HG Ch 18

<18>

What the hell? If you know so much, why don’t you teach me?

“Then go find some clues in Seonyeok Village. Weren’t you the one saying you had to help me save Joseon?”

Just as Eunho, still unable to shake off the habits he picked up from <Beauty That Can Overthrow Nations>, commanded Yoon Iseo as if speaking to his royal guards—essentially saying, “Do everything for me.”

Yoon Iseo rejected him in an indifferent voice.

“How would I do that? I don’t meet the conditions.”

At those words, Eunho belatedly came to his senses.

Well, this was his main quest, after all. Yoon Iseo was just here to support him. In the end, the one responsible for progressing the quest was Joo Eunho himself.

I almost dumped my job on someone else without a second thought. This is why living a pampered life is dangerous.

With Yoon Iseo’s cold therapy snapping him back to reality, Eunho nodded.

Still seated, Eunho tilted his head back sharply to look up at Yoon Iseo, his eyes gleaming with expectation.

“Then what should I do? To be honest, I got completely shut down when I asked the leatherworker just now.”

For a moment, Yoon Iseo looked at him in mild surprise, his gaze sweeping over Eunho’s disheveled figure as he sat slouched in the corner of the alley.

“You got shut down?”

“Yeah, that’s why I got kicked out just now.”

At that, Yoon Iseo muttered to himself, sounding perplexed, “That’s odd. I thought you’d get through easily.”

After a brief moment of contemplation, he rummaged through the wide sleeve of his robe. It seemed to be his version of an inventory summon gesture, as his gaze then shifted toward empty space.

Before long, something landed lightly on Eunho’s head. A rough piece of cloth brushed against his cheek before sliding down. Its texture was coarse.

What the hell?

[SYSTEM] Retrieving detailed description of the item “Tattered and Worn Robe.” [SYSTEM] “A tattered and worn robe that even a novice ascetic wouldn’t bother to pick up.”

“…What is this? Why are you carrying around junk items like this?”

“Change into it and go see the leatherworker again.”

“You want me to wear this rotting piece of clothing?”

“Yeah.”

At the same time, Yoon Iseo’s large hand suddenly reached out and ruffled Eunho’s hair without warning. Having his hair messed up was annoying enough, but what was worse was realizing that Yoon Iseo had wrapped his own hand in cloth as if he were digging through filth.

Eunho felt utterly disgusted.

“Ugh! What are you doing?!”

“There. Perfect. Now get changed and go.”

Eunho had no idea what Yoon Iseo was thinking, but he was the type to follow instructions regardless.

Dressed in a robe that even a beggar would hesitate to use as a rag, he made his way back to the workshop, wearing an expression that clearly said, ‘Is this really going to work?’

And then—

From the alley where Joo Eunho had disappeared, Yoon Iseo quietly stared into the air.

A translucent system window, visible only to him, floated before his eyes.

[Sworn Companion: MwonGaeSori] [SYSTEM] Current Location: Seonyeok Village [SYSTEM] Current Status: Finally realized the eligibility conditions for the main quest. Shocked, angry! [SYSTEM] Status Message: Unable to display due to insufficient affinity. [SYSTEM] Private Message (Disabled): Complete the relevant quest to enable private messaging.

As he indifferently scrolled through the system window, Yoon Iseo fixed his gaze on a particular section.

He furrowed his brows for a moment, deep in thought.

[SYSTEM] The passive trait <Beauty That Can Overthrow Nations> of “MwonGaeSori” is currently inactive. [SYSTEM] Would you like to delete the passive trait <Beauty That Can Overthrow Nations> of “MwonGaeSori”? [SYSTEM] Upon deletion, neither “the user” nor “Sworn Companion” will be able to obtain a new “Sworn Companion” even if one of you dies. [SYSTEM] The passive trait <Beauty That Can Overthrow Nations> of “MwonGaeSori” has been deleted. [SYSTEM] The guide of “MwonGaeSori” has been set to inactive. [SYSTEM] “MwonGaeSori’s” pain sensitivity setting has been changed from 10 to 55.

With practiced ease, Yoon Iseo manipulated the system.

* * *

Joo Eunho returned to the workshop with a hesitant expression, awkwardly announcing his presence.

“Uh… Excuse me.”

“What is it?”

The leatherworker, upon turning to look at Eunho, immediately changed his demeanor to a blunt, expressionless one.

…Eunho did as Yoon Iseo told him, but the atmosphere felt even worse than before. At least earlier, the leatherworker had been smiling. Now, he was completely unreadable.

Am I going to get beaten up this time for being a nuisance?

That thought led Eunho’s gaze to the leatherworker’s muscular forearms, hardened from years of labor.

Since this was a virtual reality game, getting hit wouldn’t actually hurt, but it would definitely be humiliating.

Eunho lowered his eyes.

