Chapter 54
[General] Girmu: Hello Sinu-nim haha
[General] Sinu: Hello Girmu-nim
[General] Sinu: SaltySalt check your messages
[General] ShinSogeumi: I’m ShinSogeumi though ㅇㅅㅇ
[General] Sinu: Don’t mess with me
Sinu and SaltySalt’s conversation was rough and aggressive as always. However, it was a bit different from usual. Normally, when SaltySalt and Girmu were together, Sinu would naturally stay by Girmu’s side. But today, he was only hovering around SaltySalt.
Beodeul felt that strange feeling again, but since Sinu had obviously come looking for SaltySalt with something to discuss, he let it be.
[General] ShinSogeumi: ㅇㅅㅇ;;
[General] ShinSogeumi: I’m busy right now
[General] Sinu: ? Busy getting beaten up by wild boars?
[General] Sinu: Want me to make you unemployed? lol
At Sinu’s confident threat to steal his monsters, ShinSogeumi quickly moved to Girmu’s side.
[General] Girmu: ?
[General] ShinSogeumi: ㅋㅅㅋ;;
[General] Sinu: lol
Sinu apparently couldn’t bring himself to steal Girmu’s monsters, so he just targeted ShinSogeumi and repeated normal attacks.
[General] ShinSogeumi: Not even ticklish ㅇㅅㅇr
The dagger Sinu swung passed through ShinSogeumi, slicing through empty air. This was a normal occurrence in non-PK zones.
[General] Sinu: Stop messing around and check your messages
[General] ShinSogeumi: But I’m really busy right now?
[General] ShinSogeumi: I’m having a serious conversation with Girmu-nim, don’t interrupt ㅇㅅㅇ
[General] Sinu: What serious conversation?
[General] ShinSogeumi: The story somewhere in the middle of SaltySalt and Grace’s history lol
[General] Sinu: Completely useless
[General] Sinu: Girmu-nim probably isn’t interested
[General] ShinSogeumi: Hmm ㅋㅅㅋ
“Always so hot-tempered…”
Beodeul heard SaltySalt’s muttering and barely managed to hold back his laughter that almost burst out.
[General] ShinSogeumi: Too many interruptions today
[General] Sinu: ?
[General] ShinSogeumi: Earlier, Youngglory Hyung came and threatened me to get on voice chat ㅇㅅㅇ…
[General] Sinu: Ah lol he said he needed to talk to you once, looks like he did it today
[General] ShinSogeumi: You talked to him too? He only needed to talk to me but he even talked to Girmu-nim;;
[General] Sinu: ???
[General] ShinSogeumi: The three of us were on voice chat together ㅇㅅㅇ…
[General] Girmu: Haha…
[General] ShinSogeumi: So I was trying to explain when you arrived -ㅅ-
[General] Sinu: You were on voice chat?
This question from Sinu was directed at Girmu. Beodeul had no idea what Sinu was thinking when asking this and replied casually.
[General] Girmu: Yes, yes
[General] Sinu: Youngglory Hyung could have just chatted, why did he have to;
[General] Girmu: Haha he asked for permission before starting voice chat, and I said it was fine
[General] ShinSogeumi: FYI we’re still on it right now?
[General] Sinu: ?
Sinu, who had been continuously swinging his dagger, came to an abrupt stop. Beodeul and SaltySalt, not noticing anything unusual about this, continued talking through their microphones.
“Should we invite Sinu Hyung here too?”
“Would that be okay with you?”
“Ah, that Hyung already knows everything anyway.”
[General] ShinSogeumi: Want to join the voice chat? ㅇㅅㅇ
[General] Sinu: Give me the link
[General] Girmu: I just sent it to you haha
[General] Sinu: Oh… thanks ㅠ
Why is he crying? Beodeul tilted his head, not understanding Sinu’s chat. On the contrary, SaltySalt burst into laughter seeing the tears that seemed a billion light-years away from matching Sinu’s character.
“That Hyung is really strange lately.”
“Is he?”
“Yes. I think it’s been since he met Girmu-nim. He wasn’t originally like this.”
Then Sinu, who had just joined the call, spoke in an ominous voice.
“I join only to hear you badmouthing me?”
“Huh? Isn’t this just normal for you?”
“You badmouthing me might be normal.”
“That’s a given~”
The two bickering with each other casually as hyung and dongsaeng seemed no different from actual friends. I guess that means they’re comfortable with each other to that extent.
“Now that Hyung is here, I should mention that Girmu-nim’s voice is like that one we heard last weekend-“
“Hey, stop saying useless things.”
“My goodness… now even telling me to shut up sounds like that.”
Beodeul, who had been listening to their conversation, asked curiously.
“What about my voice?”
“Don’t worry about it. SaltySalt is just talking nonsense.”
“Ah, among Sinu Hyung’s acquaintances, there’s someone whose voice sounds really similar to Girmu-nim.”
“To me?”
