Yureka

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"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and pain for pain. I'll pay back my debts, with interest of course." —Lotto

In real life, Lotto, Boromid and Ah-Dol are average kids with average problems, but in the virtual world of Lost Saga, they're heroes. They might even become legends... if they can stop bickering long enough to level up. Whether it's werewolves running rampant or a gorgeous pair of troublesome thieves, our boys must be ready for anything, because in Lost Saga nothing is what it seems and murder can happen with a click of a mouse.

In addition to MMORPG, fantasy, and game programming references, the Manhwa is also about What Measure Is a Non-Human? with respect to the NPCs that make the game possible.

Written by Son Hee-joon and drawn by Kim Youn-kyung; it was published in English by TokyoPop as iD_eNTITY (유레카) until the company dropped it, but it is still being published by Madman Entertainment.

Compare with Half Prince.

Tropes used in Yureka include:

• Absurdly High Level Cap: Though the game limits the number of levels you can take in a specific class there are no limits on the number of secondary classes you take. As a result, you see people who have double or in Aradon's case TRIPLE master class players.
• A Darker Me: The Net allows more shut-in players to be their Darker and Edgier selves. Badassery ensues.
• Affably Evil: Many Yureka villains, seem like this: Jung Myung-Kun, even the Demon King.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Aradon's certainly popular.
• Aloof Big Brother: Alpha attempts to be unable to care less about his younger brother's actions, and when not drawn into bickering, threat exchanges and throat-tearing, succeeds admirably. Enough to irritate Adol, at least. He's been known to throw fights that were a matter of pride to Adol, much to the latter's shame and chagrin.
• An Axe to Grind: Remy and Crunade.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Jang Gun's sister Rose (or Jang Mi) drives him up the wall by sneaking onto his computer while he's on the Net—taxing his internet connection and causing his presence in Lost Saga to freeze.
• Anti-Hero: Lotto. He recently tortured an enemy with a pair of nail clippers. But, they were trying to murder him...and it won't damage them in real life...and he was trying to help someone...so it's okay, right? ...But they could really feel it...and Lotto seemed to be enjoying it...
  • Also, during the Tournament battle with Rapha, He started taunting her by burning her clothing off bit by bit, in front of almost all the players in Lost Saga. All because she called him a little runt.

Lotto: Hey, it looks like they're starting a fan club for you! You wouldn't want to disappoint them, would you? Rapha: You can't do this! Lotto: Watch me. Or close your eyes. Makes no difference.

