Lee Hyun sipped tea while maintaining a seiza sitting posture (tea ceremony sitting posture). He would take a sip; enjoy the delicate flavours before sipping once again. ‘Delicious, they really know how to brew their tea.’
There was a knock on the door after which, Chung Il Hoon, Choi Jong Bom, Ma Sang Bom, and Roi Lee slid in.
They too sat down and poured tea for themselves. The awkard silence grew longer and longer as the five men sipped tea. There were no hostilities between them yet the tension in the air was stifling. It could best be described as monsters at Alice Wonderland’s tea party.
The four of the five men were renowned martial artists. The fifth was an uncrowned prince in sword play. The pressure they emitted at their ages only reflected the years and years of power that they had acquired.
“Delicious tea.” Lee Hyun commented. His gaze was lowered, shying away from facing them.
“Indeed.” Said Chung Il. “I appreciate you came to meet us, even though it might be bad for you.”
“No, there is nothing about it that can be done about that.” Lee Hyun said. “I, infact appreciate this. Your return will definitely create a buzz…”
“Everyone is worried.” Chung Il spoke with a hint of concern in his voice.
“…”
“You returned…” Roi Lee began.
“Because Kang Cheol requested of me.” Lee Hyun cut him off. Chung Il and the other three masters shot a piercing gaze at Lee Hyun.
“And how about when we requested you?” Choi Jong asked feeling offended.
“…”
“That is enough.” Chung Il raised his voice while placing his empty tea cup on the table. “This is not why we came here.”
The other three began sulking. They wanted to throw a few punches, land a few sword blows at Lee Hyun to feel better.
“We don’t know why you have returned now Lee Hyun after twenty years. People have all sorts of explanations. But we know you better than those people. Know this, you can rely on us.” Chung Il said. “Even though you asked us not to, we have decided to go ahead and play this game of yours.”
“…”
Chung Il and the others slowly got up. Just before they left Lee Hyun spoke up, “Hyung nims (Author: is this even a plural word?), thank you for everything but I have decided to walk this path alone till the very end. I can only say this much, this is not royal road. You will need healers more than before.”
He frowned assuming the other four left without hearing him but then let out a smile when he heard Roi Lee shout out, “Who do you think we are? There are five times more Geomchis now. So you better be prepared.”
Chung Il and the other three laughed along as they left Unicorn Corp’s headquarters. The declaration of war had been served.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The four masters had grown since their days of tutelage under Ahn Hyundo. Rather than ordering 2500 consoles right away they decided to take an elite group of students and instructors to Royal Road 2, as they fondly called it, to get some first had information.
The four masters brought out their aging capsule from the warehouses and got it set up. They were uninterested in purchasing newer gaming gear. It was a similar story for the instructors and elite students who were party to the skirmish mission they were undertaking. Everyone owned a variety of gears. Some had head gears, others had sensory gears…a complete variety. The masters had wisened up from their days of friviolously spending. They did not see why they must buy new VR gear / consoles when their older models worked perfectly fine. Maybe this miserness was a rubbing off effect of sticking too loon with Weed / Lee Hyun.
Once they connected all their VR capsules and Gears, the masters looked at each nervously it was time to chose their names and christen the others. This was had become a holy tradition in their dojang at one time and continued on for many decades till they stopped playing the game.
“Then we are decided and agree?” Chung Il asked cautiously.
The others nodded their heads in agreement.
“Seonsaengnim’s (master’s) name Geomchi will not be used by any of us and we shall continue with our former titles?”
The other three masters nodded in unision again. This was the best that they could come up with. The name Geomchi was their pride and reputation in the VR world. A name meant many things; long before they played Royal Road they were nothing more than men who loved the way of the sword and only wanted to become stronger and get women however they were never truly satisfied with their strength till they began playing royal road. Killing monsters, helping people, completing quests and being appreciated for it…all of that quenched their desire for fame. They valued their names too much to change it to anything else. Players would recognize them for their names, everywhere they went, the women would drool over their muscular bodies.
“Then, I will be Geomchi 2 of the Earth.” Chung Il said.
“I’ll lead the students as Geomchi 3 of the Fire.” Ma Sangbeom said.
“Geomchi 4 of Water.” Choi Jong said as he raised his hand.
“Then that leaves Geomchi 5 with Air.” Roi Lee said.
“What about the other elements?” Ma Sangbeom asked. “He did say…”
“He might say many things but we must believe in what we see for ourselves.” Roi Lee cut in.
The other two seemed to agree. They never required healers before in Royal Road. It was true that they died a few more times than others and experienced more pain that others but real men did not shy away from a little pain and require bandages for it. Cold bandages were always good to have but that was not something needed.
“We can do without a healer; we will learn the bandage skill…” Choi Jong said as he wiped his capsule clean. This was proof of the Geomchis’ determination to defeat the game RREV. Earlier in Royal Road they did not care about dying or losing levels when fighting monsters. However, then they were only adventures who only cared about killing monsters and testing the limits of their sword mastery in the game. But now things were different, they were old and the game was built by Lee Hyun. Who knew how long before they could win the grand prize. They were aiming to be the strongest not the most famous anymore. The masters were all settled in life with women they loved (whom they found in Royal Road) and for them fame mattered no more. Though their students and instructors were still growing so they still chased after the trivial things like women…
They then began christening their instructors and senior students. In all there was Geomchi 2 to Geomchi 45. 44 people for an initial skirmishing mission into the game. The four masters made their account and character. They all chose humans as they weren’t interested in lean and thin elves and the dwarves were too short. Humans were best representations of their muscular bodies of art. They selected elemental affinities which suited them the best afterwhich they were assigned to different starting cities: Lavias, Aquaneos, Middle Earth and Durara.
