WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Damned Transmigration ◈
Chapter 131: Communication 1
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The formation array that Jegal Myeong-u said would take two days to break was dismantled in half a day.
“From here on, we’ll each go our separate ways.”
There were too many people to safely escort all the way down the mountain.
Fortunately, the hostages included martial artists and mages. None were particularly skilled, but with a hundred people working together, they should be able to get down the mountain on their own.
“Please, Young Hero...”
Jegal Myeong-u’s clothes and face were caked in dirt from repeatedly prostrating himself on the ground. He looked at Yuri desperately. He wanted to return to the Jegal Family with Yuri somehow.
“Please visit the Jegal Family someday, should you have the opportunity.”
In Jegal Myeong-u’s view, Yuri’s talent was rare enough to be counted among the rarest under heaven, no, of all time.
If Yuri came to the Jegal Family and cooperated with them, many of the problems facing the family could be resolved.
No matter how desperate he was, Jegal Myeong-u could not force him. Yuri said it was a talent related to the martial arts he had learned, so Jegal Myeong-u could not even ask him to teach it. Dragging him away by force was out of the question.
Nor did Jegal Myeong-u, a member of a collateral branch, have the authority to promise Yuri anything in exchange for a visit.
“Yes, if I’m ever in the area, I’ll stop by.”
Yuri answered half-heartedly and sent the survivors on their way. Jegal Myeong-u kept looking back regretfully, so Yuri gave him a casual wave before turning around.
“I feel fulfilled.”
Estor stood with his arms crossed, watching the survivors leave with a moved expression. He nodded as he looked at the sunset slowly reddening the sky and the survivors walking beneath it.
“This must be what chivalrous conduct is. Ever since I was young, Grandfather told me countless times that the strong should naturally protect the weak. Yet I have rarely put it into practice.”
Panteleon, where Estor had grown up, was far too peaceful for such chivalry.
He had ventured into outlying districts with poor security several times, but there had been no truly weak people there who needed his protection.
Today, however, Estor had truly helped the weak. If he had not swung his sword, all those people would have been tormented and made to suffer by the Green Forest bandits.
“Our pockets have become very full.”
Haryeong seemed happier about confiscating all of Red Wolf Stronghold’s wealth than about saving so many people.
The Subspace connected to Agwi’s Necklace was already filled with gold, silver, and treasures, so they were hardly poor. Still, having too little money could cause trouble, while having too much rarely did.
“If you’re that well off, why don’t you spend some?”
“What are you saying, Yuri? Have you forgotten what Lame Thor said when he first joined our journey?”
“He said he had plenty of money.”
“Yes, which means Estor must pay all our travel expenses. We had no reason to spend money during that year at the Uicheon Sword Gate, so I intend to indulge in a whole year’s worth of luxury.”
Haryeong’s face held the firm resolve of someone with no intention of backing down.
“I still have plenty of savings, and if I truly run short, I can use the Orsia Family’s wealth. I’ll become the head of the Orsia Family someday anyway, so all the family’s wealth is mine.”
Though Haryeong had openly declared she would use him as a wallet, Estor remained calm.
He had insisted on coming along and gained greatly from it. He had gained not only experience, but even the Calamity Star’s teachings. Those were things money could not buy.
“What an unfilial bastard.”
Yuri clicked his tongue and took Black Fang back from Haryeong.
“Still, why are you so determined to save money, Haryeong?”
“Is this money mine alone? This is joint property between Yuri and me. Someday, we’ll use it for the two of us.”
Depending on how one took it, that sounded quite strange.
When Yuri looked flustered, Haryeong shrugged and began walking ahead.
“We can put our heads together someday and decide where and how to spend it. Come on, let’s get moving. We only dealt with small fry, but it’s hot and I feel sticky. I don’t want to camp on the mountain.”
Yuri and Estor felt the same way.
Following behind Haryeong, Yuri took out a map and unfolded it.
After descending Uicheon Mountain, their destination was the Rift of Kang Yu.
They had been travelling in a straight line without stopping anywhere else. Considering that they moved far faster than a carriage, they would reach Kang Yu within fifteen days at the latest.
The monsters that appeared in the Rift of Kang Yu, yokai, were at least Grade 4.
