Chapter 12
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The Troublemaker III
Shin Noah
"Saintess, is this person really the one?"
[That is correct, Undertaker.]
The Saintess answered immediately, as if she had been watching my movements in real-time through her Clairvoyance.
[That person is the one using the member name 'Goryejang' on SG Net.]
"Well, well."
I stroked my chin.
'Well, sure. Something like this could happen.'
My surprise didn't last very long.
For one thing, she wasn't particularly important to me. Sim A-ryeon wasn't completely without connection to me, but neither could our relationship be described as "deep ties."
To briefly describe how Busan Station's waiting room appeared in my eyes at this moment:
[Extra A] [Seo Gyu←Important!] [Tutorial Fairy] [Vending Machine] [Extra B] [Extra C] [Go Yuri←※Danger※] [Souvenir Shop (need to farm silver bells)] [Extra D] [Tombstone] [Extra E] [Uehara Shino] [Extra F] [Extra G]......
That's about the extent of it.
And Sim A-ryeon there was serving precisely the role of [Extra B].
She was the type of character who would never catch any reader's eye unless someone drew an arrow pointing directly at her.
To exaggerate a bit, Sim A-ryeon's reason for existence was to scream "Hieeek!" with a distinctive shriek every time Seo Gyu died.
'Her awakening ability was... healing, right?'
Of course, as a regressor, I had thoroughly identified even the abilities of such extras.
'I remember she wasn't particularly competent for a healer.......'
To compare it to a game, she was a 2-star healer.
To use a slightly harsh analogy, she was like a healer given away for free just for logging into the game.
The type that gets used decently in the beginning but eventually gets dropped from the party as you progress to higher difficulty stages. An awakened one destined to receive a resignation recommendation: "I'm expelling you from the party. You're too inadequate compared to us."
And my story didn't have #regret #obsession #angst tags. What am I saying? Just expelled, and that's it.
In the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd iterations, I owed Sim A-ryeon some debts. But that was because I was such a beginner back then.
After that... well? Not particularly?
Except for events like the joint funeral held in the 10th iteration, or when building an impregnable fortress in the 24th iteration, I had no particular memories of her.
'A third-rate awakened who got lucky surviving in Busan and somehow made her way to Pocheon.'
Thinking about it that way, she had essentially traveled from the southern tip of Korea to the northern edge.
I felt a bit emotional for some reason.
Rather than resentment toward the Goryejang villain's character, my curiosity about Sim A-ryeon's life had grown slightly larger.
'I need to hear the circumstances.'
As it turned out, it was good that I followed my curiosity.
When I knocked Sim A-ryeon unconscious and dragged her to the living room, Lee Ju-ho, who had followed me inside, covered his forehead.
"...Good heavens. I never imagined a fellow guild member, and [Angel of Healing] at that, would be some aggro-troll writing that kind of garbage."
"As I thought, you two knew each... Huh?"
I just heard a strange sound. No, not strange exactly, but something rather bizarre and embarrassing.
"[Angel of Healing]?"
"She's a famous person in this area."
Lee Ju-ho's face was colored half with distress, half with bewilderment.
"She's also the person who works as the school nurse, art teacher, and librarian at the elementary school where ZeroSugar-nim and I first met."
"Excuse me?"
"W-well, I mentioned it earlier, didn't I? That among the guild members besides me, there was someone looking after the children... This is that person."
???
I turned my head and looked up at the ceiling.
[It is Goryejang. Undertaker. Please don't doubt it.]
I quickly lowered my gaze to look at Lee Ju-ho.
"Are you saying they're coworkers?"
"Yes, both in the guild and at the school... The world ended and the medical infrastructure completely collapsed, didn't it? Healthy people die from a cold, minor wounds develop into tetanus and kill them... The number of people dying from illness rather than monsters is actually higher."
This was a fact I knew well, and a scene I'd seen enough to be sick of during my past regressions.
Modern humans die with shocking ease without the help of antibiotics.
