WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 760: Episode 32: King of the Beasts (7)

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Perhaps not even Dokja had heard as many declarations from Outer Gods as I had by now.

If Constellations' declarations felt clear and resolute, Outer Gods' declarations were closer to discordant noise.

A profoundly unsettling voice that defied this world's system.

Yet even that unsettling quality had a temperature. Some were hot and clammy, while others were cold and harsh.

The declaration I had just heard clearly belonged to the latter.

A polar region in the depths of winter.

A voice coming from the edge of the universe, where absolute zero had been reached.

It wasn't Asmodeus.

Then who was it?

One thing was certain. It was a voice I felt I had heard somewhere before.

And the one who had sent this declaration was the person who had allowed me and Kim Dokja Company to meet.

I wanted to answer.

Even if I was destroyed as they said, I wanted to know why Dokja could not return.

But I still had no voice, and all I could do was blink as hard as I could.

【Then.】

Fortunately, the owner of the voice understood my signal.

【Go up to the top floor of the Recycling Center. The story you seek will be there.】

[Level 3 of the Exclusive Skill Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint has been deactivated.]

* * *

Screeeech.

Two carriages pressed in from either side.

The wheels scraped together.

"Yerin!"

Chae Yerin pressed the accelerator button hard, but the enemy carriages were faster.

As their wheels pressed close, all three carriages became tangled together and rattled dangerously.

"I'm sorry. I'm not very good at driving..."

"No. This isn't your fault, Yerin."

Chae Yerin had clearly accelerated properly. The problem was with them.

"That carriage looks like it has some upgrades."

[The Exclusive Skill Editing Eye Lv. 10 has activated.]

As Ji Eunyoo's Exclusive Skill, Editing Eye, activated, the carriage's fable composition became visible at a glance.

[The Fable Fragment First-Class Acceleration continues its story.]

[The Fable Fragment Fine Steed continues its story.]

Eunyoo frowned.

"Why don't we have anything like that?"

No matter how she looked at it, those were not upgrades attached from the beginning. If they had been, the same Fable Fragments would have been detected in the carriage they were riding.

Which meant the others had obtained them somewhere and attached them.

[The Constellation Snake Who Cuts Its Tail grins.]

It seemed someone from the Twelve Zodiacs had pulled a trick.

They must have learned about the Recycling Center's Scenario beforehand and secretly supported their Incarnations.

"Mihu King-nim! Wake up! Make us something like that too!"

But the snoring Mihu King did not wake. Neither did the man sprawled beside him.

Meanwhile, the carriages on both sides kept pressing in.

"Hand over Kim Dokja!"

A voice echoed from somewhere.

At first, Eunyoo thought she had heard wrong, but the voice came again.

"Hand over Kim Dokja!"

Eunyoo gave a hollow laugh.

"They went on like that throughout the main story, and now they're doing it here too."

"..."

"Huh? Did you just laugh, Yerin?"

"No."

The two glanced at the sleeping man's face.

He had clearly said he would return in one minute, but it felt as though ten minutes had already passed.

Still, neither of them woke him. They believed there had to be a reason he was not getting up.

The number of pursuing carriages outside the window was increasing.

Three, four, five.

After hesitating, Eunyoo pulled a dagger from her pocket and began maintaining it.

[Maintenance of the constellation artifact Oddity Blade has begun.]

Watching Eunyoo, Chae Yerin asked,

"Eunyoo-nim."

"Yes?"

"Are you close to the writer?"

"We went through some hard times together, in our own way."

"Hard times."

"Yes. Hard times."

"Was the writer like this when you first met him?"

"Like this...?"

"Kim Dokja's face."

"As far as I remember, yes."

"Then was the writer Kim Dokja from the beginning?"

"Pardon?"

"The writer..."

A shout calling for Kim Dokja rang out from outside again.

After a short pause, Chae Yerin continued.

"When this story ends, will he return to the world where he was?"

The world where he was.

Eunyoo thought for a moment before answering.

"I'm an editor, so I don't really know about things like that. But I know one thing for certain. The world the writer will return to is reality."

"..."

"And the writer's reality is..."

Having finally finished maintaining the dagger, Eunyoo sprang to her feet and looked at Chae Yerin.

"A place where there are readers to read his writing."

[Maintenance of the constellation artifact Oddity Blade has been completed.]

"Yerin, look after the writer for a moment. I need to get on the roof."

"Will you be all right?"

"Please keep driving."

Eunyoo swiftly jumped out the window and stood on the carriage roof.

As if they had been waiting, Incarnations leapt onto the roof of the carriage opposite them. Judging by the fables flowing around them, they belonged to the Snake faction.

"Hand over Kim Dokja!"

"Our writer is popular here too."

At someone's command, the Incarnations from the carriages at the sides ran over the roofs and charged.

Eunyoo immediately threw her dagger.

The Snake faction Incarnations sneered at the blade flying through the wind. Its trajectory and speed were ordinary.

[The constellation artifact Oddity Blade remembers your heartfelt maintenance.]

