From Today, I'm a Player

Chapter 81: Giants Pt. 3

There was incredible pressure on their bodies as it was the weight of the giant’s vast power.

“Keheuk!”

However, Jeong In-Chang was the only one to cry out in pain.

"Mr. Lee..."

On the other hand, Lee Jun-Kyeong and Fenrir were able to push aside the pressure and stand upright.

“...”

There was a glimmer in the eyes of the giants, and they looked at each other and spoke in a language the party couldn’t understand.

‘They…’

Lee Jun-Kyeong looked at them and thought to himself. These giants had entirely different appearances from the giants the party had been hunting.

Furthermore, they spoke in a human language and worked in groups.

They were incomparably stronger than the giants the party had hunted up until now, especially one particular giant.

The giant that had walked forth as a representative and spoke to them seemed to have incredible strength.

“Mr. Lee…”

Lee Jun-Kyeong became aware of Jeong In-Chang all of a sudden. He had forgotten that the Hunter was still under the enormous pressure that the giant was exuding. He pondered for a moment about whether or not he should help Jeong In-Chang bear the pressure.

“Just think of it as training.”

But he decided that there wasn’t any reason for him to get involved.

“You mother…”

As Jeong In-Chang frowned and was about to speak further, the giants began to move.

Startled by their sudden movement, Jeong In-Chang shook off the pressure and drew his greatsword.

“See? You could do it too if you tried!” Lee Jun-Kyeong pointed out.

Jeong In-Chang had no choice but to admit it too.

“I guess it does have some effect.”

Jeong In-Chang looked confused upon seeing Lee Jun-Kyeong’s carefree attitude. The other Hunter hadn’t even drawn a weapon.

“You’ll have to follow us for now,” the giants said. After a moment, they suddenly threw something into the air.

It was a net that was large enough to envelop Fenrir and the rest of their party.

“Mr. Lee!”

“Growl!”

Jeong In-Chand and Fenrir both shouted out, but Lee Jun-Kyeong raised his hand as if signaling them not to move.

"Surprise."

***

“How insane are you that you’d just say surprise in that sort of situation?” Jeong In-Chang asked later.

Lee Jun-Kyeong responded, “Well, considering they didn’t have any hostility, I was just joking a little.”

The reason why Lee Jun-Kyeong had let the giants catch them in a net was simple—the giants didn’t have any bloodlust or hostility. Moreover, there was another reason as well.

“Look,” he said as he smiled softly and grabbed the net in his fingers. Then, with a slight tremble, the netting caught in his hands began to tear. He quickly let go of the strands and looked over at Jeong In-Chang as if nothing had happened.

He said quietly, “We can escape whenever we want.”

Jeong In-Chang rubbed his temples.

“Ha…”

“Humans should be quiet,” said a giant who seemed to be the leader who had made sure to use a Human language.

“What in the world is he saying?” Jeong In-Chang said as the giant had spoken in Chinese, a language he couldn’t understand.

Lee Jun-Kyeong thought for a moment. The giant had spoken in Cantonese. Considering that the giant had spoken in a dialect of Chinese, it meant that it had a pretty high level of intelligence.

Gateization had started only about two years ago in China. To think that in that time, those giants–no, that giant at least, had learned Chinese, which belonged to a group of languages known for their considerable difficulty.

Moreover, to think that it had learned Cantonese, which had an even higher level of difficulty.

It was easy to see that these giants could be quite intelligent.

“I guess, even if it’s Mr. Lee over here, there’s no way you could speak Chinese too,” Jeong In-Chang said as if he had finally realized that the giants were speaking in Chinese.

However, as soon as he had opened his mouth, he had no choice but to shut it immediately as he watched Lee Jun-Kyeong conversing with the giant.

“Where are we going?” Lee Jun-Kyeong asked in Cantonese.

“Are you someone from this land?” the giant said as he raised his eyes to look at Lee Jun-Kyeong. All the survivors within the giants’ territories had been moved into their cities. But then, a white wolf and men with immense power appeared.

The giant had thought they were foreigners for a good reason, but had faltered for a moment after hearing Lee Jun-Kyeong speak in Cantonese.

“No, we came from somewhere else,” Lee Jun-Kyeong responded.

“...I see.”

The giant immediately turned its head at the response and continued to walk forward.

Lee Jun-Kyeong and the others sat on the back of an ice drake wrapped in the net, and Fenrir returned to his boy form from his wolf form.

