Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Three days were longer than I thought.
Not for me, but for the gallerists.
【Analysis) Seven Reasons Why the Next Screening Has to Be Train to Ulsan 2】
【Next Screening Odds Summary (Real-time)】
— Train to Ulsan Sequel: 1.2x
— Other Records of Destruction: 3x
— Others: 15x
Even a betting board had opened. Judging by the size of the stakes, it looked like a Viscount family's annual budget was on the line.
I didn't even know there was a historian in the gallery, but now there were gamblers too.
【Destroyer of Worlds: This venerable self desires a grander and more beautiful destruction. I hereby demand a record of ruin not on the scale of a single city, but on a continental scale!】
ㄴAnon: Bro, you said you were gonna destroy the world, why are you still in the gallery?
ㄴDestroyer of Worlds: One must know their enemy to crush them.
ㄴAnon: Scouting for 3 years straight lol
Holding my teacup, I opened the Archive.
Everyone was craving zombies. They bet gold on zombies, analyzed zombies, and even compiled survival rules in preparation for zombies.
Which meant I shouldn't play zombies.
If there was one thing I learned living for a hundred years, it was that reactions come from the sudden drop. When expectations are heavily skewed in one direction, turning in the complete opposite direction makes the screams louder.
This wasn't baiting, but the Operator's thoughtful consideration to broaden the viewers' narrow perspective.
......To be honest, my own entertainment comes first, but anyway.
My finger browsing the Archive stopped in front of a title.
「Twenty-Four Twenty-Two」. 16 episodes.
The story of a girl who staked her life on a single sword and a ruined boy who fell overnight meeting and becoming each other's youth during the year the nation went completely bankrupt.
"......This is it."
I posted an announcement.
【Notice】 Starting a new screening.
Title: Twenty-Four Twenty-Two
Episodes: 16 parts
Accessible via the screening hall engraving at the top.
And then I hit refresh.
New posts: 0.
Refresh.
New posts: 0.
The board stopped. The gallery, where posts used to pour out by the second, froze entirely.
I set down my teacup and adjusted my posture. I knew from experience that this silence was the calm before an explosion.
Refresh.
【???】
【What's with that title】
【Where did the zombies go】
【What is Twenty-Four Twenty-Two? Is that gladiator ages?】
【Operator, is this for real】
【Raise your hand if you slammed 500 gold on the Train to Ulsan sequel】
【ㄴCan't raise my hand. My hands are shaking right now】
【Come out, whoever hit the 15x odds. What did you know to bet on that?】
【ㄴI just figured the Operator has a trash personality so he wouldn't play what the gallerists wanted.】
A trash personality? I was merely pursuing diversity.
The explosion lasted for about thirty minutes. And after three or four hours passed, the tone of the posts began to change.
【No wait, I only played Episode 1 to flame it, so why am I on Episode 4 now】
【I'm a swordsman, but what's with that girl's fundamentals? Is that Western rapier technique? Her thrusting trajectory is insane】
【By the way, what concept is a nation going bankrupt? If the royal family can't pay their debts, doesn't war usually break out?】
【ㄴThat dimension doesn't go to war. The commoners collect the gold trinkets in their homes and dedicate them to the nation. That scene just came up and I cried】
【ㄴWhat kind of dimension is that...... I cried too】
As the night deepened, the board was completely conquered.
【Just came back after watching Episode 11. I tried to sleep, but I can't sleep】
【The two of them get together, right? Tell me they do】
【This is worse for my heart than a Record of Destruction】
In the midst of this, a long post from a familiar Fixed Handle popped up.
【Review) 'Twenty-Four Twenty-Two', On the Class of a Record Without Destruction】
Writer: Humans Are Bugs
This oneself foresaw three days ago that this screening would not be a Record of Destruction. A dignified screener does not repeat the same tone......
ㄴAnon: What about that Zombie Review introduction you said you prepared for three days?
ㄴHumans Are Bugs: Such a thing has never existed. Even if it did exist, it was merely a rough draft.
ㄴAnon: 3 seconds
ㄴAnon: Confession that it existed lol
As expected, this gallery was peaceful today as well.
And around three in the morning. That post appeared.
