WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 813: Episode 40: The Reign of Fear (5)
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A “Scenario” whose very contents cannot be trusted.
That was why everyone called entering the Fear Realm a suicidal act.
If I hadn't at least known the initial strategy, I would probably have ended up like the Fear Realm Expedition of the first round.
Still, which of these guidelines was false?
I went through the guidelines from the beginning, examining what each would mean if it were false.
First, the first guideline.
- To complete the Main Scenario, you must successfully complete Fear Realm Exploration.
If this guideline was false, one possibility came to mind.
I didn't need to successfully complete Fear Realm Exploration to complete the Main Scenario.
A false guideline did not necessarily mean only bad consequences.
If that interpretation was possible, then this guideline being false would actually benefit me.
It would mean there was a way to complete the Main Scenario without filling the Exploration Rate completely.
Then, the second.
- The Fear Realm is divided into the Entry Area, the Middle Area, and the End Area.
If this guideline was false, it meant the Fear Realm had areas besides those three.
According to the records of the previous Fear Realm Expeditions, the Fear Realm only had three areas, so this guideline was unlikely to be false.
The next guideline was the problem.
- You are currently located in the Fear Realm's Entry Area.
If this guideline was false, the problem became somewhat serious.
If this place wasn't the Entry Area...
For some reason, the back of my neck turned cold as I looked around. I couldn't see anything in particular, but that only made it more terrifying.
I examined the fourth guideline.
- Your current Exploration Rate: 10%
If this guideline was false, I wouldn't know my exact Exploration Rate. Still, the Exploration Rate itself wouldn't disappear, so it wasn't a major problem.
Finally, the fifth.
- Every Fear has an interpretation. Find a plausible interpretation and increase your Fear Exploration Rate.
If this guideline was false, it meant there were fears that could not be interpreted.
The more I thought about it, the more I felt this one might be false.
The Star Stream was vast, and the Fear Realm had not yet been fully interpreted.
There were many fears neither TWSA nor the Fear Realm Expedition had recorded. Perhaps it wouldn't be strange for there to be fears that could not be interpreted.
When I raised my head after finishing my thoughts, I saw a narrow path stretching into the hazy darkness.
Perhaps because I didn't know when a threatening fear would appear, my neck stiffened without me realizing it.
「Stay calm.」
For the first time in a while, I thought in single quotation marks.
It felt like I had to think in a special way right now.
「There is no reason to be scared just because I entered an unfamiliar place.」
There was no reason to be afraid just because I couldn't trust the Scenario. The Scenarios I had overcome until now hadn't been much different.
Even the Recycling Center had been a Scenario without a complete strategy. Yet no matter how difficult a Scenario was, there was always a solution.
Kim Dokja himself, and the history I had lived through, proved that fact.
「Let's go.」
I slowly took my first step toward the narrow path.
* * *
【It has come.】
* * *
Quite some time passed after I confidently took that first step. I didn't know exactly how much time had passed.
What was certain was that I had taken quite a lot of steps.
Another fork in the road.
I stopped for a moment as I looked at the fork before me. Countless footprints remained on it.
The reason those footprints had not disappeared despite so much time passing was because this road itself was a fear.
Disaster-grade fear, 「Eternal One Step」.
The footprints left upon this fear would never disappear. Thanks to this fear, expedition members could easily determine the direction the expedition parties of previous rounds had taken.
I calmly began counting the footprints.
「The survival rate of the Fear Realm Expedition increased with every round.」
As time passed, the martial artists found routes with a higher chance of survival. In other words, for a while, simply counting these footprints could help determine the safer route.
「Head toward the side with more remaining footprints.」
A simple but certain method.
I intended to follow that method this time as well.
However.
「There are slightly more footprints on the left path.」
This time, I had an unpleasant feeling.
It would have been one thing if the number of footprints differed clearly, but the difference was slight.
That meant I had to accept some risk whichever path I chose.
After thinking for a moment, I examined the more recently made footprints. Looking closely, most of them had been made on the left path.
Then, was it the left?
After a long deliberation, I took a step.
Then, at that exact moment, I saw something long swaying in the distant darkness.
I had only caught a glimpse of it. Yet that glimpse alone set off alarm bells in my head.
「Something with a long neck is looking at me.」
No message appeared, but I could tell it was a kind of fear.
Damn it, had I chosen wrong?
The moment I turned around to retrace my steps.
[The Nameless Fear is looking at you.]
I barely managed to take a step forward.
[The Nameless Fear is looking at you!]
[The Nameless Fear is warning you!]
My instincts were warning me.
It was already too late to turn back.
If I turned back now, there was a high chance I would die.
I turned around again and looked ahead. The long-necked thing was still standing in the same place, watching me.
I tried moving toward it one step at a time.
It did not react. Apparently, this was the right thing to do.
Looking closely, I saw a white ladder-like pattern drawn on the narrow path leading to it. I began walking along that pattern.
How long had I walked?
