[Outboxer009 has logged in]

Romantic Cat: Oh, the stagnant water is here.

Outboxer009: Aren’t we all stagnant water that are already rotting in this unimportant game? Why are you guys still playing here? It’s been more than 10 years since this game was launched.

(Translator’s Notes [T/N]: Stagnant water (고인물) is a Korean slang used by the younger generations. It means that someone has played a certain game for a long time that they’ve mastered the game.

Rotting/rotten water is an extreme version of stagnant water, meaning the stagnant water has pooled for too long that it had gone bad/rotten. Rotten water is higher in level than stagnant water, meaning they have spent time far longer than stagnant water, and are considered game pros, legends, or veterans.)

Cowabunga: Look in the mirror first and ask yourself.

Outboxer009 – Kang Jin-ho laughed at the reply that came from beyond the screen monitor.

Legend of Heroes 2.

It has already been 10 years since the game was launched, and a third installment was even released. However, it was still a classic game among veteran players.

But why do people play games that are more than 10 years old?

‘Because it’s fun.’

What other reasons do they need to play the game?

In fact, there was one more decisive reason.

Kang Jin-ho was one of the longest-playing users of Legend of Heroes 2 – No, he has reached the highest level and gained status as a rotten water. He was a ranker.

And in this chat room, there was one more rotten water who as bad as Kang Jin-ho.

Yellow Storm: Are you here, Boxer? Are you ready to come down to 2nd place?

Outboxer009: Oh, you’re still dreaming? Please, don’t even look up at trees that you can’t climb.

Yellow Storm: Bullsh*t. This time, I’ll be first place.

Outboxer009: Yes, yes. Everyone has the freedom to dream. You’re allowed to dream.

Romantic Cat: Both of you shut up. This month’s rankings are up.

Legend of Heroes 2 announced server rankings every month by adding up various points earned in the game such as time attacks. And this leaderboard that has been running for a long time has become the battlefield for the rotten waters.

[1st Place: Outboxer009 – 315\,234\,999 points] [23 months in a row!]

[2nd Place: Yellow Storm – 315\,234\,125 points] [22 months in a row!]

[3rd Place…]

Yellow Storm: F*ck! Wht the f*ck is tis? Is this brokenn!

AAA: Look at all the typos. You must have had a mental breakdown.

Romantic Cat: I think I can hear the sound of trembling!

It seemed like he could really hear a trembling sound. After swallowing nervously and then sighing in relief at seeing the results, Kang Jin-ho burst out into laughter from the depth of his lungs.

Outboxer009: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Did you see it?

Outboxer009: You’re eternally 2nd place! E etc.! Second-class! Number 2!

Yellow Storm: sdlkghiosdghsodighsdighiofsdoighiosd

AAA: Oh, it’s here. Mental breakdown.

Cowabunga: It’s more fun to tease because he reacts like that. *shakes head*

Outboxer009: Ah, it was fun. I’m going to have a good night’s sleep. Good night to you too, Yellow second-class. Try harder next month.

Yellow Storm: Hey! Why is the difference between us only 800 points?!

Outboxer009: Right. I don’t know why you couldn’t get that 874 points. Ah, is this the difference between 1st and 2nd place?

Yellow Storm: The use of abusive language is subject to sanctions.

Yellow Storm: The use of abusive language is subject to sanctions.

Yellow Storm: The use of abusive language is subject to sanctions.

Yellow Storm: The use of abusive language is subject to sanctions.

Yellow Storm: F*** is an exclamation\, not a curse!

Outboxer009: Anyway, I’m going to sleep. Good night. Dream of me ♥

Yellow Storm: The use of abusive language is subject to sanctions.

A few minutes later…

When a new conversation did not appear in the chat room, the other rotten waters holding popcorn in one hand and watching the monthly event started to speak again.

Romantic Cat: What, did they really go to bed?

Cowabunga: Did Norfolk go to bed? Doesn’t he have any other words?

T/N: Norfolk came from baseball player, Yoon Suk-min’s nickname, “Norfolk Wars”. Yoon was in a “war” with another Korean baseball player, and he was losing in the war while he was at the Norfolk Tides baseball team. So, Yellow Storm is “Norfolk”, as she had lost the war in the server rankings. More info about Norfolk can be found before the start of episode 8.

