WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 821: Episode 41: Sophistry (5)
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In a way, it was an absurd idea.
「Drawing Kim Dokja's attention with an interesting "story."」
I was no Scheherazade. No matter how convincing a story I spun, it would not make Fear disappear just like that.
Even so, I was certain it could work.
More importantly, this subway contained several "metaphors."
「The subway's flickering lights.」
Han Suyeong's guide explained that only those who confirmed the lights flickering exactly three times survived.
What if I put it this way?
It was not just the "lights" that flickered.
「Eyes.」
What if those "lights" were eyes watching us?
That was not all.
I looked at the scattered passengers. Strangely, none of them wore earphones.
「Ears.」
They were listening to our story.
Thinking of it that way completed a rather plausible story.
Public transportation was a place where you happened to encounter someone else's story. Dokja had used public transportation, too. He must have read and reread TWSA on countless subways home from work.
In that sense, this subway was a place where Dokja could immerse himself in stories more than anywhere else.
The premise was complete. The question was whether the Gambler of Las Vegas would help me.
"Didn't you say we should forget the past?"
As expected, Anna Croft was prickly.
"Some things need to be remembered well to be forgotten properly."
"You really are..."
Anna glared at me as if I were unbelievable, clenching and unclenching her hand several times. There was a silence hidden in those brief movements.
I vaguely understood her struggle.
She was weighing the burden of her memories. Deciding whether it was right to tell the Inho Cheon before her about the previous round.
I decided to make the first move.
"Let me tell you one thing. I am not the Inho Cheon of the 40th round."
Anna Croft flinched and looked up at me.
"Whatever kind of person the Inho Cheon you remember was, I am different from him."
"That..."
"Just as Yu Junghyeok of the first round differs from the one of the second round."
"..."
"Just as Anna Croft of the third round differed from Anna Croft of the fourth round."
"A person's essence doesn't change easily."
"What do you think makes up a person's essence?"
Anna Croft hesitated for a moment.
"A person's essence is..."
"The sum of the history they have lived through, making their own choices and decisions."
Anna looked at me in slight surprise, then slowly nodded.
"That is true. Everything in this world is made of fables."
Her Arch-Demon's Eyeball was staring at me. As long as I had [The Fourth Wall], those eyes would be unable to read anything from me.
So what she was reading now was not me, but the fables of this world that she and I shared.
What had happened at the Washington Dome. Even the rumors of the Recycling Center.
"I really cannot tell what you are thinking. First, you suddenly start talking about novels. Then you make me play some strange role. And now..."
Still clenching and unclenching her fists, Anna added,
"Now you are asking me to tell you who you are."
"Because only you can tell me."
There were hardly any people who remembered the 40th round now. Even Junghyeok had forgotten most of his memories of that round as the price of Fable Engraving.
The only one who properly remembered what happened in that round was Anna Croft, the prophet who could use [past vision].
As if she had finally made up her mind, Anna clenched her fist.
"You were."
Her palm was reddened by her nails.
"The worst kind of human trash."
"I already know that."
There was not a single reader who did not know Inho Cheon was trash.
However, Anna Croft was not finished.
"If it were not for you, so many people could have survived. Las Vegas would not have fallen, and the Korean Peninsula would have remained intact."
I had expected it, but the scale was greater than I thought.
Inho Cheon had even ruined Las Vegas and the Korean Peninsula?
"Great Evils gathered beneath your banner, and the Hall of a Hundred Evils (百惡殿) was opened. You and they turned the Scenarios into a complete mess."
"..."
"If you had not charmed the stars, if you had not spouted such convincing sophistry... Junghyeok might not have had to regress."
I gave a bitter smile.
That could not be true.
It was only the 40th round. There was no way Junghyeok, the regressor, could have seen the conclusion in that round.
However, the moment I heard Anna Croft's next words, I could no longer smile.
"Because you were one of Junghyeok's closest companions."
"Companions?"
What the hell did that mean?
Because.
「"You should have made me your companion long ago."」
「"I should have. But it is too late in this life."」
In the memories I had seen before, Inho Cheon and Junghyeok had never been companions.
