NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 40 - Offending
Chapter 40 Offending
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[Prepare for escape. We’re landing now!］
“…Finally, the helicopter’s here.”
I really love Yoo Jin… I almost had the worst day ever, but this… I cheered so loudly at home that my family looked at me weird… Thank you so much….
Waaaaaahhhhhhh
I literally cried out in joy when she beheaded that sniper troll with an axe.
I’m so happy I can’t even speak. Who are you, Yoo Jin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
From now on, I’ll call light Yoo Jin. Thank you so much, Teacher.
So this is why everyone watches hero movies, lol.
It’s not just that my guts feel cleared out, they’re practically destroyed, Teacher??????
Cheers.
Pure, unadulterated cheers continued.
Still leaning against the wall, Harmony shared a gaze with her countless viewers while smiling bashfully. Beyond them, Yoo Jin was seen pulling out the tomahawk embedded in the enemy user’s neck and retrieving it.
A moment of silence. The severed head rolled to the side, and the corpse disintegrated like dust. It was a fitting end for a villain.
As always, with a somewhat indifferent expression, Yoo Jin secured the tomahawk to the clip on her back and approached Harmony.
By now, dawn was breaking. The morning sunlight flickered, tickling the walls of the New York buildings.
With the sound of crunching snow, a hand reached out to Harmony, who was leaning against the wall, completely drained of energy. Although she was being treated, she still lacked strength.
She carefully raised her hand, but it quickly lost strength and began to droop.
“Hold on. Let’s get out of here.”
Yoo Jin couldn’t allow Harmony’s hand to hit the ground.
Clasping both hands together. Though the cold prevented any warmth from being felt through the gloves, the energy conveyed through the palms was more than sufficient.
With a grunt, Harmony mustered strength in her legs and struggled to stand. But her legs weren’t cooperating as well as she had hoped. A short cry of pain escaped Harmony’s lips.
However, contrary to her expectations, she didn’t collapse.
“Be careful.”
“Oh, okay….”
A tail was firmly wrapped around her waist, holding her up.
With one arm over the opposite shoulder, Yoo Jin supported Harmony and moved slowly at her pace. Tracks of snow being dragged along marked their path.
The helicopter, which had been hovering above, began to descend slowly onto the helipad. The strong gusts of wind made it difficult to keep their eyes open, scattering the unfrozen snow in all directions.
As they carefully stepped over the high ledge, the helicopter’s four-seat cabin opened, and the pilot’s voice came through their radio.
[20 seconds until departure. We’ll get you there safely.］
“Haha….”
“I’ll lift you. Get inside and sit down.”
Carefully holding her waist, Yoo Jin helped Harmony into the open cabin. A cute squeal escaped Harmony, but Yoo Jin just smiled slightly.
With a short groan, Harmony quickly perched on the edge of the seat and closed both doors of the helicopter. The cold air quickly began to warm up.
[10 seconds until departure!］
“…There really are a lot of strange people in this world.”
Despite the hard seat, Harmony relaxed deeply into it, muttering to herself.
As Yoo Jin removed her gloves and massaged her hands, she added,
“There were many such people in the past too. There are likely many in the present. But why does it seem like there are more in modern times?”
“I don’t know…?”
“It’s simple. Those who openly behaved like that in the past all died.”
Exhaling softly, Yoo Jin gazed at the rising sun through the window and spoke quietly.
“In modern society, where physical retaliation for offensive words is not feasible, it feels like there are more people who speak recklessly. People who face no consequences for their actions continue their behavior.”
“Oh. So, in simple terms…they keep acting out because there’s no harm to them, right?”
“Exactly.”
Yoo Jin took out the tomahawk strapped to her back and carefully cleaned the blade.
By now, the helicopter was flying over the buildings.
“For people like that, sometimes extreme measures are necessary.”
Teacher, why are you giving a humanities lecture along with shooting?
Summary: I’ll bash your head in if you mess around, so behave.
The words are refined, but the actions are brutal, lol.
It’s crazy hearing this from someone who actually does it, lol.
Thank you so much for rescuing our dear Harmony!!!!!
Ha.
Harmony let out a small laugh, shaking her head as if in disbelief. It was so like Yoo Jin.
Words needed to be persuasive, and while many people bolstered their arguments with logic to gain persuasion, being a person who matched those words was another way.
The person in front of Harmony was undoubtedly one of the latter.
The sun was rising outside the helicopter window.
Bathed in the dazzling orange light, the two returned to the base after a fierce struggle.
It was the third day of Harmony’s time in the Dark Zone.
“…Ah, anyway. Today was really tough. I didn’t expect to go through something like this, but I’m glad it ended well.”
In the personal space set up for everyone to chat in the virtual reality.
In there, a green catgirl avatar with a peppermint scent sprawled wearily on a chair.
It had been nine hours since the broadcast started, three hours in real-time. Normally, there would be no problem with broadcasting for several hours in virtual reality, but today was different.
Even though it was better than expected, it didn’t mean Harmony was maintaining her usual mental state.
In short, she was only now starting to feel the aftermath of what had happened.
