Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint (Web Novel KR)

“There’s nothing up ahead.”
Thanks to the cockroaches warning us of danger in advance, we were able to move faster than before.
Se-in muttered in admiration,

“Cockroaches are OP.”
“OP?”
“It means… ridiculously strong. Uncle, maybe your sponsor’s more useful than I thought.”

[Constellation, ‘Sneaking Schemer’, grumbles that you’re only realizing this now.]
Indeed, the situation wasn’t bad.
At this rate, Uncle Dansoo could easily fulfill Lee Gilyoung’s role from the main story.

After about ten more minutes of walking—
Uncle’s footsteps suddenly stopped.
“There’s something up ahead.”
All of us held our breath at once.

Several cockroaches scurried over to Uncle, their antennae twitching violently.
“It’s a tunnel earth rat. Just one.”
What, earth rats here?

I thought for a moment before replying,
“Let’s wait. It could just be one that’s strayed from the pack.”
There was no need to risk a fight. We held our presence, waiting silently.

One minute. Five minutes. Ten minutes.
The earth rat didn’t budge.
Maybe Uncle had overused [Multi-Species Communication]; he looked a bit fatigued.

“What do we do?”
We were so close to Oksu Station now, it felt wasteful to turn back.
“Let’s kill it. It’s only one.”

Se-in was the first to propose.
“We’ll have to fight eventually anyway. We can’t clear this scenario without taking down at least one. Even Yoo Sangah and Lee Gilyoung killed one, so let’s not chicken out.”
She had a point.

Stretching her shoulders and neck, Se-in added,
“If you’ve got any skills worth showing, don’t hide them. I’ve got [Average Adjustment].”
As expected. A full reader would have at least one hidden card.
So, [Average Adjustment], huh.

It hadn’t been described in detail in the story, but I remembered writing the setting for it.
“It’s tricky to explain. Basically, if you raise even one base stat, all the others get adjusted to at least 70% of your highest. For example, if you raise Stamina to level 10, your Strength and Agility will function at about level 7 even without any investment.”
“Holy… that’s an insane skill.”

It really was. It meant she only had to dump all her Coins into one stat and still function well in others.
For the early game where spending Coins was tough, there was hardly a better skill.
“As for me, all I’ve got is [Multi-Species Communication]. And you, friend?”

I mentally checked through my skills.
[□□]
[Character List]
[Agitation]
These were the only three I had confirmed.

Sometimes I overheard characters’ inner thoughts, so maybe I had something similar to [Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint], but I hadn’t figured out how to trigger it yet.
“Unfortunately, everything I have is speech-related. As you can see, I’m Cheon Inho.”
“Ugh, well, can’t be helped. Still, it’s not hopeless. It’s three on one. On my count—one, two, three—we all rush and beat it down.”

“Let’s just be careful not to get hurt.”
We exchanged glances, then crept cautiously toward the earth rat.
About thirty steps later—

Out of the darkness, the beast’s shadow appeared.
「The size of a grown wolf. A mole-like monster with overdeveloped forelegs.」
No doubt about it.

A Grade-9 underground species: the Tunnel Earth Rat.
But… was it always that big?
“W-wait a second.”
Even Se-in stopped short, sensing something was wrong.

Grrrrrrrr—
A sinister growl.
As its yellow eyes gleamed in the dark, the beast charged like a wild boar. The ground quaked, gravel scattering from the rails.

That frail Kim Dokja actually killed one of these?
“Hiyaaaah!”
Uncle Dansoo let out a bizarre battle cry and swung his pipe.

But with his low Strength, the pipe only grazed the earth rat’s muzzle before bouncing off.
“Uncle!”
He barely rolled aside to avoid being crushed.

Next was me.
Come on.
My Strength stat was level 10. If even little Gilyoung could kill one of these, there was no way I couldn’t.

I swung with all my might.
But my pipe sliced through empty air—the earth rat had ducked its head at the last instant.
What—

I spun off balance, crashing onto my backside.
By the time I looked up, the earth rat had bypassed me and charged toward its chosen prey. Instinctively, it had targeted the weakest.
“Se-in!”

She was trembling, arms quivering around her pipe.
“Uwaaah!”
Se-in dropped the pipe and bolted.

“What are you doing? Fight it!”
“How the hell do you expect me to fight that?!”
Reality was cruelly different from the novel.

