WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 73: Episode 15 - A Kingless World (3)
──────
I had built up my first fable. With this, I had achieved the main objective of the Fourth Scenario.
“What the hell is about to happen?”
“No, why did you break the throne?!”
Some people were bewildered because they couldn't understand what was happening, while others were already terrified of what the enraged dokkaebi might do. From their point of view, I was the unforgivable criminal who had made the Fifth Scenario harder. Some of them even shouted at the dokkaebi.
“Make the Absolute Throne again! We’ll take part in the Scenario!”
“Let’s decide the true owner of the throne this time!”
[No one can change a Scenario that has already ended. Therefore, everything that happens to you from now on is because of that human.]
The mid-grade dokkaebi’s answer was cold. The dokkaebi’s finger pointed at me, and freezing wind and rain shook the people’s soaked shoulders.
[A Kingless World? Good. Try living without a center. I’ll be watching to see how well you can survive.]
The mid-grade dokkaebi snapped its fingers. At once, the people in Gwanghwamun started vanishing one after another like smoke. People screamed and fled.
“What is this? What the hell is this?!”
...This wasn’t part of the plan. When I turned around, the rest of my companions, including Huiwon, Sangah, and Gilyeong, were calling out to me.
“Dokja-ssi!”
The next moment, Sangah vanished. Then Gilyeong, Huiwon, and even Jeong Minseop and Lee Seongguk. Less than a minute after the dokkaebi snapped its coarse fingers, I was the only one left in the wide expanse of Gwanghwamun. The mid-grade dokkaebi looked at me with a chilling smile.
[Remember this. If this world is destroyed, it will be because of you.]
The instant I tried to speak, a sharp snap rang out.
The world around me lurched, and my body moved somewhere else. Severe nausea and a splitting headache came with it. My mental energy had already been badly drained, and I lost consciousness on the spot.
[You have obtained 10,000 coins as the settlement reward for the Fourth Scenario.]
* * *
Maybe I was exhausted from my excessive contact with the Constellations, because I slept for quite a long time. I even dreamed. It was a dream from before the destruction had begun.
「Hey, Kim Dokja. What are you doing?」
The moment I heard that voice, I realized this was from my high school days. Back when I used to get beaten up by bullies. Right. Something like this had happened, too. It was childish, but it still made me angry all over again.
「Oh? Look at those eyes. You want to kill someone?」
The bastard’s headlock made it hard to breathe. The blood pooling in my split lip, the humiliation burning in my numb cheek. My arms, legs, shoulders. Pain throbbed through every part of me. Even though it was a dream, it hurt more than reality. Maybe that was because there was no [The Fourth Wall] there.
「What? Pissed off? Then stab me. You can have your ugly mug plastered all over the papers too, just like your mom.」
My clenched fist trembled, but I couldn’t bring myself to hit the bastard. What had I been thinking back then?
「...If only I were Yu Junghyeok.」
Right, that was it. Pathetically enough, that was exactly the kind of thought I’d been having. That was when I had still been avidly reading TWSA. I could see the bastard’s name on the school badge.
Song Minwoo.
I wonder what that bastard is doing now. I remembered hearing that, thug though he was, he got into a good university and landed a good job, too. That was the first time I thought the world was unfair. Though who knew if he was still alive now.
[Exclusive Skill, The Fourth Wall has activated.]
The scenery of the dream collapsed, and I was left in darkness once more.
[Exclusive Skill, Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint Stage 3 has activated.]
Then voices began overlapping one after another.
「Hey, can you hear me? Are you okay?」
「Representative?」
「Dokja-ssi, where are you?」
Voices I knew. They were words reaching me through the third person observer's viewpoint, the Stage 3 ability of [Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint].
「"Dokja-ssi? Can you hear me?"」
A bar stocked with all kinds of wine. Huiwon was sighing with a deep frown on her face.
「"Seriously, why did I have to get dropped in a school?"」
Jihye was rubbing a bump on her head, as if someone had hit her.
「"How...? Why am I... here...?"」
Hyeongseong was trapped inside a nearby military base.
Judging by people’s reactions, I more or less understood what had happened.
It seemed everyone who had gathered in Gwanghwamun had been moved to a place they had ties to. That was why Jihye, who was a student, had been forcibly transferred to a school, while Hyeongseong had been sent to a nearby military base.
It was probably that mid-grade dokkaebi bastard’s trick.
I guessed it wanted to scatter Incarnations all over the place and have them picked off one by one, but something about it felt strange. No matter how unrelated it was to the Main Scenario, if that bastard suddenly pulled something like this, even the mid-grade dokkaebi wouldn’t escape punishment.
Watching the confused people, I muttered,
‘I’m fine, so please be careful on your own. I’ll come find you soon.’
They wouldn’t be able to hear me, but I still hoped it would reach them somehow.