The grades defined by the Guild were not absolute, but they corresponded to tiers. That meant one needed to be at least fourth tier to fight in the Rift of Kang Yu.
That was only if they faced the yokai that appeared normally. Yokai born during a rare Rift rampage were, in game terms, Unique-rank bosses.
Naturally, they were incomparably stronger than ordinary mobs, and they were guaranteed to possess an inner core. The Unique boss that appeared in Kang Yu would likely be around Grade 6.
The three subjects Myou-hee, USAUSAMI, had ruled over. The Pointing Flame, who had croaked in Panteleon, had been third tier in Kang Yu, while the other two were said to have been fourth tier.
That was not enough combat power to be of help against a Grade 6 boss. In effect, Myou-hee had killed a Grade 6 boss alone.
‘Around sixth tier six years ago...’
It was said that she had not been able to kill it easily. Myou-hee had fought the boss with everything she had, extracted its inner core, and suffered injuries that left her severely exhausted.
That was why the uprising of her subjects succeeded. The critically injured Myou-hee had fallen from a cliff...
Given her injuries, she might have died. Still, Yuri placed more weight on the possibility that she had survived.
It was not merely because they had known each other as friends in the community. Yuri, Lee Su-hyeok, knew what kind of character USAUSAMI had raised.
The concept of USAUSAMI’s character was an esper.
A mage who had learned only psychokinesis and telekinesis-related skills, excluding other support skills as much as possible.
If USAUSAMI had chosen the esper concept in this world as well, there was a good chance she had survived even while falling with critical injuries.
The problem was that even the Pointing Flame could not tell whether Myou-hee was a mage or a martial artist.
In truth, it was impossible for a third-tier mage to accurately judge someone at sixth tier.
All the Pointing Flame knew was that Myou-hee was strong enough to make fighting her terrifying and ferocious enough to make normal conversation impossible.
He must have suffered terribly under her. Whenever Yuri merely asked about Myou-hee, the Pointing Flame would have a fit by himself, muttering, “Usausa,” so Yuri had learned almost nothing about her.
Still, thankfully, he had heard the name and characteristics of the cliff Myou-hee had fallen from.
Nakseong Cliff.
‘Did she die...?’
Sometimes, when they exchanged pointless conversations in the chat window at dawn, Yuri found himself thinking that he would like to meet her in person at least once.
But he had never said it aloud. There were all kinds of barriers.
FS had to be American, considering that they spoke fluent English without using a translator.
Of course, America was not the only country where people spoke English, and someone who spoke English was not necessarily American. But to Lee Su-hyeok, anyone good at English was highly likely to be American.
Chuk-sin-doo and Cat Panties were openly Korean from their usernames alone. Not every Korean lived in the same region, but they could have met if they had wanted to.
Even if one wanted to meet, however, saying, “Let’s meet,” was not easy.
Besides, Chuk-sin-doo was a lunatic who flooded the site with football broadcasts every day and only posted photos of football players. Cat Panties used an obscene username that could not be said soberly in public, poured millions into a custom character, added nya to the end of every sentence, and acted like a netkama.
To be honest, Lee Su-hyeok was embarrassed that those people were fellow Koreans. He had always thought that because of lunatics like them, even innocent people like himself got cursed at.
Even Lee Su-hyeok went through the trouble of running his posts through a translator once before posting them. Chuk-sin-doo and Cat Panties did not.
On that site, where most users were foreigners, those people used Korean usernames and did crazy things in Korean. They were national embarrassments.
What about USAUSAMI?
He had spoken with USAUSAMI through a translator. The longer their conversations went on, the worse the translation became, and after a while USAUSAMI stopped using a translator entirely.
[I Don’t Wanna Go to Work Usa.]
That was because she was drunk. Yuri did not chat with USAUSAMI every day, but whenever they did, she was always drinking and saying similar things.
[I Worked Overtime Again Usa.]
[I Wanna Go Back to Rabbit Planet Usa.]
[I Don’t Wanna Work Usa.]
[I’m Going to Drink Usa.]
[I Don’t Wanna Sleep Because When I Wake Up I Have to Go to Work Usa.]
