Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint - Chapter 781

WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 781: Episode 36: The Real Kim Dokja (2)

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Thud. The high-ranking demon fell.

Ye Hyeonu recovered the Kim Dokja Fragment the high-ranking demon had been carrying.

[You have successfully recovered a Kim Dokja Fragment.]

The energy of a fable flowed into him with the message.

Ye Hyeonu checked his reflection in a puddle. It was the pale, white face he had once seen on the cover of "Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint", though it looked somewhat younger than the one he had seen then. Perhaps because his body was that of a boy.

Would he become a little more like Kim Dokja now?

How many more Kim Dokja Fragments would he need to collect before he could become Dokja?

Could he become Dokja at all?

"If you get Possessed, you have to hide behind everyone else. You hate getting hurt."

A memory suddenly lingered in his ears.

Ye Hyeonu remembered the owner of that voice.

No Jiyoon.

Uncle Dansu's daughter. The girl who had visited "Kim Dokja's Banquet" with him.

Jiyoon was dead.

No one had told him that. He had simply come to know it while collecting Kim Dokja Fragments.

"Everyone, run this way! Hurry!"

There had been a reader who fell into the same station as Jiyoon. Jiyoon had fought monsters to save that reader and the others, and she had died.

It wasn't anything remarkable in this world.

The reader Jiyoon had saved that day eventually died, too. Torn apart by a high-ranking demon.

What meaning had there been in Jiyoon's sacrifice?

Ye Hyeonu couldn't understand it.

Just as he couldn't understand Dokja, who had risked his life for his allies throughout the more than fifty times Ye Hyeonu had read "Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint".

"You're right. I like being safe."

Answering his old friend aloud, Ye Hyeonu walked through the forest. There was no path, but he walked where he thought there should be one.

Sometimes, he hummed songs his friend had liked. As he did, memories still too vivid to call memories surfaced one after another.

[The fable Panda and Friends has begun its story.]

The time he persuaded Pildu Gong and survived in Chungmuro.

The time he developed the Invincible Castle Lord Tech Tree.

The time he nearly fought Junghyeok.

The time he played Capture the Flag with the readers.

The time he met Inho Cheon and his allies.

"But Jiyoon, you liked being safe too."

The Disaster Scenario and peace land, Washington Dome and the Recycling Center.

The time they all hid in a brick house.

The time they ate soup made by the crane proprietor.

The time they mended a swallow's leg and cared for a goose in labor.

The time they ate bamboo and watched their allies from a corner.

As Ye Hyeonu counted through those moments one by one, he thought that all of it felt exactly like a novel.

If so, what role had been assigned to him in that novel?

Ye Hyeonu stopped walking. The forest ended, opening into a small clearing.

A Great Demon stood there.

A man in a white coat, black wings spread behind him.

Ye Hyeonu swallowed as he looked at the red horns rising from the man's head.

[The Great Demon 73rd Demon King is watching you.]

The 73rd Demon King slowly turned to face him.

"Demon King of Salvation."

He had expected it from the moment he heard that the Great Demon's title was the 73rd Demon King.

The Demon King of Salvation was here. The protagonist they had sought had appeared as their adversary.

Yet the moment their eyes met, Ye Hyeonu felt strange.

Is that the Demon King of Salvation?

He could certainly feel the powerful energy of a Kim Dokja Fragment from him.

But...

Get a grip.

Ye Hyeonu shook his head several times and drew ragged breaths.

I have to kill him.

As the boss of this stage, the Demon King of Salvation would possess powers on another level.

He couldn't let his allies face the Demon King of Salvation. There would certainly be casualties if they did. He had arrived here before anyone else to prevent that.

Just as he took a slow breath and stepped into the clearing, cheers rose from all directions. The surrounding forest shook as a group of Incarnations emerged.

[Attack!]

The Incarnations drew their weapons and charged at the Demon King of Salvation.

