Chapter 69 – LV.Five Martial Artist Gaeulbi – [Four]

As the man requested, several Frenchmen accompanied them on the way back. The Players of Happy Village placed them and the injured at the center of the group and retraced their path.

Throughout the walk across the Gray Snowfield, the Frenchmen kept glancing around with uneasy expressions.

“What’s wrong with them?”

Oh Haengun answered Oh Haengbok’s question.

“They seem worried about monsters appearing.”

“Well, they did show up one after another.”

One of the Frenchmen suddenly turned his head toward the two conversing. He looked like he was about to shout loudly but flinched upon seeing Oh Haengbok’s imposing stature and blood-stained Armor. The man spoke quietly.

“Please, use English…”

And Oh Haengun retorted.

“We’re pretty far from the village now, aren’t we?”

“Still.”

“What’s the reason for using English in the first place? Is there a reason we should?”

“If you don’t use English, the monsters swarm, don’t they?”

“The monsters?”

Meanwhile, Seo Yun walked while keeping watch for invisible enemies. She had already seen bears disguised as snow-covered rocks and Wolves running from afar while Invisibility was active.

And her vigilance paid off. The necklace shook again.

Since she had already experienced it, she wasn’t startled this time. Seo Yun activated her Spirit Vision and alerted the others to the approach of invisible enemies.

“Over there, it’s the Kushies again.”

“Kushies?”

“It seems they’ve brought a pack from far away. There are about four times as many as before.”

Oh Haengun quickly relayed their special abilities and characteristics to his Chief.

Oh Haengbok shouted.

“Monsters are coming again. Everyone, combat stance!”

And Oh Haengun chanted a Spell. It was the Invisibility detection Spell he made sure to always have one of since that day’s incident.

As Oh Haengun stretched out his hand, the previously invisible monster Wolves with burning eyes revealed themselves. The number of Kushies gathered here was at least thirty. True to monsters of a cold world, their size was immense. There were monsters that should never be mistaken for dogs.

The French Man, perhaps terrified, screamed.

“See, they appeared!”

And Oh Haengbok paid no attention to whether he was surprised or not. He shouted for all to hear.

“Everyone, prepare to cover your ears!”

At his words, Seo Yun thought. Cover our ears? It seemed he was giving that order in anticipation of that supernatural howling.

But would simply covering our ears block that thing’s howling? It’s not like sound is really blocked just by covering your ears a bit, is it?

And then the approaching Kushies stopped in one place and simultaneously raised their snouts upward.

A long “Ooo—” sound escaped from their snouts. It was clearly that magical attack. The howling said to cause fear or instant death.

It was a sound that truly made one’s Soul tremble.

Seo Yun clenched her fist. The sound seemed to pierce beyond her ears into her chest. While no seed of fear sprouted in her heart, a feeling of unease surged.

She forced herself to turn her head and look at Oh Haengbok. If she, with 9 points in Spirit, was affected by that sound, what about the Orc with only 3 points in Spirit?

Oh Haengbok actually seemed to be in better condition than her. Perhaps his mind, already filled with rage, had no room for other emotions like fear.

The Orc let out a battle cry brimming with fury.

“Shut—your—snouts—!”

That one Orc’s roar overwhelmed the resonance of the thirty Wolves.

The surroundings were flat, not terrain where an echo would reverberate, but just now the Orc’s shout echoed in Seo Yun’s ears. The Wolves’ howling was buried within that echo as the Orc shouted further.

“Now, die—!”

Shouting that, Oh Haengbok charged. The other Warriors also formed a wall with their shields and followed.

Amidst the Kushies being struck and stabbed to death, Seo Yun drew her Burning Sword and stood guarding the injured. Most of the Wolves were blocked by the Warriors armed with spears and shields and couldn’t approach, but whenever one did get close, Seo Yun made sure to give it a stab in the neck.

While fighting like that, she glanced sideways. Gaeulbi was also pushing back the Kushies with a long staff and striking them down. While those blows couldn’t kill the monster Wolves, it was clear she was fighting her hardest.

A short while later, the battle ended with the Kushies, having lost half their pack, fleeing. It was a much faster and easier fight than expected.

“Ugh…”

As if the tension had eased, Gaeulbi panted heavily. She seemed tired from swinging the heavy staff.

Seo Yun offered her a slight smile. Gaeulbi smiled back and said.

“I Leveled Up!”