AAA: They’re permanently first and second place in order together. Like a married couple that grows old together.

Cowabunga: It’ll be published as a dark BL novel.

AAA: Oh, shit. I imagined it.

Romantic Cat: What happened? I don’t know about Boxer, but if it’s Norfolk, it’s normal for him to act rashly and talk nonsense. Did the two of them really go to bed?

.

..

…

[Outboxer009 has logged out.]

[Yellow Storm has logged out.]

.

..

…

[Kang Jin-ho has entered Pleaides.]

[Hong Yoo Hee has entered Pleiades.]

Count Bayer.

It was once a famous family of swordsmen, and its head was the Margrave of the Sälen Kingdom’s northern frontier, but that was all in the past, as they are now just an old family clan.

But even so, they were the Bayer family.

Even if the father and son fell and their family declined in approximately 3 years, they still maintained their position at the bottom place of the 12 northern families.

In the mansion of such Count Bayer…

There was a struggling man in the second son’s room, who was called the ‘anguish of Count Bayer.’

“Kkeuoeo…eoo…eoo”

It was a boy in his late teens who held his head and let out strange groans.

He had dark blue hair, a white and slender face, and a pair of mysterious green eyes that all blended together to show off his good looks, but now, he was thinking of his situation as he looked at himself.

The boy was named Jude Bayer, who was also known as the second son of Count Bayer and was now thinking as he stared blankly at the mirror hung on the wall.

‘Is this likeness totally real?’

Is everything that he could see in the mirror real?

The fact that Jude Bayer is now Jude Bayer.

The sentence was like a play on words, but Jude was serious. He would be, too, because he was both Jude and Kang Jin-ho at the same time.

‘No matter how I look at it, this is the world of Legend of Heroes 2.’

Two days have passed since Jude “awakened” his memory as Kang Jin-ho.

And that time of two days was not short.

The name ‘Jude Bayer.’

The situation of Count Bayer.

The Sälen Kingdom and its surrounding circumstances.

None of them were inconsistent with Legend of Heroes 2.

‘Pleiades.’

A world that is the background of the entire series of Legend of Heroes.

‘Let’s face it. This world is Pleiades, and I am Jude Bayer.

It felt a little different from simply entering a game, which was common in novels and manhwa (comics).

Rather, the situation felt like he was born as Jude Bayer, and then remembered his ‘past life’ as Kang Jin-ho.

So, even though he had become Jude, it almost didn’t feel out of place.

Because from the very beginning, he was both Jude Bayer and Kang Jin-ho at the same time.

Jude raised his head and looked at the mirror again.

He saw the beautiful view of a handsome looking boy with superior looks, sitting down in front of the mirror.

‘I am handsome.’

He wasn’t just handsome…he was exceedingly handsome.

Jude rose from his seat and looked around the room.

It was spacious, nice, and clean.

It seemed to be larger than the villa he had lived in when he was Kang Jin-ho, and though the furniture showed signs of age, one cannot deny that the all the furniture were luxury items.

Jude considered his situation objectively.

The difference between the days of Kang Jin-ho and the days of Jude.

He was young again, a dozen times more handsome than before, and he had become a golden spoon noble.

It was absolutely perfect.

It was an upgrade to the point where he felt like applauding.

But then Jude thought.

‘Isn’t this f*cked up though?’

It wasn’t because of Jude.

Although Jude Bayer was character with some flaws among the characters of Legend of Heroes 2, the bigger problem lies in the fact that this was the world of Legend of Heroes 2 itself.

The background setting of Legend of Heroes 2 was not a peaceful fantasy world.

No, it was a world of great tribulation – demons descended from the demon world, and angels came down to fight against them – all the countries and races of the continent were embroiled and killed in the war.

In short, it was a world destined for Apocalypse.

‘I was fortunate that it wasn’t the third installment.’

Legend of Heroes 3 dealt with the aftermath of the war between the angels and demons, where all human nations had collapsed.

If he had entered Legend of Heroes 3, he wouldn’t be sitting and looking in the mirror like this, but he would’ve been bitten and torn apart by monsters.

‘As expected, there’s only one way.’

He must become strong.

So that when the times of great tribulation come, he could endure it.

And if possible, he must become strong enough to protect himself and those around him.

