Chapter 219

Chapter 219n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

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The Slanderer I

"These days, people's moral compasses seem... off, don't you think?"

One day, while enjoying a swim, Noh Do-hwa made this statement out of the blue.

"Hmm."

By the way, we were at a swimming pool located in the basement of the National Road Management Corps headquarters.

Now, you might find it off-putting that even during the apocalypse, the center of power still had a leisurely swimming pool. But it’s not something to take too seriously. The Void merely randomly spawned a pool.

Noh Do-hwa hated all activities under the category of "exercise" but didn't particularly mind swimming. So, I periodically dragged her out of the office and threw her into the pool. After all, a person has to get at least a little exercise; otherwise, they won't live long. I couldn’t allow the Zhuge Liang of the Peninsula to die young, now, could I?

Anyway.

I silently approached Do-hwa, squatted down, and placed my hand on her forehead as she floated at the edge of the pool.

"Strange. You don’t feel like you have a temperature."

"Do you want to die...?"

"Oh, come now. This is a genuine concern. When the person with the most questionable character in the world suddenly starts talking about morality, of course I’m going to be worried."

"It’s more like you’re genuinely full of shit..." Do-hwa swatted my hand away, and the smell of chlorine hit my nose. "Have you not noticed? The way people have been reacting lately has been off.”

"In what way, exactly?"

"Let me tell you..."

Noh Do-hwa’s story went like this:

Talks about replenishing manpower were always ongoing at the National Road Management Corps. It was a natural consequence, really, of being part of the Corps, given that it meant half your life was basically in the hands of anomalies.

The recruits were required to possess high combat skills, unshakable loyalty even in the face of bribes and corruption from regional warlords, a strong sense of camaraderie, specialized knowledge, and mental resilience strong enough to withstand the Void's mental pollution. Above all, they had to retain hope for humanity despite enduring constant suffering.

In other words, it was one hell of a tough job.

"People are getting chewed up out there! We need more recruits!"

"Who the hell let this piece of trash through as a rookie? Stop hiring anyone and everyone!"

"More bodies! We need more bodies!"

"We need quality!"

These two eternal opinions within the Corps ran on parallel tracks, destined never to meet.

“But lately, people unrelated to the National Road Management Corps started poking their noses into this..."

"Huh?"

The trouble started with SG Net.

One of the caravans dispatched by the National Road Management Corps from Busan got wiped out by the Void (which, by the way, is a pretty common occurrence), and the SG Net users had a field day with it.

- Anonymous: Honestly, isn't it the Corps' fault for not beefing up their manpower in time?

└Anonymous: The Corps basically shoulders all of Korea's logistics, so it’s a bit irresponsible, to be honest. Yeah...

└OldManGoryeo: Hmm...

- Anonymous: Because of that accident, the market in Pohang’s been closed for over three months, lol.

- Anonymous: I have a friend in the Corps, and apparently, even internally, they're saying they deliberately don’t recruit enough people despite knowing how understaffed they are.

└Anonymous: Why would they do that?

└Anonymous: Because the more Corps members they have, the more they’ll have to share the "straws" they’ve stuck into guilds across the country. Corps officers don't care about logistics, they just want to siphon taxes from the guilds, lol.

└Anonymous: For real??

└Anonymous: Everyone in the know already knows about it.

└dolLHoUse: ?? What kind of bullshit are you guys spewing?

- Anonymous: I didn’t think the Corps leader was like that. Fucking same as the old politicians.

└Anonymous: Do you still trust people?? Lol.

└Anonymous: I knew this would happen.

I blinked. "What... is this stream of bullshit?"

"Exactly that—a stream of bullshit. I heard about it from my subordinates, but apparently, posts like these have been popping up regularly."

"Suddenly?"

"About a week ago, actually..."

It was a vicious spread of false information. At this point, the National Road Management Corps was practically the lifeblood of the Korean Peninsula. Even the regional warlord guild leaders knew that, as did the common citizens. In these times, unity was more critical than ever. Spreading slander like this would only result in a loss for all of humanity.

Pointless rabble-rousing.

"We need to get Seo Gyu to track those IP addresses."

"We already did that..."

"Who are these bastards? Could it be a deliberate smear campaign by a specific guild? That’s the only thing that makes sense to me."

If so, I would bring the hammer down on these small-minded fools chasing short-term gains.

But Do-hwa shook her head. "Well. I thought the same, so I asked Yongsan to look into their identities... but they were just ordinary Awakeners."

"Ordinary Awakeners?"

"Yes. They had no connections, no relationships, nothing. They were complete strangers who just happened to start trading comments online."

I blinked again.

So, was it just a coincidence?

I had no intention of over-regulating every little thing just because of some random incident. After all, venting on the internet had been a daily occurrence even before civilization collapsed.

"But there's more. Ah... something just grabbed my ankle..."

"Just a Water Ghost, nothing serious. Keep talking."

"Right..."

We continued our conversation, completely ignoring the Water Ghost we had wordlessly dealt with.

"It’s not just the National Road Management Corps either. They’ve been trying to needle Samcheon World and Baekhwa Girls' High School too."

In other words, slander.

- Anonymous: The Witch of the Cursed Song, Dang Seo-rin, holds a dissection show at the end of every month in Busan. Honestly, it’s pretty brutal, lol.

- Anonymous: Two regular guild members from the Samcheon World were killed last time because they tried to forcibly catch an anomaly for her dissection show.

└Anonymous: For real??

└OldManGoryeo: Hmm...

- Anonymous: Yeah, I heard about it too. They could’ve just killed the anomaly without any casualties, but Dang Seo-rin insisted on capturing it for the show, and that’s why the incident happened.

└Anonymous: Wow.

