WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 818: Episode 41: Sophistry (2)
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Lee Hyeongseong and Jeong Huiwon.
The two had chosen a "different conclusion" from their Allies. It was obvious what conclusion they had chosen.
They must have headed for "the world where Dokja was."
Jihye's lips moved.
"Then... does that mean we'll never see them again?"
Sangah hesitated for a moment before answering.
"It isn't certain. It's similar to a worldline branching differently. We might meet them again."
"That isn't certain either, is it?"
Sangah didn't answer.
Taking that silence as affirmation, Jihye murmured,
"If we'd made that choice too..."
"Then we wouldn't have met the 41st-round ahjussi."
Yuseong's firm voice cut off Jihye's words.
"Huiwon unnie and Hyeongseong ahjussi chose what they thought was best, and we chose what we thought was best."
None of the Allies blamed Huiwon and Hyeongseong. Instead, they hoped the two who had made a different choice would be happy.
The Allies choosing different conclusions was only a matter of how they understood Dokja. The image of "Dokja" each of them chose was different, but it didn't change the fact that they all liked him.
"Maybe Dokja ahjussi feels the same way."
At Yuseong's words, the Allies all looked toward the screen on the wall. It was showing records from the Recycling Center.
The 41st-round Kim Dokja, who had now become the Demon King of Salvation.
His narrowed eyes filled the screen, though it was impossible to know what he wanted to see, or even where he was looking.
Jihye murmured,
"If that's ahjussi's choice, and the world he wanted to see..."
Everyone already knew what came next, even without her saying it.
"Maybe we're characters who don't belong in this story."
Yu Junghyeok broke the deep, brief silence that fell over them.
"You're still saying such pathetic things. I don't care what story that bastard wants to see."
"Then why are you trying to interfere in that story, Master?"
"To find that bastard who made things this complicated..."
Had Junghyeok changed a little too, since he didn't finish by saying he would kill him?
Frowning as though something displeased him, Junghyeok turned to Sangah and pressed her.
"What is the second piece of news? Didn't you say there were two things to tell us?"
They had already heard one piece of news: Huiwon and Hyeongseong's whereabouts.
But there was still one left.
Instead of immediately telling them the rest, Sangah looked at her Allies and said,
"I agree with Junghyeok-ssi. I respect Dokja-ssi's life, but I think it's still too early for us to give up."
"Do you think we still have a role to play, unnie?"
"I don't know, but..."
Sangah continued as she looked at the 41st-round Kim Dokja's narrowed eyes growing larger on the screen.
"If this world is Dokja-ssi's dream, I think there must be a place for us in it too. I don't know whether we'll be villains or heroes."
"Somehow, I feel like Suyeong-ssi would write us as villains."
When Seolhwa cheerfully added that, the Allies smiled bitterly.
Sangah nodded and continued.
"The second piece of news is about Han Suyeong-ssi."
"Did Suyeong unnie wake up?"
Suyeong hadn't awakened since confronting an Outer God to save the 41st-round Kim Dokja.
"Not yet."
"Then what is it? Where is Suyeong noona now?"
"I don't know exactly either, but... I think something must have happened to Suyeong-ssi."
Sangah rummaged through her clothes and pulled out a laptop. Everyone there knew what that laptop was.
It was Han Suyeong's laptop.
Suyeong had written the story of Dokja and Kim Dokja Company on that laptop.
As their eyes filled with longing, Sangah turned it on and opened a file.
A story of Dokja that Suyeong had once written.
Familiar letters they hadn't seen in a long time spread before their eyes.
"Huh?"
However, something was a little strange about the manuscript.
「■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■…….」
The contents were covered in noise.
"W-why did this suddenly happen? Is the computer broken?"
It didn't feel like a simple malfunction. Junghyeok, who noticed faint sparks flickering over the manuscript, said,
"The fable has been contaminated."
Fable contamination. It was a symptom that occasionally appeared in old fables. A fable's context could become tangled, or parts of it could be lost.
But what did it mean for that contamination to occur in this manuscript of all places?
"Since when has it been like this?"
"Since the 41st round began."
"What caused it?"
Sangah let out a light sigh at Junghyeok's question, then spoke.
"What I'm about to say is only a hypothesis, so don't take it too seriously."
"Go on."
"You all know the principle behind how this world works, right?"
Jihye scratched her cheek and nodded.
"Suyeong unnie explained it once before, but..."
"I heard Suyeong unnie wrote about Junghyeok ahjussi, and Dokja ahjussi read it, so this world exists. Isn't that right?"
