WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 838: Episode 44: The Evil Sophist (1)
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There had definitely been 21 days left on the countdown before I entered to meet the Recorders.
There was no way 21 days had passed in that brief time. Unless a new Fear had appeared on the countdown, the situation was obvious.
「I had touched something in the Fear Realm.」
No matter how much I thought about it, I had no idea what I had done wrong. All I had done was meet the Recorders, piss a few of them off. Maybe that was the problem?
And fail to make a trade...
I opened my palm and looked down at the shining interpretation of a Natural Disaster-grade Fear.
"Did you perhaps not make any trades at all?"
Cheongheo's expression as he looked at me was strange.
For a moment, the Transcendents looked at one another.
"No one told the newcomer?"
"I didn't think it was necessary. We've never had a case like this before."
"A newcomer who would refuse a leap into Transcendence?"
Cheok Junkyung, watching beside me, pressed a hand to his forehead.
Kyrios spoke with a groan.
"If you make no trade with any of the Recorders during your trade with them, you incur the Fear Realm's wrath."
The Fear Realm's wrath? Why? Just because I had not traded with the Recorders?
Cheongheo nodded and added, "That is likely why the countdown disappeared as well."
"Did I cause the end?"
I was now in a position where I couldn't complain even if people called me Mr. Kim End, followed by Mr. Kim Apocalypse. Damn it.
Even amid the ruined landscape, where cracks split the sky in every direction, old man Cheongheo chuckled and added, "Don't think that way. It was something that would happen someday anyway."
The screams of violent Outer Gods poured out from entrances to the Time Strata. Some had already begun cautiously sticking their heads or tentacles out beyond the doors.
"One got out over here! Stop it!"
"Damn it! It's Natural Disaster-grade!"
"We need commander-grade support!"
Looking at it this way, the Time Stratum resembled a vast prison for Outer Gods.
Each stratum contained rampaging Outer Gods, and the Transcendence Alliance exterminated them.
A strange thought suddenly came to me.
「Why did a place like this exist?」
What was the Second Kim Dokja trying to do by gathering them here?
Why had he created a place called the Fear Realm?
I didn't know, but I would soon find out.
If the Prophecy of the End was right, and if the disappearance of the countdown meant the prophecy was coming true, then the Second Kim Dokja would soon appear before me.
The problem was...
"Arrrgh!"
"Another one got out here!"
The Transcendents were going to die before then.
By now, all the commander-grade figures nearby were busy exterminating the Outer Gods attempting to emerge from the doors. Yet no matter how hard the Transcendents tried, it was impossible to stop so many Time Strata from running rampant. From the upper doors that no one had been able to touch, unidentified Outer Gods were bursting out one after another with horrific wails.
Kyaaaagh!
An Outer God that looked like a Medusa hybrid drifted through the air, then suddenly charged at me. I hurriedly took out Unbreakable Faith to swing it, but something moved toward it faster than I could.
Riiip!
The Medusa's entire body was sharply torn apart.
A streamlined tail blocked the way before me as if protecting me.
It was the Disaster-grade Fear, Tooth Fin.
The creature that had disappeared during the subway ride home from work had somehow followed me all the way here.
"Oh, it's Tooth Fin. You really managed to tame it?"
When I turned my head, Ryunard was standing there.
Perhaps he had a fairly close relationship with Fears. Ryunard patted Tooth Fin's snout several times, then added, "Anyway, the end has come again."
He said it in a tone that made it seem as though replacing "the end" with "the weekend" wouldn't have been strange.
As though he was used to situations like this, Ryunard strolled over to stand beside me and looked up at the air.
"It's a spectacular sight every time. Look at that. Aren't they more impressive when you just let them loose?"
I wondered whether it was all right to say something that insane while the Transcendents were dying in droves, but on second thought, it wasn't that strange.
The Transcendents were people who all had one screw precisely loose in their heads.
"I don't know if that's the right way to put it."
Seen this way, the End Region resembled a huge terrarium for Outer Gods.
A cosmic fishbowl filled with divine beings abandoned by the main story and rejected by the Scenarios.
Within that fishbowl, the Outer Gods ceaselessly poured their rage upon the world.
