WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 840: Episode 44: The Evil Sophist (3)
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Killer King, Chae Seongwoo, had been sitting blankly when he suddenly smacked his own head hard. Ji Eunyoo, watching beside him, asked in surprise.
"What are you doing?"
"Checking whether my head is properly attached."
"Out of nowhere?"
"Maybe my head has gone stiff lately. I can't remember the contents of Revelation very well."
"You said you read it a hundred times."
"Maybe I should've read it a hundred and one times."
Seongwoo stared into empty space with a strange look in his eyes, then murmured in a thoroughly deliberate voice.
"Or... is it because that guy isn't here after all?"
Naturally, Eunyoo knew who Seongwoo meant by "that guy."
She let out a quiet sigh and looked around. Lee Dansu, Gyeong Sein, and Chae Yerin were all staring into space with the same expressions.
They were all thinking of that guy.
"Do you think he'll be all right?"
Gyeong Sein spoke first.
"Whatever anyone says, he's Kim Dokja."
Dansu added. Yerin cut in.
"Kim Dokja dies pretty easily, though."
The group's faces turned pale for a moment.
"B-but he always comes back to life."
"He must have a Revival Attribute, right?"
"I don't think he had an Attribute like that..."
A deep sigh filled the room.
It had already been three months and ten days since their leader, Writer, Inho Cheon, or Kim Dokja, since they still had not settled on one title, had gone missing.
"How bad was the damage from the latest Scenario?"
During that time, the group had cleared another Scenario.
It was a Monster Wave-style Scenario where powerful third-rank beast species appeared.
"Not bad. We've grown a lot stronger now."
Though it had been a Scenario in the twenties, they had become capable of clearing it without much difficulty. It was all thanks to the upgrades they had received at the Recycling Center.
"There weren't any rumors that Dokja returned, right?"
"We didn't see any Kim Dokja impersonators this time, either. Hyeonu said..."
Creak.
Someone entered the room as the hinges squealed.
It was Ye Hyeonu.
"Are you all doing this again? It's not like we're Kim Dokja Company."
Dansu chuckled.
"You never know. If we keep thinking about him, maybe we'll meet Inho..."
"Right. Inho has Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint."
But no matter how much they thought of Inho Cheon, they could not hear his voice.
"He isn't really dead, right?"
"He won't be."
"Then where do you think Inho is now?"
At Gyeong Sein's murmur, everyone looked at two people.
The only two in this space who had read Revelation at least a hundred times.
Eunyoo, receiving their attention, spoke first.
"I think... he probably went somewhere with a Time Stratum."
Seongwoo nodded as well.
"I think so too."
"Writer... no, Dokja is being chased by the nebulae right now. He must have needed a way to grow stronger while running from the stars."
"There's no way except becoming a Transcendent."
Gyeong Sein nodded as if understanding, and Dansu spoke casually.
"Then what if we go look for Dokja?"
Seongwoo was the first to raise his head. Eunyoo, Yerin, and Gyeong Sein followed.
However, one person shook their head instead.
It was Hyeonu.
"Uncle, realistically, that's impossible. Even if we've grown stronger, we aren't strong enough to go to a Time Stratum. We'd only become deadweight."
"We can borrow the characters' strength."
"They won't help us."
At Hyeonu's words, the group recalled Lee Jihye's final words.
「"We'll act separately for a while."」
The backs of Lee Jihye, Lee Hyeongseong, and Shin Yuseong as they walked away with somewhat lonely, sorrowful expressions.
「"My master told me not to die."」
Do not die.
If only they had been given instructions like that, too.
After Kim Dokja disappeared, the group had felt like a compass with a broken needle.
"We could go on our own. Huiwon left like that too."
A month ago, Jeong Huiwon had left the group, saying she would find Inho Cheon by any means necessary.
"We aren't Huiwon. And I'm worried about her too. She may be the strongest among us, but..."
