Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint - Chapter 734

WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 734: Episode 29: Recorders of Fear (1)

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「The universe is a vast locked room. At the end of that locked room is a wall. We have never once touched that wall.」

- Recorders of Fear

* * *

Affiliated with planet Chronos.

Prince of the imyuntar species and the first wolf, Lycaon Isparang.

In the main story, this wolf appeared as the guide of "The Fifth Scenario." After clashing with another guide, Antinus, he became a character whose whereabouts were unknown.

"That really was Lycaon?"

After the Outer God's identity was revealed, the group expressed their surprise in their own ways.

Mr. Dansu, the only one unable to share in that surprise, hesitantly asked.

"Who is Lycaon?"

"You know, the guide from the Disaster Scenario. The wolf from the Moonstone."

"Ah, that guy... Wasn't he dead?"

"There was never any description that said he died. His whereabouts merely became unknown afterward."

"That's true, but..."

Ye Hyunwoo nodded at Killer King's words, then glanced at me.

"How did you know Lycaon had become an Outer God, Dokja-ssi?"

As expected, Hyunwoo had asked. He had a lower Number of Completed Reads than the other apostles, but he was the most perceptive.

He had even called me Dokja-ssi. That meant he expected an answer worthy of Kim Dokja.

"I wasn't completely certain either. It was a gamble."

There had been no additional settings or epilogue decided for Lycaon.

As the Scenario progressed, some characters inevitably received less focus. Lycaon was one such character, naturally written out of the story.

Still, I hadn't mentioned Lycaon as an Outer God candidate without thinking.

"It just occurred to me. What if there were beings we knew who had evolved into Outer Gods?"

Many of the Outer Gods in the main story had been abandoned without seeing the Scenario's conclusion.

Most lost their sense of self and became Nameless Ones, but some retained their sense of self outside the Scenarios, became Outer Gods, and grew stronger.

Asmodeus, who appeared in this round, was one of them.

That was why I considered it.

Perhaps there were beings among the characters never fully described in the main story who had also become Outer Gods.

"That was an incredibly unlikely gamble."

Hyunwoo was right. The odds had been low.

Still, this was the Recycling Center, and I thought that kind of Plausibility was likely to work in our favor.

More importantly...

"I had two other alternatives besides Lycaon."

"Three contingencies. Just like Kim Dokja."

"Who were the other two?"

"As you know, there is another being among the Outer Gods connected to wolves."

As I said that, I looked down at little Junghyeok.

Was it because he had pushed himself too hard in the previous battle? Or because eating dirt had upset his stomach? Junghyeok was completely exhausted, sprawled on the ground.

I covered him with a thin blanket.

"Little Yu Junghyeok appeared in the main story too."

The second Outer God I had considered calling didn't possess a fable related to wolves.

Still, there had been a scene in the main story comparing him to a wolf, so I thought he might answer the call.

"Hm. You mean the King of the Lonely Wolf."

"But would that being have answered the summons?"

"The odds were low. We haven't even seen him in this round."

The second Outer God I considered was Secretive Plotter.

However, Secretive Plotter had reached his own ■■ and crossed into an entirely different world, so I couldn't be sure he would answer the call.

"Then what about the third?"

"The third one..."

I looked up at the sky. In truth, the third candidate was just as unlikely to answer as the second.

The third candidate was even less connected to wolves.

But if this was a world that recognized 「Man Who Eats Eight Meals a Day」 as a pig...

"The Wolf-Ear Headband. Do you remember it?"

「The Man Wearing a Wolf-Ear Headband」 might also be recognized as a wolf.

After thinking for a moment, Hyunwoo spoke.

"Wolf ears? Do you mean when we went to the amusement park in Oz...?"

"Yes. That's right."

If this was a world where all of Dokja's memories became fables, then the time he went to an amusement park with Han Suyeong would surely remain as a Fable Fragment as well.

[A Constellation that has yet to reveal its modifier looks at you.]

Even if that being wasn't an Outer God, if there was a Kim Dokja who possessed that Fable Fragment...

If he had a modifier like the Demon King of Salvation...

[The Sub Scenario The Three Little Pigs has ended.]

Just then, the Scenario completion message appeared.

[You have acquired 500 Recycle Coins as a reward.]

[You have cleared the Scenario using a method that no one has attempted!]

[The Scenario's foundation has been altered by your achievement!]

[The fable The Three Little Pigs has lost its influence in the Star Stream.]

"Ah..."

The scenery around us rippled as Night began to retreat.

Only then did the group seem to realize it was real, their expressions brightening one by one.

The Event Scenario had been lifted, and the wolf could no longer threaten us. That was because the wolf had just joined our side.

"We'll need that one's strength if we're going to fight the Twelve Zodiacs."

I turned back to Lycaon, who stood about a dozen steps away.

Gyeong Sein asked with a slightly frightened expression.

"Will this be okay? He's an Outer God."

"There's no need to fear an Outer God simply because he's an Outer God. We negotiated with Outer Gods in the main story too."

Lycaon had been muttering toward empty space for some time now.

