Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint - Chapter 721

WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 721: Episode 27: Recycling Center (4)

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The startled Incarnations reached for me. I nimbly evaded their hands and kicked off the ground. As I began to pick up speed, the Incarnations fell behind me one by one.

"How can he..."

"He's carrying that kid on his back!"

Eleventh, tenth, ninth, eighth...

My rank soared in an instant.

Once I had accelerated enough to approach the leading group, I caught sight of Flying Fox's back ahead of me. He had climbed the rankings with his characteristically nimble legs, and he exclaimed in admiration.

"Huh, that's an ingenious method."

Fortunately, Flying Fox didn't attack me.

"Are you using the fable of the 'Rat'?"

I nodded.

Originally, the "Twelve Zodiac Race" was a story in which the "Rat" won.

More precisely, the "Rat" rode on the back of the diligently running "Ox" and won.

In other words, I was currently playing the role of the "Ox" carrying the "Rat."

[Simplified Stage Transformation is active!]

「Simplified Stage Transformation」.

It was difficult to expect the same effect as ordinary Stage Transformation, but with my skills and Stigmas sealed, this was still an excellent buff.

Even swift-footed Flying Fox was gradually falling behind me.

"It isn't over yet. Don't let your guard down."

Flying Fox warned me.

"Only vicious Incarnations have drifted all the way here."

Before he could finish speaking, an Incarnation from the leading group threw a shuriken at me.

I quickly ducked beneath it, then took a long stride and slammed into his back.

"Urgh!"

The Incarnation rolled across the ground, and the other Incarnations in the leading group joined in with murderous looks in their eyes.

"You aren't getting past us! Stop him!"

As if they could.

How could they stop me when their Stigmas and skills were sealed?

Of course, there was a way to use fables, but among Incarnations who had only reached the eighth Scenario, those capable of handling fables should have been...

"Bind his feet!"

Apparently, they weren't as rare as I thought.

[The Fable Fragment Farmer Plowing the Fields begins its story!]

Rumble!

[The Fable Fragment Farmer Plowing the Fields has ruined the field!]

My feet began sinking into the track, and before long, the terrain changed into uneven furrows like a plowed field.

"Farmer Plowing the Fields."

Did that Incarnation have a Patron like "Land Reclamation Specialist" or "Developer of Rice Transplanting Methods"?

Still, using that Fable Fragment was a mistake.

After all, I was currently receiving the blessing of the "Ox."

[The energy of a charging ox erupts from your body!]

[The Constellation One Who Made the Rat Win smiles.]

Oxen were meant for farm work.

"Damn it, he got even faster!"

"Idiot, that's what happens when you use a fragment like that!"

The flustered Incarnations at the front blamed each other as they rushed at me.

I lightly deflected their spears and blades with "Unbreakable Faith" and pushed into the lead.

Only two Incarnations remained ahead of me.

One of them, who had been running in second place, blew a breath toward the ground.

[The Fable Fragment Sigh of the Frozen One begins its story!]

A cold wind made the muscles in my legs rapidly stiffen.

[The Fable Fragment Sigh of the Frozen One coils around your ankles.]

To think there were already Incarnations who could handle Fable Fragments at this level.

I went over the fables I possessed in my head. None of them seemed suited to this situation.

Then the kid on my back spoke.

"Keep running."

[The Fable Fragment Scream of Scorching Flames begins its story!]

I was a little surprised.

「Scream of Scorching Flames」.

It was a Fable Fragment I had read about in TWSA.

A fragment that could only be acquired by someone who had fought one of the dragonkin kings, the "Red Flame Dragon."

Yet it made no sense. There was no way an Incarnation who had only reached the eighth Scenario could have fought the Red Flame Dragon.

Unless he had happened to find the Fable Fragment lying around somewhere...

[The Fable Fragment Scream of Scorching Flames melts the cold.]

Perhaps handling the Fable Fragment was overwhelming for him, because the kid shouted with a deep frown.

"We don't have time! Faster! I have to come in first!"

Only one Incarnation remained in the lead.

The finish line was now visible in the distance. Then, with the line just ahead, the Incarnation running before me looked back.

It was an Incarnation wearing a tiger mask.

"You're not bad."