Hyeonu's expression suddenly hardened as he spoke. He had spotted a massive cluster of dark clouds spreading outside the window.
Crackle!
Sparks were flashing across the clear skies of the Korean Peninsula.
A huge hole slowly took shape around those sparks.
Seongwoo shot to his feet.
"A Great Hole?"
Why was a Great Hole opening now?
The Calamity Scenario had already ended, and there was no sign that a Scenario related to an Outer God would appear anytime soon.
Yet a Great Hole had been observed...
"It looks like something happened."
The Constellations residing in the Korean Peninsula were already rushing about and sending the group warnings.
[The constellation Naval Warfare God warns you!]
[The constellation Demonic Judge of Fire recommends that you stay away from the Great Hole!]
[The constellation Bald Army General is diligently polishing his head!]
[The constellation Abyssal Black Flame Dragon narrows his eyes as he stares at the Great Hole.]
...
If the Constellations were tense enough to act like this, it seemed something would happen in the Scenario soon.
Hyeonu, who had been urgently contacting someone, spoke.
"We just heard from the United States and Japan. Great Holes have been observed there too."
"Then Great Holes are opening all over the world at once? The later Scenarios haven't even started yet..."
While everyone else was confused, only Seongwoo remained calm.
"Kim Dokja must be alive."
Eunyoo objected to his certain tone.
"How does that connect to this?"
"I can tell."
"Could you not say that while smiling?"
"Kim Dokja, what the hell are you doing out there?"
"I told you not to say that while smiling."
Eunyoo looked at Seongwoo's grinning face, then anxiously raised her eyes to the Great Hole.
Despite what she said, Eunyoo agreed with Seongwoo.
[The Administration Bureau is currently investigating this strange phenomenon.]
[The Plausibility of the Star Stream has begun to stir.]
In this worldline, at this point in time, there was only one person who could cause a miracle on this scale.
'Writer. What the hell are you doing?'
At least Yu Junghyeok of this worldline had gone with him.
'You're safe, right?'
Eunyoo recalled Lee Hakhyeon's face, which was gradually beginning to fade from her memory.
The Lee Hakhyeon in her memories only smiled silently, offering no answer.
As usual, Eunyoo gave a bitter smile and thought.
'It's all right.'
* * *
No matter how much I tried to feel all right, I couldn't.
Why was Junghyeok's head dangling from my waist like a keychain?
To accept reality, I had to ask myself the same question over and over.
"Wait a moment, Blood Demon. I'm a little confused, so I think I need to sort this situation out. Please don't attack for one minute."
"What nonsense are you..."
[The Exclusive Attribute Hypercognitive Acceleration has activated!]
Fortunately, one of Inho Cheon's useful Attributes helped me.
Once Hypercognitive Acceleration activated, everything around me seemed to slow down temporarily. More precisely, the surroundings had not slowed down. My thoughts had sped up.
Either way, I used that time to organize the information I had obtained.
First, Junghyeok of the 40th round had already died. In other words, he had regressed.
Second, Olympus had been keeping the dead Junghyeok's head, and I had stolen it.
Now that I listed it out, there was not much to organize. The second piece of information was even strange.
Why had Olympus been preserving Junghyeok's head?
No, was a dead Junghyeok's head even something that could be preserved?
「Yu Junghyeok's body vanishes in rays of light at the moment of Regression.」
As far as my mind and fingers could remember, Junghyeok had never left behind a corpse after dying in the main story.
「Then why hadn't this Yu Junghyeok head disappeared?」
The moment that thought reached me, my head throbbed and a memory surfaced.
I recognized whose memory it was.
This was Inho Cheon's memory.
A series of events that had happened to Inho Cheon since my previous visit to the Time Stratum.
「"Supreme King, do you really think we can become companions?"」
The instant I heard that voice from the memory, my heart began pounding anew.
Had what I done really affected the actual 40th round?
But after seeing the scene that followed in my mind, I shook my head.
