episode_0033

#3

When I arrived at her office in the vehicle arranged by Winter Unnie, the clock was pointing to exactly 12 o’clock.

However, looking at the hunters and staff moving busily without turning off the lights despite the late hour, it was easy to infer how critical and urgent the current situation was.

“Come on, Sky.”

“Sister… . What the heck is going on? What is the happy virus?”

“Where should I start talking… . Wait. There are too many eyes watching. Let’s go into my office first.”

“Yes.”

Winter Sister’s office was a very soundproof room. As soon as the door was closed, the noise of the noisy office was completely cut off. And there was also a view of the city through the large, transparent glass walls that were a privilege of high-rise buildings.

It was a place where you could really feel that it was a place for special hunters, and only for special hunters.

“First, I’ll tell you what the Happy Virus is later, and then I’ll tell you why I called you.”

“Oh, yes.”

Sure, I was curious about that part.

I’ve said that I’d be her assistant, but I’ve never actually shown my abilities… Why did Sister Winter call me in so suddenly?

“Heaven. You said you were a witch.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“And there is a second world, and there are many monsters that our hunters don’t know about.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“… So I’m going to need your help.”

“Yes… ?”

“This monster. The general opinion among the guild and the union is that it will be difficult for our hunters to deal with it.”

“What the hell is this… .”

Hunters are people who fight against monsters to defend this country.

Even if they didn’t know about the other world, they were said to be seasoned experts who were unrivaled in tracking down and dealing with monsters.

So, even if I have become half a monster and have set foot in the other world, the hunters who have been subduing monsters for a long time would be much better than me… .

“To be honest, this monster is so different from the monsters that have appeared so far. In the first place, the core that is the source of the monster is nowhere to be seen.”

“Nuclear… right?”

“Yeah. Do you know about the chain letter incident?”

“Yes, I’ve heard of it.”

“That lucky letter monster was a cyber-based email. Among them, it was a monster created with a fixed core called ‘lucky letter’ as its center.”

ah….

I understand.

Let’s think about the fan horror story I extracted.

At that time, the monster appeared in the world of phenomena, becoming a mystery and materializing in the form of an oral legend that said, “If you sleep with the fan on, you will die.”

In that case, the core that Sister Winter is talking about is the ‘something’ that the mystery uses as an axis to obtain its essence.

Well then, let’s think about it.

What does it mean that the nucleus is invisible?

If we think about it simply… we can assume that the monster has not yet been revealed to the world, buried in the back world.

However, it has already been observed by hunters as a happy virus.

“I need a little more explanation.”

“In order to subdue the monster, two prerequisites must be met. First, the phenomenon must be observed. And second, the core that maintains the phenomenon must be found. However, the Happy Virus only exists as a phenomenon, and has no core.”

“No nukes?”

“Yeah. Normally, monsters are named after their essence, the ‘core’. However, Happy Virus has not yet found its core. That’s why the name Happy Virus is the current phenomenon.”

“It’s only been two days since the strange thing happened, right? If we take a little more time and search… .”

“Heaven. 99% of the strange things discovered so far were observed together with the core on the first day of the phenomenon. This is because the phenomenon and the core are not separate. The core itself is the center that encompasses the phenomenon, and the contents of the core become the phenomenon.”

I may have explained this before.

Currently, among witches, monsters are classified into five types.

And it is divided into five colors according to the level of risk.

At this time, the majority of monsters that the hunters were targeting were ‘red monsters’.

The red monster refers to a monster that clearly has a negative impact on humanity and, furthermore, all living creatures in the world.

In most cases, these were external forces that were strong enough to be visible to everyone, and were revealed outside of the other world.

And all these monsters with such a strong presence were bound to bring about strong phenomena, and in the process, the concept of ‘mimetics’ was bound to take on a meaningful form that could be observed due to the strong causality.

In other words, what was originally supposed to end as a rumor or a ghost story mutated into an actual ghost story.

but….

Happy Virus defied this convention, and although the phenomenon was observed, the nucleus that should have been observed was not found.

Now I understand.

Why did Sister Winter call me so urgently?

It was to get my help, knowing about the other side of the world.

I may not be as good as a hunter at subduing monsters, but I’m much better at tracking and detecting mysteries.

Winter Sister put her hand on her forehead as if she had a headache and sighed deeply.

“That’s why Heaven needs your help. I’m not asking you to subdue the monsters. Just find the core. Our hunters will take care of the rest.”

“Um… . I understand. You need my help as a witch to find the location of the monster.”

“That’s right. I honestly still don’t know exactly what a witch is, but at least I understand that they’re different from us hunters. So I thought maybe they could find the monsters in a way we don’t know.”

As Winter Sister said, I was confident that I would be relatively better than the hunters when it came to investigating monsters.

I have knowledge about monsters that my teacher, Eugene, taught me, and I have actually encountered red, yellow, blue, and white monsters in the field.

“I think I can help you with that part.”

“Really!?”

“Yes. I am confident in detecting monsters.”

“Then I have a favor to ask!! Heaven!”

“Please leave it to me.”

#4

Although I yelled at my older sister Winter a lot,

Anyway, I also needed to prepare to find the monster.

Sister Winter also said that she would fully support me and that I should tell her anything I needed.

What I needed was not force or manpower, only information.

You are the target of tracking. At least you should know for sure what the target happy virus is.

Even if I add more people, it will only reveal that I am a witch.

There is no reason to do something so stupid.

Winter, a special hunter, had many employees, and when I asked her to share information about the Happy Virus, she had her employees process the data into a perfectly and neatly organized document and send it to me.

The file that Sister Winter gave me contained detailed information about the Happy Virus phenomenon, including the time of outbreak and its characteristics.

By the way, since this is a matter that is treated as top secret, it is information that must never be lost… .

It was easy to infer why this strange phenomenon was kept secret despite the fact that specific phenomena were occurring and people were actually suffering damage.

‘To prevent confusion, I guess.’

At least in the hearts of the citizens living in this society, there is a belief that the monster is something that we humans can deal with at any time.

But what if this incident shows that that’s not possible?

It was clear that the trust of the citizens would be broken, and society would soon become chaotic as fear of the monster grew.

but….

Is that okay?

Can we just leave people who don’t even know English to be fooled by monsters like this?

Honestly, I haven’t felt at ease since I heard those words from Sister Winter.

“Name… Happy Virus. Mental Pollutant.”

Humans infected with the happy virus isolate themselves from reality and appear to be trapped in a world where ‘happiness’ is concretely embodied.

They do not engage in any biological activity for survival, but are simply trapped in happiness and laugh endlessly.

Although the disease caused by the infection appears similar to that of drugs, it was confirmed that when observing the hormonal changes in the bodies of patients infected with the happy virus, extreme hormonal changes like those of drugs were not observed.

… So, what you’re saying is that the happy virus is when you’re stuck in a swamp of dopamine and just smile without doing anything?

If it’s this kind of monster, it seems like problems will arise even after the monster is defeated and people are returned to reality…

Why did you drag me out of my happy dream?

I want to live there.

There will definitely be people who ask to be infected with the happy virus again…

I couldn’t help but be worried.

“Sigh… .”