Contrary to Flying Fox's words, the Recycling Center wasn't necessarily a place where only weak Incarnations gathered.

[The Fable Fragment One Chosen by the Tiger God begins its story.]

When weak animals gathered, predators naturally came to hunt them.

The leading Incarnation was one of those predators.

Both of his hands swelled enormously, soon taking the shape of a tiger's forepaws.

Judging by the Fable Fragment, he might have been an Incarnation connected to the "Tiger" among the Twelve Zodiacs.

Panting, I asked, "Do you know the Tiger That Eats Rice Cakes?"

The tiger mask's shoulders twitched at my sudden question.

Grinning, I continued.

"It supports me often."

"Don't lie! The Constellation of the great tiger clan would never support the likes of you..."

"Tiger That Eats Rice Cakes! Are you watching?"

Startled, he looked up into the air.

Unfortunately, the Tiger That Eats Rice Cakes didn't respond.

That was fine. I only needed an opening to catch up to him.

"You!"

The tiger mask realized I was running alongside him and thrust out a vicious forepaw.

Supporting the kid's butt with one hand, I swung "Unbreakable Faith" with the other.

[The fable Persistent Martial Arts Master begins its story!]

Had I improved quite a bit in the meantime? The feeling of the Historical-grade fable settling into my hand was distinctly different.

"Unbreakable Faith" spewed Mana and released fierce sword qi, making the tiger mask's eyes widen.

"That's not a Fable Fragment, it's a real fable...?"

The blade wrapped in fable power collided with his forepaw, and waves of Mana kept bursting out.

[The fable Persistent Martial Arts Master stumbles over its story.]

Was it because this wasn't a fable I had built myself? The Ark's fable didn't display satisfying destructive power.

It also meant my Status still wasn't high enough.

Still, it was only a Historical-grade fable.

I once again realized how far I still had to go.

"Graaah! I can't lose! Tiger God! Grant me the power of the tiger!"

Blue aura surged from his entire body as he shouted a strange chant.

While I blocked his incoming forepaws, the tiger mask began pulling three or four steps ahead of me.

A little over a hundred meters remained until the finish line.

Beyond it, the rewards for this Scenario were displayed.

Kim Dokja's Fable Fragment.

[The fable Heir to an Eternal Name smacks its lips.]

If you want it that badly, help me, you bastard.

[The fable Heir to an Eternal Name snorts as if it can't be bothered.]

At that moment, fierce Mana surged from my right arm.

"Argh!"

Unable to withstand the shock of the Mana wave, the tiger mask tumbled across the ground.

I leaped over him and sprinted at full speed.

It would be nice if I could come in first, but unfortunately, now that I had taken on the role of the "Ox," that was impossible.

If I took first place here, I would probably be swept up in the Plausibility Backlash of Simplified Stage Transformation.

"Kid. Go."

The kid gripped my shoulder as though asking if I was truly okay with this.

"It's fine. The second-place reward is what I want anyway."

"You're a really strange person."

"That's when you're supposed to say thank you."

The kid kicked off my shoulder and crossed the finish line.

"I owe you one."

A thin, faint voice remained behind the kid as he soared into the air.

A bitter smile slipped out before I knew it.

Even that was tremendous progress.

If that kid really was the one I thought he was.

[The Sub Scenario has ended!]

[You have successfully completed the Twelve Zodiac Race.]

[You have completed the Twelve Zodiac Race in second place.]

[You have acquired the Fable Fragment Right Arm of a Swordmaster Betrayed by His Companion.]

[The Constellation One Who Made the Rat Win is satisfied with your reenactment of the fable.]

[The Constellation One Who Made the Rat Win sponsors you with 1,000 Coins.]

[You have acquired access to the Recycling Center.]

The other Incarnations crossed the finish line one after another.

"I-I lived! Damn it!"

"Patron! I passed!"

"No! I don't want this! Aaaaah!"

A sinkhole opened in the track, and the Incarnation who came in last fell into it.

Unfortunately, the eliminated Incarnation was the one from the tiger clan who had fought me until the end. It seemed the impact of our final clash had left him with serious internal injuries.

I immediately checked the reward I had acquired.

「Right Arm of a Swordmaster Betrayed by His Companion」

A Fable Fragment Dokja had acquired at the Scenario Horizon, and the Fable Fragment the Demon King of Salvation had used to save me.

