Grom

Grom is the first user Ian meets after entering Elder Lord and the orc avatar initially played by Kim Hyunchul. He trains beside the future Crockta, learns the warrior laws, and shows signs that he genuinely wants to grow, but he entered Orcrox as a Thawing Balhae spy and betrays Lenox to a fatal ambush. After abandoning Grom, Kim Hyunchul plays as Luin, rises within Heaven and Earth, and turns the same willingness to treat other lives as tools into a coercive business on Earth.

Biography

Orcrox and the Warrior’s Laws

Grom greets Ian as a fellow beginner orc, explains that the white star identifies users, and guides him toward Lenox. Their first difference appears at an Orcrox funeral: Ian recognizes the grief and honor of a real community, while Grom complains that an NPC ceremony is taking too long. He seeks strength because it is the expected appeal of an orc warrior and recoils from Lenox's painful training. The system had actually recommended that he become a shaman under Tashaquil, but Grom rejects that path and chooses the axe warrior Gloin as his model. His selection is personal, yet his shallow answer and readiness to disconnect when training hurts show how easily he still treats the role as optional. (Chapters 3–5 and 11)

Shared danger gives that role some substance. Grom accompanies Ian and Grant on the mutant hunt, struggles against wolves, is nearly killed, and sincerely thanks Ian for keeping the quest alive. Lenox later sends him to lure goblins for a band of warriors. Repeated humiliation makes him fight back, and his spinning axe attack becomes Overwhelming Assault at Common rank, although he immediately loses balance and still requires the veteran orcs to save him. By the end of the mission he has gained proficiency, fought beside real warriors, and returned to drink with Ian and Gulda. The later narration remembers that the timid Grom believed he might become great, so these experiences cannot be reduced to a flawless performance by an emotionless spy. (Chapters 6–9 and 17–19)

Lenox entrusts both apprentices with the warrior laws, but Grom's final assignment exposes a conflict between that trust and his original mission. He reports a death knight north of Orcrox, prompting an expedition against the apparent lich. Inside the dungeon he blocks one death-knight blow with his axe and continues through the undead, yet grows withdrawn, displays a minor wound in hopes of being sent back, and keeps following when Lenox refuses. At the end, the lich is revealed as bait and a human army closes the trap. A user calls Grom by his human name, Hyunchul, and Grom crosses to the human side without meeting the orcs' eyes. He has been communicating through the users' private connection and earning Lenox's confidence for this ambush. (Chapters 19 and 23–25)

Grom confirms that he plans to reset the orc character after the quest. The source does not depict the reset itself, but Kim Hyunchul's later return under the name Luin and the retrospective account of his betrayal establish that Grom is no longer his active identity. The trap kills Lenox and other warriors after they remain to protect wounded captives, while Ian escapes to warn Orcrox and carries their laws forward. Grom therefore gets the advancement promised by the human clan at the cost of the community that trained him. His development runs opposite to Crockta's: both begin as users wearing orc bodies, but only one accepts that the people who can be abandoned by logging out are still alive. (Chapters 25–27, 149, and 174)

The South and the Heaven and Earth Conflict

Kim Hyunchul later appears in Elder Lord as Luin and serves as an executive of Heaven and Earth. His help in Lenox's death raises Luin's standing, while Keynes independently rises to vice clan master by exploiting his own friendships with NPCs and Choi Hansung. Luin remains close to Keynes even though Choi Hansung, as Rommel, holds the formal clan-master position. This status fulfills the reward promised at Orcrox, but it also leaves Luin dependent on Keynes's decisions and approval. (Chapter 149)

On Earth, Kim Hyunchul frames Elder Lord as business rather than role-play. Expensive clothing, a watch, and a foreign car become proof that his new outlook works. He mocks a man injured while saving a child and repeats Keynes's teaching that survival and success justify unfairness. His old friend remembers him as timid but considerate and recognizes that this warmth has eroded. Keynes privately gives a sharper interpretation: Hyunchul was once ignored, now wants to perform the role of a powerful bad man, and is transparent enough to manipulate through money and belonging. Luin's cruelty is therefore chosen, but cultivated by a superior who understands the insecurity behind it. (Chapters 158–159)

Luin applies that choice by managing the clan's “fortunate” workers. Heaven and Earth drugs people into semi-comatose states, connects them through modified capsules, uses the resulting high assimilation, and prevents them from leaving even when they want to stop. Keynes orders Luin to threaten and intimidate them, and later evidence identifies him as Keynes's right-hand man in the operation. In the southern campaign he also kneels before the emperor, accepts the danger of permanent in-game confinement through the Concrete method, and participates alongside Heaven and Earth's senior leadership while Rommel directs the army. The corpus does not give Luin a named combat class or show him as one of the clan's great fighters; his demonstrated power lies in administration, coercion, and access to stronger institutions. (Chapters 158–159 and 169–176)

Crockta recognizes Luin beside Keynes and Rommel at Katalu and makes the two architects of Lenox's ambush personal targets. When the imperial battle collapses, Luin shakes, abandons the captured Rommel, and flees with Keynes and other clan members rather than confronting his former companion. Crockta catches Keynes but is struck down by imperial reinforcements before reaching Luin. Rommel then trades evidence of the coercive scheme for safety. Edgar's testimony, Robina's report, the Rehabilitation Brotherhood, police, and prosecutors expose the sleeping rooms; the victims are rescued, Heaven and Earth's reputation collapses, and Kim Hyunchul is arrested with Choi Sunggil. This is his latest confirmed state. Luin disappears from Elder Lord, but the corpus does not specify whether authorities delete the avatar, merely prevent access, or impose some other account sanction. (Chapters 169–176)