Another Transcendent was torn in half. His eyes were wide as though he couldn't believe it. He must have been a famous master in the First Martial World, yet here he was ending his life in a place where no one would remember him.
[Exclusive Skill The Fourth Wall has strongly activated!]
[Exclusive Skill The Fourth Wall is warning you.]
Was becoming numb in the face of that death proof that I, too, was becoming a part of this Fear Realm?
I spoke as if resisting it.
"Everyone will die if we leave this alone."
"They will."
"You'll die too."
"Me, old man Cheongheo, Brother Carlton. You too. Everyone will die."
He said "die" so calmly that I couldn't help looking back at him.
Ryunard smiled.
"It's not like this is my first time dying. Ah, are you different, newcomer?"
Strictly speaking, it wasn't my first time dying either. Still, no matter how many times I died, I didn't want to die again.
"Is there really no way to stop that?"
"A way to stop it..."
Ryunard had been watching old man Cheongheo's slash scatter a pure white spectrum across the sky.
"There is no way to stop the end, but there is a way to restore things afterward."
There was such a method?
"Do you see that door?"
The door Ryunard pointed to was hanging at the distant peak of the room.
It was a place where horrifying tentacles and heads of Outer Gods wandered.
When I narrowed my eyes, I noticed a small round number written beside the door.
[1863rd round, Scenario 99]
For a moment, I couldn't believe my eyes.
If I was thinking correctly, that door was...
「Scenario 99 of the 1,863rd round.」
Just thinking about it gave me chills.
A Time Stratum like that existed?
"Do we have to enter through that door?"
"Come on. Even I would die if I went in there."
"Then what?"
"Do you see the small button beside the door?"
Looking closely, there was a tiny black button beside it.
"Yes, I see it."
"You just need to press that. It's the reset button for this End Region."
The reset button of the End Region.
"If you press it, everything will be restored to before the Prophecy of the End occurred. Dead souls will come back to life, and rampaging Time Strata will stabilize. It's a Fear with that kind of effect."
I stared at the black button for a while before asking, "Who made something like that?"
"I don't know either. Some say it's a mechanism left behind by a Great Old One. Others say it's a Fear the Great King of Fear created by reaching an agreement with the Recorders. What is certain is that when nothing else works, you press that."
"Then can't we just press it now? Before the damage gets too serious..."
"You can only press that button after the end is over. Honestly, people don't press it unless they have to."
"Why?"
"Think about it. Is it really true that pressing it will return everything to normal?"
For a moment, I felt something creak beneath my shins.
Ryunard continued, his eyes slightly unfocused.
"Will the people who died really come back to life? Is turning time back truly possible? If such a thing were possible..."
"..."
"Is the me who died and came back to life really the same being as the me from before? Who could possibly guarantee that? If it were possible to guarantee something like that... what exactly is this being called me?"
An inexplicable chill ran through me.
The black button in the sky suddenly began to feel terrifying.
I thought I understood, at least a little, why the Transcendents did not press it.
"If things get bad enough, we'll press the button. But if possible, I hope it doesn't come to that. Hey, over there! Catch!"
After lightly stabbing and subduing several approaching Outer Gods, Ryunard grabbed a mass of them and threw it into a Time Stratum.
However, there were still too many Outer Gods left unchecked. Even the Outer Gods in the upper levels were beginning to stir, and the commander-grade figures looked tense.
After quickly clearing the lower Time Strata, Cheok Junkyung hurried over to my side.
[Disciple.]
Cheok Junkyung, red aura radiating from his entire body, glanced around before speaking to me.
[Escape from the End Region. It is not too late yet. It would be fine if you escaped alone.]
"What about you, Master?"
[I will be fine.]
Cheok Junkyung wore a grim expression as he said it. I could tell from that expression alone. No matter what happened, he would never flee from the End Region.
Honestly, I had not known Cheok Junkyung for long. He had taken me as his disciple based on a misunderstanding, and I had merely used him.
But still.
"Master."
Cheok Junkyung was the first person here to welcome me.
[What is it?]
When this time was written down as a Record far in the future, I did not want to read that Cheok Junkyung of the forty-first round had died in the Fear Realm.
