Episode 29
[Gang Jegyeong]
When I pressed the search button, an unfamiliar profile popped up. Since I’d copied the ID Jaesugang had given me exactly as it was, there was no chance it was someone else. I stared quietly at the name written on the profile.
……It was prettier than I’d expected. I felt a little sorry to any esteemed people named Gang Jaesu who might be living and breathing somewhere in South Korea, but it definitely seemed better than Gang Jaesu.
This time, I tapped the profile picture. It was a group photo of nearly twenty people, most of them wearing black suits. He said his job was a bodyguard, so I figured it had probably been taken with people from his company. If he kept going there even when told to quit, and even put up a group photo like this, he seemed to have a fair bit of attachment to the company.
I stopped looking through his profile and opened a one-on-one chat.
[Me]
If you keep living like that, you’ll get hit in the back of the head so hard your nose and teeth break
ㅇㅅㅇ 13:47
It was basically a curse out of nowhere, but Jaesugang somehow realized it was me and swiftly checked the message.
[Gang Jegyeong]
Haha
Guess I’ll be having a rare experience 13:47
He replied calmly. Was he saying that was a future problem for future him, so present him didn’t care? Was it bravado, or did he have something to rely on? I couldn’t even guess.
And yet, perhaps because this whole situation was funny, the corners of my mouth rose without me noticing. I forced my unruly lips back down and tapped away at my phone with my fingers.
[Me]
Well... we did open up chat with each other
But honestly, I’m not the type to text that often
Just so you know 13:48
[Gang Jegyeong]
I don’t do it that much either
I just check sometimes and say something if there’s something to say?
Just think of it as contacting me comfortably, like you would a friend
For example
Hmm...
If you get mad after losing to me over and over and text me, I’ll comfort you^^ 13:48
Look at this guy. He was the one who had the longest losing streak.
[Me]
If you text me after losing over and over 13:48
Are you asking me to comfort you^^? 13:49
[Gang Jegyeong]
lol
Just wait and see today
Who ends up contacting who after losing over and over 13:49
[Me]
ㅋ 13:49
When I sent just one crisp “ㅋ” to imply he was being ridiculous, Jaesugang annoyingly laughed back with the exact same “ㅋ.”
Talking like this, it really did feel like I was exchanging messages with a friend. Even if we knew each other through the game, honestly, just like Mun Seonhwa had said, it wasn’t as if we’d ever had a proper conversation. And unlike with guild members, we hadn’t coordinated to clear dungeons or run around in wars together, so I’d wondered if texting him would feel awkward.
[Gang Jegyeong]
Oh, and
Would it be all right if I edited the story video you sent me and uploaded it to my channel?
I think it would be good if I cross-edited it so it connects with the medical officer story
If you only shared it with me, you can refuse
That’s good in its own way too
(emoticon) 13:50
Was being polite just his default setting, with outstanding sociability on top of that? Thanks to Jaesugang, who spoke in honorifics without fail yet talked to me familiarly as if we’d known each other for ages, I, too, could melt into that atmosphere and continue the conversation naturally.
[Me]
You’re going to take the wedding ring I gave you when I proposed
rework it, and display it in a museum so other people can see it too?
How could you do that??? 13:51
[Gang Jegyeong]
Ah, you’re putting it like that;? 13:52
I let out a small laugh at Jaesugang’s flustered response and flopped down on my bed. Right. Jaesugang and I had been fooling around like this since before we knew anything about each other, so if either of us had meant to harm the other, we would have done it long ago. Maybe we had both vaguely sensed that neither of us was the type to start scheming behind the scenes this late in the game.
And so, even after Mun Seonhwa left the house, saying it was time for her appointment, I kept holding on to my phone for quite a while.
Title: ㅈㅅㄱ’s stream energy has been high these past few days
Author: [Bia] SorryToBotherWhenItsQuiet
Did something good happen lol cute
(7 comments)
- Can’t tell if this is Dusk’s general board or a board for fangirling over Jaesugang
└ [Author] lolol sry but talking about Jaesugang here is fun, lots of people respond
- Since the day before yesterday or around then, he’s been checking his phone a lot, maybe something good really did happen
└ [Author] Lover? Situationship?
└ If that’s it, I hope he spills the story later ><♡
└ Nah, he said he got the divine knight video from Honeybun the day before yesterday
└ [Author] Ah, that’s it lol makes sense
* * *
TIP - Healing has been forbidden magic since ancient times, and even priests could only use healing magic with a god’s permission. The Sina, who found this questionable, secretly researched the roots of healing, and this became the healing arts used by medical officers today.
