Malicious Hate

Drip...

The pharmacy door closed, and I slumped over the counter like a melted cat, one hand still clutching an egg.

With the other, I pulled out my phone.

"Hehehing..."

Luckily, there was good news waiting to wash away all the mental exhaustion.

"Heheh."

Even though it was private, knowing the reviewer was my aunt, and flipping back and forth between that and Uncle Park Sang-jin's review, made a smile leak out at the corners of my mouth.

It felt like getting praised and having my head gently patted at the same time.

I felt so good. The fact that there were people who liked my medicine made me so, so happy.

How could I feel this happiness even more?

Ah, right. Uncle Sang-jin mentioned he was writing a review to post on the Hunter Gallery, didn't he?

Three days had already passed, so maybe he'd finished it by now. A little spark of hope rose up. With a faint flutter in my chest, I logged into HuntGal.

The moment I connected, the Concept-Recommended board greeted me with a dazzling array of titles I simply could not resist clicking.

I clicked them all as if hypnotized.

"Wow— Keven Workshop, sniiiff— I really want this for real... Hiek, a tiny cauldron costs a hundred million?!?"

"Hweok, she actually went inside a dragon's mouth!! Even a fire mage still needs to breathe... Ah, she went in wearing a heat-resistant oxygen tank, so cool for real..."

"H-Area is our neighborhood... Come to think of it, Uncle Sang-jin said he booked a place nearby because of a guild raid... Is he with Blue Sea Guild?"

"Whoa! Infinite Blue Potion Mage versus Infinite Red Potion Swordsman?? Gasp... If you kill the mage before they get close the mage wins... But what if the swordsman hangs the potions like IV drips and keeps drinking? What if the mage just keeps casting infinite shields? Hweeeok my brain's gonna short-circuit, it's too hard..."

I got sucked into the star-studded concept posts for a little while.

"...Hah!"

Only after clicking every single post on page one of the concept board did I finally snap back to my senses and head into the review board I'd originally come for.

Scroll, scroll—

"Ung?"

No matter how much I scrolled the review board, there was no review to be found.

Even when I went into the promo post I'd written and searched Uncle's account, GateGrindIsHell, the most recent post was still the short one from three days ago.

"...Ung?"

I was still grinning goofily at the praise in the body when the comments under the post caught my eye.

Why were comments like this even here?

"Is searching... done like this?"

The reason appeared the instant I typed the keyword "drugs" into the search bar.

The culprit was a concept post from a few days ago.

Someone had seen my promo post, gone over to the Hunter Association board, and dragged Uncle Sang-jin's review over here.

But of all things the product was a pain-relief patch with an effect that was way too instantaneous, plus the pharmacy name... and the location, so the misunderstandings had snowballed one after another.

That was why even the good reviews hadn't drawn any extra customers. There were tons of derivative posts and a whole new pile of hate comments under my promo post.

I simply hadn't installed the app so I never saw the notifications. That was all.

But now I had seen them.

I wrote it over and over in both the promo post and the review that I use ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠gate-sourced herbs!

It was so unfair I left a reply.

But even after several minutes, no one replied to my comment.

I wrote a new post.

It was completely illogical if you thought about it for even a second, but hatred for the sake of hatred that chased cheap dopamine thrills had no room for logic.

"Hiiing... conversation just doesn't work..."

More than anything, there was no way to instantly prove my innocence.

Proving that I do sell something is one thing—how do you prove that you don't?

"Uuugh..."

I fretted until my brain genuinely started short-circuiting.

Three methods floated up.

One was to film myself making the medicine.

Prove with video that the ingredients were clean.

Next was getting Uncle Sang-jin to post the review that included the red potion he'd mentioned on HuntGal.

Red potions had visible effects and zero pain-relief properties, so there was absolutely no angle to link them to drugs.

He said he came out to this outer district because of the gate his guild is clearing...

"Hing..."

But for him to use a red potion, Uncle would have to get hurt.

