Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint Novel MTL - Chapter 575

Chapter 575

We held fast to one of the large thorns, side by side.

«Stay awake!»

«I’m fine!»

I answered, but I had little faith in my own endurance.

Under normal circumstances, I would have relied on my ‘Elaine Forest Essence’ to recover and press on, but the loss of the [Purest Sword Force] made haste essential.

The quicker I could escape and secure the remaining hidden pieces, the better my chances of survival would be. This was especially true if this world was the one I suspected.

What became of Kyung Sein and Dansoo ahjussi? I needed to warn them about the ‘Yoo Joonghyuk’ I had encountered immediately.

My eyes kept fluttering shut. I lost count of how many times I faded out and came to.

«Stay with me!»

Jung Heewon dug her left arm into my side.

«Inho-ssi!»

«Yeah.»

The ichthyosaur’s thrashing had weakened. The stomach walls, once a deep crimson, were now a pale, ashen gray.

«I think it’s almost over. Just a bit further…»

Then, something unforeseen occurred.

A sound like a rush of escaping air hissed from somewhere, and a massive, jagged set of teeth tore through the gut from the outside.

I shouted on instinct.

«Don’t breathe!»

The dark water of the river poured in through the breach.

Clutching each other’s arms, we were flushed out into the currents of the Han River.

[An error has occurred in the hidden scenario.]

[The hidden scenario was partially completed.]

Something had assaulted the ichthyosaur, aiming directly for its ‘stomach’.

The torn intestines of the great beast dispersed in the murky water. Through the cloud of blood, two vicious eyes fixed on me.

A monster twice the size of the one that had swallowed us.

I knew it at once.

The ichthyosaur that had consumed Kim Dokja.

Sea-commander.

My heart plummeted as I saw the sea commander surge forward to devour us and witnessed the terror on Jung Heewon’s face.

「 Jung Heewon is going to die. 」

My actions, from the very first scenario to being eaten by the ichthyosaur, flashed through my mind like a film.

How arrogantly I had altered the story, believing I knew the original.

I never should have tried to reform the Cheoldoo Group.

I never should have gone searching for Kim Dokja or Yoo Joonghyuk.

「 Are you really Cheon Inho? 」

It would have been better to play the villain as in the original story and be killed by Jung Heewon. Then she would have awakened safely as the ‘Judge of Destruction’.

She would have lived.

I began to chew at the knot binding my right arm.

Jung Heewon looked back at me, horrified.

Once it was undone, a strange calm settled over me.

「 This is a fitting end for a villain like Cheon Inho. 」

My body began to sink slowly into the depths, the loose rope trailing away.

Bubbles escaped from Jung Heewon’s mouth as she screamed something I could not hear.

I saw the sea commander opening its jaws toward me and Jung Heewon stretching her hand out.

In my dimming awareness, I heard the distinct, frozen tick, tick, tick of time halting.

[A new day has begun.]

[Your creativity has been recharged.]

I understood what was coming.

[The character ‘Jung Heewon’ wants to do something unexpected.]

[The exclusive skill ‘⬜⬜’ is activated!]

[You have entered the ‘Snowfield’.]

Staring into the void before me, a dry laugh escaped my fading mind.

Damn it. I have to write until my very last breath.

# Jung Heewon’s Awakening

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜

* At your current skill level, you can write a total of 180 additional characters.

[You can stay in the ‘Snowfield’ for a total of 4 minutes.]

I looked at the first empty line.

「 Jung Heewon. 」

I wondered if it was right for me to keep writing.

[There are 3 minutes remaining.]

For some reason, I felt uncertain. This was different from Kim Cheolyang and Bang Cheolsoo.

I recalled the feeling from my childhood, receiving my first manuscript.

As I gazed at the formless blank page, my mind returned to the snowy field I had seen with Kim Dokja.

In my dream, Kim Dokja had said.

「 It’s dazzling. 」

He had said.

「 Anything can become a reality in this place. 」

Heavy snow fell from the sky. We lay side by side in it, looking back at the footprints we had made together. They were already becoming difficult to see.

