This was a book written by the ‘Recorder of Fear’.
这是《恐惧的记录者》写的一本书。
The ‘Recorders of Fear’ - the very first humans to encounter the Outer Gods, and the writers who also spread the word on their existences.
“恐惧的记录者”——最早接触外界诸神的人类，以及那些也传播他们存在的信息的作家。
[Exclusive skill, ‘Reading Comprehension’, is activating!]
[独家技能‘阅读理解’正在激活!]
[Exclusive Attribute, ‘Scenario Interpreter’, is activating!]
[独占属性‘场景解释器’正在激活!]
I couldn’t help but feel my anticipation grow after seeing the book’s title. To think, this would be a story regarding the ‘Secretive Plotter’ and the ‘Most Ancient Dream’.
看到这本书的书名后，我不禁感到自己的期待在增长。想想看，这应该是一个关于“秘密策划者”和“最古老的梦想”的故事。
The Plotter often brought up this ‘Most Ancient Dream’, so I hoped that this could be an important opportunity to learn more about that ‘thing’.
密谋者经常提起这个“最古老的梦想”，所以我希望这可以成为一个重要的机会来了解更多关于这个“东西”的信息。
I didn’t even notice that [999] had disappeared by then, all my being focused on reading this book.
我甚至没有注意到那时[999]已经消失了，我所有的注意力都集中在阅读这本书上。
*
Exactly eight hours later, I closed the book’s cover, my face one of pure stupefaction.
整整八个小时以后，我合上了书的封面，我的脸一片茫然。
“This….”
“这......”
I knew of a perfect expression to describe this sort of book.
我知道用一个完美的词来形容这类书。
“It’s even more boring than ‘Ways of Survival’….”
“这比《生存之道》(WaysofSurvival)更无聊......”
I had no idea who wrote it, but if this book got published in the various platforms of the 21st century, then I was sure of it tanking as badly as the ‘Ways of Survival’.
我不知道是谁写的，但是如果这本书在21世纪的各种平台上出版，那么我肯定它会像《生存之道》一样失败。
Not only was it boring, it was also quite a hard read, too.
这本书不仅很无聊，而且很难读。
“….Just what on earth was it even talking about?”
“它到底在说些什么?”
However, there was this one thing that I did understand. Which was, there were five great ‘Outer Gods’ in the expansive [Great Hole].
然而，有一件事我确实理解了。也就是说，在广阔的大洞里有五个伟大的“外界诸神”。
⸢The ‘Living Flame’ that rises up from the east.⸥ ⸢The ‘Master of the Sunken Island’, the calamity of the world in the west.⸥ ⸢The ‘Monarch of the Great Abyss’, the ruler of the northern universe.⸥ ⸢The ‘King of Silver Heart’, the ruler of the interstellar space in the south.⸥ ⸢And finally, the ‘Great Plotter’ that crawls from the place of nothing.⸥ “….This set-up is even cooler than the Ways of Survival.”
从东方升起的“活火焰”。沉没岛屿的主人，西方世界的灾难。大深渊的君主，宇宙北部的统治者。“银心王”，南方星际空间的统治者。最后，从虚无中爬出来的“伟大的密谋者”。“......这种安排甚至比生存之道还酷。”
In the context of the things so far, this ‘Great Plotter’ moniker seemed to signify the ‘Secretive Plotter’. Actually, there were several interesting parts among the texts related to the Plotter himself.
在目前的情况下，这个“伟大的密谋者”的绰号似乎意味着“秘密的密谋者”。实际上，这些文本中有几个有趣的部分是关于密谋者本人的。
⸢A few Recorders of Fear who had encountered the ‘Great Plotter’ came to learn that he was searching for the ‘Most Ancient Dream’…. (Omitted)…. Those lucky Recorders were able to ask the Great Plotter about the identity of the ‘Most Ancient Dream’.⸥ ⸢[It is the beginning of this universe and the master of the gigantic cogwheel. My oldest mortal enemy and my parent. And the one who decides the end of everything.]⸥ ⸢The few Recorders of Fear managed to see the Great Plotter’s expression the moment those words were spoken, and they fainted right away. After waking up, they could no longer remember who they were anymore.⸥ ….Records written by a bunch of people who couldn’t even remember themselves? Was that why the author of this book was simply stated as a ‘Recorder of Fear’, instead?
几个曾经遇到“伟大的策划者”的“恐惧的记录者”得知他正在寻找“最古老的梦想”...(省略)..。这些幸运的记录者能够向伟大的绘图者询问“最古老的梦想”的身份。这是宇宙的开始，也是巨大齿轮的主人。我最古老的死敌也是我的父母。还有那个决定一切的人几个“恐惧记录者”听到这些话的时候，看到了伟大的策划者的表情，他们立刻晕了过去。醒来后，他们再也不记得自己是谁了。一群连自己都不记得的人写的唱片？这就是为什么这本书的作者被简单地称为恐惧的记录者吗？
I wanted to read more about either the ‘Great Plotter’ or the ‘Most Ancient Dream’, but the majority of the book didn’t contain records of those two, but rather, a collection of boring anecdotes related to the general overview of the ‘Outer Gods’, instead.
