Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint – Side Story - Chapter 10
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Chapter 10. Rewrite (8)
The reader uncle next to me stood stiffly, shivering his narrow shoulders.
In a hushed voice, he whispered, “Let’s not fight and just run away in three seconds.”
I don’t know, but this man probably finished reading the entire previous episode.
No doubt about it.
Well, even if he didn’t, I’ll forgive him.
“You should run, sir. You don’t seem to have a high tolerance for this kind of thing.”
“No, I’ll try to buy some time with you. Since there isn’t much time left, if we endure a little, it will be over—”
Screaming like a wild boar, Lee Cheoldoo aimed for the back of my head and charged ahead.
I threw myself with all my might, colliding with Lee Cheoldoo.
“Ouch.”
Lee Cheoldoo, who received a light impact, dropped the pipe.
However, probably due to the difference in weight class, he didn’t fall.
At that moment, I saw Lee Cheoldoo’s golden teeth shining white.
“You have become a hero.”
Lee Cheoldoo lightly subdued my arms and struck my face with a headbutt.
Fortunately, remembering the skill from [Character List], I reflexively tilted my head, but the impact still remained.
My vision spun around, and my knees gave in.
When I regained consciousness, Lee Cheoldoo was already on top of me, taking a mounted position.
I tried to remain casual as I opened my mouth.
“Lee Cheoldoo, leader of the Cheoldoo Group”
At my words, Lee Cheoldoo’s eyes widened.
“What? You know me?”
“Do you plan to live as a murderer for the rest of your life?”
“This bastard…”
Lee Cheoldoo, unpleasantly smirking, whispered quietly in my ear.
“Even someone like you would prefer that to dying, wouldn’t you?”
[Current remaining time: 2 minutes.]
Instead of responding, I turned my head to survey the surroundings.
People in the distance were watching, some were crying, and others were praying.
Kim Cheolyang was singing hymns with the crowd.
Judging by the mention of bugs, bacteria, and such, it seemed they were already commemorating my death.
“Are you laughing?”
Lee Cheoldoo, with a frown, gripped my throat with both hands.
With a sound like ‘kuk,’ my breath was instantly cut off.
As I looked around, I realized there was no righteous Lee Hyunsung here.
There was no Yoo Sangah, who pushed forward for the weak, and no Lee Gilyoung, who collected bugs.
There was no Jung Heewon, fighting against villains, and no Yoo Junghyuk, driven mad by repeated regressions.
And…
The oxygen supplied to my brain decreased sharply, and I felt my strength draining from my body.
As my vision darkened, a dull sound echoed.
Through the hazy view, I saw Lee Cheoldoo staggering.
Behind Lee Cheoldoo, someone stood unsteadily holding a pipe.
It was someone I knew.
A person more ordinary than any character from ‘Omniscient Reader’.
A man who only knew novels he had been reading for ten years.
Despite being a bit cowardly, he had faced death multiple times for those he loved, my protagonist.
‘Kim Dokja.’
Again, a dull noise resounded, and Lee Cheoldoo roared, thrusting his fist into my face.
As I coughed up blood, Lee Cheoldoo chased after Kim Dokja.
Rubbing my eyes, the back that looked like Kim Dokja disappeared, and the fleeing man was visible.
[Current remaining time: 40 seconds.]
Lee Cheoldoo, who caught the reader uncle, snatched the pipe.
Wiping my lips, I rushed forward.
[Current remaining time: 20 seconds.]
Looking at the swinging pipe, I embraced and rolled with reader uncle.
A dizzying pain spread across my back.
Lee Cheoldoo’s scream echoed.
“You crazy bastard! I’ll kill you!”
[Current remaining time: 10 seconds.]
“Psycho bastard! Now, because of you, everyone will die! Everyone—”
Looking up at Lee Cheoldoo, I laughed brightly for the first time.
“It doesn’t matter.”
Lee Cheoldoo’s screams mingled with the screams of people and the pounding of my heart.
[Current remaining time: 1 second.]
And.
[The time limit has elapsed.]
[Paid settlement will begin.]
All the sounds around me disappeared.
It felt dizzy as if the world was spinning.
Gasping for breath, I lifted my head.
Blinking my eyes to confirm my vision and checking my breath.
Everything was normal.
Even though all the time limits had passed, I didn’t die.
A faint emotion welled up deep within my chest.
The reader uncle who had fallen beside me got up and asked,
“Did we… succeed?”
I nodded.
As I slowly opened my mouth, I heard a thud as something collapsed nearby.
It was the giant body of Lee Cheoldoo, whose head was now missing.
The startled reader stammered, “Uh…?”
Beyond Lee Cheoldoo’s massive body, the desolate landscape of Geumho Station unfolded.
The first thing I saw was the cult leader, Kim Cheolyang.
He was saying something towards me.
Although I couldn’t hear his voice, it wasn’t hard to imagine what he was saying.
“Oh Lord.”
Then, I looked at Lee Hyekyung, who was bringing yogurt to her son, Jung Hanchul, who was about to meet his girlfriend, and Ji Hyeongdong, who planned to run a chicken restaurant with his wife.
I wanted to ask them, ‘Does anyone here know the meaning of ‘1,863’?’
With a sputtering sound, Kim Cheolyang’s head exploded.
“Of course, no one would know.”
Starting with him, people’s heads exploded everywhere.
Lee Hyekyung, Jung Hanchul, Ji Hyeongdong…
As if they had never existed, the heads of characters disappeared one by one.
I staggered towards Kim Cheolyang.
Looking at the empty space where his head used to be, I tried hard to recall his face, which I could barely remember.
But it didn’t come to mind.
Because I had never described their faces.
They were characters in ‘Omniscient Reader’ who were pre-set but never found a place to be used.