At Yuseong's words, Jihye tilted her head.
"Then Suyeong unnie wrote the book first, and this world existed because of it?"
"No. Suyeong noona went back to the past and wrote the book using what happened with Dokja hyung, so Dokja hyung read it first."
"What are you talking about? How could he read a book nobody had even written?"
"Hyung is a god, so he can read it."
Sangah stopped the bickering children.
"There isn't much point in measuring what came earlier or later. As you know, this world was made so that its beginning and end cannot be known."
Suyeong had once said something similar.
This world was a "square circle."
A world with continuity impossible in time and space, one that existed only as "text" beyond human imagination.
"So what does that mean?"
"It means a story that began later can be placed in an earlier timeline."
A story that began later could be placed earlier.
The Allies already knew an example of that.
"Like Junghyeok-ssi's 1,863rd round."
Dokja, who existed after TWSA, had changed Junghyeok's final round.
Seolhwa nodded as if she understood.
"Is something similar happening in the 41st round right now?"
"Yes. More precisely..."
Sangah scrolled down and turned the manuscript's pages.
Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4...
The pages kept turning until they stopped at a certain point.
Episode 551. It was the final installment of Dokja and Kim Dokja Company's story written by Suyeong, as well as the end of that world.
But when Sangah turned to the next manuscript page,
"Huh?"
A page that had never existed appeared.
The flustered Allies asked,
"Wait. What is this?"
The manuscript beyond the ending, which had clearly been blank, was now filled with text.
Sangah said,
"The story of the 41st round is being recorded."
"Is Suyeong unnie writing what comes after?"
Even now, the manuscript was repeatedly being written and erased.
If it was Suyeong, who had said she would forever be a writer for one person, it was possible she was continuing to write this manuscript somewhere.
"Some parts do seem to have been written by Suyeong-ssi. But not all of them."
"Someone besides Suyeong unnie wrote the manuscript?"
"If you read it, the style isn't consistent from part to part. The themes are subtly different too. I don't know exactly how to describe it, but..."
Sangah paused to choose her words, then spoke again.
"It looks as though multiple writers are competing over a single manuscript."
After thinking for a while, Junghyeok asked,
"Who would do such a thing, and why?"
"I don't know that far, but this is what I think."
Sangah read sentences from the latest installment, which was being written in real time.
As she watched her own dialogue being written in real time, Sangah wondered.
Was it being written because she spoke it? Or was she speaking it because it had already been written?
"There are people trying to steal the fables we've built."
Either way, it didn't matter.
What was certain was that this gave her and Kim Dokja Company something to do.
"More precisely, Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint written by Suyeong-ssi."
* * *
【Do you really believe he is qualified to be a Recorder?】
* * *
I read Suyeong's A Guide to the Fear Realm Even a Squid or Sunfish Can Understand together with Dokja.
True to its title, it was a "setting guide" written in easy-to-understand language.
However, there was one troubling point.
For example.
+
* Access to this document has been prohibited by SVRP.
SVRP. PW 0.
■■ ■■■ ■
■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■…….
+
Similar traces remained throughout the book. It felt as though numerous editors had intervened in one manuscript, revising or deleting passages here and there.
―It looks like someone altered the manuscript Suyeong wrote.
Dokja seemed to think the same.
The question was who would do such a thing.
Of course, we vaguely knew the answer.
―Probably those bastards who record Fear.
"Recorders of Fear."
But why had they tampered with Suyeong's manuscript?
Why had this manuscript been inside [The Fourth Wall] to begin with?
For now, there were almost no clues. Since there were so few, it was time to read what we could.
―We don't have time to read all of it.
"Still, let's start with the basics."
If Dokja had been beside me, he surely would've been wearing that characteristic smug grin. It made sense. We were Dokja's fragments, addicted to letters more than anyone else in the universe.
"What should we look into first?"
―We need to find out which Fears are weak and which are strong.
"So we don't die."
That was what I said, but there was another reason.
Who were we? Dokja's fragments who used to draw things like TWSA power balance charts during breaks.
According to A Guide to the Fear Realm Even a Squid or Sunfish Can Understand, the Fear Realm's "Fears" were broadly defined in four grades.
Catastrophe-grade Fear.
Disaster-grade Fear.
Natural Disaster-grade Fear.
End-grade Fear.
Things like the "traffic light" and the tunnel's "crack" that I had encountered earlier belonged to the most primal Fear, Catastrophe-grade Fear.
