Players

Chapter 6 

—–CROW—– 

Time continued to flow. The number that had initially read 17 dwindled towards 0, and finally, the minute digit changed.

Time was decreasing.  Moving towards the Arabic numeral zero.

Remaining Survival Time.

The starkly direct words sent a shiver down his spine.  His mouth felt dry.

716 hours.

Calculated at 24 hours a day, that was about thirty days.

What would happen when that time ran out?

The image of the roaring monster flashed through his mind. He felt the phantom sharpness of the axe that had grazed his head, a chill running down his neck.

He swallowed hard, recalling the other number displayed beneath the Remaining Survival Time.

1,000 Kron.

Purchasable time: 240 hours.

He could roughly estimate the situation.  Even without an explanation, the structure became clear in his mind.

Decreasing time.

Purchasing time.

The words “Remaining Survival Time” explained everything.

The minute digit changed again. Time was flowing, even now.

He turned his gaze.  He saw Sung Yoo-jin, biting her lip and looking at him cautiously.  She looked like a puppy waiting for a treat, trying her best to be patient after he had told her to wait, and it was adorable, but he couldn’t focus on that right now.

“Kang…seok?”

Sung Yoo-jin called his name cautiously. The perceptive woman couldn’t have missed his sudden change in demeanor.  No, even the most oblivious person would have noticed his agitation.

He hesitated.

He wanted to tell Sung Yoo-jin everything right away.  He wanted to confirm if she also saw the Remaining Survival Time.

But how would she react if she saw it? Would she panic?

He swallowed hard.

Taking hold of Sung Yoo-jin’s shoulders, whose anxiety was now mirroring his own, he met her gaze.

“Yoo-jin, listen carefully.”

He began to explain.

“Lies.”

Sung Yoo-jin said curtly.  She let out a hollow, awkward laugh.

But the laughter didn’t last.  Her blue eyes wavered.

She gritted her teeth.  Even though she knew it was futile, she wanted to deny what he had said.

[Remaining Survival Time: 716 hours 32 minutes 27 seconds]

[Current Kron: 500 Kron]

[* You can purchase 120 hours with 500 Kron.]

She saw it too.  The relentlessly decreasing time churned in her mind.

But fortunately, she didn’t panic.  She felt anxious, but she could still bear it.

716 hours. Roughly a little less than thirty days.

If the number displayed before her had been only a few hours, she would have definitely panicked. But thirty days…she could still, *still* maintain her composure.

He took her trembling hand in his.

“Tell me everything you see.”

Her reaction alone confirmed that she saw the Remaining Survival Time.  Now the important thing was *what* she saw, specifically.

“7…716 hours 32 minutes…no, 31 minutes.”

“And?”

So far, it was the same.  Sung Yoo-jin’s eyes momentarily reddened as she corrected the decreasing time, but then she calmly answered, “500 Kron.  I can purchase 120 hours with 500 Kron.”

There was a difference. They had started on the same day, in the same place, but the amount of Kron they possessed was different.

The difference between them.

Was it because they were playing different games?

No.  In a sense, there was a more crucial difference between them.

The bull-headed monster he had killed.

The 500 Kron difference clearly stemmed from that.

“We get Kron by killing monsters.  We can use that Kron to buy time and increase our Remaining Survival Time.”

He spoke quickly.

It was like a game.  Had they really entered a game world? Was such a thing even possible?

“Don’t buy time yet.”

“Huh?”

Buying time with Kron. Of course, it was something to test, but not yet.  He explained to Sung Yoo-jin, “We still have some time.  It’s better to learn more about how to earn Kron and if buying time is the only thing we can do with it…before we make a purchase.”

They obtained Kron by killing monsters.  Then was buying time the only thing they could do with Kron?

Of course, it seemed unlikely that anything was more important than the Remaining Survival Time.  But there was no need to rush.

Sung Yoo-jin understood.  The thought of the Remaining Survival Time decreasing even at this moment made her heart pound, but she wasn’t so distraught that she couldn’t comprehend what he was saying.

Kron.

What they could do with Kron.

A system like a game.

“Ah!”