"If I had made a trade with the Recorders, would the end not have begun?"
[Probably not. That is how it has been until now.]
Why did the Fear Realm become enraged if someone did not trade with the Recorders?
I thought about it for a moment based on that fact.
The Fear Realm was a region ruled by the Second Kim Dokja, the Great King of Fear. Then why did such an unwritten rule exist in a place like this?
「What happens when a Transcendent trades with a Recorder?」
「When a Transcendent trades with a Recorder, a new Time Stratum opens.」
「Why does the Great King of Fear want those trades?」
A light seemed to turn on in my head.
"Master."
[From now on, I will tell you how to escape. Right now...]
"No, I will not escape."
[Your courage is admirable, but I cannot let the lineage of the Three Sword Forms end here.]
"It will not end. I think I know how to stop the end."
Cheok Junkyung flinched and looked back at me. His expression held both faint expectation and reproach for his reckless disciple.
I asked him, "What do you think the end is, Master?"
[The end is...]
Cheok Junkyung hesitated for a moment before answering.
[The greatest fable a single world can complete.]
I nodded.
Everything I was thinking from this point on was merely speculation.
"Only the Great King of Fear, who loves every Fear, could love even an end like that."
I was merely entertaining the worst possibility. That the Second Kim Dokja, shut away in the Fear Realm for so long, had finally gone mad and was creating new fables this way, living by enjoying those fables.
"But the greatest fable isn't necessarily interesting."
The end.
It was certainly an interesting subject. But such subjects were not always interesting.
To someone who saw the same end every time, this end probably could not hold the same value as the first end.
Sadly, just as Yu Junghyeok's first regression and his hundredth regression carried different weight.
In this world, sorrow, joy, and being moved all eventually faded through repetition.
[What do you mean?]
"I have a story the Great King of Fear may find entertaining."
That was why this was an adventure worth attempting.
I told Cheok Junkyung the number of the Time Stratum I wanted.
[Hm. That Time Stratum is...]
At Cheok Junkyung's signal, the Transcendents in the area began moving to protect me. We pushed through the waves of Outer Gods flooding out of the strata, advancing again and again.
[Here it is, Disciple.]
Fortunately, the door was not far away.
[40th round, Scenario 99]
The scenario number alone gave me chills.
There was even a title written in an unfamiliar hand at the entrance to the stratum.
「Devilish Sophist」
The moment I read that sentence, I felt something inside me react.
[You may view the ending of Devilish Sophist.]
I had already acquired the right to enter this Time Stratum from Inho Cheon of the fortieth round.
And this Time Stratum happened to be...
「The story the Second Kim Dokja had wondered about on the Rush-Hour Subway.」
So I thought that if I entered this stratum, and if I could draw the Second Kim Dokja's attention, the end might be postponed.
[There is an Incarnation body suitable for you in this Time Stratum.]
Just as I thought. Inho Cheon of the fortieth round had survived all the way to Scenario 99.
I had come this far, so there was no reason to hesitate any longer.
Just as I took a deep breath and reached toward the door of the Time Stratum, Cheok Junkyung asked, [Are you truly all right with this?]
"I am. It may be difficult, but..."
[That is not what I mean. There is already an entrant in this Time Stratum.]
"What?"
[More precisely, there was.]
Someone had entered the stratum before me?
When I turned back in surprise, Cheok Junkyung answered with a somewhat displeased expression.
[A month before you arrived, the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint's disciple visited the Transcendence Alliance.]
I got chills.
It was far too obvious whom the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint's disciple meant.
But could he have visited here a whole month before I did?
It was not entirely impossible if I had spent more time than I thought in the Light Sleep of the Rush-Hour Subway.
No, more importantly.
"Did that bastard... enter alone?"
[He did. Unfortunately.]
I blankly examined the Time Stratum's monitor.
The monitor screen was black, with no lights on.
Then the stratum's log message appeared beneath it.
It was a message that would never appear if he were alive.
[There are currently no Transcendents challenging this Time Stratum.]
Footnotes:
Ryunard's joke relies on the Korean words for "the end" and "weekend" sounding similar.
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