WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 824: Episode 41: Sophistry (8)
──────
[The Forgotten Ending can be unlocked in the Final Library.]
[Once the ending has been unlocked, you can use the Time Stratum exclusive to that round.]
The messages ringing in my head were hard to understand.
Everything that had happened until then buzzed through my mind. Words surfaced without order.
Yu Junghyeok. Wilderness. Red Blood Dragon. Ten-Thousand-Year Fire Carp. Hollow Earth. Three months.
Scenery scattering in a whirl. Sentences breaking apart as if it were all a lie.
None of it felt real.
「Was all of that really just a ‘Fear’?」
Had I truly changed the past? Or had I merely seen an illusion?
If I had changed the past, had my actions affected the ending?
[The aftereffects of the ■■-grade Fear are setting in.]
It took me a while to realize that a phone was ringing.
The caller was "Me."
―Hey.
Who had I been acting as all this time? Were the lines I had spoken really mine?
Was I Kim Dokja? Or Lee Hakhyeon? Or else...
I was
OneWhoDeceivedtheStarsDevilishSophistVillainofGeumhoStationIronheadGangLeaderRivaloftheSupremeKingOneBoundtotheTimeStratumOneWhoSawtheEndoftheWorldlineOneWhoReachedtheFinalWallRecorderofFear
―Youngest!
My mind suddenly cleared.
"Ah..."
The fog in my head lifted, and the confusion settled. As the breath trapped in my chest escaped, it felt as though tears had gathered in my eyes.
―Yes, good job.
I muttered through my hazy consciousness.
"Yu Junghyeok. What happened to Yu Junghyeok?"
―What are you talking about? Where is Yu Junghyeok?
"Yu Junghyeok of the 40th round. He was there."
―I know what you saw, but get a grip. It's all a story that has already ended.
A story that had already ended. Those words touched something inside me.
"No. Nothing has ended yet."
Junghyeok and I had been there. We had survived after wandering that damned Hollow Earth for three months.
I had saved him.
I had been there.
―That round is over.
I didn't want to admit it. It felt as if every moment would come back to life if I just reached out my hand. The sensation of dismantling the Ten-Thousand-Year Fire Carp still lingered at my fingertips.
―That Yu Junghyeok came to this round with you.
I froze and looked down at my smartphone.
Could I think of it that way?
Just as I had told Junghyeok, could I hear the same words myself? Did I have the right?
"No, I..."
―More importantly, Youngest. Wake up already. Up ahead...
The call cut off again. It seemed I had entered an area without reception.
When I looked around, I saw the subway lights glowing dimly.
A dry heave rose in my throat again.
Holding onto a subway strap, I retched over and over.
[Your Incarnation body has awakened from Commute Nap.]
The Fear had definitely ended.
Then why was I still inside the "subway ride home from work"?
The reason was clear.
[You have unlocked Chapter 1 of the ■■-grade Fear Devilish Sophist.]
This "train" had not yet reached its destination.
[You have interpreted the Uninterpretable Fear.]
[Interpretation proposal: A companion who kept life and death separate]
[Blessing of Fear has settled upon you.]
Whenever a Fear was successfully interpreted, it affected the interpreter. Like one story naturally blending into another.
Whether that effect was positive or negative remained to be seen, but for now, my body felt lighter. My field of vision had widened, too.
「It feels as if the fable through which I see the world has taken a step forward.」
I savored the sensation for a moment before looking around.
Someone was collapsed in the seat across from me.
"Excuse me."
It was Anna Croft.
Like me, she seemed to have fallen into a light sleep. Her eyes were slowly opening.
"Ah, ah... I-Inho Cheon. No..."
"It's all right."
Anna's eyes opened wide. I rested a hand on her shoulder for a moment, calming her down.
If I was right, she must have been going through the same confusion as me.
What memories had Anna Croft glimpsed?
Had she, too, been drawn into the memories of the 40th round?
After taking a moment to steady her breathing, Anna looked up at me. Her voice trembled.
"A message said I failed to interpret it."
She had failed to interpret it.
That was different from the message I had seen.
"But it said that since someone riding the train with me had succeeded in interpreting it, I would be given another chance..."
Anna's eyes widened as she spoke.
"Don't tell me, Inho Cheon, you..."
"Yes. I succeeded in interpreting it."
"I owe you."
Hearing something similar from Anna after Junghyeok made me feel strange.
Well, I hadn't intended it, but I would be grateful if she considered it a debt.
There was something I wanted to know.
"What did you see in the Fear?"
Since Anna had not been in the fable of the 40th round that I entered, she must not have been placed in the same fable as me.
Then what memory had she faced?
"I don't know. I can't remember."
"Nothing at all?"
"No. Nothing. I remember hearing that I wasn't qualified."
Not qualified?
"I also remember immediately seeing a message that said I had failed to interpret it."
I thought for a moment, then nodded.
Maybe this was the difference between someone who succeeded at interpreting a Fear and someone who failed.
Those who could not interpret the Fear in their own way could not retain the memory of enduring it.
"Do you remember saying something strange before entering the Fear?"
I recalled what Anna had told me right before the subway lights began flickering wildly.
"When I asked who you were, you said that you were one of Yu Junghyeok's closest companions. What did that mean?"
"I said that?"
She looked as if she could not understand how she had said such a thing.
"It's true that you were once Junghyeok's companion, but... companion? Wait. That can't be... A companion...?"
