Chapter 219
Chapter 219
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 219
Chapter Title: Strange Shifts in Public Opinion
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1
“People's personalities seem really strange these days......”
One day, such a remark slipped from the mouth of No Do-ha, who was in the middle of enjoying a swim.
“Hmm.”
For the record, we were at the swimming pool.
It was the pool located in the basement of the National Highway Management Corps headquarters, and it would be a mistake to begrudge them for leisurely swimming even in the apocalypse, as befitting the seat of ultimate power.
It was simply that a void had popped up in the pool of its own accord.
No Do-ha hated all activities classified under the “exercise” category, but swimming was the one exception she didn’t mind. That was why I periodically dragged her out of her office and tossed her into the pool with a splash.
People need to get at least a minimal amount of exercise to stay alive. Otherwise, they’d drop dead early.
The peninsula’s Zhuge Liang wasn’t allowed to die young.
Anyway.
I approached No Do-ha without a word. Then I squatted down and pressed my finger to her forehead, which she had stuck out beyond the edge of the pool.
“Strange. Your temperature’s normal.”
“You wanna die......?”
“Hey now, it’s pure concern. When the world’s most suspicious personality suddenly starts talking about other people’s characters, how can I not worry?”
“Pure my ass......”
No Do-ha swatted my hand away. The smell of pool chlorine hit me hard.
“Didn’t you notice? Lately, people’s reactions have been subtly off......”
“Specifically, how have they been off?”
“Listen to this......”
The story No Do-ha told me went like this.
The National Highway Management Corps was always discussing the need to recruit more personnel.
Well, it couldn’t be helped—being a Corps member meant living with half your life perpetually in the hands of anomalies.
And Corps members were required to have high combat prowess, strong camaraderie, specialized learning ability, mental fortitude to withstand the spiritual corruption of voids, unwavering loyalty that wouldn’t bend to bribes or lobbying from local warlord guilds, and above all, a mindset that still held hope for humanity despite choosing such a grueling life.
In short, it was brutally tough.
- People are getting shredded on-site! Recruit more!
- Who the hell hired this trash as a newbie? Don’t just hire anyone!
- Manpower! Manpower!
- Qualityyyyy!
In the end, two opposing opinions within the Corps were doomed to run parallel forever.
“But lately, even people outside the Corps have started meddling in this......”
“What?”
It started on SG Net.
One of the Corps caravans departing from Busan had an accident in a void and got wiped out (something that happened pretty often), and forum users started yapping about it.
-Anonymous: Honestly, isn’t it the Corps’ fault for not recruiting manpower on time??
└Anonymous: The Corps basically handles all logistics on the peninsula by themselves, so yeah, it’s kinda irresponsible... yeah...
└Goryeo Jang: Hmm......
-Anonymous: Because of this accident, the Pohang market won’t open for over three months lololol
-Anonymous: My friend’s in the Corps and he says there’s a lot of talk inside too. They know they’re short on field personnel but deliberately aren’t recruiting.
└Anonymous: Why not?
└Anonymous: If they increase Corps members, they’d have to share the straws they’ve stuck in guilds nationwide lololol. Truth is, Corps officers don’t give a shit about logistics—their main gig is squeezing taxes out of guilds lololol
└Anonymous: For real??
└Anonymous: Everyone who’s in the know already knows.
└dolLHOuse: ?? What bullshit are you all spouting?
-Anonymous: Never thought the Corps leader was like that, fml. No different from old-time politicians.
└Anonymous: You still believe in people?? Lol
└Anonymous: I knew it
I blinked.
“What the hell is this banquet of bullshit?”
“It’s a banquet of bullshit. I only found out because my subordinates reported it...... Posts like this are popping up left and right......”
“Suddenly?”
“About a week ago......”
It was truly malicious misinformation.
These days, the National Highway Management Corps was practically the peninsula’s bloodstream. Even the local warlord guild leaders knew it, and ordinary citizens understood it too.
In an era where unity among people was more precious than ever, spreading smears like this only ended up harming all of humanity.
Pointless, all-around harmful trolling.
“We should have Seo-gyu trace their IPs.”
“Of course I already did......”
“Who are these bastards? Could a specific guild be deliberately waging an opinion war? That’s the only thing that makes sense.”
If so, I’d give those petty scoundrels following petty gains a taste of my iron fist.
No Do-ha said to me:
“Well, I thought the same, so I had the Yongsan folks look into their identities...... They were just ordinary awakeners.”
“Ordinary awakeners?”
“Yeah. No connections, no ties, no relations between them at all. They were really total strangers just chiming in on each other’s comments......”
I blinked.
Then it was just a simple happening, wasn’t it?
I had no intention of clamping down tightly on coincidences like that.
Venting emotions online was something that happened daily even before civilization collapsed.
“But that’s not all. Ah. Something’s grabbing my ankle right now......”
“It’s a drowned ghost. No big deal. Go on.”
“Yeah......”
The two of us casually handled the drowned ghost without a single line of dialogue and continued our conversation.
“Not just the Corps—even meddling in Three Thousand Worlds and Baekhwa Girls’ High School has suddenly spiked......?”
Smears, plain and simple.
-Anonymous: Dang Seo-rin puts on anomaly disassembly shows every end of the month in Busan, but honestly it’s kinda cruel lol
-Anonymous: Last time, trying to forcibly capture an anomaly for the show got two regular Three Thousand Worlds guild members killed...
└Anonymous: For real??
└Goryeo Jang: Hmm......
└Anonymous: I heard the same... Could’ve just killed it with no casualties, but Dang Seo-rin insisted on capturing it, and that’s what caused the mess;
└Anonymous: Whoa
-Anonymous: If this is true, isn’t it a real problem?