“Seems you’re with a special person,” the giant commented. They clearly thought that Fenrir was special.

“We’ve only tied you up as a precaution because of him, so don’t worry too much about what’s going on,” the giant said in a subtly warm tone.

‘It really is true…’

These giants were markedly different from the giants of history. Unlike the recorded giants, who had been represented as beasts of slaughter and destruction, these giants were very similar to humans, only differing in size and degree of similarity.

“Are we going to your city?” Lee Jun-Kyeong asked a question again.

“Do you even know about our city?” the giant asked in response.

“Just a little,” he responded.

The giant commented, “You really are a strange little fellow. A special person and a unique little fellow. And there’s even an ogre too. It really must be…”

The giant's gigantic lips twitched and made something resembling a smile.

“You really are someone who can’t be thought of as a human being.”

The giant stopped and continued to speak with a smile, “You’re right. We are going to our city right now. But you don’t have to worry. We don’t have any intention of harming you.”

He then continued further, “My name is Thjazi. I’m the former leader of the great Frost Giant Clan.”

“Thjazi…” Lee Jun-Kyeong repeated the name of the giant and then offered his own in return, “I’m Lee Jun-Kyeong.”

"Hmm."

The giant, who had introduced himself as Thjazi, looked at Lee Jun-Kyeong curiously.

The man in front of him was definitely a strange person. Humans who would see them would generally either rush at them with iron in their hands or scream and run away.

Or even they would collapse on the spot and cry.

However, the one in front of him portrayed great courage for a human.

‘This really is a special one.’

This man was someone who traveled with a pure white wolf and even with an ogre.

“How impressive. What an impressive name.”

“Haha.”

Fenrir, who had been sleeping next to Lee Jun-Kyeong, raised his head for a moment with a drowsy expression.

***

After the giant named Thjazi had revealed his name, the party had begun to converse quite a bit. The giants weren’t hostile. They had only tied them down without warning as they were wary of Fenrir.

Fenrir was a pure white wolf who could transform into a human and possessed incredible powers. To them, he was a creature they would call special.

As the conversation continued, the topic drifted to the giants they had killed.

“The Nars…”

The giants that had attacked the party as they had headed to this point were obviously different from the giants in front of them.

The party of giants called them the Nar.

“They are the enemy,” Thjazi said.

“The enemy?” Lee Jun-Kyeong asked.

"Although the Nars you defeated were beings who had been abandoned even from that tribe… they are still those from another giant tribe that roamed the land. Not only are they our enemies…”

Thjazi let out a deep laugh.

"They are idiots."

“AHAHAHAHA!”

“Haha!”

The giants laughed wildly as if there was a running joke amongst them.

“Therefore, there are none among us who would accuse you, who killed these Nar, of anything. Rather, you should be rewarded.”

Lee Jun-Kyeong nodded. “I see.”

“Yi, er, san, si…”

However, there was one person who couldn’t join the conversation at all. Jeong In-Chang counted in Chinese as he sat next to Lee Jun-Kyeong.

“For what reason is that fellow counting so much?” Thjazi asked.

“...”

However, Lee Jun-Kyeong couldn’t figure out how to answer him. So, he changed the topic. “Why are you taking us to the city?”

Thjazi’s face hardened for a moment. They had been dancing around the subject until this point, never directly addressing it.

“Our chieftain ordered us to gather the humans,” Thjazi finally responded.

Lee Jun-Kyeong tilted his head to the side. “Gather them?”

“There’s no need to think that it’s weird. All we are doing is protecting those who want protection. So even with the group of you, all you will have to do is go into the city for a while, talk things out, and then if you want, we can send you back here as well…”

However, Thjazi’s expression, as he explained, was different from the expression he had shown before. It was as if…

‘Is he ashamed?’

It was an expression that revealed that there was something that was making him feel uneasy, as if he had a bunch of dirty laundry somewhere.

“I’ll stake my honor on it. You’ll be able to make the decisions you want safely. I promise in the name of Thjazi,” the giant said as he chuckled and placed his gigantic hand on his forehead.

It seemed like it was similar to an oath from the giants. However, it was still true that something felt strange.

‘So this is the city of giants.’

It was a place described only in rumors, the truth of the matter buried away. It was a place that even Lee Jun-Kyeong had no idea of.

This was the place where ‘he’ would be.

The person that Lee Jun-Kyeong had come all the way to China to find.

