WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Alyo

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Surviving Among the Anomalies ◈

Chapter 8: The Girl with Closed Eyes (2)

──────

“You’re a child I’ve never seen before.”

Though the girl’s eyes were closed, she looked up at me as if she could see.

“How strange. How did you escape my notice?”

“Who are you?”

“I am the one who watches all things.”

There had been no information in either the game or the wiki about the girl ever speaking.

“The one who watches, observes, and quietly looks on.”

“What do you watch, observe, and look upon?”

“The whole world.”

It wasn’t impossible. Her name was The Girl with Her Eyes Closed, not The Girl with Her Mouth Shut.

“Not just this place, but every other world as well.”

“Parallel worlds?”

“What a paltry concept.”

The girl laughed.

“Parallel worlds, multiverses, outer universes, multidimensions.”

Concepts I knew.

“The final land of time and space beyond the singularity, stars beyond the outer universe, worlds within every dream.”

Concepts I didn’t know.

“Beneath the darkness beyond death, miracles formed in an instant by vanishing particles, things that breathe within flower buds grown between dimensions.”

Concepts that were difficult to understand.

“■■■■, ■■■ ■■■ ■■■■, ■■■■■, ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■.”

A concept she was clearly speaking of, yet I couldn’t hear it or remember what she had said.

“And everyone’s imagination.”

“Imagination?”

“Every world within the thoughts of you living creatures. Even if a world only blooms for a brief instant, I watch them all. For example, games. Games where I exist, as seen by another version of you in another world.”

A fictional being recognized works of fiction.

“What is fiction, and what is reality? Is the world you live in truly real? Reality and unreality have no meaning.”

“I think, therefore I am.”

The girl stretched out a hand and pointed at me.

“But you didn’t exist in any world.”

“Didn’t you just mention another version of me in another world?”

“Yes, Lee Seung-hoon. Beings like that do exist. So many that no number humans have devised could express it.”

Her finger was pointing at my right eye.

“But nowhere was there anyone with an eye like that.”

“You know about my eye?”

“Yeah. That bastard gave it to you. I hate that bastard.”

“It seems the two of you don’t get along.”

The girl puffed out her cheeks in complaint.

“If you don’t like a play, would you go on stage and change the story?”

“No.”

“If you don’t like a film, would you threaten the director into filming it again?”

“Of course not.”

“If you don’t like a comic’s story, would you take up the pen in the author’s place?”

“That would be uncultured.”

For the first time, the girl smiled.

“I’m the same. But that bastard goes and does it anyway. Your eye is proof of that.”

“But the version of you in the game always affected people.”

“That’s me made of zeroes and ones, not the real me.”

Her eyes remained closed.

“There is only one true me. The me before you is the only me who truly exists.”

“I see.”

That was a problem. I wouldn’t be able to strengthen my body this way. After speaking with her, I had learned that the girl disliked affecting others.

“But I’ll make an exception for you.”

“……Did you read my thoughts?”

“Thoughts are a dimension too.”

“Thoughts are a dimension. I’ve learned something new.”

“Between the eighth and ninth dimensions. Anyway, won’t you make a deal with me? Let me watch you from now on.”

“A deal is an agreement for mutual benefit. What do you intend to offer?”

“I’ll let you see my eyes.”

“What happens if I see your eyes?”

The girl answered.

“You’ll come to know all things in creation.”

I answered as well.

“I refuse.”

“Why? The infinite versions of you in nearby universes all pursued knowledge.”

“That’s why I don’t want it.”

The prospect of knowing all things in creation was horrifying.

“Humans only begin to die once they lose the possibility of growth.”

“But are you fine with failing to accomplish what you came here for? If you don’t accept the deal, I won’t give you what you want either.”

“Is that part the same as in the game?”

“Yeah, it’s the same.”

“What principle is behind it?”

The girl was kind. She could have done something strange to me at any time, or simply ignored me, yet she continued answering my questions. By the standards of Anomalies, that was saintly kindness.

“A two-dimensional being cannot recognize a three-dimensional being. I am a being who rules over the highest dimension, yet you are still speaking with me.”

Under normal circumstances, that would have been impossible.

“That’s right. The reason this is possible is because I’ve lowered myself to be here. To put it simply, I’m controlling a person drawn on paper. That’s how I’m speaking with you.”

I was beginning to understand.

“It’s easiest to think of it this way. By coming into indirect contact with a higher-dimensional being, a lower-dimensional being accepts the power of the higher dimension into their body. That power is then manifested as physical force in a three-dimensional world.”

Then I realized.

“Only now?”

From the moment I spoke with the girl, I had been affected by her far more than I had through physical contact.

“Payment first, contract later. You have a concept like that, right? We’re the same.”

I tried to speak to the girl, but the fog swallowed me first.

『I’ll keep watching you from now on. Don’t worry too much. Watching alone has no effect on you. And we won’t meet again, unless you come looking for me first.』

When I came to my senses, I had already descended the mountain.