我想读更多关于伟大的绘图者或者最古老的梦的内容，但是这本书的大部分并没有包含这两者的记录，而是收集了一些关于外界诸神的总体概述的无聊轶事。
Even the plot development was all over the place.
甚至情节的发展到处都是。
Quite often, a story would end abruptly without warning just as it was getting interesting, or the sequence of events would be jumbled up even within the anecdote itself and made it utterly impossible to make heads or tails of it.
很多时候，一个故事在变得有趣的时候突然结束，没有任何警告，或者事件的顺序甚至在故事本身中也会被混淆，使得人们完全不可能理解它。
I wasn’t just talking about one story here, but every single one of them, so I just couldn’t get immersed within the book at all.
我在这里不只是谈论一个故事，而是每一个故事，所以我根本无法沉浸在书中。
⸢(What an interesting story.)⸥
(多么有趣的故事。)
It was none other than Simulation who decided to butt in.
决定插手的不是别人，正是模拟演员。
‘….Which part was interesting to you?’ ⸢(This book has been deliberately engineered this way.)⸥ ‘Are you saying that it was written deliberately to be boring?’ ⸢(The message this story wishes to convey is quite clear.)⸥ ‘If the author wanted to convey a message, then he should’ve written it in a way that others could understand.’ ⸢It’s written with the idea that ‘Those who can’t understand it, will not’.)⸥
哪一部分让你感兴趣(这本书是有意设计成这样的。)你是说这本书是故意写得很无聊的吗(这个故事想要传达的信息很清楚。)“如果作者想要传达一个信息，那么他应该用别人能够理解的方式来写。”它的写作理念是‘那些不能理解它的人就不会理解它’。)
‘Pardon?’
什么
I thought I heard a light sigh, and then tiny sparks danced in front of my eyes. The power leaking out from [The 4th Wall] flipped through the pages of the book and began extracting several paragraphs.
我想我听到了一声轻轻的叹息，然后微小的火花在我的眼前舞动。从《第四道墙》中泄露出来的力量翻动着书页，开始提取几个段落。
And once those seemingly disparate paragraphs, taken from different short stories, were connected, they formed the following lines of texts.
一旦这些看起来完全不同的段落，从不同的短篇小说中取得，被连接起来，它们就形成了以下的文本行。
⸢Emotions, passed down from the distant, remote universe. That is the flow of the ancient times that this writer could never follow after. We were terrified.⸥ ⸢They were like monsters from a universe we couldn’t recognise.⸥ ⸢This ‘Fear’ didn’t stem from what we could predict. This was pure ‘Terror’ emanating from those that we could never understand.⸥ ⸢With great difficulty, we assigned names to each of those Terrors. We wanted to pretend that, by assigning names to the creatures of the unknown, we’d be able to understand them.⸥
情感，从遥远遥远的宇宙流传下来。这就是这位作家永远无法追随的古代的流动。我们吓坏了。他们就像来自我们无法识别的宇宙的怪物。这种“恐惧”并不源于我们所能预测的。这是我们永远无法理解的纯粹的恐怖。我们费了很大的劲才给每一个恐怖分子都起了名字。我们想假装，通过给未知的生物命名，我们就能够理解它们。
Only now did it feel like the message this book wished to convey was revealing itself.
直到现在，我才感觉到这本书想要传达的信息正在揭示它自己。
⸢Of course, whether our attempt has any meaning or not, only they can decide.⸥
当然，我们的尝试是否有任何意义，只有他们能够决定
After reading that resignation-filled paragraph, I thought I could see why the ‘Outer Gods’ ridiculed these ‘Recorders of Fear’ so much. All those Modifiers attached to them, strictly speaking, didn’t reflect their original essence.
读完这段充满无可奈何的文字后，我想我明白了为什么“外界诸神”如此嘲笑这些“恐惧的记录者”。严格来说，所有附加在它们身上的修饰语并没有反映它们的本质。
⸢If you, the reader, meet them someday, remember this. The one who stares into the abyss will have no choice but to either go mad, or become the abyss itself.⸥
如果你，作为读者，某天遇到他们，记住这一点。凝视深渊的人别无选择，要么发疯，要么变成深渊本身。
Having finished my second read-through, I closed the book while feeling despondent.
读完第二遍之后，我合上书，感到沮丧。
“….I’ve gained pretty much nothing here.”
“......我在这里几乎一无所获。”
In the end, there was only one thing I got to figure out from this book.
