South Korean parliamentary candidate’s resume goes viral: Graduated from National Sun Yat-sen University in Taiwan; 2006 MapleStory beginner champion

South Korean candidate for parliament Kim Ju-yeon went viral for his unusual resume claiming a "Master's degree from National Sun Yat-sen University in Taiwan" and being the "Number 1 beginner in MapleStory in 2006." Although criticized as a joke, many netizens praised his extraordinary perseverance and uncovered that he might be the legendary player Mitaniwalker from back then.

South Korean parliamentary candidate was actually a MapleStory legend, Kim Ju-yeon's unique resume goes viral

South Korea is about to hold local elections, and a Gwangjin District council candidate, Kim Ju-yeon, suddenly went viral on social media.

The 35-year-old reformist party candidate Kim Ju-yeon listed on his official election profile that he was the "Number 1 beginner in MapleStory", and is also an alumnus of National Sun Yat-sen University in Taiwan, holding a master's degree in education, and has worked as a Chinese and Korean language instructor.

Currently, Kim Ju-yeon serves as the spokesperson for the Reformist Party in Seoul and as vice chairman of the Gwangjin District Regional Development Special Committee.

2006 MapleStory Beginner Leveling Marathon

In 2006, how difficult was it to be the top beginner in MapleStory?

Veteran players point out that beginners are in an initial state without job transfer, lacking attack and mobility skills. Players could only rely on basic normal attacks, wielding non-class-restricted special weapons like frozen tuna or blue mops, spending a lot of time killing monsters, and before the Big Bang update, it was quite difficult for non-job-transferred beginners to level up.

Image source: MapleStory Object Detection, original MapleStory beginner

Although including MapleStory achievements in a resume is eye-catching, some South Korean netizens criticized that it makes the election seem like a joke.

However, many supporters and Taiwanese netizens shared their opinions on social platforms Threads and X, believing that achieving the top beginner in MapleStory requires extraordinary dedication, which in turn is the strongest proof of perseverance. People with this kind of drive can definitely handle tedious local government affairs.

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Is Kim Ju-yeon the legendary MapleStory player Mitaniwalker?

As the topic gained popularity, some South Korean netizens tried to dig into Kim Ju-yeon's achievements, eventually finding a suspected account on the 2017 South Korean MapleStory discussion board Inven.

Inven has an article mentioning a player named Mitaniwalker from the Mardia server, known at the time as a high-level pure hunter beginner.

The article states that he later transferred to a Dragon Knight, despite the disadvantage of lacking skill points due to late job transfer, he still managed to level up to 100 through perseverance, and then pioneered a "strength-based mage" playstyle, training his character to level 127 before retiring.

Netizens also discovered that Mitaniwalker's alternate accounts included the name Ju-yeon and a storage account called "Ju-yeon Warehouse," which seem to be evidence that Kim Ju-yeon and the legendary player might be the same person.

Image source: Inven article documenting early MapleStory legendary beginner players