The funeral practices of the ruined world quickly unified into cremation, and the fact that Lee Ju-ho's senior, a mage who wielded fire magic, was busy was ultimately because of this. Burning with fire was the surest way to prevent epidemics from spreading.
"But in this area, such patients stopped dying senselessly."
Lee Ju-ho continued speaking while looking at the Goryejang villain.
"This person... Angel of Healing treated everything from minor ailments to reasonable cancers with her ability. Starting from about a year ago."
"Huh?"
Her?
A 2-star healer?
"She became famous for treating patients and students without taking any compensation. Even my father, whenever he was unwell, she used to treat him. Without this person, he wouldn't have been able to get out of bed......."
Lee Ju-ho narrowed his brow.
"Hey. Undertaker-nim, is Goryejang really this person? Could there be some misunderstanding or misconception...?"
"No, that part is certain. There's no room for misunderstanding. Ask her directly when she comes to her senses in a bit."
"......"
Lee Ju-ho eventually fell silent.
To be honest, I was even more confused.
'Sim A-ryeon displayed healing ability at the level of treating cancer...?'
I could confidently say she had never shown such ability in any of my regression lives so far.
At best, she was the type who could slightly soothe pain from scraped knees, or help with a cold that would heal within a week to heal within a week—like a Palmprin Q.
How on earth?
"I'll wake her up."
Lee Ju-ho nodded at my words.
I threw an empty beverage can at the Goryejang villain.
The aluminum can hit the Goryejang villain's head precisely. Since I had infused a small amount of aura into it, her entire head probably felt a tingling sensation like an electric shock.
"Ugh... Heok! Uuuugh...?"
The Goryejang villain and Angel of Healing, a two-faced Anubis, let out a moan while slowly blinking her eyes.
"Are you coming to your senses?"
"Uhh... Uuuugh, what... Yeees...?"
After waiting for her to regain consciousness, I explained the situation.
Naturally, she was horror-struck.
"Hieeek...! H-how did you know I was here and come all this way...?"
"I receive a lot of love from the Constellations."
After lying as naturally as breathing, I looked at her.
"More importantly, why did you do that?"
At my direct question, the Goryejang villain couldn't answer and just hemmed and hawed.
An awkward silence flowed through the living room.
"W-well, that's... you see, the thing is... Uuuuum......"
But that very awkward silence was telling all the correct answers.
"Well."
Lee Ju-ho had a hollow expression.
It seemed that realizing his acquaintance was really an internet aggro-troll had drained his killing intent.
He spoke quietly.
"...Teacher Sim. Was taking care of patients stressful for you?"
The Goryejang villain blinked her eyes.
"Heok. Y-yes... Yeees...?"
"So. You actually didn't want to take care of patients. No, you were getting angry and frustrated, but you couldn't refuse patients because of your ability... The elementary school kids are always causing trouble... So that's why? You put on a completely different mask on the internet to relieve stress?"
"Oh."
I exclaimed in admiration from the side.
It was a neat deduction befitting a clean-cut young man.
I had often seen cases of mismatch between ability and personality.
Moreover, in a world like this, having healing abilities was a double-edged sword. Possessors of the mentality to say 'I'm a healer? Then I'm nobility and you're commoners' and abuse their position were rarer than one might think.
Quiet, introverted people who couldn't refuse others' requests just got dragged along.
And then one day, they'd snap and cause incidents—I'd seen that countless times too.
But to this reasonable and highly credible hypothesis, the Goryejang villain Sim A-ryeon shook her head round and round to express her disagreement.
"N-n-no, that's not it! That's not it, um, because of my skill...!"
"So the skill. A-ryeon-ssi, you don't actually want to use the skill [Moving Hospital] but you're forced to because of patients―――"
"N-not that, my other skill! My second ability!"
Sim A-ryeon started explaining about her second ability while flapping both arms.
"Just wait a moment. This was a really hard ability to figure out......."
