The Duel of Two Prideful Idiots
The last day had already arrived. Today was a day filled with excitement and anticipation, as the commemorative concert for the final day of the Mark server was about to begin. I was really looking forward to it. A concert... I was genuinely curious.
As usual, I started streaming around 1 PM and chatted with my guild members. Our journey with Maru Church had officially come to an end yesterday. Today, I had returned to being just a regular user, neither the guild leader nor the pope. I played around until concert time and was the first to line up. I was so excited... thrilled, even. I was confident I could wave my glow stick with all my might. I'd shake it super enthusiastically.
As soon as it hit 8 o'clock, the concert hall doors opened. I debated sitting right at the front but ended up choosing a seat at the end of the middle section.
“Phew... This concert's gonna be fun. Ah... ah.”
It was concert etiquette to turn off the in-game mic. I had to do that right away.
“Oh... This is so amazing. A concert... I'll really enjoy watching it.”
I'd heard how heated these concerts could get. They were supposedly incredibly fun. My expectations soared.
“Oh... They're coming. They're here.”
The MC arrived and started explaining things... Honestly, I wasn't interested. Just start the concert already. Just sing!!
The first song echoed through the hall. It was a female singer, and the intro was fresh...? Huh? I thought I misheard the lyrics and focused harder, but no. I heard it right. It was in Japanese. I was completely baffled. Suddenly a Japanese song? Not even a pop song?
- Classic
- This is a masterpiece
- Kyaaaa
Was I being pranked right now? This is a classic? The rhythm was good, I'd give it that. But how was it a classic? Did they understand Japanese? I was genuinely confused. While I was still processing, the first song ended.
“Oh... Oh!! Wow!!!”
Even though I was surprised, she sang it well. I clapped enthusiastically.
The second singer came out, and this one... sang an upbeat Japanese song too. The Mark chat window had the lyrics popping up in Korean... What? Was I the weird one? I had expected famous idol songs, energetic sing-along tracks... or popular karaoke songs.
“Oh... Wow!! Uh...”
It could happen. Yeah!! It could. Did it have to be Korean songs to be fun? When Christmas comes around, pop songs play all the time. Yeah. That was it. Yeah...!!
The third, fourth, and even the fifth singer all performed Japanese songs. Wasn't K-pop the trend? Definitely K-pop. They said the Korean Wave was huge... Was that just national pride? Was Japanese music actually the best?
- Feels like the original
- Sings really well
“Uh... uh...”
The chat was in shock too. I had it all backwards. It felt like I'd been hit hard on the head. I see. I was an idiot. I really was a clueless idiot.
“Wow!!”
As soon as the song ended, I reacted. It was a mechanical reaction, not genuine. I turned off the in-game mic and stared at the chat window.
“But... is there a rule against singing Korean songs? I don't really know, so are Japanese songs popular here?”
I wanted to cheer along, but I needed to understand first. I really didn't get it.
- For real
- Only otakus here so yeah
- No Korean food
- You sing then
- Don't say that, there are people it bothers
“Ah, no. They're super famous, right? Famous enough that you'd hear them anywhere?”
- No no
- Would they?
- It's our culture
- Are you targeting us right now?
“No, that's not it!! Absolutely not. I was just genuinely curious. I hope there's no misunderstanding... The songs were really good.”
But what did it matter if the songs were good? I couldn't relate. Out of eight performers, seven sang Japanese songs. The last singer came out, and this one did Under the Sea. Thankfully, it was a song I knew, so I sang along!!
After the concert, everyone warped back to the village. It had clearly been fun, but a bit of disappointment lingered in my heart.
“Hmm...”
“Seon-a, great job!! I had fun!!”
“Huh? Maem~ You worked hard too!!”
“Yep~ Let's do it again sometime.”
“Sure!! Wait a sec. Maem, how much time do we have left?”
“1 hour? 2 hours? They said they'd take photos at 11:30 and wrap up?”
“Aha... Got it.”
I went looking for Joseph. He was the one who worked the hardest. Without him, Maru Church wouldn't have been born. Thanks to that great architect, we'd had tons of fun content. We'd all gathered yesterday for farewells and photos, but it felt like we needed to do it again.
“Joseph!! Joseph!!”
“Oh~ Pope. Good work.”
“You too, Joseph!! See you in the next Minecraft~”
“Uh... Hmm. I'll think about it.”
Next were Moddeok and Raming. Thanks to them, everything had been so smooth. They'd held things together even when I couldn't join.
“My friends Raming and Moddeok!! You both worked hard!!”
“Oh~ Seon-a. Yeah, good work. See you tomorrow. What are we installing tomorrow?”