“It sounds like that means there are still survivors,” Lee Jun-Kyeong said to Thjazi.

The giant had said it clearly. If there were people who still wanted protection, then they would protect them. That meant that there would be many survivors there.

“Of course,” Thjazi said.

After their conversation, the ice drakes started moving quickly. Finally, from a distance, something began to appear.

"Wow…” Jeong In-Chang exhaled in admiration.

"…"

Lee Jun-Kyeong looked at something in front of them quietly. A massive stronghold stood in the distance, its round walls reminding him of an ancient fortress.

"There it is,” Thjazi said proudly as he watched the party’s reaction. “This is our city.”

It was the city of giants.

China had transformed into a land of ice, and a fortress of giants had been built on what used to be Guangzhou, China.

"…"

Lee Jun-Kyeong quieted his breathing and whispered the name of the city under his breath.

“Utgard…”

***

"It’s Thjazi!"

“Thjazi has finally returned!”

The gates of the wall, impossibly bigger than anything the party could have imagined, opened. Following that, they, alongside Thjazi and the giants, entered the fortress of Utgard.

“This must be a completely different world… no, maybe we’re going through a dimensional shift… we aren’t doing anything weird like space travel, right?”

This place was incredible enough that Lee Jun-Kyeong could understand why Jeong In-Chang responded in that manner. It felt like a completely different world.

“How insane…”

There were countless giants, and the buildings and fortresses they had built were so huge that it was impossible for the party to express their size easily.

The giants around them stared back and forth between Thjazi and the party.

"Wait, aren’t they humans?"

“But why are they tied up in a net?”

“Could they have done something wrong?”

“That’s not it!” some shouted after they saw Fenrir.

“Grr…”

Fenrir had shaken off his drowsiness and fully woke up, showing his teeth and expressing hostility. Although he still looked like a boy, the giants’ eyes were focused on the powerful energy he radiated.

“What a special creature!”

The giants shouted at Fenrir in the same manner that Thjazi had, their shouts reverberating to the point where it felt like the party’s eardrums would tear apart.

“So then, did Thjazi catch something special?”

“Wait, is that the Vanagandr?”

Lee Jun-Kyeong was taken aback. Vanagandr? He wondered why the giants were calling Fenrir Vanagandr.

“That’s not what’s going on!” Thjazi shouted. “We are going to the chieftain! Pave the way!"

Upon hearing that command, the whispering giants moved aside.

Lee Jun-Kyeong and his party walked forward, surrounded by the giants who were so tall that it was difficult to see their faces even if the party looked straight up into the sky.

These giants looked down at them, seemingly not sure what expression to make.

"Calm down,” Lee Jun-Kyeong said while stroking Fenrir. Although the boy gradually stopped baring his teeth, the hostility he radiated fiercely remained strong.

As they traveled forward, even inside the fortress, the party had to cross over trails of ice.

While they moved forward, although there were only a few of them, they could see humans from far away.

“There are people over there…!” Jeong In-Chang said.

They looked as though they were Chinese, and they watched the party while hiding in an improvised building that looked quite different from the structures of the giants.

Lee Jun-Kyeong and his party moved forward slowly.

Suddenly, as Thjazi stopped, Fenrir pointed forward and said to Lee Jun-Kyeong,

“Kill. Enemy.”

1. When Koreans say Chinese, they are generally referring to Mandarin. While Mandarin and Cantonese generally use the same writing system, they are mostly mutually unintelligible, as both the grammar structure and vocabulary are different. Furthermore, Mandarin only has four tones, while Cantonese has nine. In Korea, Cantonese is taught at a higher level of study than Mandarin (or it was when I was in school).

2. Thjazi, or Thiazi, is a Jotunn in Norse Mythos. He could turn into the form of an eagle and was known for kidnapping the Goddess Idunn, the goddess of apples and youth. After being killed for his crimes, his daughter Thjazi went to war with Asgard for revenge, only stopping once being given atonement and a husband, Njord. His eyes were placed in his honor as stars in the night sky.

3. Utgard refers to a few different things, but in this case, it most likely refers to the Castle Stronghold of one of the most famous giants, Utgard-Loki (The Utgard modifier is to distinguish this giant from Loki).

4. Vanagandr is another name for Fenrir, meaning monster of the river Van. The river Van is said to be a river formed from the saliva that drips from Fenrir’s fettered mouth.