• The Archer: Olios, the party's semi-frequent sometimes-useful always-hilarious addition.
• The Ark: The transition from Lost Saga to its final version Last Saga is projected in game as a massive, every-man-for-himself battle for keys which ultimately secure one's passage onto an Ark, predictably to escape a world-sweeping Flood. Boarding the Ark ensures the survival of your character and the preservation of your skills and items over the transition from the Beta.
• Artificial Intelligence: Becomes a significant plot point (preceded by a few hints), both in its questionable nature and its relation to big business conspiracies.
• Audience? What Audience?: Yeah, Ah-dol, who are you talking to? Incidents like the last panel of this page happen infrequently throughout the first chapters.
• Ax Crazy: Elca when she's using her Killer Tool. It eliminates the threat of pain, but completely saps her self control as a side effect.
  • It is a delicate way to be putting it, she uses her Killer Tool to change which area of the brain is affected by an injury and feels pleasure instead, if you combine it with the fact that only pain can affect her actual body this makes her not only completely Ax Crazy but also, to an extent, immortal.
• Backstory: It's well written (and long) so of course. Notable are the story behind the inception of Lost Saga and Dexon (which is likely still being fleshed out, but began concretely as early as chapter twenty) and the explanation of what Jaeha's deal is.
• Badass: Basara. His complete lack of social skills aside even the Demon King called him a monster after a battle with him (and shortly before Basara accomplished the impossible and KO'd him by cutting off his head and dropping it into the water).
• Badass Boast: Many—oh alright, most—players are prone to these. Notable for pulling them off are Lotto and Ah-dol, who are just plain scary at times.
• Badass Creed: For Lotto, refer to the quote at the top of the page. Brrr.
• Bad Guy Bar: A certain digital bar is where the individuals at the top of the Killing field hang out with the corrupt schemer ruling a legitimate corporation from behind the scenes in the company of the occasional abandoned AI. Our less-than-reputable heroes enact a few business deals there as well.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Ah-dol and Ryuga.
• Battle Couple: Rapha and John, Lotto and Yureka, Remy and Kazbar.
• The Beast Master: Myriah
• Beneath the Mask: Offline, Lotto is quiet, inoffensive and studious, especially in school. His classmates think his whole life is harmless studying. He's standoffish, but sweetly polite. On the Net he is heartless, manipulative, violent, and basically his real self.
• Berserk Button: Don't call the real Yureka "Fake Yureka".
  • Do not allude to Lotto's height deficiencies. He will blast you till you're at least medium rare.
• Beware the Nice Ones: If Yureka gets really mad at you... you are going to die.
  • As a matter of fact, every single character who's ever been nice in Yureka? Be afraid.
• BFS: Basara. His is easily the largest sword in the game, and one might ask how he can lift it even with those bodybuilder's muscles.
• Big Badass Battle Sequence: The end of the Demon War. Turns out the players actually cared. A lot.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: The popular opinion of Yureka amongst the main cast she is friends/acquainted with that don't know she is an AI, due to the fact that Lotto doesn't change his bipolar behaviour very much when he plays as her.
• Bland-Name Product: Dexon, the developer of the Lost Saga virtual reality MMO sounds awfully similiar to Nexon, the publisher of the MMO game the manhwa authors plays.
• Blind Weaponmaster: Rowe after being temporarily blinded. Sure, he can barely walk, but he knows his way even better around his sword.
• Blood From the Mouth: May happen after a bad injury (check the entry for Punched Across the Room). Has been used both in extremely dramatic and ludicrously comical situations.
• Blood Knight: Basara. He's in the game just to kill the strong bosses. Also anyone from the Dragon Lands is this.
• Bounty Hunter: Aradon
• Brain Uploading: Method Dexon has used to create experimental NPCs. Also Jaeha's much-sought-after method of AI doppelganger creation.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Our hero! Jijon Jang even more so.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: References to the fact that the characters are in a manhwa pop up at times. An in-series fourth wall break is when the characters pressure an goblin NPC into admitting that the data processes of the game were slow and that it was the cause of them having to wait for the Final Boss.
  • A Running Gag involving this trope is done by Boromid who complains about not getting enough close ups. He even goes as far as commenting on panel design.
• Breast Plate: Remy
• Broken Pedestal: Might be a factor in Jijon Jang's view of the higher-level players who were the "heroes" of the end of the beta. It's hard to say, as he decided to show the admiration we've seen him express for them by being a complete Jerkass to them and manipulating them in every way he can think of, picking them out specifically as targets to scam. If his admiration for them changed after actual encounters with them...who can say?
• But for Me It Was Tuesday: Sort of. K.C. and Julie's involvement with Team Triple Threat was the most embarrassing and horrifying of all their online experiences. For the protagonists, it was just another of their scams ( that was actually not for personal profit) and they have no idea why the Fallen Angels threw them into a pit.
• Butt Monkey: Boromid and the Three Black Stars.
• Calling Your Attacks: Magic spells are named and casting is usually accompanied with the calling of such, which text has implied is necessary.
• Calvin Ball: Most times, the ways and whys of Lost Saga are meticulously explained. Other times, the reader is left to wonder what the heck is going on. Can any one game be this complicated? Really?
• Celibate Hero: Lotto has to go out of his way to avoid his admirers at school. This is Real Life, so they think he's a quiet-but-cute scholarly kid. If they try too hard, he sics the way-too-enthusiastic Boromir on them.
• Character Focus: Events succeeding the Demon War Arc zeroed in considerably on Lotto. Many characters get their time in the limelight in such a fashion, though rarely to such an extreme level.
• Character Class System: Certainly. Lost Saga uses an intricately simple one.
• Chivalrous Pervert: Boromir, the panty watcher. If it's chivalrous that he'll ditch his teammates in battle if they're fighting a cute girl, that is.
• Class and Level System: Utilized by Lost Saga. Encompassed by Character Class System.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Yureka spends most of her time spacing out.
• Combat Medic: Boromid, though he's more of a bruiser than a healer.
• Combat Sadomasochist: Elca on her Killer Tool. It converts pain, meant to deter killers, into pleasure, so much so that it functions like a drug.
• Comedic Sociopathy: A sizeable chunk of the misfortune befalling all characters falls into this category. The author seems to find it an invaluable writing tool. It's done well, so the schadenfreude kicks in and you laugh every time one of our heroes gets dealt a hand of hard luck. Mostly utilized in brief gags.
• Common Character Classes: All of these types appear in Lost Saga, most including multiple classes. There are, of course, other classes as well. Ranger, anyone?
• Cool Sword: Since most of the story is set in a fantasy RPG, expect these all over the place, in the hands of only the most deserving characters.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Jung Myung-Kun. And to think you thought he was just a harmless, amiable lackey.
• Crippling Overspecialization
• Cross Player: The plot starts when Lotto finds Yureka's ID card and, mistaking it for his own, logs in. Sure, he's confused. This doesn't stop him from messing with his friends a bit, though...
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Yureka
• Curb Stomp Battle: We get our first taste in the first chapter, in which the protagonists totally decimate a cave full of monsters after spending most of the chapter concealing their true classes.
• Cursed with Awesome: Row the mighty learns how to fight blind after being blinded by Slayan.
• Cute Bruiser: Remy
• Cute Little Fangs: Phuan and on rare occasions Remy
• Cycle of Revenge: Team Triple Threat gets caught up in some comical ones.
• Dark Action Girl
• Dark Is Not Evil: Aradon the Black
• Darkskinned Blonde: Phuan (both in-game and Real Life)
• Deadly Dodging: How Yureka handles a pk mob
• Death Glare: Ah-dol in particular sports a killer one. When his eyes are open, that is.
• Death Is a Slap on The Wrist: Unless you're an NPC, die during an in-game event, or use a sacrificial ability. Otherwise, standard MMORPG resurrection rules apply.
• Delinquents: Phuan and her crowd, outside the game.
• The Dev Team Thinks of Everything: There is a skill for identifying different poisons, a cooking skill, there are Easter Eggs, self-aware NPCs, a karma system, magic fusion, and hallucinogenic drugs (for tricking people into believing you have clones). It turns out it was only one guy who programmed all of Lost Saga, making it so that it would self test and implement new facets. Self-evolving game. Awesome.
• Diabolus Ex Machina: The Demon God was literally a demon from the machine (the programming of Lost Saga, rather). Its appearance was triggered by a ridiculous but preplanned series of events, and its purpose was to kill every player, with no way to win or fight back, resulting in mass character deletion. An in-universe example.
• Dirty Coward: Boromir's scampering from a fight can go beyond pathetic sometimes, though he also fills the reverse trope. Never judge him as a man not willing to use his allies as a meat shield!
• Disproportionate Retribution: Lotto's life motto is the quote at the top of the page. And he's serious.
• The Ditz: Yureka all the way.
• Divided We Fall: Boy are our heroes masters of this one.

