The Mountain King's Coronation
That the character known as Sanwang Kim Jong-pil became the face of Korea was largely thanks to Lee Shin.
In truth, among all the Korean-nationality characters, it was harder to find one Lee Shin hadn’t unearthed. Yet even among that elite group, Sanwang Kim Jong-pil stood apart.
The first time Lee Shin laid eyes on him, he caught a distinct scent rising from the character.
The rich, unmistakable aroma of a pushover.
Every game has one, right? The character deliberately designed to stop beginners from rage-quitting. Slot him into the squad and he becomes the early-game engine that keeps the whole team moving even when the rookie representative is stumbling around making catastrophic mistakes.
That was Lee Shin’s first impression of Kim Jong-pil.
Give him the bare minimum support and he would somehow drag the raid team forward no matter what. From the representative’s perspective, there was no more lovable raid leader in existence.
Especially in GM, where this aspect mattered enormously. The genre was a nurturing simulator, not an RTS. In other words, users could raise characters but could not directly control them.
No matter how lovingly you’d nurtured them, they might suddenly do something idiotic or blow themselves up with bizarre strategies. It happened constantly. The list was endless.
Beginner users, who already had almost no concept of squad synergy or teamwork, failed at this hurdle one hundred times out of one hundred.
And Sanwang Kim Jong-pil was the cheat key that prevented exactly that.
But as always, the fate of these early-game towing vehicles tends to be the same.
Once their usefulness is exhausted, they are discarded.
At his core, Sanwang Kim Jong-pil carried a fatal flaw that everyone understood. A weakness no human could ever defy.
Age.
The technical term was “aging curve.” His brilliant mind remained sharp, but his body could no longer keep up. His head was still packed with ingenious strategies, yet he could never use them. Not because of his teammates, but because of his own decrepit self.
Once his decaying body caused even his strengths to fade, he would inevitably be thrown away in the most miserable fashion. Bound by the shackles of age.
No matter how desperately a user struggled or twisted themselves, the moment they met Kim Jong-pil, his status window already displayed the “Aging” debuff in progress.
If it hadn’t started yet, one might have gone to insane lengths like Manwang Han Jeong-do to prevent it. But once it had begun, “Aging” was an insurmountable wall unless the heavens themselves flipped upside down.
That was why Lee Shin had only ever seen the ending seven times despite the character’s fame. A pitifully small number considering his reputation.
The ending itself was already close to a sad ending. He had thought seven times was more than enough.
If that incident had never happened.
“Shin, put some clothes on… Grandmother collapsed.”
Shin-ah, look.
In the dream that damned old man and your father were both snooping around, so I guess it really is my time.
Study hard, listen to your brother, don’t fight with your friends, let go of that stubbornness, don’t live too calculatively, don’t dress too lightly when it’s cold…
Getting old means you die. Don’t be too sad. I’m grateful I could live without any major illness. I’m truly thankful I never showed you children an ugly side of myself.
You were fun to watch because you take after me. It brought me joy. My child.
— Your Grandmother
Lee Shin remembered it with perfect clarity.
Stepping into the emergency room with his brother. The doctor silently shaking his head in condolence. His grandmother, strangely frozen amid the flowing current of time.
“…08:31. Ms. Jang Mi-young has passed away.”
At the cold pronouncement of death, his brother had wailed, but Lee Shin did not cry. Not even in front of her portrait at the funeral. It wasn’t that he held it in; the tears simply refused to come. He found it strange himself. He didn’t feel sad. His brother’s eyes would redden at the mere sight of the portrait, yet he felt nothing. So, as always, he asked.
“Grandmother, why am I like this?”
Even during the school violence incident that shook everything. Even when his foul personality led to all sorts of bizarre behavior.
His grandmother, who had always worn an indifferent expression and said, “Because you take after me,” was smiling. Silently.
Lee Shin shed not a single tear until the day the funeral ended.
