Title:
What the hell is up with Jeong Daon?
Content:
I’m seriously not a Jeong Daon anti or anything (I respect Hunters), but ever since she awakened I haven’t seen a single piece of good news about her;;
— Is that even Jeong Daon’s fault? She’s just insanely unlucky.
ㄴ It’s beyond just “unlucky,” honestly.
— At this point, isn’t this basically a conspiracy theory? Someone should investigate.
ㄴ Makes sense people are coming up with conspiracies. I’ve lost count of how many Dungeon Breaks there’ve been, and now it’s “lost in another dimension”? lol
ㄴ If a novel were written like this it’d get trashed for being too contrived.
— Stop with the conspiracy theories. There are a lot of accidents during basic military training for Special Forces-type units.
— Sure, accidents happen, but people talk because it’s always Jeong Daon who’s involved in them, right? She’s seriously the icon of bad luck.
— It’s been a while since an S-rank Hunter showed up, so I was honestly jealous, but now I’m not jealous at all…
ㄴ Even so, she’ll end up making tens of billions anyway. Must be nice.
— But besides Han Jaeyeong and Jeong Daon, who’s the other person that got dragged into this? Poor bastard lol
ㄴ No one knows unless the Ministry of Defense releases it. They say they’re just a soldier and only their family’s been informed lol
ㄴ If it’s the special unit Jeong Daon was assigned to, they must all be pretty high-ranked guys, hmm.
— So do you think they can come back? Can people usually return after being lost in another dimension? If both an S-rank Hunter and a pre–S-rank disappear, isn’t that a national emergency?
ㄴ That’s why everything’s in chaos right now. The news is flooded with it every day; I’m sick of seeing it.
— Wow, even so, this is a missing persons case. Aren’t people being too harsh? Is it just me or is Jeong Daon getting absolutely trashed online these days?
— Honestly, you see like 109238109 posts a day about how she had a garbage personality in school… I don’t write hate comments, but I guess she’s pretty widely disliked!
— Still, if an S-rank talent dies so pointlessly, that’s a national loss.
— I don’t know about Jeong Daon, but with Han Jaeyeong there, wouldn’t they somehow survive?
ㄴ Jeong Daon isn’t someone you can dismiss either. If you look at videos of her using magic, she’s no joke. She’ll probably come back alive on her own lol. I just feel bad for the dead ones.
— You all sound like civilians who don’t know anything, but I’m a Hunter, okay? This is a seriously fucked-up situation. Some people never come back.
ㄴ Agreed. Hunters risk their lives for their work, and seeing everyone treat this like gossip really kills my motivation. Even in our military, you’re stuck for 39 months, and even after getting out you keep facing dangers like this while working every day… ha…
ㄴ Respect, seriously. I’m always grateful to Hunters.ㅠㅠ
ㄴ Who told you to become a Hunter? Just quit lol
ㄴ You chose it for the money, so why are you whining at othersㅋㅋ Once your mandatory service is over, you can live as a civilian and get preferential treatment for anything anyway.
ㄴ And how much “preferential treatment” do they even give, really?
— Even so, Hunters make better money, right. I get paid minimum wage managing rosters in front of dungeons. The most screwed are civil servants getting dragged around everywhere.
ㄴ Then quit~
— Kids these days, whenever you say anything it’s “who told you to” or “are they paying you,” crap like that. You can’t have a conversation with them.
— Anyway, what the hell is going on with Jeong Daon? Is another country targeting her? Or are domestic guilds trying to keep her in check?
ㄴ A foreign country sounds plausible, but why would domestic ones target her?
ㄴ How would anyone here know that?
ㄴ Honestly, if it were me, I’d switch jobs overseas. The pay difference is huge.
— Are there any interviews with Jeong Daon’s family or anything??
Thud.
I lifted my head at the dull sound. A bottle of orange juice was set down on the table. Lee Pyeonghwa was looking at me with an exasperated expression.
I tilted my head. “Why are you looking at me like that? And did you bring that for me to drink straight from the bottle?”
“Because you’re doing something pointless. Why are you even looking at stuff like the internet? It’s a waste of time.”
“A waste of time, really?”
“It is. It’s just a bunch of people spewing things they can’t say to someone’s face. It’s different from reality.”
