Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint - Chapter 749

WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 749: Episode 31: Yu Junghyeok (1)

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「The universe began one day, quite suddenly. No one knows what happened before that.

Perhaps that is why the "Oldest Dream" must continue dreaming.」

- Guide Who Lost His Way

* * *

The Allies couldn't contain their admiration as they watched Yu Junghyeok step forward.

It seemed the Allies remembered "that line" too. Junghyeok had said something similar when he killed Poseidon.

"Uwooooh!"

"That sounds familiar."

"That's Yu Junghyeok for you."

"Ah."

"To think I'd live to hear it in person."

Uncle Dansu, Gyeong Sein, Killer King, Cha Yerim, and Ye Hyunwoo each spoke in turn, then all looked back at me at once.

No one opened their mouths, but I knew what they were all wondering.

「So, is that real?」

Logically speaking, he couldn't possibly have killed Historical Constellations twice in only the forty-first round.

That was why they were asking.

I gave a small nod. It was real. This "forty-first round" was special.

"Oooh!"

As though my answer had given Gyeong Sein permission, Gyeong Sein clapped excitedly and chanted his name.

"Yu Junghyeok! Yu Junghyeok! Yu Junghyeok!"

Uncle Dansu got swept up in the excitement and shouted along with Gyeong Sein.

Killer King quietly nodded and muttered, "Go, Supreme King."

Amid the boisterous cheering, Junghyeok glanced back in our direction. A crease had formed between his brows, so he apparently wasn't pleased.

Well, I'd feel pressured too if I suddenly received that kind of cheering.

Finally, his gaze fell on me. Then [Telepathy] rang out.

- Once I kill that bastard, you're next.

Huh? Why?

A memory suddenly came to mind.

「"Eat it, you bastard!"」

Was this because I made him eat dirt?

That was unfair.

I'd never made him eat dirt. I only made him eat the fable about eating dirt.

The guy controlled by that fable had picked up the dirt and eaten it himself.

Damn it. This was why I'd hoped his memories would return late.

Still, it was some comfort that someone would die before I did.

[The Constellation Rice Cake-Eating Tiger is wary of the Incarnation Yu Junghyeok.]

It was an unexpected reaction.

Normally, this would have been the moment for him to rage, "A mere Incarnation dares say he'll kill me?" or charge in shouting, "How dare you!"

[The Constellation Rice Cake-Eating Tiger glares at the Incarnation Yu Junghyeok with a cautious expression.]

He wasn't the Reader right now.

Yet he was still so wary of Junghyeok. That meant the fables controlling him were conscious of Junghyeok.

Perhaps he had read the Reader's memories.

[Could he have become a Transcendent?]

A Transcendent.

The only mortal title capable of fighting the immortal stars of the Star Stream.

But according to my memories, Junghyeok hadn't achieved Transcendence yet. If he had achieved "Transcendence," a system message would have already appeared.

"I don't need to achieve Transcendence to defeat someone like you."

[A mortal who hasn't even achieved Transcendence dares to face a star?]

Right. That was more like it.

Judging by the way he spoke, the fable "Old and Ailing Guardian Deity" seemed to be actively at work again.

The more he acted like a stereotypical Constellation, the greater our chances of winning became.

[The Constellation Rice Cake-Eating Tiger roars!]

Rice Cake-Eating Tiger was a Historical Constellation borrowing part of his true body's power.

Though he was somewhat constrained by Plausibility, he was even stronger than the demon marquis we had fought before.

This time, Junghyeok would have to go all out.

[Restraint of Truth has activated.]

Junghyeok didn't hesitate to activate his Fable Engraving.

[Some of the character Yu Junghyeok's memories have been sealed.]

Restraint of Truth was a Fable Engraving that manifested power in exchange for sealing some memories from a past round.

Fragments of the memories being sealed before his eyes flowed into me.

「"Captain."」

They were Junghyeok's memories, unwritten in both TWSA and Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint.

Junghyeok's twenty-fourth round.

「"I have a favor to ask, Captain."」

The sight of a vast sea shimmered before my eyes.

Had they faced a Scenario on the coast? Junghyeok and Shin Yuseong stood on a beach where wreckage from broken ships had washed ashore. A large hole had been pierced through the young girl's abdomen.

「"I want to go to school again someday."」

It was a wound that neither Ellain Forest Essence nor a Greater Restoration Pill could heal.

The girl hid the wound with one hand, while the man pretended not to know about it.

Yuseong lay in Junghyeok's arms, struggling to breathe.

「"When this world ends safely-"」

Yuseong knew too.

School would never open again. The students would never return. She would never be able to attend school again.

「"Please come to my graduation ceremony."」

Even though she knew all that, Yuseong had no choice but to say it.

Though she knew exactly what kind of Eternity it would remain in Junghyeok's memory.

Junghyeok now answered that eternal question.

"I can't go to your graduation ceremony, but-"

His twenty-fourth round had failed. The world had been destroyed, and the history that had passed would never return.

Yuseong of the twenty-fourth round never graduated.

"I won't let you die before me."

His memories were being sealed.

If it were the Junghyeok I knew, he would never have sealed those memories. But the more important the memories sealed by Restraint of Truth were, the more power it granted.

That was how much power Junghyeok needed right now.

I reached out. I wanted to shout that he shouldn't seal those memories. If even you forgot them, that world would become as though it had never existed.

Then, at that moment, my eyes met Junghyeok's.

「What if.」

It might have been an impossible leap.

There was no way Junghyeok of the forty-first round could have thought that.

Still, Junghyeok clearly knew that I was seeing his memories, that I alone was witnessing the memories he would lose.