When Yuri looked into why she complained so much, he learned that Japan had a serious problem with black companies. In other words, USAUSAMI had a job.
That meant that, despite not being entirely normal, she was a more respectable person than FS, Chuk-sin-doo, or Cat Panties in at least one regard.
There was no way people who posted self-indulgent diary entries every day, talked only about football players, or acted like netkama had normal jobs.
Lee Su-hyeok was the same. It was not something to be proud of, but he had never worked for a company.
Did that mean USAUSAMI was the best person among the five?
Not quite.
Though she had a job, she likely drank every day and fell asleep drunk. She also said she drank several cups of coffee a day.
What about Lee Su-hyeok? He barely drank alcohol. He did not smoke, either. He drank energy drinks, but hardly ever drank coffee.
In other words, Lee Su-hyeok’s body was healthier than USAUSAMI’s.
That was why Lee Su-hyeok considered himself a better person than USAUSAMI.
* * *
To send the reagents they had obtained from Red Wolf Stronghold to the Ascard Family, they visited the Adventurer Guild.
The Adventurer Guild had branches in every major city across both continents. Besides managing registered adventurers and commissions, it also operated postal counters.
Those counters handled mail delivery and storage, and could also be used for long-distance communication.
“There are communication requests waiting for me?”
While Estor used the counter, Yuri sat down at another one just in case and heard something unexpected.
“Yes. Two long-distance communication requests are pending for Grade 5 Adventurer Yuri.”
“From whom?”
Yuri asked while calming his pounding heart.
Not one, but two long-distance communications?
The first person who came to mind was Fist Wolf Bakerd. Perhaps Bakerd had learned definite information about the Evil God’s Saint called Gwimyeon and was asking for Yuri’s help.
If that was the case, Yuri was sorry for USAUSAMI, whose fate after falling from Nakseong Cliff remained unknown, but he was willing to postpone finding out whether she was alive or dead and leave at once to help Bakerd.
If it was not Bakerd...
‘...Elena?’
His heart refused to calm down. It beat so quickly, thump, thump, that he could hear it.
It had already been over a year since he asked Lacey to deliver a letter to Elena. He had stopped by Guild branches several times after that, but had never heard that a letter was waiting for him.
Perhaps it was not a letter...
Perhaps Elena wanted to hear his voice directly.
He had shut himself away on Uicheon Mountain for an entire year and had not visited a Guild branch during that time. Today was his first visit since descending the mountain.
Could Elena have sent a reply in the meantime?
“One is from Grade 6 Adventurer Lacey Yuzha.”
Yuri’s expression crumpled as if he had eaten shit at that answer. Why the hell was the name Thor, Lacey, suddenly coming up?
“Then who sent the other request?”
“Grade 5 Adventurer Yuben.”
Yuri tilted his head at the employee’s answer. Grade 5 Adventurer Yuben? He had never met anyone by that name.
“Are you sure the request is for me?”
“Yes, I am sure.”
Who was it? Yuri kept turning the name Yuben over in his mind, but nothing came to him. After a moment’s thought, he nodded.
“I’ll accept both requests.”
He did not know who Yuben was, but he decided to accept the communication anyway.
“Please come this way.”
“Just a moment.”
Before following the employee who had risen from their seat, Yuri explained the situation to Haryeong and Estor, who had finished their business and were waiting.
“Lacey Yuzha is one thing, but Yuben?”
Haryeong furrowed her brow slightly and tilted her head.
“I’ve never heard that name before. What about you, Estor?”
“I haven’t heard it before either.”
“I’ll find out once we talk. It might take a while, so go to the inn first.”
After sending them ahead, Yuri entered a room behind the counter.
It was lined with booths resembling private pay-per-song karaoke rooms.
In this world, where mobile phones did not exist, one had to use such elaborate facilities for long-distance communication. Even then, the cost was high enough that most adventurers could not afford it with their earnings.
Yuri had only heard about it before. This was his first time using it. Until now, he had neither needed to use one nor had anyone with whom he regularly kept in contact.
“Please wait here.”
Yuri entered the booth as instructed and sat down.
From the outside, it resembled a karaoke booth. Inside, however, there was something similar to the public telephones that had become rare even on Earth.
