Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint - Chapter 719

WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 719: Episode 27: Recycling Center (2)

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I landed in a dense forest.

[Enter the eighth Scenario Area.]

[Dokkaebi fire guides you.]

The Dokkaebi fire buzzed before me like a tiny firefly.

However, I didn't move immediately. I needed to figure out where I was first.

It was late at night. Lush broadleaf trees covered the sky, making the forest feel ominous and frightening.

The stars were nowhere to be seen.

I couldn't hear any Indirect Messages, either.

A few hypotheses came to mind.

Firstly, this was an area the Constellations still couldn't see.

Secondly, I was on the outskirts of the Scenario, where the Constellations had no interest.

Whichever hypothesis was correct, avoiding combat as much as possible was the best choice in my current condition.

The cries of animals occasionally echoed through the forest.

I crouched low, held my breath, and slipped into the bushes.

“Dokkaebi Compendium.”

Fortunately, the Dokkaebi Compendium was functioning normally.

I bought the items I needed to sleep outdoors from the Compendium.

[The item Odor Removal Spray has been purchased.]

[The item Camp Bed has been purchased.]

[The item Someone's Old Blanket has been purchased.]

[You have used a total of 800 coins.]

The Demon King of Salvation had once recommended them as useful items for sleeping outdoors.

After spraying the area, I set up the Camp Bed and covered it with Someone's Old Blanket.

The blanket rippled like ectoplasm before slowly blending into the surroundings. From the outside, there was no way to tell a shelter was hidden among the bushes.

[You have completed a Hidden Item combination.]

[The special option Outside the Blanket Is Dangerous has activated.]

When I squeezed into the transparent blanket, I could see outside clearly from within.

The only downside was how cramped it was. There was barely enough room for one adult man to lie down.

It didn't matter, since I was the only Ally anyway.

As I slowly curled up beneath the thick blanket, a strangely familiar memory began to surface.

「“Your eyes will get bad if you read there.”」

I remembered hiding beneath a blanket, turning on a small night light, and reading a book.

Was it my memory, or Dokja's?

「“It's okay.”」

Did it really matter whose memory it was or where it had come from?

「“Don't stay up too late.”」

I turned on the smartphone Dokja had left behind and began reading TWSA.

* * *

A day passed, then another two.

My daily routine was simple.

[Dokkaebi fire guides you.]

During the day, I followed the Dokkaebi fire through the forest. At night, I read TWSA and took short naps inside the blanket tent.

Sometimes, I encountered beast species.

Grrrrrr!

Most of the beast species I encountered were Tier-7 or Tier-8.

After two days of camping, my body had recovered enough for me to fight them.

The one I encountered most often was a giant boar.

[The Tier-7 Monster Forest Boar has appeared.]

I was about to take out my weapon as usual when I suddenly remembered that the Demon King of Salvation had borrowed Thought of Almost Everything.

Fortunately, I still had one weapon I could use instead.

Unbreakable Faith.

Dokja's main weapon, and the weapon left behind by the vanished Han Suyeong.

The bright blade of [White Pure Star Energy], which I had become fairly skilled with, flashed.

「Youngest, how did I say you should use [White Pure Star Energy]?」

I barely avoided the Forest Boar's huge tusks and used the fable "Persistent Martial Arts Master" to refine my sword path.

Blood poured from the boar's side as it collapsed.

[You have defeated the Tier-7 Monster Forest Boar.]

After collecting its core, I immediately began butchering it. I hadn't eaten anything for two days.

「You must never starve. Your mind won't work properly without enough energy. Yu Junghyeok eats eight meals a day.」

I found and read "How to Butcher a Forest Boar" in TWSA.

I removed the poison-covered tusks, skinned it, took out the entrails, and carved the meat from its spine.

Then I gathered twigs and started a fire.

I didn't have a [Mana Brazier], but I had reached the point where I could make a cooking fire without one.

「Youngest, which round did I say Yu Junghyeok was best at cooking in?」

I referred to Junghyeok's eighty-first round recipe for the boar. Still, even though I followed his recipe, the food somehow didn't turn out well.

It was probably because I wasn't Junghyeok.

「Yu Junghyeok thought, ‘Could I perhaps achieve Transcendence through cooking as well?’」

Living alone taught me several obvious things.

For example, not all beast species were as delicious as Ground Rats or Yanaspleta.

「Seeing Kim Namwoon hurriedly vomit what he had just eaten, Yu Junghyeok thought, ‘This ingredient can't be made edible through cooking.’」

I had to butcher beast species three or four times a day and store emergency rations in case I failed to hunt.

「Seeing Kim Namwoon foaming at the mouth, Yu Junghyeok thought, ‘Eating this fruit results in death within one minute.’」

Even in an apocalypse, hygiene had to be maintained. I also had to wash in running water from time to time.

「“Kim Namwoon, you smell foul.”

Lee Jihye moved away while pinching her nose.