Perhaps he was exchanging messages with the Administration Bureau about the Otherworld Covenant. Or perhaps he was negotiating with the Recycling Center Director.

I let out a small sigh of relief and looked around at the group.

"And here. These are the masks I recovered earlier."

One of this Scenario's main objectives had been to obtain new masks for the group.

"Ah. When did you get these...?"

They were masks taken from Incarnations on the wolves' side who had died earlier.

"Is it really all right for us to accept these?"

Mr. Dansu lowered his head apologetically, and the others lowered theirs as if they felt ashamed.

Gyeong Sein spoke in a trembling voice.

"I-I really didn't help at all."

"No, everyone did well."

I slowly looked around at the group and spoke firmly.

As the group put on their recovered masks one by one, their bodies, which had undergone beastfolk transformation, began returning to normal.

Instead, faces reflecting their former beastfolk traits appeared on the surfaces of their masks.

Gyeong Sein was a squirrel.

Mr. Dansu was a turtle.

Cha Yerim was a snail.

Ye Hyunwoo was a panda.

The masks really did seem to reflect their users' innate traits.

Then why was mine still a Faceless Mask? Did that mean there wasn't an animal I resembled?

While the group breathed sighs of relief, Killer King, the only one among them who hadn't lost a mask, approached me.

"Still, we got lucky this time. You know that too."

"The fable's original owner didn't intervene."

I nodded.

This Stage Transformation had fallen apart sooner than expected because the Pig Who Lives in a Brick House, the fable's original owner, hadn't helped us.

If the Pig Who Lives in a Brick House had intervened in the Stage Transformation, the fight wouldn't have ended this easily.

Of course, even then, it wouldn't have been the worst outcome.

Even if the pig had won and strengthened the original fable, we had fought on the pig's side. We wouldn't have been able to write a new fable, but we would have received some benefits.

Still, I was curious. Why hadn't the Pig Who Lives in a Brick House intervened in the Stage Transformation? Thinking about it, that Constellation had been watching me from the start of the Scenario.

"Ah, aaaaaah... Do you have any idea what you've done?"

"We're all going to die! We're all going to die!"

Once the Scenario ended, the beastfolk who had hidden beneath the tables began emerging one by one.

"The other Twelve Zodiacs won't forgive Area 13."

"Why? Why would you do this...?"

I gave a bitter smile as I watched the terrified beastfolk.

I couldn't expect immediate results, so I hadn't expected too much. Incarnations who had become stuck in a Scenario like this feared change.

But not every Incarnation was like that.

The crane proprietor stared at me with an incredulous expression.

"Kim Dokja... was it?"

Some fables were unchanging prisons.

They confined existences within fixed frames, forced them to repeat the same routine, and turned them into nothing more than material.

But the beastfolk had witnessed with their own eyes that prison could be broken.

[Your new fable begins to affect Area 13.]

[The name Kim Dokja begins to spread through the Recycling Center!]

For now, that was enough.

Killer King and I stood side by side, watching the beastfolk for a while.

"The Demon Realm Scenario must've been similar."

"It probably was."

"This is the kind of sight I like."

Hyunwoo, who had fixed his mask by then, approached us.

Killer King glared, apparently displeased that Hyunwoo had joined us, and was about to speak.

"Inho-ssi, are you sure you're okay continuing to act under that name?"

"Seventh Apostle. This guy is Kim Dokja..."

"I'm asking Inho-ssi, not Dokja-ssi."

I looked into Hyunwoo's clever eyes visible beyond the mask.

Come to think of it, Hyunwoo and I had once had a conflict over using Dokja's name.

"Does it make you uncomfortable?"

"No, not anymore. I've accepted it. Inho-ssi is the person among us closest to that name. But..."

At that moment, I thought I understood what Hyunwoo was worried about.

The fables of the Star Stream were sensitive to names above all else.

In other words, if I impersonated Dokja...

"At this rate, all the fables Inho-ssi accumulates will become Dokja's fables."

It was a sharp observation.

"That's all right. I did it on purpose."

"You did it on purpose?"

There was a decisive reason I had impersonated Dokja when I entered the Recycling Center.

[A new fable begins to be recorded under the name Kim Dokja.]

Along with the message, the power of the newly budding fable drifted through me.

It was a fable that didn't have a name yet.

Perhaps because I too was the youngest Dokja, I absorbed part of the fable. The rest pierced through the Recycling Center's ceiling and slowly rose upward.

[Your fable is shared with your Patron.]

Watching the tail of the departing fable, I felt a small sense of relief.

Thank goodness. He was still there.

"Something similar happened in the Demon Realm too. Do you remember?"

"You mean when Kim Dokja impersonated Yu Junghyeok?"

Every fable had a protagonist and was recorded around that protagonist.

As long as I impersonated Dokja, the fables I accumulated would continually raise Dokja's Status.

The fables created would spread Dokja's name, and people would call out that name.

And Dokja would hear it too.

"Wait, don't tell me..."

"I thought about it for a long time. But no matter how much I thought, this seemed like the only way."

I had come to like this forty-first round. That was why I didn't want this worldline to be destroyed.