In the real world where Kang Jin-ho lived, there were clearly limitations for humans in becoming strong, but this was Pleiades, the world of Legend of Heroes.

It was possible for an individual here to demolish mountains and become an absolute power that can shake the sky.

‘Well…the authenticity of that is questionable, but moving on…’

For a while, he looked at his slender forearm, but soon made up his mind and clenched his fist again.

‘Let’s do it.’

He can do it.

He must do it.

Jude himself is Outboxer009.

Wasn’t he the rotten water that kept the top spot in the server ranking list for a staggering 23 months!

So, Jude decided to consider Jude Bayer’s situation first.

Jude Bayer.

The second son of Count Bayer.

He hails from the Bayer family, which has produced outstanding warriors for generations, but he himself hasn’t mastered even one of the sword basics.

Of course, he wasn’t just a useless guy as he was one of the playable characters.

Jude certainly had a talent.

It wasn’t just an ordinary talent but a truly incomparable talent.

Cheonmujiche (Heavenly Martial Body).

As the name implies, it’s a heavenly talent for martial arts.

‘But there’s a trap card here.’

Jude was born with an abnormality in the Yin meridians of his whole body, particularly called, Gueumjulmaek (Nine Yin Severed Meridians).

(T/N: Gueumjulmaek is a fictitious congenital disease seen in Korean martial arts novels, like The Scholar’s Reincarnation. To quote its description from the above series, “it is being innately born with Yin energy but with blocked meridians. Treatment is very difficult and most people with this disease die very early.” It means that the Yin energy is so strong that the meridians are blocked, and the circulation of qi/chi does not work properly.)

‘Short-lived, weak, inability to use mana, but possessing a tremendous amount of yin energy.’

These were roughly the effects of Gueumjulmaek.

He was an unlucky genius born in a body with both Cheonmujiche and Gueumjulmaek.

That was the boy named Jude Bayer.

‘Couldn’t I just have been Leon? Or Maximilian?’

In Legend of Heroes 2 where various playable characters existed, it was Maximilian who was the main character of the game.

A cheat character born with a great talent in both sword and magic.

It was the so-called title character prepared by the production team to allow beginners to see the ending of the game.

‘Then, Maximilian will be here too, right?’

Maximilian wasn’t the only one.

There was a high possibility that all the characters in Legend of Heroes 2 existed here.

‘It’s making me excited for no reason.’

He had just lamented that he had fallen into this world, but this was Legend of Heroes 2.

His heart began to throb when he thought that he would be able to meet the characters of the materialized Legend of Heroes 2.

‘Okay, if that’s it, all I have to do is treat my Gueumjulmaek.’

Then the heavenly martial body will start to bloom.

Of course, it was not an easy task to cure Gueumjulmaek.

The evidence was that Count Bayer had not been able to do anything about Jude’s Gueumjulmaek even up to this day.

‘But there is a way.’

As the rotten water of Legend of Heroes 2, he was a player who knew several treatments for Gueumjulmaek. However, knowing and executing it were different.

Is it possible to secure a remedy with his current body, which is itself weak because of Gueumjulmaek?

No matter how much he thought of it, it was impossible.

It wasn’t something he could do alone.

But that was not the case if he could leave it to others.

All of the methods he could think of were quite complicated, and he wondered if the Bayer family members would even believe in Jude’s words.

‘I need allies.’

Someone who will believe and carry out Jude’s words.

Someone who will be on Jude’s side anytime and anywhere.

But it was then.

“Young master, may I come in?”

The voice he heard from outside the room was Maja, Jude’s exclusive maid.

‘Exclusive maid.’

Although it was a world where a great tribulation was predicted and he had a body with Gueumjulmaek, Jude thought that his life was much better now than when he lived as Kang Jin-ho.

After his brief lapse of thought, Jude immediately raised his head and said.

“Oh, it’s all right.”

With his permission, Maja opened the door silently and entered.

She was a woman in her early twenties with her blue hair tied neatly, and her cold expression belied her attractive beauty.

As soon as she entered the room, Maja bowed to Jude and said immediately.

“Lady Cordelia Chase, your fiancée, is here to visit you.”

“Ah.”

Visiting a sick person.

Come to think of it, he thought, it was worth it coming here. When he awakened his past memories as Kang Jin-ho, he remembered a lot of nonsensical stuff.

