Chapter 201 - The Ugly One IV

5

Another day passed. Another innocent reader went flying. And with that, the moral code of the martial world fell into the dirt.

A reader beating up an author would have been shocking enough, but an author punching her readers clear across the square!

The readers who had come down to Busan all smiles, hoping to get BookishGirl's autograph, hastily convened an emergency strategy meeting.

"The second champion went down this morning, too."

"..."

"I had no idea BookishGirl was this powerful. None at all."

Astonishingly, among them was Cheon Yohwa, the Demon Chief of Hundred Flowers Girls’ High School. In fact, she had been an avid reader and enthusiastic supporter of <The Regressor's Epilogue>, or <RegEpi> for short, since its earliest days.

Back when <RegEpi> hadn't even reached its twelfth installment, Cheon Yohwa had stumbled across the novel, then immediately rushed to the general board and posted three recommendations in a row, begging everyone to read this "god-tier masterpiece."

They were called recommendations, but given her social standing and temper, they were effectively the equivalent of the minister of education declaring it required reading.

From that day onward, the students of Hundred Flowers Girls’ High School had one more textbook in their schoolbags. That way, if their august Comrade Supreme Leader, the Student Council President, ever asked, "What's your favorite arc in RegEpi?" they could immediately answer, "Trailblazer!"

Naturally, Cheon Yohwa was among those most enraged by the "Seven-Year Hiatus Incident." It would hardly be an exaggeration to say that <RegEpi> had gained momentum thanks to the flood of new readers her recommendations brought in!

And yet the author had dared to go on hiatus, and now intended to officially abandon the serial and run. Truly unforgivable.

"First, all the ordinary people should step aside. You really could end up dead if things go wrong."

"B-but..."

"No buts. Based on my own inquiries... astonishing as it is, BookishGirl has already reached a level comparable to mine. No. She may even be stronger."

Murmurs rippled through the five hundred readers. Stronger than the Hundred Flowers Demon Chief? Was there really someone else on the Korean Peninsula that powerful besides the Three Thousand Witch and the Three Kingdoms Heavenly Demon?

"Besides, practically all you ordinary people read pirated copies, didn't you? What gives you the nerve to attend a fan meetup? Get the hell out."

The ordinary people had no choice but to leave, shedding bitter tears. They couldn't even access SG Net in the first place, so how else were they supposed to read <RegEpi>? Being born without an awakened silver spoon in their mouths was a grievance they would carry forever.

Once they had left, only two hundred people remained in the meeting room. Yu Jiwon, who had kept silent until then, finally spoke.

"Didn't I warn you this might happen? I said that Oh Dokseo's fighting prowess was not to be taken lightly, and that we must choose our champions with utmost care. Two people have already been eliminated, so we have only twenty-six chances left."

Glares rained down on Yu Jiwon, whose sole purpose in life was to lecture others with an "See? I told you so." If she hadn't been a government official, they would have shown her the bitter realities of the martial world long ago.

Cheon Yohwa briskly raised a hand. The tension, stretched taut enough to snap, immediately eased.

"Yes, you're right. We underestimated BookishGirl far too much. Thinking back, wasn't <RegEpi> full of details only a void expert could have written? Our bastard of an author was a master from the start."

"I see..."

"So that was why it felt so real."

Sighs rose here and there.

The truth was simply that Oh Dokseo had power-leveled during the Seven-Year Hiatus Incident, while the novel's details had been supplied by a regressor. But the readers had no way of knowing that.

"If we let our guard down now, we'll only become a public laughingstock. We'll fight her in successive waves."

"Successive waves?"

"We'll select the twenty-four strongest readers, including everyone who hasn't reached Busan yet. I'll be the twenty-fifth reader and fight after you all."

"Oh!"

After forcing BookishGirl to fight for twenty-four straight days, I, the Hundred Flowers Demon Chief, strongest of all readers, shall deliver the final blow.

It was an utterly underhanded tactic, but an effective one. To secure a certain victory, one sometimes had to set pride aside.

Just as the others were about to nod in agreement, Cheon Yohwa continued.

"I think we should start each day's duel around ten thirty in the morning."

"Hmm? You intend to leave BookishGirl standing outside from six? If the goal is to tire her out as much as possible, I agree, but someone of her caliber won't get tired from standing around for a few hours."

"No." Cheon Yohwa shook her head.

"We'll spread poison throughout Tower of Babel square."

"... What?"

"The bastard said it in her announcement, didn't she? For twenty-eight days, she'd 'be at Tower of Babel square in Busan from six a.m. to eleven a.m.'"

A smile curved the Hundred Flowers Demon Chief's lips.

