WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Alyo

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Surviving Among the Anomalies ◈

Chapter 19: Fine Art

──────

『You.』

Blue Moon’s eyes curved like crescent moons.

『Two-eyed one wearing the mask of a one-eyed one, disorder upon the road, rival of the rubber duck, one acknowledged by Greed, one who saw me twice and remained unharmed.』

All those eyes turned toward me.

『It is good to see you again.』

“Good to see you too.”

The sky grew restless.

[Run!]

[Its attention has shifted away! Now’s our chance!]

[I’ll never set foot in this place again!]

The world twisted wildly. The whole world melted like an oil painting splashed with water, but Blue Moon and I were unaffected.

『Those disgusting things have fled.』

“You seem to know them well?”

『They are a troupe that wanders the dimensions, trash that toys with humans to film disgusting works. I intervened several times, but they are false artists who cut off their tails like lizards and flee.』

Only then did I remember that Blue Moon was an Anomaly that took an interest in humans and lavished them with affection.

“You have history with them.”

Although its interest drove humans mad, its attention and affection were not false.

『If even an ill-fated connection is a connection, then it is one. But two-eyed one wearing the mask of a one-eyed one, why are you here?』

“I was abducted by them. A work was filmed.”

As I spoke, I held out the Bead toward Blue Moon. I did not say that I had filmed it myself.

‘If personal ties are involved, it’s hard to get a proper evaluation.’

They had already fled, so there was no longer any public reason to have it evaluated. Still, I wanted a private evaluation of my first work.

『I shall examine it.』

Blue Moon’s eyes turned toward the Bead. About ten seconds later, the air trembled.

『You, two-eyed one wearing the mask of a one-eyed one, pitiful child, child toyed with by false artists, child made the protagonist of an infinitely meaningless and worthless work, child sacrificed to something not even worthy of being called art, how very pitiful you are!』

“......”

『Of all the works by false artists I have seen, this is overwhelmingly the most worthless trash. This is their territory, so even with my eyes, I cannot see what happened here. Thus, I dare not imagine the humiliation and rage you must have suffered!』

Blue Moon began to disappear.

『I shall pursue them and hold them accountable for wasting my time and defiling my eyes!』

The space around us also began to vanish. When it finally collapsed completely, I returned to reality as well.

“It’s over.”

I had escaped the dream where I was originally supposed to die. I had evacuated everyone and successfully avoided the future where the world ended.

“This came with me too.”

I rose from the bed, the last place I remembered being, and opened my palm. The Bead gleamed beautifully there, my work itself, a dream made solid.

“The method of use is...”

I could activate the Bead as though switching on the power, then either touch it to the target’s body or have them stare at it for more than three seconds. Wanting to test the method I understood instinctively, as naturally as breathing, I used it on myself.

‘First, let’s check the time.’

It was currently 10:35 p.m.

When I used the Bead, the work I had filmed played as though it were real.

‘It feels like watching a movie in a huge theater.’

A while later, the screening ended. I immediately checked the clock.

‘10:36.’

The total runtime of my work was twenty-six hours, twelve minutes, and thirty-five seconds, yet only one minute had passed in reality.

-Quack!

“It really is moving.”

To give such a moving work a bad review, Blue Moon’s brain clearly had to be soaked in dopamine too.

‘But does this work on Anomalies as well?’

Considering Blue Moon’s size and what the surrounding Anomalies had said, it was no ordinary Anomaly. It might have been able to watch the work stored in the Bead.

‘Let’s test it on another Anomaly.’

I approached Rubber Rubber Duck in the corner and activated the Bead.

-Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack!!!

Before a minute had even passed, Rubber Rubber Duck began quacking like crazy. It kept crying for quite a while despite me watching it, then suddenly stopped.

“It was moving, right?”

There was no answer.

“That must be it.”

Anyway, after spending such a long time in the dream, I was no longer sleepy. Just as I decided to stay up all night and endure until tomorrow evening to fix my sleep schedule, an unexpected guest arrived.

『Whew, I finally found you! Wow! You moved into a nice house, didn’t you?』

It was Shin Yeong-mun, the man who had gambled away his entire fortune through illegal gambling and died in an unfortunate accident.

＊＊＊

“Come to think of it, I never told you my new address. How did you find this place?”

I had asked him for one thing. If he ever saw an Anomaly, he was to let me know, but I had moved without telling him and never gave him my new address.

『I searched everywhere. Starting from the studio apartment you used to live in, I went through every house nearby one by one.』

“Wasn’t that difficult?”

『I’ve got nothing but time.』

True. Ghosts did not sleep or get tired, so perhaps they were suited for simple labor.

“If you came all this way, I assume you found what I asked you to look for?”

『Yes, I witnessed it completely by accident. I never thought something like that really existed.』

“What happened?”

『Well...』

After the experiments at my house ended, Shin Yeong-mun wandered through the city without purpose.

『Then I suddenly felt wronged. I wondered if my Mahjong skills were really that bad, so I went to the library to read books. Books specializing in Mahjong, I mean. It’d be nice if I could look things up on a computer, but I’m a ghost, so I can’t use computers, you know?』

“Isn’t it the same with books?”

『With books, I can stand behind someone reading the book I want and read along. There wasn’t anything else I could do, so I decided to stay there and wait.』

Shin Yeong-mun became a ghost bound to the library.