【Review) Finished binge-watching all episodes of Twenty-Four Twenty-Two. Sleep is out the window;; (Spoilers)】
Writer: Eternal 20-Year-Old
I have just returned from watching all 16 episodes-ineunira. Ah, no, watched them yeah;;
It was truly a heart-wrenching record after a long time-doda. At the part where the two children called each other's names under the collapsed wall, this body ended up soaking her sleeves with tears-neoni...... soaked them T_T
In particular, how admirable it was to see the girl running forward while staking her youth on a single sword. In modern terms, it was... 'jonjaem'? -ineunira.
As a fellow twenty-year-old, it was a record I truly related to. Only a twenty-year-old knows the heart of a twenty-year-old-ineunira.
It didn't take long for the comment section to explode.
ㄴAnon: Soaking sleeves with tears lol modern twenty-year-olds don't have sleeves that wide
ㄴAnon: To whoever asked what 'meppeuda' means. It's not in the dictionary...... Ah, wait, it is. In an 800-year-old dictionary
ㄴAnon: Twenty-year-old (self-proclaimed) trait: Every sentence ends with '~neunira'
ㄴAnon: Grandma, you can't be doing this here
ㄴEternal 20-Year-Old: How impudent!! ......No wait, crossing the line here;; I'm fr a twenty-year-old. I have just counted twenty years as of this year-neunira.
ㄴAnon: The moment you "count" your age, the verification is over
ㄴAnon: Just twenty years (for the several-dozen-th time)
ㄴAnon: Age verification commencing. Everyone gather evidence
"......Kukuk."
It felt like a hundred years of boredom completely washed away.
This gallery has a truly strict standard for being twenty years old. That person, who gets caught every single time without making it past two sentences, was one thing, but the Anons rushing to stubbornly verify it were no joke either.
Time was already past three-thirty in the morning.
Resting my chin on my hand, I slowly scrolled down.
It was quite fun to watch.
At the same time, in the elf kingdom Sylvania.
In the bedchamber on the top floor of the royal palace, where the soft light of the World Tree seeped in.
Queen Elasia, who had ruled the western continent for nearly 3,000 years, was kneeling on her bed, glaring at the cluster of light in the air.
Her waist-length blonde hair was half-disheveled from binge-watching all night, and her emerald eyes were still moist with tears. That was the price of watching 16 episodes back-to-back.
And those wet eyes were now burning with fury.
'Age verification?'
What was there to verify? Had she not declared herself to be twenty years old?
If one lived with the heart of a twenty-year-old, one was twenty. The age of the physical body was a trivial matter. A very, extremely trivial one.
Elasia pulled a bundle of parchment from her bedside.
Written on the cover in elegant handwriting was:
「Modern Slang Dictionary 7th Revised Edition」
It was a masterpiece of newly coined terms collected from the gallery, personally organized by her. With trembling fingertips, she flipped through the parchment, checked the vocabulary, and began typing a rebuttal comment.
ㄴEternal 20-Year-Old: The forced hate is truly severe. Ah no, severe;; This oneself is truthfully twenty years old, and as proof thereof, I fluently master the current popular slang-neunira. For example, there are 'gaekkuljaem', 'jonbeo', 'yzk', and such-neunira.
ㄴAnon: A twenty-year-old submitting popular slang as a list with "for example" holy crap
ㄴAnon: Proof thereof lol look at that word choice
ㄴAnon: fluently master [...] -neunira <- This single sentence explains everything
'H-How!'
She used modern slang. She even verified it in the dictionary. Where on earth was the problem?!
Elasia shook her head vigorously and typed her next rebuttal.
ㄴEternal 20-Year-Old: Seriously unbelievable;; '-neunira' is just a speech habit. Many twenty-year-olds these days talk like historical drama characters as a matter of unique personality. Are not you people, who know not even of such things, the ones truly ignorant of the ways of the world?
ㄴAnon: Are not you people?? lol Did she just say "you people" and "know not"
ㄴAnon: It's not a personality trait, you just can't fix it, grandma
ㄴAnon: Someone just roleplaying historical drama speech wouldn't naturally churn out sentences like "ignorant of the ways of the world". That's her native tongue
Ttok, ttok.
Just then, a cautious knock sounded from outside the bedchamber door.
"Your Majesty. I have come for the morning greetings. Seeing that the lamp is still lit......"
Elasia immediately straightened her back. She brushed back her disheveled hair with one hand and summoned the voice of a mother of the nation refined over 3,000 years. A gentle, benevolent, and serene voice like still water.