「 Because no one remembers what they were. 」

I couldn’t recall if he had actually said that.

But the place where I had lain with Kim Dokja was strangely comfortable and warm. If I could, I would have stayed there forever, curled up tightly and writing nothing at all.

Yet, I could not.

Because I am a writer.

「 Jung Heewon remembered that day 」

If I do not write, I cannot survive.

「 for the first time in a long time. 」

So I wrote the sentence.

I selected words as if choosing clothes for Jung Heewon, and I chose endings as if selecting her shoes.

I pictured her wearing those shoes, walking down a path that no one else recalled.

[This story might be possible.]

[This story’s reproduction success rate is 50%.]

[Current Accumulated Probability: 10]

[You can increase the reproduction success rate by investing more probability.]

‘I’ll do it.’

[You have spent 10 probability points.]

[You can write an additional 160 characters.]

I continued writing, one sentence after another.

Would these lies I was crafting save her life?

I didn’t know.

But I had to try everything in my power.

[This story is plausible.]

[This story’s reproduction success rate is 88%.]

[Do you want to check the reader’s feedback?]

‘Yes.’

There were three comments this time.

rlaehrwk37: Cheer up
rlaehrwk61: Cheer up
rlaehrwk99: Cheer up

I stared, my mouth agape in disbelief.

Thank you.

[Successfully recreating the scene.]

[Leaving the ‘Snowfield’.]

Time resumed its flow. My breath returned, and weak bubbles escaped my lips.

I hadn’t written about my own survival; there was no space for that.

But I had written one thing with absolute certainty.

「 Jung Heewon remembered that day for the first time in a long time. 」

That you, who live inside this story, would definitely survive.

「 ‘Heewon, you’re too aggressive. This is a sport. You can’t really hurt your opponent.’ 」

「 ‘This month alone, three people have quit because of you. There’s a kid with a broken arm. If you continue like this, I won’t be able to keep protecting you.’ 」

A brilliant white light began to radiate from Jung Heewon’s body.

「 Jung Heewon couldn’t quite understand the coach’s words. Wasn’t the sword meant to defeat opponents? 」

Kim Dokja had once said that his favorite moment was when a character’s attribute truly bloomed.

「 Isn’t it stranger to fight with swords and not get hurt? 」

Now, I understood what he meant.

[The attribute of the character ‘Jung Heewon’ is blossoming.]

There was no other way to describe it.

The sight of Jung Heewon, now cutting through the current and surging forward, was utterly dazzling.

Her warm, strong hands seized mine, anchoring me firmly.

Clutching the ground rat knife, Jung Heewon turned her gaze toward the sea commander.

As if she had grown wings, she rode the rapids and dove toward the monster.

[The character ‘Jung Heewon’ has used ‘Kendo Lv.3’!]

[The character ‘Jung Heewon’ has used ‘Demon Slaying Lv.2’!]

No matter how strong Jung Heewon was, she couldn’t defeat a sea commander with just [Kendo] and [Demon Slaying].

But I had written that it was possible. Therefore, it had to be.

It would be possible.

「 Jung Heewon wanted to ask the coach. 」

It is possible.

「 ‘Is it okay to kill this thing?’ 」

In my fading consciousness, the world blurred.

From a distance, I heard Jung Heewon’s cry.

「 The dormant senses within her soul were awakening. 」

In an instant, the ground rat sword pierced through the spray and plunged into the sea commander’s left eye. The wounded beast roared in agony.

Jung Heewon did not stop. She pulled the thorn from my waistband. The sea commander’s tail whipped through the water, grazing her side.

The massive impact shook our entire world.

Squinting her bloodshot eyes, she held me tightly with one arm and drove the thorn deep into the ichthyosaur’s tail.

「 ‘This is not a sport.’ 」

That was a sentence I had not written.

「 ‘If I don’t kill this monster, someone else will die.’ 」

[A constellation who hasn’t revealed their modifier agrees with incarnation ‘Jung Heewon’s will.]

Then, a message arrived from somewhere.

[The constellation ‘Nail-Eating-Rat’ agrees with incarnation ‘Jung Heewon’s will.]