Sung Yoo-jin suddenly exclaimed.  This time, *she* pulled on his hand. She asked quickly in an excited tone, “Kang-seok, you said you saw commands earlier, right? And you used a command when you fought the monster.”

At the last moment, his attack hadn’t physically connected with the monster. But a blue energy blade had appeared, slashing the monster’s chest.

Flying Swallow Slash – Down.

Recalling the skill, he nodded, and Sung Yoo-jin closed her eyes tightly.  After taking a deep breath, she said, “Wait a moment.”

She had clearly thought of something.  He waited patiently as she moved her fingers in the air.  Her blue eyes, focused on a point slightly above her, darted around.

A few seconds passed.  He suddenly widened his eyes at the characters of light that appeared in his mind.

[Would you like to party with ‘Sung Yoo-jin (Female)’?]

Sung Yoo-jin smiled and said, “Party play doesn’t exist in fighting games, does it?”

Exa Online, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG).

A smile appeared on Kang-seok’s face as well.

* * *

When faced with depressing circumstances, people tend to divert their attention to other things.

That was the case for Kang-seok and Sung Yoo-jin.  They immersed themselves in something more interesting, something that might help them overcome their current situation.

“Wow! There’s a stat window!”

Sung Yoo-jin exclaimed in admiration. She was still tapping the air with her hand, as if interacting with something only she could see.

He also tried to find something resembling a “menu screen.”  Just like when he had accessed the Remaining Survival Time display, he could bring up the characters of light simply by thinking about it.

[Choi Kang-seok (Male)]

[Origin: Fighter Online]

[Awakening Level: – ]

“Wait.”

He cried out involuntarily.

“Wait, wait a minute.”

He repeated himself.  He was that flustered.

“Kang-seok?”

Sung Yoo-jin blinked, a puzzled look on her face.  He looked at the characters of light again.  They remained unchanged.

Name and origin.

That was all. Nothing else was written.

“Yoo-jin, what do you see in your stat window?”

At his urgent question, Sung Yoo-jin’s eyes darted around rapidly.  Just from the movement of her eyes, he could guess how extensive the characters of light were.

“Um…first, my name, origin, and class.  Origin seems to refer to the game I was playing.”

“And?”

“The rest is the same as Exa Online.  Strength, Agility, Stamina, and…um.  It’s too much, so I’ll skip it for now.”

Unlike early MMORPGs, which had around six stats at most, recent games had an excessive number of detailed stats. Exa Online was no exception, and there were too many to list individually.

“What about you, Kang-seok?”

Sung Yoo-jin was quick-witted.  What he wanted wasn’t her detailed stats, but a comparison to see what was different between them.

He gave a wry smile.

“My name and the game I came from.”

“And?”

“That’s all. There’s an ‘Awakening…Level’ section, but it’s blank.”

“Huh?”

“Really, that’s all.”

He could sense Sung Yoo-jin’s confusion.  She seemed to be at a loss for words, knowing she should say something but not knowing what.

“Fighting game.”

He covered his face with his hands.

Fighting game.

Right, it was a fighting game. It would be stranger if it had detailed stats like an MMORPG.

“B-But you were so strong.”

Sung Yoo-jin still remembered his movements. He had flown through the air—well, jumped—and defeated that terrifying monster.

He was strong.  Otherwise, that fight wouldn’t have made sense.

“We’ll figure it out eventually.”

Seeing Sung Yoo-jin even more bewildered than himself helped him regain his composure.

Just because he couldn’t see his stats didn’t mean he didn’t have any abilities.  He just couldn’t confirm them numerically.

And what bothered him was the Awakening Level section.  It was blank, but the fact that it existed at all bothered him.

“Do you have an ‘Awakening Level’ section, Yoo-jin?”

“Um…no, I don’t.  Is that a Fighter Online system?”

“There was something similar.  It wasn’t the official name, though.”

Almost no online games lacked a “growth” element.

Fighter Online had also incorporated growth elements, even if it wasn’t a full-fledged “leveling system,” to extend the game’s lifespan.

The official name was Transcendence.

Players commonly called it Awakening.

