Chapter 87
[Defeat!]
BOOM-!
Watching the nexus get destroyed, I let out a deep sigh.
“Haa… Is it another promotion failure…”
Despite playing duo, I ended up slipping at the threshold of Platinum.
For some reason, it feels like my team luck has been exceptionally bad lately.
Of course, to be honest, I did slip up a tiny bit in the previous game.
But I did really well this game.
It was totally Platinum, no, diamond level, you know?
“This is not the fault of the True Ancestor!”
What’s certain is that it’s not my fault.
Then whose fault is it?
As for Iced Coffee, who I played duo with, he was just overwhelmingly good.
But this is an unfair match to begin with.
She’s an S-rank Hunter, so her agility stat must be super high.
Mine is a measly 5.
And even that was barely raised by 1 after recently diligently drinking aged blood.
“My Blood Mage win rate is ruined…”
I opened the match history search site in a depressed mood and stared at my miserable recent win rate.
Just in case, I also searched up the Ice Empress’s match history.
Looking at it, she was on a winning streak, sweeping the MVP in every single solo queue game she played.
Only the games she played duo with me were lined up with bright red defeats.
'…Huh?'
Suddenly, a reasonable suspicion raised its head.
If one person is continuously spotted at the scenes of serial murders, the culprit is…?
“T-That can’t be!”
I hastily shook my head back and forth.
It’s absolutely not my fault.
It’s just that our team luck clearly hits rock bottom only when the two of us play together.
Because two good players are playing duo, it’s a malicious algorithmic conspiracy where the matchmaking system forces bad players onto our team to artificially balance the win rate at 50%.
“From what I can see, I need to contact the association president and put pressure on the game company to reveal their matchmaking algorithm.”
While I was thinking that, a wave of reality soon hit me.
[Jin-yu: Team luck is weird today. Let’s just play up to here]
[Ice Coffee: Yeah. The team’s luck really isn’t good. Good work.]
I left the chat and turned off the computer.
I dived into bed, rolled around, and picked up my smartphone.
“Hmm… Is there any interesting drama?”
I scrolled through the Hunter Gallery out of habit, then opened my status window and connected to the climber community.
'Oh?'
However, the state of the community bulletin board was quite unusual.
[Become one withThe Esteemed One; soon, all will be clear.]
[BecomeonewithTheEsteemedOnesoonallwillbeclear.]
[BecomeonewithTheEsteemedOnesoonallwillbeclear.]
[BecomeonewithTheEsteemedOnesoonallwillbeclear.]
[BecomeonewithTheEsteemedOnesoonallwillbeclear.]
…
…
Posts with the exact same title were practically spamming the page, and users were clamoring and expressing their complaints.
Wondering who on earth was doing this, I checked the poster’s nickname.
[Poster: Priest of the Abyss]
“Huh? This person is the one whose nickname was written down before as a person of interest in the guide post.”
It seemed they were a registered user within the Community famous for being a malicious troll.
But Priest of the Abyss.
Didn’t the guy who attacked the saintess and summoned deep-sea monsters say something about the “Abyss Cult” this time?
It seemed they were people likely affiliated with that side.
As I scrolled down the list, an urgent-looking anonymous post caught my eye.
[Title: Climber bro is f*cked. Please save me.]
[Poster: Anonymous]
Ah f*ck I accidentally clicked on the spam post and a mental attack hit me hard…
I’m seeing weird tentacle hallucinations and hearing the sound of waves, what do I do about this…?
- Ugh newbie, that’s why we tell you to read the guide.
- Posts keep coming up telling people not to click on troll posts, look at that intelligence level.
- Just endure it for a few days lol I got hit by it too, but you don’t die.
'Whoa. To think a mental attack can be inflicted just through text or photos. That’s surprising.'
It was something I had seen in solo Play warrior’s guide post, but seeing it actually happen was quite surprising.
I recalled the saintess’s companions who had collapsed while shedding tears of blood after seeing the polyhedron dice last time.
That seemed to be what a mental attack was.
Of course, thanks to [Exalted dignity], I was completely immune to such attacks so I couldn’t really feel it, but it seemed to be quite fatal to ordinary awakeners.
At that moment, a comment with a particularly conspicuous nickname was posted on that thread.
- Apostle of Light) brother, please check my post.
“Apostle of Light?”
This is the saintess. What is she trying to do?
Out of curiosity, I found the post written by the saintess and clicked on it.
[Title: Those who have suffered damage from the Abyss Cult, please read this post.]
[Poster: Apostle of Light]
As soon as I opened the post, a mysterious, prism-shaped illustration filled the screen.
And below that, a dense and long prayer was written, so long that one had to scroll down for quite a while.
Pitiful souls wander lost in the swamp of darkness.
I pray that the radiant light contained in this text will wash away your clouded vision.
Our hearts are like swaying reeds, easily tainted by impure energy, but the Great Light always shines down consistently to embrace those wounds…
“Ack. What is this, why is it so long?”
Even as I scrolled and scrolled, the text kept going.
It’s an unwritten rule to put “Scroll warning)” in the title for long posts like this.
I scrolled all the way down without reading the contents at all.
However, the reactions in the comments at the very bottom were surprising.
- Wow, the dizziness is completely gone. Thanks T_T
- Praise be!!!!!
- I was seeing tentacles until just now but I don’t see them anymore. Phew, I lived.
Everyone who viewed the post was leaving thanks, saying they had been healed.
“Did the saintess use her power to heal them remotely?”
It’s fascinating enough that they can inflict damage on people with just photos and text, but they can also heal it with text and photos too.
The more I thought about it, the more amazing it was.
She was essentially performing miracles of healing on people on the other side of earth, and on an unspecified multitude at that.