Demon King: "You humans really should learn to work together...at least then I could deal with you all at once, instead of stringing it out like this."

• Dragged by the Collar: When Adol attempts to drag the injured (but irked) Lotto to the top of a pillar.

Lotto: "I can walk l just fine on my own! You want me to change places with Woonha, is that it?! Okay fine! Then stop treating me like a sack of potatoes!"

• Drop the Hammer: All of Boromid's Warrior-class weapons are clubs of some kind. Then in the tourney arc, he pulls out a huge hammer with a head the size of an anvil—his master-level item, Mjölnir. It can control lightning and cause earthquakes.
• Dungeons & Dragons: A number of spells (like magic missile and chain lightning) are taken from the game and have exactly the same effects as in Third Edition, to the point where strategies characters use based on minor details of the spells would work in D&D without alteration. There's even a point where Aradon appears to use the Maximise Spell feat.
  • Then there's lines like "they're throwing everything in the Monster Manual at us!"
• Dungeon Crawling: Bit of a Lost Saga game staple. We often come across a protagonist doing this either right before something more interesting starts to happen, or as a Slice of Life moment.
• Easter Egg: The lead programmer (who frustrated all the other programmers and basically created the whole Lost Saga game himself), Doctor J, was uber-awesome at his job, and while he worked himself to death—literally mind you—he hid Easter Eggs that allow characters to "glitch" the game (but it's not really glitching since the functions of the exploitations were completely intentional.)
• Elemental Embodiment: High-ish level mages can summon these.
• Elemental Powers: Some of the magic of Lost Saga is styled like this. Lotto, for example, is a fire mage.
• Enemy Mine: Phuan decides that since she and Jijon Jang were both attacked by the same person they should join up to find her and settle things.

Phuan: (ruffling Jang's hair) "I've found someone who experienced the same thing as I did. We'll get along, right my friend?" Jang: (horrified) "N...no, I don't want to."

• Evil Gloating: ...Mostly on the part of our protagonist.
• Experience Points: It's about an RPG, so you can earn them, fight for them, sacrifice them in dramatic ways, etc.
• Expy: an unique example - Phuan is apparently modelled after the character the author of the manhwa plays as in Mabinogi
• Eyes Always Shut: Ah-Dol. But when he does open them, look out. Also Remy, who just never opens them.
• Failure Is the Only Option: The entire Demon War, it turns out, due to the existence of the Demon God.
• Fairy Companion: Basara is revealed to have one, a testy Stripperiffic chick who is the spirit of his sword. He's the only one who can see her, so their discussions are strange for other characters to watch.
• Famed in Story: Who in all of Lost Saga hasn't heard of Team Triple Threat and the other heroes of the Demon War? Not to mention, oh, all master level players. (Or so they think.)
• Fantastic Racism: Demons are just like humans, only with no punishment for killing them.
• Final Death: What happens to NPCs if they die.
• Fingore: He just happened to have those nail clippers with him...
• Flaming Sword: Lotto can charge his master item with a simple fire spell, Fireball, with fun, sometimes explodey results.
• Foreshadowing: The series' grander Artificial Intelligence plot has been brewing for ages.
• For Massive Damage: For demons, the horns. For players...vital organs.
• Fragile Speedster: The Fallen Angels, thieves by class, are quick and quite tricky but can't take too many hits. Too many hits for master-level players, that is, which is still a lot of hits.
• Gambit Roulette: The events which eventually summoned the Demon God had to line up just so, and amazingly enough, they did.
• Game Breaker: The three rings Lotto recovered during the Demon War are together an in-universe example. They could, if used improperly after the battle they were devised for, completely unbalance the game. Lotto chooses to defend its integrity and refrains from using them, save in truly hazardous situations.
• Gender Bender: It's not played up as much as one would expect, but Lotto is in a female game character's body occasionally.
• Genius Ditz: Yureka's AI personality.
• GIRL: Mirenne
• GMPC: Myriah
• GIFT: Characters who are sweet as pie or at least normal in Real Life don't have to keep up appearances and facades on the net, resulting in small to startling additional jerkassery.
• The Glasses Come Off: Lotto only really wears glasses outside of the house, and they're an integral part of the disguise that is his appearance in everyday life. He doesn't need them on the Net, and he doesn't wear them much at home. Cue badass behavior.
• Gratuitous Greek: Wun-suk heavily abuses this trope when selecting screennames. It's no wonder he's so recognizable.
• Greed: How many times has it gotten the better of our heroes and their adversaries? But then, it is a series about gamers....
• Grey and Gray Morality: There are no pure evil villains in Yureka. There aren't many pure good heroes either.
• Groin Attack: Ollie: please stop yelling "Whatchamacallit!" whenever you try to shoot the Demon King in the crotch. It's not really his weakness anyway.

