Chapter 20
Chapter 20
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 20
Chapter Title: Underground Dungeon Nostalgia
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While Yuuri was screaming her lungs out at the blacked-out screen and the red letters,
Jicheol, in his grubby getup, was staring at the exact same message.
"Huuuh... Hngh..."
But his reaction was a world apart.
"Uhihihi...!!"
Unfocused eyes and a nonstop creepy grin.
Ragged breaths and sleazy chuckles spilling out before he could even stifle them.
Anyone could tell at a glance that something was seriously off with his head.
By sheer luck, he was alone in the room. No one around to spot his antics and dial the cops.
Jicheol slowly caught his breath.
He was ecstatic. Now it was finally hitting home.
Truth be told, he'd been in a bit of a daze up until moments ago.
Like bumping into your best buddy from over a decade back and feeling all awkward about it.
But if the gameplay so far had been that clumsy reunion, this felt like sinking into an all-night booze session where the old stories just wouldn't stop flowing.
He was drowning in nostalgia, completely lost in the memories.
The underground dungeon was doing the same—chatting him up endlessly.
As if to say, "Hey, remember this?"
For instance... groping through this pitch-black darkness stirred up one particular memory.
Back then, the map was burned into his brain, so even if he'd wanted to die, it was tough. But here and now, the slightest slip-up felt like it'd send his head flying.
-Click
The moment he heard the click, he dropped into a low stance and transitioned into a thrust. The input, timed like clockwork, shed its delay and shot out.
The disheartened warrior braced the pommel with one hand and lunged forward.
A full-reach thrust propelled by forward momentum.
The stab lunged way out front, piercing the empty darkness. Pointless on its own.
But the low posture for that motion let the head-aimed arrow whistle harmlessly overhead, past his lowered hitbox.
A grin spread across Jicheol's face.
No hesitation—he bolted ahead, and another trap clicked. This time, arrows from front and above simultaneously.
Just as planned: an upward slash deflected the arrow, followed seamlessly by a dash.
And sure enough, something splatted behind him.
Splat—a slime. Too slow to catch up, so he ignored it and kept running.
Further on, the swamp appeared.
Step in it, and you'd get poisoned—but he'd been through this before, so he had a counter.
Popped a potion in his mouth and powered through. Shortest route got him out before the poison stacked to max.
Vision in the stifling dark was nightmarish, but the mental map unfolding in his head was nearing perfection.
Pressing on, he hit the swamp's end and jumped without slowing.
Momentum carried him over three traps at once. Devs had dotted the area with pitfalls for jumpers.
Last time, he'd wiped here.
Not twice. The boosted leap barely cleared the trap zone.
Impressively, the devs had seen that coming too.
The second he landed, a heavy-armored knight charged from the alley ahead.
Jicheol's side was stamina-starved from the swamp and traps, hanging by a thread.
Backpedal, and it'd be straight into the pitfall minefield.
The knight was already swinging her mace down.
Her eyes sparkled with delight.
Not even a boss mob—just a regular one.
The mace in her grip looked familiar.
The toughness gauged from her heavy plate.
And the instinct honed from two hours grinding this dungeon.
That gut feel decided in a flash.
It was the midguard light attack motion from the straight sword he relied on in dead ends.
Fast, concise, and his most-used mid horizontal slash.
The broken straight sword's animation was near-identical to a longsword's. Just less damage and reach.
The near-dead character kicked off the ground. No room for a reach fight in this corner—better to charge ahead.
He timed it. Let instinct guide the swing.
-Clang!!
Sparks flew blue.
Flashy sound effects.
The enemy staggered, mace rebounding, stance crumbling.
This was it.
This was Odin's Son!!
These days, newbies lacked grit—roll-thrust, roll-thrust on repeat.
Even linking command guides, no one practiced.
But behold: Odin's Son was always this game.
It blew up early thanks to these precise hitboxes.
Memorize unique weapon motions, dance around their hitboxes in mind games.
Hard game. Perverted game. Unfair game.
But so precise it ignited the challenge.
"Ha-ha!!"
No holding back the laughs now.
Even that high-pitched, unfamiliar voice felt endearing.
She cackled freely and slashed away.
And so, sucked into the monitor, time flew by in total immersion.
Only keyboard and mouse clicks echoed for ages.
Fun times always fly.
I slumped into the chair like I'd collapsed.
"Haaah..."
Hyperfocused for six straight hours without stretching—groans came naturally.
Weird noises, but I'd gotten so used to them I barely noticed.
Still, maybe ease up on the body.
Wasted to get this healthy form back, only to ruin my eyes and get a hunchback again.
"Nngh...!"
Stretched out my limbs, loosening the stiff muscles.
Blood rushed through every inch.
Tranced out, zipping around everywhere—five hours vanished in a blink.
Didn't even think about the bathroom or food midway.
"..."
Now that I did, hunger hit hard.
Hated to cook, and part of me wanted to chain straight to the ending, but time to rein it in.
Clear the first playthrough, and ranked mode unlocks... Now that it's open-world, I planned to savor every nook.
But damn, it was so fun I binged to the late game. Can't be helped.
The screen text was almost a welcome sight.
Boosted concentration let me progress with barely any deaths, but it slammed the brakes on my rampage.
Blitzed through phase 3, but the boss went berserk and exploded.
Still gave the clear.
Could've restarted from scratch—no biggie. Yeah, I know. Weird to cheer getting backstabbed.
But old-school players loving a good screw-you has reasons.
And the reason was simple: the time lost to this death was nothing compared to what came before.
In the previous game, he'd memorized every pitfall spot—and even poked around for hidden goodies on the way.
That wait was far longer.
Quickly resupplied and checked his character at the bonfire.
Oh, and the boss drop was a two-hander.
The tooltip's needlessly long and grandiose—game tradition.
Sure, once everything's looted, that story bait turns into forum fodder... But I didn't buy any deep foreshadowing there.
Pure specs-wise, not bad. Reliable Jotun make, above average for sure.
But useless to me—I'd already found my main.
To stress again: flashiness didn't make a weapon good here.
My straight sword wasn't some magic blade like [Fenrir's Fang] or [Frey's Wrath].
This was my endgame weapon.
A roadside merchant was hawking it.