WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 751: Episode 31: Yu Junghyeok (3)

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Little Yu Junghyeok slowly raised his head and looked at me.

I looked down at him.

The difference in our eye level felt unfamiliar. Whether he was an adult or a child, Junghyeok had always been someone who looked down from above. But he was a little different now.

He wore an expression that made him seem as though he had truly become a child.

Had he become like this because he had lost too many memories?

I wanted to ask. How long had he been here? How long had he endured this cold alone?

"This is the first time someone's come here."

Little Junghyeok spoke first. A faint glimmer of life briefly passed through his eyes as he looked up.

"You finally came to take me away, right?"

Little Junghyeok raised a finger and pointed behind me. For some reason, white wings were fluttering behind my back.

I recognized the fable.

[The Unidentified Fragment has revealed its identity.]

[The fable fragment Wings of the Lost Demon King begins its story.]

The Unidentified Fragment held by "Rice Cake-Eating Tiger" appeared to be the Demon King of Salvation's Wings.

"You can take me away."

Little Junghyeok spoke.

"It's over now, right? What's Heaven like?"

Heaven.

Junghyeok seemed to genuinely believe such a place existed.

"You're an angel. You know what Heaven is like, don't you?"

After hesitating, I answered.

"Heaven probably isn't as beautiful as you think."

"Then what kind of place is Heaven?"

I didn't know what Heaven was like either. The Heaven I knew was merely one world among countless stars.

"That place is..."

I thought of the Archangels of Star Stream.

The Archangels who grew bored of Metatron's sermons, who upheld principles while yearning to break free, and who loved the Incarnations they cherished.

"It's just a world where angels who raise sheep live."

"What kind of place is that?"

"To explain it in detail..."

I slowly bent down and sat beside little Junghyeok. Fable Fragments drifted around him. They were all Junghyeok's memories.

「[Supreme King. Leave this to me and go. See the ending you desire.]」

There was an Archangel who had sacrificed themselves for Junghyeok.

「[Sorry, but I can't let you become a Demon King, you see.]」

There was an Archangel who had stopped Junghyeok from becoming a Demon King.

「[I can see the sin you have accumulated. You will surely become the great evil of this world.]」

There was an Archangel who had defined Junghyeok as evil.

「[Regressor, you will never be able to go to Heaven. For the being who can dream of your Heaven will never want you to reach Heaven.]」

There was also an Archangel who had despaired over his life.

In only 41 rounds of regression, Junghyeok had heard so many stories.

That was why this child already knew what Heaven was like. He had known, but now he had forgotten.

"No. You don't have to tell me."

"What? Why not?"

"I don't want to be disappointed. If it's like the place where I lived, I'll definitely be disappointed."

"The place where you lived?"

"Yeah."

The place where Junghyeok had lived.

Come to think of it, I didn't know much about Junghyeok's childhood.

Like Kim Cheolyang at Geumho Station or Bang Cheolsu, no records of Junghyeok's childhood remained.

The protagonist's childhood, which neither TWSA nor Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint had properly covered.

Thinking that made me feel strange.

Even though Han Suyeong had written so much, she hadn't properly written about Junghyeok's childhood.

"What was the place where you lived like?"

In that sense, Junghyeok's childhood did not yet exist.

"The place where I lived was..."

Little Junghyeok frowned. He rubbed his forehead several times with his small hand before speaking.

"I can't remember."

I looked at the fable fragments floating around Junghyeok like dust.

[The fable fragment Pro Gamer ■■ has stopped telling its story.]

[The fable fragment ■■■ Slave has stopped telling its story.]

Fables that had remained for too long without anyone to read them. Some had been damaged beyond reading, while most of the content of others had vanished. Perhaps some had had no content from the beginning.

Like novels whose titles had been decided but never properly written.

I opened my mouth.

"I'm the same."

"You can't remember the place where you lived either?"

"I remember it. But only in pieces."

"In pieces."

"Yeah. In pieces."

Whether we were protagonists, supporting characters, or extras, perhaps everyone was the same. We all consumed our memories as we approached death.

No one remembered their entire life through that process. As time passed, we were ultimately forgotten even by ourselves.

That was why we told stories.

Like this, we spoke to remember what had been in the places that had vanished.

"The place where I lived is full of stars. People explore the world alongside those stars. Sometimes they hunt monsters together, and sometimes they obtain new items."

"..."

"Some people are praised by the stars and can become great beings."

Junghyeok's eyes shone as he listened to me. How many stories were left inside him now?

"Great beings."

"Yes. Great beings."

Junghyeok nodded at my words. Then he curled up. Looking closer, I saw that he was covering his stomach.

"Do they become angels like you?"

"I'm not an angel."

"Then what are you?"

I couldn't tell Junghyeok, who was looking up at me with pale eyes, the truth.

That I was a Demon King.

So I said this instead.

"I'm a writer."

"A writer?"