Since abilities don't appear neatly like skill cards or get revealed openly (if they did, it would have been much easier for me to go around revealing I'm a regressor), according to A-ryeon's voluntary confession, Sim A-ryeon's second ability was as follows:
――――――――――
[Grudge Jade (怨氣玉)]
They say those who are cursed live long, disease-free lives.
You are the superior version of that. The more you are cursed and hated, you not only live alone in good health and longevity, but can distribute that health and longevity to others.
* This effect grows stronger the more powerful and numerous those who hate and curse you are.
* If you have medical and healing skills, those skills are also enhanced in conjunction.
――――――――――
Lee Ju-ho's jaw dropped looking at the memo the Goryejang villain had written.
For reference, my jaw dropped too.
"Wait, what kind of insane skill is that...?"
It was shocking enough that she had such an ability, but that she had identified the ability in detail and organized it was even more surprising.
To say it again, except in very abnormal cases, awakened ones weren't given screens like status windows or stat displays. Countless hours of trial and error were needed to figure out one's ability.
What kind of fumbling had Sim A-ryeon repeated to uncover this 'Grudge Jade'?
It seemed I wasn't the only one wrapped in shock and horror.
[...The mysterious wonder of awakened abilities is always new to see.]
The Saintess's voice was heard. She must have been secretly peeking, curious about the truth of the situation too.
I looked at the empty air and moved my lips clearly.
'Saintess, you didn't know either?'
[Know... You didn't know? Yes. I can observe awakened ones when I wish, but I can't read into their hearts. Like Lee Ju-ho-ssi, I only thought perhaps she gets a lot of stress from taking care of patients.]
True enough.
Shock has the characteristic of becoming lighter in weight when shared. As I conversed with the Saintess, my emotions gradually settled and suddenly a new perspective opened.
The 'Goryejang Villain Incident.' A series of events I could call that unfolded before my eyes.
'...I see. So there was a reason she started being called [Angel of Healing] starting from this iteration.'
The world ended.
The internet infrastructure collapsed.
People had no choice but to interact face-to-face like in the pre-internet world.
In this world where everyone became lonely, even receiving 'hatred' wasn't easy.
Especially for someone with as timid a personality as Sim A-ryeon.
So during all the previous iterations, Sim A-ryeon's second skill never even made itself known, and her first skill also only amounted to a health supplement level.
But this is the 50th iteration.
SG Net, which never existed before, was created.
In a world that couldn't be better for drawing aggro, Sim A-ryeon finally opened her eyes.
She transformed into the Goryejang villain and ascended to the peak of unpleasantness.
Moreover, SG Net members were all awakened ones. Among them, quite a few genuinely thought they would kill the Goryejang villain if they could only get their hands on them.
The overflowing aggro gathered entirely into the 'Grudge Jade.'
Naturally, earning the epithet [Angel of Healing] was more than enough.
'Hm? But when I asked the Saintess to locate the Goryejang villain, didn't she say "a peculiar person"?'
[Yes? Right. I did.]
'Didn't you say "peculiar" because you noticed that the Goryejang villain, like someone with split personality, was also the Angel of Healing?'
[Ah. Um, no. That's... I'll tell you later.]
Just then, Sim A-ryeon bowed her head deeply toward us.
"I-I'm sorry. I didn't know Ju-ho-ssi's father would be hurt......"
"Sigh."
"I, I know that dad jokes and things like that are bad... My conscience's triangle is stinging too, but... still, hiccup, still I have to be resented like that, so my power rises, so I can see even one more patient......"
Lee Ju-ho and I had no choice but to silently watch Sim A-ryeon hug her knees, crouch down, and scoot herself to the corner of the room with her butt while mumbling.
Silence.
Lee Ju-ho spoke.
"Uh, what should we do? Undertaker-nim......"
"What can I do about it? Lee Ju-ho-ssi's decision is important."
"Uhh......"
Lee Ju-ho scratched his head, seemingly only then realizing that he was the one who had rushed out in righteous indignation after eating a dad joke.
Before long, Lee Ju-ho made his decision.
