“…Ugh. Cold.”
I dragged my slippers along as I walked out into the alley.
I walked carefully, paying close attention so I wouldn’t forget the way. Losing my way would be a catastrophe. I had to memorize the route by looking back every now and then.
I wasn’t sure where in Geomdan this was, but regardless of whether they were apartments or commercial buildings, most of them looked newly constructed.
The villa I’d come out of seemed like an eight-story luxury villa too. I’d felt it inside, but from the outside it looked even more expensive.
What exactly did Gang Jimin do for a living to live in such a luxury villa?
At first, I’d worried about the monthly rent, but seeing the millions of won tucked into the wallet, I wondered if she came from a wealthy family. No. I shouldn’t get my hopes up too high. The debt-pile hypothesis was still alive and kicking.
…Still, if possible, I hoped she was rich. It was already maddening enough that my carefully saved installment savings had vanished; if she were penniless, that would just be too sad.
Since I couldn’t see a convenience store nearby, I looked for an area with a lot of foot traffic. Walking blindly toward where people were coming and going, I reached a main road. Tall buildings that looked like a shopping district stretched out in a long row.
Even though it was late, quite a crowd had gathered. I could feel the pedestrians passing by sneaking glances at me.
It’s something you only realize when you’re the one being gawked at—human gazes can feel this blatant.
Looking around, I spotted a convenience store across the crosswalk. I stood there blankly scanning my surroundings, but nothing particularly unusual stood out. If I had to name something, maybe the age group was quite young?
The abundance of kids probably meant this was near an academy district. It felt strangely odd how the students, male and female alike, glanced at me as they passed.
So this is what they mean when they say your skin prickles.
While waiting at the traffic light, I kept feeling eyes on me from all around. Well, the owner of this body was a regional SSS-class beauty you rarely saw, after all. Even I might have looked without thinking.
“…”
But, my friends. Is it because you’re students? Your gazes are incredibly blatant.
Maybe I should have thrown on some outerwear. The weather was bearable, but the gazes were extremely unpleasant. And above all, that middle schooler over there. Even so, you’re staring way too blatantly at my chest, you little shit…
I could see the convenience store across the crosswalk, and as if to prove it was an academy district, the same building also housed a stationery store, a noraebang, a PC bang, and so on.
“Huh?”
I blurted out without thinking at something so absurd. All the students around looked at me, but fuck, that wasn’t important right now.
That’s right. There was a PC bang.
And there was a sign at the first-floor entrance.
And. And.
I could read the words on that sign.
“Seriously…?”
[Force Knight Major Update]
[RTX 2080, 32-inch 180hz Monitors]
[Hot New Release, Hela: Odindoty Open Event!!]
“???”
So basically.
I definitely read that clearly with my own two eyes, right?
[Hot New Release, Hela: Odindoty Open Event!!]
I rubbed my eyes and looked again and again. Wondering if my eyes were broken, I looked again and again. Thinking maybe I’d seen it wrong from afar, I crossed the street and looked up close.
[Hot New Release, Hela: Odindoty Open Event!!]
I had seen it correctly.
[LetsSeeYourBack]: A sequel? I’d bet both my balls that timeline doesn’t exist lolololol
If I lost that bet and had both taken.
Then a sequel… was really coming?
How had I not thought of this?
Because my head hurt? Well, it did hurt.
Because the situation was so absurd? It was absurd.
But this.
No.
Really, this.
Where in the entire world is there anything more important than this?
[Hela: Odindoty Open]
“Fuck, who gives a shit about balls.”
The students who had been stealing glances at my face were startled. Especially the middle school boy who had been earnestly staring at my chest—he jumped.
I couldn’t give a single fuck.
Hela Odindoty open.
Those letters. I couldn’t see anything besides those eight characters.
Because my heart was hammering wildly at those eight characters.
I quickened my pace, stumbling my way back home.
As I retraced my steps, I thought about the pent-up frustration I had endured to see those eight characters. About how many nights I had spent swallowing my anger.
On the way out, I had looked around carefully; on the way back, I walked as if possessed, mind empty. Then I gradually started to run.
Running made the things attached to my chest bounce up and down painfully. It was an extremely unfamiliar sensation, but a trivial matter. I didn’t care in the slightest.
I opened the lobby door with the card I’d taken in advance and pressed the elevator button. While waiting for it to descend, my body was already itching with anticipation.
Ugh. Ah. I pressed my lips tight, suppressing the urge to shout, and got on the elevator.
Finally unlocking the door and returning to my beloved home (I Jincheol x, Gang Jimin o), I couldn’t hold it in anymore and threw both hands up, shouting.