[Exclusive Skill, Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint Stage 3 has been deactivated.]
My consciousness returned to my body, and my eyelids slowly opened. The black clouds still churned over the skies of Seoul like a black hole. I got to my feet and looked around.
An open view of Seoul. A place where dense high-rises formed an uneven skyline.
Come to think of it, I must have come to a place I had ties to as well.
At a glance, it looked like the rooftop of some high-rise in Seoul...
“Where is this...?”
Damn it, I had a bad feeling, but I didn’t think I’d really end up here.
[Some Constellations eagerly await your muttering.]
“...Mino Soft.”
This was the rooftop of Mino Soft, the company I used to work for.
[Some Constellations are disappointed.]
[A Constellation who enjoys leisurely developments is satisfied.]
Judging by the noisy Indirect Messages popping up, it felt like a lot more Constellations had started focusing on me after I broke the throne.
[The Constellation Prisoner of the Golden Headband is threatening the newly arrived Constellations.]
[The Constellation Secretive Plotter clears his throat and asserts himself as the old-timer.]
Of all places, I had to end up here...?
The broad Seoul roads without a single car. The dark offices. The sight of half-destroyed buildings made the tip of my nose sting for no reason. It was my first day back at work in a whole month.
Every time the team leads chewed me out, I used to come up here with Assistant Manager Yun from my team and blank out for a while. It really felt like yesterday. The feeling was bizarre. I had been testing a new game, and when I came to my senses, I was holding a sword and cutting people down.
...I wonder if Assistant Manager Yun is still alive.
When I turned my head, I saw a blinking message in the air.
[10 days remain until the Fifth Scenario begins.]
The Scenario was unfolding just as I had expected. If the Absolute Throne was broken, Seoul Dome would gain a ten-day reprieve. During that time, I had to find a way to clear the Fifth Scenario without the Absolute Throne.
[A Sub Scenario is underway to fill the intermission.]
+
<Sub Scenario - Survival Activities>
Category: Sub
Difficulty: C+
Clear Conditions: Survive for 10 days in the ruined city. You must eat three meals every day, and you must get at least six hours of sufficient sleep per day. Before you go to sleep every night, do not forget to pay a daily Survival Fee of 500 coins. If you fail to do even one of these three things, you will receive a clear penalty.
Duration: 10 days
Rewards: None
Penalty for failure: Death
The Coin Event* applies to this Scenario.
* All beast species appearing in the Scenario have a set probability of dropping coins.
+
I could roughly tell how things were working. Since the existing Scenario had been completely wrecked, it looked like they had dragged in a Sub Scenario to patch it over in a hurry.
On top of that, the Coin Event was in effect as well.
I figured they’d do this sooner or later, but I hadn’t expected it to start already.
A daily Survival Fee of 500 coins... Without the Coin Event, this was a Scenario no one could possibly clear.
Anyway, time to get moving.
I couldn’t pass up a perfect chance to replenish my coins.
“Drag them in! Hurry!”
That was when I heard people’s voices from below the rooftop. When I looked down, armed personnel were bringing several bound captives into the building.
This area where Mino Soft was located was near Seocho-gu. But if I remembered right, there wasn’t any king’s faction around Seocho-gu.
...Then who were these people?
Only after carefully observing the armed personnel did I realize.
I see. The Wanderers.
Even in a ruined world, people all found different ways to survive. Someone became a king, someone became a subject, and someone else became one of the unaffiliated Wanderers.
And the Seocho-gu area was the territory of those Wanderers.
I thought about looking up information on this area and turned on my smartphone, but unfortunately the battery was dead. I’d have to find somewhere to charge it, or else look for a power bank...
I opened the rooftop door and went downstairs. I passed the president’s office, then the planning department and the finance department. When I passed the QA team office where I used to work, my steps slowed for a moment.
Call it a ridiculous nostalgia filter if you want.
I went into the office and opened the drawers one by one. I was thinking there might still be something like a power bank left behind.
At that moment, someone shone a flashlight this way. I reflexively moved to draw my sword, but the other person recognized me first.
“Oh?”
“...?”
“Dokja-ssi? You’re Kim Dokja-ssi, right?”
Only then did I see the man’s face.
“Assistant Manager Yun?”
“Ah, you were alive! You really were alive!”
Assistant Manager Yun from the QA team was there.
* * *
“It was truly horrible.”
I heard from Assistant Manager Yun what had happened at Mino Soft. More precisely, what had happened at Mino Soft after I left work.
“The First Scenario started for everyone who was working overtime.”
Assistant Manager Yun said this while holding his nose.
With the contract workers gone, the company hallways were covered everywhere with rotting corpses and maggots. There were faces I recognized too, but there was no particular grief or sorrow visible in Assistant Manager Yun’s expression.