Moreover, wasn’t Jude usually considered a sick person here?

‘What should I do…’

He had awakened Kang Jin-ho’s memories, but Jude’s memories did not disappear.

In other words, meeting his fiancée, Cordelia, didn’t pose any problems.

‘Cordelia.’

She was an incomparably beautiful girl with red hair close to pink.

Wasn’t the ratio of handsome and beautiful people here too high? Then again, wasn’t the original game characters all like that?

Anyway, if it’s Cordelia Chase, Kang Jin-ho knew quite a lot about her.

‘Chase, the famous family of wizards.’

If Jude’s family, the Bayer’s, were a famous family of swordsmen, the Chase family were a famous family of wizards.

Of course, both families were now weak compared to the past.

In any case, Cordelia Chase was a wizard character, born with a fairly outstanding magic talent.

She didn’t have a natural-borne talent like Jude, but instead, she lacked a weakness like Gueumjulmaek, making her easier to handle in the game.

‘I’m nervous.’

He didn’t think he would meet his fiancée who’s also a playable character in Legend of Heroes 2.

“Young master?”

“Huh? Oh, yes, okay. I’m going to see her right now.”

When Jude willingly answered, Maja hesitated for a moment, but soon nodded and stepped back.

“She is waiting in the drawing room.”

After Maja said that, she began to take the lead as she guided him to the place.

‘I am a real nobleman.’

It was a new experience for him, but as he stepped out of the hallway, Jude realized that this was a noble family’s house, a residence that once boasted great power.

It was a hall that emphasized practicality rather than splendor, but it was so big and grand that it felt like he was walking in a big castle rather than a mansion.

“Mr. Jude Bayer has arrived.”

Maja, who raised her voice once they were in front of the drawing room door, opened the door with a restrained movement.

Unlike the hall which gave a stark impression, the drawing room was well-decorated. Inside, there was a girl with red hair close to pink, and a female knight right next to her who served as an escort.

‘Cordelia Chase.’

Jude Bayer’s fiancée.

Jude swallowed deeply as stepped into the drawing room. He faced Cordelia with a natural smile.

But right after…

The moment he made eye contact with Cordelia…

Jude widely opened his eyes. And so was Cordelia.

The two shouted almost at the same time.

““Why are you here?!””

“Young master?”

“Miss?”

Maja and Cordelia’s escort, a knight, said almost simultaneously.

That’s because Jude and Cordelia looked at each other out of the blue and said strange things.

Why are they here?

‘Didn’t we come here to meet the visitor?’

‘Isn’t it because we came here to visit?’

At a time when Maja and the female knight were thinking rationally, Jude calmed his astonished self and thought of the girl in front of him. And like himself, Cordelia was full of emotions too, such as embarrassment, surprise, and so on.

‘What? Why is Yellow Storm here?’

The girl in front of him, Cordelia, was so beautiful that the word “great beauty” could be attached.

The 2nd place Yellow Storm had nothing to do with Jude’s own fiancée.

But it was strange.

When their eyes met with each other, the player named Yellow Storm came to his mind.

It was good to say that it was an absolute feeling.

Moreover, it was important that the opponent showed a similar reaction to him.

‘No way.’

Is she really that Yellow Storm?

It was a dizzying story, but it wasn’t impossible.

In the first place, Outboxer009, who was Kang Jin-ho, also became Jude Bayer.

“Hmmm, uh, well. Excuse me for a moment.”

“Uh… Me, me too.”

When Jude mumbled first, Cordelia also mumbled.

However, the way he looked at her side was also unusual.

“First… Please sit down.”

“Uh… yeah.”

Once he sat down…

Maja and the female knight tilted their heads at the awkwardness of the two, but it was only for a short time.

Maja brought out the newly prepared tea, and Jude continued to exchange awkward glances with Cordelia.

‘Let’s test her.’

He didn’t know if only he felt something, but he thought that she would have felt something similar too.

If the opponent really is Yellow Storm like he felt, it would seem like a catastrophe has come, but if it really is, he would likely understand.

“No, no.”

Hi, Yellow Storm.

Jude’s voice trembled because he was embarrassed to say it out of his mouth.

But her reaction was good.

Cordelia flinched for a moment and her eyes opened widely.

“Ah…Aha.”

Hi, Outboxer.