Was this really the same species Yoo Sangah and Lee Gilyoung had fought?
Se-in tripped over the tracks mid-run. The earth rat roared, seizing the opening and ramming her.
She was hurled against the wall with a sickening thud.

I thought she was done for—
but somehow, staggering, she got back up.
“Gaaaah! It hurts! It hurts!”
The reason was clear.

She’d gone all-in on Stamina. Just as I had invested everything in Strength, she had poured all her Coins into durability.
“Don’t run—grab your weapon! Over here, you bastard!”
[Exclusive skill, ‘Agitation Lv.2’, has been activated.]

To my surprise, the skill worked.
The earth rat’s gaze snapped toward me. It didn’t understand words, but at least its aggro was pulled.
With Se-in fumbling to retrieve her weapon, Uncle and I scrambled into a sloppy formation around her.

Fortunately, the earth rat only growled lowly and didn’t lunge again.
“What the hell was that? You said you’d be the man worthy of Heewon!”
“Heewon-nim is strong! I’ll just support her!”

“You killed someone before—yet you run like that—”
I shouldn’t have said that.
Se-in’s face went pale.

“…I killed someone? Who said that?”
“Heewon did.”
“…I… I only finished it. She’d already half-killed the bastard. I just… closed his eyes.”

Her hands shook violently around the pipe.
So that was why Heewon had looked so grim back then.
“If you don’t want to die, steel yourself.”

The operation had completely failed.
Just because ordinary readers were thrown into a novel didn’t mean they could suddenly act like Kim Dokja.
「How many of us have actually survived?」

As unease gnawed at my mind, Uncle Dansoo called out in a trembling voice.
“I-Inho-ssi.”
The earth rat facing us… had four eyes now.

Shit.
It had called for backup.
“Run.”

We bolted toward Geumho Station.
But the earth rats were faster.
“Uncle! Hurry!”

Dansoo lagged behind, his weak stats slowing him down. I eased my pace to match him.
That’s when I heard the crunch—
A glance down, and the beast’s jaws were clamped on my side, tearing my clothes.

Blood gushed.
No way. Was I really going to die here? To a tunnel earth rat, of all things?
Even then, a part of me thought—
I wanted to write this.

「The Ultimate ORV Party, annihilated by a Grade-9 underground earth rat.」
But who the hell would want to read that?
With a shout, I slammed the pipe into its skull. But its bite strength was worse than I expected.

“Uncle! Just run!”
We couldn’t fight both of them. Not like this.
But at least I could buy time.

[Exclusive skill, ‘Agitation Lv.2’, activates powerfully!]
Again, both rats’ eyes locked onto me.
Gripping the pipe like a bat, I swung hard at the one biting my side.

Crack—
It reeled back, hurt.
But the other?

Where—?
A dark mass soared over my back. Too fast.
I couldn’t react in time.

“Move!”
A sharp voice—
And a pipe flew out of nowhere, spearing straight through the earth rat’s eye.

Kuaaaagh!
The sharpened tip pierced its skull and burst out the other side.
The weapon withdrew smoothly, then cut a flawless arc toward the second earth rat.

I knew that arc.
A skill dismissed in the novel as insignificant.
[Swordsmanship.]

But one who mastered that very skill had slain even Demon Kings.
The flowing strike shattered the earth rat’s skull in an instant.
[Demon Slayer.]

As the beasts collapsed, red oni fire flickered out from their eyes.
“I knew it’d be like this.”
For once, I didn’t mind if Yoo Joonghyuk mocked me later.

Because this time, I really might fall for her.
“You okay?”
It was Jung Heewon.

***
“Uuugh, Heewon-unnie, you don’t even know how hard it was for us—”
Se-in clung to her, pouring out complaints. Nearly dying, why she came so late, on and on.

“Miss, thank you. We’d have been dead otherwise… I didn’t expect them to be that strong.”
Even Uncle gasped out his gratitude, completely drained.
I too.

“You saved us. That was incredible.”
“Are your wounds alright?”
“Yes. Luckily, it’s not too bad.”

The earth rat’s teeth had only grazed my side.
But without Heewon, I’d have been dead.
I’d completely miscalculated. A full-reader party this weak?

“I was worried. Two flimsy guys and one little girl sneaking off to scout… honestly, I didn’t feel good about it.”
She had objectively judged our strength better than we had.
But still—what shocked me most was that fight.

Was Jung Heewon always this strong?
Because of the skill?
[Activating ‘Character List’!]