"It is fine. My meditation was merely a bit deep, so go and rest."
"Yes, Your Majesty. May you have a peaceful night."
The footsteps faded away.
The Queen waited three seconds.
And then threw herself back toward the cluster of light.
ㄴEternal 20-Year-Old: And I shall correct one more thing. Earlier, someone mentioned sleeves, but wiping tears with one's sleeve is timeless elegance, not proof of age-neunira. For elegance is—
ㄴAnon: "For" just dropped
ㄴAnon: Her knees must be aching~
ㄴAnon: Yo, this is legit. If someone makes 【Collection of Eternal 20-Year-Old's Age Verification Quotes】, isn't that Hall of Fame material?
ㄴAnon: Fr, let's get signatures. Let's go for Hall of Fame Board Entry #3
ㄴAnon: Grand opening of her 2nd personal exhibit hall imminent lol
Elasia's fingers froze in midair.
Hall of Fame.
She knew what that word meant. A few nights ago, when that board opened, she watched in real-time as two posts from a certain Fixed Handle were trapped in an eternally unbreakable glass case.
An eternal exhibition where neither editing nor deletion was possible.
To her, having lived for 3,000 years, the weight of the word 'eternal' was different. The eternity of humans was a hundred years at most, but her eternity was a true eternity.
While Anons who were the grandchildren of her grandchildren's grandchildren were born, died, and born again, those quotes would hang on the board forever.
'This cannot be. Absolutely, it must not be-neunira......!'
She desperately poured out rebuttals. To protect those three letters "twenty-year-old", all ten of her fingers hammered in midair, and as her sentences grew more hurried, they reverted back to a thousand years ago.
ㄴEternal 20-Year-Old: Signatures forbidden!! Thou shalt not sign!! No wait, don't sign it;;
ㄴAnon: "Thou shalt not" lolololol
ㄴAnon: Add that latest one to the quotes too
ㄴAnon: Now that she's panicked, her true form comes out
It wasn't just the tide of battle that had tipped.
The moment her own reflection in the bedchamber's mirror caught her eye, Elasia froze solid.
Wild blonde hair. Bloodshot eyes. And an antique crown covering her long ears tilted askew to one side in the aftermath of the fierce battle.
The historic and elegant crown, carved from a branch of the World Tree and offered by a master artisan a thousand years ago.
Now it was merely the crooked hat of some old...... no, twenty-year-old maiden who had been pummeled in the comment section until dawn.
'......'
Her fingers stopped.
Mockery piled up like snowflakes in the comment section. Quotes were collected in real-time, reports claimed that signatures had already begun, and someone was summoning a historian.
It was an unwinnable fight.
Her 3,000 years of ruling experience told her that this was a battlefield from which she must retreat.
Elasia slowly scrolled up the screen. Past the blizzard of mockery, past the speartips of verification, to the highest place on the board.
There, pinned at the very top, was a single post.
【Notice】 Starting a new screening.
Title: Twenty-Four Twenty-Two
Episodes: 16 parts
Accessible via the screening hall engraving at the top.
Elasia stared at that short, plain announcement for a long time.
It was a night when everyone in this gallery was laughing at her.
The Anons called her grandma while collecting her quotes, and were even trying to build an exhibit hall for her.
But the Operator, the master of this space, was different. He did not pry into her age or join in the mockery like those rude Anons.
Was that all?
Think about it. Out of the countless records beyond dimensions, had he not chosen this of all things to screen?
Twenty-Four and Twenty-Two. A story of youths around twenty calling each other's names.
Those brats were too busy giggling to read his true intention. They were whining about zombies, worrying about stakes, and measuring the width of someone else's sleeves.
However, this body saw it. Spending sixteen full hours without missing a single scene, soaking her sleeves with tears.
For only a twenty-year-old knows the heart of a twenty-year-old.
If so, then this screening might perhaps be...
Elasia gently wiped her moist eyes with her fingertips.
Then she raised both hands to slowly straighten her crooked crown. The crown carved from the branch of the World Tree took its proper place neatly on her blonde hair once more.
"......As expected, he alone recognizes that this body is a maiden of twenty-neunira."
In the mirror, the twenty-year-old (self-proclaimed) maiden properly wearing her crown smiled elegantly.
In her emerald eyes, vitality promising the next screening was twinkling instead of tears.