Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
53. Second attempt (7)
Kim Sinrok, who said he had seen a thing he couldn’t see before, summarized the things he saw starting from the beginning.
The first half had no difference at all from the previous time.
‘If I was to trouble myself with finding a difference, it is just that he remembers more details… what the hell did he see?’
I thought of a possibility of Kim Sinrok, who realized it was a dream, to take a different tactic than the first time, but his actions and all the results of them seemed the same.
“I vaguely felt it was a dream, but I couldn’t change my actions.”
“Then something which changed in the dream wasn’t caused by your actions, eh?”
“Yes, the difference was after I entered the gym where the students were. In the gym were student Yu Sang-hun, student Jang Namuk and Son Mingi.”
“No Jo Uisin?”
At Hwang-ho’s question, the tigers’ gazes poured towards me for a moment.
Kim Sinrok hesitated and then spoke:
“… There was a fourth student. But I can’t be certain if it was Jo Uisin or not.”
“Was there that fourth student the last time too?”
“I can’t be certain. If there was, they certainly didn’t move at all.”
He didn’t know if there was a fourth student in the first dream or not.
What’s more, if there was a fourth student, they didn’t move at all.
I organized the information Kim Sinrok shared, while awaiting his next words.
“That student was moving strangely. At first they would walk in circles, and after they stood facing the wall, their movements suddenly stopped.”
Kim Sinrok described what he saw.
Kim Sinrok couldn’t move in the dream, but unlike the first dream, it seemed his mind was clear, and he could completely recall what he saw.
The fourth student described by Kim Sinrok was showing strange movements.
‘But I feel some sense of déjà vu.’
At Kim Sinrok’s following words, the sense of déjà vu gradually grew stronger.
“And then they rummaged through their pockets, and opened a random box… but before they could check the item content, they were hit by Rinoseron’s skill. I probably also died at that moment[1].”
Hearing those words, something came to mind.
The scene of the fourth student moving strangely, and then looking at the wall and stopping.
The situation where they were lucky to survive longer, because they stood still at the beginning and didn’t make a sound.
The death to Rinoseron’s skills, before checking the content of the opened random box.
It matched my play record.
‘Kim Sinrok must have seen my second attempt in the second Replay…!’
I recalled the scene of the past me, who played PMH.
* * *
The first mobile RPG game I ever played in life was the game wreck ‘Player Meister Highschool’.
Until I stopped playing chess, I knew nothing but chess, and after that, I didn’t have time for games, because I was hit with the reality.
I wanted to stop earning a debt at the relative house when I graduated from highschool.
I had to get a full scholarship and join the university department that matched my aptitude, while also having future prospects, so my highschool days were intense.
When I barely had some time and energy to spare, I caught PMH’s advertisement.
Lured by the flashy advertisement, I immediately became one of the three million pre-registered Players.
Opportunely, SAT ended, so I played that highly infamous ‘Tutorial of unnamed supporting character’.
I observed as after the supporting character, whose face wasn’t well visible and didn’t have a name attached, signed the oath to take Eungwang Highschool’s entrance exam, they entered the exam ground with a racing heart.
And then the massacre started.
‘What is that…?’
I stared at the dyed red screen, stupefied.
I didn’t even know if the game started yet, and just stared at the screen, but died in vain without doing anything.
I didn’t know even how I should move to play, and couldn’t figure out what happened.
Suddenly a bloodied supervisor appeared, a strange broadcast came out, and then the pre-highschoolers, who took the practical exam were murdered.
‘… What should have I done?’
The fingertips touching the smartphone bezel became cold.
As I sunk into shock, while warming up my frozen hands, the screen changed.
The teacher with a warm impression and students in school uniforms rushed into the gym.
They overpowered the opponent in an instant, but there was no one they could save.
Everyone made faces full of despair.
And then the screen froze and a selection menu appeared.
[1. Finish the tutorial and continue the progress.]
[2. Replay.]
Although the people who appeared in this event had died, it seemed that the game would progress.
Even so, I couldn’t leave it alone.
Looking at the miserable sight behind the selection menu, I couldn’t just let it go.
I selected Replay.
Because worthy of a game wreck, PMH gave no information in the tutorial, I had to fumble for a while.
‘The character moves in that direction, huh?… Let’s try to touch something first.’
I learned how to move the character, and perform specific moves or interactions, while moving personally.
At first, because I pressed wrong, the character would move in a strange direction or perform bizarre actions.
After I learned the way to move in the game, I had to personally master the menu.
Naturally I didn’t know what was what on the second attempt.
Somehow, I turned around and faced the wall, but then abruptly a menu button caught my eye and I gave up moving to check the menu.
‘Ah, if you press this button, the game menu will be summoned, huh? Item window… it seems to be for checking possessed items. Skills and Gwangrim? What? Everything is inactive. Let’s see the item window.’
[Reading the list of possessed items.]
I thought there was a possibility of it being empty, but there were items in the item window.
The items were something all students would possess, but one exception popped out.
‘There are items! Student ID, exam certificate, copy of examinee oath… ‘exam random item box’?’
It seemed that item box was related to the way to clear the tutorial.
I hastily tried to use that item, but as a gamer beginner, I had no idea what I should do to use items.
After fumbling clumsily, I learned a way to use it.
After a long press on the item, the system message asking whether to use item or not appeared.
‘You can’t press it two times, huh? If I press use, I’ll probably use it right away.’
[Using the exam random item box.] [2]
After the system message appeared, the item box opened and the item card spun in front of my eyes.
When I awaited to find out what kind of item card I pulled out.
Paaa!
Light gushed out from the smartphone.
It was an effect of the Enemy using the skill.
Before I could check what card I pulled from the random item box, the screen was dyed red in the instant.