“Is it? I think differently.”
Of course, I also agreed with the word
spewing
, but in the end, those words being spewed out were still things that existed inside those people to begin with. Even if they vomited them up by borrowing the power of anonymity, they would still be the speaker’s true feelings. And no matter how much it’s “just the internet,” what’s behind it is still human.
Even if, at a glance, they’re opinions that wouldn’t be voiced in real life and seem extreme for now…
Humans are easily swept along by sheer numbers.
When people like that gather, opinions naturally become more extreme and gain more agreement. Then people fall into the illusion that those opinions are absolutely right, and in the end, they inevitably affect reality as well.
Well, honestly, I don’t really care about public opinion… but the quest is the problem.
The quest "Doing Good Deeds Will Bring Blessings¿" is in progress.
The system entrusts the judgment of “Jeong Daon”’s behavior suitability to members of society.
This quest is ultimately swayed by society’s members—in other words, by public opinion. I had raised my level by absorbing the magic power of the lifeless idol, but depending on whether I complete this quest, the system could end up restricting my stats again. That was why there was a need to keep an eye on public opinion.
It’s not good for “Jeong Daon” to keep becoming a target of jealousy and suspicion like this. On a larger scale, it would eventually lead to distrust toward the profession of Hunter itself.
For example, when I beat up the school bully at the graduation ceremony, the system evaluated it as “refreshing” at the time. But if my public favorability drops further, couldn’t it later be judged as something like, “Still, beating a civilian was too much, even for a Hunter”?
It’d be more comfortable if I could build at least some goodwill with the public… this is awkward.
I didn’t even expect to be like Yu Hanul, but even so, my current state was troublesome. Should I fabricate some heartwarming stories and spread them around? But instead of heartwarming stories, I’ve only committed a pile of things that should be hidden. What am I supposed to do with that?
“If you’re curious about public opinion, just read the newspapers. Here.”
Lee Pyeonghwa said that as she handed me several kinds of newspapers she had been reading and snatched away the phone I was looking at.
I’d expected it to some extent, but after Han Jaeyeong and I went missing, Korea was in an uproar. So, naturally, every headline was about our disappearance.
Three missing during basic military training, including Han Jaeyeong and Jeong Daon… Military: “Doing everything we can.”
“Losses exceeding 100 billion won” — What is the economic value of S-rank Hunter Han Jaeyeong?
What is dimensional stranding? The dangerous reality Hunters face
Poor management of the Special Forces… Who should be held responsible?
Tears of the parents of the late Recruit Lee Seunghui… “She was a talented child.”
“Honestly, just reading the internet would be more helpful than this—”
“No, stop looking!”
“Hey, why are you interfering so much?”
She even took my phone away.
When I glared at her in disbelief, Lee Pyeonghwa shot back an even more intimidating glare. “Do you hear yourself right now? You’re a patient! That’s why we can’t even go back to Korea and are stuck in a hospital all the way in New York!”
That was right. We were currently staying in Manhattan, New York, unable to return to Korea. After clearing the dungeon and returning to Earth…
We naturally ended up landing near Manhattan, New York.
Just as Yu Hanul had said, that dungeon had been connected to Manhattan. Thanks to that, the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in New York was thrown into chaos. Hunters who had disappeared in a dimensional stranding accident during basic military training in Korea suddenly appearing in the U.S.; what kind of bombshell was that?
The one saving grace was that, while rare, there had been precedents of dimensional stranding.
At first, there were various international issues and confusion, starting with entry procedures and the form of stay, but thanks to manuals created from past cases, the chaos was quickly brought under control. However, there was one thing that hadn’t been resolved…
“You don’t really have to stay in the hospital room with me. Go out and have fun.”
Since when were we that close? Had some childish impulse kicked in, making you feel like you had to stick with someone your age when you’re abroad?
Lee Pyeonghwa snorted. “Do you think I’m a little kid? I’m sticking to you like this because you need to recover quickly so we can go back to Korea. Who knows what kind of nonsense you might pull otherwise?”
It seemed Lee Pyeonghwa was dissatisfied that I hadn’t deviated from the barrier as planned. She’d been saying that the entire time since we escaped.