Demon King: (of Olios) "That one's a real pain in the...whatchamacallit."

• Hair Color Dissonance: Brothers Ah-dol and Alpha have clearly blue hair on covers.
• Handicapped Badass: Row when he's blinded by a PKer.
• Healing Hands: Boromid and Rapha.
• Heel Realization: Jijon Jang has a minor one.

Jang: "Does this mean all my backstabbing, scams of all kinds, player killings and more importantly, my PK-hunting, all this won't be forgiven?"

• Heroic Sacrifice: Rapha sacrifices a huge amount of XP and as a result most of her levels to cast a spell to save John during the Double Trouble Tournament.
  • Jaeha switches places with Jang-Gun at the last second when Elca is about to stab him.
• Heroic Safe Mode: After Lotto's encounter with Jaeha in-game causes all his friends to be killed in front of him, for real, followed by the person who did it sacrificing herself for him, in the Net he'd trusted not to have Real Life miseries, he lounges around his house for at least days, having nightmares, avoiding the Net and screening calls (read: missing important plot developments).
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Pretty much every character, to varying degrees. Especially the heroes. Especially especially the main character.
• Hero-Killer: Slayan
• Hobbes Was Right: Considered, even discussed by the protagonists, but averted fundamentally in principal in regards to the players and the game (Lost Saga is sort of hardwired to let players affect things, usually with good results, and they take charge in game-effecting events when pressed), and even Dexon's handling of their game and its players (programmers and CEOs consider their players as they make changes). The random players who populate Lost Saga tend to prove the point straight, though. Every time, watching them panic...is a bit pathetic. It makes you weep for the masses before the somewhat sensible people step in and give you a group to desperately hope you'd be part of in the event of a crisis.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: The Demon God. Also, dragons.
• Hot Witch: Iruhan, certainly.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: Sometimes considered by the narrative, but always the opinion of the hero.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: In the first chapter, it looks like Team Triple Threat is pretty evenly matched with the monsters they encounter in their Dungeon Crawling. Then they get impatient, and reveal that they were fighting the whole time with their secondary classes, much to their companions' shock. A Curb Stomp Battle ensues, causing them to lament that they'll never get anywhere if they can't refrain from using their main classes.
• An Ice Person: Jijon Jang plays as an ice wizard.
• I Have Many Names: Our favorite ninja prefers to remain anonymous. Doesn't work so well after the first time. Still, he seems to be cycling not only through classes but also through letters of the Greek alphabet, introducing himself as Alpha, Beta, Gamma, is he going by Epsilon now?
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Manipulative Bastard Lotto pretends to invoke this trope to confuse the heck out of an AI he suspects has real-world memories, half-convincing the penultimate boss monster in question that his name is America and that he was Lotto's best friend before being lost in a car crash. It's convincing enough that the demon follows Lotto around in a daze instead of attacking him until they reach the event's Final Boss.
• Implausible Hair Color: Hair color is somewhat unusually varied for Korea. Yureka is blonde, most notably. Of course, nothing states that all the characters are of Korean descent (although text suggests the Net can only be used within the country) and it is set an indeterminate time in the future. Can thus be reasoned out or interpreted as Hair Color Dissonance.
• Ineffectual Loner: Aradon, despite being a convincing Badass and skilled gamer.
• In Harm's Way:

Myung-Gun: "How can you be so relaxed even though you've nearly lost your life?" Woon-Ha: "Does it sound reckless if I simply say...I like the danger?"