The long-necked thing blinked.
[The Nameless Fear is looking at you.]
[The Nameless Fear is warning you!]
I reflexively stopped walking. I was standing on ground without the ladder pattern.
The long-necked thing began blinking abnormally fast, then its eyes changed to another color.
Ah.
Only then did I think I understood what this fear was.
The long-necked thing visible through the dim darkness.
Its true identity was...
「A traffic light.」
There was no doubt. It was a traffic light, with red and green lights.
I finally understood the ladder pattern I had followed.
「A crosswalk.」
I didn't know why a traffic system existed here, but one thing was certain. This was also a fear.
[The Nameless Fear is looking at you.]
The pages of TWSA I had read until now flipped through my head.
Had there been a fear related to traffic lights in the Fear Realm?
「There are a total of fourteen fears in the Entry Area introduced in TWSA.」
Of the fourteen fears I knew, none were related to traffic lights.
That meant this fear had been created relatively recently.
I took a deep breath and thought.
Whatever that fear was, it was still a traffic light. There was even a crosswalk symbol.
So there was a high chance this fear followed rules I knew.
「Stop at red lights and cross at green lights.」
The traffic light in the distance was red. Then the light that had blinked earlier had likely been green.
「Obey the signal.」
Since there was no crosswalk where I stood, this was probably the area where I had to wait for the signal.
I counted to ten in my head, then a hundred. Two hundred. Three hundred. Four hundred, then five hundred.
By the time I counted to a thousand, I started to feel that something was wrong.
Why wasn't the signal changing?
I couldn't understand why. Had I approached this incorrectly? Was that not actually a traffic light? If it wasn't a traffic light, then what was it?
That was when I heard a commotion from behind me.
“Argh!”
A scream rang out as though something had shattered. Hurried footsteps followed.
Instinctively, I placed a hand on my sword hilt.
A group of Incarnations was running toward me.
“P-please save us! Save us!”
They were martial artists. It seemed there were others who, like me, had chosen to flee to the Fear Realm in the face of Murim's crisis.
“Arghhh!”
They looked desperate, as though they were being chased by something.
“Move! Now!”
One martial artist rushed right up to me with swift footwork and shouted.
I waved at them and said, “Wait! I don't know what's happening, but stop first...!”
It was already too late. The group of more than ten who had brushed past my shoulder had already rushed onto the crosswalk.
Their footprints landed on the crosswalk one after another.
The signal was still red.
And then.
“Faster! Run faster!”
Nothing happened.
They were crossing the crosswalk at great speed.
I blankly watched their backs as they grew distant.
Had it actually been safe to cross?
I didn't understand. No, if that was possible, why were there even a traffic light and crosswalk? In a place where no cars drove...
「There are no cars.」
A small realization flashed through my head.
If there were no cars, wouldn't it be safe to cross at a red light? If this fear had been made by exploiting that situation...
The moment that thought crossed my mind, my ankles went numb.
「Then that was all the more reason not to cross the crosswalk.」
Crunch.
The sound of flesh being pulverized, bones breaking, organs rupturing, and blood vessels tearing. Nearly every sound a human body could make when it was crushed and mangled rang out directly before me.
Even I, who could contend with a Historical Constellation, could not observe the instant of impact.
[The Nameless Fear is looking at you.]
The sound disappeared, leaving only the traffic light and me once more.
The red light of the traffic signal shone upon the silent crosswalk. The crosswalk, which had been swarming with people just moments ago, now held only footprints and dark-red skid marks.
[Exclusive Skill, The Fourth Wall has activated.]
The rule to obey the signal had not been wrong. Then the problem was when the signal changed.
No matter how I thought about it, there was no way to learn that rule. Did I have no choice but to wait for the signal to change?
[Exclusive Skill, The Fourth Wall has activated strongly!]
Then, from somewhere, I heard click, click, the sound of teeth knocking together.
It was a familiar sound.
A beat late, I remembered that the people had been fleeing from something.
【Teethteethteethteethteeth】
Damn it.
【nifnifnifnifnifnif】
When I turned around, I saw the shark-headed Outer God charging recklessly through the distant darkness. As expected, it had followed me here from Murim.
Now that it had revealed its full form inside the Fear Realm, its body was truly enormous.
The moment I saw the heads of martial artists caught between its teeth, I made my decision.
I had to run no matter what.
The situation was different from Murim.
This was the Fear Realm, a place where that Outer God could rampage while ignoring the Scenario's Plausibility.
【Teetheethteetheethteetheethteetheeth】
The shark-head was behind me, and the traffic light was ahead.
There was only one way to survive.
「I have to interpret the fear.」
I recalled the logic of traffic lights.
Traffic lights.
A traffic system where the signal changed after a set amount of time. A set amount of time. A set amount of time...
「Time.」
A flash of insight ran through my head.
「A traffic light whose signal does not change even after time passes.」
Perhaps I already knew the answer.
Footnotes:
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