最后，我从这本书中只弄明白了一件事。
⸢’Outer Gods’ are unfathomable creatures.⸥
“外界诸神”是深不可测的生物
Those were some pretty irresponsible words, that’s for sure.
毫无疑问，这些话是相当不负责任的。
Such words could be applied to just about anybody, not only to the ‘Outer Gods’, now couldn’t they?
这样的话可以适用于任何人，不仅仅是外在的神，现在他们不能吗？
⸢’Yu Jung-Hyeok’ is an unfathomable creature.⸥ ⸢’Han Su-Yeong’ is an unfathomable creature.⸥
“余重赫”是一个深不可测的生物。“韩素英”是一个深不可测的生物
You could say something like that and it’d still fit the context.
你可以说这样的话，但它仍然适合上下文。
Even if it was not an ‘Outer God’, it was true that we couldn’t fully understand each other. We might feel like we could, but that was nothing more than a momentary delusion on our part.
即使它不是一个“外神”，我们也确实不能完全理解对方。我们可能觉得我们可以，但这只不过是我们一时的错觉。
Some time ago, I had a conversation with Jang Ha-Yeong regarding this topic.
前段时间，我和张夏勇就这个话题进行了一次谈话。
The ‘Devourer of Dreams’ silently listening to my thoughts began cackling away. ⸢(You’re correct. That’s the message this book wishes to convey. In the end, we are all simply ‘Outer Gods’ to each other.)⸥
“梦想的吞噬者”静静地听着我的想法，开始咯咯地笑着离开。(你说得对。这就是本书想要传达的信息。最终，我们对彼此来说都只是“外在的神”。)
I put the book down and looked outside the window. It was circular-shaped, just like the circular room it was in.
我放下书，向窗外望去。它是圆形的，就像它所在的圆形房间一样。
Sunlight poured in faintly. I spotted the ‘Outer Gods’ enjoying the sunbath in between the forest’s dense foliage. Some of them discovered me and waved their tentacles about. As if I was looking at a scary scene from a fairy tale or something, I continued to stare at those tentacles. It could very well be that their outer appearance didn’t reflect their true nature.
阳光微弱地照进来。我发现“外界之神”正在森林茂密的树叶之间享受日光浴。他们中的一些人发现了我，并挥舞着他们的触角。就好像我在看童话故事里的恐怖场景一样，我继续盯着那些触角。很可能他们的外表并不能反映他们的真实本性。
Now that I took a closer look, their movements seemed to be rather graceful, too.
现在我仔细观察，他们的动作看起来也相当优雅。
⸢(Only those who reach out can discover the truth.)⸥
(只有伸出手才能发现真相。)
Maybe, there was no need for me to read that book from the get-go. Well, ‘Outer Gods’ were everywhere in this place, weren’t they.
也许，我没有必要从一开始就读那本书。外界诸神在这个地方无处不在，不是吗。
I sneakily observed my surroundings for a bit, before activating [Miniaturisation] to slip outside the window.
我偷偷地观察了一下周围的环境，然后激活[微缩]滑出窗外。
I floated up and approached one of the ‘Outer Gods’. It also extended its tentacle towards me. I didn’t sense hostility behind that action.
我浮上水面，走近其中一个“外界诸神”。它也向我伸出它的触手。我没有感觉到这种行为背后的敌意。
⸢I d on’t car e if yo u reg ret it.⸥
如果你注册了，我就不开车了
Even after [The 4th Wall] warned me, I still reached out towards that tentacle.
即使在第四道长城警告过我之后，我还是伸手去触碰那只触手。
I always regretted about something in my life. However, my regret over the things I hadn’t done was way bigger than for those that I did do.
我总是为生活中的某些事感到后悔。然而，我对自己没有做过的事情的遗憾远远大于那些我做过的事情。
[Exclusive skill, ‘Reading Comprehension’, is activating!]
[独家技能‘阅读理解’正在激活!]
The very last scenario of this <Star Stream> was a great war against the ‘Outer Gods’. And through that war, the ‘Outer Gods’ would disappear from this world.
这个星流的最后一个场景是一场与“外界诸神”的大战。通过这场战争，“外部诸神”将从这个世界上消失。
They were the only creatures in the ‘Ways of Survival’ without any detailed explanation.
它们是《生存之道》中唯一没有任何详细解释的生物。
I wanted to ask them. Ask them just where they came from.
我想问他们，问他们是从哪里来的。
Ask them for what purpose they were fighting against the <Star Stream>.
问问他们为什么要反抗星流。
Not even once during the original story did the ‘Outer Gods’ reply to those questions. They only roared on, or spat out incomprehensible utterances and fought against the Constellations. That was all.
在最初的故事中，“外界诸神”甚至一次也没有回答这些问题。他们只是咆哮着，或者吐出难以理解的话语，与星座作战。仅此而已。
Tsu-chuchuchuchu…..