Transcended characters not only received an overall stat boost, but their command skills were also enhanced.  Therefore, transcended characters could only fight other transcended characters.

‘It probably refers to Transcendence, right?’

Dark Destiny Lord was a character created during the open beta.  Naturally, he had already completed Transcendence.

But was that still the case now?

Seeing that the Awakening Level section was blank, it seemed likely that it had been reset.

Having regained some composure, he asked Sung Yoo-jin, “What’s your level?  Are your stats the same as the character you were playing?”

He had been playing a fighting game, so it made sense for him, but Sung Yoo-jin had been playing an MMORPG with levels.

If her current appearance was based on her main character in Exa Online, there was a high chance that her stats and level would have carried over.

As if she had a similar thought, a flicker of anticipation appeared on Sung Yoo-jin’s face. But it was short-lived.  Her shoulders slumped as she said dejectedly, “Level 1.”

It was natural for her to be disappointed.

But he thought differently.

‘Still, her strength wasn’t that of an ordinary woman.  No, the fact that she could exert such force with those slender arms…’

Recalling how easily she had held Durandal—the Supreme King’s Backsword—he nodded slightly.  Even at level 1, her base stats likely surpassed those of an ordinary person.

“What’s your class?”

“It’s the same as in Exa, Gladiator.  It’s a tank class.”

“Tank?”

He asked reflexively.  His gaze naturally went to her body—specifically, the white bikini visible beneath her coat.

No matter how much exposure and defense were correlated for game characters these days, wasn’t it a bit much to call oneself a tank in that outfit?

As his gaze lingered on her chest and waist, Sung Yoo-jin hurriedly pulled at the edges of her coat and answered flusteredly, “I-It’s a damage-dealing tank. Eloa…I mean, my main character was more focused on damage.  Not a full-fledged tank like a Paladin, you know? Anyway, that’s why.”

Whether she was naturally shy or simply uncomfortable with his gaze, she spoke quickly and incoherently.

To give her a moment to compose herself, he looked away.  Observing Sung Yoo-jin, who was fanning herself with her hand and looking down, her face flushed, he cleared his throat.

He felt awkward as well.

“Ahem.  Anyway, it’s a good thing in a way.  Even if you’re level 1, you’re a tank.  So you’ll be sturdy.”

Perhaps her impressive strength was also due to her being a tank class.

He didn’t know if this was a game world or another dimension, but in their current situation, being physically strong was an advantage.

Sung Yoo-jin nodded as if agreeing with his explanation. He continued to ask, “Do you have any skills?”

“I have a skill window, but…since I’m level 1, I don’t have any skills yet.”

She had a skill window.

That was quite encouraging.  If skills existed, then it made sense to have a skill window.

‘Flying Swallow Slash – Down…since there are commands, it’s natural that skills exist.’

The streak of blue light he had unleashed during the fight with the monster could only be described as a “skill.”  Such a thing wouldn’t have happened just by swinging a sword.

He looked at his own empty stat window again.

“I don’t have an item window.  Do you?”

“I don’t either.”

“Exa Online had one, right?”

“Yes, it was like…equipping items on a character model.”

Since fighting games didn’t have items, it was natural that he didn’t have an item window.  But Exa Online did have one.  So the fact that Sung Yoo-jin didn’t have one either—

He smiled wryly.

He thought he understood.

Items like clothes and swords were literally worn and equipped.

‘It’s not like a game.’

Although there were forces at play that resembled game systems, it didn’t feel like a game.  It seemed more plausible that they had been summoned to another world in the form of their game characters.

Of course, both notions were absurd. But it was the reality he was experiencing.  Unnecessary cognitive dissonance was pointless.

The information they had so far.

Remaining Survival Time and Kron, which could be obtained by killing monsters.

“Yoo-jin. We have to survive. Are you ready?”

“Kang-seok?”

He stood up and extended his hand to Sung Yoo-jin.

“Let’s arm ourselves.”

Remaining Survival Time.

Time that could only be obtained by defeating monsters.

To survive, they needed the power to fight.

His gaze went to the corpses of the monster and the warrior lying near the entrance to the room.

—–CROW—– 

#Only READ at DarkstarTranslations