Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint - Chapter 777

WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 777: Episode 35: The Demon King's Qualifications (3)

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Someone had asked me a similar question not long ago.

【Do you truly wish to know? Even if that truth could destroy you forever?】

The owner of that voice had said I would learn the truth once I reached the final chapter of the Recycling Center.

Was this what they meant?

「Why couldn't Kim Dokja return to Kim Dokja Company?」

I was curious. Of course I was.

"Seona-ssi, I won't absorb you."

"......"

"No matter how curious I am, I don't want to learn the answer that way."

Gu Seona wasn't someone I could call a companion. There was a wall between us as thick as a sheet of paper.

Still, I understood her, at least as much as the sentence written on that sheet of paper.

Now, I knew who she was looking for in this world. I knew which character she liked and which sentences she loved. That was why I couldn't absorb her.

Because I wanted her to remain a reader, reading this story from beyond the page.

"I don't like that attitude of yours."

Seona glared at the hand gripping her shoulder.

"You won't do this. You won't do that. Do you still think this world is just a 'novel'?"

"......"

"Do you think I enjoyed absorbing the other readers?"

Seona's eyes burned.

No reader wanted to absorb another reader's soul. Seona must have been the same.

"You know it too. Everyone branded as a Kim Dokja Fragment is already being tracked by the stars."

Seona looked up at the sky.

Beyond that lightning-filled sky, nebulae were surely waiting for us.

Those who wanted to gather the Kim Dokja Fragments and control this world's dream.

"The Recycling Center is protecting us for now, but how long do you think that will last? They'll start tracking us soon."

"......"

"This Scenario is our last chance. Our last chance to protect ourselves. As many Kim Dokja Fragments as possible have to become one here. We need to become strong enough to stand against the Constellations in that sky."

Seona's muttering sounded almost like an incantation.

"We have to become one single Kim Dokja."

Maybe I knew it, too.

Even so, I spoke as if rebelling against that fact.

"That's not the only way. We can join forces. Even if we don't become one, we can become a team."

"That isn't enough. Other than having Kim Dokja Fragments, we're just ordinary people."

"Kim Dokja Company was made up of ordinary people at first, too."

"So we can do it too? Do you think we're in some kind of novel?"

"Maybe one day, it will become a novel."

Seona began to laugh madly. Then, in an instant, she stopped and looked at me.

"You really are Kim Dokja."

The moment I turned to the side with a chill running down my spine, her left hand, transformed into a snake, bit my wrist.

Fable, "Snake That Bites Memories."

I realized too late.

Had this conversation been nothing more than stalling to prepare this?

I hurriedly activated "Understanding of the Hundred Beasts."

[This fable has no intention of harming you.]

"Snake That Bites Memories" could implant part of its user's memories into another person.

My vision slowly turned white.

Seona was smiling faintly amid the blazing white light.

"I'll make you remember clearly. What you, what Kim Dokja, did."

A sentence slowly appeared in my brightened vision.

「This is a story for only one reader.」

That memory began with the final line of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, written by Han Suyeong.

* * *

「I hope many people will read this story.」

That was Kim Dokja's first wish.

So he posted recommendations online and left comments. He went around recommending the same story to people.

He was cursed at.

Back then, he couldn't understand it. Why wouldn't everyone read such an interesting story if they only endured it for a little while?

Now, he knew why.

The story that saved him simply wasn't salvation to others.

For the young Dokja, accepting that simple fact had been terribly difficult.

「And one reader who had read that story opened his eyes.」

The first thing he saw when he looked around was a hospital bed. As he slowly took deep breaths, strength began to return to his body.

Everything that had happened came back to him one after another. From the first Scenario to the final Scenario.

From being separated from his companions in the subway, to becoming the Oldest Dream, to the moment his soul was finally dismantled and scattered throughout the universe.

"Ah..."

His own voice didn't feel real.

He had never thought he could return.

Yet he had returned. He had definitely returned.

「This isn't a dream.」

Tears welled up as his heart pounded wildly.

「Suyeong succeeded.」

He heard someone hurrying toward the hospital room from outside.

Familiar presences. Familiar voices.

He wanted to leap out of bed and embrace them. He wanted to tell them how much he had missed them.

But then.

[The current restoration rate of your existence is 41%.]

The system message before his eyes stopped him.

「Why wasn't I fully restored?」

Reading the memories of the world, Dokja retraced everything that had happened.

First, his soul had been scattered throughout the universe when it was completed as the Oldest Dream.

Second, Suyeong wrote a novel that would be read by his reincarnated soul throughout the universe.

Third, his reincarnated souls read Suyeong's novel and dreamed of his return.

Fourth, the Oldest Dream's dream became reality.

If that assumption was correct, he should have been fully restored as one Kim Dokja.

