Genius Blacksmith's Game

When one pleasure ends, the public inevitably goes looking for another.

After the heated event, Endurance, ended, viewers and hundreds of commentators around the world found their enjoyment in cheering for their own national heroes.

Continental War: World Championship was unfolding exactly as everyone had expected.

Day two.

The United States added another gold medal, and China managed to secure one gold.

The flow was precisely what everyone had predicted: the United States with two golds, Russia with two golds, China with one gold.

But there was one single flaw in that otherwise perfect picture.

Korea.

Korea, like China, also held one gold medal.

Just as the citizens of other nations searched for new pleasure and cheered for their own heroes,

the Korean people needed someone to cheer for too.

But cheering required knowing something about the person they were cheering for.

The commentators began explaining the match that was about to unfold.

—Naval Battle. That is the name of this event. To explain the rules of Naval Battle, every user participates with a ship of their own.

—There is no limit on the number of ships. A user may operate as many as they are capable of commanding. However, this rule appears to be functionally unnecessary. Captains who operate ships have something called “operation capacity.” No matter how high-level a sea-based user may be, most of them fill that operation capacity with a single ship, especially if that ship is an excellent one.

—In other words, the user with an outstanding ship and outstanding qualities as a captain will have the advantage in this event.

—Every participant is from a class that lives on the sea. Ordinary users may not be used to the ocean. But many sea-related classes have made their mark there.

—What these participants do after appearing aboard a single ship is simple. They must reach the destination, Whale Island, faster than anyone else. Medals are decided according to the order in which they arrive at Whale Island.

—The strongest favorite to win is the Japanese user Sota. Sota is the owner of the Ghost Ship. It is known to have reached Legendary.

—Of course, Legendary ships like the Red Wave Ship and the Black Ship are also expected to appear, but the main reason Sota is considered the strongest favorite is likely his class: Plundering Pirate. The combination of a Legendary ship and a Legendary class defies common sense.

—Who is Korea sending out, and what ship does he possess?

—That is honestly unclear. The user competing is someone we have never heard of before.

—Korea’s participant is Lee Jongha. The ship he owns is also unknown.

Korean viewers, who needed someone to cheer for like the viewers of other countries, voiced their confusion.

—Who the hell is that, you nerd?!

—I’ve never heard of him.

—Is he an unofficial ranker?

—Could it be that? Since they had to fill the numbers, maybe they paid some user to go embarrass himself in their place?

—That’s going too far.

—For real.

—But isn’t there way too little information? I have no idea what Team Korea captain Hyunsoo is thinking.

—Saying they paid him to come is definitely going too far, but it does kind of look like they just put him up because they had to put someone up.

—Seeing it like this, our country really doesn’t have many talented people.

If the United States and China each had roughly one hundred and one hundred fifty rankers within the top thousand, Korea had only twenty to thirty at best.

—Fighting!

—I’m still cheering for him!

—Whatever the case, who cares! I’ll cheer for him as a fellow Korean!

Even so, a considerable number of Korean citizens cheered for the unfamiliar figure named Lee Jongha.

Of course, as always, the world at large paid no particular attention to the introduction of “Lee Jongha,” a Team Korea player.

And while everyone was wondering about this mysterious user named Lee Jongha,

there was one user who knew about him.

*****

The Japanese user Sota.

He was the strongest favorite to win.

He stood in the entrance waiting room together with the other competitors.

The entrance waiting room was where the participants gathered before the match began, listened to the broadcast, and then headed into the arena.

The strongest favorite.

Sota, the owner of the Legendary ship, the Ghost Ship, and a user who possessed the Legendary class Ghost Pirate, was full of confidence.

In fact, countless participants gathered here had heard stories about Sota.

Since Sota’s ship was the Ghost Ship, hundreds of outstanding ghosts boarded it.

They were ghosts who had once been the finest pirates to roam the seas.

