Mystic Messenger + The Ssum Timeline
WARNING! MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE SSUM AND MYSTIC MESSENGER!!!
The Ssum is WAY more connected to Mystic Messenger than people realize, so here’s a full spoiler breakdown + timeline.
I keep seeing people say that The Ssum only has little Mystic Messenger easter eggs/references, and I genuinely don’t think people realize how far Cheritz eventually took it. it’s not just “oh Jumin gets mentioned” or “there’s a Zen joke.”there are actual family relationships, appearances from MM characters, Mint Eye involvement, Saeran/Unknown showing up, RFA lore, and a character in The Ssum who is VERY heavily implied to literally be a younger Vanderwood.
so I wanted to put everything together because the shared universe goes way deeper than originally thought.
first: June is literally Jumin Han’s younger half-brother.
this one is straight up canon and was officially confirmed by Cheritz. June and Jumin share the same biological mother, Carolyn.
basically:
Carolyn + Chairman Han = Jumin
Carolyn later has June with another man = June
so Jumin and June are maternal half-brothers. and this isn’t just some random background fact either. Jumin actually becomes involved in June’s story. June grew up knowing that Jumin existed and comparing himself to him, which is honestly pretty sad when you consider who Jumin is. Jumin is rich, successful, intelligent, composed, the heir to C&R, etc., while June is much more physically fragile and emotionally vulnerable. so Jumin basically exists as this massive shadow over June’s life. eventually June actually gets the chance to develop a relationship with his older brother. which brings The Ssum directly into Jumin’s personal life rather than just referencing him as “that famous C&R guy.”and once Jumin is involved, obviously V isn’t very far away either.
V/Jihyun also appears in The Ssum’s story.
remember that Jumin and V have been childhood best friends forever. so when June becomes involved with Jumin, June’s world starts overlapping with Jumin and V’s circle too. there is official material involving June/Henri with Jumin and V, and Jumin even talks about things involving the RFA. which is important because now we have:
June → Jumin → V → RFA → Rika → Mint Eye
all existing in the same universe and during overlapping parts of the timeline.
Henri also gets tangled up with the Han family.
Henri’s family has connections to the Hans through medicine, and Henri himself ends up interacting with Jumin. and somehow Elizabeth the 3rd also gets involved 😭
yes. THE Elizabeth the 3rd. Jumin’s cat. the same cat from Mystic Messenger.
Elizabeth ends up interacting with people in The Ssum, which is honestly one of the funniest ways Cheritz confirms that we’re dealing with the exact same Jumin and the exact same universe. so no, this isn’t some alternate version of “Jumin Han.”
same Jumin. same V. same Elizabeth. same RFA. same everything.
the. Teo’s route basically walks directly into the Mystic Messenger plot.
this part is INSANE to me because Teo starts out as such a normal dude. he has a friend named Noah who gets involved with spiritual/astrology-related things. eventually Teo follows Noah and ends up getting tangled up with Mint Eye and the people involved include:
- Rika
- V
- Unknown
and obviously if you finished Mystic Messenger:
Unknown = Saeran Choi
so while you’re playing The Ssum and talking to Teo about his life, you are literally existing during a period where Rika’s cult is operating and Saeran is already involved. Teo basically accidentally walks into the background plot of Mystic Messenger 😭
this also helps explain where The Ssum sits in the timeline.
I would NOT say “The Ssum canonically takes place exactly from 2011–2013” because Cheritz’s dates get messy and there are timeline inconsistencies if you try to assign an exact year to every single event.
it makes much more sense to think of it as a relative timeline.
a lot of The Ssum’s Mystic Messenger-related events seem to happen several years before the main Casual/Deep Story routes of MM, while the stuff that eventually becomes Mystic Messenger is developing behind the scenes. so while The Ssum characters are living their lives:
- the RFA exists/develops
- Rika is descending further into Mint Eye
- V is involved in the whole disaster
- Saeran is becoming Unknown/Ray
- and Saeyoung is entering the intelligence agency
which brings me to my FAVORITE connection:
JJ is very heavily implied to be Vanderwood.