But his soul's restoration rate was neither 100%, 51%, nor 49%.

It was 41%.

Hearing his companions' approaching footsteps, Dokja became anxious.

「Am I what my companions want now?」

「Do I still have all my memories of them?」

That fear made Dokja rise.

He couldn't use the complete authority of the Oldest Dream, but even in his current state, he could search the entire worldline and recover the rest of his memories.

「Dokja thought.」

Yes. Before meeting his companions, he would recover the rest of his lost memories.

「It would only take a moment.」

Finding the fragments of his memories wasn't difficult.

Once he began a worldline search, he detected the fragments holding his memories all heading toward a certain worldline.

He drifted through the universe, following that flow.

At last, he reached the place where the memories had gathered.

The moment he saw the shape of the universe, Dokja's heart raced once more. He recognized the place.

「The Forgotten 41st Round.」

Dokja was genuinely surprised.

It was a world even he, the Oldest Dream, didn't know about. In a sense, it was a world whose existence should have been impossible.

A dream that the Oldest Dream hadn't dreamed. Such a world couldn't exist.

Yet that world stood plainly before his eyes.

And even more than that,

[Is that the Oldest Dream?]

It stood before him, displaying intense hostility.

[I can't believe it. You really came...]

Bright stars blocked his path.

Stars carrying a radiance brilliant enough to illuminate an entire galaxy.

Dokja slowly looked over the vast host of stars, then identified those at the front. He knew who they were.

[Odin.]

Odin of Asgard.

[Zeus. Poseidon.]

Zeus and Poseidon of Olympus.

[Mitra.]

Even Mitra, the Mythical-grade Constellation of Veda.

The masters of the most renowned nebulae in the Star Stream were gathered there.

Normally, the stars would have been enraged merely at having their True Names called. Yet none of the Mythical-grade Constellations dared object to Dokja's words.

Their opponent was the 'god' who dreamed this universe.

Concepts such as fabled-grade and Mythical-grade meant nothing before the Oldest Dream.

[I don't know why you're blocking my path, but I'll only say this once. Move.]

The stars of the nebulae trembled at Dokja's declaration.

Yet not a single star moved. Instead, they were determined to hold their ground even if they had to burn every fable they possessed.

[We cannot.]

It was strange.

No matter how Mythical-grade they were, there was no way they could defy his command. That was the reverence owed to the star that had read the most stories in this world.

[Is that so? Then I have no choice.]

Just as Dokja raised his hand to remove the stars, a small spark flickered at his fingertips.

Well, look at that?

Plausibility was the will of the stars that made up the Star Stream.

In other words, a powerful enough current was restricting his actions, one capable of causing a backlash against him.

[It seems there's quite an impressive being behind you.]

Interest filled Dokja's eyes.

Dazzling radiance swirled in his hand, and a broken sword appeared.

"Unbreakable Faith."

The mythical blade that had shared his fables finally revealed itself in the universe.

[Try to stop me if you can.]

Nothing could change his resolve.

Kim Dokja Company had resurrected him. Therefore, he had a duty to become the complete Kim Dokja and return to them.

For that, Dokja could do anything.

[Stop him!]

With Odin's chant, his constellation artifact Gungnir shot forward like a meteor. Zeus's Astrape and Keraunos followed, falling as bolts of lightning.

The desperate screams of Constellations caught in the storm of fables rang out.

It was a combined attack by the supreme deities of Asgard and Olympus.

Dokja blocked with a single sword an overwhelming attack powerful enough to erase an entire world.

Light exploded with a tremendous roar, followed by a cataclysmic sight that shook the universe's entire terrain.

Within that scene, Dokja, covered in black stardust, smiled.

[Kill him! He's only a star as well!]

The stars didn't give up and charged at him.

They were determined to block his path no matter what.

Whenever Dokja cut down one star, two rushed in. Whenever he cut down three, four rushed in.

[The Plausibility of <Star Stream> is moving.]

He couldn't slaughter every star like this.

In the end, even Dokja frowned.

No matter how much he was the Oldest Dream, his authority was still only partially restored. If he used his power carelessly here, the Plausibility Backlash could erase nearby worldlines entirely.

The best option was to respond only at an appropriate level to the Status exerted by the Constellations, then swiftly enter the 41st Round.

Having made up his mind, Dokja activated [Way of the Wind].

[All right, here I go.]

It felt as if wind began to blow from somewhere. With a single gesture, the canal of stars tilted and shook.

Dokja moved through that gap.

He was faster than lightning, faster than meteors.

Having become a gust of wind, Dokja finally pierced through the nebulae's net.

[S-Stop him!]

The weapons rushing at him grazed Dokja's body.

Fables burst forth instead of blood, but Dokja didn't stop.

Just a little farther.

Just a little farther, and...