“I’m perfectly fine.”
“You’re fine, yet you let me take your phone away?”
"..."
I had nothing to say to that. One of the unresolved issues was precisely my physical condition.
Actually, the problem lay with the manual based on past cases of dimensional stranding.
One of its clauses stated that dimensional stranding survivors, regardless of nationality, would undergo a full medical examination in the country to which the dungeon belonged, and then be quarantined for a certain period based on the medical staff’s judgment. Since we had come from an alien realm called a dungeon, it was a natural procedure. And because our group had no visible injuries, we naturally thought there wouldn’t be a problem with this process, but…
“Everyone else is fine, but in the case of Hunter Jeong Daon, absolute rest is required. For the time being, you must completely avoid activities that strain your body. Long flights are also not advisable.”
I ended up being advised to take absolute rest.
One day earlier.
The expressions on Yu Hanul’s and Han Jaeyeong’s faces when they heard that I would have to be hospitalized for at least two weeks were something to behold. Thanks to the embassy going out of their way for us, we were able to see a Korean doctor, but that actually ended up making things worse. Hearing the examination results explained in Korean made the seriousness sink in far too clearly.
If it had been in a foreign language, it might not have hit people quite as hard.
While I was busy escaping into denial, Han Jaeyeong alternated between looking at me and the doctor with an incredulous expression. “No, what on earth… This makes no sense. Daon didn’t really overexert herself.”
The doctor looked at Han Jaeyeong as if they were unbelievable. “You were stranded in another dimension, and you’re saying she didn’t overexert herself?”
From the doctor’s perspective, it was understandable to be dumbfounded. A much younger junior had been hurt after being stranded in a random dimension together, and here someone was blurting out that it made no sense. Of course, from Han Jaeyeong’s point of view, they were just stating the facts.
“Something must be wrong with the tests. Let’s redo them, or else go back to Korea and—”
“Long flights are prohibited for the time being!” the doctor said firmly. As a bonus, the look they gave Han Jaeyeong grew increasingly harsh. “The balance between her mana and body is completely broken. Her body’s mana circuits are on the verge of collapsing. She truly needs rest.”
“
What?
What kind of nonsense is that?” Han Jaeyeong let out a hollow laugh and turned to look at me. “Daon, tell them. When did you ever push yourself to use magic—”
“Please don’t pressure her like that.”
Now the doctor was practically glaring at Han Jaeyeong as if they were trash. To the doctor’s eyes, it must have looked like Han Jaeyeong was using their authority to intimidate me.
“…No, that’s not what I meant.”
“If she’s a novice Hunter, she may have overexerted herself unconsciously. And it
was
a disaster situation.”
“Disaster or not, I’m telling you, there was nothing like that.”
Of course, from Han Jaeyeong’s perspective, this was enough to drive them crazy. They had seen me use incantation magic and be perfectly fine afterward. In this dungeon, they hadn’t even seen me use incantation magic at all, so it was all the more baffling.
“Yu Hanul was the one who took down the boss monster, and Yu Hanul was the one who went mentally berserk; yet he’s the one who’s perfectly fine.”
“Well, Hunter Yu Hanul
is
S-rank, after all…”
“Wow, this is frustrating. Yu Hanul, you say something too.”
Urged on by Han Jaeyeong in indignation, Yu Hanul looked at me for a moment, then shook his head. “That doesn’t seem to be the important point here, Hunter Han Jaeyeong. What matters is that Hunter Jeong Daon’s current condition is genuinely not good. I think we should proceed with the necessary steps for hospitalization.”
"…"
Han Jaeyeong fell silent when Yu Hanul, whom they had naturally expected to take their side, responded like that. Then they suddenly looked back and forth between me and Yu Hanul and let out a long, deep sigh.
And even I, who had been quietly listening because it was amusing to see Han Jaeyeong flounder, frowned.
Right now, Han Jaeyeong was under the mistaken impression that it was Yu Hanul—not me—who had defeated the S-rank lifeless idol.
Because Yu Hanul hadn’t bothered to clear up that misunderstanding.
If it were someone else, I’d think he was trying to steal the credit, but…
Yu Hanul wasn’t that kind of person.
What on earth is that guy thinking?