Ye Hyeonu recognized them at once. Constellations of the Twelve Zodiacs. They had participated in the Scenario alongside him until recently.

[The Constellation Monkey That Fell from a Tree lets out a battle cry!]

[The Constellation Primordial Cow bares its teeth!]

[The Constellation Red Mountain Lord roars!]

At first, he thought the Twelve Zodiacs had joined hands to hunt the Great Demon.

However, the waves of Status he felt were strange. The Twelve Zodiacs he knew did not possess fable waves at that level.

They aren't the Twelve Zodiacs.

A cold sensation brushed his heart too late.

Someone is using the modifiers of the Twelve Zodiacs.

As if they knew the Great Demon's weakness, the Constellations wielded weapons imbued with the Divinity attribute in precise trajectories.

Fwoosh!

The Great Demon was ruthlessly cut to pieces by attacks carrying the Status of Constellations.

Complex calculations ran through Ye Hyeonu's mind as he watched the staggering Great Demon.

Maybe this was for the best.

The Demon King of Salvation was an adversary too difficult to face alone. If Ye Hyeonu waited for an opening and joined the Constellations, the Scenario would become much easier.

Let's begin.

From the beginning of this Scenario until now, Ye Hyeonu had diligently followed the Invincible Castle Lord Tech Tree.

The Invincible Castle Lord Tech Tree he designed had ten stages.

And Ye Hyeonu had just reached the activation requirements for its eighth stage.

[Exclusive Skill Mana Charge Lv. 10 has activated.]

This build-up applied his Exclusive Skill, Mana Charge. Its key was supplying limitless Mana to Pildu Gong, who possessed the strongest defensive power.

However, Pildu Gong wasn't here.

Several Constellations who sensed the Mana waves turned toward Ye Hyeonu.

[That guy...]

[Ignore him. He's an Incarnation who can't do anything alone.]

Had the Constellations already learned his weakness?

Ye Hyeonu smiled bitterly.

They were right. He was an Incarnation who couldn't do anything alone.

But isn't everyone the same?

Ye Hyeonu slowly steadied his breathing and gathered Mana. It was finally time for the Kim Dokja Fragments he had collected to show their power.

[The power of a new Kim Dokja Fragment has activated.]

[Part of the Oldest Dream's skills has been restored.]

The Invincible Castle Lord Tech Tree he had envisioned required Pildu Gong through the seventh stage.

But the eighth stage was different.

[Exclusive Skill Bookmark Lv. 5 has activated!]

[The configuration of this skill is incomplete.]

[The characters that can be registered in the Bookmark list are limited.]

[Bookmark].

Dokja's Exclusive Skill, a skill that could borrow the power of Characters.

It was so incomplete now that he could register only one Character, but that was enough.

After all, there was only one Character he needed.

"I will activate Bookmark Number One, Armament Lord Pildu Gong."

[Bookmark Number One has activated.]

[The activation time is determined in proportion to the level of the Bookmark skill.]

[Your understanding of the Character is extremely high.]

[The activation time has been partially adjusted according to your Exclusive Attribute.]

[Activation time: 20 minutes]

The Character who had always protected him was now within him.

[Exclusive Skill Private Property Lv. 10 has activated!]

Pildu Gong's private property seized the entire area in an instant.

However, that alone couldn't operate Armament Fortress. That was because Pildu Gong's Armament Fortress was a Stigma, not an Exclusive Skill.

[Bookmark] could not borrow a Character's Stigma.

Of course, Ye Hyeonu had prepared for that.

"I will fulfill my contract with Defence Master."

[The terms of your contract with the Constellation Defence Master have activated.]

It was a contract he had made with Defence Master in case of emergencies.

The terms were simple.

In exchange for granting Defence Master's request, Ye Hyeonu would share one of Pildu Gong's Stigmas whenever he wanted.

[You have acquired temporary usage rights for the Stigma Armament Fortress.]

[For this Scenario only, this Stigma has been converted into an Exclusive Skill.]