『Well, reading along behind people while they read made time pass quickly, and it felt like I was getting smarter too. Then, not long ago, I saw something strange.』

While wandering through the library, he witnessed a woman vanish while reading a book.

『I’m telling you, she was standing there reading, then suddenly disappeared. The book she had been reading even fell right onto the floor.』

“Was the book cover black, by any chance?”

『Yes! How did you know?』

“Did you see the title?”

『The title was, um, what was it...? I was so startled that I ran away immediately, so I didn’t see it. After that, I kept looking for you, Seung-hoon.』

“What is a ghost afraid of?”

『There are living people who beat up ghosts. There could be books that eat ghosts too.』

“That makes sense.”

I thought I knew what Anomaly it was.

“I should go take a look soon.”

『Ahem, I did a good thing, right?』

“Yes, you did a good thing.”

『Then could I ask for just one reward?』

I stared at Shin Yeong-mun’s face.

‘He’s bolder than I expected.’

Normally, when someone was beaten nearly to death, they would hold great resentment toward the attacker. Whether it was anger or fear, they would likely treat them differently than before. Yet Shin Yeong-mun had none of that.

“Is it because you’re a ghost, or were you always like this?”

『Huh? What do you mean?』

“Never mind. What reward do you want?”

『I want to read books about Mahjong. Please buy some books and read them. Honestly, I’ve been getting tired of waiting at the library because no one reads them, no matter how long I wait.』

“Wouldn’t professional lectures be better than books? There should be plenty of people posting lessons on YouTube.”

『Ah! I didn’t think of that! Please do.』

Before that, something occurred to me.

‘Can I show my work to a ghost too?’

I stepped closer to Shin Yeong-mun.

“Would you like to see this?”

『What is it? This Bead?』

I activated the Bead immediately. Shin Yeong-mun stared at it, then collapsed on the spot.

『Agh! Ugh! Gaaaaah!』

Despite being a ghost, his entire body convulsed and shook violently before he passed out.

『Ugh, uugh...』

“Are you conscious?”

『Y-Yes...』

“Do you remember why you fainted?”

『N-No. I feel like some disgustingly boring movie that made me want to bite my tongue and die was forcibly shoved into my brain, but I don’t remember anything else.』

Shin Yeong-mun was soaked in dopamine too.

Then again, he had died addicted to gambling. I must have expected too much.

“Let’s watch some Mahjong lessons. I’ll put them on for you now.”

『Ah! Thank you!』

＊＊＊

After watching Mahjong lessons at my house for some time, Shin Yeong-mun said goodbye and disappeared.

『I should go to a Mahjong parlor and watch some real games. Hehe! It feels like my eyes have finally been opened!』

After he left, I made new preparations as well.

“All I have to do is stare at that Bead? That’s it, and the daily pay is 150,000 won!?”

“Yes. There’s nothing strange about it, so you don’t need to worry.”

First, to test my work, I hired day laborers and showed them the Bead.

“Eek? Huh? Ugh? Agh!”

Every participant who stared at the Bead for more than three seconds fainted with strange screams.

“Ugh, I feel like I saw an abyss I wasn’t supposed to see.”

“It feels like I watched a really fucking disgusting, boring movie that made me want to tear my eyes out.”

“It feels like I ate garbage with my eyes. This is okay, right?”

They could not remember what they had seen. Still, a vague trace of it seemed to remain in their subconscious.

“Now I understand.”

The brains of modern people soaked in dopamine could not fully appreciate my work.

“Is that why they faint, and why it remains only in their subconscious?”

In fact, some participants were startled when they saw me right after waking up.

“You’re wearing clothes? Why did I think you were naked?”

“You’re not suddenly going to take off your clothes and dance, are you? I don’t know why, but it feels like you might.”

It was truly a regrettable thing.

“Is there no place for fine art in a world full of dopamine?”

With such sentiments in mind, I wrote a post on a movie forum.

[The Reality of Modern Humans, Their Dopamine Circuits and Primal Stimulation, and Fine Art That Has Lost Its Way]

[Author: IAmADebater]

Yet I had realized too many things, so I ran into the character limit and had no choice but to split the post into several parts. I was about to write the fifteenth post when...

[This ID has been blocked by the Commercial Movie Manager.]

[Block duration: 7 days / Reason: Spamming and nonsense]

“So it isn’t a permanent ban.”

Not bad.

＊＊＊

The moment Shin Yeong-mun described the book, I knew what Anomaly it was. I had to retrieve it now, but I had recently changed my mind.

“Do I really have to retrieve it?”

That thought came to me while browsing the community for the first time in a while and reading people’s posts. After giving it some thought, I decided I would at least go see it for myself, but I had pushed it down to second priority and did not leave immediately.

“I should test this first.”

The five things I had sought in order to survive among the Anomalies.

Knowledge, strength, means, status, and wealth.

I had acquired knowledge and strength, means and wealth. Only status remained, but I had obtained that through the merchant last time as well.

“Legacy of the Great Novelist.”

A Safety Grade Anomaly that produced an infinite supply of ink.

Its most important ability, though, was something else.

“Anything written with this is accepted by the other party as the truth.”

The ideal Anomaly for acquiring every status in the world was in my hands.

Footnotes:

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