Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint - Chapter 789

WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 789: Episode 37: Graduation Ceremony (5)

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I silently watched the Demon King of Salvation. His starlight, once so brilliant, was now fading.

The reason was clear.

[Your current Existence Restoration Rate is 10%.]

I now possessed more Kim Dokja Fragments than he did.

I gently wrapped my arms around my older brother's shrunken shoulders.

"You can read again."

* * *

The Demon King of Salvation opened his eyes.

It felt as though he had awoken from sleep, or as though he had died and come back to life. To someone accustomed to death, perhaps there was not much difference between the two.

He breathed out lightly and felt a pleasant chill. Looking around, he saw a plain where pure white snow was falling.

The Demon King of Salvation let out a quiet sigh at the desolate sight.

Just by looking at the drifting snow, he could tell what kind of place this world was.

This is the youngest's world.

He thought of the youngest.

The last Dokja of this world.

A being born with a different mission from the other Dokjas.

The youngest had lived looking at this scenery all along.

The Demon King of Salvation reached out towards the falling snow. Then, amid the snowflakes, he heard faint whispers.

「“Kang-kang! Kang-kang!”」

The cries of Ground Rats searching for their mother.

「“Save me! Please, save me!”」

The screams of people who had died without overcoming the First Scenario.

「“Just once more, if I had one more chance...”」

The last wishes of those who died beneath collapsed buildings, or were devoured by monsters.

Some had been recorded, and some had not. They all slept between the lines, waiting for someone to read them, to imagine them.

The Demon King of Salvation swept through the snowflakes in the air once more. This time, he heard different stories.

「“If we die, we die together! Don't give up!”」

It was the story of the people of Geumho Station, fighting back to back to save one another.

Bang Cheolsu had become a different person from the previous round. Beside him, the Heartless Mother and Daughter fought as well.

「“All right, everyone, have a mouthful!”」

The homeless people of Seoul Station gathered before the old signboard of the Beggars’ Sect, sharing warm soup.

「“I wonder if that hyung is doing well.”」

Jeong Huiwon's younger sibling, Jeong Eunho, and the children of the Beggars’ Sect were there, too. No longer needing to trick adults by setting traps, the children chatted around a bonfire.

Countless stars hung in the sky above them.

[The Constellation Last Ark is watching the descendants of the Beggars’ Sect.]

An old tower floated in one shining corner of the sky.

The Recycling Center, Area 13.

「“Shouldn't we go help as well?”」

Animal Constellations who had failed to join the Twelve Zodiacs gathered in a small inn in Area 13.

「“But would we really be any help...”」

「“If it weren't for that friend, we would have been forgotten.”」

「“What do you think, Crane Innkeeper?”」

Sentences remained like faint footprints. The Demon King of Salvation carefully read those pale yet certain sentences. He read diligently, like someone afraid there might be a sentence he had failed to read.

How long had he read like that?

Someone stood before him.

"Is it interesting?"

It was the youngest.

The youngest looked far more like "Dokja" than before.

The Demon King of Salvation did not know what to say to him. Since he did not know what to say, there was only one thing he could say.

"What about the next chapter?"

"Of course there is one."

The two sat side by side and read the stories of the snowfield. They read happy stories, sad stories, and stories that could not be called either happy or sad.

Simply because they liked stories.

"Is there more?"

"There's still a lot left."

He knew. He knew the youngest had prepared many stories for him.

But he did not have much time left.

He heard a faint sound, like waves breaking. When he raised his head, the far end of the snowfield was slowly crumbling apart.

The waves of destruction were coming.

"Youngest."

"Yes."

"I read hard."

"I know."

"Even after reading so hard..."

The end of his voice broke into fragments like the approaching waves.

The Demon King of Salvation gave a bitter smile.

For what, and for whom, had he kept repeating this act of reading?

"Reading alone couldn't change anything."

Life was life, and death was death.

No matter how many times he read again, no matter how carefully he read, the world did not change.

One day, the universe would be destroyed.

This story would inevitably end.

Even knowing every tragedy had been decided, even knowing that fact well, why did they read?

"At least you came to understand one person better."

One person. For every Kim Dokja, that one person might have a different name.

"There are also people who came to understand you better by reading your story."

"..."

"Can you really say that means nothing at all?"

The Demon King of Salvation could not answer the youngest's question.

"I thought about a lot of things on the way here, too."

The youngest breathed out softly and began his story.

"When I first fell into this world, I thought I was truly screwed. Wow, how was I supposed to survive? How could I get back?"