[The first Oddity of the constellation artifact Oddity Blade has activated.]

[The cutting power and acceleration of the constellation artifact Oddity Blade have increased tenfold for 10 minutes!]

The Oddity Blade was one of the treasures of the First Martial World. It was a Hidden Piece obtained from a meteorite through her Patron's support.

Its drawback was that it could only be used after undergoing ten maintenance sessions every day.

However, once the maintenance was complete, the Oddity Blade's attack power surpassed even that of the famous sword Black Heaven Demon Blade for ten minutes.

"What the hell..."

The expressions of the Incarnations changed when they sensed the blade's sharpness had changed.

Arms and legs were sliced off as easily as soft tofu.

As two Incarnations collapsed in an instant along the blade's path, an Incarnation standing on the roof of the carriage behind them shouted,

"Kill her now!"

The Oddity Blade was already flying away along its trajectory.

Five Incarnations charged at Eunyoo at once now that she had no weapon.

But then.

"What a waste of page space."

"What?"

"Ah, I mean you're just begging to be edited."

Whoosh.

Two more Incarnations lost their legs.

It was a clean cut, like removing unnecessary sentences from a manuscript.

"Arrrgh!"

The Oddity Blade, which they had thought was flying away, had already returned to Eunyoo's hand.

A translucent spiderweb extended from the dagger's end.

Only then did the Incarnations understand what was happening.

"Don't tell me, that is..."

[The Exclusive Skill Arachne's Web is activating.]

Arachne's Web, the Stigma of Olympus.

Normally, only a terminal Incarnation of Olympus could use that Stigma, but she was an exception.

That was because Eunyoo's Patron had made the Stigma its private property.

It had only been possible because Olympus had been destroyed in her Patron's worldline.

[A few Constellations who have checked your skill are startled!]

The Incarnations in the carriages following behind began whispering among themselves.

"Who is she? Is she an Incarnation from Olympus?"

"Impossible. There should definitely be restrictions on using Stigmas."

"If we provoke her carelessly..."

"The bounty is too large. We can't let this chance slip away."

Now it was clear what was happening.

Someone in the Twelve Zodiacs who held a grudge against them had put up a Bounty Scenario.

Eunyoo smiled and continued.

"If you mess with me, all of Olympus will come running. Are you prepared for that?"

There were far too many carriages at a glance, so this was actually for the best.

If she could use this misunderstanding, she could avoid an unnecessary fight...

[Someone is activating Lie Detection.]

[Someone has confirmed that the statement is not true.]

Eunyoo sighed lightly.

"Of course. There was no way this novel would go smoothly."

"Attack! We only need to take care of the bastard in the carriage!"

Eunyoo used Arachne's Web to deflect the weapons flying toward her.

But even she found it difficult to withstand so many attackers.

"Yerin! Go!"

Perhaps because of the fundamental gap in carriage performance, the enemy carriages would not fall behind no matter how fast they went.

That was when one side of the spiderweb snapped.

"Now!"

Before she could react, a round object pierced through the carriage window.

[The Constellation Snake Who Cuts Its Tail awaits your destruction.]

Eunyoo immediately recognized the item.

A mass-destruction mana bomb.

It was the same item Han Suyeong had used in the main story.

Eunyoo cursed inwardly and shouted,

"Yerin! Writer!"

But the explosion came first.

With a deafening roar, the carriage exploded apart, and Eunyoo was caught in the blast.

[The Orient Express Carriage has been destroyed.]

Her consciousness flickered along with the despairing message.

As her body, thrown high into the air, plummeted fiercely toward the ground, Eunyoo felt wind blowing in from somewhere.

Someone was holding her in both arms.

The man's face appeared within a dazzling halo, and Eunyoo drew in a breath.

It was because that face resembled someone she had imagined for a long time.

"Kim Dokja?"

The man answered.

"That's right. That's my name."

Eunyoo replied,

"You're lying."

The man nodded.

"Lying is my job. More importantly, you can faint now."

Eunyoo closed her eyes in relief.

* * *

I landed on the ground with the unconscious Eunyoo on my back.

After roughly tracing the story veins, I understood the situation.

She used the Oddity Blade.

It was an item that existed only in the setting and had never been used in the main story, yet she had somehow acquired it.

[The current target is in a state of Fainting Vulnerability.]

Depending on the Oddity it produced, the Oddity Blade also inflicted a status effect on its user.

It seemed this time its status effect was Fainting Vulnerability.

I briefly examined the unconscious Eunyoo's complexion.

Though she wore Min Jiwon's face, the exhaustion on it clearly belonged to the Eunyoo I knew.

She had looked just like this when she stayed in the editorial department all night editing a volume.

Could it be that she had not properly slept a single night since her Possession?

Even with the Fainting Vulnerability penalty, she was not someone who should have collapsed like this.

"Writer."

Chae Yerin landed with the blowing wind.

As expected, she seemed to have survived the explosion unharmed thanks to Way of the Wind.

"What happened to them?"

"We took out a few. The rest all fled."

Perhaps they thought they had achieved their goal since our carriage had been destroyed.