“You know that? I killed that son of a bitch Team Leader Kim with these hands. You know, that bastard who always rode us... I stabbed him in the throat with a ballpoint pen, and the blood spurted out just like in a game...”
“...Assistant Manager Yun.”
“M-maybe I’m sorry. That kind of talk makes you uncomfortable, right? Haha.”
It was a natural change, but it still left a bitter taste to see how much Assistant Manager Yun had changed. No. Maybe this was what Assistant Manager Yun had really been all along.
“Are you here alone?”
“Hm? Ah, no, not alone. There are people with me. But where were you, Dokja-ssi?”
“Ah, I was...”
“I don’t think I saw you inside the company. What group are you with? Did you come here in the middle of clearing a Main Scenario?”
“Yeah, well. Something like that. I was originally over in Gwanghwamun, but then something suddenly happened...”
Assistant Manager Yun nodded before even hearing the rest.
“Aha, I see. Dokja-ssi, your luck really is bad.”
“...What?”
“You don’t have to clear every Scenario, you know. Don’t you know that? If you hide well enough and use a few tricks here and there, most Scenarios get cleared by other people. There’s no need to risk your life, so take it easy and live comfortably. Look at the state of the world.”
That was true. If you became an unaffiliated Wanderer, then aside from a few Scenarios you absolutely had to clear, you could just coast along on Main Scenarios other people cleared. If you searched through Seoul Dome, there were probably more people like that than you’d expect.
Of course, if you lived hidden like that and one of the surrounding groups caught you, it was a one-way trip to the afterlife. There was no prey better than a Wanderer wandering alone.
“There’s nothing to worry about, so relax. The Wanderers are a proper force too. It’s not like you can only build a faction if you’ve got a king, right?”
We came outside Mino Soft. Since the area around the company seemed to be Wanderer territory, there were crowds of people gathered nearby. Among them were also the people who had been moving the captives from earlier. An armed man spoke to Assistant Manager Yun.
“Yun Seongho-ssi, who’s the person next to you?”
“Ah, he’s a coworker from my company. I ran into him by chance.”
“Hm... Is he a Wanderer? We don’t take members from other groups. You know that, right?”
Assistant Manager Yun gave a light nod, and the man passed by us.
Turning toward him, I asked,
“Who was that man?”
“He’s the manager of the Coin Farm.”
“The Coin Farm?”
“Ah... Dokja-ssi, you wouldn’t know, would you?”
A sinister glint flashed across Assistant Manager Yun’s face.
Coin Farm. Come to think of it, that rang a bell.
But there were already people starting that up?
“Look over there.”
Whether they had torn them out of some zoo or police station, two people were locked inside cages set at regular intervals. The Wanderers gathered around them were shouting excitedly.
“Hey, hey! Are you kidding me? Fight harder! If you drag it out like that, who’s going to give you coins?”
Inside the cage, two people were fighting as they shredded each other’s bodies. Blood splashed, eyes were gouged out, entrails spilled, and they howled like beasts.
[A Constellation who likes the Colosseum is delighted.]
Looking closer, there were several such cages.
As if they each had their own theme, not every cage was just holding fights.
Painful groans and sobbing rose from all around. I couldn’t see them from here, but there were certainly cages where things far worse than this were happening. Human imagination was far uglier than most people thought.
[A Constellation who enjoys an unusual lecherous gaze is extremely excited.]
[Few Constellations have sponsored 200 coins!]
And damn it all, there were Constellations in this world who consumed that imagination.
Assistant Manager Yun laughed as he spoke.
“It’s a scene you’ve seen plenty of before, isn’t it?”
“...”
“In the game industry, consumers were the kings. At Mino Soft, the president bastard was the king. In this new world, who do you think the king is?”
“You’re using the Constellations’ sponsorship?”
“Right. Every now and then, there are insane Constellations who like this kind of thing. The more stimulating the scene, the more coins the Constellations give. We make our coin off those people, and in return we throw them Food worth eating.”
With a gurgling sound, one of the two people fighting for dear life inside the cage collapsed. As if Assistant Manager Yun had been waiting for it, he tossed a chocolate bar into the cage.
The surviving man crawled over and grabbed the chocolate bar. As he tore open the wrapper while crying, there was no trace of life left in his eyes.
The Coin Farm.
An unparalleled exploitation system devised by the humans who first understood this world’s capital structure.
[Many Constellations are bored by the sight of the cages.]
But maybe because it was still in its early stages, the amount of coins they were taking in wasn’t actually that great. That made sense. There was no way Constellations, who turned the whole universe into a stage for their lecherous gazes, would be thrilled by a spectacle at only this level. But Assistant Manager Yun’s expression was odd.
“You showed up at just the right time, Dokja-ssi. You’re about to see something pretty interesting.”