Then.
He found his grandmother’s will after returning home from the funeral.
The first line made him burst out laughing.
As expected of his grandmother; she still had that market-stall swagger.
The requests were so trivial they were almost comical. He read them with a genuine smile.
Imagining an old woman with failing eyesight writing three whole pages of such concerns made him think, Yeah, that’s just like her.
He laughed like a madman. It was the day he laughed more than any other in his entire life.
And then…
Something that should never have fallen, fell.
Plop.
It was a tear.
Why did they fall at the line about eating vegetables? Why did they pour down at the reminder to clean the house, and then completely flood at the warning to turn off the gas valve before leaving?
He sobbed uncontrollably. The tears would not stop.
That was when Lee Shin truly felt the second loss of his life.
And perhaps that was the moment Kim Jong-pil began to look different to him. The moment he came to empathize with the gloomy, uncomfortable story attached to the character.
His grandmother had been a pitiful woman. She had lost the son she’d struggled to raise from the market floor in a single day, then dragged her rusted body back to that same market for the sake of her remaining grandsons.
There had been no “her” in her own life.
Kim Jong-pil had been the same. His life had always been that of a supporting actor. For the Sword King, for the Ten Thousand King, he had willingly sacrificed himself for his people.
It was only an illustration, yet in the ending credits, Lee Shin had seen his grandmother in that final image of Kim Jong-pil.
I have to change it.
Lee Shin had made up his mind. Even if the man was made of pixels, once he had seen Jang Mi-young in him, he needed to be happy.
Lee Shin would make sure of it.
* * *
“Heh heh. I really was crazy.”
Even now, thinking back on it, he had been out of his mind.
He had watched Sanwang’s ending on repeat, copied every single line of text related to the character in case there were Easter eggs, and investigated every hunter and villain connected to him. He had even run infinite explorations along every route Sanwang had ever taken.
He had done literally everything possible.
“Compared to the old man, Yeon-woo was child’s play.”
Yet sadly, after all that suffering, the result had been “none.”
From the beginning, the character called Sanwang had been designed for one purpose only: helper, early-game towing vehicle, and nothing more. The developers had built him with that intention, and he had performed exactly as intended. Users were one hundred percent satisfied.
Even to Lee Shin, who had done similar work, Sanwang was a success. Both seller and consumer were happy.
“So there was no need to touch him.”
All of that was labor.
No matter how much of a named veteran Lee Shin was, he was still just a user. He couldn’t find something the developers had never created.
He had done enough. At that point, anyone would have given up.
But the Lee Shin of that time could not be stopped by anyone.
Because you take after me.
Those five words had pulled the pin on Lee Shin’s lunatic safety mechanism.
Which led to an act that would become a lifelong regret. He tore the game itself apart. A world of black screens and raw code.
Yes. That was the day his future career was decided.
“I could really go for some soju right now.”
There was no immediate solution. They simply hadn’t made it.
He could have used an editor, but his pride refused to allow it.
Then one day, while he was agonizing, an idea struck him like lightning.
I’ll send my voice to the developers!
What he chose was to send the bugs he had discovered while dissecting GM to the development company. Along with an email.
“Can’t fix Sanwang’s aging :(”
“Don’t you guys feel sorry for Sanwang ;<”
“You’re doing a Dangerous Zone renewal soon, right? Throw in one Sanwang Easter egg :)”
He had clung to them for about a year.
It was right after his CSAT scores came out.
That day’s regular update arrived, and the renewed Dangerous Zone contained the keyword “World Tree.”
He was certain it felt better than getting first place at S University.
“Kgh…!”
Whether the developers had been moved by Lee Shin’s persistence or simply wanted to shake off the lunatic who had been pestering them for a year, they had finally opened a path.
LV8 – Salvation of the Corrupted Yggdrasil.
