LNCrawler

718 chapter - Star Ladder (10)

Omniscient Reader’S Viewpoint (Web Novel Kr) — novelight.net · All chapters

718 chapter - Star Ladder (10)

Within my narrowing vision I realized what was about to happen.
「The Demon King of Salvation intends to sacrifice himself.」
The situation was desperate. The Washington Dome was surrounded by great-figure constellations, and there was no constellation to help us.
On top of that, a [Fate] had been pronounced.
In a situation where death could not be avoided no matter what we did, Kim Dokja judged:
Only through his death could we overcome this crisis.
“Stop!”
But I couldn’t let it happen.
This was my [Fate]. It was my share to bear.
“Stop!”
There was no reason for the Demon King of Salvation to take it in my stead.
“Kim Dokja!”
—You’re not ready to fight them yet.
I felt someone propping me up.
Turning my head, I saw Christina Page.
Just as I was about to thank her, my eyes met hers, steeped in faint guilt. With a bad premonition, her fingers moved.
My vision blacked out.
*
Christina Page.
Anna Croft’s closest aide, leader of “Zarathustra.”
An FBI forensic hypnotist and, in the “Eradication Method,” known as the “Finger Snapper.”
Just before she possessed this person, Olivia had been playing TRPG with her friends.
“Kevin, Jim, Amelia.”
Olivia thought of her friends.
Friends who liked subculture.
Kevin, who only picked out webtoons with “SSS” in the title.
Jim, who liked wuxia novels.
Amelia, who liked virtual idols.
“Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint” was a Korean webnovel Kevin had brought among those.
—Guys, if we went into this novel, how would we survive?
—Oh, Kevin. Again?
—This one’s set in Korea. We might be at a disadvantage.
—No, America appears too.
—Kevin, but there’s no “SSS” in this title?
—If you read it, SSS does show up. Olivia, can you write the author an email? You said before you had a Korean friend. Let’s add this novel’s setting to the next session too.
What if she hadn’t listened to Kevin then.
If she hadn’t sent that email to the author, would any of this have happened.
“Oh, God.”
The only reason she survived was luck.
By chance, the person she possessed turned out to be “Christina Page.”
For someone who usually enjoyed TRPG, playing the role of “Christina Page” wasn’t difficult. It was a relief that it wasn’t difficult.
At least while she was playing “Christina Page,” Olivia could forget who she was.
—Demon King of Salvation.
She could forget Kevin, Jim, Amelia—her dead friends.
—Can you really save my friends?
A message from the Demon King of Salvation conveyed through the exclusive skill, [Nightmare].
—Yes.
Said the Demon King of Salvation.
If she granted his request, he would definitely save her dead friends.
And that request—
[Exclusive Skill, ‘Daily Corpse Lv.5’ is activated!]
Christina hastily propped up the Cheon Inho who was pitching forward.
In the distance, Anna Croft staggered in shock.
“Christina! What are you doing right now?”
“It’s the Demon King of Salvation’s order.”
“Excuse me?”
“He told me to cast [Daily Corpse] on his incarnation body.”
“What on earth—”
She didn’t know why the Demon King of Salvation had made such a request.
“It doesn’t matter, does it. This person can ignore my [Daily Corpse] and move the incarnation body.”
If she had to guess, maybe he planned to fight using [Daily Corpse].
What was strange was why he hadn’t spoken through his incarnation body but conveyed his intent directly through [Nightmare].
“Then why isn’t Cheon Inho waking up? Last time he got up right away.”
“That I don’t quite—”
It was then that a brilliant streak of light burst up from the direction of the Capitol.
The area where the “sub-scenario” had occurred earlier.
The fake “Demon King of Salvation.” And the place where the “Black Beast” had appeared.
But the fake Demon King of Salvation had been eliminated, and Yu Joonghyuk, who had become the Black Beast, had collapsed.
The scenario had already ended.
Then why were sparks crackling across the Capitol grounds.
“Christina. Something’s wrong.”