"Someone who writes all kinds of stories. Interesting stories, sad stories, difficult stories. Even stories that must not be written. Someone who writes many stories in order to survive."

"Someone who writes stories."

Little Junghyeok slowly blinked. Then, after thinking about something by himself, he gave a faint smile.

It was the first time I had seen little Junghyeok smile, so I stared at him blankly for a moment.

"Then you're a god."

Instead of answering, I slowly reached out and felt little Junghyeok's story veins.

The fables flowed slowly. As expected, he was dying.

"If I were a god, I'd be the most powerless god in the universe."

"What's the most interesting story you've written?"

"That story is..."

I began telling a story.

It was the story I could tell best.

The story of a novel that a man had loved his entire life becoming reality.

A story where monsters appeared, stars watched, someone was saved, companions were made, and they raced toward the epilogue of a world.

The child listened to that story.

Watching him listen, I thought to myself.

I had once been saved by Junghyeok's story. I had endured life through that story and, in the end, survived.

Then what about Junghyeok?

When his life was in danger, when he stood at the edge of a cliff where no one could save him, what had saved him as a child?

I didn't know.

His world was only a vast snowfield.

A world I could neither read nor write. Perhaps a beginning no one, not only I, could ever know.

The origin of all these universes.

「All the stories we know began from this 41st round.」

In TWSA, Junghyeok had been able to clear the Scenarios after receiving information from Shin Yuseong of the 41st round.

Then, in Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, I had been able to see the end of the world based on the information from TWSA.

All stories began with the Junghyeok before my eyes.

Only because he survived, fought, and eventually failed could all stories exist.

"That sounds fun."

Young Junghyeok smiled and slowly blinked.

"But I'm starting to get sleepy."

Little Junghyeok's shoulders shook as if he had chills. Even then, he was covering his stomach.

I carefully moved his hand and checked his condition.

There was a hole in little Junghyeok's stomach.

It was just like when Yuseong of the 24th round had been dying. The wound on Junghyeok's stomach was identical to Yuseong's, who had asked me to come to her graduation ceremony.

「The side effect of Fable Engraving.」

If I left this wound alone, Junghyeok would die. Even if he regressed again, his soul would be ruined forever.

Little Junghyeok asked.

"You're taking me to Heaven now, right?"

"I'm not taking you to Heaven. I'm not an angel."

What I could do was keep him alive.

But I knew his ending.

A life that would ultimately fail and become nourishment for another worldline.

I knew the end of this world, which would become the "Path Without a Path" after Junghyeok repeatedly regressed to keep the promise of the 0th round and was ultimately driven into a dead end.

That was why I couldn't urge him to live. I couldn't tell someone who was already so horribly exhausted to live a life doomed to fail.

"If I live a little longer..."

Even so, Junghyeok spoke once more.

"Can I hear the story you wrote again?"

Not knowing what expression to make, I looked down at the child.

Then I barely managed to murmur.

"If you want to."

Everything I wrote was merely an imitation of one person's life.

That person nodded.

White snow fell upon the snowfield.

A world no one had marked with footprints was there.

A blank space not even Suyeong had touched.

[The Exclusive Skill □□ is being activated to an extreme degree.]

Only then did I realize why I had to come to this 41st round.

[The amount of Loss you have collected has crossed a certain threshold.]

Why I had to possess Inho Cheon's body.

[The Kim Dokja Fragments you have collected are beginning to blossom.]

Why I had to become the Incarnation of the Demon King of Salvation, and why I had to gather Kim Dokja Fragments.

[The fable Heir to an Eternal Name recognizes your name.]

Why I had to enter this Recycling Center and mend fables.

"Junghyeok. Let's make a promise."

And even why Kim Dokja had to see this world.

"Never give up on life."

Just as the universe had been born one day, Junghyeok was born.

"As long as you don't give up on life."

In return, he would have to walk through Eternity once more.

But as long as he did not give up on that path, this time he would not be alone.

"I'll keep writing you."

Junghyeok, who had been looking at me, slowly nodded.

As if answering his call, I left the first footprint that would fill this snowfield.

「This is a story about despair that was never read.」

As I wrote that sentence, I understood Suyeong, who had written the world's destruction for the sake of one person's life.

[The character Yu Junghyeok has gained a new realization.]

[The character Yu Junghyeok's Transcendence grade has increased.]

Even if only one person lived through this world, even if everyone was fated to be forgotten, rot, and vanish in the end, I would not give up on this story to the very end.

[The fable Between the Lines of Truth and Lies has been born!]

At last, the sky over the snowfield opened.

[You have created a total of four fables.]

[All the fables you have amassed are Legendary-grade or higher.]

[The Administration Bureau is analyzing your Status.]

[Star Stream is reevaluating your Status.]

[Your Patron is currently absent.]

[Your Patron has granted you all authority.]

.

.

.

[From now on, you can act as a Constellation Proxy.]

Footnotes:

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