“Ah, um, that… The prophecy…”

It felt a lot like trying to get a refund. The memory of being outright rejected made Eunho stutter even more.

“Hah!”

When the leatherworker suddenly let out a loud, scoffing laugh, Eunho instinctively shrank back.

So this wasn’t it either.

See? This wasn’t in the novel, so there was no way Yoon Iseo would know about it. He shouldn’t have gotten his hopes up. Just as Eunho was about to make a run for it—

“You still look young. Must’ve been through a lot to end up like this… Tsk, tsk.”

The leatherworker looked at him with the same pitying gaze one might give a young beggar wandering the streets. Then, he rummaged through what looked like a pile of trash and pulled out a tattered book, handing it to Eunho.

“It’s just a handwritten copy, so it’s quite crude, but here you go.”

[SYSTEM] You have successfully obtained the “Worn Prophecy Book” circulating in Seonyeok Village. [SYSTEM] What on earth is about to happen to Joseon? Let’s examine the contents of the prophecy book.

The main quest, which had seemed stuck, was now progressing smoothly. Yet Eunho only glared down at the prophecy book with a scowl.

Now it made sense, the condition to unlock the main quest.

—”How would I do that? I don’t meet the conditions.”

Why had he only interpreted that as ‘It’s your main quest, not mine. How am I supposed to do it?’

‘To obtain the prophecy book, which was designated a forbidden book and now circulates secretly among commoners, one had to appear lower than a mere commoner. But I look too refined and noble for that. You, on the other hand, should have no problem.’

That was what Yoon Iseo had actually meant.

—”That’s odd. I thought you’d get through easily.”

Thinking back on those words made Eunho even angrier.

That was what it actually meant.

How dare a mere customized avatar look down on his appearance like this?

Eunho clenched his fists, trembling with fury.

* * *

[SYSTEM] The text is written in multiple handwriting styles. Many sections remain untranslated, and severe damage makes it difficult to decipher the content.

Even the prophecy book was out to torment him.

One moment, the system had urged him to “examine its contents,” only for it to now claim that “the contents are difficult to decipher.”

Fueled by stubbornness, Eunho meticulously combed through the unreadable text.

In reality, staring intensely at unknown characters wouldn’t make a difference, but in a game…

[SYSTEM] You carefully scrutinize the Worn Prophecy Book. [SYSTEM] However, the only recognizable word is “Jirisan.”

Sometimes, the system threw him a bone like this.

Jirisan.

Eunho ruffled his own hair in frustration. Then, he began to recall the details of the novel.

He vaguely remembered that at the entrance of Jirisan, there was a level-50 dungeon.

He couldn’t recall the named boss of the dungeon, though.

What was its theme again…?

But he was certain that clearing the dungeon had triggered a drop, an item that served as a clue and advanced the quest.

A rare moment of clarity.

This was exactly the downside of being a player who understood the game through a novel instead of a strategy guidebook.

With that realization, Eunho set off for Jirisan with Yoon Iseo.

“Why are you sulking when you managed to get the prophecy book thanks to my advice?”

“I’m not sulking.”

“You’ve been dead silent for over ten minutes, and you’re walking way too fast. If that’s not sulking, then what is?”

On their way to Jirisan, Eunho, who had been sulking with his lips sealed shut and walking nonstop just as Yoon Iseo had predicted, finally lifted his head.

“Honestly, I have more than a few things to feel upset about, you know.”

“Yeah? So what’s first?”

“Why do you get to swear so freely?”

For a moment, Eunho wondered if the system had glitched and disabled the filtering function. But when he tested it himself, only absurdly censored words like “plump cheeks” and “lovely” came out.

…Wasn’t this discrimination?

“Oh, that.”

Yoon Iseo responded nonchalantly.

“If you want to fix the problem, you have to think about the mechanics behind it.”

“What mechanics? The AI just detects curse words and filters them all out.”

“Exactly. But how does the AI determine what counts as swearing? The condition attached is ‘when used with the intent to insult someone.’”

At that, Eunho finally understood the kind of loophole Yoon Iseo was exploiting. He muttered cautiously, “But even when I used it as an exclamation, the filter still caught it.”

“That’s because you haven’t mastered the technique yet. If you get too emotional, the filter kicks in.”

So basically, to swear freely, he had to master self-control to the point where even an AI couldn’t detect his intentions?

Yoon Iseo made it sound so easy, but he was clearly a veteran player who had long since mastered the virtual reality game loopholes.

Once upon a time, Eunho had felt proud of himself for slipping past the filter by swapping out syllables, changing “crazy” to “pent-up,”^[1] “dick” to “pine nut,”^[2] and “fuck” to “shoes.”^[3]  

Now, he felt like a naïve little sapling compared to Yoon Iseo.

How dare he attempt to swear without achieving a Zen-like state of emotional detachment?

Resolving to stick to polite and proper language from now on, Eunho lowered his gaze once more.