WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I Returned as a God ◈

Chapter 40: Trashy Drama (4)

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After finishing my call with Park Siyu, I stepped out into the living room.

My back ached from sleeping on the floor.

The moment I came out, the smell of freshly cooked rice hit me.

I turned my head and saw the apartment building across the way through the veranda window.

Not my place. Eunyoung noona's place.

After I'd run off, she'd realized my apartment was too far and told me to just crash there for the night.

Aria Guild Headquarters was less than ten minutes from here, but I'd lied a little on purpose anyway.

There's a certain etiquette to playing hard to get at least once!

"Come eat breakfast."

"Can I really?"

"Obviously."

Eunyoung noona answered like she couldn't believe I'd even asked.

I sat down at the small table in the living room.

Rolled egg, kimchi, seasoned bean sprouts, stir fried pork. And even doenjang soup. A proper breakfast spread.

I'd figured most people living alone these days mostly ate delivery or convenience meals, so this caught me a little off guard.

We sat across from each other and ate, the only sound the occasional clink of spoon and chopsticks against glass.

After finishing, I drank some water to wash it down.

"Noona."

"It's salty."

I'd kept quiet through the whole meal because complaining felt rude, but honestly, it was pretty salty.

She could cook fine, just apparently had zero talent for seasoning.

At my confession, Eunyoung noona's face went bright red with embarrassment.

"Uh, huh? Really? That salty? Come to think of it, Min Wook. No, my ex... that bastard said something like that once too, I think."

Judging by her reaction, this wasn't the first time she'd heard it.

I'd worried my taste buds might just be weird, but apparently I didn't need to worry about that.

"It's because I live alone! I've always lived alone!"

"Ow, noona. Okay, okay, just don't hit me!"

Unable to handle the embarrassment, Eunyoung noona smacked my shoulder a couple times.

Maybe it was because I now knew she was a Hunter, but her hand really stung.

I finally understood why Choi Suhyun always whined about it hurting.

"Still, thanks. It's been a long time since I ate breakfast with someone."

I honestly couldn't remember the last time I'd sat across from another person to eat.

Maybe that was why her offer to come eat had meant so much.

It just felt nice.

Even if the side dishes were a little salty.

Correction: a lot salty.

"How old did you say you were?"

"Twenty-two."

According to Kang Hangyeol's ID, twenty-two was the correct age, at least.

"Your parents?"

"Dead, I think."

I'd pulled up the family registry just in case, and it did say my parents had passed away.

"Relatives?"

"Not sure about that either."

I didn't seem to have any relatives to speak of, and I had no interest in looking for any.

Why did this suddenly feel like an interrogation?

"Hangyeol..."

My matter-of-fact answers seemed to have gotten to her, because Eunyoung noona's eyes went red.

Now I looked like some pitiful orphan!

Her own family situation didn't seem exactly rosy either, so why was she looking at me like that?

"Noona will cook for you sometimes."

"No, I'm good."

I shook my head and backed away fast.

Once was enough. Twice was not something my tongue could survive.

Since I had time before I needed to head to the guild, I offered to do the dishes.

"By the way, don't you have work today?"

It was a weekday.

Any normal office worker would already be at their desk, or on their way there.

Eunyoung noona, sitting in her chair sipping coffee, looked completely at ease.

"I'm on the afternoon shift, so it's fine. Besides, I'm turning in my resignation anyway."

She looked delighted as she said it. I turned on the tap and rinsed the plates.

Eunyoung noona sat at the table checking her status window.

I caught a glimpse. She'd opened the community board.

I hadn't gone in there once since making the thing.

- Community (1)

Nothing particularly interesting.

I didn't have any hobby for posting on things like that. I finished the dishes and washed my hands.

[01. ??? — From Unknown]

Posted by: Unknown.

What was this?

-----------

"Noona, don't mess around on the board."

In that short window of time, someone had already posted something.

And why were there so many "Unknown"s anyway?

Was this some kind of anonymous site?

Eunyoung noona rinsed her coffee mug and sat down on the couch.

"I just glanced at it for a second."

Sitting on the couch, noona checked a few other things besides the board.

"How many followers does the god Soter even have?"

"Two?"

Since I doubled as Soter's proxy, my status window looked different from what a follower like Eunyoung noona could see.

She happened to be looking at Soter's status window right then.

Divine name: *****

Position: Regular follower

Level: 1

Attribute: Darkness

Ranking: No. 15486

[Your current sponsorship ranking is No. 2.]

Sponsorship merit points: 0

"Only two..."

"Three, if you count Choi Suhyun."

"Is Choi Suhyun the same god too?"

"Not yet. He's a temporary member."

At my answer, Eunyoung noona flopped back onto the small couch.

She stared up at her status window on the ceiling and let out a short sigh.

"So in the end it's really just you and me... I feel kind of cheated somehow. Is that guy really joining?"

"I told you, he is."

"You said temporary member. Do you seriously not get it? That guy's a pain in the ass who only cares about how great he is, but he's insanely, insanely popular."

"Well, with a face like that, of course he's popular."

He had that whole church-oppa look, the kind that seemed friendly to the whole world as long as he kept his mouth shut.

Tall, rich, and if he had exactly one flaw, it was that miserable personality of his.

At my answer, Eunyoung noona bristled.

"Not his face! With gods! I don't care how popular that jerk is with other people! You're way too relaxed about this. Let's say followers are you, me, and fine, Choi Suhyun as a temp, that's three total. What exactly are you planning to do from here?"

"What do you think about this whole game, noona?"