- Anonymous: If that’s true, isn’t it a real problem?

└Anonymous: Dang Seo-rin practically rules Busan, so covering up two deaths wouldn’t be a big deal for her. She’s always been like that.

└dolLHoUse: ?? What the hell are you people on about?

└Anonymous: I knew this would happen.

Of course, these rumors were completely baseless. Dang Seo-rin almost always captured her prey personally. She never simply ordered her subordinates to bring in something while standing idly by. In fact, without her support through her Cursed Song Incantation, the Ten Legs extermination or the Meteor Shower hunts would have resulted in massive casualties among the awakeners.

Seo-rin had earned herself plenty of immunity with her contributions. And now these puny Awakeners were daring to criticize her? Had they collectively lost their minds?

"Hey, don’t roll your eyes at me like that. They already look dead inside. Now you’re making them look like they’re related to a fish..."

"Hmm."

"Anyway, that’s how things have been this week. It feels just like the old days before civilization collapsed..."

"Is it just SG Net?"

"Who knows..."

Do-hwa got out of the pool, and I wrapped a towel around her shoulders, which I had prepared in advance. Since I’d forced her into the exercise she despised, offering this level of service was only fair.

She took a sip of the coffee I handed her and looked back at me. Droplets of water from her black hair dripped to the floor.

"My gut tells me this is probably the work of an anomaly..."

My gut told me the same thing.

Receiving a quest directly from the Commander of the National Road Management Corps was no small matter, so I couldn't just slack off. I decided to push back my original schedule and reached out to the Saintess.

[Yes, you're right. There’s been a noticeable increase in those kinds of conversations lately, even in reality.]

The Saintess's abilities were reliable as ever. She immediately provided the information I needed.

[The people involved don’t seem particularly aware that they were having such conversations.]

[They just say things like, "Oh, I happened to mention it," or "I didn’t mean anything by it," or "I was just agreeing with what someone else said." To them, it’s just small talk.]

[That seems to be the extent of their awareness.]

I rested my chin on my hand. "If these conversations are happening in reality, not just online, maybe the keyword we should focus on is something like 'witch hunt'. Could it be a sort of mental virus?"

[A virus... doesn’t quite seem right. There’s no specific source of infection that we can identify.]

[It’s been happening simultaneously across places like Sariwon and Busan.]

"Can you summarize the characteristics of these conversations?"

[Of course.]

The Saintess then gave me a concise summary of the anomaly she dubbed the "Witch Hunt":

Someone subtly spreads baseless accusations. Others, despite having doubts, still chime in and agree with the accusations. The accusations are then accepted as fact, with remarks questioning the character or integrity of the accused. The conversation always ends with the line, "I knew it all along."

[...That’s the gist of it.]

"Hmm." I rubbed my chin thoughtfully. "It’s definitely a mental-type anomaly... It seems to be some kind of entity that parasitizes language itself."

[How do you plan to handle this?]

"First, let's see how it reacts."

I decided to test the waters by contacting Sim Ah-ryeon, who held authority over the Constellations Librarian of the Great Library and Collector of All Anomalies. Not only that, but she also had numerous anonymous accounts at her disposal.

Target: ON. Fire.

- Anonymous: I know who's been spreading those rumors about Dang Seo-rin capturing anomalies just for her dissection shows, lol.

- Anonymous: There’s this small guild in Yeongdo, Busan, called Cheonghae Guild, always causing trouble for Samcheon. Their guild leader got caught by Dang Seo-rin a while back, and ever since then, they’ve been spreading slander about her.

└Anonymous: ?? What are you talking about? I’m just sharing something a friend told me.

└Anonymous: Oh, your "friend"? You mean the one who cried like a baby begging for his life in front of the Great Witch in Busan?

└Anonymous: I’m not even from Cheonghae Guild.

For the record, all of the “Anonymous” users in this exchange were Ah-ryeon herself, expertly playing different personas to stir the pot on the forum.

Once she had everyone's attention, she delivered the final blow.

- Anonymous: By the way, I’m one of the top five Awakeners under the Librarian of the Great Library. If you keep running your mouth, I can just ask the Constellation to dig up your personal info. So maybe shut up? ^^

└Anonymous: Pfft, as if. I’m not even part of Cheonghae Guild. Do whatever you want, lol.

└Librarian of the Great Library: Park Sang-soon, 37 years old. Guild Master of Cheonghae Guild. Currently logged in from Yeongdo, Busan.

└Anonymous: ?

└Anonymous: What the fuck—

└Anonymous: That’s not me!

Naturally, the forum exploded. The tide of public opinion rapidly shifted, with commenters now siding with Samcheon and berating Cheonghae Guild.

I watched this all unfold with a cold expression.

'So, we’ve turned the slander around. Now let’s see how the anomaly reacts.'

At that moment—

- Anonymous: I always knew Cheonghae Guild would cause trouble someday, lol.

- Anonymous: That guild has always been shady, using anonymous accounts to promote themselves while badmouthing rival guilds.

└Anonymous: For real??

└Anonymous: Apparently, the guild leader even assigned an SG Net officer to manipulate public opinion and instructed the guild members on how to do it.

└Anonymous: I knew it.

Hmm.

I let out a small sigh.

Just moments ago, these users were questioning Seo-rin's integrity, yet now they had smoothly flipped their stance and were condemning Cheonghae Guild instead.

“It’s not going away, is it?”

[No... And more Awakeners who have no connection to the situation are jumping in and adding to the comments.]

Exactly.

This anomaly didn’t care about facts, logic, or reason. It just wanted to burn everything to the ground. Even if you managed to debunk one rumor, the entity would simply latch onto the next, continuing its cycle of destruction.

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