"That was interesting."

"So you were watching after all?"

"Mm."

"Anyway, once I somehow survived, another question came to me. Wasn't there a reason I fell into this world? This world must have called me because I had a mission to fulfill!"

"..."

"So I went around stirring things up. I made villains who never got their moment in the spotlight repent, communicated with ferocious monsters, and investigated the hidden sides of Scenarios that never appeared in the main story..."

"It was a mess."

"It was. In the end, it became too much for me, so I asked you for help. I told you to help me because I couldn't do it alone."

"You were a pathetic sight."

"Still, thanks to that, there were a lot of interesting stories."

Interesting stories.

The youngest called all those failures, all those bitter memories, by that name.

"So I'm going to keep trying."

Listening to that calm voice, the Demon King of Salvation remembered the expression on the youngest's face when he had first called out to him.

"Please keep reading. I'll keep writing."

The youngest was still speaking in that same voice.

"I'll prove that reading alone can change the world."

The Demon King of Salvation looked into the youngest's shining eyes and thought,

「If I can be reborn, then at the very least, I hope I won't be Kim Dokja.」

Every Dokja had their own theme. The youngest before him was no exception.

「I hope I won't be a Reader.」

The reason the youngest was especially different from all his siblings was...

"Youngest."

"Yes."

"Isn't there something you want to ask me?"

"..."

"Aren't you curious about who you really are?"

The youngest twitched his lips with an awkward expression, then sighed.

"Of course I'm curious. But honestly, right now, I don't think it matters much."

"What?"

"My head is so full of what I want to write that I don't have time to think about who I am."

"..."

"Someday, you'll read it and tell me who I was."

The Demon King of Salvation blankly looked at the youngest.

Could someone like this be all right?

Could he entrust the future of every Kim Dokja to someone like this?

Watching the approaching waves of destruction, the Demon King of Salvation slowly rose.

"All right. I will."

"Thank you."

"Which is why."

The youngest dusted himself off and stood as well.

The Demon King of Salvation spoke to him.

"Now, you are the Demon King of Salvation."

The time had come.

It was time to pass all his fables on to the youngest.

The youngest would receive all his fables and become the one and only Dokja.

"What? No thanks."

"What?"

"That means I'd have to die and come back to life several times."

The Demon King of Salvation opened and closed his mouth soundlessly.

The youngest kept talking.

"I can't live like that. Seriously, I'd have to be crazy."

"No, hey."

He wanted to say that simply insisting on it would not make it happen. He wanted to tell him to wake up, that he could not still be saying things like that.

But there was something strange about the youngest's eyes.

"I told you, didn't I? I'm going to write an impossible story. In that story, you don't die."

The snowfield was crumbling.

Looking at the waves that had nearly reached them, the youngest continued.

"I thought about it for quite a long time. If I'm really Kim Dokja, then couldn't I do that too?"

Something felt wrong. The Demon King of Salvation urgently reached out towards the youngest.

"Youngest, wait..."

"Don't worry. You can keep reading there."

At last, the waves swallowed them. The world was thrown into chaos, and the Demon King of Salvation felt his soul being sucked somewhere.

Just as expected.

This was how he would become a fable. He would become part of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint.

The youngest would read him and live through this world once more.

「“Huh?”」

He should have vanished, becoming part of the youngest and being absorbed.

Then why?

Why did he still retain his sense of self?

A flickering light between bookshelves.

The scent of old books in a dim space.

It was a small Library.

He knew this place. And that knowledge sent chills down his spine. His heart pounded fiercely.

「“Someone else has come.”」

When he turned his head, small Little Kim Dokjas were gathered together.

There were girls and boys among them, all Little Kim Dokjas with different hairstyles. The Little Kim Dokjas, who had watched him with curious eyes, suddenly raised their heads like meerkats at a sound from behind them.

「“Ah. A newspaper.”」

「“Read it, quick.”」

The Little Kim Dokjas were gathered before a desk, reading something. He staggered towards them. A single newspaper lay on the wide desk.

『Today's Kim Dokja』.

A newspaper without a headline.

He joined the Little Kim Dokjas and read it. Sentences appeared on the paper in real time.

「A way to absorb Kim Dokja Fragments while protecting their souls.」

It was the youngest's writing.

「Like Asmodeus's Cinema, perhaps I can use the same method.」

Chills ran down his spine again.

Since when had the youngest been preparing this space?

「What percentage of Kim Dokja must I become to use [The Fourth Wall]?」