no matter how much we asked him what happened, we couldn't get an answer."
That was only natural.
He didn't properly know what had happened that day.
"You had the Four-Tiger Evil-Cutting Sword equipped that day. Did you cut the Absolute Throne's link?"
"I..."
I tried to speak.
To say that I hadn't done it.
To say there had been one more person there, someone both you and I knew.
"It wasn't me. It was Han Su..."
[You can no longer use Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World.]
The moment I heard that message, my tongue froze.
『Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World』.
It was the skill that had protected me after I entered this world, and the novel that supported the foundation of this world.
Dokja's favorite story.
[You can no longer use Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World.]
There was someone who had given me this skill.
Someone who felt guilty toward me.
Someone who had given me all her fables to save me.
Again and again, I tried to activate the skill.
[You can no longer use Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World.]
The skill didn't activate.
[You can no longer use Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World.]
The story that had once protected Dokja had now left me.
Perhaps along with the writer who had tried to give that story to me.
"Inho-ssi?"
Uncle Dansu realized something was wrong with me and grabbed my shoulder.
"Everyone, I think Inho-ssi isn't well. We should ask him later..."
"No, we need to ask him now. We've already waited long enough. That phenomenon has been happening for forty-five days."
I heard Hyeon-u and Killer King talking through the ringing in my ears.
"Uncle Dansu, you know what the situation is right now. Inho-ssi is the only clue we have about what's been happening lately."
"Even I, who read Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint one hundred times, cannot understand this anomaly. He is certainly the only one we can trust."
I didn't know what was happening.
But I had no answer to give them.
"I..."
The story I knew was only a story they all knew too.
I wasn't as remarkable as everyone thought.
I was certainly Kim Dokja's reincarnation, but I wasn't the real Kim Dokja who had read TWSA.
The real Kim Dokja.
Along with a faint ringing in my ears, my memories slowly returned.
The memory of the day the Outer God was killed.
The reason I was alive here now.
「"I'll make a contract."」
I slowly understood.
To kill the Outer God, I had made a Behind-the-Scenes Contract with a Constellation capable of humiliating a divine being.
But I could barely feel my Patron's presence.
Even when I looked up into the empty air or clenched and unclenched my fist, nothing felt different.
Tstststst.
That was when the smartphone on the table vibrated.
A message rose on its screen.
[Someone has requested Midday Tryst.]
At that moment, I realized something.
This wasn't the smartphone I had owned.
But I already knew who this smartphone belonged to.
[Requester: Demon King of Salvation]
Perhaps this was my Patron's constellation artifact.
Footnotes:
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