If you played June/Henri’s story, you probably remember JJ. on paper JJ is basically just this mysterious hairdresser. except he is the most suspicious hairdresser to ever walk the earth LMAOOO. JJ knows WAY too much:
- he’s extremely good at gathering information
- he has unusual survival skills
- he knows how to deal with electronics/phones
- he uses disguises
- he hides his identity
- he acts like someone accustomed to surveillance/covert work
- he references a boss
- he can become genuinely intimidating when people get too close to figuring him out
- he knows suspicious amounts of information about things he really should not know
then Cheritz starts dropping Mystic Messenger-specific clues around him. JJ has the same Korean voice actor associated with Vanderwood. there are Mystic Messenger-style hacker/audio cues around some of his tech-related scenes. Mystic Messenger music is even used around important JJ moments, and then JJ talks about waiting for a younger person to finish school. that is a HUGE clue because of where Saeyoung/Seven would be at this point.
remember Vanderwood’s role in Mystic Messenger? Vanderwood works for the same secret intelligence agency as Seven. he’s older/more experienced and basically acts as Seven’s coworker/senior/handler depending on the situation. he is constantly trying to make Seven finish his work.
so the implication in The Ssum seems to be that JJ is already working for that organization BEFORE Saeyoung fully becomes the Agent 707 we know. meaning we may literally be seeing JJ/Vanderwood BEFORE Seven becomes his problem.
and I want to clarify something because I’ve seen people phrase it differently.
I don’t think The Ssum confirms that “JJ” is Vanderwood’s actual legal birth name. JJ could very easily be another alias. the reveal is more like:
the man we know as JJ in The Ssum is the person who will later be known as Vanderwood in Mystic Messenger.
which honestly makes perfect sense considering he’s a secret agent whose real identity is deliberately hidden. the clues together are kind of ridiculous:
- same VA
- spy skills
- surveillance
- technology skills
- disguises
- secret boss
- hidden identity
- agency implications
- Mystic Messenger music/sound cues
- the younger person who still needs to finish school lining up with Saeyoung
at that point Cheritz is practically beating you over the head with it without having JJ turn toward the camera and say “hello I am Vanderwood” 😭 and if JJ really is younger Vanderwood, it actually adds SO MUCH to Vanderwood as a character. Mystic Messenger makes it easy to think of Vanderwood mostly as “Seven’s exhausted agent coworker.”but The Ssum basically implies this man had an entire intelligence career before Seven. he already had aliases, assignments, survival experience, information gathering, tech skills, undercover identities, his own connections. Seven was not Vanderwood’s origin story, Seven just eventually became his biggest fucking headache LMAOOOO
And then you have the Choi twins developing on opposite sides of this entire situation.
this is where the shared timeline gets depressing.
- Saeyoung and Saeran are separated
- Saeyoung ends up associated with the secret intelligence agency and eventually becomes: Saeyoung Choi → Luciel → Agent 707
- Saeran falls under Rika/Mint Eye and becomes: Saeran Choi → Ray/Unknown
so during the broader Ssum era, you basically have the machinery creating both versions of the twins operating in the background.
on one side:
Saeyoung → intelligence agency → Seven → eventually working with Vanderwood/JJ
on the other:
Saeran → Rika/Mint Eye → Ray/Unknown
then Mystic Messenger eventually makes those two worlds collide.
Rika and Mint Eye are another reason the timeline is darker than it looks.
one thing I used to misunderstand was thinking the timeline was basically:
Rika runs RFA → Rika disappears/“dies” → Rika creates Mint Eye.
but Mint Eye’s development and Saeran’s involvement clearly go back further than that. Rika’s extremist ideology and the organization are developing while the RFA world is still happening. so imagine the two stories happening at the same time.
