Chapter 186
Chapter 186
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 187
Chapter Title: Nayeo-ju Saves the World Part 2 Chapter 7
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A few days later.
I was gradually getting used to the white puffs of breath rising in the chilly morning air.
"Ugh, I'm so tired."
I quickly gulped down the warm coffee I'd bought from the cafeteria and rubbed my eyes.
This was all Sama Young's fault.
Ever since that strange keyword appeared on him, my dreams had been nightmares every single night.
Last night, I dreamed that Sama Young had turned into a pitch-black crow and was chasing me around, trying to stuff a creepy earthworm into my mouth. I ran for my life, using every ounce of strength I had from nursing days, but he pursued me with that incessant cawing.
That raucous cry still rang sharply in my ears.
As I clutched my throbbing forehead and inwardly cursed the vivid resolution of that pointless dream, a worried voice asked me,
"Team Leader, did you have another rough night?"
"Ah, Ms. Gu. Good morning."
"Good morning to you... but Team Leader, you..."
The one calling me Team Leader and fretting over me was Gu Eun-a from the Justice Guild's administrative team.
She'd originally been with the Magma Guild and got transferred over with the merger. She was excellent at her job.
For the record, I was in charge as the head of the administrative team.
While I was in this office, I was more the person running the Justice Guild than a healer.
"Good mor— Team Leader, you tossed and turned again last night?!"
"Yeah, something like that..."
"That's how many nights in a row now? Finish up early today and go home to rest!"
Another team member, Kim Ji-hee, started nagging me the moment she arrived.
I didn't even have the energy to respond properly, so I just nodded and chugged the rest of my coffee.
Draining about half of it like a parched wanderer at an oasis, I finally felt my mind clearing a bit.
By then, the rest of the administrative team had arrived.
We hadn't hired anyone new yet, so it was a small team of five including me.
Until now, we'd been busy building the new structure and adjusting to the environment.
And today was the start of a new project.
"Today is an important day. Everyone ready?"
"Yes!"
"Then, Ms. Ji-hee, what's our goal for today?"
"Handle applications from Raid Team 4, the mining team, and other support roles, and respond to any inquiries!"
The Justice Guild currently had three raid teams in total.
We'd decided to keep the existing raid teams from both guilds separate without merging or reshuffling them.
That had been one of the conditions for the Magma Guild merger, too.
Even this setup was more than enough to keep the guild running smoothly.
But I wanted to aim a little higher.
The mining team to extract magic stones from dungeons cleared by the raid teams, support roles for non-combat Awakeners who wanted to work for the Justice Guild, and Raid Team 4—which was open to applicants regardless of rank—were the first steps.
"Ms. Gu, you requested the server upgrade ahead of time, right? A lot of people are going to show up."
It was inevitable.
This was a new raid team for the Justice Guild, a pillar of the Justice Alliance.
There'd be plenty who genuinely wanted to join, and even more just testing the waters with an application.
"I put in the request last week and followed up yesterday."
"Good. Let's do our best today."
The pre-announced opening time was 10 a.m.
Some people popped chocolate for a sugar rush to get their brains firing, while others cracked open their energy drinks.
And finally, 9:59 a.m.
The entire administrative team sat tensely in front of our computers.
The moment 10:00 hit, the 'Apply' button on the temporary page we'd set up for this hunter recruitment lit up blue.
For the few minutes it took people to fill out the forms, a quiet tension hung in the office.
"Ms. Gu, how's it looking?"
"Applications are coming in smoothly. Oh! They just messaged that traffic is surging, so they're opening extra servers... Hmm?"
"What?"
I leaned over at her ominous tone to peer at her monitor.
"It's nothing! Looks like there are a lot of people with the same names among hunters! Haha."
"What? Whose name is it...?"
I opened the page listing the applications.
"...Yeah, probably just duplicates."
I shook my head and scrolled through with bleary eyes.
I didn't even feel like checking the details.
"B-but I looked at the submissions, and it seems like the real deal..."
"Team Leader! There's a question on the inquiry board... Foreign hunters are asking if they need notarized translations for their applications?"
"N-notarized translations...?"
Sudden issues popping up left and right made my head spin.
Wait, applications from overseas?
I grabbed my scattering thoughts amid this suddenly expanded worldview and answered.
"Tell them to submit first and provide the notarized translation later."
"Got it!"
Fine, whatever.
If they're applying to a Korean guild, they probably know some Korean anyway.
"Ah! T-Team Leader!"
"Now what?!"
"The server... the server's down!"
It was only 10:26 a.m.
"Sorry. The provider says the traffic spike outpaced their server provisioning. They're working to restore it as fast as possible."
What the— that's scary.
Why was everyone so interested in the Justice Guild?
I'd anticipated a rush and prepared accordingly.
But not like this.
"...Push the provider as hard as we can. And let's pull ourselves together."
This was directed at myself.
Get it together, Nayeo-ju.
An emergency strategy meeting convened in the Justice Guild administrative office.
"When will the server be back up?"
"About an hour, they said."
"Hmm. An hour..."
I was thinking it was faster than expected when Gu Eun-a spoke up with a crestfallen face.
"I'm sorry, Team Leader. I didn't think the server would crash like this..."
She was clearly feeling responsible.
"You anticipated the crowd and requested the upgrades. It's just that more people came faster than we thought. Don't beat yourself up."
"Yes, Team Leader..."
The server was already down, which ironically gave us an hour's breather.
"So, the question is what we do next."
The team's faces grew serious at my opener.
"First, for the foreign applicants..."
I skimmed the summaries of applications that had come in before the crash.
"Treat them the same as domestic ones. It's not common, but foreign hunters do operate in Korea."
"What about these... and this one?"
She slid some papers in front of me—the applications from famous hunters that had made me suspect duplicates earlier.
"Ah, come on. Big shots like these."
I flipped through them, clicking my tongue.
This wasn't like starving and only getting food pics.
These were people holding key positions in top guilds.
Some were even running guilds they'd founded themselves.
No way they were in loose enough contracts to jump ship to the Justice Guild on a dime.
"Contact them individually and explain. Tell them the Justice Guild doesn't cover penalties. That'll weed out the unserious ones."
"Ah... Yes, got it!"
The team looked a bit disappointed at first but soon started divvying up who to contact.
'I wish they'd all join for real.'
But if we did that, the guilds losing their star hunters wouldn't sit idly by.
We could end up making Raid Team 4 and turning into everyone's enemy.
Still, it felt like a waste to just let them go like this.
I tapped the table lightly, thought for a moment, and said to Gu Eun-a, who handled overall homepage management,
"When you post the server downtime notice, include a call for guild alliance applications too."
Alliance partners could become sister guilds, and from there, mergers might follow.
"I'll step out for a bit then."
"Yes! Take care, Team Leader!"
I left the office building and headed to a quiet spot.
Then I pulled out my phone and made a call.
The signal barely rang a few times before a familiar voice picked up.
["Yes, Nayeo-ju-ssi."]
"President, would big shots like these really do something like this?"