• Insistent Terminology: They're not thieves, they're treasure hunters.
  • His name is not Lawe, it's LOWE!
• Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja: Wun-suk tries to fit a ninja class into a medieval-themed role-playing game, and is a strong believer in this thoroughly viable method of instant awesome.
• Invisibility Cloak: One master-level item for the thief class is the Invisibility Scarf, utilized by K.C. of the Fallen Angels, who wears it like a bandana.
• The Intern: Jung Myung-Kun is introduced as such, likeable and a relatively genre-savvy smooth talker within Dexon but still unable to remember to turn his cell off in meetings.
• Karma Meter: Lost Saga has this for players. If your karma drops low enough you will be barred from the towns in which most life in the game operates and be be stuck out in the wastelands until your karma goes back up, with a bounty on your head to complete the lovely combination. This has resulted in a civilization of outcasts with their own ranking system and methods of gameplay.
  • Our saintly hero has used it to his advantage by manipulating his karma.
• Kick the Dog: Jaeha stabs at the one person who's super loyal to her. Just because she said she'd kill anyone, did she really have to try to kill anyone?
• Kill'Em All: The Demon God, an Easter Egg that suppose to kill every player when unlocked. If a certain condition is met, it unlocks yet another easter egg.
• Klingon Promotion: The ranking system in the Dragon Lands functions along these lines.
• Korean Honorifics: The series is Korean, so these are used occasionally and left in translations...rarely. We're probably not missing anything.
• Large Ham: LOTTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. (When he's in the game, not in Real Life.)
  • Most of the master-levels have their own hamminess, just like a lot of the high-level players in most MMOs.
• Late Arrival Spoiler: The series has been going on for a long time, and early crucial plot turns play heavily into later arcs.
• Lethal Harmless Powers: Lotto's "Shield of Perseus" spell is too weak to block any of the high-level magic he normally faces. Except that he can still use it to cast offensive spells on himself and deflect them at enemies, and a spell that's already been reflected can't be stopped by any kind of shield... Knowledge of this trick soon spreads, making the indestructible shield spell "Holy Cross" rather less popular.
  • Later in the story he defeats a hacker with Super Speed by casting a "haste" spell on him, making him Too Fast to Stop. Again, this trick is used by others, though in this case the denizens of the Dragon Lands had discovered it independently.
  • Lotto does this again by casting a "berserk" spell on Yureka, who is his ally. Normally this would weaken her, but due to Yureka's personality it results in Teach Him Anger.
• Level Grinding: The protagonists had to get to Master Level somehow. This fills their time when events are lacking, largely off-screen.
• Level-Locked Loot: A staple of Lost Saga, like most other MMORPG tropes. Notable are master-level items.
• Living Memory: Some AIs are truly the projected consciousness of coma patients onto the Net. Piri, for example.
• Loads and Loads of Characters: Yureka has LOTS of characters.
• Logical Weakness: Lotto's fire-based magic is dampened by the rain. Others exist similarly in-game.
• Lotus Eater Machine: As of ch.194, the "self-aware" A Is may be powered by comatose people, that were announced as dead.
• Lovable Coward: Boromir, when he's not being its inverse. It's not infrequently that he's been known to hide behind a rock during a fight, but with team members like his you can hardly blame him.
• Lovely Angels: A fictional idol group from the series' world is named this. They go by the Fallen Angels in-game to revel in their anonymity.
• Loyal Phlebotinum: Basara's Weapon of Choice, or more specifically the fairy that embodies it.
• Magical Gesture: These are necessary to cast certain spells (such as crossing one's arms to erect a shield or holding the fingers a certain way while casting a blessing) and used instinctually in other cases (pointing or waving a hand to where the spell should go or lobbing a Fireball)
• Magic Knight: Lotto and Aradon.
• The Magnificent: I am Rowe the Mighty!
• Man, I Feel Like a Woman: Implied. On Yureka's first appearance she is controlled by Lotto. Later, Lotto attempts to "prove" that Yureka isn't an NPC by pointing out that she has a mole on her thigh.

Yureka: "Say, Lotto, how did you know I had that mole there? I was wearing pants."