Seo Yun also felt Experience Points seeping in just now. A glance showed that both Oh Haengbok and Oh Haengun had fought at a distance from them. Thanks to that, it seemed even those with lower Levels here could gain Experience Points.

Now she intended to Heal any injuries that might have occurred from this battle, but there was no need. The monster Wolves’ bite force wasn’t enough to pierce Armor and shields.

Confirming everyone was unharmed, Oh Haengbok said.

“If no one’s hurt, let’s return quickly!”

Those words were also in Korean, but now the Frenchman didn’t point it out. He stared blankly at the Players of Happy Village, who were unfazed even after the battle, and suddenly said.

“You people. Strong. Really strong.”

As Oh Haengun grinned, the Frenchman looked at Seo Yun. Looking at Seo Yun clutching the Burning Sword, he trailed off.

“Even a young girl…”

Continuing to walk, the Dimensional Gate appeared. Everyone entered it.

Summer Incheon greeted them all.

Passing through the Dimensional Gate was a novel experience for Seo Yun, but it seemed the same for the Frenchmen.

The Frenchmen glanced around at the changed scenery—namely, the cityscape of Incheon filled with collapsed concrete buildings. As if unable to believe all this sight, they did so for a long while before muttering.

“It’s warm. Really… warm.”

It was a temperature difficult to describe as warm at 14 degrees Celsius, but perhaps they felt that way because they walked here wearing thick coats. Or perhaps they felt that way because they came from an excessively cold place.

Seo Yun said.

“You can relax your guard now.”

The Frenchmen who looked at her opened their eyes wide and then nodded.

They took them to Happy Village.

While the Players were busy sending the injured to the doctors or fetching other Priests, the Frenchmen began looking around the village scenery again.The Frenchmen once again widened their eyes in apparent surprise. I couldn’t understand why. This place was nothing but tents, closer to a refugee camp than anything else. Not exactly scenery worth admiring, so why were they reacting like that?

One of the Frenchmen asked.

“Is it okay to wear t-shirts?”

Oh Haengun nodded.

“Well, it’s summer now. Though it’s around 14 degrees Celsius and there are many mosquitoes, so long sleeves would be better, but there are some idiots who even find this warm and wear short sleeves.”

“No, that’s not what I meant. I’m asking if we don’t have to wear traditional clothing. Can we not wear medieval-style clothes?”

“Traditional clothing? You can just wear things like padded jackets.”

“And monsters won’t attack?”

“They’ll attack alright. But isn’t that the same regardless of what you wear?”

“No, if you wear clothing other than medieval attire, don’t they attack more fiercely and persistently?”

Oh Haengun suddenly pointed at Seo Yun.

“Um, see that pretty girl over there?”

“Yes, I know who you mean. That girl.”

As Seo Yun tried hard not to frown, Oh Haengun continued.

“She’s been wandering around outside alone in that poncho for over two years now, and she’s been fine. Just looking at that, it doesn’t seem like monsters attack more enthusiastically just because you’re not wearing traditional clothing, right?”

The Frenchman didn’t argue. Instead, he kept watching the people moving around Happy Village.

Since there were many clothes brought from the Anyang Station underground mall not long ago, everyone was walking around in clean everyday clothes. The Frenchman seemed unable to take his eyes off their attire.

“Is it like that here? Really…”

“What on earth is it like in France that makes you say that?”

“If we do that, we die. Monsters swarm in immediately.”

“Even when using languages other than English?”

The Frenchman nodded.

“Even if we use guns or any electronic devices…”

“Ah, when we use guns against monsters here, they do go berserk.”

“It’s not to that extent. Just one gunshot sound, and monsters swarm in hordes from both the air and the ground.”

The Frenchman’s subsequent explanation went like this.

As mentioned earlier, one must not wear modern clothes like t-shirts or padded jackets. Because it’s not medieval-like. One must not hang neon signs or flashy signboards, nor paint houses brightly with paint. Because it’s not dark fantasy-like. One must not ride in vehicles, a modern civilization element, nor fire guns.

If one does any of those things that are not ‘medieval dark fantasy’-like, the monsters punish them…

It wasn’t a completely unfamiliar concept. Wasn’t it widely known that the meteorite obsesses over medieval fantasy elements and tries to eliminate or punish things that aren’t like that?

But here on the Korean Peninsula, at most, they punish you if you try to hunt monsters with guns. We hadn’t heard or seen anything about having to wear medieval-style clothes or even having to use English.