The moment I activated it, strength filled my right arm, accompanied by a voice I missed dearly.

「You did well, kid.」

I didn't know if it was something he had truly left behind or if it had simply been embedded in this Fable Fragment by chance.

Still, the moment I heard that voice, I firmly remembered what I had to do once more.

[The fable Heir to an Eternal Name nods.]

[The fable Heir to an Eternal Name declares that it will eat now.]

What?

[The fable Heir to an Eternal Name devours the Fable Fragment Right Arm of a Swordmaster Betrayed by His Companion!]

[15 days have been added to your time limit.]

[The Status of the fable Heir to an Eternal Name has slightly increased.]

[Your understanding of the Fable Fragment Right Arm of a Swordmaster Betrayed by His Companion has greatly increased!]

The fable it devoured didn't disappear. Instead, my understanding of the fable increased.

[The fable Heir to an Eternal Name looks at you as if you are pathetic.]

Thinking about it, that was only natural.

「Heir to an Eternal Name」 was a fable that existed to complete the "one and only Kim Dokja."

There was no way it couldn't use the powers Dokja possessed.

"You're really fast. I'm impressed."

Flying Fox, who had come in third, said as he dusted off the hem of his pants.

The third-place reward was the "Shoes of Greed."

It was a somewhat inferior item compared to the first- and second-place rewards, but he seemed satisfied.

"Do you have any companions? If you don't mind, I think it would be good for us to travel together inside the center."

Flying Fox was the only Incarnation who hadn't attacked me. There was nothing wrong with traveling with him.

But.

"I have a companion."

I looked at the jet-black kid a few steps away, clutching the first-place reward.

Flying Fox asked in a slightly surprised voice, "Are you companions with that kid?"

"More precisely, we'll become companions soon."

Leaving Flying Fox behind as he tilted his head, I walked straight toward the jet-black kid.

The kid tightly clutched the "Noble One's Battle Boots," the first-place reward, in both hands as he muttered, "I finally found them..."

I wondered if my expression had looked the same when I acquired the Demon King of Salvation's Fable Fragment.

His eyes were those of a child who had recovered something precious.

"Are they important to you?"

The kid didn't answer.

Of course, it wasn't a question that required an answer.

I already knew what those boots meant to him.

I recalled lonely footprints stamped into a distant snowfield.

「"Captain, why don't your feet smell?"」

Fifth round.

「"Master, can I put a sticker here?"」

Ninety-eighth round.

「"Would you consider trading those boots for my military boots?"」

One hundred and eighty-sixth round.

No matter which round he lived through, he always wore those battle boots.

The stickers Jihye had put on them and the traces of Hyeongseong's blood had disappeared as the rounds changed, but he continued wearing those boots anyway.

He walked the same path in them, again and again.

"Why don't you come clean now?"

The jet-black kid looked up at me.

"Why did you end up like that?"

I had suspected it from the first moment I saw him. That suspicion became certainty the moment I saw the Red Flame Dragon's Fable Fragment he possessed.

There was no way an Incarnation in this worldline had already encountered the Red Flame Dragon.

Except for one person.

"Yu Junghyeok."

It wouldn't have been strange for Yu Junghyeok of the forty-first round to possess that Fable Fragment. He would have already fought the Red Flame Dragon in the fortieth round.

In any case, reuniting with Junghyeok here was fortunate.

The eighth Scenario was the Recycling Center, a place even Dokja had been wary of.

He had been unconscious while I fought the Constellations and had been no help at all, but if Junghyeok was awake and clear-headed, I wouldn't have to fear any Scenario that came for a while.

"I thought you were finally going to earn your keep, so why did you become a kid?"

The problem was that body, which had become weak at a glance.

Who would think that frail frame belonged to Junghyeok?

"I don't know what you're talking about. Move."

Was he trying to hide his identity?

Still, something felt strange to simply leave it at that.

In the Star Stream, fame became fables. Junghyeok, who knew that well, had no reason to pretend to be a weakling.

"Yu Junghyeok?"

Then, with a foreboding feeling, I remembered what my Patron had said.

「"Truth's Shackles is a power you can use in exchange for part of your memories of the past."」

No way.

I looked down at the child Junghyeok.