• Manipulative Bastard: LOTTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
  • Accentuated by the fact that he got a powerful boss monster to do a Heel Face Turn by using a sob story that utilized the fact that the boss had a discrepancy with his personal memories.
  • Lotto also acts kindly or acts generously in a seemingly genuine way, but then he just does the opposite of what he says and betrays people with a cackle at the success of his bastardly (and dastardly) plan.
• Marshmallow Hell: So much for that dramatic declaration. Maybe it's Jang's fault for being so short that he ended up in this position, which is immediately followed by a cheerful would-be mugging.
• Mauve Shirt: Well done, Piri. Well done. Partially an in-universe example, as Lotto energetically protect her (which is to say he bullies Rowe into doing it—though Rowe warms to the cause—with Alpha stepping in now and then) from her unfairly hazardous surroundings (thanks to What Are You Looking At?, she can't leave her shop, even if it's burning around her ears) during population-wiping events after being acquainted with her outstanding personality.
• Meaningful Rename: Some, perhaps even all, ScreenNames, which players choose to identify themselves with as (sometimes) essentially different people, causing it to overlap with Secret Identity. Jang-Gun's (Lotto) is thought to be a reference to the lottery, thus chance. "Jijon Jang" means "king of kings", showing his pride and ambition. Mirenne, of course, chose a feminine name. Wun-ha abuses this trope, trying to reinvent himself with every class change.
• The Medic: Boromid and Rapha. Mirrene can heal you...one point at a time.
• Mega Corp: Dammit, Dexon, and to think you looked like you were going to be a normal, benevolent business for so long there. What with all that merger talk we thought Mega Entertainment was going to fill this role.
• Mega Manning: Yureka has the ability to copy techniques from other characters.
• Min-Maxing: Played straight with Crunade and Mirenne. Crunade seems to have all of his points in defense while Mirrene has an extremely high critical hit damage modifier. Remy has all her stat points on strength.
  • Subverted with Wunha's character (who can be called Alpha, or Gamma, or ( any other bad name he comes up with ) who has points in almost every skill and class available in Lost Saga, which gives him Master Level power without the title.
• The Mole: Mirenne, who was Jaeha's plant in Lotto's makeshift (though not as thrown-together as he thought) group in the contest between her an Elca.
• My Name Is Not Durwood: The protagonists have gotten it wrong so many times not even the readers can remember whether it's Lowe or Lawe now. He's corrected them enough (and helped with enough important plotlines) that it can't be attributed to their notoriously bad memories anymore, they're just being malicious. Which isn't exactly out of character.
• Mysterious Parent: Who exactly is Lotto's father? We know it must be important because the writer won't tell us. Neither will Lotto's mother.
• The Napoleon: Lotto takes this Up to Eleven.
• Neck Snap: One of the more creative ways the players kill each other in hand-to-hand combat, often done in the most dramatic way possible.
• New Rules as the Plot Demands: Sometimes, the super-advanced MMORPG Lost Saga seems to function this way. Fortunately, it's done quite well, rarely stretching Willing Suspension of Disbelief.
• Ninja: Alpha has dedicated much to mastery of the ninja art. He is quite secretive and impressive...in his first fight scene.
• No Hero Discount: The city is being invaded and Lowe needs a new weapon to protect it? He still has to pay for it, upfront.
• Noodle Incident: Boromid, Lotto and Adol can't remember what they did to make Myuriah so angry. The funny thing is, neither can she. But she's sure it was horrible! Or something.
  • This is eventually subverted. Myuriah eventually remembers. She is not happy.
• NPC: Yureka (the AI) and John, Rapha's bodyguard, as major characters.
  • Lost Saga is stocked with them.
• NPC Amnesia: Whenever the game resets, so does Piri's memory of all non day-to-day events and players she's met. Actually culminates into something quite tragic, causing her to break down the second time it happens.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Jung Myung-Gun...Is this what you've been using all along?
• Oblivious to Love: Lotto to Yureka's feelings, or more properly said, he can't understand her feelings, at least until Elca points it out to him.
• One Head Taller: Lotto and Yureka. She's the taller one.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: People who've met Lotto via Lost Saga will call him by his Screen Name both in Real Life and in other games with little exception. He is only called Jang-Gun by people he met outside the Net, and only when offline, with rare variances. This holds true for most characters, as in-game they are known nigh exclusively by their user names, and thus get known as such.
• Only Sane Man: Ah-dol is often the only one with any common sense within the trio, and when he loses it Boromid has often regained enough sanity to show off, and when all three of them lose it the task of remarking that yes you are still sane and have not forgotten that the actions around you are a bit off may fall to any random passerby, but most often to Lawe. Rowe the Mighty, that is.
• Out of Focus: When Lotto splits from Team Triple Threat after "giving up" Lost Saga, Ah-dol and Boromid are barely seen until the end of the next arc, since they no longer meet in game and avoid each other in school and the rest of Real Life. And any reader expecting to see Yureka during that time was in for a long wait! This period experienced a considerable cast-shift, resulting in massive quantities of plot development and new characters (somewhat at the expense of old). The ensemble has since come around full circle, with all original characters and some few new present.
• Playing with Fire: Lotto is a fire mage, this is kind of his thing. He gets creative with it.
• Power Trio: Team Triple Threat.
• Prince Charming Wannabe: Boromir all the way.
• Print Long Runners: Could probably count as one since it has over 35 volumes with more probably coming out. It's not at JoJo's Bizarre Adventure or Inuyasha level though. Still, since manhwa tend to be shorter than manga, this is a long series.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: The players from the Dragon Lands tend to be like this, which is odd since theirs is an in-game, adopted lifestyle, not a real culture: They're just really into it.
• Punch Clock Villain: All in-game villains who are actually workers for Dexon.
• Punched Across the Room: Ow.
• Purposefully Overpowered: The three rings could break the game. They need to be able to, to take down the Demon King. And they're still barely enough in the hands of a capable player.
• Pyromaniac: Lotto. Emphasis on "maniac" is sometimes necessary. Usually when he's directing the mania at his allies.
• Ranger: Wun-ha masters the intermediate skills of many classes, leaving him effectively master-level several times over without having reached this distinction in any class. There being no category for this, Il-Ban, the oldest player in the game (no, he hasn't been playing the longest...he's just old) and master-level anti-priest, dubs him member of a new class, Alpha the Ranger. Wun-ha is put out by this (he wanted to be a Ninja and sticks to one class at a time (mostly) thereafter.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Elca and Jaeha to Lotto on how he doesn't take real death seriously because he's in a game. Makes all the characters and the readers feel like flighty hypocrites.
  • Also Lotto's explanation of why Alpha and Aradon are only "half" players. Arguably less profound, but at the very least lined up his view of the game nicely.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Player Killers have this. It's a little warning that those players would love to beat the other characters dead.
  • Every time you kill a player in Lost Saga you renew your red eyes for another hour. In "The Land of the Dragons", a place where player killers call home, if you don't have red eyes, you are considered an abnormality. If you're abnormal, you should probably be beat to death.
    • Lotto's eyes, normally brown, tend to show glints of red in color pages when he's feeling particularly murderous.
• Reset Button: The events of the story's invasion arc results in the permanent death of every single player character except for Lotto. Fortunately for them, it turned out to be the end of beta event and their character data had been saved as a reward for participating in a high-risk fight they couldn't win.
• Requisite Royal Regalia: When the company president is playing the king, he makes sure he's all decked out. He even (mostly) refuses to break character because dangit he earned that scepter!
• Revenge: Usually orchestrated toward the heroes or by the heroes...mostly with the necessary second party of participants being other heroes....
• Reverse Mole: Crunade, more or less. Though not acting as a villain, he was supposed to be a random player in Lotto's party but was instead revealed to be an agent of Elca, sent to help Lotto.
• Right Hand Versus Left Hand: Way to not be on the same page, Lotto, Crunade, Whan, Alpha, Jin-Woo, and Elca (and Ah-dol, Boromid and even Mirenne), with the whole save Jang, don't let her kill anybody thing. The cast also did a fantastic job keeping track of the five parties scaling Great Mountain simultaneously, each counting on their being the only ones slaying monsters, therefore leaving enough alive to avoid the summoning of the dungeon's Final Boss. Those five identical plans didn't all turn identically sour or anything.

