WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 711: Episode 26: Star Ladder (7)

──────

A space painted in monochrome.

A plain whiteboard hung there.

Kim Dokja Company

Lee Gilyeong stared blankly at the words on the board.

The board bore traces of various people's handwriting, words written and erased over and over. When Han Suyeong first wrote those words, Jihye asked,

「"But didn't our company disband?"」

Suyeong muttered, "For once, that's a reasonable point," and changed the writing.

Then Lee Seolhwa tilted her head.

「"Wasn't it Han Suyeong Corporation?"」

Suyeong tilted her head and blankly muttered, "Did I lose my memories when I made an [Avatar] last time?" As she did, the Allies holding pens each wrote something different on the board.

Someone laughed, and someone else corrected what another person had written.

After several rounds of writing and erasing, the whiteboard became as messy as a snow-covered road after the snow had melted.

「"Junghyeok-ssi, can't you think of anything?"」

Junghyeok glared contemptuously at the Allies, as if he had no intention of joining in, then looked out the window.

They went through dozens of rounds of writing and erasing.

Kim Dokja Company

In the end, those were the only words left to them. The only words they were allowed to have.

Gilyeong reached toward the empty space between "Kim Dokja" and "Company." It was a blank space filled only with traces of countless things people had written and erased.

"Shin Yuseong. Should we have done nothing?"

Without answering, Yuseong stared blankly at the same empty space between "Kim Dokja" and "Company."

Their history lay within that space.

The time they crossed worldlines and came to the forty-first round to find Dokja.

The time they met a new "Dokja" there.

The time they interfered with the worldline to change the story of the forty-first round.

And then...

Lee Seolhwa poked her head through the wide-open door. Yu Sangah was with her, looking slightly tired.

Gilyeong shot to his feet and asked,

"How did it go, Noonas?"

"What about Suyeong-unni?"

It had already been a week since their connection to the forty-first round was cut off.

A week was only a week in name. They had no way of knowing how long that week here would be over there.

"It can't be, right?"

Unlike them, Suyeong had infiltrated the forty-first round directly instead of using the Fable Connection Device Seolhwa made.

She used an enormous amount of Plausibility there and opened her fables, saving Lee Hakhyeon, the 49% Kim Dokja.

Then...

"Suyeong-unni went in as an Avatar."

Suyeong's Avatar saved Hakhyeon and vanished.

"Even if an Avatar dies, it's fine as long as the original body doesn't die."

Suyeong was the only one among them who could freely handle [Avatar].

She understood TWSA and this world better than anyone.

To prepare for the worst, Suyeong had left her original body here so she could regain consciousness even if something unfortunate happened in the forty-first round.

Then why...

"Why isn't she waking up?"

Suyeong hadn't woken up since the Absolute Throne Scenario of the forty-first round ended.

At first, they thought she was secretly wandering around somewhere after using [Avatar] again.

But one day passed, then two, then a week, and the sleeping Suyeong still didn't wake up.

More precisely,

"Why can't we feel any fables from Suyeong-unni?"

They couldn't feel her fables.

What that meant was clear.

In the Star Stream, existence was a "story."

And if that story had stopped...

"She's alive."

Sangah spoke.

"She has to be alive. You know what kind of person Suyeong is."

What kind of person was Suyeong?

Neither Yuseong nor Gilyeong could easily answer that question anymore.

They didn't even know whether the Dokja they knew had truly been Dokja.

What had they been looking at when they looked at Dokja? Had they ever truly looked at one another?

"What about that black bastard?"

As if that weren't enough, they had lost contact with Junghyeok as well. The last time they heard from him had also been right after the Absolute Throne Scenario.

It was about time for him to return, so why hadn't he contacted them at all?

[The Fable Connection Device reacts to a Plausibility surge!]

The Allies all raised their heads at the sudden message.

[Additional Plausibility has arisen in the worldline!]

Additional Plausibility. No one needed to explain what that meant.

"I'll connect."