"Then――"
It wasn't a difficult decision either.
6
Most of the SG Net friends who had been curious about the results of the real-life fight between awakened ones would have clicked their tongues.
Since that day, 'JoinedToday' disappeared without a trace, while the Goryejang villain continued her activities unscathed.
-Goryejang: Took good care of the son of a bitch who came to fightㅋㅋㅋ
Her consistent posts even became more vicious.
The Goryejang villain not only had excellent aggro skills but also outstanding drawing talent, even attaching comics to her posts.
The comic featured a child and an elderly person. A drawing with unnecessarily intense quality. The content went like this:
-Old man: Huh? Who's that?
-Old man: (Frowning)
-Old man: Isn't that our son?
-Child: Daddy, where are you going?
-Child: I want to come too!
-Child: (Smiling brightly)
(A cheerful manga-style drawing of father and son holding hands crossing a river)
Finally, a photo that looked like a family grave was attached.
With a Post-it note written with Goryejang's nickname stuck to the tombstone.
Naturally, conscientious SG Net members ground their teeth at this lamentable situation.
-Anonymous: Oh my.
-[Yuldok]Sword Queen: This time I'll go, so cough up the address, kid.
-[Satiety]Cooking Queen: Curses poured out on others eventually return to oneself. How about taking some time to reflect on yourself? Brother, you surely possess a bright nature.
└Goryejang: Just fuck off, you crazy bitch.
-Anonymous: Didn't they say this kid lives in Canada? The photo looks totally Korean though?
-[Samcheon]Witch Judge: Contact me when you come to Busan.
-dolLHoUse: Anger.
-Anonymous: Wait, why is this kid so good at drawing? Total golden hands......
Of course, not all members had consciences.
Some were enthusiastic about the aggro-troll.
-Anonymous: Kya hitting two birds with one stoneㅋㅋㅋ It's Sas-Gat-Ryejang-ham shida shiㅋㅋㅋ
-Literature Girl: I thought Goryejang this bitch was only good at internet flame wars but real fights are fucking awesome tooㄷㄷㄷ
They say a true star drives both fans and antis crazy.
While I and Lee Ju-ho, knowing the truth, remained silent, the Goryejang villain was drawing all of SG Net's aggro to herself.
At least around the guild Lee Ju-ho belonged to, people wouldn't die from not receiving timely healing.
One more thing.
"No way. How can an ability be..."
For reference, Seo Gyu fell into great shock after hearing the whole story from me.
"It's somehow strange that I wasn't the only one with a bizarre ability... My feelings are complicated."
I was personally satisfied that she seemed to have shed a bit of her complex about her skill.
Thus it was a happy ending where everyone won, but one thing.
There was unexpected collateral damage.
-Anonymous: Didn't ZERO_SUGAR this bitch comment about getting his nose broken by Goryejang-ham?
-Anonymous: Acting all tough but went silentㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Clenching his teeth and ignoring it, so patheticㅋㅋㅋ
-Anonymous: Big nose fuckㅋㅋㅋ Actually the one who got his nose bone broken was ZeroSugarㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Literature Girl: ZeroSugar this person... the nose is amazing.
└[Satiety]Cooking Queen: Slandering others is actually an act of lowering yourself. All humans are mirrors reflecting me, and I am the mirror of all humans. Please respect and consider each other.
"......?"
I briefly looked at those posts.
I made a hmm sound, stood up and sat down, went to the kitchen and brewed myself an espresso.
The fact that I consumed espresso instead of café au lait was a signal that high-level concentration would be required for the work I was about to begin.
First, I logged into SG Net with a sub-account without any intention or purpose.
Next, just as I was about to type 'Seo Gyu. Nothing special, but can you find out these people's personal info?' into the admin chat room...
[Undertaker.]
"Hmm."
[Please don't do that. I beg you.]
I put down my phone.
I decided to end this episode's conclusion at a level of slightly resenting the Goryejang villain.
- The Troublemaker. End.
I'm a regressor but I tell stories