Publicly:
- Rika is involved with charity
- V is a photographer
- Jumin is helping the RFA
- RFA is hosting parties
Behind the scenes:
- Rika is building Mint Eye
- Saeran is being manipulated/indoctrinated
- V learns more and more and hides the truth
- Saeyoung is being pushed toward the intelligence agency
it makes the earlier years of MM feel even more disturbing because these two realities were basically existing alongside each other.
and The Ssum characters are walking around right next to all of it without knowing the full story.
- June is dealing with Jumin and his family
- Henri gets dragged into Jumin’s orbit
- Teo accidentally brushes against Mint Eye
- JJ is apparently already working in the same intelligence world that will eventually involve Seven
Meanwhile:
-Rika is becoming the Savior
- Saeran is becoming Unknown
- Saeyoung is becoming 707
- V is increasingly trapped in his relationship with Rika and his own lies
- Jumin is slowly becoming the version of Jumin we know from Mystic Messenger
THAT is why I think calling these things “easter eggs” undersells it so much.
there’s also the Zen situation LMAO
The Ssum has dialogue where the MC can indicate that Zen was her ex-boyfriend.
I would put a HUGE asterisk on this because both games have player choices and different romantic continuities.
so I would NOT say “every Ssum MC is canonically the Mystic Messenger MC and canonically dated Zen.” but Cheritz absolutely gives you a possible continuity where the MC dated Zen before the events of Mystic Messenger, which is hilarious when you think about it. imagine breaking up with Zen, living your life for several years, accidentally getting dragged into some mysterious messaging app, joining the RFA and then suddenly,
ZEN HAS ENTERED THE CHATROOM.
MC: you have got to be fucking kidding me
Seven: ????
Jumin: You know each other?
Zen: MC?????
so if I had to simplify the overall timeline, I’d put it roughly like this:
Jumin and V grow up as childhood friends
↓
V meets Rika
↓
RFA forms/develops
↓
Rika’s darker ideology/Mint Eye also begins developing behind the scenes
↓
V becomes involved in the situation surrounding Saeyoung and Saeran
↓
the twins are separated
↓
Saeyoung becomes involved with the intelligence agency
↓
Saeran becomes trapped under Rika/Mint Eye
↓
JJ is already operating as some kind of covert/intelligence agent
↓
The Ssum-era events with June/Henri/Teo happen around this broader period
↓
June reconnects with Jumin
↓
Jumin/V become directly involved in June’s story
↓
Teo accidentally crosses into Rika/V/Unknown/Mint Eye territory
↓
JJ’s clues increasingly point toward him being younger Vanderwood
↓
Saeyoung eventually becomes Agent 707 and works with Vanderwood
↓
Saeran becomes the Unknown/Ray we know
↓
Rika is publicly believed to have died/disappears from the RFA
↓
Another Story happens closer to Rika’s disappearance
↓
more time passes
↓
Main Casual/Deep Story era of Mystic Messenger
↓
MC joins the RFA and everything finally explodes.
obviously the exact calendar years get fuzzy because Cheritz timelines are held together with prayers and duct tape 😭 but the relative order is MUCH easier to see.
tldr:
The Ssum is not Mystic Messenger 2, but it absolutely functions as an expansion of Mystic Messenger’s universe and pre-MM lore.
- June is canonically Jumin’s brother. Jumin and V become directly involved.
- Mint Eye appears.
- Rika appears.
- Unknown/Saeran appears.
- The RFA is referenced.
- Elizabeth the 3rd crosses over.
- Teo literally brushes against the Mint Eye plot.
- JJ is written with an absurd number of clues pointing toward him being Vanderwood before the events of Mystic Messenger.
I genuinely wish Cheritz advertised this connection more because I feel like SO many Mystic Messenger fans dropped The Ssum early or never played it because they thought it was completely unrelated. also bc it became a pay to play game and the company also… fell apart. anyways, in reality Cheritz was apparently hiding half a Mystic Messenger prequel in there 😭
if anyone knows of any other connections I missed PLEASE add them because I’m genuinely obsessed with putting the entire Cheritz timeline together LMAOOO