For some reason, the world had gained excess Plausibility.

In other words, they could interfere with the forty-first round now at the lowest possible cost.

"I said I'd go this time."

Yuseong released killing intent toward the growling Gilyeong.

Sangah stopped the two children, who looked ready to start fighting at any moment.

"I'll go."

"No, Unni! You need to stay here."

"No, I'll go and summon the bugs! Constellations or whoever, I'll sweep them all away..."

Seolhwa interrupted them.

"Someone is already drawing on the Plausibility."

That was impossible.

The Plausibility surge had only just occurred. Who could already be using it?

The Allies looked at one another at the same time.

Sangah was the first to speak.

"Biyoo. Show us the area where the Plausibility surge occurred."

From somewhere, a cry rang out.

Baaat!

A screen appeared shortly afterward.

"That black bastard!"

Junghyeok was on the other side of the screen, facing off against Constellations.

* * *

Right after failing to breach the Void Curtain, Yu Junghyeok hid in the nearby Nexus of the Constellations and waited.

Hounds had pursued him for interfering with the worldline, but fortunately, he had one useful Ally.

"Damn it! Don't tell me you brought me here to make me clean up after you."

There was a man named Jaehwan, whom he had brought from the world of the Phantasmagoric Tree.

After dumping the Hounds Chasing the Abyss on him, Junghyeok concealed his existence with the minimum amount of Plausibility and waited for an opportunity.

Normally, he wouldn't have waited so inefficiently.

This time, though, the situation was unusual.

'Han Suyeong.'

Something broke through the Void Curtain and barged into the forty-first round right after Suyeong disappeared.

Junghyeok immediately recognized what it was.

'Kim Dokja.'

It was undeniably Kim Dokja.

At least, a very large part of the Dokja he remembered.

So Junghyeok waited.

For some reason, Dokja appeared right after Suyeong vanished.

If Dokja really was beyond that Void Curtain.

If that Dokja truly was the Dokja he remembered.

「That guy will definitely twist Plausibility at least once.」

Junghyeok believed that and waited.

He endured his fables breaking apart and his memories wearing away, waiting and waiting.

Then...

[The Great Fable Ginnungagap begins its story.]

At last, the signal arrived.

Junghyeok, who had been on the far side of the moon, immediately checked the condition of Earth in the forty-first round.

Earth was covered by the Void Curtain, so he couldn't see inside.

Still, he could guess what was happening.

The Great Fable "Ginnungagap."

If Asgard's Great Fable moved at this point, it had to be related to Dokja.

Nothing like that could happen unless that bastard was doing something absurd.

[The Scale of Plausibility has tilted!]

[Additional Plausibility overflows!]

Yu Junghyeok ran across space.

Explosive fables accelerated his entire body. Normally, that would have been impossible. He no longer had any Plausibility available to him.

This Scenario was different.

[The rule of the Scale of Plausibility is active in this Scenario.]

In this Scenario, if someone tipped the scale first, he could intervene too.

He could ignore the laws of Plausibility and interfere with the Scenario.

[What are you...]

A Constellation trying to enter the area within the Void Curtain with the power of its nebula was caught by the throat by Junghyeok.

The Constellation struggled in Junghyeok's grip and spewed out its Status. It seemed to be a Constellation related to fire, as waves of scorching heat rolled off its red-hot Incarnation body.

Of course, Junghyeok didn't budge.

"Historical?"

Without a word, Junghyeok gripped its throat and detonated his fables.

The Constellation was reduced to dust along with its Incarnation body. Fables that had once been part of a star struck the curtain and shattered into fragments.

Junghyeok looked silently down at the remnants of the star scattering into nothingness, then spoke.

"Come out already. You trash."

The Incarnation bodies of the Constellations hiding near the curtain revealed themselves one after another. Their stiff expressions showed that they had witnessed the previous battle.

[Hey, who was that guy who just died?]

[Guardian of Small Horns.]

[That star was about to advance to fabled-grade... It was taken out in one blow?]