And Sota’s own stories were astonishing.

The story of how he raided the Kraken alone has become a legend.

With Pirate King Akao’s position currently vacant, isn’t he the strongest candidate to become the next Pirate King?

The most famous anecdote among the legends he had left behind was his battle against the navy.

Ares also had navies.

Sota was famous for destroying and evading thirty-one enemy naval ships all on his own.

There is no rival here.

Sota had every reason to be confident.

He slowly swept his gaze around.

One of the reasons he had reached his current position was his thorough research.

Sota had, in fact, investigated every participant.

Among them, the most puzzling figure was Team Korea’s Lee Jongha.

When searching for information, one usually found it inside Ares.

But Sota could not find even the slightest information about Lee Jongha inside Ares.

There was usually one reason for that.

He has no achievements to his name at all.

Even Valhalla would leave behind some kind of clue.

But this man had not left a speck.

When he failed to find information in Ares, Sota pursued information in reality instead.

Something about him bothered me.

He wondered whether the Korean government might have secretly raised him.

But the information uncovered through a Korean private investigation agency was an amusing story.

What exactly is that man?

Did Korea really put up nothing more than a figurehead?

The users present were also curious about his identity.

And Sota spoke to Lee Jongha in order to reveal that truth.

“I heard you had a very unfortunate school life. It seems Korea has a serious bullying culture as well.”

All the participants were wearing automatic translator earphones.

Bullying.

A major social problem involving group ostracism and violence.

In other words, Lee Jongha was a victim of school violence.

At those words, relief settled over the faces of the rankers present.

That was it? He really is just a figurehead.

Noah, a user with the class Sea General, remembered running into him on the street not long ago. When Noah had said, “Hey, bro!” Lee Jongha had lowered his head and hurried away.

“No wonder......”

Noah looked at a member of a national team with pity in his eyes.

Sota said, “I also heard your social anxiety is severe enough that you can barely go outside. Did you enter the match to support your mother, who works at a restaurant?”

“......”

Sota’s tone made it sound as if he respected him and found him admirable.

But the reality was completely different.

Noah and the world’s rankers were quick-witted people.

Just as the culture of bullying could happen in truly subtle ways,

Sota was speaking as though he were caring for him and praising him.

But that was not the essence of it.

He was letting everyone present learn the truth: that Lee Jongha had social anxiety, and that his parents pitifully worked at a restaurant.

“I support your own unique form of filial duty. Though I do wonder how much they paid you to sell your face.”

It was an insult.

An insult toward someone who had sold his face for money.

And Sota thought that once everything had been exposed, Lee Jongha would be so ashamed and overcome by social anxiety that he would not even be able to raise his head.

But......

What?

Sota was shaken.

His expression was nothing like that of someone suffering from shame and social anxiety.

What is that look......?

But before he could finish that thought,

—The players are entering!

The players began entering amid cheers.

Watching him walk ahead, Sota recalled the expression Lee Jongha had worn just moments earlier.

He had clearly been sneering, and his eyes had held some unknowable certainty.

*****

Jongha looked back on the past.

He was a user who enjoyed solo play, and one day, he went out to sea as usual and became stranded.

When Jongha opened his eyes, he was on a strange island.

It was an island unknown to users.

No matter how much he searched and looked into it, he could not learn anything about it.

The residents there called it Story Island.

Jongha did not know it, but he had been the first user to reach the new continent before anyone else.

Jongha liked that small island.

There are no people here, and I don’t have to avoid anyone.

For Jongha, whose social anxiety was severe, it was enjoyable.

There, he also built up many achievements and overcame many things.

That was why Jongha’s story had never gone out into the world.

And eventually, he came to stay in a certain village.

The villagers were kind, and they gave Jongha many things.

Then,

a ship carrying the villagers was caught in a storm and stranded.

Jongha went out to sea even after being told he might die.

Because he was a user anyway, and it did not matter if he died.