「"Do not think of making me your ally. Even in the next round, I will be your enemy. Again and again, I will be your enemy."」
They had been irreconcilable enemies, unable to tolerate one another.
My thoughts were a mess.
What could that mean?
Had they been companions before they fought?
No, was that even possible?
"Please be precise. You are saying Junghyeok and I were companions in the 40th round?"
"That..."
Anna Croft's expression abruptly changed as she spoke.
"Ah, uh. Aah...?"
A bad feeling came over me. Her entire body was trembling. Her red eyes rolled white, and sparks leaped across her pale body.
Then.
The lights began to flicker.
Once. Twice. Three times.
Fourfivesixseveneightnineteneleventwelvethirteenfourteenfifteensixteenseventeeneighteennineteentwentytwenty-onetwenty-twotwenty-threetwenty-fourtwenty-fivetwenty-sixtwenty-seventwenty-eighttwenty-ninethirtythirty-onethirty-twothirty-threethirty-fourthirty-fivethirty-sixthirty-seventhirty-eightthirty-nineforty
[The Exclusive Skill, The Fourth Wall, has activated forcefully!]
Something was wrong.
"Anna Croft! Get a hold of yourself!"
I urgently grabbed Anna and shook her, but her consciousness had been gone for a long time.
Just then, my smartphone screen flashed. New information in the guide had been unlocked.
+
Passengers who escaped this subway without using the "High-Crime Area" were all moved to ■■■■.
■■■■ is the ■■■? spoken by a passenger.
* Part of this document has been censored by SVRP.
All subways head toward a "destination."
+
All subways head toward a destination.
A destination? Where the hell was that?
Was it just my imagination? The subway's rattling seemed to be gradually slowing.
The passengers fell over unnaturally, like mannequins.
The surroundings swayed uneasily.
Beyond the window shrouded in pitch-black darkness, I saw a massive streamlined body racing alongside the subway.
【Teethteethteethteethteethteeth!】
It was Teeth Fin.
Had it been following me this entire time?
【Teethteethteethteethteethteethteeth!】
Its eyes moved urgently, as if it were warning me.
Get out of here now.
Its huge body slammed into the subway several times, and its savage fangs collided with the side of the train.
For a moment, hope rose in me.
Tooth Fin was a Disaster-grade Fear. It was even an Outer God that had been recorded as a Natural Disaster-grade Fear in some rounds.
Could it perhaps pull Anna Croft and me out of this subway?
【………………………………!】
A deafening roar tore through my ears as powerful sparks erupted across Teeth Fin's entire body. Teeth Fin's body was flung away helplessly.
It seemed this subway was too much even for that Outer God's power.
[An announcement for passengers aboard.]
Something gradually felt strange.
I reflexively grabbed Anna Croft's arm, but I could not feel it in my hand. My five senses were numbing as though space and time were slowly warping.
My vision flickered very slowly.
Like the lights flickering.
Once. Twice.
[We will soon arrive at our destination.]
Three times.
[The Rush-Hour Subway wishes you a safe trip home.]
My vision vanished.
* * *
【Hm, what a shame.】
【You've drawn too much of the owner of Fear's curiosity.】
【Well, the commute home is meant to be arduous.】
* * *
My vision returned.
As I sucked in a breath, I was sprinting through a grassland.
I nearly stumbled with a startled cry, but barely caught my balance and kept running.
It was not quite [Way of the Wind], but it was undoubtedly an incredible lightness technique.
What was this? I had never learned a martial art like this.
"Chase him!"
At the voice, I hurriedly looked beside me and saw masked men running alongside me.
It did not take long to grasp the situation.
I caught a glimpse of my side profile in the dagger of a masked man running nearby.
A black mask.
I, too, wore a mask. In other words, I was not being chased by them. I was chasing someone with them.
As I ran, I examined my body. My build did not seem to have changed, and my narrow eyes were normal.
Then.
To figure out the situation, I reached into my clothes for my smartphone.
This situation was probably another production caused by Fear. All Fears were discarded fables, and most had the nature of a vicarious experience. Perhaps I had entered the record of a fragment of a fable that once existed.
