Traveling through the game world, starting out as a third-rate villain

"You may leave now," Professor Eleanor White said, her eyes sharp and stern. I felt as if I had been staring at her for a century, her questions probing all my actions and intentions.

In fact, I had expected this moment to come. After all, as soon as I heard those rumors, I knew there would be such an interrogation, so I just answered the questions she asked.

I stood up, trying to maintain a calm demeanor despite the uncomfortable situation. I had been through similar interrogations before, so I knew how to handle it. "Thank you for your understanding, Professor."

Because this was not a true incident, she did not let the interrogation last too long. Now, her attitude has changed from arrogant to slightly normal.

Despite this, she still had that slightly narrowed look every time she looked at me.

She stared at me sharply, her voice stern. "I have taken note of everything you have said, but I want to make one thing clear: I will be keeping an eye on you. You must be careful about your actions and your associations."

Her words were heavy, and I could feel the threat in her eyes. I could also see the obvious irritation in her eyes, as if she felt that she had wasted her time. It seemed that she had given up on me.

'That's what I wanted anyway.'

As a mentor, she is not bad... provided you have enough talent. If you don't have talent, you are worthless in her eyes. No matter how hard you try, you will never be able to attract her attention.

So such a person is not worth anything I can do for her.

If Eleanor White was a woman who judged the worth of others by her own standards, then I could treat her that way, too.

I nodded 'respectfully' in response to her warning. "Understood, Professor."

After saying that, she allowed me to leave the place.

As I was leaving, I suddenly remembered the look Mason gave Sylvie. Now that the group had left, I was watching them from a distance while talking to Eleanor White.

'He will soon take action.'

In the game, Mason is very cautious around Sylvie. Because the academy values ​​healers, they have been protecting Sylvie in the dark.

If anything happens to her, the Academy will immediately take action to track down the person who hurt her. Healers are rare hunter professions that are difficult to find and train. Therefore, they are very valuable.

That's why Mason treads carefully.

'He must have gained some trust by now.'

Considering what happened in the dungeon and the people surrounding Sylvie, it shouldn't be difficult for the demon followers to gain her trust.

This is also their plan.

'Let's see what happens.'

In any case, to take action against Sylvie, they have to isolate her from the academy, which is the tricky part.

They can't move around as they wish within the academy, and they've now missed an opportunity. They now need to keep a low profile as the investigation proceeds.

So I returned to my room and took a shower immediately. Then I went to the training room.

......

In a room full of luxurious decorations, Irina sat on a large bed with a watch in her hand.

【Dog 1: Miss, the video you requested has been sent. You can check it in the attachment. 】

【Why so late? 】

[Dog 1: The school acted very tough at first, and this incident seems to be quite sensitive. But don't worry, there will be no problem, Miss.]

[Okay. Is there any progress on the matter I asked you to investigate? ]

[Dog 1: There has been no progress so far. We are investigating Morse Scott's past as you requested.]

[Understood. Remember, don't let mother know about this. I don't want to deal with her affairs now.]

[Dog 1: Don't worry, I won't tell anyone about this, including the owner.]

【good.】

Irina looked at the message on her watch and opened the attachment section.

There was a video file there. It recorded what happened while she was unconscious.

Although she didn't think he had done anything wrong, she wanted to make sure. More importantly, there was something that had been bothering her.

'How did he defeat those snow wolves? Weren't they in a berserk state?'

She remembered that the snow squirrel became very powerful after going berserk. Then, shouldn't the snow wolf be the same? If so, based on the last time they explored the dungeon together, his strength should not be enough to deal with those monsters.

"Tsk...annoying guy..."

That's why she requested the video using her family's name.

Despite the powerful reputation of the Arcadia Hunter Academy, the Phoenix family also had their own influence, and they easily obtained the footage by threatening her life.

When she turned on the video, the first thing she saw was herself lying on the ground, unconscious, with blood coming out of her nose and ears, and it was obvious that she was seriously injured.

'I was too careless at that time.'

Seeing herself in such an embarrassing state, she couldn't help but twitch inwardly and clenched her teeth. This was a mistake she made because of her arrogance.

“Ouch…”

Just then, a pack of wolves appeared. At first, there were only five of them.

To her, this number was nothing, but now she was unconscious, and if she didn't wake up, she would be killed by the monster.

“Ooooo…!”

whoosh!

When one of the wolves pounced on her who was lying on the ground, suddenly, an arrow flew towards her.

A bloodbath ensued.

"What's this?"

All the arrows hit the monster's vital points accurately. The arrows were emitting green light, and from the looks of it, they were not very powerful.

"What an accurate shot."

She couldn't help but agree. She observed Morse during this exploration, and naturally observed Leon as well, because they were in the same profession.

Therefore, she knew how difficult it was for Morse to do this.

"Now that I think about it, his attack was perfectly timed."

