Chapter 32
The Heavenly Spirit Medicinal Forest had gained new residents.
Seventeen Korean Returnees.
They seemed to adapt without much trouble.
And so,
Kang Ha-min returned to his usual daily life.
The incident with Deus was over.
The Returnee issue had also been settled for now.
The only thing Kang Ha-min needed to care about was the Tower.
And today was finally the day Baek Cheon-myeong would graduate from the First Floor Realm.
Mr. Baek Cheon-myeong needs to focus too.
Even if another problem appeared,
Kang Ha-min decided not to get involved.
That was what he thought.
[Hunter Deus Releases Official Statement]
[South Korea Designated as Deus's "Most Favored Nation"]
[International Community Reacts Immediately...]
A completely unexpected statement from Deus spread across the world.
News reports filled every channel,
and social media exploded.
Kang Ha-min stared blankly.
Immediately after returning to the United States,
Deus had announced during a press conference that South Korea was his most favored nation.
His social media was also filled with posts expressing his love for Korea.
As a Korean,
Kang Ha-min couldn't help feeling strange.
After all,
until recently Deus had acted like he wanted to eat Baek Cheon-myeong alive.
But Deus wasn't the only problem.
The United States government also released statements that supported his view.
They announced that they had a very high opinion of the Korean Hunter market.
[Comments]
Son Ji-ho: What the hell happened?
sproq21: Why am I suddenly being injected with national pride? Even this feels weird when it happens this fast.
ModuleBon: I heard Deus came to Korea. Did he meet Baek Cheon-myeong or something?
GioHQ: What did he even do with Baek Cheon-myeong? Damn.
bmzkz95d: Baek Cheon-myeong really does seem like a good guy though. He's the model Hunter. He even immediately responded to that B Rank Dimensional Break.
HPd33: This is way too much praise.
↳ Ari: Then what are you doing instead of praising him?
Blackcat: Have you seen the KOSPI and the won? This is insane.
↳ Blackcat: How does one Hunter make an entire country's stocks explode upward?
889do: Damn it, they said the Korean market was basically a casino! They said it would never go up!
Deus and the United States had caused chaos in an instant.
Kang Ha-min stopped brushing his teeth
and stared blankly at the television.
Baek Cheon-myeong's face appeared on TV all day.
One man was single-handedly raising South Korea's national prestige at an absurd speed.
[Shin No-seop: Hunter Baek Cheon-myeong, you are a national treasure!!!!!!!]
Shin No-seop kept sending messages filled with gratitude.
"Why is America suddenly..."
While Kang Ha-min stared in shock,
Baek Cheon-myeong answered as though it were obvious.
"Didn't Master use medicinal herbs from the Heavenly Spirit Medicinal Forest on that man?"
"What?"
Kang Ha-min blinked.
Of course he had.
He needed them to save Deus's life.
"If they were herbs from the Heavenly Spirit Medicinal Forest, his body would have become stronger than before."
"For a Hunter, what could possibly be more valuable than that?"
...Huh?
"And Master has continuously distributed those herbs through me."
"From Deus's perspective, he must have realized Master's importance."
"Then he probably told the higher-ups in his country."
Huh?
Huhhhhh?
Only then did Kang Ha-min realize what he had done.
More importantly,
what had he told Deus?
He had said that all of it came from his own ability.
The moment Ha-min understood the full situation,
he felt dizzy.
So that was it.
"...All of those friendly messages are actually aimed at me."
America loved him too much.
Safety first.
Safety above all.
He had worked so hard to hide his identity because of that.
But he had stepped forward to stop Deus,
and now this had happened.
AAAAAH! I was insane!
He should have just stayed quiet.
But if he had stayed quiet,
Deus might have died.
And if Deus died,
the United States might have become hostile toward South Korea.
And even if he had barely healed Deus and thrown him outside,
Deus might have still found Baek Cheon-myeong and fought him.
Every possible scenario made his head hotter.
The other side was the United States.
If America was seriously paying attention to him,
something huge could happen.
"Master, if you only look at the result, isn't this a good thing?"
Baek Cheon-myeong rubbed his chin.
"How is it good? The United States is openly interested in me!"
"They also understand Master's value now."
"If they intended to target Master from the shadows, they wouldn't openly show goodwill."
That...
That was true.
"If anything, openly saying such things means they want friendly relations rather than hostility."
"And not once have they mentioned Master directly."
...Was that so?
After thinking about it,
Baek Cheon-myeong had a point.
The United States had never mentioned Kang Ha-min even once.
If he looked at social media,
everyone was only talking about Baek Cheon-myeong.
Nobody was considering someone behind him.
"What they truly want is probably trade with Master."
"They want the medicinal herbs."
"And Master holds all the control, so there is no reason to worry for now."
Hearing that made Kang Ha-min feel much better.
But there was still one problem.
The United States government would probably contact the Korean government.
Kang Ha-min thought for a long moment
before raising his head.
"Mr. Baek Cheon-myeong, let's contact Mr. Shin No-seop first."
They would move before the other side did.
The message was simple.
Baek Cheon-myeong had received a special room as a reward for setting a new Tower record.
Medicinal herbs regularly grew there.
Deus wanted those herbs.
Shin No-seop was competent.
If they sent him that much information,
he would probably take care of the rest himself.
[Shin No-seop: I understand. We'll make sure the matter is handled without causing you any inconvenience.]
[If there is anything else you need, please contact us at any time!]
As expected,
the reply came immediately.