"In other words, if BookishGirl leaves the square first, she'll be breaking her own promise. We readers will win by default."

"...!"

"Whatever happens in Tower of Babel square, that bastard can't run away. She can't leave. Even if the place is flooded with poisonous mist and riddled with traps."

The readers recoiled in shock. What a diabolical scheme! So the Hundred Flowers Demon Chief's evil reputation truly was deserved!

One awakened raised an objection.

"B-but, Student Council President. Isn't Tower of Babel square effectively a National Road Management Corps facility...? We can't just do whatever we like with it..."

Cheon Yohwa laughed heartily.

"Ahahaha! Why? Scared? The National Road Management Corps' operations team leader is right here. And, more importantly, so am I, Student Council President of Hundred Flowers Girls’ High School. What on earth are you all worried about?"

Justice was on our side.

And indeed, the Hundred Flowers Demon Chief's ferocious boasts were no idle words. Cheon Yohwa immediately negotiated with the National Road Management Corps and Three Thousand Worlds, obtaining permission to use Tower of Babel square. Not only that, she installed all manner of vicious traps.

The next morning.

"Hmm."

Oh Dokseo stepped into the square and looked around.

"Ahhh... ah..."

Speakers had been set up around the square's edges, endlessly playing a recording of Dang Seorin's Spell-Song Chanting. A highly skilled awakened, Oh Dokseo could readily deduce the effects from the very first phrase of the Three Thousand guild leader's melody.

"Physical weakening. Target designation. Sensory impairment. A triple-layered chant, then."

Speakers weren't the only things surrounding her. Her readers were there, too.

With reinforcements, her devoted fans now formed an army of three hundred encircling the square. They hadn't come inside it. They stood strictly outside its boundary.

Oh Dokseo gave a derisive chuckle.

"I see. A scheme devised by Hundred Flowers Girls’ High School's perpetual nongraduate."

"..."

"As expected of someone with so little schooling, even your so-called schemes are short on thought."

Don't ask me why Oh Dokseo had started talking like that. Playing with the Operator of All Things at Play AI chatbot every day must have worsened her teenage delusions of grandeur.

CRUNCH!

Oh Dokseo dug her fingers into her ears. Blood streamed out, then abruptly stopped. She looked around and grinned.

"I have just destroyed my eardrums."

"...!"

"The Three Thousand guild leader's feeble songs stir nothing within me. If you have something to say to me, look me straight in the eyes. I can still read your lips."

"Tch." Cheon Yohwa clicked her tongue.

Indeed, that weakness meant Spell-Song Chanting was primarily suited to buffs rather than debuffs. Some anomalies had no hearing, rendering the debuffs ineffective.

But who would have expected her to burst her own eardrums without the slightest hesitation?

With that degree of aura control, she could simply have launched a palm strike and destroyed the speakers. Choosing to burst her eardrums instead was especially idiotic...!

"We have no choice. Activate the traps—"

"Denied."

BOOM!

Oh Dokseo stamped her foot. Red aura surged across the ground like a wave. The square instantly crumbled like biscuit crumbs, as though struck by an earthquake, along with the traps installed there throughout the night.

"What...?"

"The bond between author and reader is pure and innocent."

Oh Dokseo narrowed her eyes.

"To sully that pristine bond with such filthy tricks is outrageous. Truly ugly."

"You're the ugly one, you crazy fuck!"

Unable to take any more, an awakened shrieked.

"Are we even asking you for regular updates? Give us one chapter a month and we'll worship you like dogs! We'll suck you off! But who the fuck is still insisting on abandoning the story?"

"Author, you've seriously disappointed me!"

"Instead of apologizing to people who waited seven years, you punch them in the face? BookishGirl! Are you even human?"

Oh Dokseo snorted. Then she closed her eyes.

"Can't see."

"What?"

"I see nothing and hear nothing. Because I do not wish to see or hear. My will determines my life. And the life I have chosen is an eternal hiatus."

"—(BEEP)—(BEEEEEP)—(BEEEEP)—!"

Profanities too vile to pass KakaoPage's censorship erupted from every direction. Greetings were sent to Oh Dokseo's parents, and her species shifted back and forth between primates and other mammals, but she alone remained perfectly calm.

She couldn't hear them.

"You abomination!"

Finally, someone could take no more and charged. It wasn't anger alone driving them. There was also a cool-headed calculation: with hearing and sight, the two most important senses for a human, disabled, when else would they have a chance to kill her?

But the awakened had overlooked one thing. As had already been demonstrated, the Oh Dokseo of run 888 was not "human."

"Hup!"