It made sense. In this Scenario, without a carriage, you were as good as dead.

"I'm sorry. I..."

"No. You did well."

"Are the others safe?"

I hesitated for a moment before answering.

"They are."

Would Chae Yerin believe me if I told her I had seen Kim Dokja Company?

Would she feel hurt if the brief time I had spent meeting them had made the category of "companions" feel unfamiliar to me?

I lightly shook my head and made a vow.

"I will make sure they are safe."

My companions were here now.

And these were also the people I had to protect.

"What do we do? We lost the carriage..."

"It's all right. This is how it went originally."

Dokja in the main story had also fallen from his carriage on the way to the Constellation Banquet.

It was something I had expected from the start.

[You have lost the Orient Express Carriage.]

[A new event has occurred!]

For reference, Dokja, who fell from his carriage, was pursued by divine beings from the nebulae.

[You are no longer under the protection of the Orient Express Carriage.]

[Divine beings near the Cloud Path have noticed your existence!]

Damn it, it seemed a similar event was happening here as well.

[The Edge of the Other World has opened.]

I did not know what that was, but its name alone sounded ominous.

Dokja in the main story had Dionysus to protect him.

But there was no Dionysus here.

"Let's run."

We activated Way of the Wind at full power without looking back.

[Warning. Your rank is lowest-tier.]

[You are the Representative of Area 13.]

[If you fail to arrive at your destination in time, every member of your faction will die.]

If we activated Way of the Wind at full power, we could reach our destination faster than a carriage.

The problem was that the distance was too great.

At this rate, our Mana would run out before we reached our destination.

And once our Mana ran out, the divine beings crawling out from the Edge of the Other World, or whatever it was, would come to kill us.

There was only one choice.

"Those guys, right?"

I rode Way of the Wind and landed on the roof of a carriage racing ahead of us.

[The Fable Fragment Face Recognition recognizes you.]

[You are not the proper passenger for this carriage...]

I tore off the entire carriage roof, Fable Fragment and all.

The Snake faction Incarnation who spotted me stared in shock.

"You..."

[The Constellation Demon King of Salvation reveals his Status.]

"U-Urrrgh..."

Merely releasing my Status made them turn pale and collapse.

I picked them up one by one and threw them outside before sitting down with Chae Yerin.

[You have seized the Orient Express Carriage.]

[The Fable Fragment Face Recognition has halted its story.]

[The Orient Express Carriage recognizes you as its new passenger.]

[A Controller has been provided.]

I took hold of the Controller.

The roof was gone, but it was a model with fable upgrades, so its speed should be decent.

The problem was controlling it.

"I'll do it. I heard you're not good at games."

Chae Yerin held out her hand.

"Did Ji Eunyoo say that too? I'm not that bad, though..."

Honestly, I was average at best.

Still, I needed to take the controls this time.

"I'll do it this time. I'm the Demon King of Salvation now."

"Kim Dokja isn't good at games either."

That was true.

Kim Dokja might even be worse at games than I was.

"But I'm good at imitating people who are good at games."

[You have activated the Exclusive Skill Bookmark!]

[The Character Bookmark has been activated.]

[Due to a temporary error, you cannot activate the list of characters registered in Bookmark.]

Was it because I had not fully inherited the fable of the Demon King of Salvation?

Unfortunately, the original characters known by the Demon King of Salvation were not on the list.

That did not mean there were no characters I could register.

+

<Current List of Characters Available for Bookmark Registration>

1. Life Church Leader Kim Cheolyang (Understanding 25)

2. Action Squad Captain Bang Cheolsu (Understanding 30)

3. The King of No Killing Lee Dansu (Understanding 55)

4. Kang Ilhun Who Wants to Be Yu Junghyeok (Understanding 65)

...

+

All the characters I had met so far were inside that Bookmark.

I turned page after page of the list, as though flipping through my short history.

+

7. Demonbane Judge Jeong Huiwon (Understanding 50)

8. Strategist Ye Hyeonu (Understanding 20)

9. Assassin Gu Seona (Understanding 10)

10. Bald King Pildu Gong (Understanding 15)

11. Sergeant Major Jeong Munho (Understanding 35)

12. Magician Martinez (Understanding 5)

13. Hypnotist Christina (Understanding 20)

+

But no matter how far I turned, the name I wanted was not there.

+

14. Salvation Sect Leader Nirvana (Understanding 3)

15. Prophet Anna Croft (Understanding 15)

+

"Writer."

Chae Yerin looked at me.

I continued flipping through the list.

Could he really not be there?

「Did I not understand Yu Junghyeok of the forty-first round at all?」

Maybe that was possible.

This Bookmark would only show people I understood, even a little.

I had loudly boasted that I would write his story, but in truth, I did not know what kind of person he was.

[This is the final page.]

At last, the final page of the character list.

As expected, Junghyeok of the forty-first round was not registered in the Bookmark.

Instead,

+

25. Unemployed Yu Junghyeok (Understanding 1)

+

There was a strange Junghyeok.

Footnotes:

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