As soon as Jincheol got home, he threw his bag aside and hit the power button.
What else was there to do after work? As always, he opened the gallery and voice chat first.
He couldn’t even be bothered to change, so he just shrugged off his outerwear, quickly washed his feet while the computer booted, and sat down in his chair.
The same damned names he always saw were clustered together on his friends list.
They were the diehard holdouts still left in this fucking dead game that hadn’t had a sequel in over ten years.
The number of diehards kept dwindling, now down to under a hundred, but that only meant they were the most concentrated sludge of the sludge. Genuine old-timers who had at least hit Grandmaster.
Without saying a word, he made a room and waited.
Sure enough, the opponent he expected came in on his own a moment later.
[Gut]: hey
[Backside]: Ft10?
[Gut]: go
Backside was Jincheol’s nickname.
Once upon a time, it was a name that had left its footprints at the very top of the rankings.
Not that having been number one in a dead game like this was something worth bragging about anywhere.
Soon, both their characters, outfitted with customizations befitting true stagnant-water veterans, were summoned into the arena.
[Title: Back-Gut War has begun]
: yeah
Backside brought an ultra-greatsword this time
Gut’s running the usual dwarf sword-and-board
└ㅇㅇ: Feels like it’s been forever since I saw an ultra weapon?
└Yakkiyakki: There’s no weapon the head mod doesn’t use
When he peeked at the gallery, some guy was already commentating the match.
A quick tap showed that spectators were increasing one by one.
If too many watched, it would lag—Jincheol thought that for a moment, then focused on the game.
Because the dwarf his opponent had chosen was charging in with a dagger held reverse-grip.
From the standpoint of someone wielding a polearm-sized weapon, he couldn’t let a rogue close the distance that easily.
He immediately swung his weapon to shake the enemy off.
[Title: Thought ultra-greatswords went extinct lol]
: 00
These days if a weapon’s even a bit big, it’s hard to carry around
└00: The game’s so stagnant now every dog and cow uses nullification lol
└ㅇㅇ: The moment something looks big, it turns into stamina mind games
The giant raised his weapon high into the sky, then brought the upright greatsword crashing straight down.
As if he intended to cleave apart anything that stood in its way.
Shield, helmet, whatever lay before his eyes—he seemed ready to split it all in two.
By contrast, the dwarf facing the blade was far too small.
The wooden shield the dwarf held was small as well.
And just as crude.
It looked as though it would be shattered to pieces at any moment, along with the dwarf’s body.
[Title: Even that looks different when the head mod uses it.]
: 00
I use ultras a lot too, so sometimes I bring one when I feel like it
Then I instantly get fanned to death lol
But the dwarf did not run.
Instead, he slammed his flimsy wooden shield straight into the front of the greatsword.
A blue light hovered at the end of the downward arc, and the trajectory of the greatsword’s swing and the trajectory of the small shield interlocked.
—Clang!
It was a trick that would have been impossible in reality.
The shield, drawn into the end of the motion like a magnet, had caused an anomaly.
[Title: These rotten-water bastards are at it again]
: Yakkiyakki
I’m getting dizzy watching them keep their combo stacks going like it’s only natural
You people, please stay stuck in your own cesspit
└ㅁㅁ: World ranks 1 and 2 (cesspit) lol
└ㅇㅇ: The stink reaches all the way over here, so yeah, that’s a cesspit lol
The dwarf’s shield was clearly as flimsy as could be. Rather than a shield, it looked more like a wooden plank.
There were gaps where it had cracked here and there, and it seemed ready to fall apart at any second.
And yet what bent was the trajectory of that brutal-looking slash, while both the dwarf and his shield remained perfectly intact.
The trick did not end with one time. Nor was it performed by only one side.
The giant’s thick arms, which had been raised high into the sky, left behind a cluster of blue light as they were drawn back toward his chest.
It was an unnatural movement, as if the process had been skipped, but because of that, the next attack unfolded all the more smoothly.
An attack. And another attack.
A flurry of blows rained down as though the gaps between motions had been forcibly cut away.
[Title: Look, look, look, they’re playing a different game by themselves again]
: ㅁㅁ
No, how can he keep attacking without messing up Zanshin even once?
Is that really Odinson? Is this the same game?
└ㅇㅇ: Honestly, looking at the character customization, it does seem like a different game lol
└Yakkiyakki: Fucking change your customization already
[Title: Those bastards are why the game’s image fell into the gutter lol]
: ㅁㅁ
(???: This game is easy! Let’s play together!.jpg)
That blueberry skin is shitty enough
But why the fuck did he make the face look like mush?
