Chapter 366
Chapter 366
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: The Pen is Mightier than the Sword
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I look at the branch chief, who’s holding a gun and speaking in a middle-aged man’s voice.
The fact that the branch chief is using a middle-aged man’s voice isn’t all that surprising, but what’s more important is where the branch chief and the others have gone.
...
Thank goodness I’m not the only one who noticed.
Everyone else seems to have caught on faster than I expected.
The branch chief—no, the troupe leader wearing the branch chief’s form—twists the corner of his mouth upward.
“As expected of someone chosen to be the protagonist. You’ve got the talent for it.”
“I never wanted to be the protagonist.”
Who’d want to be the protagonist anyway? I got dragged into this play and just ended up picked for the role.
The troupe leader shakes his head at my words.
“Anyway.”
-Bang!
No need to hear any more.
I fire again, piercing the male troupe leader’s forehead once more.
He staggers backward, and I seize the opening to shout urgently.
“Everyone, gather up!”
As if on cue, the male troupe leader’s body is shoved back, and Jang Chaeyeon—the one who sent him flying—steps up beside me.
“You’re not dead, right?”
“There are two bullet holes in my forehead right now, and I’m talking just fine.”
“Got it.”
Jang Chaeyeon replies calmly and raises her hand. The man’s body jerks around, slamming into the wall.
It soars into the air, crashes to the floor, smashes into one wall, then the opposite one.
Absolute chaos.
-Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
With a deafening crash, the male troupe leader slams into the ground.
“Bet that didn’t do a damn thing.”
“Probably not.”
I match her calm question with a calm reply.
Sure enough.
The male troupe leader slowly rises.
“Hmm. As expected.”
As I mutter, Jang Chaeyeon raises her hand and slams it down. The male troupe leader crashes into the floor.
“What about Yoo Daon?”
“I sent her somewhere else on a request.”
“Got it.”
“The black-haired one told me to come listen. Mind relaying that to me?”
“They said you two should talk it out.”
Even now, we should get along.
Song Arin grumbles as she wedges herself between me and Jang Chaeyeon. I just shrug.
“Anyway, I looked around a bit.”
Song Arin speaks calmly, eyeing the male troupe leader.
“Everyone we saw earlier is here, just like you and I saw. Even the ones who were dead when we first spotted them.”
“I died and woke up too.”
After Jang Chaeyeon’s comment, Song Arin glances at her briefly before continuing.
“Anyway, looks like Act 3 really is over.”
“Yeah?”
“Feels like we’ve just moved on to the next act.”
“...Hmm.”
I’m a little confused about what she means.
Song Arin sighs with a groan as I give her a puzzled look.
“How do I even—”
“I’ll explain.”
“Eek!”
The troupe leader pops up out of nowhere, and Song Arin screams at the sight of her.
Wait, Song Arin screamed?
“You can see me?”
“...Yeah, I can?”
Song Arin’s eyes widen, and Jang Chaeyeon stares at the troupe leader in bewilderment too.
How can they see her?
“I was hiding myself until just now.”
“How?”
“Hypnosis.”
The troupe leader answers my question as if it’s obvious.
Ah, that makes sense.
That’s why no one else could see or hear her—she’d hypnotized everyone else.
Our Song Arin can’t do that stuff.
I glance at Song Arin, but she glares at me with narrowed eyes, forcing me to shrug and look away.
But why hide from everyone except me?
“If that old guy found out I was here during Act 3, I’d get kicked out.”
Reading my expression, the troupe leader points at the male troupe leader smashed into the floor.
“So.”
“If you were worried about getting kicked out, now you should show us why you were such a threat.”
“Yeah.”
The troupe leader nods at my words.
“Wait a sec. I told that pink-haired girl to grab something for me.”
“Ye-eun?”
I look toward where Park Ye-eun had been.
She’s gone.
“You can’t just send a kid off on something that dangerous.”
“She doesn’t look like a kid.”
“Are you saying I look younger than her right now?”
“We look the same.”
Song Arin fumes at the troupe leader, who replies calmly before turning to me.
“Wait and see.”
At that moment, the sky starts spinning even faster.
“What’s up with that?”
...
The troupe leader gazes up at the sky with a complicated expression after hearing my mutter.
“To continue the explanation.”
She opens her mouth.
“That’s the finale.”
The troupe leader mutters calmly, taking in the spinning sky with her eyes.
“The finale is...”
Before she can finish, the spinning sky stops.
...
Nothing else happens.
“What the hell.”
“...Look.”
The troupe leader points ahead calmly in response to my mutter.
...