Delta (1st to the top): (to the 2nd, 3rd & 4th to the top) "I didn't think anyone would be crazy enough to ascend from the inside of the dungeon...I highly doubt there would be other strange folks such as yourselves." Lotto: (appears with 2 others) "Sorry to disappoint you." (One finger-pointing freak-out later) Delta: "Still, no need to worry! We only killed three of them, that means there are still three left..." Lotto: "I wouldn't be so sure! This place isn't lacking in crazy people." Ban (8th crazy, appearing with 9th): "So that would make this the gathering place for those crazy people?"

• Ring of Power: Items of this style exist in the game Lost Saga, most notably Lotto's three rings from the Demon War Event.
• The Rival: For Lotto, Aradon.
• Robosexual: There are just too many AIs to avoid it. Most legitimate example is Yureka's crush on Lotto, but his feelings toward her and Rapha's schoolgirl crush on her AI bodyguard John warrant a mention, as does Lotto's presumed crush on NPC shopkeeper Piri. Certainly Piri and possibly John are not truly artificial, however.
• Robot Girl: Yureka! Cute as anything and totally digital. Deepens the story's theme questioning the nature of humanity and A Is and Lotto gets to show off his tall blonde escort.
• Role-Playing Game: Much of the plot revolves around the characters' experiences playing one--Lost Saga.
• Rousseau Was Right: The game was programmed with this in mind and grants massive stat bonuses/abilities to players who are willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. That doesn't stop some people from abusing the system, however.
• Running Gag: Plenty. Lotto's gang has the amnesia gag where they keep forgetting either plot, names, or information they should know, but don't.
• Say My Name: The only way for Lotto to snap "real Yureka" out of it. But first he has to find her name...
• Scary Shiny Glasses: Classic examples exhibited by most vision-impaired characters at one time or another.
• Schemer: Jijon Jang, to a T. Luckily Lotto is there to occasionally act the Karmic Trickster to foil him, or he could get to the top (or at least get along comfortably) entirely through scheming despite occasional spectacular instances of ineptitude.
• Secondary Character Title: Yureka. Lotto is the main character.
• Secret Identity: Players' personas online, by a loose definition.
• Secret Test of Character: The invasion arc was designed to see if players were willing to risk permadeath in order to protect a virtual world.
• Serious Business: Naturally comes up from time to time since the setting is in an MMORPG. Notable with Myriah who holds a grudge against Lotto and his friends for killing her tamed monsters for experience and loot. --Done well and within the realm of possibilities, thus barely noticed.
• Sharing a Body: Yureka's creator is forced to do this with her A Is after a near-fatal in-game experience leaves her in a coma, with her consciousness shakily expressed in the virtual world. Pity they were already using her avatar....
• Shock and Awe: Aradon's favored technique.
• Shop Keeper: Piri fills this role in-game, Wun-suk out of it.
• Sibling Rivalry: Adol and Alpha can barely be alone in a room with each other. The presence of the other cracks each of their calm facades faster than anything else.
• Sitcom Arch Nemesis: Myriah sees Team Triple Threat as this after what they did to her. Heck, many of the elite players have grudges against this team.
• Sociopathic Hero: Lotto is a hero, but it's because of competence and an odd set of morals. Not because he's nice. He believes that the Net has worth but Humans Are the Real Monsters.
• Spell My Name with an "S": His names are Roto and Yang Goon—no wait, Lotto and Jang Kun—no wait...er, yeah. Yureka is Korean, so this applies to all the names. All of them.
• Spoony Bard: As if Alpha wasn't spoony enough while trying to invent the Ninja class, his most recent class change was to that of a bard, and superficially he fits this trope to a T.
• The Stoic: Ah-Dol, he's often the only guy who can stop Boromid and Lotto from killing each other.
  • Later on, one could argue that Lotto is really the glue of the team. Boromid and Ah-Dol cooperate more because they are used to working together because of Lotto.
• Stone Wall: Crunade, his defense is so strong that it takes a lot of blows just to hurt him. It's just his attack power is very weak.
• "Stop Having Fun!" Guys: In-universe examples, because it's about gamers, and pros at that.