『So I’ll always be here.』

I felt bewitched.

＊＊＊

The first thing I did after coming down the mountain was visit a hardware store.

“What are you planning to use this for?”

“I’m going to make a sign.”

After buying a hammer, nails, paint thinner, a wooden board, brushes, and paint, I made a sign and climbed the mountain again.

‘This should be a good place to hang it.’

I returned to the fork halfway up the mountain and installed the sign pointing toward where the girl was.

[Warning – This route is extremely dangerous, with accidents occurring every year. Risking your life on a hike brings misfortune to your family. Please use the official trail.]

I didn’t know if this would stop everyone, but it was all I could do.

“I hope only people who follow warnings go hiking.”

Of course, entering that path did not guarantee death. The Girl with Her Eyes Closed was not aggressive, and anyone who came into contact with her might gain a kind of talent.

‘But true safety means…….’

Never coming into contact with an Anomaly at all.

And never learning that Anomalies existed.

“I’m already too late.”

After descending the mountain, I stayed for a day before returning home.

‘The girl said she would watch me.’

She had introduced herself as a being who saw everything. If that were true, she could watch me without asking permission, and she must have been watching me all along. Why had she specifically said that she would watch me?

“Maybe she means she’ll pay closer attention.”

It felt strange to think that the girl might be watching these words, my actions, and even my thoughts.

‘More importantly, I should find out about my Physical Ability.’

Since I had been affected by the girl, something must have changed.

I changed into lighter clothes and headed for the sports complex. The early-autumn weather was mild, and people were everywhere.

‘One hundred meters from there to there.’

After a brief warm-up, I stood on the track. The moment I started my phone’s stopwatch, I ran.

“Whew.”

Despite sprinting the entire hundred-meter track, I wasn’t out of breath. When I checked the stopwatch, I found an astounding record.

[4.79]

Five seconds faster than the world record.

People around me watched and whispered.

“What was that? A track athlete?”

“They aren’t even wearing a tracksuit or running shoes. How can they run that fast?”

“Wow, that’s incredible. Could they be on the national team?”

“Come on, what was fast about that? It looked like around eleven seconds. Any man can do that.”

I could clearly hear people speaking from at least fifty meters away.

‘Not just my strength, my hearing has improved too?’

I stared at a book a woman was reading in the stands. She was several hundred meters away, but I could read not only the title but every bit of small print on the cover.

“Norwegian Wood.”

Next, I ran around the track without thinking much about it. I wasn’t going at full speed like before, only using about fifty percent of my strength.

“Ugh, I’m dying.”

“Wow, that person’s really fast.”

Even at that pace, I passed everyone else. I kept running without stopping until I was out of breath. By the time I caught myself panting, I checked the stopwatch.

[2:35:17.05]

My endurance had reached an inhuman level as well.

‘Not superhuman, though.’

True superhumans were beings born human who came to be called Anomalies. Compared to them, what I had shown was nothing more than child’s play.

‘Still, I’ve raised my chances of survival, even if only a little.’

The next day, I visited an archery range.

‘Archery.’

I had only tried it a few times. At most, I had learned enough to stick an arrow into the target.

‘But now it’s far too easy.’

Every arrow I fired struck the very center of the target. Later, I even tried shooting with my eyes closed, relying only on feeling, and still hit the center.

“Wow, are you on the national archery team?”

“No, it’s just a hobby.”

My Dexterity seemed to have improved too. By then, it was easy to guess what effect I had received.

‘All three options from the game have taken effect.’

And they were a little stronger than they had been in the game.

There was still one more thing I needed to confirm.

‘The rewards from the choices were Dexterity, Physical Ability, and Spiritual Insight.’

I had not seen a ghost even once on my way here.

‘Let’s find a place with a lot of ghosts.’

A cemetery seemed like the obvious choice, but I didn’t see any ghosts when I went there.

‘The presence of graves means people hold memorial rites and family members take care of them. Did they pass on without lingering regrets?’

Information about ghosts was too contradictory across religions and regions to make a hasty judgment.

‘Then I’ll have to look around as much as possible.’

For the first time in a while, I wandered the city without a destination. I went to places I had never visited, sought out unsettling places, and kept walking late into the night.

『Sob…….』

At last, I found one.

A translucent being crouched before the entrance of a building, crying.

‘A ghost.’

Its body was translucent enough that I could see the words [Daebak Mahjong Parlor] behind it. Though a grown man was crying, no passerby reacted. People entering and leaving the building walked straight through him.

‘They say you should never casually speak to a ghost.’

Still, I was curious. What would happen if I spoke to him? Would I be cursed because he remained in this world with deep resentment? Would he rush at me and try to kill me? Or would he beg me to resolve his grudge?

Normally, I wouldn’t have interfered, but I trusted my enhanced Spiritual Insight and stepped forward.

“Hello?”

The ghost raised his head.

“Can you hear my voice?”

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried