Whew, done!
DICE 110
One comment: the author really likes to refer to Eunju as "none player" instead of "not a player", and I was too lazy to erase it or try to correct it by choosing a font that would match the one he used. So that is not our fault.
In any case, please don't forget to visit the original to support the author.
But you may (and perhaps ought to, depending on your aesthetical sensitivities) forget to visit the latest official English release at LINE.
P. S.: Thanks to iamsteph in the comment section for teaching me what "castling" is! I guess the title would have sounded better in English if the author hadn't used the definite pronoun, but I won't fret over that.
Castling refers to a move in chess wherein the king is moved 2 (or 3 depending on which rook) spaces over (if its never been moved during the game) towards an unmoved rook and the rook crosses the king one space over. Considering the chess themes we see in Dice, I think this definition is pretty likely.
ReplyDeleteJust finished the chapter and I think this chess definition makes sense, considering what Mooyoung and Taebin did. In chess, castling is one of the first few moves made in order to protect the king (Taebin protecting Mooyoung). Thanks for the chapter.
DeleteOooh, thanks for that!
DeleteThe idea it could have something to do with that did cross my mind, because "castle" is another name for a rook, but English is not my first language, so I didn't pursue the idea further. Now I've checked the dictionary and it only lists "to castle", which is obviously why I missed it.
Doesen´t have Eunju an unused Die with the "Cloaking" Ability? The teacher picked up the Levitation Die (and used it as we all know). This would match the image in Eunjus profile, btw.
ReplyDeleteMinor mistake, but really great work. I much appreciate your effort and everything else. Thanks for the chapter :)
Thanks for the heads-up, my bad. Corrected.
DeleteGreat chapter, big revelation, Taebin was mooyoung all along? I think the term castling refers to that move in chess, given that there are a lot of references to chess in Dice, maybe this is what the author intended.
ReplyDeleteThe scenes between Mooyoung and Taebin are so tender and intimate (the way Taebin holds him, the way Mooyoung touches his face, etc.), and yet it's very clear that the former is manipulating the latter. I really do think that Taebin has special feelings for Mooyoung, and Mooyoung is perfectly aware of that and completely willing to take advantage of them. Also, recall the chapter where Mooyoung murders everyone. Jihae, the girl with clairvoyance, sees a bunch of overlapping profiles when she looks at him. Mio sees something similar when she looks at Taebin. Exactly how long has Mooyoung been repeating this cycle? Inserting himself into a loser kid's life, causing that kid to become extremely attached to him to the point of codependency, then using that kid as a proxy to restore himself. Is that what happened to all the others? Did he essentially claim all of their bodies, only for them to be destroyed by X time and time again? Is that what X meant by playing with him "forever"? Because as long as he always has another body to use, Mooyoung is essentially immortal. Is this like Madoka Magica where he redoes the same thing again and again and again, hoping to win and end the cycle but never able to? If that's the case and he HAS been using other kids' bodies after manipulating them, then it's actually sickening how guiltlessly he's able to do it. Underneath that tenderness he showed Taebin must be a cold, unfeeling, and manipulative being who lost his humanity ages ago -- if he ever had any to begin with. I just hope Taebin is able to get over his attachment to Mooyoung and end the cycle for good.
ReplyDeleteHear, hear, I agree.
DeleteUnder that angle, yeah, Mooyoung is beyond despicable, and a good illustration of how misguided "the end justifies the means" is and how far from humanity one can go by pursuing a theoretically "humble" goal.
And yet, to think that X is the one who got Mooyoung into this loop, and the one who orchestrates everything, is to realise the unspeakable evil he represents.
I meant "noble", not "humble".
DeleteThanks for the translations~! Wow so Taebin is to be awakened as Mooyoung huh? Oh and I saw that typo in the original as well. I'm pretty sure the author meant to write non-player as in non-player character (NPC).
ReplyDeleteIt seems like Mooyoung's desire is actually to get rid of dice completely, huh? He previously said that it was impossible to change the world with dice and he wants a "reset." It also explains why X thinks that making Eunju a dicer would be so fun... Not only is his main "playmate" Mooyoung, but watching someone idealistic like Eunju turn into someone like Mooyoung and having both of them have it out over the exact same goal would be even more amusing to him.
ReplyDeleteHadn't thought of that. It's completely possible.
DeleteYeah, firm moral stances can be misleading over time, especially if someone becomes fanatical about them and stops thinking properly about all the ramifications. I can see Mooyoung having a past similar to Eunju's, but I must say their view of the world is different: both are idealists, but while Eunju firmly believes in the ability of people of achieving their goals through diligent application and effort, Mooyoung believes in setting the world right via a "life cheat" like the Final Die.
So other than being morally motivated, they are polar opposites. I don't think Mooyoung wants to get rid of the Dice, from what he says he just thinks X has no right to wield nearly divine power just to entertain himself when that power could be used to put the world back in the right track.
However, it is true that Eunju may interest X because he thinks she may be a moral absolutist like Mooyoung and it would be fun to see her personality become warped like his.
I would point out that Eunju, at least now, has immense regard for human life, whereas Mooyoung is ready to kill to achieve his greater goal. So Eunju is not Machiavellian, contrarily to him.
I think that just as Eunju served as a ray of light in Dongtae's darkest hours, Dongtae could do the same for her and stop her from following in Mooyoung's steps. There is an underlying trend in the series according to each Dicers are driven by individualism: "A-Rankers cannot be allies, as Taebin says". Maybe the key to defeating X is for the people under his control to ally against him. Eunju, the quintessential believer in society and common good, may act as a catalyst.
Well, just some random thoughts.
Yeah, they are very different from the current time in the story, but I think Mooyoung may have been closer to her in the past. As Mooyoung has gone through multiple challenges with X (at least 3-4, looking at the amount of profiles that are overlapped), his personality could have become increasingly warped-- and who knows if he has any remnants of his past bodies' original personalities lingering.
DeleteI think it may be less that he believes so intensely in what he is doing that he will sacrifice anyone, but more that Mooyoung has already sacrificed so much. It's that paradoxical way of thinking that, if he gives up now, everyone he's hurt and killed previously would have been for nothing. He's gone too far to turn back, and that strangely "justifies" any future sacrifices in his mind. And of course, if his idea of resetting is restarting the world without dice, everything he did in pursuit of the final die would also be undone.
Going off what you said about Dongtae, I think that Eunju is actually quite lucky in the story due to his and Taebin's presence early on. The amount of abuse that she goes through is ridiculous, so I wonder if she would have been able to keep her ideology so firm if she had been on her own. It's very possible for her to have given in to X's provocation about having to become a dicer to stop him, or perhaps even being pushed to the breaking point by her own classmates. It's interesting to think about!
Thanks guys!
ReplyDelete