Some gates would drop a designated item when specific conditions were met. And the item that fit those conditions was…
◈ Reverses 10 years of aging
◈ Restores the body to its physical prime
An item only obtainable by characters possessing traits related to the World Tree.
And the trait Sanwang possessed was precisely “Gardener of the World Tree.”
“But even this isn’t enough.”
Ten years was enormous. It extended a player’s career by a full decade. In fact, Lee Shin had been ready to be satisfied with just that.
Until he held this in his hands.
What Lee Shin held was a single sheet of parchment.
After setting a new record in the 131st round, achieving direct promotion, remaining undefeated in the round, and triggering the “Unexpected event” with Dynasty, this was the promotion reward for all those unprecedented accomplishments.
Yet the moment Lee Shin received it, he had jumped for joy.
It was worth abandoning everything else.
◈ Raises item grade
◈ Enhances item effect
* * *
Crunch.
The moment the bright red fruit was bitten, it revealed its true form.
It was light. It was the sun. It symbolized abundance and wisdom, represented wealth and treasure, and carried the color of victory and glory.
Golden.
The golden fruit blazed with brilliant light before transforming into a torrent that was sucked straight into Kim Jong-pil.
Yggdrasil's ??? ― ???
【 Warning!! 】
【 Warning!! 】
【 System deviation detected! 】
At that moment.
Ding—!
The sudden sound of a bell drew Kim Jong-pil’s gaze, and he froze.
There stood a golden bell. A massive golden bell was ringing out in celebration.
Then applause came from the other side.
Kim Jong-pil quickly turned his head. There, figures dressed in white were clapping.
It was a festival. Everyone was singing of joy.
Soon a carpet unrolled beneath his feet. A golden carpet that seemed to beckon him forward.
Kim Jong-pil stepped onto it.
As the carpet carried him forward, the scenery changed. Flags fluttered on both sides, trumpets blared fanfares, and flower petals rained from the sky.
And at the end stood a magnificent stag with golden antlers.
It was Vita, the spirit and dear friend of Kim Jong-pil’s soul.
Vita had been waiting for him.
“Vita.”
“Let’s go.”
“…Your voice.”
“There’s no time. Everyone is waiting.”
Human and deer.
Kim Jong-pil and Vita walked in step.
The golden carpet rose against gravity, revealing a staircase leading to an altar.
With every step, golden flowers bloomed beneath his feet.
Leaves fell, became vines, became trees, then bloomed into flowers again, repeating the cycle.
They bloomed, withered, and bloomed once more.
He walked the staircase where the ring of life continued.
With each step, his hair regained its black luster.
With each step, his wrinkles vanished.
With each step, his body grew lighter.
Having shed the traces of time, Kim Jong-pil stood at the top of the stairs. Guided by the nine goddesses who had appeared, he walked to the center of the altar.
And there he knelt on one knee.
The goddess spoke. He could not hear the words, yet he felt an irresistible power.
The goddess chanted a spell, nodded toward Vita, and placed a golden laurel wreath upon Kim Jong-pil’s head.
“Become the king.”
Indeed.
This was the coronation proclaimed by the nine goddesses, mothers of the World Tree.
The Mountain King has been reborn.
* * *
Kim Jong-pil opened his eyes in reality.
Outside the gate, countless gazes were upon him, yet he saw only one person.
“Why are you smiling?”
“Because I’m happy.”
Lee Shin had given him the gift, yet it was his young partner who looked even happier than he did.
Lee Shin embraced Kim Jong-pil and spoke.
“Happy birthday.”
「Sanwang Mountain King (New!!)」, 「World Tree Administrator (New!!)」, 「Flawless Commander」, 「Calling Wind and Rain」, 「Beast Taming」, 「Spirit Eye」, 「Nature Magic」, 「Essence of Spirits」, 「Multitasking」
【「Gardener of the World Tree」 has changed to 「World Tree Administrator」.】
【Body restored to its prime. 「Aging」 has been removed.】