At those words, I saw people being dragged into one big cage in the center.
“Come on now! Get in there already!”
I stared blankly at the people being shoved into the cage, then asked,
“...Aren’t those people from our company?”
“At one time.”
Assistant Manager Yun answered while lighting a cigarette. There were six people trapped in the cage. Every one of them was an employee of Mino Soft.
“Please save us! Please save us!”
“Open this! Open it right now!”
There was an executive among them too. Employees and executives alike, all trapped inside a small cage, screaming and crying. The moment I saw that sight, it hit me all over again. The Mino Soft I knew no longer existed in this world.
“You said something like that once, Dokja-ssi. That games these days have no sense of desperation. That gamers won’t pay for formulaic stories cranked out assembly-line style.”
Come to think of it, I had had a conversation like that with Assistant Manager Yun once.
“The more I thought about it, the more I realized it was a pretty convincing thing to say.”
I wondered why Assistant Manager Yun was suddenly bringing that up, right up until I saw what happened in the cage.
“Hey, catch.”
One of the Wanderers threw a dagger into the cage where the employees were trapped. A cheap dagger of the lowest grade. The person who picked it up was that rookie employee.
[A few Constellations are curious about what is going on.]
“Rookie, you still don’t understand what kind of situation this is?”
At Assistant Manager Yun’s question, the rookie employee’s lips trembled open and shut. Assistant Manager Yun jerked his chin toward the other people in the cage.
“You know who the people right in front of you are, don’t you?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Who are they?”
“Department Head Lee-nim, Deputy Manager Kang-nim, Executive Director Shin-nim. And...”
As the rookie muttered in a trembling voice, Assistant Manager Yun said with a sneer,
“You still haven’t come to your senses.”
[Few Constellations announce that the Colosseum has begun.]
“Where do you think the place you’re trapped in is right now?”
The surrounding scenery rippled, and the appearances of the people inside the cage changed. Before anyone knew it, the rookie employee was dressed like a gladiator from the Middle Ages. A hologram message floated up before his eyes.
- Carry out your revenge.
Revenge. At that word, the rookie blinked. The rookie employee looked down at the dagger in his trembling hand. The one who urged him on was Assistant Manager Yun.
“What are you hesitating for? Did you forget everything Department Head Lee did to you before?”
Only then did Department Head Lee recognize Assistant Manager Yun and shout from inside the cage.
“A-Assistant Manager Yun! What are you talking about right now...!”
The rookie’s eyes widened. From Assistant Manager Yun’s mouth came things no one had said out loud until now.
The department head who stole the rookie’s presentation. The deputy manager who pinned his own mistakes on a subordinate. Even the executive director who made employees do his son’s homework.
Maybe they were common enough incidents. The kind of things people could tell themselves everyone goes through, the kind they could keep swallowing because that was just how the world worked. But the world had changed, and the power some abused as if it were their birthright was no longer something natural.
[A few Constellations sympathize with the rookie employee’s emotions!]
“Right. Now you know what you need to do.”
At Assistant Manager Yun’s words, the rookie raised his head.
[A Constellation who likes revenge dramas longs for the rookie employee’s revenge!]
[A few Constellations’ eyes shine at the new story!]
At last, the Constellations were starting to move too.
[Few Constellations are preparing coin sponsorship for the revenge drama.]
The panicked superiors were shouting.
“H-Hey! Wait. Right now-”
I groaned inwardly.
Out of all the Coin Farms that appeared in TWSA, there had never been one that manipulated the situation like this. And yet Assistant Manager Yun was pulling it off.
[Some Constellations want revenge to be carried out!]
[The Constellations who like the Colosseum are preparing sponsorships!]
[Few Constellations promise sponsorship to the Incarnation who wins this match...]
The rookie employee’s hand trembled as he gripped the dagger, while the horrified superiors backed away. The rookie’s reddened eyes slowly filled with murderous intent.
In an instant, the atmosphere heated up and the Wanderers started cheering. Calmly, I counted the number of Wanderers around me. Ten people were posted near the cage. And fourteen more Wanderers in the back were preparing a different stage.
“Hey! Fresh goods just came in! Lock them up! Move them to the next cage!”
To them, this revenge drama was just one more act passing through. The Constellations watched a cheap stage, and these people made their coins.
“Lock them up over there!”
Several people were unconscious inside the mobile cage. But one of the faces among them stood out especially. I heard the snickering voices of the Wanderers.
“This one’s got a pretty nice face, huh? Hey! Let’s build a new act around this one!”
A small frame, skin as pale as snow. Slightly upturned eyes, and beautiful black hair falling to the shoulders. I rubbed my eyes and looked again, but there was no mistake.
The First Apostle, the Plagiarist Author Han Suyeong, was there.
Footnotes:
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