「"If you really wanted to see the end, you should've been ready to throw everything away too."」
Of course, the two had not become companions.
One was the worst villain among the Ten Evils, and the other was the world's savior.
They were beings with no reason to join hands, only to oppose one another.
They killed each other's companions and eventually met on an unavoidable narrow bridge.
「"So it came to this, Inho Cheon."」
After that, it was history exactly as I knew it.
As Anna Croft's [past vision] had shown, the two fought their final battle. At the end of it, Inho Cheon exhausted a hidden Revival Attribute and survived alone.
The inciter Inho Cheon had succeeded in defeating Supreme King Yu Junghyeok.
「"Supreme King. What does that mean?"」
「"..."」
「"What does it mean that this is the final reset? That everything in the universe will perish forever in the next round?"」
But Junghyeok had already left this round, unable to answer those questions.
The problem was what came next.
「[Supreme King has died.]」
The moment Junghyeok's body was enveloped in brilliant rays of light, a group of Constellations appeared from somewhere and targeted his Incarnation body.
「"Olympus!"」
They carefully severed Junghyeok's head and stole it.
「[It will be preserved.]」
The scene scattered before my eyes with a burning sensation.
That was where the memory ended.
I understood.
Olympus had preserved Junghyeok's head in its original state.
They had probably used a skill like Special Preservation or Complete Preservation to keep the head from disappearing. I had not known skills could be applied that way.
Why had Olympus tried to preserve Junghyeok's head?
Maybe they wanted to examine Junghyeok's memories, or perhaps they thought the secret of Regression was hidden inside that head, like the Blood Demon did.
Which meant...
Damn it. If I delayed any longer, my body would be split in two.
"Wait!"
[The Exclusive Attribute Hypercognitive Acceleration has been deactivated!]
The Blood Demon's terrifying blade grazed my shoulder.
If only I could use Incitement, I could subdue that bastard with a single wag of my tongue. It was completely unfair.
"I'll give it to you! I'll give you Junghyeok's head!"
The Blood Demon's blade hesitated for the first time.
"You'll give it to me?"
"Yes!"
"Then why are you rummaging through your coat?"
I smiled.
Why had I rummaged through my coat?
Obviously, because I thought Inho Cheon would have hidden an item like this somewhere.
[You have used Item, Roughly Lethal Mana Bomb!]
"Please take it!"
I hurled the mana bomb from inside my coat with all my strength.
While the startled Blood Demon and the subordinates hid behind nearby cover, I moved my frail body and began scrambling away.
Booom!
A deafening explosion rang out, and the fragile Incarnation body rolled across the ground.
I swallowed my coughing and fled on all fours.
I could not die here.
And for some reason, I had a feeling that Junghyeok's head could not be taken from me either.
"Chase him!"
More than anything, one certain feeling drove me forward.
[The Great King of Fear is watching you.]
Right now, Second Kim Dokja was watching me.
He had stopped that damned End Banquet and was curious about the story of this 40th round.
So I had to live.
I had to escape somehow.
I had to ask for help.
A bitter smile came to my lips.
I was Inho Cheon of the 40th round.
As one of the damned Ten Evils, who the hell could I ask for help?
The current Inho Cheon could not possibly have companions.
That was when someone's shadow appeared above me.
"The signal came far too late, One Who Deceived the Stars. Is that the Supreme King's head?"
I looked at the coat fluttering from the hill above and briefly doubted my own eyes.
I could not understand it.
How could this person be in this Time Stratum?
"Killer... no, Kang Ilhun?"
No, wait.
Could this person be Killer King?
Killer King could not exist in the 40th round.
Looking more closely, the distinctive irritating smile and way of speaking were somewhat different from Killer King's.
But my thoughts could not continue.
The words that came from Kang Ilhun's mouth were more shocking than the fact that he was here.
"Yes, now we can revive the Supreme King."
Footnotes:
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