+

Name: Jung Heewon
Age: 27
Sponsor: None (Currently being watched by two Constellations)
Exclusive Attribute: The One Who Cowers (Common)
Exclusive Skills: [Demon Slayer Lv.1], [Swordsmanship Lv.1]
Stigma: None
Overall Stats: [Stamina Lv.5], [Strength Lv.6], [Agility Lv.7], [Magic Power Lv.4]
Evaluation: A ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) ‘One Who Cowers’ with tremendous latent potential. Attribute has not yet blossomed, so information is limited. Currently feels faint trust toward you.
+
Cheon Inho earning Heewon’s trust… life really was unpredictable.

“But why were you in such a rush?”
At her question, both Se-in and Uncle looked at me.
“To rescue survivors.”

“Survivors?”
“Someone I know is near Oksu Station.”
She nodded as if she understood.

“Family? Parents?”
“…Not exactly. More like… people who are family.”
Se-in and Uncle both nodded with me.

“Then I’ll help too.”
“That would be a huge help.”
If things were going this way anyway, traveling with Jung Heewon wasn’t bad. She would become a main member of the later. Being with her early could only help.

But before we left, there was something to do.
I looked down at the fallen earth rats’ corpses.
“Hm? What are you planning?”

The reason we got wrecked was simple:
One, no combat skills.
Two—
“Weapons.”

The others immediately understood.
They remembered the progression of the main story.
But Se-in’s excitement quickly dimmed.

“But… Inho-ssi.”
“Yes?”
“Do you even know how to do it?”

That was the problem.
***
“Earth Rat Spine Sword! Earth Rat Spine Sword!”

Se-in had been chanting like a spell for minutes now, clutching the monster’s head.
Uncle asked,
“What is she doing?”

“…Trying something, I guess.”
Clearly, too much manga in her diet.
I ignored her and pulled out the knife I’d borrowed from the Cheoldoo gang.

Then I cast Agitation—on myself.
[Exclusive skill, ‘Agitation Lv.2’, has been activated!]
「This isn’t gross at all. I am a professional butcher.」

I gripped the earth rat’s head and began skinning it.
I’d never butchered anything before, so I worried—
but it wasn’t too difficult.
Looking closer, the earth rat even had faint dotted lines along its spine, as if designed to be cut apart.

Anyone could do it, even without reading the Destruction Method like Kim Dokja.
When I glanced over, Se-in and Uncle were both retching.
Well, that was normal.

Heewon, though, leaned close, fascinated by every step.
“Where did you learn this?”
“Self-taught.”

“Wow…”
I puffed my chest with pride.
Maybe I had talent. But then Heewon smiled faintly.

“Though for self-taught, you’re not very good.”
“Don’t kill the mood.”
After twenty grueling minutes—

Crack!
The first earth rat’s spine came free.
Uncle whistled in awe.

“It really does look like a sword.”
Its vertebrae, fused solid, resembled a natural blade. Proof it was a creature that ignored evolutionary logic.
“This one’s for you, Heewon-ssi.”

“For me? Really?”
“You’re our strongest fighter.”
She had already downed two earth rats with just a pipe. Handing her a spine sword?

All we had to do now was ride her coattails.
“Ah… thank you.”
She accepted it shyly, examining its edge and surface carefully.

“Feels like we’ve gone back to the Stone Age.”
I froze.
Where had I heard that before? Right—this was a line from the original story.

I hesitated.
「Should I answer?」
Then, with a dramatic tone, I said,

“Sharpen it a bit more, and it’ll be useful. Make the most of the edge.”
“Heh. Got it, Chief.”
This was originally dialogue between Kim Dokja and Heewon.

Se-in, returning belatedly, whispered reproachfully,
“Aren’t you getting a bit too close to Heewon-nim?”
“Someone has to look after her. At least until we meet Kim Dokja.”

But the thought weighed heavy on me.
Could I really play Kim Dokja’s role?
Could I ensure Heewon survived this world?

“This is bad though,” Se-in whispered, as if reading my thoughts.
“You remember, right? She only really gets strong after awakening as the Judge of Destruction. Without that, she won’t be as active as in the main story.”
Right.

Her ultimate skill was [Hour of Judgment].
And to unlock it, she had to first awaken as the Judge of Destruction.
But for that, two prerequisites had to be met.

One: she had to suffer brutal violence at the hands of the Cheoldoo gang.
And two—
“For Heewon-nim to awaken like in the main story… Inho-ssi has to die.”

Yes.
My death.