“I won!!”
At last.
Finally!!!
“Fucking thank you!! I fucking love you!!”
Odinson sequel release!!!
***
If I were to explain the things that constitute me, I believe Odinson could claim at least 50% shares.
To that extent, Odinson was indispensable in explaining the human called I Jincheol.
Without Odinson, I couldn’t explain my life; and if I couldn’t explain that, I couldn’t explain how terrible it was to endure the updates and silent treatment that had continued from the sixth year onward, that time of scorn and persecution.
I spent my youth on Odinson, made friends through Odinson, repeated a year because of Odinson, received academic warnings through Odinson, and avoided death thanks to Odinson.
Truly, half my life was Odinson.
This game had all kinds of weapons based on swords, spears, and axes, and also large, medium, small, extra-large, irregular, modified… anyway, over 200 weapons in total.
Each one had different patterns, and efficiency varied by build.
For example, the [Thorn Spear of the Choir] was famous for synergizing well with the [Footstep Pulse] rune.
The Thorn Spear build that chose Footstep Pulse as its main rune operated by creating distance and setting down mid thrusts; it was notoriously compared to a certain game’s fireball.
Honestly, that notoriety only worked at bronze-silver-gold levels… ahem.
On the other hand, a Thorn Spear with the [Choir Chorus] rune boldly abandoned mid thrusts and mainly used top thrusts and low sweeps, which had short startup animations and were good for creating mix-ups.
Depending on which runes you picked, playstyles and counterplay changed; taking it further, hybrid builds emerged that played mind games based on build popularity.
“—Mastering this and trading timing battles for every pattern is the charm of Odinson, you could say.”
“—Mmhmm. It’s only hard at first; once you get used to it, it’s quite a delicacy.”
“…Isn’t this just a fucking fossil game?”
“—Hah!!!!!”
Since playstyles changed depending on rune choices, builds easily numbered over a thousand.
They’d probably exceed two thousand as well.
At the time, me, who was unemployed, and the middle-aged man who had retired due to an industrial accident, were time Bill Gates and time Elon Musk.
Both our playtimes had surpassed ten thousand hours, and as we alternated between world ranks 1 and 2, the duo [LetsSeeYourBack] and [LemmeStabYourGut] made their names widely known.
…We didn’t really get famous. By that point, there weren’t many users left in Odinson.
Anyway, a fossil game was no barrier whatsoever to time billionaires, and we silently honed our builds believing the sequel would be even more amazing.
And the sequel was delayed again.
“—Is Asgard stock plummeting for real?”
“—A massive red candle… standing tall like Gungnir…”
“—Stop falling!! People are dying!!!”
“—To lose faith is to mean death…!!!”
“—Forget faith, people are actually dying!!”
“—You scamming bastards… you said US stocks were invincible…”
“—I earn less than when I was unemployed. Invincible?”
It was a time of scorn and persecution.
We chewed out the worst game company on earth, Fucksgard Software.
The middle-aged man, who had supposedly buried even his industrial accident compensation in stocks, seemed to chew them out most passionately.
There were quite a few users who found a lifeline and escaped at this time, but the old man and I couldn’t.
Half our lives were already Odinson, and the power dynamic had reversed long ago.
Like old men whittling bats, we carved and carved our builds, looking only toward the 10th anniversary.
Believing that if we could just reach the 10th anniversary, we would finally see an amazing sequel.
And the sequel was delayed again and again.
“—What can we do?”
“—Nothing. Bring me some mead, boy.”
“—(Today’s low) Broke through the floor and reached Niflheim.”
“—If you see Hela, send her my regards.”
“—Wow lol -31% hahaha”
“—People are really dying!!”
“—To lose faith is to mean death!!!”
“—Then die (good answer)”
We were furious, but there was nothing a mere user could do.
Round and round, we just honed our builds again.
We called each other cripples and maggots in self-derision, clinging to a dead game.
Like fondling the balls of a dead son, as it were.
Though I never thought I’d actually end up having my balls taken away.
Well, sure. Being born a man, balls were a pretty serious matter.
But when half my life was coming back, who cares about mere balls?
Two balls might weigh less than 100 grams at most, but Odinson was half of 177cm, 72kg I Jincheol—over 36kg.
By simple calculation, it was at least 350 times heavier.
Can you feel the difference in weight?
Do you understand now? Why I’m making such a fuss. And what these six characters mean to me.
[Hela: Odindoty Release]
“Odindoty Release.” A cheer for six characters.
TS normalizes the world!!