A single pen floats in front of me too.
A translucent window appears.
[Name: The Pen is Mightier than the Sword]
[Age: X]
[Specialty: X]
[Talent: Revision]
[Background: What if everyone appeared as text?]
[Weakness: The one who writes the script is human.]
Is this pen only for me and the troupe leader?
I quickly check the others.
A pen floats in front of Jang Chaeyeon too, and in front of everyone else.
So it’s not just for us two.
“Huh—”
At the same time, the pen in front of Jang Chaeyeon starts to move.
It’s overwriting?
The pen in front of me moves.
At the same moment, my translucent window appears before my eyes.
[Name: Kim Jaeheon]
The instant it strikes through my name,
“...Huh?”
My mind goes blank.
It feels like I’ve forgotten something important.
Who am I?
No, what am I?
I stare blankly at whatever’s in front of me with those thoughts.
What’s this?
I fiddle with the strikethrough name with my finger.
As soon as I touch it, the strikethrough vanishes from the name,
[Name: Kim Jaeheon]
“...Damn it.”
My mind clears instantly.
What the hell was I just thinking?
No, that’s not what’s important right now.
Sure, I’m fine, but
I hurriedly look at Jang Chaeyeon.
[Name: Jang Chaeyeon]
[Age: 25]
And then the pen starts entering her name.
[Name: Jang Chaeyeon]
The pen strikes through her name field.
“Huh.”
Jang Chaeyeon looks bewildered.
“Chaeyeon?”
I call to her, but she frowns without responding, pressing her temple.
“...My name.”
She mutters something and clutches her head.
“No. Not the name. Me... What am I?”
Jang Chaeyeon whispers softly, gripping her head.
Song Arin rushes over, places a hand on Jang Chaeyeon’s forehead, and whispers in a low voice.
“Snap out of it, Jang Chaeyeon.”
At that moment, Jang Chaeyeon’s name starts restoring itself.
[Name: Jang Chaeyeon]
The strikethrough fades, returning her name to normal. Jang Chaeyeon gazes at Song Arin with a puzzled expression.
“Huh, uh...”
“Stick by my side.”
Song Arin speaks calmly and grabs Jang Chaeyeon’s arm. Jang Chaeyeon nods, still bewildered, gripping Song Arin’s arm in return.
“Uh, yeah.”
“You remember a bit?”
“Yeah, uh. It’s coming back.”
“You see that pen?”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t grab it.”
“Yeah...?”
“Grab it, and you die.”
Listening to their exchange, I finally realize what that pen is.
It wasn’t just Jang Chaeyeon.
Black lines strike through everyone else’s names too.
And every person whose name was crossed out wore the same bewildered expression as Jang Chaeyeon, touching their faces.
“Huh, me...?”
“Pen...?”
Someone reaches for the pen in front of them,
“Uh-heh-heh, uh-heh-heh-heh...”
They laugh like an idiot, blood streaming from their nose as they collapse.
It wasn’t just that one person.
Everyone who tried to grab a pen met the same end.
People collapsing while laughing like fools.
As if consumed by madness.
I look at the troupe leader, and she nods back at me.
“If you see people as stories, the pen can rewrite them.”
The pen keeps trying to erase the troupe leader’s name, but it just moves pointlessly in the air.
“And if you rewrite that person, you can control them as you please.”
...
I stare at the pen in front of me.
Every time it moves to strike through my name, I reach out and rub it away, only for the pen to strike through again. Repeat.
I can block it like this, sure.
“...What about Daon or the others...”
“They’ll be fine. At least the pink-haired girl.”
The troupe leader replies calmly, and I can only click my tongue.
That leaves Yoo Daon as a problem.
No time to worry about Yoo Daon right now.
I need to deal with this pen first somehow.
“Where’s the troupe leader?”
“Me?”
“Not you—the male one.”
“...Follow me.”
The troupe leader takes the lead after hearing me.
I follow her, and the male troupe leader who’d been smashed into the ground is gone.
“You’re the one who handles the pen, right?”
“Right, but no.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I can’t wield the pen. But I can set it.”
“...So you can order it to erase names, but you can’t grab the pen and erase them yourself?”
“Exactly.”
“Why?”
“Well...”
The troupe leader looks at me like I’m asking the obvious.
“Do you think it’s easy to grab a pen that interferes with people’s minds?”
“Overload?”
“That too, but basically, it’s like the ultimate hypnosis.”
Rewriting that person, she mutters.
“So...”
“That’s fine then.”
I’ve got backups I trust.
Muttering to myself inwardly, I grab the pen.