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Join the ServerSimultaneously, the rate at which Ignas’s body dissolved accelerated exponentially. The remnants of what once formed her majestic structural avatar transformed into glistening particles of light, scattering haphazardly into the open space. From within my hands, the deep crimson core of [Ignas’s Heart] resonated in tandem, bleeding a radiant, concentrated crimson light outward. As if the lifeblood of the heart was circulating through her vanishing form one last time, each drifting particle of light caught a vibrant drop of that rich scarlet hue, shimmering beautifully for a transient millisecond before blinking out of existence entirely.
As she dissolved into the atmosphere, Ignas maintained a smile more profoundly peaceful than any expression she had worn prior. It was the visual manifestation of a tragic princess, who had spent an eternity being tossed about by forces far beyond her control, finally securing absolute sanctuary. The sequence possessed an ethereal, melancholic beauty that carried an undeniable undertone of sorrow.
‘Thank you.’
With that final, unscripted whisper echoing softly through the chamber, Ignas vanished entirely.
The concentrated crimson radiance bleeding from the artifact slowly ebbed away, settling until a flawlessly sculpted, teardrop-shaped gemstone rested quietly within my palm. Perhaps due to the energetic resonance that had just surged through its lattice, the gemstone felt exponentially more transparent and brilliantly clear than when it first materialized—resembling a drop of crystallized, pristine liquid ruby. I quickly toggled the user interface to scan the description parameters, but the nomenclature remained firmly registered as [Ignas’s Heart]. Holding it like this, the artifact carried the distinct, heavy sentimentality of a final legacy, triggering a faint trace of wistfulness within me.
As I stood there blankly staring down at the shimmering gemstone, a dark iron gauntlet suddenly lunged into my field of vision and aggressively snatched it right out of my hand.
“Keep staring at it like that and you’re actually going to start weeping.”
“Hey!”
Sephiroth hoisted [Ignas’s Heart] between his thumb and index finger, casually rotating the asset under the localized light source to examine it from various angles. While I knew his AI routing wouldn’t intentionally trigger a destruction command on a vital quest item, his track record didn’t exactly inspire absolute peace of mind, prompting me to extend my open palm to demand its immediate return. Instead of handing the gemstone back, however, Sephiroth opted to lean entirely into his default setting of being profoundly obnoxious.
“I’ve been harboring this exact theory for a while now, but are you secretly a native Zelpia NPC?”
“What on earth is that supposed to mean?”
“Your emotional immersion index is completely off the charts compared to the actual player base. Seriously, if an external observer stumbled onto this scene, they’d genuinely believe you were shooting a high-budget, sweeping fantasy melodrama right now.”
“Why are you intentionally trying to pick a fight again?”
“Pick a fight? Please. I’m merely lamenting the absolute tragedy that your award-winning theatrical talents are being utterly wasted here when Chungmuro directors should be actively scouting you as a generational talent.”
Letting out a low, mocking chuckle as the words left his mouth, Sephiroth extended his armored index finger and casually poked my cheek. Completely blindsided by the unscripted physical interaction, a sharp, startled breath escaped my throat. Seriously, how does this absolute maniac manage to execute an entirely unpredictable, reality-bending stunt like this every single time we interact?
I immediately voiced my counter-protest.
“Oh, shut up. It’s not like you don’t turn into the most intensely immersed sweatlord the exact millisecond a high-tier mechanical raid sequence initiates.”
“Hmm…… I won’t deny that, but my structural approach to content optimization is fundamentally detached from your brand of narrative roleplay.”
“Detached from mine? Alright, if you were sitting in my exact position just now, what would your pathing look like?”
“If I were the primary agent navigating that exact branch? The literal millisecond Ignas rendered onto the map, I would have executed a preemptive lethal strike.”
“……Excuse me, what?”
“No, think about the baseline economics of the scenario. From an objective standpoint, Ignas had already locked herself into an adversarial faction trajectory. What practical utility do you secure by sitting there and listening to her dialogue tree unravel line by line? Stripped of the emotional flavor text, her entire lore boils down to a moronic NPC launching a global cataclysm event just because her personal backstory was a bit of a trainwreck.”
“No, wait, hey. Even if that’s mechanically true, how can you reduce a beautifully written narrative down to something that incredibly cynical……?”
“Because of her systemic choices, we were forcefully locked into a grueling, repetitive grinding cycle inside a high-intensity PvP battleground just to cleanse a debuff parameter. What part of that track record dictates that we should sit here and gently accommodate her monologue? If it were me, I would have drawn my weapon, initiated a gap-closer, and smashed a heavy strike straight through her cranium right out of the gate.”
“Are…… are players even allowed to alter hidden event pathing like that?”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t it be an option? Zelpia’s baseline engine was explicitly coded to accommodate total sandboxed agency.”
“Then why didn’t you explicitly communicate that optimization alternative to me from the start?”
“Because this is your exclusive hidden quest chain. Whether you choose to indulge in deep narrative immersion or completely derail the standard moral alignments, I possess zero systemic right to dictate your personal progression parameters.”