楚楚楚..。
[‘The 4th Wall’ is warning you!]
第四道墙警告你
I grasped the Outer God’s tentacle. As if it was responding to my touch, the tentacle wrapped around my hand like a tree’s vine.
我抓住了外神的触手。就好像它对我的触摸做出了反应，触手像树上的藤蔓一样缠绕着我的手。
The ‘Recorder of Fear’ said this.
恐惧的记录者这样说。
They said that the ‘Outer Gods’ were unfathomable, unexplainable existences. They said that no one knew where they came from or what their real identity was.
他们说“外界诸神”是深不可测、无法解释的存在。他们说，没有人知道他们从哪里来，或者他们的真实身份是什么。
They could be right. My current actions might be completely meaningless.
他们可能是对的，我现在的行为可能完全没有意义。
We might end up fighting each other later, like how it was in the original storyline, and bring forth the wretched destruction and ruination to all.
我们可能最终会像原来故事情节一样互相争斗，带来不幸的毁灭和毁灭。
Suddenly, my surroundings seemed to be blanketed by a slow-moving melody. Under the brilliant sunlight, ‘Outer Gods’ were, one by one, bowing their heads in my direction.
突然，我周围的一切仿佛被一段缓慢的旋律所笼罩。在灿烂的阳光下，“外界诸神”一个接一个地向我鞠躬致敬。
[Fable, ‘The One Who Is Loved by All’, has begun its storytelling.]
[寓言《大家都爱的人》已经开始讲故事了]
Tiny flowers began blooming on the vines created by the Outer Gods, as if they were giving me their precious hidden something. Fragrance wafted out from those flowers, soon becoming lyrics to a song. And afterwards, it formed a story.
外界诸神创造的葡萄藤上开始盛开着小小的花朵，仿佛它们在给我它们宝贵的隐藏的东西。花香四溢，很快就成了一首歌的歌词。后来，它形成了一个故事。
⸢”Captain.”⸥
”船长”
It was a fragment of a very old memory.
这是一段非常古老的记忆。
⸢”Yu Jung-Hyeok-ssi.”⸥
“余正赫先生”
I listened to those voices like an entranced man. They belonged to different people, but I could accurately guess the owners of those voices with my eyes closed.
我像一个入迷的人一样倾听着那些声音。它们属于不同的人，但我闭着眼睛都能准确地猜出这些声音的主人。
I had been thinking about this for a long while.
我已经想了很久了。
If the ‘Secretive Plotter’ was Yu Jung-Hyeok from the original story, and just like what he had shown me, if the countless world-lines of the ‘Ways of Survival’ existed out there, then….
如果“秘密策划者”就是原故事中的余正赫，就像他给我展示的那样，如果“生存之道”的无数世界线真的存在，那么.....。
The innumerable failed stories within those regression turns, just where would they have ended up in?
在那些回归的转折中，有无数的失败故事，它们会在哪里结束呢？
⸢”In the next life, without a doubt.”⸥ ⸢”Even if you regress many more times, I’ll always accompany you, captain….”⸥
“下辈子，毫无疑问。”“即使你倒退很多次，我也会永远陪着你，船长......”
The surging waves of memories swept me up in an instant.
汹涌澎湃的回忆瞬间把我卷了起来。
These memories lacked any obvious starting point, and they were not consistently linked to each other, either. However, I was able to follow them. As if I was connecting the constellations that couldn’t be connected previously.
这些记忆缺乏任何明显的起点，而且它们之间也没有始终如一的联系。不过，我还是能够跟上他们。就好像我在连接以前无法连接的星座。
Perhaps only I was able to connect them in this world.
也许在这个世界上只有我才能把他们联系起来。
And in that moment, I understood.
在那一刻，我明白了。
I understood what the ‘Outer God’ was, why Yu Jung-Hyeok from the original story had to become one willingly.
我明白了什么是“外神”，为什么原始故事中的余正赫要自愿成为“外神”。
….And, why he had no choice but to become the ‘Secretive Plotter’.
还有，为什么他别无选择，只能成为“秘密策划者”。
The story of pain that went on for tens of thousands, hundreds, maybe even for millions of years. Stories discarded by the world-line and couldn’t be acknowledged as ‘Fables’. And the fragments of Fables that became the subconsciousness of the worlds, drifting around in the universe and ruminating on the ancient memories. Finally, the voices of those that were not saved.
这个痛苦的故事持续了数万年，数百年，甚至数百万年。被世界遗弃的故事，不能被承认为“寓言”。寓言的碎片成为了世界的潜意识，在宇宙中漂流，沉思着古老的记忆。最后，那些没有得救的人的声音。
[Oooooooohhhh…..]
[ ooooooohhhh... ]