She wasn’t given the title of saintess for nothing.
“…But you know.”
I fell into thought.
'Wasn’t I the one who crushed that Abyss Cult, and wasn’t I also the one who fixed the companions on the verge of death because this saintess couldn’t heal them?'
Kya.
Thinking about it like this, I feel newly amazing.
Really, at this point, aren’t I at the level of a Ranker beyond S-rank?
'Vam-hehehe.'
I couldn’t hold back the laughter leaking out.
I rolled myself up in the blanket and giggled inside it.
The depressed mood from the promotion failure got better again.
Anyway.
'If the saintess has that kind of healing ability, it would be nice if she could fix our Ha-eun’s mother.'
New Retainer Song Ha-eun.
She said her mother was currently bedridden in the hospital.
While I was having those thoughts, an idea suddenly came to mind.
'Huh…? Come to think of it, I have a healing ability too, don’t I?'
The furniture I had installed in the Living Room was the [Coffin of Rest] while leveling up the territory.
It had a function that rapidly recovered vitality and removed fatigue if one went inside it.
It was just that I had never used it because none of my retainers had been seriously injured yet.
“Would it work on ordinary people too?”
I immediately turned on Mosquito No. 7's vision.
Ha-eun happened to be visiting the hospital at that moment.
A white hospital room could be seen beyond the screen.
Ha-eun, sitting by the bed, was tightly holding the patient’s emaciated hand.
“Mom, you don’t have to worry about hospital bills anymore!”
“My daughter… That’s really great. I’m sorry that Mom is just a burden…”
“Hey, I told you not to say things like that! I can make a lot of money now too, so Mom, just focus on recovering from this and getting up. Got it?”
At her daughter’s spirited comfort, Ha-eun’s mother quietly nodded with a fond expression.
I didn’t delay and drew up my blood power.
Paaat-!
A [Gate of Darkness] opened in the middle of the hospital room.
“Huh…? This is…?”
“W-What is this…? A Gate…?”
Ha-eun and Ha-eun’s mother were startled by the sudden phenomenon.
I sent telepathy to Ha-eun through No. 7.
“Retainers. Bring your mother and cross over here.”
- Ah! True Ancestor-nim!
When Ha-eun heard my voice, her expression quickly brightened, and she carefully supported her mother and stepped into the portal.
A moment later, in the Living Room of our territory.
Ha-eun’s mother, who had crossed through the portal, hesitated at the unfamiliar scenery, then looked my way and bowed deeply.
“True Ancestor-nim. I’ve heard from my daughter a lot about you, that you are the Benefactor who saved her life twice… I am Yoon Su-yeon. Thank you, truly.”
When I saw her up close, Yoon Su-yeon’s appearance was much more haggard than I thought.
Perhaps due to her long battle with illness, her hair had all fallen out, and dark circles had settled heavily around her eyes.
But even in that sickly state, her original beautiful features remained intact, befitting Ha-eun’s mother.
“She said it was Magic Stone disease.”
A new rare disease that appeared after the Gates opened.
It was a terrifying disease where a Magic Stone Crystal grew inside the body, slowly gnawing away at one’s vitality.
From what I had searched before, once it reached the terminal stage, it was impossible to cure even with the abilities of most high-ranking Healers.
I opened my mouth towards her.
I tried to suppress the tone of [Exalted dignity] if possible, but a perfectly polite and normal tone didn’t come out.
“Mortal. You must have suffered greatly all this time.”
This much was the best I could do.
The rude, condescending speech of a young girl’s body.
Even so, Yoon Su-yeon showed no signs of panic, and instead answered with impeccable courtesy.
“Not at all. Just the fact that you took Ha-eun in leaves me with no regrets.”
“Hmm. Would you like to receive a treatment from this body?”
“Treatment… you say?”
“Go in there.”
I pointed to the [Coffin of Rest] placed on one side of the Living Room.
“I-In the coffin?!”
“Indeed.”
No matter what, telling a sick person to suddenly get into a coffin was a bit of a bad look.
But it could still be of help.
“Mom! True Ancestor-nim is a totally amazing person, so trust her and get treated!”
“Y-Yeah. Okay.”
Ha-eun believed my words completely and supported her mother and laid her down inside the coffin.
Watching the coffin lid close, I nodded.
“Honestly, where else is there a vampire like me?”
Resolving a new employee’s unfair contract issue, and even directly lending out a premium treatment facility because their parent is sick.
'There’s no boss like this in today’s world, nope.'
This is why the kids have no choice but to pledge their loyalty to me.
Fufufu.
Intoxicated by my own benevolence, I proudly shrugged my shoulders.
A few hours later, the lid opened again.
“Oh my…”
Yoon Su-yeon, raising her body, let out a small exclamation.
Even though she had only gone in and come out once, quite a bit of color had returned to her bloodless face.
Her breathing, which had seemed labored, was also much more comfortable.
“Oh, it really works?”
Inwardly amazed, I activated [Appraisal Eye] to properly check her condition while I was at it.
A translucent status window floated in the air.
However,
[Name: Yoon Su-yeon]
[Class: None]
[Blood fiend potential: A]
'…Huh?'
I doubted my eyes.
'Her blood fiend potential is A?! It’s higher than your daughter’s?'
Because it was a higher value than that of Ha-eun, who was A-.
The bewilderment was brief, when a sudden idea crossed my mind.
“But wait a minute.”
If this is the case… is there really a need to take the time to heal her with the [Coffin of Rest]?
If I just turn her into a vampire, won’t all her sickness be completely cured?
I immediately called Ha-eun.
“Retainers.”
“Yes, True Ancestor-nim!”
I looked straight into her eyes and asked.
“Would it be alright if I turned your mother into a vampire?”
“…Huuuh?!”