「A Catastrophe-grade Fear refers to a "Fear" that regularly causes between 0 and 50 deaths.」
「The cause of a Catastrophe-grade Fear is generally a mutated Historical-grade fable.」
"So they really are based on fables."
Only then did the full shape of the Fear Realm begin to come into view.
「This Fear Realm is composed of enormous "discarded fables."」
Fables that hadn't been properly covered in the main story. Those fables had gathered to form one enormous world, which was this "Fear Realm."
At that realization, the pale darkness around me felt like a cluster of letters waiting to be called by name.
「A Disaster-grade Fear refers to a "Fear" that regularly or irregularly causes between 50 and 10,000 deaths.」
「The cause of a Disaster-grade Fear is generally a mutated Legendary-grade fable.」
Disaster-grade Fears were Legendary-grade fables.
Did that "shark head," that is, "Tooth Fin," mean it was a Fear based on a Legendary-grade fable?
When I looked behind me, Tooth Fin was standing still, looking at me while swishing its massive tail.
I didn't know why, but ever since it ate the fable I gave it, that thing had been following me from a certain distance away. Thankfully, it didn't seem hostile.
I continued reading.
「A Natural Disaster-grade Fear refers to a "Fear" that brings about the annihilation of a world.」
「The cause of a Natural Disaster-grade Fear is generally a mutated quasi-Mythical-grade fable.」
According to the records, Tooth Fin, which had tried to destroy Murim, had also temporarily been classified as Natural Disaster-grade.
So the destruction of Murim would be Natural Disaster-grade.
Then what was the next grade, End-grade?
Would Outer God Jaehwan show up or something?
Unfortunately, most of the explanation regarding End-grade Fear was obscured by ■. It seemed the Recorders of Fear had controlled this description too.
Still, it appeared they couldn't control every description, because one very welcome piece of advice remained.
「End-grade Fears appear in the "End Region." No matter what happens, never enter the "End Region."」
"If Suyeong wrote it this emphatically..."
―It means we must never go there.
"The way you say that makes me anxious we'll definitely end up going there."
―That's always how TWSA is.
"Can't you at least say we don't have to go?"
Dokja snickered.
―Still, we need to go as far as the middle region. That's where we can find the second one.
The middle region.
Even in the entry region, monsters like Tooth Fin appeared. There would surely be something worse in the middle region.
"Can't we just try calling again first?"
―No.
"Why not? Did you fight with the second one?"
―That's...
It was surely because of what he had said before.
The Demon King of Salvation had said that the other Kim Dokjas didn't agree with the first Kim Dokja's will. Then there must be some kind of misunderstanding and conflict. Resolving that was important.
"This is what I think. Kim Dokja and Kim Dokja need to talk."
―That's a nice sentiment, but...
"Then talk to him."
―I need him to answer the phone to talk. I told you, we can't make calls from here.
"But it worked earlier."
―That was because he called us. If we want to call, we have to go somewhere else.
"Where else?"
―Somewhere you already know.
I thought for a moment, then asked,
"The Dark Dimension's Time Stratum?"
―That's right.
So it was there after all.
This was the place that had caused Supreme King Yu Junghyeok, Sky-Splitting Sword Saint Namgung Minyeong, and Paradoxical White Purity Kyrios to be reborn as Transcendents.
The cradle and grave of martial artists who dreamed of stars in the sky.
―The entrance to that place starts from the middle region.
In the end, we had to reach the middle region somehow.
The distance suddenly felt immense. Even getting here, we had passed countless traffic lights and all kinds of Catastrophe-grade Fears. I had almost died several times. How many more times would I have to go through something like that?
[Nameless Fear has discovered you!]
That was when a bright light shone from afar.
A long object rattled toward us with a heavy roar.
Wait, that...
―Hm. It's that.
A subway train was running through darkness without even any tracks laid down.
Come to think of it, in a world where a Fear related to a "traffic light" existed, it wasn't strange that there would be a Fear related to a "subway train."
I could understand it that far.
The problem was the announcement playing alongside the approaching subway train.
【We w ill do our be st to prov ide a pleas ant and com fortable sub way th at puts passen gers' safety first.】
The moment I heard the announcement, my head throbbed and my stomach churned.
【Pass eng ers bo und for... are request ed to use th is train.】
The train's exterior looked somehow familiar. The moment I saw the brightly lit train name on its front, Dokja and I muttered at the same time.
"This is insane."
―I agree.
There was no doubt.
「Bulgwang-bound 3434 Train.」
That train was the very one Dokja and Junghyeok had ridden during the "First Scenario."
Footnotes:
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