Oh Haengbok also seemed astonished upon hearing this and said.

“Even if that’s the case for medieval-related elements, why language? It’s not even telling them to use medieval French, so why specifically English?”

Oh Haengun answered.

“Could it be because Immortal Kingdom is an American game?”

“Well, Centaurs do use English and all. So ordinary people have to use English too? But we can use Korean here without issue.”

“That’s, I have a rough guess about that as I came here.”

“A guess? Tell me.”

“Wasn’t Immortal Kingdom originally a game sold only in America? Meaning there was only an English version. The ones circulating in Korea are unauthorized copies translated by someone, not officially licensed versions.

Still, being a Western fantasy, it uses the European continent as a motif. The game world map is just a rotated real-world map claiming it’s a fantasy world, right? Even the game map the Troll gave is exactly like the real Brittany region of France.”

“So we were unsure whether that was a game map or a real map.”

Oh Haengun flipped through a book and said.

“And here, there’s a Campaign Book set in the France region. This is an official version that wasn’t unauthorizedly translated… If you look at this, all the character dialogues are written in English, right?”

“It’s a Westerners’ game. Ah, so?”

Like Oh Haengbok, Seo Yun was also gradually catching on. Oh Haengun continued.

“The meteorite saw this and seems to think, ‘Oh, French people must all use English.’ But it was a Western-setting fantasy, right? Places like France or England were the main stages of the game, not Eastern regions like Taiwan or Korea. So there was no occasion for characters from a Korean Peninsula motif region to appear and deliver dialogue…

So it seems the meteorite doesn’t care what language is used here in Korea. Even for the China motif region, how sloppily was it set? ‘This vast land is ruled by Centaurs, and under their control, humans are strictly forbidden from using weapons, so most are Martial Artists…’ They just slapped on a setting like that and called it a day, right?”

“Mostly Martial Artists… How dreadful. So is that also why there’s no clothing control here?”

“Probably. The rulebook has illustrations of people from the France motif kingdom, but there were no illustrations of Korean Peninsula people… Since Korean Peninsula people who don’t even appear in the game wear whatever, the meteorite probably assumes that’s their traditional clothing and doesn’t care?”

“Lucky for us Easterners who aren’t even on Westerners’ radar.”

A little time passed after that, after the Frenchmen had finished touring Happy Village once.

Oh Haengun called the Frenchmen and asked.

“Have you eaten?”

“Eaten? Not yet…”

“Earlier you refused gifts like retort pouch foods, but we can eat these here without any problems? It seems you could probably eat them here too. Even if monsters appear, we can drive them away. So I wanted to ask if you’d like to eat…”

After a brief hesitation, the Frenchmen nodded. And under Oh Haengun’s direction, a table laden with abundant instant foods was set before them.

“Here, please eat.”

As soon as those words fell, the Frenchmen began their meal. To Seo Yun, they looked like people who had starved for several years.Originally, as citizens of a developed nation, they would have eaten well-buttered toast and even complained it was tasteless while enjoying dining out, but now they were devouring everything competitively as if they would never get to eat again if they didn’t eat immediately.

They ate so hastily that one French man seemed to choke. He pounded his chest and shouted.

“Water, water.”

Seo Yun hurriedly handed over a canteen.

“Here.”

The man gulped down the water, looked at Seo Yun, and then bowed his head deeply. Then he spoke in English.

“Thank you, miss. Come to think of it, you protected us earlier too. I should thank you for that as well.”

“Not at all. It’s only natural since I had a knife.”

“You look very young, but are you a Player too?”

“Yes, I’m a Priest.”

“A Priest? Really a Priest?”

The man’s eyes widened. Wondering why he was reacting like that, Seo Yun asked.

“Is that strange? I saw earlier that your village seems to have Priests too.”

“Of course there are Priests. But your actions are unimaginable in our village.”

“You mean a Priest fighting?”

“That too, but handing water directly to a guest? Our village Priests don’t even move, just watching people work around them…”

He was astonished over something as simple as handing over water. Listening to the man’s awed words, Seo Yun recalled the Flavor Text for the Priest class in the Rulebook.

‘The Priest is a theocratic authority figure and serves as the Camp Leader.’

It seemed the setting was being faithfully, even excessively, adhered to.

Seo Yun recalled in succession the Orangutan’s words that other continents were Hell, and the neighboring villager’s description of France as a fantasy world. She now understood that all those words were true.