Lotto: (thinking) "You think simple chatting is using the net? That's only a way of hooking up!"

• The Squad: Instrumental in a war game Lotto used to play with frequency. May even have been the reason he stopped playing.

Lowe: "Are you a moron or what? If you die trying to save me, our team will get penalized!" Lotto: "You bloody idiot! What's the use of being on the same team if you let your friends die?"

• Super-Deformed: Comes up a lot in the early volumes.
• Supporting Leader: Rowe during the invasion arc.
• Talking Weapon: Basara's sword...sort of.
• Teach Him Anger: When Lotto casts a "berserk" spell on Yureka? Don't Ask, Just Run.
• Ten-Minute Retirement: For Lotto, twice. Once, after the Lost Saga they've been playing is revealed to have been a Beta, he feels betrayed by the game makers and swears never to play again. He cracks almost immediately, but manages to refrain from playing as his own character or interacting with his party members in order to save face, keeping it up until the situation absolutely forces him resume use of his character and chance results in a facedown between the protagonists. His second really lasts about ten minutes, or days story-wise, when he and his friends nearly die at the hands of Jaeha and he withdraws from life entirely, though unannounced. This one ends when his mother gets sick of listening to the phone ring for him.
• Threshold Guardians
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Lotto and Yureka. It's a bit of a sore spot with him.
  • Also Phuan and Jijon Jang, a thoroughly non-couple example.
• That Man Is Dead: After suffering defeat, Basara attempts to return things to the way they were before admitting that the character he embodied, "Basara," died with defeat, and begins referring to him in the third person.

"Basara is dead and he should stay that way..."

• Took a Level in Badass: Twice with Row. The first is when he went from Butt Monkey to Supporting Leader and the second time when he levels up to Master level during the actual fighting.
• Tournament Arc: The Double Trouble Tournament. Prepare for all the most powerful (read: egotistical) characters to punch, stab, or blast the revenge out of each other through a series of unique power useages and newly discovered easter eggs. Watching from the company that created the game are one of the game's creators and his assistant, and even they are bamboozled. Unknown to the participants, it is involved in deciding who participates in the next big event.
• Ultimate Gamer 386: Averted! Lotto, Boromid, and Adol are all master-level characters, and they are quite well-known. Played straight if you think Basara is uber-powerful compared to the already suped-up Lotto Party.
  • Averted again when they reach the Dragonlands arc. The top player-killers have numerical rankings and bounties placed on their heads and are highly visible and well known in their community.
• Unsettling Gender Reveal: Mirenne has a girlish appearance and makes an active attempt to appear to be a girl. He developed hacking skills so he could change his character to be female.
• Unwitting Pawn: Lotto throughout the entire time he was working with Elca is a more linear example. Also most people Lotto battles at one time or another, and even all Lost Saga players up until the Beta's end.
• Utopia: It is the view of some that the Net should be like this, or at least limited to its own harmless vices, and that Killers and their trade pervert this ideal.
• War Arc: Dexon stages the Demon War, and even though it's just another event a few players begin to worry that it may change the very essence of the game if it ends with the wrong turnout.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: ...Mostly the trio of heroes.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: All the AI's who become self-aware.
• What You Are in the Dark: Surprisingly, Lotto tends to be nicer, or more considerate of consequences (except when he surprises us and gets more brutal). The norm in Yureka tends to be more calculating and less likely to flare up. Ruthless players tend toward mercy.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer: When all you have is a fireball, everything looks like flambé.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Mirenne. She just wants to be someone's sister!
• A Worldwide Punomenon: The entire Tokyo Pop translation was one drawn-out Hurricane of Puns. Especially brutal during what they dubbed the Double Trouble Tournament Arc.
• Wretched Hive: the Dragonlands. It began as a refuge from bounty hunters. Illegal player-killing is so commonplace that if you don't do it you're an aberration and people have seen certain hacks so often that experienced players can easily counter it.
• Wrong Name Outburst: "YUREKAAA!"
• Xanatos Speed Chess: Due to the nature of Lost Saga each battle can be as much a game of the mind as a test of the body, and Lotto seems to play this every time he fights...when it isn't a curb stomp, of course. Many characters take a turn at it, but Lotto in particular is exceptional at manipulating the properties of the game and the emotions of his enemies.
• X Meets Y: Yureka is .hack meets Slayers.
• Yaoi Fangirl: Miella the MC. Her gushing about yaoi angers one of her co-workers so much the he just kills her.
• You Called Me "X" - It Must Be Serious: When Lotto, Boromid and Ah-dol realize they are really about to die they slide into calling each other by their real names instead of their screen names (Jang-Gun, Kwan-Su, and Woon-Suk, respectively), which they notably initially made a point of using but now come automatically.
  • Averted with Woon-ha (Alpha). Some fans call him by his original screen name, but characters drop his screen name as soon as they realize who he is with a comedic effect, because he changes his name way too much.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: Lost Saga is designed so that all the senses are simulated and all sensations can be felt except pain. When a hacker unlocks the pain feature, the sensation of death is enough to kill you. For real.