Just before the awakened's blade reached her cheek, Oh Dokseo swung her fists.

KABOOOOM!

Her left fist twisted the blade aside, while her right struck her opponent square in the abdomen. The pressure of her punch unleashed a tempest.

The awakened coughed up blood and collapsed without even managing a scream. One blow.

"Slow. Even in falling."

"...!"

"Did you think my stomp merely destroyed the traps? How laughable. My energy has spread throughout the square. This place and I are now as one. Not a single footstep or gesture of yours escapes my sense of touch."

A unique barrier, every otaku's dream!

Naturally, Oh Dokseo had worked tirelessly for seven years to make her fantasies reality. It was precisely because she had this much potential that the Operator of All Things at Play had once chosen her as the regressor's adversary.

"You are so trifling that I see no reason to drag this out for weeks."

Oh Dokseo opened one eye and grinned. Truly, every pose she struck was packed with concentrated otaku energy. She had a natural gift for inspiring indescribable rage in anyone watching.

"Come at me. If you wish, all twenty-six of you may challenge me here and now, one after another."

"Tch."

Cheon Yohwa bit her lip. If she meekly withdrew after such contempt, Hundred Flowers Girls’ High School would lose all face!

"... We have no choice. Starting with the next challenger, attack in order through number twenty-four! You don't have to win! Just wear that bastard down as much as you possibly can!"

Oh Dokseo crooked a finger.

"Come."

The result was defeat after defeat. Awakened considered among the Korean Peninsula's finest charged in, only to fall after as few as one exchange and never more than twenty. Even Cheon Yohwa, who went last, lost.

The spectators could only gape in horror. How could someone they had thought a mere scribbler possess such formidable martial prowess?

Even if she had traversed every kind of void and spent all her time holed up in The Reincarnation Project's dream simulation, focusing exclusively on leveling up, could a person really become this strong?

Simply because "I don't want to write" and "So I'll do something else"?

Astonishingly, yes.

Oh Dokseo, and the twenty-five readers sprawled like corpses across the square, proved it.

"Whew. Disappointing. Is even the Demon Chief of Hundred Flowers capable of no more than this?"

"Ngh...!"

Cheon Yohwa groaned beneath Oh Dokseo's foot, which was planted on the back of her head. The most humiliating image of her life was being uploaded in real time into the folds of every onlooker's brain.

"Not a single reader remains to stand in the way of my hiatus. Though these were duels to the death, I magnanimously spared your lives. Remember this kindness, and never dare pester me for updates."

"Th-there's still... one left...!"

"Hmm?"

"Of the twenty-eight readers in your announcement... only twenty-seven have fallen, including me. So there's still one more!"

Oh Dokseo tilted her head.

"You were the strongest of my readers. How could one more possibly defeat me?"

"There is someone!"

"Interesting. Who?"

A few tears escaped Cheon Yohwa's eyes. Then, pouring in what remained of her internal energy, she shouted.

"Teacheeeeer! Heeeelp meeee!"

Oh Dokseo flinched and backed away. Then she hurriedly turned her head, looking around.

She didn't have to keep craning her neck for long. Soon she spotted me, and her eyes widened.

"M-Master."

"..."

"Wh-when... did you get here?"

I felt a little bad for Dokseo, as I seemed to be reenacting her trauma from seven years ago. But first, I said what any decent human being ought to say.

"Dokseo. You sound like such an idiot right now. Let's just go back to how you used to talk."

"Ack."

"To answer your question, naturally, I've been here from the start."

For the past seven years, the Saintess's [Clairvoyance] had been monitoring Oh Dokseo, and through the Saintess, I'd hit the subscribe button on my disciple's coming-of-age story.

Why wouldn't I?

As you may remember, the reason I first took an interest in Oh Dokseo in run 555 was simply that she was entertaining.

Considering that regressors in countless works of fiction throw in the towel out of boredom, sweet little Dokseo was truly a light in my life.

I put on a rather mournful expression.

"Why? Did you think I wouldn't come? I was almost always the very first reader of everything you wrote. How could I possibly miss this? Did you think I couldn't guess that you went out every day under the pretext of traversing voids to reduce the chances of having to face me?"

"M-M-Mister..."

"And since you've asked me one question, let me ask you one, too."

I surveyed the square, now a complete wreck, and Cheon Yohwa, now reduced to a ragged mess. Finally, I looked at Oh Dokseo—whose bearing was already closer to a Fist King than an author.

"Be honest with me."

"Okay..."

"Dokseo, you've become a Fallen, haven't you?"

"Oh. Yeah."

Yes.

Well, that figured...