└Anonymous: Busan’s basically Dang Seo-rin’s domain, so covering up two deaths is nothing. That’s how she’s always been.
└dolLHOuse: ?? What bullshit are you all spouting?
└Anonymous: I knew it
Of course, it was groundless rumor.
Dang Seo-rin almost always captured her disassembly show prey personally. She’d never just ordered her subordinates to fetch it while standing by with arms crossed.
Hell, without Dang Seo-rin’s Song Enchantment backing them up, casualties from the Ten Tribes subjugation or Meteor Shower subjugation would’ve skyrocketed.
Dang Seo-rin had accumulated stacks of indulgence rights. And these lowlife awakeners were bashing her? Had they all gone collectively insane?
“Hey. Don’t roll your eyes like that. Your eyes already don’t look human as fuck, and now you’re gonna look like you’re related to mackerel......”
“Hmm.”
“Anyway, the past week has all been like this. Just like back when civilization was intact......”
“Is it just SG Net?”
“Who knows......”
Splash-.
No Do-ha climbed out of the pool. I draped the towel I’d prepared in advance over her shoulders.
“I get a similar vibe even in real-life meetings with my subordinates. Could be me being oversensitive......”
Even wrapped in the towel, her body was still cold, so I poured hot coffee from the thermos I’d brought and handed it over.
She’d been forced into exercise she hated to death, so this much service was the least I could do.
No Do-ha sipped the coffee and turned to look at me. Water droplets dripped from her black hair.
“My gut tells me it’s probably some anomaly’s doing......”
My gut was telling me the exact same thing.
2
I couldn’t slack off when the Corps leader herself had given me a quest.
I put my original schedule on hold for a bit and checked with the Saintess.
[Yes, that’s right. Lately, those kinds of conversations have spiked in real life too.]
The Saintess’s performance was reliable. The info I wanted came pouring out immediately.
[The people involved aren’t particularly aware they’re having those conversations.]
[I said it without thinking. No malice intended. Someone else brought it up, so I just chimed in. It was just chit-chat......]
[That seems to be their level of awareness.]
I rested my chin on my hand.
“If it’s affecting not just the internet but real life too, keywords like ‘witch hunt’ might be key. Some kind of mental virus?”
[Virus... doesn’t quite fit—there’s no clear infection source.]
[It happened simultaneously from Sariwon to Busan.]
“Can you summarize the characteristics of these conversations?”
[Of course.]
The characteristics of the ‘witch hunt’ anomaly, as summarized by the Saintess, were as follows.
1. Someone slyly stirs up baseless agitation.
2. Doubting responses that still chime in line up one after another.
3. The agitation is assumed true, leading to remarks questioning the target’s character.
4. The conversation always ends with the line ‘I knew it.’
[...That’s it.]
“Hmm.”
I rested my chin on my hand.
“It’s definitely a mental-type anomaly...... Seems like one that parasitizes language itself.”
[How do you plan to deal with it?]
“Let’s test its reaction first.”
I dispatched a secret order to Sim A-ryeon, the strongest card among humanity’s available internet firepower.
Sim A-ryeon had control over the constellations [Librarian of the Great Library] and [Collector of All Anomalies], plus a bunch of anonymous nicknames.
Target, ON. Fire.
-Anonymous: I know who’s spreading rumors that Dang Seo-rin forcibly captured an anomaly for her disassembly show lol
-Anonymous: There was this mid-tier guild in Yeongdo, Busan called Blue Sea Guild that’s always picking fights with Three Thousand— their guild leader got ‘recruited’ by Dang Seo-rin? Ever since, their small fry have been smearing her every chance they get lololol
└Anonymous: ?? What’re you talking about? I’m just relaying what my acquaintance told me?
└Anonymous: Your acquaintance is your guild leader bawling like a baby in front of the Great Witch on the Busan seafront, begging for his life^^
└Anonymous: I told you I’m not from Blue Sea Guild?
For reference, all the ‘Anonymous’ in the above text were Sim A-ryeon herself.
Sim A-ryeon heated up the board with skillful use of her split-body technique.
And once the members’ attention was focused, she dropped the finale.
-Anonymous: I’m a devotee of the Librarian of the Great Library, and I’m an awakener in the top five for divine power lololol Keep yapping and I’ll ask the constellation to dox you, so shut your trap^^
└Anonymous: You crazy bastard lololol I’m seriously not from Blue Sea, so what? Dox me if you dare lololololol
└[Librarian of the Great Library]: Park Sang-soon. Age 37. Blue Sea Guild leader. Currently accessing from Yeongdo, Busan, on the peninsula.
└Anonymous: ?
└Anonymous: Wtf
└Anonymous: I said no
The other members watching the colosseum like spectators naturally lost their shit.
Public opinion swiftly tilted toward defending Three Thousand Worlds, with comments blasting Blue Sea Guild pouring in.
I coldly observed the flow.
‘Alright. We flipped the smear. Now how will you react, anomaly?’
At that moment.
-Anonymous: I knew those Blue Sea Guild bastards would cause trouble someday lololol
-Anonymous: That guild’s infamous for operating anonymously as a group to promote themselves and bash rival guilds
└Anonymous: For real??
└Anonymous: They even have an SG Net handler under the guild leader who instructs members daily on how to sway opinion lololol
└Anonymous: I knew it
Hmm.
I let out a low hum.
Just moments ago, members doubting Dang Seo-rin’s character had switched angles as if nothing happened, now collectively condemning the entire Blue Sea Guild.
“It’s not being repelled at all.”
[...Yeah. Unrelated awakeners are chiming in again.]
Exactly.
This mysterious anomaly just wanted to set the world ablaze indiscriminately.
No matter how hard you flipped the smear with counterarguments, it just shifted to another smear...!