Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint Novel MTL - Chapter 588

Chapter 588

588 Episode 7. Trauma (1)
Would the ‘Phantom Prison’ have any effect on someone who had never experienced any ‘trauma’?

[The constellation ‘Sneaking Schemer’ is curious about your past wounds.]

[A constellation who has not disclosed their modifier is observing you.]

Time moved forward, yet nothing materialized before my eyes.
It seemed I truly had no deep-seated trauma.
My upbringing was ordinary, my childhood was unremarkable, and I matured without any significant crises.
The lengthy stretch of my career as an obscure writer was challenging, but it did not leave a psychological scar.
I earned sufficient money for meals by assisting professors with their tasks, and I never missed a meal, even if it was just a simple triangle of kimbap.
If that was considered hardship, then everything in life could be seen as a struggle.
Therefore, it wouldn’t be strange if I saw nothing here.

It was at that moment a voice cut through the fog.

「 «Every person carries a trauma.» 」

The mist withdrew to unveil a classroom.
Eager freshmen were arranged in a wide circle. Some were faces whose names I had forgotten, others I occasionally still spoke to.
And among them was me, gazing at the professor with an empty look.

「 «Well then, let’s each share a story.» 」
After saying this, the professor took a seat and gestured to a student.
The student rose and, without hesitation, began to recount their trauma.

「 «When I was young, my homeroom teacher told me my diary was wonderful and read it aloud to the entire class.» 」
They sounded almost proud.
Listening to them, I slowly recognized what kind of class this was.
The creative writing department I had joined was known for a particular freshman rite of passage.
It was a session where new students were assembled and compelled to confess their deepest wounds.
In hindsight, it was a brutally invasive exercise, but at the time, some genuinely believed such raw vulnerability was the path to authentic literature.

Clap clap clap clap.

As one person finished, the next began.

「 «My trauma is…….» 」
Every conceivable misfortune in the world had been gathered in that room. It was a competition of suffering.
Parental divorce, a grandmother with dementia who went missing, family bankruptcy and foreclosure, a trip to the police station for stealing a motorcycle, being robbed in one’s sleep…
How had they all accumulated such experiences by their early twenties?
It was a mystery to me.
Even more puzzling was the professor, who was scribbling in his notebook as if he were assigning grades to their tragedies.

Finally, my turn arrived.

「 «I…….» 」
I thought hard.
What was my greatest misfortune, my most traumatic event?
The time a dog chased me as a child?
That seemed too trivial.
When I was placed in remedial classes for my poor math grades?
That would just be laughed at.
I could not conjure a single convincing experience. Compared to my world-weary peers, I had no story to tell.

Story.
In that instant, an idea came to me. I drew a deep breath and spoke the first sentence as if unveiling a new universe.

「 «I murdered my father with a knife.» 」
Once the words were out, the narrative began to flow.
I spoke of my mother, who adored books, and my father, who turned violent when he drank.
I described my mother shielding me from him, the shattered bottle rolling across the floor, the sensation of first gripping the broken glass, the sharp shards piercing my father’s vulnerable back.
The tale was so vivid that I was suddenly struck by the notion that perhaps it had actually occurred.
Maybe not in this life, but somewhere out in the cosmos, a version of me had lived it.
I was the one who had invented the story.
But by the time it concluded, I had become a part of it.

「 «That is all.» 」
The room fell into a deep silence. The other students stared at me, too stunned to speak, and the professor simply looked on, having forgotten to assign a grade.
It was only then I understood the magnitude of my error, and in a panic, I foolishly added,

「 «Ah, it was a lie.» 」

Perhaps that was my trauma.

「 The fact that I have no trauma. 」

After the incident of the fabricated trauma, my classmates would say this whenever they read my work:

「 «It’s another story that feels empty.» 」
「 «It lacks sincerity.» 」

I often wondered what sincerity truly was.
Even after spending time as a web novelist, I still did not know.
To be blunt, sincerity, in my view, is like the ghost standing before me now.
I smirked and moved toward the specter.