I couldn't bring myself to hope for that.

The third was asking the Narcotics Investigation Bureau for proof? But there wasn't even a special verification form, and dumping already-dead anonymous internet posts on a public agency for extra work outside their duties felt way too burdensome.

In the end I decided to do what I could right now.

"There's a bell on the shop door anyway... so I'll just go in and make medicine. Perfect timing—the third medicine is a pain-relief type."

I opened the camera app and started making the third medicine.

KakaoTalk—

KakaoTalk kakaoTalk—

Rest period in the late stage of the raid.

Right before the final push on the dungeon gate boss, they stepped out of the gate for a quick reorganize. The moment Sang-jin turned on his phone, a flood of piled-up notifications crashed in all at once.

Sang-jin opened the messenger belonging to the owner of most of those notifications—his wife Ye-na.

The chat was stacked high with speech bubbles.

"Ahem ahem ahem!!"

M-maybe pretend I never saw it.

Pushing the danger onto half-a-day-later him, Sang-jin hurriedly turned off his phone.

Then he cast a self-hypnosis spell.

I was too busy with the clear to see the messages, I was too busy with the clear to see the messages, I was too busy with the clear to...

It wasn't even entirely a lie.

The guild's gate raid was in its final stretch right now, just about to enter the boss monster's den, wasn't it?

...But still, what the hell was he supposed to do for real.

He barely spent money normally and had been carrying the card around without thinking, so he never even considered a text would go out.

"I forgot the card was Noona's..."

"Why, what did you buy?"

At a close colleague's question, Sang-jin explained the situation.

After hearing everything, the colleague put on an exaggerated look of shock.

"What, two red potions? And low-grade ones at that??"

"What's wrong with that?"

"Dude, why waste money on low-grade? And if you're buying two, just throw in a little more cash and get mid-grade like me."

The guy proudly pointed a thumb at the inner pocket of his chest.

"And besides, doesn't Ye-na Noonim pack you high-grade potions? You got some before too."

That was exactly the problem, which was why he'd been pretending not to see Ye-na's texts.

"They were expensive so I left them at home and then forgot to grab them..."

"You fucking idiot."

The colleague spat out a full-course curse.

But what was done was already done. Leaving the colleague behind, Sang-jin started loosening up his body.

He clasped both hands and stretched his arms high overhead, lengthening his waist in a stretch. The colleague sidled up again and casually asked,

"Sang-jin, you eating something good? You said you had a disc but you're completely lively even inside the gate."

"Stuck a patch on and it got better."

"This bastard left a spare life behind and now he's actually lost it."

"For real. Want one?"

The colleague cursed again and walked off.

Yes!

Even while saying it he'd been reluctant to give one away, so this worked out perfectly.

But his condition really was at an all-time high.

He'd cut the patches and stuck them all over his body beyond just the prescribed spots, and the mana flow through his entire system was at peak. His condition was so good he could probably retake the promotion exam he'd given up on because of his back.

If a patch you just stick on the skin was this good, how amazing would the red potion be?

To get spare-life-level effects you normally had to heavily concentrate troll blood with its abysmal extraction rate, but the amount of potion he'd bought this time was almost a small milk carton, so he couldn't help quietly looking forward to it.

This good and for a whole month the only customer was me.

Hard to believe, but when he thought of those pure little-lamb eyes that barely even seemed to use a phone, it made sense.

That was why, even though the patch alone was already incredible, he'd decided that since he'd bought the red potion he might as well write a proper review covering the red potion too.

There was just one problem.

You needed to get hurt to use a red potion, but before coming to the raid he'd stuck patches all over his body so his condition was way too good.

He genuinely had no idea when he'd ever get the chance to use it...

"Ah."

The moment the thought crossed his mind, Sang-jin flinched.

Thinking like this always means I'm gonna end up using it.

...Nah, no way.

"Entering the gate! Vanguard, prepare!"

Still, deciding he should be a little more careful, Sang-jin tightly tensed every muscle.