Junghyeok lightly circulated his Mana and checked his condition.

Perhaps because he had remained in another worldline for too long, his fables wouldn't obey him as he wanted.

'Can't even use half my full strength.'

His body was a mess. His fables wouldn't listen to him either.

Still, he could fight well enough like this.

At least, he could stop the Constellations from interfering with the forty-first round.

And if he was lucky, he might find a way to get beneath the Void Curtain.

"Asgard. Why are you here?"

The stars flinched at Junghyeok's voice.

"Answer me. Why did Ginnungagap activate? Earth has only just reached the seventh Scenario. Why did you decide to intervene?"

The moment Junghyeok took a step forward, a small distortion formed in distant space. Interstellar space churned as time and space repeatedly contracted and expanded.

The nearby Constellations gasped and retreated.

[I-it's coming...]

Junghyeok could sense it too.

Something was coming here.

Very old and powerful beings.

[The Constellation Goddess of Love and Cats glares at you!]

A terrifying Status swirled before Junghyeok's eyes, and before long, four Constellations arrived before him.

[The Constellation God of Harp and Horn reveals hostility toward you.]

[The Constellation One Whose Arm Was Lost to the Wolf of Destruction frowns!]

[The Constellation Protector of the Great Horns warns you.]

They were fabled-grade Constellations representing Asgard.

The Historical Constellations that recognized them cried out.

[F-fabled-grade Constellation-nims...!]

[I can't believe it.]

Freyja, Goddess of Love and Cats.

Bragi, God of Harp and Horn.

Tyr, One Whose Arm Was Lost to the Wolf of Destruction.

Heimdall, Protector of the Great Horns.

All of them were Asgard's Constellations, comparable to Olympus's Twelve Gods. Beings that lowly Historical Constellations found difficult even to meet.

Four such stars had manifested at once.

[Is that the Puppet of an Abandoned Dream?]

[His presence is as formidable as Father said.]

More shocking still was that only after Asgard's four fabled-grade Representatives appeared did the balance of the broken Scale slowly begin to return to normal.

[Does that really mean that bastard alone is equal to all four of us?]

Tyr, One Whose Arm Was Lost to the Wolf of Destruction, frowned and stepped forward.

Tyr, who possessed a large body from inheriting the blood of giants, freely revealed his fables as he approached Junghyeok.

Junghyeok looked up at Tyr and muttered,

"Smaller than my teacher."

[What?]

The instant Tyr asked that, Yu Junghyeok took a step.

Two steps. Three steps.

They were only steps.

Yet why was that?

As Tyr watched Junghyeok walk toward him through the void, he felt an inexplicable tremor.

He had felt this same tremor long ago.

It was unbelievable.

Tyr was a fabled-grade Constellation, one standing at Asgard's very peak.

The only beings Tyr feared were the Wolf of Destruction that bit off his arm, and his father, greater than any star in the world.

"Want to lose your other arm too?"

Junghyeok slowly drew his sword.

Rumbblee!

A wave of fearsome Status rang out from the other side of the universe. It sounded like distant thunder.

A wave powerful enough that even Junghyeok wouldn't come away unharmed if it struck him head-on.

A strange light passed through Junghyeok's eyes. He knew who owned that lightning.

[The Constellation One-Eyed Father glares at you.]

One-Eyed Father.

Odin, Asgard's strongest Mythical Constellation.

He hadn't intervened directly, but a Mythical Constellation had expressed his will.

Ruuumble.

An explosion sounded from beyond the Void Curtain. Something was probably happening over there too.

"I see."

Junghyeok's Black Heaven Demon Blade turned a vivid gold.

"If you want to go down, I'll knock every last one of you down."

At the signal, the stars moved.

A massive swarm of meteors rushed at him all at once.

The fables unleashed by the Constellations tangled with the paths of the Sky Splitter Sword Art, brilliantly coloring the sky of the Star Stream.

Stars began to fall from the night sky.

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried