WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 816: Episode 40: The Reign of Fear (8)
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The first Kim Dokja told me to wait a moment, then disappeared. He was probably searching through [The Fourth Wall].
[3 minutes remain for refuge of the brave.]
Outside the safe zone, the shark head was crouched quietly, glaring at me.
「TWSA Discarded Settings Collection.」
If I was right, the "Fears" of this Fear Realm might be discarded or unused settings.
This refuge of the brave was proof enough. When I wrote the serialized version, the "Hidden Green Zone" on the walls of Chungmuro did not have its own name.
In other words, refuge of the brave was an unused 「setting name」.
If that reasoning was correct, the shark head before me was likely one such setting.
「But was this thing really in my Discarded Settings Collection?」
I had made and erased so many settings that I could not remember clearly, but I definitely had a folder called Discarded Settings Collection.
It mainly held settings Ji Eunyoo had censored. If [The Fourth Wall] truly was a library preserving the Records of the Kim Dokjas, those records should be there as well.
[1 minute remains for refuge of the brave.]
Dokja still had not contacted me.
After thinking for a moment, I braced myself and took out Thought.
"Transform into the Myriad Transformations Stealth Suit."
I had not told Dokja on purpose, but I intended to stick with the "second method" I had mentioned earlier.
「Let the shark head swallow me, so [The Fourth Wall] activates.」
Even if the Discarded Settings Collection really existed, it might not contain a category for the shark head.
More importantly, even if that category existed, I was not sure whether a few lines of description could resolve this situation.
In short, asking Dokja to find the Discarded Settings Collection had been a trick of sorts.
If he was watching me, he would definitely interfere.
But now, I could let the thing swallow me without anyone stopping me.
[30 seconds remain for refuge of the brave.]
Cold sweat ran down my back as I imagined its fangs piercing me.
Even with [The Fourth Wall], it would still hurt. Wounds still stung, and death was still frightening.
I resolved myself over and over before rising to my feet.
[20 seconds remain for refuge of the brave.]
Then my phone rang.
―Youngest, I found it.
"Was it really there?"
―Did you think it wouldn't be?
But only ten seconds remained.
There was not enough time.
―Though the title is a little different from what you said.
"The title is different?"
My thoughts became complicated in an instant.
Had I made another settings collection?
No matter how hard I tried to remember, nothing came back to me.
―Yeah, but it definitely says something about the Fear Realm. There is information even I haven't read yet. Honestly, I want to read it first, but...
"Shark head! Is there anything about the shark head?"
[The effect of refuge of the brave has vanished.]
The safe zone before me was disappearing.
The shark head that had been crouching down opened its mouth as if it had been waiting.
―There is.
Along with Dokja's voice, a screen appeared on my phone. It contained information about the shark head.
[Your Exclusive Attribute has been activated.]
Time seemed to slow for a moment as I began reading the words on the screen.
+
* Portions of this document have been modified by SVRP.
SVRP. PW 00843.
Disaster-grade Fear: Tooth Fin
An Outer God that has reigned as a terror upon the sea for countless years.
As time passed after its birth, Fear Fusion occurred. A reassessment of this entity's fable wavelength confirmed a Chimera mutation.
......
Continual phenomena of idol worship have been observed from Planetary System 8612.
After 1,024 years had passed since its birth, it underwent transformation into an Outer God. Its grade was adjusted from Catastrophe-grade to Disaster-grade.
......
It primarily uses "Gyoabyeong," soldiers forged from its own fangs and molars.
In some rounds, after acquiring ■■■■, this entity has crossed the Fear Realm.
During the Second Martial World Destruction Scenario, its grade was temporarily adjusted to Natural Disaster-grade.
......
It is basically gentle by nature and, except in certain extreme cases, has almost never attacked people.
Its actual danger grade is set below Catastrophe-grade.
+
Perhaps thanks to Dokja's Attribute, reading all of that took less than a second.
Yet one question remained.
「The shark head is basically "gentle."」
That was the part I understood least. The shark head I had seen was nothing like the gentle creature described in the Record.
「Then why is this shark head chasing me?」
The Record held the answer as well.
For some reason, the entry had been damaged by ■, but it was not hard to guess.
[Exclusive Attribute Lamarck's Giraffe has activated!]
If I was right, there was only one way to overcome this situation.
―Youngest! You...!
Dokja shouted after realizing what I was trying to do.
The shark-headed Outer God had opened its mouth before me. Its mouth was filled entirely with sharp fangs.
Just as those fangs closed in to tear me apart, I barely managed to pull a Fable Fragment from deep inside my body.
"You're looking for this, aren't you?"
A fable squirmed in my hand.
[Fable Fragment Swift Swimming trembles.]
There was no doubt. This Fable Fragment was why it had been chasing me.
The fragment Teacher Jaehwan had obtained after killing another shark Outer God.
―Youngest, have you lost your mind?
I knew it would be difficult to change its mind just by giving this up.
Still, it was worth trying.
I thought of the traffic light.
The Fear described as a "long-necked object" and a "white ladder." When I first encountered those symbols, I had not known it was a traffic light.
What you do not know is frightening.
Every Fear operates on that ignorance.
Then perhaps the shark before me was the same.
「It is basically gentle by nature,」
Maybe what I had to trust now was not my senses steeped in Fear, but the dry Record.
For example, the history this entity had lived through.
「Except in certain extreme cases, it has almost never attacked people.」
Born from Earth's idol worship, it had been hated in every way and reigned as a terror of the sea. Tooth Fin.
I held out the Fable Fragment Swift Swimming to it.
"I don't know what this means to you."
I looked into the Outer God's chilling mouth.
"But I'll give it back."
Like pressing backspace to erase letters one by one, I erased each of my preconceptions.
Instead, I carefully studied its shark-like mouth, its fin, and the stitch marks scattered across its body. Then I imagined the history that had built up between those wounds.
Just as Shin Yuseong had tamed the Chimera Dragon for the first time.
This thing was not frightening. As long as no one provoked it first, it would not hurt people.
As though it sensed something, the Outer God moved its snout toward my clenched hand.
Hot steam poured from its nostrils.
The stench of polluted fables was so indescribable that my mind nearly went blank.
Still, I endured.
The fact that it had not attacked me yet showed there was a chance.
Just a little more. Just a little more.
[New Fear has been unlocked!]
Then, at last, Tooth Fin's mouth clamped around my hand.
[Disaster-grade Fear Tooth Fin has withdrawn its hostility toward you.]
I felt the Fable Fragment wrapped around my fingertips touch something wet and disappear.
[You have acquired a new interpretation of this Fear!]
[Suggested interpretation: Don't judge by the fin.]
[The Fear Realm accepts your interpretation!]
[The Fear Realm's Exploration Rate has greatly increased!]
......
[You have acquired a new Fable Fragment as a reward!]
As messages poured down from the air, the Outer God's expression changed strangely. It looked as though it was smiling, yet also as though it was sad.
Holding the Fable Fragment I had given it in its mouth, it left the tunnel.
I ran after it to the end of the tunnel.
It was swimming endlessly through the Fear Realm's pitch-black void.
Then light began pouring from its entire body.
A mournful cry echoed several times.
The Outer God twitched its dorsal fin and circled above our heads in a wide arc.
Dokja and I silently watched its dreamlike dance.
―It was resolved that easily?
"Did it look easy?"
Dokja did not answer.
Both of us knew it had not been easy at all.
―How did you know?
"Know what?"
―That it isn't a shark.
Dokja's guess was right.
That Outer God was not a shark.
It had a shark-like head, and a shark's dorsal fin on its back, but it was not a shark.
Booooo.
A long cry burst out.
Detailed seams were visible around its twitching dorsal fin.
―You saw that?
"Yes."
My guess was that the Outer God's original form was not a shark, but a whale.
I did not know what history it had lived through, but it certainly seemed to be connected to the shark Outer God Teacher Jaehwan had killed.
Its stitched dorsal fin might have belonged to that shark Outer God.
Perhaps the Fable Fragment Swift Swimming that I had given it belonged to the Outer God that had given it that fin.
Once I thought of it that way, its circling dance in the void felt like a memorial rite.
A mourning ritual for an old friend.
"Patron."
―Yeah.
"This book."
I looked down at the Fear Realm settings collection Dokja had found in [The Fourth Wall].
"Who wrote it?"
This document was not the Discarded Settings Collection I had asked for. Its sentences and structure differed from my own writing style.
I carefully reread the document on Tooth Fin.
The writing was unbearably dry, yet unnecessarily detailed, as though it had been written with someone in mind.
Each time I read a sentence, my chest ached and my heart pounded.
Every sentence in the document was telling me the same thing.
I had not written it.
―Who do you think wrote it?
"I want to read the first sentence."
A moment later, a file Dokja had sent appeared on my screen.
The moment I opened it with trembling hands and saw the title, I let out a small laugh.
Dokja was probably making the same expression.
『A Fear Realm Guide Even Squid and Sunfish Can Understand』.
I did not know why this book was inside [The Fourth Wall], but at least one thing was certain.
Dokja and I both knew.
There was only one writer in this universe who would name a book something like that.
"As expected."
―I told you.
She was alive somewhere.
「Written by Han Suyeong」
Still writing a story for a single reader.
Footnotes:
"Don't judge by the fin" adapts a Korean phrase meaning not to judge by appearances.
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