[The 8th grade ghost species, ‘Specter’, is watching you.]

I swung my thorn with full force. Since my opponent was a spirit, the physical damage was minimal, but the Specter’s face contorted slightly.
As it began to fade, the Specter spoke to me.

「 «I sense no presence in your stories.» 」
Why are people so desperate to tell their stories when they are so uninteresting?

「 «A writer must possess their own distinct voice.» 」
_Puhwak!_ A hole was torn open in the Specter’s face. Through the gaping void, an absolute darkness stared back at me.

「 «You have none.» 」

I gazed into the Specter’s hollow cavity.

[The constellation ‘Sneaking Schemer’ gazes at you with pity.]

There is no need for pity. There is no reason for it.

[A constellation who hasn’t revealed their modifier looks upon you with sadness.]

For in a world where nothing has ever happened, there can be neither sorrow nor joy.

_Puhwak!_

My thorn struck the Specter once more, and it collapsed with a choked cry.
I seized the Specter by the neck and stated,

«Do not die yet. There is someone I must meet.»
Then I leaned close to the hole in the Specter and called out a name.
I was unsure if this would work.
But, if my hypothesis was correct.

—Who is there?

Then, after a moment.

I heard a voice through the fog.

—Yoo Joonghyuk? Is that you?

It was a voice I had never heard before.

—Are you……?

Yet it was undoubtedly a voice I knew.

[The exclusive skill ‘Incite Lv.4’ is activated!]

‘I am Cheon Inho.’

I released the Specter’s neck and stood up.
Within the swirling smoke, a blonde foreign girl stared at me, her eyes wide with disbelief.

—It’s you. ‘The One Who Deceived the Stars’.

I gave a single nod and spoke to her.

«Nice to meet you, Anna Croft.»

rlaehrwk61: So this is how their meeting happened.

rlaehrwk99: Thinking about it, it makes perfect sense.

Yoo Joonghyuk had said.

「 «You must have encountered Anna Croft in the Chungmuro tunnel. You recovered the memories from the last regression…….»」

That account provided me with two clues.
First, there was a method to meet Anna Croft within the ‘Chungmuro tunnel’.
Second, I could obtain the ‘memories’ of the previous turn from Anna Croft.
Anna Croft, with her [Past Sight], is the only person besides Yoo Joonghyuk who can access information from the last turn.
Now that Yoo Joonghyuk suspects me, there is no better option than hearing the account of the previous turn directly from her.
It was for this very moment that I confronted the Specter without any protective gear or skills against magic.
Mimicking Kim Dokja’s method, I utilized the mechanics of the ‘Phantom Prison’ to summon Anna Croft.

—How could you know my name? It’s impossible for you to know it at this point.

«Yoo Joonghyuk told me about you.»

—You’ve already encountered him?

«It was a chance meeting, though your reaction suggests that wasn’t part of the plan.»

A slight tremor passed through Anna Croft’s eyes.

—He truly does whatever he wishes.

It appeared Anna Croft and Yoo Joonghyuk had some form of connection.
I did not know how these two former adversaries ended up cooperating, but now was the time to use that knowledge.

«It’s the usual Yoo Joonghyuk. But I’m eager to hear. What occurred in the last turn? He mentioned you would be able to tell me.»
I thought I sounded casual, but a sharp light gleamed in Anna Croft’s eyes.

—The last turn? What exactly did Yoo Joonghyuk tell you? How much are you aware of?

«Does it matter?»

—Answer me.

[The character ‘Anna Croft’ has used ‘Lie Detection Lv.6’!]

I let out a light sigh.
This ‘Lie Detection’ ability.

«Have you forgotten that I can circumvent ‘Lie Detection’?»

[‘Lie Detection’ has confirmed the statement is true.]

A flicker of surprise crossed Anna Croft’s expression.

—You, how did you…?