‘Uh? Uh…’
While I fumbled around, the limited time ran out, and the Demonic Beast used a wide area skill.
I later learned that this Demonic Beast first attacked the targets, who made a sound, and then used the wide area skill to end this.
After my second failure, I looked through the bulletin board, learning strategies, and gathering information, while reading other people’s comments, to make another attempt at the Replay.
‘Using special items you can drag out the time! But if the fixed amount of time passes, annihilator will be used…’
‘I’ll try just one more time…’
‘I think I can break through it with a bit more precise control.’
‘… Why can’t you give commands to other characters?!’
The reason I gave up clearing the tutorial was because I accepted the fact that PMH’s system had freedom limits.
Even after I gave up on clearing tutorial, a selection menu would sometimes appear.
Will you progress to the next event? Or Replay?
Every time I would always select Replay and kept replaying until I could make sense of it.
I didn’t just Replay.
For perhaps other people could find a strategy with the clue from my play record, I left the record of all methods I attempted and published them.
[Wow, there is a person Replaying it so much ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ I’ll try to follow it once ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
[I tried a few times and gave up.]
[Um… You have to go this far~? Will you get rare items if you break it or something~?]
[They will give you nothing so don’t do it ㅋ]
[You can progress without clearing it. A kind person shouldn’t follow such an example.;;;;]
[Please stop and live in reality….]
The users, who at first Replayed with me, got sick of it after one or two times and left.
Because the game was gradually becoming a game wreck, and the game itself became utterly unplayable, it would be even worse.
At a certain point, even when I uploaded a conquest post, the views didn’t go up.
[There is a h*gu still playing this dog*** game wreck.]
[Aren’t you a grassroot rolled by the management~? How much on earth did you receive to play that gamewreck so much~? I’m serious ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
[I had fun reading a good post. ^^ Please visit my blog too!! ^^]
[I’ll introduce You to a good site. New webhard to see the place with free fortunetelling[3] and free videos. If You type in my ID when registering, You can get a free coupon.]
[@@@Mega large MMORPG is about to open! If a certain number of pre-registered users is reached, super rare items will be sent out! Click (link) right now to pre-register and prepare for the new adventure!@@@]
From some point the only comments were all ads, but I kept posting and leaving the comment section open.
Someone may find a different strategy.
There were countless cases where something which was thought to be impregnable was broken after a few years, or perhaps a few hundred years with clever ideas and tactics.
So I kept Replaying.
Until the end with Baek Ho-gun, where all Playable Characters died and I faced a bad ending.
* * *
Before I finished comparing my second playthrough attempt and Kim Sinrok’s description in my head, Kim Sinrok opened his mouth.
Kim Sinrok’s attitude seemed a bit hesitant.
“…. And I only spoke about that fourth student, as there are some uncertain paths, I hope Jo Uisin will use that ability on me again.”
Those words of Kim Sinrok were naturally dismissed by the tigers.
As a colorful superpower wave was billowing around Jeok-ho, it seemed he had no plans of letting his son suffer in front of his eyes right now.
“Son-ah, rest. Don’t say such things now!”
“… Follow Jeok-ho’s words. Just rest today.”
“But…”
“Didn’t I say to stop talking?!”
Jeok-ho burst into anger and Hwang Jiho took Jeok-ho’s side, but Kim Sinrok kept insisting, even though he wavered.
Looking at that scene, I had a thought that I should quickly reach a conclusion.
‘I can’t make the Ho tribe’s descendant work so hard, and not achieve results. I have to reach a conclusion.’
Thanks to Kim Sinrok’s words, I guessed Replay’s identity to some extent.
It seemed that the target I used Replay on would rewatch the Replay I did.
Just like in the tutorial, In the end I couldn’t save all characters and progressed to the next event, but the question ‘will you Replay?’ always came out in the parts that I assumed were major branches after character’s death.
‘Is Replay function related to the starting point where that question appeared in PMH?’
The instant my thoughts ended at this point, I heard the system’s notification.
⟨Dimension understanding of the Suitable Other Dimension Future Modification increased.⟩
⟨The skill ‘Suitable Other Dimension Future Modification Exclusive Menu’s’ Replay function rose from phase 1 to phase 2.⟩
*~*~*
[1] I probably also died at that moment — could also be ‘They probably died at that moment’.
[2] [Using the exam random item box.] — Just like Jo Uisin’s exclusive menu, the system here uses a formal tone, but the selection menu uses a plain form. Formal tone is very normal, all sites and application I used use formal tone to refer to the user. The plain form in such a situation… I didn’t personally ever see it, but I don’t think it’s very unique either. The difference is interesting though.
[3] fortunetelling — Four pillars of Destiny to be exact.
Translator’s note: Considering the homonym of ‘attempt’, meaning ‘to guide’, this chapter is very very interesting.
Patron thank you note:
Thank you patron, Nobody, please accept this Krigia biflora’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Al, please accept this Wyethia helenioides’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Dust, please accept this Comarum palustre’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Maru, please accept this Mespilus canescens’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, kamisonk, please accept this Geum coccineum’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Kasimir Ilmonen, please accept this Ammodendron bifolium’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Tara Hess, please accept this Clitoria ternatea’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Ice, please accept this Brongniartia minutifolia’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, anonymous Kofi-supporter, please accept this Glycyrrhiza glabra’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Hematite, please accept this Diplopeltis huegelii’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Links to support this translation and access to 8 advanced chapter (Patreon & Kofi)
> Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LibraryKeyTranslations
> Kofi-Euro: https://ko-fi.com/wanthetranslator
> Kofi-USD: https://ko-fi.com/wanthetranslatorusd
Did you see a mistake? 🐞
Leave a Reply