[Exclusive Skill Armament Fortress Lv. 8 has activated!]

The ground beneath Ye Hyeonu rose, lifting him into the air.

The outer walls of Armament Fortress, which would protect him from any attack, began to grow.

[W-What is that...]

A small castle rose more than twenty meters in an instant.

It was rather crude compared to the Armament Fortress of the tenth stage he aimed for, but this was enough for now.

[The Moving Fortress has activated.]

Wheels grew beneath the fortress, and it began to move.

[The turrets of Armament Fortress have activated.]

As huge Mana Turrets all aimed forward, the Constellations shouted in alarm.

[Didn't you say he couldn't do anything alone?]

[Damn it, finish this quickly! If he steals the effective hit...]

Ye Hyeonu sat in the fortress's control tower, listening to the Constellations' shouts.

[The power of item Singijeon has been activated.]

[The arcing destructive power of the turrets has increased!]

[Tracking functions have been added to the shells fired by the turrets.]

The fortress's radar activated, and the dust-covered Demon King of Salvation came into view.

[A target has been selected.]

The Demon King of Salvation had already sustained immense damage to his Incarnation body.

Ye Hyeonu finally made up his mind and pressed the firing button.

As sixty-four turrets spewed fire, a deafening roar swept through the forest. Black dust rose into the air.

However, the screams that came from within it did not belong to the Demon King of Salvation.

[Arrrgh!]

The Constellations' Incarnation bodies burst apart within the dust.

[The Constellation Monkey That Fell from a Tree has taken massive damage and has exited the Scenario.]

[The Constellation Rabbit Without a Liver has taken massive damage and has exited the Scenario.]

...

Some of the Constellations couldn't even withstand the hit and were forced out of the Scenario.

Even so, Ye Hyeonu didn't stop.

[You, why...]

The enraged Constellations aimed their weapons at him.

Watching them charge toward him, Ye Hyeonu thought,

Why did I do that?

It wasn't a wise choice. Naturally, the safe choice would have been to join forces with those Constellations, finish off the Great Demon, and share the fables.

Yet the moment he saw the Demon King of Salvation on the radar, Ye Hyeonu couldn't make the safe choice.

He clearly wasn't the Demon King of Salvation Ye Hyeonu remembered.

The face of the Demon King of Salvation, now a Great Demon, was pale as a corpse.

His body looked like a patchwork of sewn flesh. His eyes had lost their light, and his skin showed no sign of life.

This Scenario would only end if they hunted him.

That was how Ye Hyeonu could save his allies.

He had reached this place before anyone else for that purpose.

Yet the moment he saw Dokja's face, Ye Hyeonu felt faintly dizzy.

"I don't know if you'll see this, Author, but I thought I'd write this anyway. I have a phrase I recite whenever things get hard."

The enraged Constellations abandoned the Great Demon and began charging at the fortress.

I am Kim Dokja.

Ye Hyeonu knew it too. He wasn't Dokja. He recited that phrase because he knew better than anyone that he wasn't Dokja.

"But my friend says I look more like an octopus than a squid."

Ye Hyeonu pressed the firing button again and again.

Clods of earth flew everywhere.

Amid shattered fragments of trees, the Constellations struggled and screamed.

[Arrrgh! Damn it!]

[Hold on! Wait until his Mana runs out! He can't keep up this bombardment forever...]

Thanks to Mana Charge, Mana filled Ye Hyeonu's entire body once more.

The core of the Invincible Castle Lord Tech Tree, the Infinite Ouroboros system, had manifested.

[Argh!]

Even the Constellations that had held out firmly began to fall one by one.

Certainty gradually filled Ye Hyeonu as well.

They were only Incarnation bodies of Historical-grade Constellations. Even if they increased their synchronization rate, they could not endure the fortress's concentrated bombardment in this Recycling Center, where their Status was restricted.

[Warning! The durability of Armament Fortress is decreasing!]