Thunderclouds filling the sky were shrouding the Capitol.
Pitch-black lightning was falling through the clouds.
[Within the scenario, the ‘Demon King of Salvation’ resurrects.]
The demon king, thought dead, revealed himself at the Washington Dome.
*
Held in a warm abyss, the “Dark Watcher” thought.
「I am.」
A question he had asked for a very long time.
「Who am I.」
That question was all that described him. An answer he could not obtain despite devoting his whole life.
To find the answer, the “Dark Watcher” made a contract with a dokkaebi and became part of the scenario.
Even so,
「I was not the Demon King of Salvation.」
He did not find the answer he wanted.
To be precise, he could not become that answer.
The stars turned away from him, and the scenario cast him out.
He was merely a nameless character.
Or a monster not even fit to be a character. A consumable to make the protagonist shine.
「Even that, is fine.」
He already knew this world was a playground for constellations. Even if he were only a sandcastle briefly raised and then washed away, he wanted to have a name.
He wanted to become a proper part of the playground.
He wanted to become the “Demon King of Salvation.”
—Do you really want to become the “Demon King of Salvation”?
The “Dark Watcher” stared blankly up at the Demon King of Salvation.
—No matter what the price?
He wanted a name.
He wanted a proper role, to carry out that role, and to die afterward.
The “Dark Watcher” nodded with all his life.
Even just a single sentence would be fine, if there were a tale granted to him.
—Then let’s try it once.
He wanted to be written with that tale.
[Tale, ‘Demon King of Salvation’ begins to tell its story.]
A cold tale wrapped around him.
「I am.」
Soon the Dark Watcher became one with a far-off eternity.
「We are the Demon King of Salvation.」
His ragged body became saturated again with abundant plausibility as the constellation’s tale settled upon it.
Tzzt-tzzt-tzzt!
Amid the roughly surging sparks, the Demon King of Salvation, Kim Dokja, opened his eyes.
When he lightly turned his head, his body screamed with a cracking sound.
A demon-species body covered everywhere with the traces of having been slashed to ribbons by Yu Joonghyuk.
There wasn’t a single limb left intact, but what mattered was that the plan had succeeded.
[Nebula, <Asgard>’s constellations are aghast!]
A plan that had succeeded dramatically.
It was something that could not have been realized unless multiple plausibilities meshed like cogs.
The great nebula proclaimed a [Fate].
He, a tale-grade constellation, received that [Fate] in place of the incarnation.
Due to the calculation error of the twisted [Fate], plausibility ran amok.
Using the surplus plausibility as a pretext, he obtained justification to possess a new body.
Above all, without the help of the demon who had impersonated the “Demon King of Salvation”—the “Dark Watcher”—the plan could never have succeeded.
[The incarnation body resonates with your tale.]
[Your synchronization with the incarnation body increases.]
This would probably be his last story.
“There! He’s over there!”
Sensing his class, incarnation bodies began to converge.
Great-figure constellations of great nebulae who had been chasing Lee Hakhyun just moments ago.
“W-what is that—”
“Why is he in a body other than his own incarnation…”
“Could it be he was trying to protect his incarnation body?”
The constellations looked back and forth at one another in disbelief.
Someone let out a thin snicker and said,
“They said he was a fragment of a discarded god, and it seems he’s the very picture of stupidity.”
Stupid.
That was correct.
[Nebula, <Guiok>’s constellations shake their heads at your folly.]
[Nebula, <Tree of Guardians>’ constellations pity your choice.]
[Nebula, <Olympus>’s constellations mock your judgment.]
The resurrected demon-species body creaked. “Resurrection” in name only; it was already a dead body. An incarnation body that at best wouldn’t last even ten minutes.
In the distance the “Gatekeeper of Thebes” bellowed.
“Finally caught you, Demon King of Salvation! There’s nowhere left to run!”
Swaggering forward as if he already had victory in his grasp, the “Gatekeeper of Thebes” rattled on in a triumphant voice,
“You don’t know how much effort I put in to catch you. Convincing the nebulae one by one…”
With [Fate] declared, avoiding death would be difficult.