Doubt filled her red pupils as they spun fiercely.
The Arch-Demon's Eyeball.
She had activated [Past Vision]. Then, in the next moment, her eyes clouded over and faint sparks flew.
"Ugh, what is this?"
I thought I knew what had happened.
"Why won't [Past Vision]..."
The 40th round, which Yu Junghyeok, Inho Cheon, and Anna had lived through, had become a "Record" she could no longer read.
Was that related to my newly interpreting the Fear?
I couldn't tell whether it was good news.
Of course, that was not the only thing I couldn't tell was good news.
"It's fine. You don't need to force yourself to see it. More importantly, we have a problem."
I spoke while looking around warily.
This was not Car 3807, the one Anna and I had boarded.
The corpses of bloodied Incarnations were sprawled everywhere.
In other words, the High-Crime Area had already erupted in this car, and someone had killed them all. Perhaps the Final Passenger had already been chosen by now.
The one left at the end was probably Cheok Junkyung.
Anna's startled voice trembled.
"My God. If that's the case..."
"It will be fine. We approached the Fear differently from the others."
We had not used the High-Crime Area, so we would be dealt with differently. That was the rule of this Fear.
The moment I thought that, the door before us slowly opened.
The car ahead was not a passenger car.
"Ah."
A record of Han Suyeong's flashed through my mind.
If I was right, then beyond this door was...
「The engine room.」
After exchanging a look with Anna Croft, I slowly stepped toward the entrance.
The moment I stepped through the door, the space swallowed us.
The room was painted pitch-black. Looking closer, what I had thought were black walls were actually windows.
Beyond them stretched the dim universe of Fear.
Several old-model monitors had been installed in the room. A tall man stood before the monitors, which gave off a soft glow.
He was probably the Engineer.
The Engineer slowly turned around, and our eyes met.
No, more accurately, I felt as if they had.
I could not make out a mouth, nose, or eyes. A large question mark floated over the Engineer's face.
That question mark was staring quietly at me.
【Welcome.】
The moment I heard his voice, I felt a strange sense of déjà vu.
Fable fragments jolted through my head, stabbing at my mind.
「The foolish human knows not how lofty God's throne is.」
At that moment, I felt Anna's body beside me stiffen.
【That friend will remain like that for a while. She is not qualified to hear my voice.】
The dot of the question mark stretched long to either side as if it were smiling, then opened and closed like lips.
【It has been a long time since someone fell into a "light sleep" for three whole months. Thanks to you, I enjoyed myself for a while as well.】
The old-model monitors showed scattered scenes from the three months Junghyeok and I had gone through.
I watched the screens with the Engineer for a moment.
There was something I wanted to ask.
"Did the things I experienced really happen?"
【Didn't I just tell you? You had fallen into a light sleep.】
A light sleep. A sleep one never fully sank into.
"Then did I have a dream?"
【Well. How different do you believe dreams are from reality?】
"I'm not sure, but dreams are dreams, and reality is reality. They aren't the same."
【Who decides that?】
"What?"
【If this entire universe were someone's dream, and everyone in that dream lived without knowing it, would it be a dream or reality?】
For a moment, I was speechless. A little late, I thought I understood what he meant.
The Engineer watched me for a moment before adding,
【Most of this universe is made that way. It is not us who decide whether it is a dream or reality.】
"Oldest Dream."
The Engineer flinched and closed his mouth at my answer.
After thinking for a moment, I added,
"For someone who spends their whole life dreaming, that dream would also be reality."
The Engineer burst into hearty laughter, as if my answer interested him.
【Long ago, I met a man who spoke like you.】
It was clear whom he meant.
I took a small breath and opened my mouth.
"Mr. Engineer. Could you perhaps be..."
I thought that, just as Kim Dokja Company, Asmodeus, the Mass Production Maker, and Uriel had, perhaps there might be more cases like this.
Stars who had seen their own conclusions yet remained unsatisfied with their endings.
I slowly looked around the engine room.
No matter how many times I considered it, there was only one person who could drive a train like this.
A star who had once been Kim Dokja's nemesis, and who had driven a train for Kim Dokja Company at the final moment.
His modifier was...
【Shh. For now, I am the Engineer of Fear.】
As he put a finger to the question mark's lips, I hesitated before asking,
"Are you all right?"
The Engineer fell silent for a moment, as if considering what I meant, then nodded.
【I am satisfied with my role. Driving a train is my specialty, after all.】
Would a star who had come to love a story be unable to leave its side forever, even after the story ended?
I looked at the great Lokapala of Veda, who had once shone brighter than anyone, then asked,
"What will you do with me now?"
【This is the "subway ride home from work." If you have awakened from your light sleep, then you must now arrive at your destination.】
Destination.
【My duty is to take you to your destination. Where do you wish to go?】
It seemed the "subway ride home from work" was a means of transportation within this Fear Realm.
I thought for a moment before speaking.
"The place I want to go is..."
The place I wanted to go was somewhere public transportation could not reach. Nor could I get there simply by moving quickly.
To reach that place, one needed time. One needed stories. One had to survive terrible trials and cross several deaths.
It was a place that even Kim Dokja, after enduring such arduous time, had ultimately failed to reach.
【I see.】
The Engineer looked at me and nodded as if he understood my destination.
【You wish to go to the "Big House."】
Footnotes:
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