“Install everything!! Let's do it all.”
“Really?”
“If we get tired of it, we can switch to something else while trying everything.”
“Ooh! Seon-a, great job. Let's do it again next time.”
“Yep!! Bye!!”
After chatting with the two vice guild leaders, it was time for the group photo. I stood in the third row and took a picture with everyone. And so, my Mark collaboration came to an end.
Seon-a didn't know what to prepare, so she just bought the entire series. If she got bored, she could just play something else. Seon-a told Raming to buy everything too.
‘After all, someone like Raming... has that kind of money!!’
Seon-a's collab plan started with Rome from the masterpiece line, from the medieval era, then samurai... Three Kingdoms. She planned to taste them all.
“My friend Raming!! Thanks for the collab!!”
“No need to thank me~ I'm the one who's grateful.”
“Kya~ So you knew?”
“Huh?”
“Huh?”
The Discord went quiet for a moment, but Raming quickly lightened the mood.
“Alright. Let's start right away. What should we do first?”
“Let's start with Rome. Open the multiplayer.”
“Me?”
“I don't know how.”
“Okay... Got it.”
Raming quickly created the room, and Seon-a joined right away. Raming was a user who'd tried the entire series, but Seon-a was someone who'd only watched the YouTube edition.
The first round ended with Raming's overwhelming victory, without any major upsets. The second round, and the third, also ended in Raming's victory.
Feeling triumphant, Raming started blabbering in a childish voice.
“I won way too easily. Want me to explain my strategy?”
“No thanks.”
“It was so obvious, you saw it coming, right?”
“I predicted it too.”
“But you couldn't stop it.”
“I let you win.”
Seon-a, with her strong pride and stubbornness, didn't want to lose even in a childish argument. It was her last remaining pride and stubbornness. Even though she'd lost the game to her friend, she didn't want to lose the argument too, so she carefully read the chat window.
The fourth round began, and Seon-a had changed her strategy. Of course, it wasn't something she'd come up with herself—it was anonymous advice.
“Bringing the same obvious thing again, I see.”
“The same trick won't work twice, right? Why won't it? Let me explain, Seon-a.”
“No thanks. I've already figured it out and moved my troops. Created a variable, didn't I? You can't stop it. Surrender.”
“Ah, but I predicted that too and dodged like this. Attacked right away. You can't stop medieval tank archers suddenly coming out of the mountains, can you? Whose medieval tanks are those? Mine~”
“I knew all along. I already added troops to defend against that.”
Seon-a had actually not added any troops. But she didn't want to lose the argument.
“Knowing you'd do that, I spent just a tiny bit of money. Really just a tiny bit to plan my defense.”
“I predicted that too and considered it, made an official statement, and came up with a way to block it.”
“Ah, but I reversed it. I turned it around so you couldn't think of a way to block it.”
“I gave another variable here and turned it 177 degrees to make it inconvenient.”
“That's pretty creative. I was a bit surprised, but it's fine? I already brought out the protractor and measured it.”
“No. There is no protractor. You're pretending to have one at home when you don't.”
Both of them might have been slow with mouse clicks, but neither wanted to lose the verbal sparring.
- The return of Manshin Kubo?
- They're like elementary school kids lol
- Looks like that Bleach meme
- So childish
“You can find everything on Google. I refuted it.”
“Sticking out your tongue, huh. However. Long live Korea!!”
“National pride moves are cheating. I like Korea too. Admiral Yi Sun-sin said it.”
When Raming didn't respond, Seon-a got too curious.
‘Why'd she stop talking?’
She couldn't hold back.
“Say it. What?”
“I can't tell you. You're the enemy~”
“Then I'll say what King Sejong told me.”
”The country's words hang on the eastern country. Yep. I know it all.”
“Knowing you'd say that, I switched to the path of striving for peace and prosperity.”
“Darn. That's creative? King Sejong is a cool person.”
No matter how much she studied or how many rounds they played, she couldn't overcome the wall. Raming won overwhelmingly once again.
“Pretty much decided the match, right?”
“I'll bow my head... Just let me win once.”
“Go ahead.”
“I'm sorry. I won all the logic, but I couldn't win the game.”
“…What? That's a shameless apology?”
“Ah, well... It's a 100,000 won mission.”
“Aha!! Since you completed the mission, try again.”
“I already got it, so no.”
“Excuse me? Miss?”
“I'm listening.”
Raming read a nonexistent donation.
“Ah~ Thanks for the 100,000 won too.”
“Mine's a million.”
“Mine's a hundred million.”
“Wow... Does our stream not have a hundred million?”
“I won, right?”
“As expected of my friend Raming. Impressive. Tsk.”