Thud.

Ye Hyeonu heard something collapse.

Startled, Ye Hyeonu checked the radar. But it detected nothing.

Someone was attacking the fortress at a speed too fast for its detection system to capture.

Rumble.

The current Armament Fortress was only a level-five castle.

As powerful blows continued to strike it, its outer walls crumbled and cracks began spreading through its inner walls.

Ye Hyeonu hurriedly charged Mana again and activated the turrets. At that moment, something smashed through the control tower's barrier and appeared.

[To think you would use that Singijeon like this. Not bad.]

Three Incarnation bodies had appeared. He had never seen any of them before.

The Incarnation body of the Constellation at their head approached like a ghost and seized Ye Hyeonu by the throat.

[Descendant, why did you interfere with us?]

Dangling in the air, Ye Hyeonu smiled.

Even now, he couldn't understand Kim Dokja, who had sacrificed himself for his allies.

Yet Ye Hyeonu liked him even if he couldn't understand him.

The Constellation stared quietly at the suspended Ye Hyeonu before speaking.

[What you did was not courage. It was merely foolishness.]

The moment Ye Hyeonu heard that voice, chills ran down his spine.

He realized something anew.

The eighth stage of the Invincible Castle Lord Tech Tree had been designed to withstand even attacks from Historical-grade Constellations within the Recycling Center.

If someone had broken through those walls, then the identity of the enemy before him was obvious.

A fabled-grade Constellation.

The ominous sparks surging through the air proved it.

He couldn't understand it. How could a fabled-grade Constellation interfere with the Recycling Center's Scenario?

[The world setting shakes unstably due to excessive Plausibility Backlash.]

[Multiple Constellations are watching the Recycling Center.]

He could feel the stares of the stars watching this place from beyond the vast universe.

How many stars were watching?

[The rules of the Recycling Center's world setting have weakened.]

[The Plausibility of the Star Stream has begun to move!]

[An unidentified nebula is interfering with the Plausibility of the Recycling Center.]

Olympus? Asgard? Veda?

Or a hidden small or mid-sized nebula?

The moment Ye Hyeonu saw the Plausibility Backlash brightly coloring the sky, he knew this Scenario had completely slipped from his grasp.

[You possess a fragment of the Oldest Dream as well.]

"Urk..."

[How strange. Why do all Incarnations with these fragments invite death...?]

As the hand around his throat tightened, Ye Hyeonu sensed his end.

"I will become Kim Dokja."

For someone who had said that so confidently, this felt like a hollow end.

At the same time, it felt like an end that suited him perfectly.

Perhaps he had foreseen this day from the moment he first saw Inho Cheon in Chungmuro.

He couldn't become Dokja.

There was someone in this world far more suited to Dokja's place than he was.

His role was to fulfill the role of an extra between the lines no one would remember.

If there was one thing he regretted in the end, however...

"I wanted to thank you. I'll come back in a few days to read through it all again."

He would no longer be able to keep the promise he had made in that comment.

Powerful Mana flowed through the Constellation's hand, and his consciousness began to burn away.

If he died like this and became a Kim Dokja Fragment, would he be able to meet Jiyoon again? Could they meet again and laugh as they talked about this story?

See? I told you, if you actually got Possessed into "Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint," you'd die in no time. Could he say that without regretting having read this story?

With that thought, Ye Hyeonu waited for death.

However, no matter how much time passed, his consciousness did not disappear.

He felt his body float through the air, then felt someone hold him in their arms and lower him to the ground.

When he slowly opened his eyes and raised his head, he saw someone's back.

[The Star Stream is intervening in the Plausibility Backlash of this area.]

[The needle of the Scale of Plausibility moves.]

Kim Dokja?

But when he looked again, the figure wore a black cloak.

Then was it Junghyeok?

No. The figure was smaller than Junghyeok.

Ye Hyeonu spotted the words written on the figure's back.

"OLD SCHOOL."