What frustrates me about this kdrama is NOT that the game logic is missing but that it unfolds piecemeal. So far, the game appears logical to me but I’ve come to expect the TWIST in the plot. The rules are very much different from what JinWoo, Sec Seo and their programmer YangJoo would ordinarily expect from a typical AR game. And JinWoo only gets to find out about the different set of rules or game-changers while at play and often too late.
I’ll explain my take on some crazy game logic that bothered some viewers.
1. In Episode 10, why could JinWoo suddenly walk normal again? He left it by the window when he went to the washroom. And then he jumped off the train at the Granada station and walked around without his cane.
Answer: Because he was in game mode in Granada. He didn’t leave the Augmented Reality because the whole city was now a game destination.
That’s why he said after he killed Cha and began walking without a limp, “Here’s the only thing I’m right about. Granada has really become a city of magic. A crazy city where nothing seems to be strange no matter how messed up it is.”
His absent limp had nothing to do with the healing potion (he didn’t drink it yet) nor his encounter with Emma (he only got 100 recovery points from that).
2. How did Sec Seo die?
Answer: As JW’s ally, he shared experience points with JinWoo.
When he originally joined the game, he only became exhausted after fighting the NPCs. This changed when he became an ally of JinWoo. Both of them understood the meaning of being allies in “normal” game circumstances. So when the AR stated that:
Allies may fight the same opponents.
Experience points gained together are shared.
Allies may exchange weapons and items.
they noticed nothing unusual. It was only when Sec Seo got stabbed by NPC Cha’s sword did it dawn on them that being an ally had a different implication for “Memories of the Alhambra” AR game.
It meant Sec Seo also fully SHARED the “experience points” of JinWoo. He would see Cha and feel pain as if the injuries were real, not virtual — just like how JinWoo experienced the game.
But it should be noted that JinWoo always leveled UP; he always emerged victorious in his fight against NPCs, even producing a “killing field” in the abandoned school: one vs the army of NPCs.
And when he leveled up, Sec Seo did, too. That’s why Sec Seo said it was easy for him to move up – because he just followed JinWoo.
However, after killing Cha and gaining Level 4, JW hadn’t experienced virtual death again at the hand of the NPCs. He could NOT have foreseen that Sec Seo would die FOR REAL after being ambushed by NPCs at the Granada station.
All he knew from his previous virtual deaths from NPC (prior to defeating Cha in Episode 3) was that he could log back in and resume the same level. That’s how he survived the Nasrid warrior in Level 1. Thus, when Sec Seo was being attacked at the Granada station, he thought Sec Seo would simply resume the game with him.
That’s why:
a) he asked the station manager to look for a Korean male who “must have passed out” in the Granada station,
b) he looked for Sec Seo in the restroom as soon as he arrived at the station. He thought the man was simply resting after losing the game, and
c) why he detoured to the Alcazaba Café and hired the mercenaries to search for Sec Seo.
JinWoo believed that the REAL death came at the hands of Cha. Only death from a duel with Cha would constitute terminal death. However, since Cha was at level 3 and he was at level 90, he feared nothing from his encounters with Cha anymore. He remained sitting on the bench when Cha suddenly appeared on the train platform in front of him.
But he forbade Park SunHo from joining him and Sec Seo in the game in Ep 8 at 52:01. He told him, “If you really want to die after being harassed by HyunSuk, you can become my ally. But you’ll only last a few days. This is for your own good.”
With Sec Seo’s death, he discovered that NPCs could now also kill for real, too.
Do I feel sad about Sec Seo’s death? Not really. I prefer him dead as an ally than alive and turning-into-an-enemy/traitor later on. It was a fitting death for him: heroic. Hopefully though there’d be an autopsy done so the cause of death would be known.
3. Who killed Marco?
Answer: Not SeJoo.
My explanation is here: Marco’s death
4. How could the game continue to work underground, in the dungeons, when the programmer couldn’t establish connection with JinWoo?
Answer: because Granada become a magical city. “A crazy city where nothing seems to be strange no matter how messed up it is.”
lol. It’s the catchphrase for anything that happens in Granada is possible only in Granada.