Sephiroth offered a casual, dismissive shrug of his armored shoulders. The statement carried a strangely grounded, comforting weight. Stripped of its aggressive phrasing, it essentially meant he harbored absolute respect for my operational agency. Yet, completely separate from that sentiment, as I chewed on his cynical breakdown, I found myself begrudgingly admitting that his mechanical logic made a terrifying amount of sense. Now that I actually thought about it calmly… did I really need to expend my personal emotional energy to look a boss monster—who had actively derailed our gameplay experience—dead in the eye and tell her she wasn’t weak?
“……Did I execute a sub-optimal choice?”
I subconsciously scratched my cheek. From a pure entertainment standpoint, following Sephiroth’s hyper-violent tactical pathing probably would have yielded a significantly more explosive reward matrix. Instead of de-escalating the encounter through peaceful rhetorical persuasion, initiating a high-stakes, dramatic final boss battle against a corrupted princess would have made for a vastly more spectacular stream highlight. Sensing my sudden, crestfallen shift in posture, Sephiroth shrugged once more.
“Since we’re pioneering a completely undocumented hidden route, there’s zero data to determine which choice sits at the absolute peak of optimization.”
Right. In the grand calculus of a massive open-world sandbox, an absolute, singular correct answer rarely exists. Just as I was about to nod in agreement with his logic, Sephiroth tack-welded one final sentence onto his thought.
“Though, historically speaking, my mechanical instincts are almost always correct.”
“Yes, yes. Praise be to you, the absolute pinnacle of infallible gaming logic.”
……Seriously, does this absolute bastard possess a cognitive defect that prevents him from concluding a conversation without maximizing his smugness metrics? I shot a sharp, irritated glare toward his perfectly postured armor plating before deliberately relaxing my expression. This wasn’t a novel occurrence; having weathered this exact brand of psychological warfare for weeks now, I had grown so entirely desensitized to his antics that I didn’t even harbor any genuine anger. Furthermore, considering Sephiroth was an absolute optimization purist who physically cringed at sub-optimal progression, the sheer fact that he was tolerating my theatrical pathing with nothing more than mild sarcasm meant that, even by his strict standards, the completion state I had secured wasn’t a mechanically detrimental outcome.
Through all the chaotic bickering, I realized I had finally managed to map out the baseline psychological parameters of the enigma known as Sephiroth.
“Regardless of the theoretical optimization, our immediate progression path requires us to present this asset to Delwing, correct?”
Anxious to decisively derail the conversation away from my acting credentials, I hoisted [Ignas’s Heart] back into the space between us. Sephiroth offered a firm, single nod of his heavy helmet.
“Most likely. Given that Delwing dropped an immense amount of narrative foreshadowing regarding his historical entanglement with Ignas during our previous encounter, he’s bound to possess the script required to decode this gemstone’s utility.”
Just as Sephiroth articulated, our previous conversation with Priest Delwing had been saturated with dense contextual hints suggesting a profound, unresolved bond with the Mermaid Princess. Given that we had successfully cleared the initial hurdle of breaking into the Diamond tier brackets within the competitive ladder, our remaining narrative check-box was explicitly limited to scheduling an audience with the cleric.
“It’s getting incredibly late on the real-world clock, so let’s make this our absolute highest priority the exact second we log into the servers tomorrow.”
“Sounds like a solid plan.”
I snuck one final glance at the active quest tracker flashing brilliantly within my peripheral vision, its glowing text consistently guiding us toward our next destination. Beside me, Sephiroth had fallen entirely silent, likely scanning the identical hidden quest text to verify our upcoming progression milestones. Stealing a quick look at his uncharacteristically stoic, composed armored silhouette, I quietly shifted my eyes away as I initiated the log-out sequence.
[Hidden Quest] Children of Ignas – Part 2
– Secure a ranking of Diamond League or higher within the 6v6 competitive event map ‘Ignas’s Battleground’. (Completed)
*(Restriction: Must participate in the arena alongside the Regressor’s Companion.)*
– Locate Priest Delwing and initiate a dialogue sequence.
“I’m officially initiating a strict weight-loss regimen.”
“Huh?”
During our standard morning lecture, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in our traditional row at the very back of the lecture hall, Park Sung-jin abruptly dropped that absolute bombshell of a declaration into our casual conversation. Amidst the profound bewilderment radiating from both Han Gyu-tae and myself, Sung-jin unzipped his backpack with an intense, calculated solemnity and extracted a clear plastic meal-prep container, displaying it like a piece of vital evidence.
Peering through the plastic lid, I could see an immaculately portioned assortment of shredded iceberg lettuce, various leafy green vegetables, brilliantly vibrant cherry tomatoes, pieces of chicken breast that looked aggressively dry even from a distance, and perfectly uniform slices of hard-boiled eggs displaying a pristine white-and-yellow geometry.
“I won’t be able to join the standard lunch rotation for the foreseeable future either. I just signed a formal membership contract at the university athletic center’s weight room. I plan on heading down there to execute high-intensity workouts during every single lunch block.”