‘Cult of life.’
In the setting, the ‘Cult of life’ recognized only the designated beings as ‘life’ and slaughtered the rest, a cult within the story.
Lee Hyekyung, Jung Hanchul, Ji Hyeongdong…
Everyone in this history was the same.
“All the people in this area become members of the ‘Cult of life,’ in every surviving episode.”
People who were not recorded would remain unrecorded in the future.
Left as ‘settings’ in this place without being read by anyone.
“Just because someone designed them as villains.”
Looking around, I saw the reader staring blankly.
The landscape of Geumho Station was engraved on the retina of the old man.
Looking at him, I thought.
Thinking.
“I want to write a novel.”
The flowing blood covered the entire history like spilled ink.
Wherever I looked, there was no one alive except us.
Slowly, my strength left my legs.
The old man, the reader, muttered in disbelief.
“How did this happen…?”
“…”
“You tried to save those people, didn’t you…?”
I paused for a moment and replied, “Yes.”
In truth, from the middle, the Bacteria Operation had a foreboding of failure.
No matter how I thought about it, the Constellations wouldn’t find this development amusing.
Still, I didn’t convey this fact to the people.
With this, Kim Cheolyang, the members of the Cult of Life, and Lee Cheoldoo became absent from the story.
I don’t know about other areas, but the history of ‘Geumho Station’ would not differ significantly from the main story.
“There is only one survivor in this area.”
I looked up at the ceiling.
In the dazzling brilliance, Bihyung was looking down at me.
His expression looked like he was genuinely impressed.
Looking into the dokkaebi’s eyes intoxicated with the story, I mumbled one of Yoo Joonghyuk’s favorite lines.
“Fucking star stream.”
I now knew what would happen to me soon.
I felt blood flowing down the back of my head.
[The will of
looks upon you.]
This damn world, showing only what the stars want, is too artificial in its direction.
That’s why, after everyone’s heads explode, my head explodes.
[A few Constellations are looking at you.]
[The Constellation, ‘Monarch of the Small Fries,’ is delighted to see you.]
I tried hard to dispel the impending fear of death.
It’s not scary.
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After all, even this fear disappears when you die.
I looked at the old man, the reader, one last time.
“Mister.”
The old man trembled, as if he knew what would happen to me from now on.
Tears welled up in his eyes.
“Oh, no. Friend. No.”
At least until I meet Kim Dokja, until I see the protagonist of my story, I wanted to survive.
But maybe…
“Please survive until the end.”
I might have already met him.
I wished that the old man would survive until the very end of this story.
With the sensation of something flowing from my head and the arrival of a white darkness, at the last moment, I thought about how this scene would be written if it were a novel.
What would readers say about my death?
Asking would be pointless.
They would probably think it’s natural for me to die.
There were plenty of reasons why I should die.
Not killing the first bug I caught right away.
Failing to take control of the situation more ruthlessly.
Having weak sympathy for the characters I created.
…This story is from the perspective of an ‘Omniscient Reader’.
No matter what reasons I list, there were enough reasons to die.
I’m dying because I couldn’t prove my worth.
So, I wondered. Why am I still not dead?
*
rlaehrwk37: Looking forward to the next episode
*
In an instant, my mind flashed.
I wiped away the blood flowing from my head.
It was the wound I received from Lee Cheoldoo earlier.
Fortunately, it wasn’t a deep cut.
The blurry mind cleared again.
Both my breathing and heartbeat were normal.
“I’m not dead.”
Why, though?
[You have cleared the first scenario.]
I looked down at my blood-stained palms.
I didn’t kill the bug.
The bacteria were not recognized as living organisms.
But how?
[You have slaughtered a total of 19 organisms.]
[Slaughter records: 19 humans]
[You have gained a total of 1,900 coins.]
[You have successfully executed killings in a unique way that no one has attempted before.]
[A few constellations are amazed by your killing strategy.]
When I turned my head, the old man’s face came into view.
As if unable to believe it, he was holding my hand while crying.
Looking at the old man, I realized what had happened to me.
[Star Stream acknowledges your unique killing method.]
[You manipulated people with false information, causing them to ‘commit suicide.’]
.
.
.
[The Management acknowledges your killing method in a limited way.]
[The Management categorizes your killing method as ‘incited murder.’]
[Some constellations sponsor the new scenario you presented.]
[You have gained 4,000 coins.]
[You have achieved a nonexistent achievement.]
[You have achieved a nonexistent achievement, the ‘Incited Massacre.’]
When I turned my head, my face reflected in the screen door.
He was asking.
“Did you really not expect it to turn out like this?”
Kim Cheolyang, who only existed as a setting, couldn’t survive in Geumho Station because of this guy.
I now knew who he was.
He was the owner of Geumho Station before Kim Dokja came.
A character who freely used propaganda, manipulated people, and formed a ‘group’ in the shortest time possible.
An incarnation that had survived some rounds of ‘Ways of Survival’ and ascended to the top of ‘Ten Evils’
The reason this man was a character that I have never seen before.
It was because I had never described the appearance of this character.
Because this character…
‘I love them all except for that one guy…’
Because he was the only character in the whole Omniscient Reader that I didn’t like.
Somewhere, there was a tearing sound like a book being ripped, and the lights in the history flickered roughly.
A crumbling sound was heard like something collapsing.
Even by the sound alone, I could tell.
[Main Scenario #1 – Proof of Value has ended.]
It was the sound of the reality we knew crumbling.
[300 coins have been acquired as a basic clearance reward.]
[100 coins have been deducted for channel usage fees.]
[Additional reward settlement will begin.]
One episode had ended, and the next episode was beginning.
[The character you are currently possessing is ‘Demagogue Cheon Inho’.]
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