Then, I spoke up to ask something I was curious about.

“I didn’t mean to meddle in official business unnecessarily. I really just happened to come across it by chance and stopped by briefly, so I hope you’re not too displeased.”

“Not at all! We’re very grateful for your help! Truly!”

Suji, who was used to interacting only with AAA-rank hunters and above, didn’t quite understand the bright-eyed attitude of the civil servant. She scratched her cheek and continued.

“Do you often encounter fish… no, monsters with such ‘status effects’?”

“No, we don’t! Was there a ‘status effect’ indicator? Even headquarters hasn’t confirmed that yet, so thank you for letting us know. No wonder it appeared in a different location than we predicted.”

The civil servant let out a small exclamation, as if paying respect to Daphne’s abilities.

Suji asked the civil servant who had finished taking notes on the monster data she provided.

“So, does that mean monsters with ‘status effects’ aren’t seen often?”

“No, as far as I know, it’s not a common occurrence!”

Suji nodded inwardly. Even though she hadn’t been away from the field for that long, if such strange things were happening frequently, she would have known about it.

“I see. Thank you. And one more thing.”

“Yes! Ask me anything!”

“This wave. What rank was it?”

“It was B-rank!”

Suji bit her lip slightly.

‘If it’s B-rank, shouldn’t only B-rank monsters appear?’

It might be a simple measurement error, but that intuition that hunters never ignore was telling her. Something was off.

Suji suddenly looked at her status window.

[Νύμφη is watching your actions.]

This phrase suddenly caught her attention.

Were the ‘Great Beings’ trying to convey something?

Or did they want to solve something through Daphne?

The questions remained unsettlingly unresolved.

As she was saying goodbye to the civil servant hunter, a shout pierced her ears.

“I’m a fan of Daphne! I’m always supporting you!”

The voice was so loud that probably everyone there heard it.

Suji’s face quickly flushed. She had occasionally heard about fans or fan cafes and pages on the internet, but it was her first time hearing it face-to-face, which felt different.

‘Was it good that I helped on my way?’

The energy felt in the voice shouting support for her seemed to be spreading somehow.

Suji gave a shy smile and then left the scene.

[This is the timeline separator]

While the hunter bulletin board was on fire with Daphne’s appearance, an apology post was uploaded.

[Title: Apology to Daphne

Hello.

I’m an aspiring hunter who has been active on this board for 5 years under a fixed nickname.

I have posted several slanderous posts about Daphne,
and despite knowing about Daphne’s efforts and dedication to the country, I often used the term “bus driver” just for the purpose of mockery.

I want to offer a sincere apology to Daphne, who must have been hurt by my defamatory comments stemming from my own inferiority complex.

Daphne saved my younger sibling who was at Han River Park early this morning.

I have heard about the urgent situation at the time through multiple testimonies.

I feel endlessly ashamed that I dared to make such unspeakable slander against someone to whom I should be infinitely grateful.

Once again, I want to express my sincere gratitude and apologies.]

As soon as such a post appeared, comments poured in.

[└What? Wasn’t this guy a hunter?

└Isn’t this the guy who went around saying he was A-rank?

└LOL He lives life so easily, insulting when he wants to insult and apologizing when he wants to apologize

└└2222

└Inferiority complex, huh… How ugly

└If it was written on your sibling’s forehead that they had a brother like you, they probably wouldn’t have been saved lol

└Live your whole life being grateful, you bastard

└There were a lot of people running their mouths besides this bastard, now that it’s come to this, come out and apologize, all of you

└└Yeah. How much peace of mind have we had thanks to Daphne? Take this opportunity to all come out and apologize.

└└Honestly, there were quite a few worse than this guy. If I were Daphne, I’d be too annoyed to keep working.

└└└Why would Daphne look here? She probably just quit because she wanted to.

└This is what you do after eating expensive food. Do your parents know you’ve been doing this on the internet?

└I’m the original poster. I didn’t intend to ease my guilt with just one post like this. But I will show you a reborn self through this incident. I deserve the insults. I won’t delete this post.