If they’d had a tale like the 1,865th round’s <Kim Dokja Company>’s “Fate Adversary,” or Cheok Jun-gyeong’s “One Who Fights Against Fate,” the situation might have been a little better.
But there was no such tale.
There were many tales he presently did not have.
「Perhaps the youngest will find them all.」
The youngest was a strange one.
The only one among the “Kim Dokjas” he knew who could write.
At first, it was curiosity.
He wondered what story a guy who had possessed a small-fry villain would tell.
A guy who clumsily imitated “Kim Dokja” was cute, and a guy who took care one by one of the things “Kim Dokja” wouldn’t do was, in a way, admirable.
Sometimes he felt so frustrated he wanted to snap at him.
Even so, reading that guy’s story was enjoyable.
「But youngest.」
That was probably why he was here now.
「This damned world won’t read the story you wrote.」
After chattering on for quite some time, the “Gatekeeper of Thebes” scowled.
“…So, are you even listening to my story?”
The Demon King of Salvation looked at him for a moment, then let out a thin laugh.
Among the tales the “Gatekeeper of Thebes” possessed was “Final Loose Tongue.”
A tale that, in exchange for raising one’s class, made one confess his desires at the final moment.
“Go on.”
While the “Gatekeeper of Thebes” blathered, the Demon King of Salvation rifled through the coat the demon-species had been wearing.
There was a pack of cigarettes in the coat.
When he pulled out a cigarette, a guy who happened to like smoking flickered across his mind.
Who was it again.
Memories scattering like smoke. The place where memory disappeared hurt. That pain itself proved he was Kim Dokja.
Coming to his senses belatedly, the “Gatekeeper of Thebes” flushed and shouted,
“Kill him! Retrieve the fragments!”
Incarnation bodies charged.
The Demon King of Salvation flicked the cigarette away and said,
“Youngest. Lend me a weapon.”
Something silver flew from somewhere and settled in the Demon King of Salvation’s right hand.
[Tale, ‘One Loved by All Things’ begins to tell its story.]
[Item, ‘Thoughts About Almost Everything’ responds to your tale.]
With a brilliant flash, the foremost charging incarnation body was split in half.
“Kraaaah!”
The “Thoughts,” guised as “Broken Conviction,” activated “Blade of Conviction.”
“How can he still do that—”
The constellations fell back in shock.
Power that executed the incarnation body of a great-figure constellation with high synchronization.
Eyes stretched wide as if tearing, the “Gatekeeper of Thebes” bellowed,
“It’s a fluke! Keep pressing! He’s at his limit!”
The hesitating constellations charged again.
The Demon King of Salvation did not hesitate and swung the blade. He cut arms, cut legs, and beheaded.
Each time, wounds multiplied on the demon-species body.
「This world is a blatant tragedy.」
He yanked out the arrow embedded in his shoulder and kicked away the spear that grazed his thigh.
「A world made to inflict pain on Yu Joonghyuk.」
The instant he parried the blade aiming for his side, pain flared across his back. A torn demon-species wing ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) tumbled across the ground.
「A story smeared with large and small failures, an unending despair. This world soon became a “fate” handed down to Yu Joonghyuk.」
The moment the torn wing hit the ground, lightning fell from the sky once more.
「Therefore, anyone who tries to shoulder that responsibility together will, without fail, be cursed.」
The Void Veil heaved, and another star fell across the white-glowing night sky.
[A certain colossal Fate desires your death.]
He was the Demon King of Salvation who could not feel emotion.
Even so, in this moment he too was Kim Dokja. Perhaps because he had met the youngest.
“Yeah. You’re fighting too, aren’t you.”
Yu Joonghyuk could not answer.
Just as the words written on a monitor do not answer.
Some communications never happen. And in the place where communication is impossible, there is only a story.
「To read that story, the Demon King of Salvation lives.」
The Demon King of Salvation smiled like a prisoner accepting a fitting punishment.