Cordelia also spoke quietly, and at the time when Maja and the female knight tilted their heads again, Jude drove a wedge in.

“Hey…you too?”

“Yeah…me too.”

“Young master?”

“Miss?”

Maja and the female knight’s face now had a rather serious look of concern.

Why are the two suddenly acting like that?

But Jude couldn’t care less about the reaction of those two.

‘Crazy! Are you really Yellow Storm?!’

When he spoke with his eyes, the other returned a similar answer.

Jude took a deep breath for now. He wanted to ask a lot of questions right away, like what happened and when did she became Cordelia, but there was Maja and the female knight here.

Therefore, Jude tried to turn around.

“Coop reset 9:00 3-9.”

One of the contents of Legend of Heroes 2 is the coop mode that resets every night at 12:00 – meaning it was reset at midnight.

9 o’clock refers to the 9 o’clock direction, and 3-9 meant 9 blocks down – that is, 18 meters below the entrance coordinates.

Therefore, the interpretation of Jude’s words was as follows.

‘Let’s meet at midnight in the corner of my garden.’

Honestly, it would be difficult for a normal Legend of Heroes 2 player to understand what he meant, but it would have been understandable if it was the rotten water Yellow Storm.

And indeed, Cordelia nodded and said in a whisper.

“Roger that.”

It was a radio term meaning “understood” and is one of the most distinctive phrases of Yellow Storm.

“Hmmm, I’m glad you’re healthy. It’s already late today, so I’ll see you next time.”

“Hmmm, it was nice to meet you. I look forward to seeing you next time.”

They couldn’t have a proper conversation here.

So, after deciding on when and where to meet, they quickly ended their meeting.

When Cordelia and Jude stood up after talking to each other, it was Maja and the female knight who were confused again.

“Eh, you’re going already?”

“Miss?”

She was so surprised that Maja’s usual expressionless face was now full of surprise.

However, Jude and Cordelia had already reached an agreement and exchanged their greetings.

Jude laughed awkwardly and saw off Yellow Storm – no, Cordelia, who likewise walked out with an awkward smile and a quick walk.

“Young master? This is…”

“Well, that’s it.”

What the hell is going on here?

But one thing was certain.

The appearance of an ally who would be on his side and believe Jude’s words.

Looking at the entrance of the drawing room where Cordelia had left, Jude clenched his fist.

***

Jude Bayer’s father, Count Bayer, was out on a northern expedition with his successor, Gaël Bayer, who is the older brother of Jude.

It was a small-scale expedition, called the Northern Monster Subjugation, which was like an annual event, and the period from departure to return was one month.

In any case, the quiet part of the house was now even quieter. This is because most of the vassals here went on the expedition following his father and brother.

Having finished dinner alone in the room, Jude waited impatiently for midnight to come.

And finally, the deepest of night, midnight, came.

Jude sneaked out of his room and hurried to the garden.

It was still summer in terms of time, but the night air was cold as they were in the northern part of the country.

‘You’ll be able to find me, right?’

Standing under a big tree, the promised place, Jude looked up at the night sky with a worried face.

‘It’s a real Pleiades.’

There were two moons in the sky.

Selene and Helene.

Twin goddesses illuminating the night sky.

In fact, the two moons were even more beautiful and mysterious looking than when they were seen through the monitor screen.

“Hey.”

It was at that moment. With a very small voice that came out of nowhere, Jude became alert and looked up the wall, and identified the owner of the voice.

The owner of the voice was a red-haired girl wearing a hard-pressed brown hood reminiscent of monk’s robes.

“Yellow Storm.”

“Outboxer009.”

Speaking quietly, the same little voice came back.

And, whoosh…

Cordelia crossed over the wall using \ magic and looked at Jude with a face full of mixed feelings.

“Really?”

“Yes, really.”

They just confirmed each other’s nicknames.

“It’s really something.”

“What?”

“I’m madly pleased to see you.”

At Cordelia’s words, Jude nodded. It was the same with himself.

He thought that he had fallen alone in a completely different world, but he knew a face – no, he was glad to see another person like him.

“Since when?”

“Two days ago. What about you?”

“Two days ago, too.”

“It happened suddenly when you opened your eyes?”

“Yeah.”

Jude and Cordelia squatted under the tree then and looked at each other with saying anything first.