I had the impression the leg healed after opening the quest so I went and rechecked some scenes.
The healing was obvious that it’s only an in game thing only. But it didn’t happen to him before in game. Not when he was logged in in Seoul in episode 8 while leveling up, not before he left Granada and HS kept appearing and tormenting him.
Granada IS a magical city because of the game but you can’t even say it’s only a Granada thing because he was limping in Granada before the last time he left, and when he reached Granada and was in the bathroom with HS outside he was still limping (ep 9 min 52). He seems to still be limping at min 56 when getting out of the bathroom after the Sec. Seo calls. He’s still limping at episode 10 min 10 before the train enters Granada (but he’s outside Granada, not logged in, of course he’s limping there, this shouldn’t count at all).
Then SW logs in automatically when the train enters Granada (same happened in episode 9. Sec Seo logs automatically with him too because they are allies).
The first time he walks normally is after he accepts the quest to Rescue Master. Maybe with the healing it’s a game mechanic there to heal the player fully after accepting this hard quest. Immediatly after opening it. Because now the game mechanics actually have an effect in real life (Sec Seo seems surprised he is actually hurt by the arrow which tells me he wasn’t felling any pain before in game from NPCs. I’m sure he must have been hurt while getting to lvl 50 even with JW boosting him up), JW is healed too. I had a hunch the game also heals him in real life when he levels up during this quest. I tried to check what happens after he reaches level 91 and he does heal up in real life BUT I’m not sure it’s because he leveled or because he won the train quest of killing the terrorists and whatever was spawned in game for that part de-spawned (terrorist corpses, blood, everything).
By the way after seeing the quest name he got there is “Rescue Master” I have more ideas of what is happening: The game is in a special state after he got the parcel with the quest at level 90. The game needs the player to get to Granada and maybe because there’s a timer on the quest that counts outside of the game (and for maybe other reasons) some weird anomaly/bug automatically logs players in when they enter Granada.
This happened to SeJoo when he returned to Granada but because he’s Master in game and because he was (maybe) on the quest to rescue Master the real SeJoo can’t get out of the game because his character is trapped in the dungeon waiting to be rescued. I’m not sure I’m making any sense here but somehow that’s why I think he’s trapped inside the game.
I’m thinking now it’s true SeJoo did not return to Granada after Marco convinced HS to try out the game and went with him there. Maybe even the same thing happened to Marco when he entered Granada and he was possibly killed there not because of a duel with HS but by a NPC (?)
He surely turned after he died into a NPC in-game that went after SeJoo (in episode 1 min 6:37 when SeJoo opens the train door we see part of Marco’s shirt that he was wearing when he was found dead). But it could make sense for this to happen with Marco killed by an NPC in the new game state in Granada where players are really affected by what happen in game if the bug that gets dead players to haunt other players as NPC happen not only to the killers in game but to all in-game enemies. Maybe Marco and SeJoo were enemies in game but not SeJoo killed Marco but some random NPC? Marco seemed to have a wound in the head too. At first I thought it was a bullet to the head (and that wouldn’t make plausible the theory with the NPC) but maybe it was an arrow?
Anyhow what I think will happen is.. JW fails to do the quest, he’s rescued from there (Hee Joo frantically searched for some sort of flyer at home – she must have called someone in Spain to get JW out of the dungeon). Because the quest can’t be replayed if you fail (it says so when he got it) I assume the next episodes will be of JW leveling HeeJoo to level 90 and when SHE gets the quest they’ll be able to go together and rescue Master and get SeJoo out of the game.
“4. How could the game continue to work underground, in the dungeons, when the programmer couldn’t establish connection with JinWoo?”
It works in the dungeon because he’s automatically logged into the game in Granada after he came with the quest. He can’t log off.
It does not require lenses or internet and whatever wounds (and heals I think) happen in game you actually feel in real life.
And with this I’m sleeping. I’ve been spamming you enough with this today. It’s late here, 3 a.m. But tomorrow is a day off so all is well.