└ㅇㅇ: Th-th-this game is e-e-easy, l-l-let’s pl-play!!!
The giant was over two meters tall and wore plate armor and a helmet, but he only had a gauntlet on his left arm and wore nothing on his lower body but greaves.
The dwarf was under one meter tall, and he wasn’t even wearing that much—he was just in his underwear.
The bare skin exposed by all that nudity was rather vividly colored.
A half-naked giant with purple skin and a completely naked dwarf with pink skin were, frankly, hard to call impressive.
[Title: Do ultra-greatswords not wear pants these days?]
: ㅇㅇ
Kinda tempted to run an ultra build again after so long, but the build got weird again
I get why the gauntlets don’t match, since the Black Iron Knights’ weapon motions are all skewed to the right
But why the hell is this bastard not wearing pants? Did he take them off because it’s summer?
└ㄹㅇㅋㅋ: Builds that drag the Black Iron ultra-greatsword along the ground don’t wear pants
└ㅁㅁ: They say you save skill points you’d put into weight and put them into light-attack damage reduction instead
└00: If you’re not confident you can parry every low attack, let’s just wear pants quietly…
[Title: How are you supposed to deal with a giant approaching like that while refilling stamina?]
: ㅇㅇ
The head mod keeps building his combo without missing Zanshin even once. How do you respond to that?
└Yakkiyakki: Now, look. If the giant full-perfects Zanshin, his stamina’s full, right?
└└Yakkiyakki: Then you lose. What else is there?
└└ㅇㅇ: ? But the dwarf’s holding out right now.
└└Yakkiyakki: Then you hold out with full-perfect parries too...
└└ㅇㅇ: Ah?
└GhosthandCollector: “Ah?” lmfao
The endless exchange of blows came to an abrupt end.
The turning point was the dwarf’s shield unleashing a decisive counterattack.
Compared to the lump of iron the giant was swinging, it looked no different from fanning at him.
And “fanning” was an indescribably apt expression. The limp motion really did look like a flutter.
Yet that limp blow deflected the massive slash, broke the giant’s posture, and declared the end of the duel.
—Thunk!
When the tip of the sword and the edge of the shield precisely interlocked, an anomaly occurred. The shield the dwarf had swept out cleared away every one of the disorderly scattered streaks of light.
The collision between the two weapons did not make the metallic clang that had been ringing out nonstop, but a strange sound effect instead.
“Fuck!!”
—“Puhaha, this is seriously hilarious.”
Jincheol’s face crumpled as he slammed his desk.
Heat flared up inside him.
He had processed every timing action with razor precision under the single-minded thought that he had to win, used every bit of tech he knew, and steadily built up advantages while sweating bullets—but his opponent had held on with nothing but parries, then cheesed him with a single nullification.
Even though he had twisted his whole body into knots to accumulate advantage bit by bit, the other side had turned the match around with selfish, one-shot opportunism.
This is supposed to be a game?
Jincheol scowled with his whole face and grumbled this and that, but his opponent was too busy savoring his victory to even pretend to listen.
“…I’ve just been busy lately, so my hands have gotten rusty.”
—“My friend. Excuses are not good. Your skills lately have been rather…”
—Bang!
“Fuuuck…”
—“Uahahaha!!”
He slammed the innocent desk, but all it did was give the person on the other side of Discord something to laugh at.
[Title: Sigh, now the old man’s read all my patterns]
: Backside
That old man’s read all my patterns…. I don’t even have any weapons left to refine.
Have I wrung all the dopamine I can out of this dead game…? There are too few weapon types.
└ㅇㅇ: The game’s trash. No content.
└Yakkiyakki: This game has over 200 weapons, though.
└GeuncheopWoncheop: Wow! A god-tier game with over 200 weapon types!!
└└Backside: And so there are no updates
└└GeuncheopWoncheop: Sob sob sob
“God fucking damn it…”
Tears welled at the corners of Jincheol’s eyes.
This fucking dead game had once been a god-tier game that shook the world eleven years ago—back when he was still a schoolkid.
And around the time he became a college student, updates had stopped.
Right after release, it had caused a stir with gameplay that was fairly revolutionary, and because of that, Jincheol had gladly devoted his youth to the game, but…
A sequel that had remained completely silent for over ten years, no-updates that had continued for about five years now, and ranked games so stagnant that even bronze, silver, and gold players spammed parries as naturally as breathing.
By now, it had long since become the textbook definition of a dead game.
The players who had once laughed and had fun together, even holding meetups, had all left for other games, leaving behind only rotten water like Jincheol.