“Uh…… okay. Look, I completely hear you, and I respect the hustle, but what on earth triggered this sudden, hyper-aggressive transition into extreme fitness?”
The university sports complex maintained a fully equipped weight training facility explicitly structured for student use. While I was fully aware that the hyper-dedicated fitness crowd frequently utilized the space to optimize their muscle hypertrophy metrics, I had never anticipated an immediate member of my core social circle volunteering to join their ranks. Beside me, Gyu-tae wore an equally stunned, processing expression.
Assessed through an objective lens, Park Sung-jin didn’t possess a frame that mandated weight loss by any stretch of the imagination. He was, for all intents and purposes, the literal blueprint of a standard, spectacle-wearing university student. While he carried a marginal amount of soft tissue around his cheeks, it was clearly just residual baby fat that would naturally atrophy as his metabolism shifted with age. He had never displayed even a passing interest in physical culture, making this sudden atmospheric shift an absolute mystery.
Taking a measured look at our deeply bewildered faces, Sung-jin drew in a massive, stabilizing breath before locking eyes with us with the absolute gravity of a man about to address a congressional hearing.
“There’s someone I’ve developed profound feelings for, and I intend to confess to them.”
“Wait, what?”
“Therefore, I am fully prepared to subject myself to rigorous physical conditioning until my aesthetic profile perfectly aligns with her ideal demographic standard. I need to chisel away this facial fat and structurally broaden my shoulders.”
As the words left his mouth, Park Sung-jin’s irises practically sparkled with an intense, luminous romantic idealism. If someone walked into the room blind, they’d genuinely assume the object of his affection was standing directly at the baseline of his line of sight. Driven by sudden paranoia, I instinctively whirled my head around to scan the trajectory of his gaze, only to find a completely vacant concrete aisle leading toward the exit doors.
Who on earth could he possibly be pinning for? Despite having maintained a tight, years-long companionship with Sung-jin throughout our academic career, I couldn’t extrapolate a single viable candidate from my memory banks. Seeking a secondary perspective, I snapped my eyes over to Gyu-tae, only to find him looking right back at me with an identical expression of total cognitive dissonance. Our locked eyes immediately initiated a silent, rapid-fire telepathic exchange.
Do you possess any actionable intelligence on who this is? Zero data on my end. Complete blackout. You? Nothing. Understood. Understood.
“Even if we actively press you for a specific name, you’re obviously going to……”
“Keep my cards completely close to my chest? Absolutely.”
“Yeah, that checks out.”
While uncovering the identity of the mysterious individual would undoubtedly provide stellar entertainment value, I harbored zero genuine desire to aggressively interrogate Sung-jin against his will. When the temporal parameters aligned and he felt structurally secure enough to share, he’d reveal the truth on his own terms. Furthermore, considering I was actively harboring my own intensely private, deeply buried romantic fixation, I was the last person in the world who possessed the moral authority to breach someone else’s emotional privacy.
“……Uh, well, yeah.”
However, observing Han Gyu-tae—a man whose literal lifeblood was the consumption and redistribution of juicy campus gossip—keeping his mouth firmly clamped shut was an absolute anomaly that defied the laws of physics. Realizing the exact same structural deviation, both Sung-jin and I simultaneously turned our heads to fix our undivided attention directly onto him.
Faced with our sudden scrutiny, Gyu-tae puckered his lips out like a startled squirrel, his wide, circular eyes darting frantically between Sung-jin and myself before his nose twitched in a visible display of nervous agitation.
“What? Why are you two staring at me with those deeply suspicious expressions?”
“Nothing. Forget it.”
Oh, he is absolutely hiding something monumental. To be entirely candid, my curiosity regarding whatever classified data Gyu-tae was actively suppressing far eclipsed my interest in Sung-jin’s romantic pursuits. I intensely debated whether to launch a targeted cross-examination right then and there, but ultimately forced myself to exercise restraint. If I accidentally triggered a counter-inquiry that refocused the spotlight onto my own secret life, the resulting complications would be a logistical nightmare.
Sensing that pressing the issue would yield diminishing returns, Sung-jin offered a definitive nod to conclude his segment of the dialogue.
“Anyway, the bottom line is that I am officially removing myself from the daily lunch roster. You two will have to handle the mid-day food operations as a duo from now on.”
“Ah, about that… the reality is, actually……”
The adventure continues! If you loved this chapter, Grandmother, What Did You Leave Behind is a must-read. Click here to start!
Read : Grandmother, What Did You Leave Behind
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Why is this chapter, how do I put this… excessively loquacious?
Like, “mid-day food operations” instead of “Lunch”.
And, “Therefore, I am fully prepared to subject myself to rigorous physical conditioning until my aesthetic profile perfectly aligns with her ideal demographic standard.” instead of “Therefor, I’m ready to train until I’m her ideal body type.”
Has the rest of the novel been like this and I just never noticed? Or was the translator really happy to get a new thesarus and decided to upgrade from 10 cent words to 50 cent words? Seriously, it reads like someone trying to make the word count on an essay.