“No… No. Not similar at all, really.”
“That’s not true. I think they sound very similar. Ah, but since only Hyung and I have heard both, we can’t ask anyone else. How frustrating.”
“Why does that even matter now? Just tell the story you were going to tell.”
Beodeul laughed it off since he didn’t understand what they were talking about. What were the chances he’d ever hear the voice of someone Sinu knew? Besides, Sinu, who had heard Girmu’s voice far more than SaltySalt, said they weren’t similar. He was convinced SaltySalt must have been mistaken.
“Sigh, fine. But where should I start the story?”
“What did you want to talk about?”
“What else? The thing Youngglory Hyung was making an issue of.”
“Then you need to decide whether to start from after SOG began, or from before that.”
With Sinu providing the guideline, SaltySalt quickly found his bearings.
“Then I’ll summarize the pre-start in one line and go straight to after the start.”
“Okay.”
“Seven years ago, when I was in middle school, I was bullied.”
“*Cough!*”
SaltySalt’s tone had become much lighter than before, so Beodeul, who had been off-guard, was hit by a heavier story than expected and broke into a cough.
“You surprised him by blurting that out. You should have eased into it.”
“No, I said I’d summarize it in one line… Are you okay?”
“Yes… *cough!* Please, continue.”
In situations like this, one should try to react as normally as possible. Beodeul moved the microphone away from his face and desperately tried to suppress his coughing. With his face flushed red, he thought:
‘Why am I the one dying inside when the person actually telling the story is so calm?’
While Beodeul was secretly fighting his inner battle, SaltySalt on the other side of the headset remained perfectly calm. He really did end the pre-SOG story in one line and moved on to what came after.
“So I was living like a game addict as a form of escapism. SOG was popular at that time, so I just started playing without much thought.”
“Back then, there were more servers than now. This Akendal server was just one with a decent number of users, and when I started, a new server had just opened, so I began there. At that time, my goal was what you’d call becoming the top dog on the server.”
Beodeul burst into laughter without resistance at the bold goal young SaltySalt had.
“I’m sorry. It’s not something to laugh at…”
“It’s okay. Everyone laughs at this part.”
“I laughed too.”
“Sinu-nim as well?”
“Yes. I mocked him.”
“Oh…”
“The person who laughed the loudest was probably Hwasan Hyung? I think so. I still remember it. I was so hurt back then.”
“Oh dear…”
When Beodeul expressed genuine sympathy, SaltySalt casually moved on to the next part of his story.
“But becoming the top dog on the server wasn’t easy. Everyone who started the game planning to spend some money and time had the same idea on that server.”
“You weren’t aiming for the number one spot in the level rankings, were you?”
“No. I really, sincerely just wanted to be someone amazing that no one could argue with. In specs and level both.”
This time, laughter didn’t come like before. It was difficult to even imagine the psychology of the real-life SaltySalt who was bullied and wanted to have such status in the game.
“It would have been nice if I’d known from the start that it wasn’t possible, but I’d already invested all that money and time before I realized.”
Beodeul, who had been empathizing with young SaltySalt’s feelings, felt his immersion break the next moment when SaltySalt spoke in a comical tone.
“My despair at that time must have been indescribable, right? If I’d just eliminated the five guys above me, I would have been the top…”
“Hey, you’re getting sidetracked.”
“Do you know the sorrow of being sixth place?”
“If you’re second place, you’re second place. Since when is there a sixth place?”
“Right, you were the top dog, weren’t you?”
Having unintentionally learned about Sinu’s past, Beodeul secretly swallowed his laughter.
“Anyway, so I gave up on being number one and later took a different path.”
“A different path?”
“To become the server’s most famous player! More famous than the top dog!”
“In short, an attention seeker.”
“Yes. I decided to become an attention seeker.”
The fact that he immediately agreed to it suggests he really did aim for the position of “server’s biggest attention seeker” as he said. Beodeul recalled the famous troublemakers on the Akendal server and gave an awkward smile. To think SaltySalt was that kind of… user.
“But there was a lunatic on the server that I couldn’t compete with.”
“Even that…?”
“Yes. I was too sensible a person back then, so my attempts at causing trouble were amateurish. That guy eventually got punished, but even his end became legendary, so I couldn’t win.”
“Ah, was that the gold duplication guy?”
“Yes. That’s right.”
Drawing attention by messing with the game’s currency system—that was certainly legendary, in its own way.
“So I ended up living a neither-here-nor-there game life. But as luck would have it, the server had very few people, so my existence as someone who went from being a ranker to an attention-seeker did stand out a bit.”
“Then didn’t you achieve your goal…?”
“No way, my goal was much more ambitious than that.”
“Girmu-nim is probably wondering by now why the bullying story came up.”
Sinu’s comment was right on target. However, as he listened, Beodeul became very curious about how SaltySalt had ended up joining the Grace guild. The servers were different to begin with, so how did it happen?
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