She knew that Morse had not been so powerful before, and he was not as good at using bows and arrows as he is now. Now, the five wolves died in just four seconds.

"What happened to make him so strong?"

She muttered to herself, thinking back to him in the past and him now. To be honest, she herself didn't understand why she was so obsessed with analyzing him, but she had a hunch that this guy was hiding a lot.

She hated to admit it, but she was drawn in. This man was a mystery, and every time she interacted with him she was drawn deeper and deeper into it.

bite!

Just as she was thinking about this, suddenly, her smartwatch made a notification sound.

＜Patient communication group＞

This is a group chat she created with her friends.

[Julia: Hey, Ethan, how about Dungeon this weekend? ]

【Lucas: Yeah, why didn’t you mention this yesterday? 】

'What's going on in this dungeon?'

She thought, her fingers tapping rapidly.

[Irina: What's going on in this underground city? ]

[Julia: Hey, you may not know, Ethan is dating a classmate in the dungeon.]

"Puchi...Dungeon date...?"

[Irina: Who would date in the dungeon? ]

【Lucas: Apparently our idiot Ethan.】

[Irina: ^-/-^]

[Ethan: It wasn't a date. It was a serious exploration. You know what? We almost died.]

[Julia: Huh? You almost died? Are you kidding?]

[Ethan: I'm serious. There's a devil contractor in the team, and he betrayed us.]

[Lucas: Devil's Contract? Really or not?]

【Ethan: Really, Morse was there too.】

'Morse is here?'

When Morse's name was mentioned, she began to stare at the screen curiously. She wanted to type something, but she didn't want to show too much curiosity. She knew these people would joke about it in front of Victor.

[Julia: Oh? Morse was with you? How did it turn out?]

[Ethan: He performed very well. I don't know what happened, but although he doesn't look strong, he made a great contribution to the exploration.]

[Irina: Is this true? I never thought he was so capable.]

She wondered what Julia, Ethan, and Lucas thought of him.

[Lucas: Yes, he always gives people a quiet impression. However, such people can always bring unexpected surprises.]

[Julia: But this dungeon exploration is really not a date???]

[Ethan: Stop it, how many times do I have to tell you? ]

【Julia: Okay. By the way, did you talk to him? 】

[Ethan: Not much. You know he's not the talkative type. But he seems to have changed.]

When she heard Ethan say that he had changed, she felt like she had found a clue.

[Irina: Changed? How did it change?]

[Ethan: When the monster boss attacked him, we were betrayed by the demon contractor and he almost died. It was a heavy blow and I'm sure it took him a long time to recover. After we defeated the boss, we searched for him everywhere in the dungeon but couldn't find him. I really thought he was dead.]

【Julia: What? So what happened to him? 】

[Ethan: It seems like I was sucked into a hidden level. ]

[Lucas: Hidden level? Are you sure?]

[Ethan: Confirmed. I asked the butler to investigate the matter. According to his testimony and the data collected by the association, he did enter the hidden level.]

'Hidden level.'

Irina was no stranger to this word. After all, that was where "he" was imprisoned.

[Irina: Do you know what kind of hidden level that is? ]

If it was a hidden level, that would explain how he could become so powerful in such a short time.

[Ethan: The details are unclear. Because the dungeon is unstable, the data obtained is limited.]

[Irina: I understand. But what do you think of this person and those rumors? ]

She got to the point. They were both men of high status, with good judgement.

[Ethan: Honestly, I don't think much of those rumors. Morse strikes me as someone who is focused on training. He spends his free time on the training ground.]

[Julia: Yes. I often see him training. We occasionally meet each other when we go running in the morning, and he is always back when I just come out of the room. So I don’t think those rumors are true.]

After hearing their opinions, Irina thought for a while.

'Maybe I'm judging too quickly?'

At this moment, she suddenly remembered his words.

"Your prejudice...will hurt you one day."

'bias……'

She thought about it for a while and realized that she was indeed a little willful. Maybe it was because she thought Morse was inferior to herself, so she always wanted him to do what she wanted, but he never did that.

No matter how strong she was, he would always stand up and say what he wanted to say and do what he wanted to do. This reminded her of "him", and she was not happy about it.

【Irina: But some people on the forum said he attacked others.】

[Julia: Stop kidding, we all know how easy it is to fabricate such testimony. Wasn't there an article a while ago saying that you burned people alive in the city of Nisoriya?]

'…...'

[Ethan: You're right, it's easy to fabricate this kind of testimony. But the question is, why would someone target him specifically?]

Seeing this, Irina also understood that someone was obviously targeting Morse by spreading rumors about him.

Considering that she was very familiar with this kind of thing, she understood that he had probably offended someone in a high position.

But who could it be?

'How about this? I will repay you in this way?'

As she thought about it, she switched the chat group.

＜Dog 2＞

【I have a task for you. 】