「What if you wanted me to remember this memory in your place?」

I clenched my fist and read Junghyeok's memories again and again as they were sealed. I remembered the disappearing Yuseong and the beach of the twenty-fourth round without missing a single written character.

When I nodded, Junghyeok looked away.

[All combined stats of the character Yu Junghyeok have temporarily surpassed the threshold imposed by the Scenario restrictions!]

[Explosive power surges through his entire body!]

With a terrifying boom, Junghyeok leaped. Mana overflowed from his entire body.

Kwadududuk!

Junghyeok's rushing sword strike collided with Rice Cake-Eating Tiger's front paw.

Junghyeok had released one Fable Engraving in the Washington Dome and matched a demon marquis.

But that level of force wasn't enough this time.

[That's all you've got!]

Hearing the Constellation's predictable roar, Junghyeok immediately opened his second Fable Engraving.

[The Incarnation Yu Junghyeok has activated Restraint of Emotion!]

Restraint of Emotion.

I tensed up. I remembered the Black Beast that had turned the Washington Dome into hell.

The Demon King of Salvation had been there then.

But if Junghyeok's beast transformation progressed this time, who could stop him?

- Do your part properly this time.

Junghyeok's Telepathy rang in my ear.

A beat too late, I remembered our promise. The reason he had wanted to bring me to the Washington Scenario.

「"You stop me."」

He trusted that if something went wrong, I would return him to normal.

"I'll try."

The words slipped out before I realized it.

Killer King glanced in my direction. Fortunately, before Killer King could say anything, Junghyeok's transformation began.

I held my breath and watched his transformation.

Would he become the Black Beast again, or...

[The character Yu Junghyeok's proficiency with Fable Engravings has greatly increased.]

[Restraint of Emotion has evolved!]

With a dazzling burst of light, jet-black fur covered Junghyeok's entire body. But this time, he wasn't the Black Beast.

Jet-black hair grew in an instant, followed by a fur coat that reminded me of the [Beast Lord's Sensitivity] used by Beast Lord Yuseong.

The difference was that Junghyeok's fur coat was black.

Killer King, who had been watching from beside me, widened their eyes.

"Long hair, a fur coat... Could it be the Great Emperor of the Black Wolf?"

Normally, I would have responded to Killer King's nonsense. This time, though, Junghyeok's presence overwhelmed me, and no words came to mind.

Wearing that jet-black fur coat, Junghyeok truly looked like a grand duke of the Demon Realm ruling over all demons.

Perhaps that was another form of the Black Beast.

[How-]

While the fable "Old and Ailing Guardian Deity" schemed as always, Junghyeok's figure moved.

He was so fast I couldn't even see him.

Even now that I had learned [Way of the Wind], I couldn't possibly follow his speed with my eyes.

The shocked tiger cried out. But neither the Changgwi rushing at him nor the tiger's front paws could catch Junghyeok.

No fable in this world could bind him.

Sky Splitter Sword Art.

A technique honed and honed until it reached its ultimate state.

In a sense, the Recycling Center was his personal stage.

All his techniques had surpassed the level of skills. In other words, they weren't affected by the restrictions sealing skills.

Ultimate Technique.

Sky-Splitting Meteor Sword.

Meteor flowers bloomed from the tip of the Four-Tiger Evil-Cutting Sword. Stars howled along every path cut by the sword.

"Gaahhh!"

The Changgwi struck by fragments of meteors vanished into light.

It was overwhelming force.

Like a storm, the meteor shower pierced Rice Cake-Eating Tiger's body all over.

[Kuaaaaaaah!]

The scream of a star echoed throughout Area 13.

[The Constellation Rabbit Without a Liver widens their eyes in astonishment!]

[The Constellation Plague-Calling Rat is terrified.]

[The Constellation Abyssal Black Flame Dragon holds his breath.]

Rice Cake-Eating Tiger's front paw moved slowly. Junghyeok didn't miss that brief opening and unleashed a barrage of strikes.

His sword plunged into the holes pierced by the meteor shower, connecting them as if forming a black constellation.

Kwaduk!

With the sound of something breaking, the tiger's front paw flew through the air.

[The Constellation Reclining Dragon is overwhelmed by the Incarnation Yu Junghyeok's force.]

[The Constellation One Who Brought Ten Lambs can't take their eyes off the Incarnation Yu Junghyeok.]

I trembled amid the fables scattering in ecstasy.

「The black wolf was hunting the tiger.」

There was no human emotion in the fluidly moving sword. The only thing in its trajectory was the long, arduous time Junghyeok had endured.

Memories of training his sword day and night to bring down the stars in the sky.

[Kuh, kuaaaah! My arm! My arm- How dare you-!]

All those memories converged into a single body and became their culmination.

He closed the distance with the steps of [phoenix walk], blocked incoming strikes with [tiger god aura], and dealt with charging Changgwi using [hundred-step godly fists].

Then he cut down stars with [Sky Splitter Sword Art].

Ultimate Technique.

Sky-Splitting Mad Emperor's Martial Arts.

Dozens of beams of sword light shredded the tiger's legs. One knee buckled, then the other buckled as well.

The enormous tiger lost its balance and fell forward. Junghyeok didn't miss the chance and flew toward its neck.

It was only the eighth Scenario.

In that eighth Scenario, Yu Junghyeok was about to achieve the feat of bringing down a star from the sky through his strength alone.

[The fable Old and Ailing Guardian Deity vanishes.]

[In exchange for the fable Old and Ailing Guardian Deity, the fable Rotten Straw Rope has activated!]

"Rotten Straw Rope."

Rice Cake-Eating Tiger's unique fable for escaping a desperate crisis.

[The fable Rotten Straw Rope begins its story.]