Appearance and personality

Grom is introduced only as a shabby-looking orc with the white star visible to other users. He carries an axe, but the corpus gives no stable description of his height, coloring, clothing, tattoos, or other features. Luin's later avatar is not physically described in enough detail to determine species or appearance. Kim Hyunchul on Earth is an adult man who wears expensive clothes and a watch; no further reliable physical description is supplied. (Chapters 3–5, 19, 158, and 169–174)

As Grom, Hyunchul is talkative, timid, pain-averse, and eager for an easier route to strength. He can be friendly and grateful, and his pride after surviving the goblin mission suggests that some desire to become a warrior is sincere. Under pressure, however, self-preservation overrides loyalty. As Luin he becomes arrogant, callous, and sensitive to ridicule while still shrinking before Keynes and greater authority. His repeated choices convert insecurity into cruelty: instead of challenging the person manipulating him, he manages people with even less freedom. (Chapters 3–9, 17–25, and 158–159)

Skills, powers, and limitations

Grom's established supernatural abilities belong to his discarded orc warrior character. Luin's later class, level, weapons, and skill list are not provided, and the corpus does not say that a reset transfers Grom's techniques to the replacement avatar.

Orc body and axe training

Grom receives the baseline strength and recovery of an orc apprentice and selects Gloin, an axe-wielding warrior said to have split a mountain, as his model. Lenox teaches him stance, balance, weapon repetition, and the warrior laws. Grom can kill goblins, assist against wolves and undead, and reflexively block a death knight strongly enough that both combatants are thrown back. These moments show growing axe competence, not mastery equal to Lenox or Crockta. (Chapters 4–9 and 18–25)

Pain, fear, and poor balance remain consistent limitations. Grom is overwhelmed during the mutant hunt, repeatedly serves as bait because goblins perceive him as weak, and seeks removal from the undead expedition over a minor injury. The death-knight block saves him but does not let him defeat the knight. He advances through support from veteran orcs and system proficiency, while no chapter shows him completing a higher martial realm or carrying the Grom character's growth beyond the betrayal. (Chapters 7–9, 18, and 23–25)

Overwhelming Assault

Overwhelming Assault is a Common-rank hidden axe technique created when Grom spins his weapon while surrounded by goblins. Its wide, continuous motion initially keeps attackers from approaching and kills one enemy. The exaggerated system description promises a massacre, but the demonstrated skill immediately makes Grom wobble, after which the goblins knock him into critical condition. (Chapter 18)

The technique is useful as a desperate area attack, not an unconditional victory. Grom later charges another group with it after veteran warriors arrive to support him, but the source does not record a rank increase, controlled duration, stamina cost, or performance against an equal warrior. It is never attributed to Luin after the reset. (Chapter 18)

User knowledge, communication, and infiltration

Grom understands beginner guidance, white-star identification, disconnection, private friendship messages, quests, achievement points, and character reset. That knowledge lets him explain the interface to Ian and communicate with Thawing Balhae without the orcs hearing. His most consequential application is social rather than technical: he spends enough time training and fighting with Orcrox to earn Lenox's trust, then uses a fabricated threat to place the instructor inside an organized ambush. (Chapters 3, 9, 12, 17, and 23–25)

The infiltration depends on other people. Human users prepare the lich, dagger, soldiers, and escape plan; Grom supplies access and credibility rather than defeating Orcrox himself. His user privileges also cease to guarantee safety once inhabitants learn the Concrete method, and his later scheme on Earth is exposed through testimony and conventional investigation. Player knowledge gives him asymmetric opportunities, not immunity from either world's consequences. (Chapters 25, 158–159, and 169–176)

Clan administration and coercion

As Luin, Kim Hyunchul can coordinate Heaven and Earth members, operate beside its senior leadership, and supervise users kept continuously connected through illegal capsules and drugs. The drugs raise the victims' assimilation and make them productive inside Elder Lord, but that enhancement belongs to the coerced workers and the equipment used on them, not to Luin as a personal ability. (Chapters 149, 158–159, and 175–176)

Luin's authority is delegated by Keynes and collapses when the clan stops protecting him. He shows no special answer to Crockta's approach, imperial defeat, Rommel's evidence, or police action. The story records wealth and executive status but no exceptional strategy, martial rank, or independent organization comparable to Rommel's command. His final limitation is the real-world law that reaches the human operator regardless of the avatar's ability to disconnect. (Chapters 149, 169–176)

Power progression

Relationships

• Crockta: Grom is Ian's first companion and trains, hunts, and drinks beside him. Their paths divide when Grom uses Orcrox as a quest target while Ian accepts it as a living community. Crockta later recognizes Luin and pursues him for the betrayal, although Luin escapes that battlefield before his real-world arrest.
• Lenox: Lenox accepts Grom as an apprentice, teaches him axe fundamentals and the warrior laws, and refuses to let fear or a minor wound end his training. Grom exploits that trust to lure Lenox into the ambush that kills him.
• Tashaquil: The system recommends Grom for Tashaquil's shaman path, but he chooses Lenox's warrior route instead. Tashaquil accepts that a worthy warrior can choose a different course; Grom's later betrayal, rather than that original choice, is his failure.
• Keynes: Keynes rewards Grom's betrayal, becomes Hyunchul's “Hyung-nim,” and makes Luin his right-hand man. He encourages Luin's desired bad-man persona while privately treating his insecurity as easy to manipulate. They are arrested together for the coercive operation.
• Choi Hansung / Rommel: Luin serves under the formal clan master and the two campaign together in the south. Rommel eventually abandons Luin and Keynes, giving Crockta and investigators the information that destroys their organization.

Items

No notable personal item belonging to Grom or Luin is identified in the supplied corpus. Grom uses an ordinary axe issued through Orcrox's warrior training, but it is not named or established as a distinct artifact.