It was Cordelia who first opened her mouth.

“Hey, aren’t you supposed to be a guy? How did you get a girl to go over the wall of a man’s house?”

“What is this sexism all of a sudden? And don’t you know Jude? Jude Bayer. Gueumjulmaek. How am I supposed to cross the wall?”

Come to think of it, it wasn’t just that.

“And since when did you become a woman?”

“From birth.”

“Huh?”

“From birth, you crazy guy.”

At Cordelia’s confession, Jude rubbed his eyes and soon spoke in an embarrassed voice.

“Yellow Storm was a woman?”

“Then were you a man?”

“I was a man.”

“I was a woman.”

“Yes, yes.”

Then again, they’ve known each other for five years, but they’ve never talked with each other in the common voice chat. When they met in the game, they met as game characters, so there was nothing for them to recognize about the other’s real sex.

“That’s not what really matters now.”

When Jude spoke, Cordelia nodded, though she frowned a little.

What mattered was that Outboxer009 became Jude, and Yellow Storm became Cordelia, and that this world was the world of Legend of Heroes 2.

Jude decided to try to lay the basics first.

“So do you? I mean…rather than feeling that I’m inside the game, it was more like my past life was ‘Outboxer.’ So…it seems to be the same for you too, ‘Yellow Storm.’”

“Me too. I feel the same.”

At first glance, there may be little difference, but in fact, there was a decisive difference between the two.

Whether or not they could return.

If you were really reincarnated in Pleiades, the world of Legend of Heroes 2, ‘Log Out’ would not exist. You were reincarnated in the first place, so where are you going to go?

But neither Jude nor Cordelia thought deeply about it. Though they felt strongly about the fact that they were both Jude and Cordelia now, there were also more important issues that they had to resolve.

““The Great Summons.””

An event where the angels and demons come down in earnest.

At first, he only thought about being strong enough to survive in a time of great tribulation, but that was not enough.

They had to stop the Great Summons itself, which would bring destruction to this world.

Of course, it was a vague story.

The advent of angels and demons was indeed the fate of the world of Pleiades.

No matter how much of a rotten water he was, it was too much for him to do it all alone.

But if he’s not alone.

If it was also with those who ranked as the 1st and 2nd places in the server rankings together.

“I like our picks.”

Jude Bayer and Cordelia Chase.

Both were non-mainstream characters that were far from weak ones, but the picks that she spoke about weren’t just about character performance.

Cordelia said with a bitter smile.

“Perfect for sharing.”

“Bingo.”

Jude was a warrior, and Cordelia was a wizard.

As with all goods in the world, there was a limit to the number of various gifts and items that existed in Pleiades.

If Jude and Cordelia were characters who walked the same path, they would inevitably interfere with each other’s growth.

But they were both warrior and wizard, so they could share the goods of the Pleiades with each other.

“I never thought I’d have a party here that I haven’t had in five years.”

“I know, this world is so weird.”

It’s ridiculous to be reincarnated in the world of games, but he couldn’t believe he reincarnated with the forever 2nd place girl. Moreover, they were also engaged.

“Anyway, I’d like to ask you to cooperate on this.”

“What cooperation?”

“We’re going to have to treat my Gueumjulmaek.”

“Doesn’t it automatically heal with an event?”

Indeed, it was true.

In the game, after starting as Jude Bayer and somehow spending half a year, an event was supposed to take place where Count Chase would send to Count Bayer the cure of Gueumjulmaek.

In other words, it meant that if he just waited calmly, he could completely cure the Gueumjulmaek.

But at Cordelia’s question, Jude said, kicking his tongue.

“That’s why you’re still second place even in a thousand years.”

“What?”

“Hey, be honest. You’ve never played Jude, have you?”

“No? I’ve tried? I know it gets cured because I’ve played him.”

“But do you agree to that? To just wait for half a year to get treated?”

There are 6 months in half a year, 180 days in 6 months, and 4320 hours in 180 days.

It was a such a waste of a long time.

Cordelia frowned back at Jude’s point.

“Then what will you do?”

“I need to treat it before that. Using all kinds of tricks.”

In a way that only they who have climbed over the stagnant water and reached the stage of the rotten water can do.

“Come closer.” Jude, who beckoned to Cordelia, began to talk.