If so, Han Suyeong's guide or TWSA would have a clue. Even if neither did, I had the first Kim Dokja. If I could just get through...
Hm?
There was nothing.
My heart seemed to sink.
I reached into my clothes again and again. I searched my trouser pockets and even my back pocket.
My smartphone was gone.
That was not all. Most of the items I had been carrying were gone. Unbreakable Faith and Thought were gone. Naturally, so was my coat.
[Information synchronization has been completed.]
A light headache came with the sensation of my mind opening.
[Way of the Wind] flowed into the tips of my feet.
Fortunately, it seemed the skills I had possessed had been synchronized.
Right. As long as I had my abilities, there was no need to panic.
Even without my smartphone, I could find out where this was myself.
"Over there! It's him!"
It did not take long to grasp the situation.
The man the masked men were chasing appeared before me.
I slightly opened my narrow eyes and examined the target.
A black coat fluttered around a strangely familiar broad back.
The moment I opened my eyes wider, thinking something was wrong,
Splat.
The head of the masked man beside me flew off.
"Aaargh!"
Goddammit.
I quickly slipped away from the group and hid in the nearby grass.
I wondered what kind of lunatics were attacking Yu Junghyeok, but the masked men were no pushovers. Judging from the martial arts they used, they seemed to be the elite of the great demons of an earlier generation, or perhaps the Demon Cult or Blood Cult.
Of course, no matter who his opponents were, Junghyeok was still Junghyeok.
He swung [Sky Splitter Sword Art] mercilessly, slaughtering the masked men. Ten, twenty, thirty. In an instant, the nearby forest filled with the stench of blood.
However, Junghyeok, who was carrying out that merciless slaughter, did not look to be in good condition either.
I immediately noticed his state.
He was poisoned.
His pale complexion proved it. An invisible poison, or perhaps one comparable to Thousand Spirit Poison, seemed to be gnawing at his entire body.
It seemed he had either fallen into a trap or walked into one himself.
In an instant, more than a hundred Incarnations had fallen to the dirt, and Junghyeok began running again.
Cutting, running, falling, cutting, running.
Falling.
How much time had passed?
At last, the staggering Junghyeok dropped to one knee. I was now the only masked man left around him.
I came out of the bushes and cautiously approached him. One glance was enough to tell me. Junghyeok had no Mana left. It seemed he had already used [Recovery], too.
"Yu...!"
I was about to speak to Junghyeok when an odd feeling stopped me.
He was glaring at me.
「Something is wrong.」
If Junghyeok had seen me, he would have asked me for help long ago.
Yet he did not.
「Junghyeok did not recognize me.」
I reflexively used [Character Profile].
Then.
[The Exclusive Skill, Character Profile, has activated!]
[There is too much relevant information about this individual. Character Profile is being converted into Summary Profile.]
+
<Character Summary Profile>
Name: Yu Junghyeok
Exclusive Attributes: Regressor <40th round> (Mythical), Pro Gamer (Rare)...
Exclusive Skills: [Sage's Eye Lv. 10], [Close-Quarters Combat Lv. 10], [Weapon Mastery Lv. 10], [Mental Barrier Lv. 10]...
+
Junghyeok, who had been glaring at me as if he wanted to kill me, suddenly collapsed forward.
Then the voices of masked men in uproar came from beyond the bushes.
"Over there!"
I blankly looked down at the back of the fallen Junghyeok's head.
Even as I thought such a thing could not be possible, I had no way to deny what was unfolding before my eyes.
I had told Dokja the story of the 40th round in the subway.
And if my skill was not wrong, that man lying before me with the back of his head exposed was the Yu Junghyeok of the 40th round I had only heard about.
「All subways head toward a "destination."」
My head rang.
"Over there!"
Goddammit. I did not know.
For now, I had to think about what was certain.
Before me lay Junghyeok of the 40th round, and I had two choices.
Would I save the Junghyeok before me, or leave him to die?
"Kill him!"
My deliberation was brief.
Footnotes:
- Hall of a Hundred Evils includes the Hanja 百惡殿, literally "Hall of a Hundred Evils."
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