The light emanating from her grew brighter and more intense.

[The constellation ‘Rice Cake-Eating Tiger’ agrees with incarnation ‘Jung Heewon’s will.]

[The constellation ‘Monarch of the Small Fries’ agrees with incarnation ‘Jung Heewon’s will.]

[The constellation ‘Pig Living in a Brick House’ agrees with incarnation ‘Jung Heewon’s will.]

[The constellation ‘Primordial Cow’ agrees with incarnation ‘Jung Heewon’s will.]

[The constellation ‘Sneaking Schemer’ agrees with incarnation ‘Jung Heewon’s will.]

…….

I felt an invisible scale tipping.

[All constellations in the channel agree to the use of the skill.]

[‘Hour of Judgment’ has been activated.]

Hour of Judgment.

A skill that grants invincibility when used against evil beings.

However, our enemy was a monster.

[The attribute of the character ‘Jung Heewon’ has blossomed to ‘Demon Slaying Judge (Hero)’.]

A dazzling flash of light erupted, and a blood-red aura enveloped Jung Heewon’s body.

Demon Slaying (滅魔) Judge.

That attribute certainly existed. It was one of the three great Judge classes, though it had never appeared in the main story.

It wasn’t a close-combat specialist like the Judge of Destruction, but an indestructible hero class that multiplied its combat power against monsters.

[You have contributed greatly to the blossoming of the attribute ‘Crouching Figure’!]

[The character ‘Jung Heewon’ won’t hesitate to be your sword in the future.]

With an eerie, precise trajectory, the thorn shot forward and stabbed into the sea commander’s body.

Jung Heewon stabbed and stabbed and stabbed at the sea commander like a woman possessed. From its tail, to its body, to its neck, to the top of its head.

When she finally pierced its second eye, it convulsed as if electrocuted, then fell still.

Its lifeless body began to float up toward the surface of the Han River.

With me on her back, Jung Heewon soared upward, riding the corpse of the sea commander.

Along with the rushing waters, the ruined city of Seoul came into view.

Smoke rose from countless points. Collapsed buildings, and the indifferent moon hanging over the corpse of civilization.

The destruction I had written had become the landscape.

「 ‘Dazzling.’ 」

Looking at the apocalypse we now knew, Jung Heewon was thinking the same thought I was.

Perhaps this was the view that Kim Dokja and Jung Heewon had shared.

[‘Hour of Judgment’ has ended.]

And now, I was gazing upon that staggering world with her.

Jung Heewon, who had carried me to land, collapsed forward.

In the distance, a poisonous mist was beginning to roll in.

I retied the rope around her arm and dragged her into the basement of a nearby building to hide.

[You have bought 2 ‘Elaine Monkey’s Lungs’.]

I placed one lung into Jung Heewon’s mouth and the other into my own.

Starlight filtered in through a basement window. It was chilly, and for some reason, my heart would not stop pounding.

The night of destruction was long.

I watched Jung Heewon as she slept, thinking deeply about the lies I had written and the ones I would yet write.

On the Han River, under the solitary moonlight.

The stomach of the dead sea commander twitched several times, and then a figure crawled out from between its faded scales.

«Ha, that was close. Really.»

She brushed the blood from her coat, looked around, and let out a soft sigh.

«That’s the first time I’ve ever had a scenario stolen from me, by the way. What an asshole.»

But there was no one there to listen.

Well, almost no one.

[The constellation ‘Sneaking Schemer’ chuckles and says this place is a bit unusual.]

«What are you laughing at, dude. Why do you have that modifier?»

[The constellation ‘Sneaking Schemer’ asks what’s wrong with his modifier.]

«What about the others?»

[The constellation ‘Sneaking Schemer’ says not yet.]

She pursed her lips slightly, as if in disbelief, and sighed deeply once more.

After a moment, she looked up, a peculiar smile playing on her lips.

«Well, it’s my first scenario in a long time.»

Her eyes gleamed with a fierce light as she stared into space, searching for a specific star in the night sky.

«I’m going to live for myself first.»