There was no number pad like a public telephone had, though. Yuri sat and waited for it to ring.
‘How long am I supposed to wait?’
Only after dozens of minutes had passed did the phone ring.
Brrring, brrring...
Yuri suppressed a dry laugh at the familiar sound and picked up the receiver.
“Ah, ah, aaah... ah.”
Static crackled, then a voice came through.
“Hello?”
It was Lacey’s voice.
“What are you saying?”
“Hello, hello?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Ahem...”
When Yuri continued pretending not to understand, Lacey gave a short, awkward cough.
“It’s me, Lacey Yuzha.”
“I know.”
“Um... Did you wait long? I’m sorry. As you know, Yuri, there’s quite a distance between the Dersia Mage Tower and the Adventurer Guild in the city.”
“That’s true.”
“Really. I’ve lived in this world for quite some time, but isn’t this far too inconvenient? Even making one short call is such a bother. If you go to the Guild and submit a communication request, it takes days just to hear whether it was accepted or rejected. Even if it’s finally accepted, you can’t speak immediately, can you? You have to receive the signal from the calling item and then go to the Guild. What if you don’t receive the signal, or can’t go for some reason? My god, then you have to wait another few days...!”
“Isn’t that only natural?”
Yuri replied calmly.
“Natural...? Ha, yes, it is natural. In this world, anyway. There are personal magical communication items, but they can’t be used for long-distance communication, where linking fixed coordinates is important.”
“That’s right.”
“But, but! Our world wasn’t like that. All we needed was a mobile phone.”
“I don’t know what this mobile phone is, but it seems your world had convenient things like that. How about making one in this world yourself, Lacey?”
Lacey fell silent on the other end of the receiver at Yuri’s unshakable question.
“Wow...”
Lacey let out a soft exclamation and clapped slowly.
“You really are amazing. How are you so good at pretending not to know?”
“I’m not pretending. I truly don’t know.”
“You’re doing this to me on purpose, right? I know everything, you know?”
Of course Yuri was doing it on purpose. He was not even trying to truly deceive Lacey. Lacey was already certain Yuri was a Transmigrator.
Beyond that, Lacey suspected that Yuri might be UrMumSpammer.
Lacey was almost certainly Thor. That was why Yuri wanted even less to admit that he was a Transmigrator.
“Yes, know plenty. So why did you request communication?”
“I submitted the request itself half a year ago. After you entered Uicheon Mountain, I heard there was no news from you, so I wondered whether you had, um... been beaten to death by the Calamity Star.”
“Why would the Calamity Star beat me to death?”
“She’s a Priestess of Order from the Sect of Order. I thought perhaps the Calamity Star had some strange misunderstanding about you, Yuri.”
A misunderstanding? Yuri thought for a moment before asking.
‘I see.’
Yuri found it unfair enough to go mad, but some of the lunatics serving the Evil God believed that UrMumSpammer was an apostle of the Evil God.
Lacey must have guessed that Lorelia came to find Yuri because of that.
‘She was clueless back then, and she’s still clueless now.’
The guess itself was plausible, but it was full of holes once examined closely. That only made Yuri more certain that Lacey was Thor.
“The Calamity Star came to thank me for subjugating cultists.”
“That’s just the surface explanation. I know, too. I mean, the hidden other...”
“I wasn’t the only one on Uicheon Mountain. Haryeong and Estor were there with me. Are they Transmigrators too, then?”
“...Th-that could be possible, couldn’t it?”
“Are you serious?”
“Ahem... It seems I had a small misunderstanding. Anyway, I’m glad you’re safe.”
“Is that all? Can we hang up now?”
“Do you have somewhere urgent to be?”
Lacey sounded dumbfounded.
“If you have urgent business, hang up. I do have something else to say, but it’s not my business, so I don’t see why I need to tell you.”
“What is it?”
“If it’s not my business, what could there be for me to tell you, Yuri?”
After a scoff, Lacey continued.
“It’s about Elena.”
Footnotes:
“Netkama” is Korean internet slang for someone who presents themself as female online. “Usa” is a shortened form of the Japanese word for rabbit and serves as USAUSAMI’s rabbit-themed sentence ending. “Black company” is a Japanese term for an exploitative workplace.
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