└Every time I see testimonies of people saved thanks to Daphne, my heart aches ㅠ Honestly, it’s because Daphne doesn’t work in such directly visible scenes and works in the tower where people don’t see much… She’s really saving lives. She must have a hard time in Korea where there are idiots who only realize they’re grateful when their own sibling is saved ㅠ

└└22222

└└This person is right

└└333444556667788999

└└Still, someone who posts an apology is decent. The ones who are really worse than maggots don’t even post things like this

└└└This is also true lol]

As eyewitness accounts followed one after another in the post, the hunter bulletin board suddenly went into chaos.

All sorts of posts started getting reported and targeted with the intention of ‘apologizing to Daphne’. Regardless of the will of the person to receive the apology, all past malicious posts related to Daphne were dragged out, causing another uproar.

Dozens of apology letters followed, to the extent that a new header ‘Apology to Daphne’ was created.

The appraiser looked at the item Suji had presented with an expression of admiration, observing it for a long time. If Suji hadn’t urged him, he seemed like he would have continued appraising it all day.

Although Suji was someone who frequently came for appraisals, it seemed like the first time she had seen an appraiser so excited to examine an item.

After waiting for quite a while, she finally spoke first.

“Please tell me the appraisal results first.”

The appraiser sighed and finally straightened his back that had been deeply bent forward. Then, only after reluctantly putting down his monocle, did he give his answer.

“It’s an egg.”

“…An egg?”

She thought it wouldn’t be an ordinary stone, but… an egg.

It made her feel even more uneasy.

Suji puffed her cheeks, lost in thought.

An egg. Whose egg could it be?

“Yes. But, this… perhaps…”

The appraiser swallowed hard, gently stroked the egg with a thin cloth, and then held it up.

Just by that gesture, as if handling something sacred, Suji could guess what the appraiser was about to ask.

Suji nodded without trying to hide it.

There was no point in concealing it from someone with appraisal skills anyway.

“Yes, that’s right. I got it from the ‘Great Beings’. You’ll keep it a secret, right?”

The appraiser looked at the egg for a long time with sparkling eyes, then nodded as if regretfully.

Due to professional ethics, if a client doesn’t want the appraisal contents to be revealed, they are bound by oath not to disclose it. Even if they don’t want to keep it secret, they have no choice but to do so.

As if truly disappointed by this fact, the long-bearded, hunched appraiser clicked his tongue several times before returning the items set to reveal their appraisal status.

[Item Inquiry

: Looks like a stone.

: [Appraisal Result] Egg

Characteristics: It follows the first being it sees upon hatching, and its appearance can be set by the owner. It cannot perform combat functions. It hatches when held to the chest and tapped six times.

Basic color: White] [

: Looks like a five-colored stone.

: [Appraisal Result] Egg

Characteristics: It follows the first being it sees upon hatching, and its appearance can be set by the owner.

The hatching method cannot be determined.

Basic color: Five colors]

“You can’t figure out how it hatches. Did I pay too little?”

“Not at all. I didn’t intend to charge Daphne a large amount to begin with, and even if I received more, there’s no way to figure it out.”

“Is it an issue of appraisal rank?”

“…Hmm. To be honest, I’m not sure. If that were the case, it would show up as ‘Unable to Appraise’, but there was nothing like that.”

The appraiser looked hurt in his pride, but thinking there was no need to lie, he honestly confessed.

Suji nodded, saying she understood.

The fact that what she received from the ‘Great Beings’ was an egg still left her feeling a bit uneasy, but curiosity had raised her tension.

A pet whose appearance can be set at will. This isn’t a game… No, even games rarely have such a feature. They usually say it’s the default and can’t be changed.

It seems it won’t be very useful in emergencies since it can’t fight, but she had been interested in taming recently anyway. So wouldn’t it be fun to hatch an egg or two?

“Thank you for appraising so early in the day.”

Suji paid three times the requested amount and turned away.

The appraisal results were better than expected, so even paying a large sum didn’t feel wasteful.

Now that her business was done, she needed to get back quickly.

…To play games.