He fought the storm and saved every villager.

Then he heard an unknown notification.

[In an impossible situation, you have succeeded.]

[The King of ??? hears your story.]

But Jongha did not pay much attention to it.

Because there was something else he needed to care about right then.

Jongha was loved by the people who had survived because of him.

“It’s thanks to you.”

“Ah, the hero of the village!”

“Lee Jongha, you’re the best.”

That made him happy.

It was the first time in his life.

They acknowledged him and revered him as their savior.

So Jongha fought for the people of Story Island, overcoming one ordeal after another.

This island was a strange place.

Many beings targeted it, and because of that, various quests broke out.

[Quest: Procure Food for the Villagers has been created.]

[Hidden Quest: Threat of the Sea Monsters has been created.]

[Hidden Quest: Mermaids Threatening the Island has been created.]

Jongha overcame them countless times.

The quest

“Mermaids Threatening the Island” required him to defeat a horde of hundreds of mermaids before they invaded Story Island.

Jongha was forcibly logged out a full four times for that quest, but he succeeded.

To be honest, he lost more than he gained.

In this way, even while dying again and again, he protected Story Island.

Then one day,

[In an impossible situation, you have built several astonishing achievements.]

[Class Quest: True Master has been created.]

[Class Quest: True Master]

Grade: SSS

Restriction: One who has received the proposal of the King of ???

Reward: Advancement to a new class.

Failure Penalty: Expulsion from Story Island.

Description: You may be able to become the true master of a certain great tale. His representative will come to find you.

He received this quest of unknown identity.

That had been six months ago.

Jongha became caught up in the expectation that he might “become someone special.”

But for over half a year, no special person, or anyone at all, came to Jongha.

He had never even seen the representative mentioned in the quest.

Of course.

Jongha thought there was no way he could be special.

That was why,

yesterday evening,

Jongha was puzzled.

Why did Master Hyunsoo single me out?

He could not understand it.

So he went to find him and ask.

But Hyunsoo called him first.

[Hyunsoo: Could we meet?]

The two met in Atlas.

Hyunsoo had received a request from the Story King several months earlier.

Even now, Story Island remained an unsolved mystery.

The Story King had told Hyunsoo about Jongha.

The system had been restricting the two from meeting, so Hyunsoo met Jongha in his stead.

And the Story King had asked him to test something.

“......I know about the achievements you built. Why did you keep fighting even while dying dozens of times?”

Jongha could not understand the sudden question.

Hyunsoo felt the same.

Even after receiving his request, Hyunsoo did not understand why the Story King had chosen a user named Jongha.

Perhaps,

sending Lee Jongha to Naval Battle might be the wrong choice.

But,

after thinking quietly, Jongha said,

“......Because I had to.”

That was right.

It was because he had to.

[The Hero’s Tale reacts.]

Just as people had once had to board the Turtle Ship and go out to sea.

Just as they had rowed, knowing they might die.

That was what Lee Jongha had chosen to do because it had to be done, and it was what he had to protect.

Lee Jongha.

For the man who had quietly done his work simply because “he had to,” Hyunsoo did what he had to do as the Story King’s representative.

“......The Story King chose you.”

At first, Hyunsoo doubted it, and Jongha himself doubted it too.

Jongha still did not know exactly who the Story King was.

But the moment Hyunsoo took out the Twin Dragon Sword and handed it to him, he knew.

[The Twin Dragon Sword reacts to its true owner.]

He knew that the greatest hero had been waiting for him.

The moment he grasped the Twin Dragon Sword, he heard it.

[Class Quest: True Master complete.]

[You have advanced to Successor of Admiral Yi.]

He walked after Hyunsoo and stood before another place.

There was a ship there.

[The Turtle Ship reacts to its true owner.]

[The Turtle Ship meets its new owner.]

That ship,

the ship with the finest performance in Naval Battle,

was the Turtle Ship.