Then they told their disciples which cities they were starting in and each was soon joined by 10 others (Author: 4 + 4x10 = 44)
“Oh look at them! They are so muscular! Are they professional body builders?” squealed female players upon seeing 10 young muscular men. The disciples and instructors were very much flattered, none of them had women in their lives unlike their masters they had yet to journey through the ardrous world of Royal Road and spread their wings of fame. The disciples waived to some of the women who were ogling at them. The instructors burned with jealousy. The disciples were still young and could behave like that. They however were middle aged men, if they tried to wave back to young players they might be branded as some creep. ‘No’ they refrained from being played around by their emotions. Their masters were able to find themselves such beautiful and intelligent wives, when they were middle aged too, they were certain that they could too! But still they burned with jealousy seeing how openly the younger ones were able to act so freely.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“This feels so similar…” Geomchi 2 whispered to the other three masters as he assessed the world and stood in a single spot for a while.
“Yes, but it feels so much different too.” Geomchi 3 replied back.
“I am experiencing lag in the game?” Geomchi 4 complained. “I think we might need to buy newer VR gear. This is not good enough.”
“Yes agreed, after we get out. We should instruct everyone to buy the latest VR gear. If we are aiming to be at the top of this game, we cannot let something like gaming lags affect our game play.”
“We should also tell our students to get the latest gear.”
The others agreed. This was the first thing they planned to do.
“I’ve never had this lagging feeling before.”
Nonetheless, even though their gaming gear was very old, the masters could feel everything. In fact the detailed sensation that they felt was much closer to reality than what they experienced in Royal Road. They could see and hear people chatting much more clearly than before, the air was woven in a multitude of scents and the ground had more unevenness and texture to it than before.
“Then let us embark on our mission.” Geomchi 2 said. “We need to find the training halls.”
“But Hyung-nim, will we really find a training hall? These are different games.”
“True…but this is Lee Hyun’s game and it is also called Royal Road ….something…so there must be a training hall to raise your stats!”
“…” The disciples and instructors weren’t sure if they should say anything in the group chat. There were no sword training halls in Elementarem Vim, only training temples. There were also practice grounds where scarecrows could be erected and stats could be raised through sheer effort of swinging a sword a million times…but if their masters were hoping to reach a beginner training hall and then level up to the next one they were dead wrong. In the 1.5 years of this game’s release, no one has been able to find an NPC instructor who said “Congratualtions you have completed beginner training.”
Even amongst the all cities and dungeons found, not one player (publicly or privately) could claim that they had couquered the beginner training hall, simply because there was no beginner training hall in the game.
As the four Geomchi’s made their way through the town, all sorts of talk could be heard. Since they were continuously keeping whisper mode on, they could hear conversations from each other's cities as well...(Author: Like two people on a phone and both in different noisy places, they can overhear background noise..)
“Did you hear about the elves?” (Air Kingdom conversations overhear on group whisper)
“Selling steel swords for cheap!” (Earth Kingdom conversations overhear on group whisper)
“Why did you take the elven race? Do you want to be killed.” (Air Kingdom conversations overhear on group whisper)
“Need to find more people of the same level.” (Water Kingdom conversations overhear on group whisper)
“This way to Elvish Swords and Charms! Buy the famous swords of Air Kingdom here! Perfect for beginners!” (Air Kingdom conversations overhear on group whisper)
“Brought goods from southern villages to trade….buy now!” (Earth Kingdom conversations overhear on group whisper)
“Require a container for a level E/100 fire user!” (Fire Kingdom conversations overhear on group whisper)
But no matter how long they searched within each city, they could not find the beginner training hall. The Geomchi’s asked many many players but to no avail. Most players replied back with what their disciples and instructors already knew…there was no training hall.
“This is very strange indeed…how do we become stronger if there is no place dedicated for sword skills?” Geomchi2 asked the instructors and disciples accompanying him.
Before any of the disciples or instructors could talk about the elemental powers, Geomchi 2 nose picked up on a delicious scent. Even the other Geomchi’s had worked up an appetite from all that searching they had undertaken.
Sniff Sniff…they could smell something delectably delicious. The fragrance of delicious foods would grow stronger to those hungry…another of Lee Hyun’s ploys to get players to spend their money. Spending money was an important part of regulating the VR economy of the Versailles Continent. Since monsters dropped money and overtime more and more players would hunt more and more monsters, it was important to make sure players also spent the money.
Geomchis’ stomach growled as they smelled delicious food. Geomchi 2 was most curious; since the scent was very familiar…he followed his nose through the market square till he reached a food stall.
“Selling delicious food made with beginner cooking skill level 9, delicious kimbap rolls!”
Geomchi2 knew he would never forget this smell as long as he lived…it was the same savoury kimbap rolls he had when he met the love of his life for the first time. He turned his head and saw someone making food. “Cha Eunhee?” He asked suspiciously in a low voice.
The young woman froze on the spot and gave a crooked smile. “No dear sir, you must have mistaken me for someone else…who is this Cha Eunhee you speak of? Is she your daughter?”
Geomchi2 suspiciously stared at the young human making the kimbap rolls. She was far too young to be his wife…and her voice and face was different too…furtheremore he did not believe his wife would ignore his request of not to play RREV….and even if she did she would let him know about it?
The more he stared at the young lady, the more he grew convinced. The young woman too was acting suspiciously, she her face around and continued cooking.
“Go away…if you aren’t buying anything don’t block the way to my stall…” The young woman said with her back facing Geomchi2.
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Authors Note:
1. So much work to be done. The releases will continue to be delayed till Jan 2014.....
2. Thank you jomke86 for pointing out that the language needed to be explained more clearly.
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Connect to Royal Road – Elementarem Vim next Chapter?YesNo
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