WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 693: Episode 24: Expert (3)

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* * *

Selena Kim couldn't make sense of what was happening before her eyes.

Could that really be the proud Christina Page she knew?

"Again. How much did you say?"

"500,000 coins!"

"Hand it over first."

"Yes!"

A former FBI forensic hypnosis specialist and the brains behind Zarathustra.

Was that really the Christina Page she knew?

"I'm giving this to you cheap. You know that, right?"

"Of course I do!"

"Didn't you say earlier that it was more expensive than the market rate?"

"I looked into it again, and it wasn't that expensive! If there's demand but no supply, it's only natural for the price to rise!"

"Now you're making sense. Then let's make it 650,000 coins."

"What?"

"Let's go with the proper market rate. In accordance with the law of supply and demand."

"B-but 650,000 is far too expen-"

"You don't need it? Then we'll end the deal here."

"This isn't something I can decide on my own... May I contact my superiors for a moment?"

Was this part of an FBI investigation, too?

Dumbfounded, Selena even asked through Group Chat what the hell Christina was doing, but Christina only glared at her in silence.

'Don't get any strange ideas. Just stay still. Please.'

That was roughly what her eyes seemed to say.

It was the first time Christina had made such a fuss since the Demon King's symbolic form had made its Descent on the American continent.

In truth, there was something even stranger.

"Selena Kim."

"Yes? Ah, yes."

The man who was so cold to Christina was kind to Selena.

"Aren't you thirsty?"

With a gentle smile, the man had someone bring Selena a drink.

"You looked tired, so I thought you could use a sugar boost."

It was a sweet-smelling drink with grains of rice settled at the bottom.

"Ah... I've heard of this drink."

It might have been a trivial gesture of hospitality.

Still, when had she last received even a cup of kindness in this world?

"Thank you..."

Deeply moved, Selena drank the sikhye. The sikhye was sweet, Gwanghwamun's scenery was old-fashioned, and the stars in the sky were clear.

[The Constellation Bald Army General says that a cup of sikhye is the best thing when times are hard.]

[The Constellation Naval Warfare God nods.]

Korea was nice.

* * *

As I blankly watched Selena obediently drink her sikhye, I wondered if I was still under hypnosis.

For reference, the following messages appeared in my head every time Selena took a sip.

[The elderly Constellations of the Korean Peninsula watch polite Selena Kim eat.]

[The Constellations of the Korean Peninsula are proud that you have spread their culture far and wide.]

[The Constellations of the Korean Peninsula have sponsored you with 1,000 coins.]

And those coins were being shamelessly deposited in full to the man currently occupying my body.

'Excuse me, Dokja-ssi.'

Dokja didn't answer.

[Midday Tryst has been extended.]

'Hey.'

- Ah, you extended it? You should've done that sooner.

'...'

- I warned you that the Zarathustra people were coming. What were you thinking?

Was that why he had sent so many Indirect Messages in a row?

I thought he was trying to save coins...

'Could you return my body now?'

- I want to, too... Are you sure? You'll stay like this for an entire day.

Christina Page's Exclusive Skill, [Daily Corpse].

Anyone struck by this skill literally fell asleep like a corpse for a day.

In other words, if Dokja left my body now, it would go limp on the spot.

'But are you all right? Even if you make a Descent like this-'

- Who says I made a Descent? Why would I risk dying from Plausibility Backlash?

Thinking about it, he was right.

This was the seventh Scenario. No matter how high a Constellation's Status was, they couldn't make a Descent directly into a Scenario.

It would be different if he had discarded all his fables and borrowed the power of an Outer God to Possess someone, like Cheon Gae at Seoul Station. But I didn't think Dokja would do something like that.

'Then this is...'

A possibility suddenly came to mind.

'Did you use [Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint]?'

Dokja's Exclusive Skill, [Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint].

- Yeah.

'But how?'

As far as I knew, there were three conditions for Dokja's [Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint] to activate.

First, the target had to be a Character.

Second, the caster and the target had to be thinking of each other at the same time.

Third, the caster had to possess an adequate degree of understanding of the target.

That raised a question.

Even if he could somehow meet the second condition of thinking about each other and the third condition of understanding the target, how had he fulfilled the first condition of being a Character?

'Could it be...'

A bad feeling came over me.

Had I become a Character, just as the other Apostles had undergone Characterization?

If that was why [Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint] had activated...

- Have you forgotten who you Possessed?

'Ah.'

The body Dokja had Possessed through [Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint] wasn't originally mine.

'You Possessed Inho Cheon?'

- That's right.

A belated sigh escaped me.

If the target was Inho Cheon, then the condition of being a Character could certainly be met.

'Then how did you fulfill the condition of us thinking about each other?'

- I don't know either. Didn't you think about me right before you passed out?

'That's true, but I'm not Inho Cheon.'

- Since you thought it while Possessing Inho Cheon, maybe it counted as Inho Cheon's thought.

Was that how it worked?

Something still felt suspicious, but Dokja's plan had succeeded. I couldn't deny that.

'Anyway, thank you. You saved me.'

- It's enough that you know that. Still, you Possessed a really strange body. Of all people, Inho Cheon...

'Well... He is weak.'

- That's not what I mean. Doesn't this body seem strange? Strictly speaking, neither of us is the original owner of this body.

'That's true.'

- Then where is this bastard's soul right now?

'Uh...'

It wasn't something I had thought deeply about before.

I suddenly remembered Shin Yuseong of the forty-first round. Once the soul possessing Yuseong's body left, Shin Yuseong of the forty-first round had regained her own body.

If that was the normal course of events, Inho Cheon's soul should have returned as soon as mine left.

But Inho Cheon's soul hadn't returned.

"Here are 650,000 coins."