Thinking about it now, it was really close. The broadcast could have been completely ruined.
“Thank you, Meumeum, for the 1,000 won donation… Thank you for your concern. That’s the issue. If it was just me, it would be fine, but it messes with everyone watching the broadcast. That’s not okay.”
Even after almost six years of broadcasting and experiencing all sorts of mental stress and various incidents, some things never got easier.
Especially, facing direct hostility from another person, even in virtual reality, was something that not just her, but most people had never experienced.
Considering these factors, Harmony was handling the situation remarkably well.
“From now on, I’ll only recruit participants from the fan cafe. And when playing modes with potential sniping… Anyone approaching me will be killed, no matter what they say. Got it?”
Do you see this, Yoo Jin? Our dear has become a killing machine in just three days. Take responsibility and marry her.
I can hear Yoo Jin clapping from somewhere, lol.
What the hell is the Dark Zone to make our Harmony, who survived so many crappy games, like this, lol.
This is a textbook case of a villainous transformation 8/10.
It’s basic etiquette to shoot lead at strangers, as stated in the ancient Goguryeo Subakdo.
It’s weird for people to cling to you when you’re not doing a participation stream. This is the right way.
“Thank you, Mighttwilightlife, for the 10,000 won donation. Come on, that’s not true. I still have a long way to go to catch up to Yoo Jin. I need to work harder.”
At this point, the chat window was in chaos, but unlike the viewers who took it half-jokingly, Harmony was more sincere than expected.
On the flip side, if she were as strong as Yoo Jin, would those sniper trolls have targeted her? It was an extreme example, but not entirely wrong.
Even in modern society built on the foundation of law, the logic of power applied, and one needed at least a minimum basis to deal with situations.
Apart from having a large number of viewers on her side, she needed a foundation to solve problems in any given situation.
But that didn’t mean she was in the mood to turn the Dark Zone back on.
Harmony wrapped up her short remarks.
“Anyway, today… as I mentioned, I’m quite tired, so I’ll end the broadcast here. Don’t worry too much about today, everyone, and let’s meet again healthy tomorrow. Goodbye, Noknyangdans!”
Swoosh.
The broadcast ended, and the screen went black, revealing a familiar ceiling. It was her living room. Having been lying down for about three hours, her body felt stiff. As she carefully got up, numerous messages popped up in front of her eyes.
[You have received 300+ messages from multiple people including Luddite and Kim Stone. Would you like to check them?］
[You have 58 missed calls.］
“Ugh, why are there so many?”
Everyone pretended not to care but were truly worried.
The content of these messages would be similar to those sent when she narrowly survived the tutorial last time. She expected as much. The tone might have shifted to be more concerned.
A loud noise echoed. It was the phone ringing.
Since the broadcast was over, she decided to answer the calls. The timing was perfect as the call was from her main editor, Luddite.
“Hello. Hey, editor. Why did you call so much?”
Well, wouldn’t you call? After what happened? That wasn’t just sniping, it was verbal abuse. Anyway, besides me, others are gathering evidence to report it to the cyber investigation unit.
“…Right. Given the situation, we should take a firm stance….”
That user claimed not to care about lawsuits and appeals, but would
they maintain that stance when faced with the actual weight of the law?
It was the first time they openly exploded like this on a broadcast, indicating they knew nothing.
Once the excitement died down, the conversation turned to more practical matters.
…So, what are you going to do next? This video….
“I think many people will find it unpleasant, so I’ll have to think about it. Until then, please don’t edit it.”
Okay. I’ll let the others know too. Anyway, I’m really glad. If it weren’t for Yoo Jin at the end… it could have been a disaster.
“Ha ha.”
She laughed awkwardly and added a comment.
“I didn’t know about the sniping, but I did know about the betrayal from the start. I wasn’t told explicitly, but Yoo Jin hinted at it.”
What? Really? You expected it?
“Yes. And later, I found out that Yoo Jin secretly put a bomb in the bag we gave to that user. I triggered it, right? That was it.”
Wow, seriously, no way….
His tone was almost a sigh, as if he was at a loss for words. For some reason, even though she wasn’t the one being praised, she felt quite good.
Having worked with this editor for so long, she could now roughly guess his expression. She expected he’d soon switch to another topic.
…Anyway, got it. By the way, there’s one more reason I called… Ah, right. The other edited videos are almost done. We’ll upload the second and third ones today and tomorrow.
“Oh, really? Can I check the videos?”
I already sent them via engram, so check and let me know if there’s anything odd.
Despite his words, there would likely be nothing odd. He was one of the best editors she knew.
Anyway, the broadcast was over. It was conveniently around 10 PM, and she was incredibly hungry. Having skimped on dinner, her stomach growled.
She thought she could eat a late-night snack while watching the video the editor sent… but thinking of becoming stronger, she shouldn’t be considering a snack.
As she hung up and lifted her hoodie, a bit of soft, white… mochi-like belly fat peeked out.
Soft.
“…Ugh, I shouldn’t.”
…Still, just for today.
Sending the freshly edited video to Yoo Jin, Harmony lost her battle with herself once again.
It was summer.