If only it hadn’t been a god-tier game, Jincheol wouldn’t still be lingering here like a parent fondling the balls of a dead child…
[Title: It’s almost the 11th anniversary]
: ㅁㅁ
This year they’ll add the new dragonkin race
Announce the sequel release date
And Asgard stock will go to the moon, right?
└Gut: You think? lol
└Backside: Sigh…
[Title: Asgard Software stock (+14.3%)]
: ㄹㅇㅋㅋ
Is something big coming?!
└ㅇㅇ: Oh? What’s going on?
└└Gut: That’s an annual event lol
└└Backside: It’s rising because people think, “Maybe they’ll announce a new game at the 11th anniversary event?”
└└ㅇㅇ: Then after the event passes next week, it’ll crash again?
└└Gut: Yeah, it does every year
└└ㅇㅇ: Motherfucker lol
[Title: Last year) It’s the 10th anniversary, surely something will come out!!!]
: ㅁㅁ
Reality) Absolutely fucking nothing came out
Lmfaooooo they didn’t even do a common Direct, fuck
└ㅇㅇ: I remember the mood in the gallery around this time last year
└00: Around when it passed 10 o’clock, the mood started getting chilly….
└Gut: From 11 onward, it turned into a riot, total chaos lol
└Backside: Urgh… my head…!!
Back then, since it was the 10th anniversary, there had still been expectations for a new game or something, and even a tiny handful of returning salmon remained…
Maybe that incident ripped out the ventilator, because the users dropped sharply after that.
Just thinking about that day still sent chills down his spine.
“Fuck. Now that I’m thinking about it again, I’m pissed off all over.”
How—how could they announce plans for a new game and then not post a single screenshot for six years?
How could they lay off a huge number of employees and not release any statement?
How could an IP over twenty years old treat its fans like dog food?
Jincheol gritted his teeth and hammered at the keyboard.
[Title: Like this fucking dead game is ever getting a sequel lol]
: Backside
There hasn’t even been news that they rehired the developers they fired
Fuck, are the Valkyries in Valhalla making the new game?
We’d be lucky if they fixed the bugs, and even that’ll probably be another no-update lol
└ㅇㅇ: Gold-en correct
└ㅁㅁ: So what can we do?
└└ㄹㅇㅋㅋ: Nothing. Bring me mead.
Clearly, Jincheol loved this dead game beyond reason.
Ever since he had first encountered Odinson at age seven by borrowing a neighborhood older kid’s console, he had lived most of his life as an Odinson fanboy.
The intuitive system, the detailed and reasonable weapon balance, the spacing battles reminiscent of fighting games, and the neatly organized system centered on stamina.
Everything about this game suited his tastes.
Starting from Thor: Odinson, back when it was a side-scrolling 2D game, to Heimdall: Odinson, which crossed dimensions into 3D, to Baldur: Odinson, which crashed and burned spectacularly while trying to become open-world—he had gotten 100% achievements in all of them.
When Tyr: Odinson finally redefined the series and rose to another level, became a global hit, and succeeded domestically while being called a god-tier game, he had been as happy as if it were his own achievement.
Naturally, he too had fallen into it headfirst and enjoyed it like mad. People said the national exam averages dropped the year the new game came out or whatever, but at least back then, he had truly been happy.
Jincheol had, quite literally, devoted his youth to it.
Practicing combos felt like a matter of life and death, and he even went to meetups with people he met through the game. Gloomy guys gathered together, drank beer, shouted at one another about whose race was pretending to be weak, cut down on sleep to stay in voice chat, and developed builds.
Those were days when nothing felt more rewarding than getting a popular post with a build he had developed after staying up all night.
At that point, his life was practically Odinson itself, and perhaps that love had not been in vain, because he even reached number one in world ranking points. Back then, he had truly been happy.
Which made its downfall all the more bitter.
This fucking dead game is half my life…
As work got busier and his other hobbies naturally fell away, this was the only joy he had left, and yet it had turned out like this…
Jincheol pressed the keys with bottled-up resentment.
└Backside: A sequel? I’ll bet both my balls that no such worldline exists lmfaooooo
Lee Jincheol.
A twenty-seven-year-old government official.
Head mod of the Odinson Minor Gallery.
Current world rank 2 in Odinson Arena.
Officially recognized by rank 1 as the man who knows Backside best in the world.
He had no way of knowing.
“Fuck, what is this?”
He shouldn’t have said something like that, but he didn’t know.
Nor did he know that, as the price for not knowing, everything would be turned upside down overnight.
“What the fuck is this?”
When he let out a curse without thinking, he heard an unfamiliar voice.
It was not his own voice, stained by alcohol and cigarettes, but a clear, delicate woman’s voice.