"Game? What game?"

It was a system where the player interfered as little as possible with the hero, or the NPC, and left everything else up to the characters inside the game to handle on their own.

The more the hero, the character, grew on their own, the more benefit went to the user outside the game.

And if a hero bringing me a lot of points died? It'd take time and be a hassle, sure, but I could just raise another one.

To someone outside, the people inside were nothing more than pieces in a game, always replaceable.

But we were human.

Beings that couldn't be replaced by anything, by any means.

"That's basically our situation."

Not beings who got used up inside the game, judged by how useful they were to someone outside, then discarded without ever knowing what they'd worked so hard for in the first place.

Right now there were only three of us, but the number didn't matter.

"Just watch."

The butterfly effect starts from the smallest movement.

Right now it was just a small step, but that one step carried real weight.

"We might find out the reason you never got chosen even after you awakened."

"Don't need to know anymore."

"Didn't you want to know?"

"You picked me."

Eunyoung noona looked away, turning her head to the side.

Maybe she'd run out of things to say, because she pulled out her phone and opened a video site.

A moment later, she seemed to spot something and brought the phone back over.

"Hangyeol, look at this."

I leaned in and checked the video and the info on screen.

# Trending Video 1

"Gangnam Mosman One-Shot Hunter"

Comments 33K (+)

└ Isn't Mosman a B-rank dungeon boss? Damn, they just took it down like that. Didn't Raon Guild set up a barrier or something?

└ If you actually watch it, it's not really a one-shot, he used two skills. Burned the barrier once with a fire skill, then killed Mosman. Still, pretty smart play.

└ One-shot on Mosman either way, yeah. But is that even allowed? That barrier was Raon Guild's, set up to pin Mosman down. Technically that's team killing.

└ Haha, team killing my ass, they're not even on the same team. Whoever kills it fastest gets it. The one who wasted time is the one at fault. Is that guy A-rank or something? Damn strong. Anyone know anything?

└ All I know is he's from Aria Guild.

└ Aria? That place full of no-name gods?

└ Still, Park Siyu's an S-rank Hunter though.

The video was one thing, but the comment section was chaos.

Most of it was just "insane" or talk about Raon Guild and Park Siyu.

Scrolling through the comments without much thought, I ran into something unexpected.

I stopped scrolling and read through it.

└ Yo, my friend's a Hunter and he says that ring might be Ishtar's Ring, what do you guys think?

└ Keyboard warriors sitting in their rooms always got a friend who's S-rank or SS-rank, haha. My friend's the number one bully in the world, you psycho.

└ Why you starting shit -_-? What'd I even say? How do you live life this twisted?

└ If that ring's Ishtar's Ring then my ring's a Ganada ring, you lunatic. Haha, do you know how expensive Ishtar's Ring is?

└ You couldn't get your hands on that even with money. Besides, no way Choi Suhyun would sell it.

The comment section aside, the video's view count had already crossed five million.

Sharing internal dungeon information or footage was prohibited, but monsters or battles from a dungeon break rift were usually opened up to the public.

For a regular dungeon, the guild and Hunters just had to keep quiet, and it had nothing to do with civilians anyway. But a rift was different.

In fact, the fastest way to build a reputation wasn't clearing a high rank dungeon, it was handling a rift and getting exposure to the public.

There were actual cases of Hunters who'd built up a following that way and ended up becoming celebrities.

Not that I'd meant for any of this, in my case.

I'd figured it might become a topic of conversation, but I hadn't expected the fuss to blow up this big.

Could've toned it down a bit at least.

Compared to dungeon info, rift footage was more open, sure, but the Association could still restrict information that stirred up public panic about rifts and monsters.

I'd been counting on Choi Suhyun, the Association's hidden fixer, to handle it, but this wasn't damage control. This was just letting it ride.

What was that guy even thinking?

Oh right, I was supposed to hand over the shard and forgot.

How was I supposed to know I'd walk straight into a Makjang drama the moment I got here?

"What should we do?"

Eunyoung noona set down her phone and asked, looking worried.

I waved a hand through the air, telling her it was fine.

"It's not a big deal."

"Really?"

"I'll handle it."

"Choi Suhyun?"

"No, not him. There's someone else who can fix this. Probably already has, if I had to guess."

I'd find out soon enough once I got to the guild.

I reassured Eunyoung noona.

It was about time to head to the guild.

"I'll call you."

"Okay."

I left Eunyoung noona's place and headed for guild headquarters.

I was sitting on the office sofa when Park Siyu walked in through the door not long after.

"Be grateful this hasn't hit the news yet."

I knew exactly what he was talking about.

The video had gone up not long after I'd fled the scene.

The account that posted it happened to belong to a channel with three million subscribers, which had apparently sped things along even faster.

I pointed at my phone screen.

"But these guys are making money off the video. I'm the one who fought my ass off. They're the ones cashing in. Doesn't this count as copyright infringement or something?"

"I've got three things to bring up. An annoying problem, an order, and something you need to apologize to me for. Which one first?"

Park Siyu ignored what I'd said completely.

"Noona" (누나) is kept untranslated per house style as a familiar address term a younger male speaker uses for a close older female friend; it carries warmth that "sis" or her name alone wouldn't fully capture. Korean internet reaction-comment shorthand like "ㅇㅇ" (a casual affirmative, roughly "yeah") and "ㅡㅡ" (a flat, unimpressed emoticon face) were rendered as their natural English equivalents rather than transliterated, consistent with house style for net-slang.

Footnotes:

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