«Let’s not waste time with pointless sparring. It is irrelevant who told me what. If you delay, I may reconsider. Currently, I am here to assist you, but that may change in the next ten seconds.»

—……You intend to help us? Are you being truthful?

I wondered if I had misspoken, but after a brief silence, Anna Croft spoke.

—Just before the conclusion of the previous turn, Yoo Joonghyuk said. When I meet you in the 41st turn, he wanted me to show you the memories of the last turn.

As I expected.
That was it.

—To be honest, I had no intention of honoring his request, as I do not trust you.

«The villain wishes to reform, so please assist me.»

—Cheon Inho, do you have any idea what you did in the previous turn?

«I do not know. I cannot remember.»

—I cannot fathom what Yoo Joonghyuk is thinking. You are both equally terrible….

Anna Croft released a soft sigh.
The fog within the Phantom Prison seemed thinner than before. Time was running short.

«I will ask you one final time. What happened in the previous turn? I need to know that much to decide whether to help you or not.»

Anna Croft hesitated briefly before speaking, as if coming to a decision.

—Very well. If you desire it so intensely, I will tell you.

«Be quick.»

—I hope you retain at least a fragment of conscience. So I also hope that when you witness this story, you feel a fraction of the hellish pain we endured.

As Anna Croft quietly closed one eye, I thought these were not the words of the woman who had once enslaved Yoo Joonghyuk on the 2nd turn.

[The character ‘Anna Croft’ has used ‘Past Sight’.]

Past Sight. An unprecedented skill unique to a ‘Prophet’ that allows one to glimpse memories from the previous world line.

_Tsuchuchuchut._

With a crackle of sparks, images and sensory information flooded my mind.
Acrid smoke stung my eyes, and a thick, metallic odor of blood saturated the air, making my head pound.
It was not the scent of one or two individuals; it was the blood of thousands who had perished, transforming the ground into a vast crimson sea.

「 «Are you satisfied now?» 」

A man stood at the heart of the carnage.
A black coat and a sword drenched in blood.
Though covered in gore and grime, it could not extinguish the fierce light in his eyes.
He looked up at a sky like the polar night. Hardly any stars were visible. From somewhere, a sound reminiscent of a dragon’s cry echoed.

「 «You have no comprehension of what you have done.» 」

As if counting the few remaining stars, the man spoke with a terrifying calm.

「 «You will never know what you have destroyed, what doom you have ushered in.» 」

It was anger burned down to its ashes.
The emptiness and heartbreak saturating his voice.
My own heart ached just from hearing it.

「 A man who, as always, had walked his entire path alone. 」

Abruptly, the clouds parted, and a faint starlight fell upon his face.

「 Yoo Joonghyuk, the Supreme King of the 40th turn, stood there. 」

Yoo Joonghyuk lowered his gaze to look at someone.
A man stood opposite him, utterly unfazed by the overwhelming aura of the Supreme King.
A coat of blackish red fluttered amidst the ruins.
Black wings extended from its back.
For a heartbeat, my own heart clenched.
I thought it might be Kim Dokja.

「 «That is an amusing expression, Yoo Joonghyuk. I’ve already failed this turn, so we should simply start over. Is that the face you make when considering that?» 」

But the voice was not his.

「 «That would be convenient. You can always press the reset button and begin everything anew.» 」

The owner of the voice was laughing.

「 «But remember this. No master artisan can create two perfectly identical dolls. The moment you press that reset button, the world does not merely vanish; it is rendered eternal.» 」

Mocking everything in existence, the man continued.

「 «This world will be forever ruined, and I will remain immortalized in the deepest recesses of your memory as an everlasting nightmare.» 」

Though he wore a pure white half-mask, his identity was not difficult to discern.
It was not hard to recognize, for it was the face I saw when I first entered this world.

「 «Now, go ahead. Reset everything. And struggle, flailing in eternal nightmares until you die a slow death, you damned regressor.» 」

And there he was.
Cheon Inho of the 40th turn.