* * *
As I listened to the sweet voice coming through my headset, I pressed the game launch button that had become active after the update patch finished and thought to myself.
Jaesugang was extremely tenacious. Once something caught his interest, he would vanish without a sound or rumor, only to return at some point with a stack of reports about whatever he’d fixated on and make a commotion around him. He was so passionate that he would even disappear in the middle of a conversation with someone.
……Not that I thought that just because yesterday, while we were watching the story video and exchanging KakaoTalk messages, he suddenly vanished, didn’t reply even by this morning, and then abruptly started streaming.
I just thought that if he had become a scholar or a journalist with that focus and drive, he probably would have become very successful. (Let’s set aside for a moment whether a journalist can be successful.) Even now, wasn’t he using his internet stream as a seminar to tell his viewers all sorts of information?
― “The shining humanoid figure in the video I received from Honeybun was clearly shaped like a person. Looking at only that, you might think it’s a Sina, but the wings attached to that figure weren’t the wings of a Lepidoptera insect like the Jeoba or Bia have. They were bird wings.”
……Or not? Was he not using it as a seminar, but simply holding a seminar?
― “If we narrow down the direction of the large-scale update we can infer through this child and this hidden quest into three possibilities, first, a new race update. That includes a playable (*one users can directly play) race. Second, a new region and monster update.”
Jaesugang briefly stopped speaking and lifted the mug he was holding to wet his throat. I didn’t know what he was drinking, but it was obvious it was some sweet beverage.
After blowing on it and sipping for a while, Jaesugang soon set down the cup, from which white steam was rising in wisps. Since it hadn’t been long since he brought it over, it seemed quite hot. I hoped he scalded his tongue to a mess.
In the chat window, people had latched onto the phrase “playable new race” and were making a fuss, asking if that meant a new race would really be added. That was understandable, since while the concept of butterflies and moths was fresh and unique, birds would probably feel more familiar and cute than insects. If asked to choose between a beetle person and an alpaca person, wouldn’t most people choose the alpaca person?
However, as someone who already knew that Dusk had nailed itself down as the world of the Jeoba and Bia, it only looked like empty fuss to me.
Jaesugang, who had quietly smacked his lips, continued speaking.
― “And lastly, third. A new class or faction update.”
I had been listening while nodding along to the new race, monsters, and regions he had listed earlier, but my eyes went round at the sudden mention of a new class and faction.
― “If we look at this hidden story intuitively, it deals with the contradictions of the god highlighted as an absolute being in Dusk’s worldview, as well as the conflict and questions that arise when the Sina of Witerahit, who believe in that god, directly confront the Sina of the opposing faction.”
Just as Jaesugang said, this hidden story was blatantly dealing with the conflict between the Witerahit and Eideas factions and the questions blooming within it. The paired classes matched in the hidden story were also the divine knight and the medical officer, as well as the warrior and the priest. Perhaps because the assassin’s affiliation was ambiguous, assassins were paired with assassins, but since the story content dealt with the lives of assassins wavering between the two factions, it ultimately aligned with what Jaesugang was saying.
― “In this process, I created a common hypothetical that could be applied to all of them: ‘What if one side were to change factions?’ Then I applied it to each story. For example, the Bia divine knight NPC ‘Abrea’ constantly doubts god, unlike his devout younger sister ‘Howa,’ a high-ranking priest, but because Howa would be left alone if he left, we often saw him living an ill-fitting temple life, isolated by himself.
Then, in this hidden story, he came face-to-face with ‘Adam,’ the Jeoba medical officer NPC who is the person closest to the secret of god. Adam fell into nihilism after learning the truth of the world, but since that ultimately proves that his convictions are firm, the chance of his faction changing is zero, practically zero. In contrast, Abrea’s convictions are not firm, and Zero Soft has continuously drilled into us that he is merely following god because he has no choice, due to his birth and blood ties. Looking at it up to this point, we arrive at this conclusion. ‘Through Adam, Abrea can establish a firm perspective and conviction, and cross over to the Eideas faction.’”
I was reminded of the online lecture videos I had binged in a rush long ago while preparing for the CSAT. He was like a lecture teacher who had already rushed far ahead in the lesson before I could even take notes. Still, since I knew the story, I could understand the context.