Christina, who seemed to have finished contacting her superiors, handed over the coins with a miserable expression.

"The earth dragon species parts are over there."

Dokja coolly snatched up the coins and pointed with his chin at the Grade-4 earth dragon corpse.

Christina checked the corpse without complaint, then nodded.

"Confirmed."

A Subspace Storage appeared from within her clothing. It was a portable storage space used to transport large components.

As expected of Zarathustra. Perhaps because they were sponsored by Asgard, every item they used was high-grade.

"Then we'll be going now."

"Yeah, let's go."

"What?"

"We have to go meet your boss. I told you I wanted to see Anna's face."

Christina and Selena looked at each other, stunned.

Their faces said they had never imagined he would actually act on such a deranged idea.

"Didn't Junghyeok tell you? I said I was going to America too."

"Junghyeok... You mean the Supreme King?"

Perhaps Selena was deeply impressed that he had called Supreme King Yu Junghyeok by that name.

After thinking for a moment, she opened her mouth.

"All right. Let's go together."

"Selena?"

"Christina. We desperately need every bit of help we can get right now. He's coming to help us. There's no reason to refuse."

"No, wait-"

"Then that's settled."

Dokja wrote a short note and handed it to Bang Cheolsu, who had been waiting behind him.

"Bang Cheolsu. Give this to Huiwon-ssi when she wakes up. Keep Gwanghwamun safe until then."

"Yes!"

Bang Cheolsu had no way of knowing whether that was me or Dokja. He could only keep saluting with a moved expression.

"All right, let's go."

* * *

A little later, as I entered the rippling portal, I asked Dokja.

'Patron-nim.'

- What?

'Have you ever been to America?'

The United States of America. The land of freedom.

'It's my first time, so I'm nervous.'

I had lived my entire life in Korea, speaking only Korean.

To think my first trip abroad would happen like this.

In a world that had already been destroyed, no less.

- Once you get there, it won't be much.

I supposed traveling abroad was nothing to a Constellation.

What was a foreign country to beings capable of interstellar travel?

Then a thought occurred to me. Had Dokja ever gone to America in the main story?

"We've arrived."

Maybe because it wasn't an interstellar portal, the spatial transfer ended in an instant.

Dokja and I slowly looked around. Desolate, sand-laden winds blew in from every direction.

Perhaps Selena noticed the faintly disappointed expression on Dokja's face, because she hurriedly added, "This is outside Las Vegas."

As anyone familiar with it would know, Las Vegas was a city built in the middle of a desert.

That meant it wasn't hard to encounter deserted terrain once you went a little way beyond the city.

"Our headquarters is in the city center. Anna and the Supreme King should be there as well. We'll ride this to get there."

Selena pointed to a vehicle parked beside the portal.

It wasn't a vehicle from Earth. It was probably an item bought with coins.

- Hmm. An Asgard-made compact mobile.

Dokja quickly scanned the vehicle's exterior and interior, then nodded.

- It's quite well-made for a standard-issue model. Did Mass Production Maker work on it?

'Have you ridden one before?'

- I heard they're making a standard model of the Ferrari. Looking at it, the interior is similar.

Dokja climbed into the backseat, then immediately became one with the seat.

"How long will it take?"

"It'll take another thirty minutes or so."

"Can I take a nap?"

"Yes? Yes, of course."

Christina, sitting in the driver's seat, nodded with an uncomfortable expression.

I asked in their place.

'You're going to sleep?'

- Yeah. Wake me later.

'No, you're really going to sleep?'

- Do you think [Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint] is free? This has a time limit and consumes Plausibility too. I can't maintain it for twenty-four hours straight, so I have to use it in intervals. I don't have coins to waste here.

Now that he mentioned it, he was right.

'But, Dokja-ssi.'

Dokja deserved to be hit for that.

'What happened to the coins you squeezed out of me?'

- Huh?

'You told me the earth dragon species parts were worth around 300,000 coins to me. But you sold them for 500,000... No, 650,000 coins. And that isn't all-'

[The Exclusive Skill Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint has ended.]

'Dokja-ssi?'

No answer came back.

Had I actually made a contract with the Demon King of Nine Won?

I thought I could hear Dokja snoring somewhere.

Looking closely, my body was snoring.

Selena, seated in the passenger seat, turned around.

"Inho Cheon-ssi?"

After waving her hand in front of my face several times, Selena sighed in disbelief.

I was dumbfounded too, so Selena must have felt even worse.

"My God, Christina. This man has really fallen asleep. It looks like your hypnosis is finally working on him."

"Congratulations. That was the most irritating thing you've said to me so far."

"Why were you acting like that earlier? It wasn't like you."

Selena carefully brought up what had happened before.

I had been curious about it too.

From my perspective, Christina had been excessively afraid of Kim Dokja.

If he had Possessed someone through [Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint], rather than [Descent], the Status of the Demon King of Salvation couldn't have fully carried over.

Besides, Christina was an Incarnation affiliated with the great nebula Asgard, just like Anna Croft.

"I haven't been able to contact Asgard at all since earlier."

"Isn't that common?"

"fabled-grade Constellations are one thing, but the Historical ones answer when you contact them. They're on standby twenty-four hours a day."

That was interesting.

They had lost contact with all of Asgard?

If the great nebula had mobilized even its Historical Constellations, something serious must have happened within it...

After checking something, tension appeared on Selena's face as well.

"I can't contact them either. What could possibly be happening..."

"Actually, right before we left, I barely managed to contact one Historical Constellation. But they asked me something strange."

"Something strange?"

The moment I heard what came next, my heart turned cold.

"They asked whether that Incarnation smelled like a demon king."

Asgard knew about the Demon King of Salvation.

Footnotes:

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