“Ugh...”」

If there was nowhere to wash, I could buy and use [Clean Body] from the Dokkaebi Compendium.

「Kim Namwoon immediately used [Clean Body].」

[The item Clean Body is being used.]

[50 coins have been consumed.]

Three days passed, then a fourth.

It had been a long time since I had been alone like this.

I suddenly remembered when I had first started living on my own.

「Kim Namwoon begged. “Boss, can't I eat first this time?”」

Humans had to eat something every day to survive.

「Yu Junghyeok ordered, “No. From now on, you're in charge of the laundry too, Kim Namwoon.”」

Someone had to keep running the washing machine for clean clothes.

「Yu Junghyeok ordered, “You're also in charge of cleaning up the monsters, Kim Namwoon.”」

If I didn't clean up after eating right away, bugs would swarm around it.

「Yu Junghyeok ordered, “And pay me ten thousand coins a day.”」

I had to work and earn money to pay rent and resident tax.

Through firsthand experience with those completely obvious facts, I barely managed to grow into an adult capable of living on my own.

「Yu Junghyeok ordered, “Practice slashing twenty thousand times a day.”」

The things that had to be done to become an ordinary adult.

「Kim Namwoon asked, “Damn it, how am I supposed to do all that?”」

Since when had Dokja been doing all those things alone?

「Yu Junghyeok answered, “I did.”」

I often thought of Dokja, who must have endured his childhood alone without his parents. I thought of the Demon King of Salvation before anyone could save him.

A boy who worked to earn money, did laundry, ate meals, washed dishes, occasionally paid rent, and read TWSA before going to sleep.

「Yu Junghyeok answered, “You do it too.”」

Thinking of that boy, I read TWSA as well.

Then a week passed.

Hunting beast species had become much more natural. I butchered them faster, and my skills had improved.

I repeatedly read TWSA, looking up the information I needed.

I could properly distinguish what was edible from what wasn't.

Whenever I found a stream, I checked the water quality and stored drinking water.

I often washed my face in the cold water. My face was reflected in the strangely clear stream.

[The fable Heir to an Eternal Name is staring at you.]

For some reason, my face seemed to have changed slightly.

Was it an illusion?

[Collect a new Kim Dokja Fragment.]

[Time remaining until death: 9 days 12:53.]

“I should start looking for a new Fragment.”

[The Recycling Center responds to your muttering.]

The Recycling Center.

Over the past week, I had searched through all of TWSA and gathered every piece of information about the eighth Scenario.

[The Recycling Center senses the potential for a new protagonist within you.]

Originally, the eighth Scenario on the Korean Peninsula was Dark Castle.

It was a stage that existed to select the master of a new Demon Realm, the 73rd Demon Realm.

Yet the eighth stage of the forty-first round was the Recycling Center.

「If Dark Castle is a stage for selecting a new demon king, then the Recycling Center is a stage for selecting a new Constellation.」

It was an Area that could only be reached through the Star Ladder.

「An Incarnation who graduates from the Recycling Center can become a Constellation regardless of their origin.」

According to TWSA, I could use the Recycling Center to attain the status of a Constellation while still having a Patron.

At first glance, it wasn't a bad Scenario.

「But Yu Junghyeok had hardly ever used the Recycling Center.」

The problem was that the Recycling Center was so difficult that even Junghyeok, the regressor, shook his head at it.

I could understand why the Demon King of Salvation had avoided this Scenario.

Still, he had sent me here in the end.

[Dokkaebi fire has finished its guidance.]

[You have arrived at the Gathering Point.]

At last, the Dokkaebi fire's guidance came to an end.

I looked around.

I had arrived at an entrance leading somewhere. A guide stood there, holding a small attendance sheet.

“Hmm.”

The guide wore a sheep mask.

“Was there still someone who hadn't entered?”

The guide looked me over from head to toe, then spoke in a bored voice.

“Looks like you're from a backwater nebula. Am I right?”

“I don't belong to a nebula.”

“Huh. Really. You don't even have a nebula?”

Perhaps feeling sorry for me, the guide suddenly began saying strange things.

“Some crazy Patron has thrown another Incarnation into a deadly situation. Did you come here after being fooled by a fable like "A Dragon Rises from a Stream" too?”

Apparently, there was a fable like that.

“I don't know what story you heard or where you heard it, but you'd be better off turning back if you can. An Incarnation like you will become prey the moment you enter.”

“Thank you, but I want to enter the Recycling Center.”

Unaware of my circumstances, the guide shook their head as if another pathetic amateur had appeared.

“Well, it's your life. I have to ask you a few things if you want to pass. Is that all right?”

I nodded.

“Region of origin?”

“Seoul Dome.”

“Do you have any fables?”

“Yes.”

“How many fables do you have?”

“Three that I built myself.”

“Three that you built yourself...”

The guide stopped writing and asked, “You've built three fables? Who recommended you?”