There wasn’t any particular reason why Im Ha-neul decided to visit Yor’s cave.

She just happened to have some free time for the first time in a while.
With all the editing work and managing Chae-rin’s chat room, she didn’t have much time to herself.

So, she figured she’d drop by while she had the chance... but she didn’t expect to stumble upon such a big situation.

She felt troubled.
While reporting the body to the guild was something she could do, she wasn’t sure how she’d explain the situation.

It wasn’t like she could just walk in, say, “Hey, I caught this guy,” and expect the receptionist to believe her without any questions.
They’d definitely ask for details, and that’s where she’d get stuck.

Rumor had it that the assailants who stole the demon’s arm were as strong as an A-rank mercenary team.
And to even reach A-rank, you had to be at least level 110. That put them in a league of monsters.

Considering that, if she, who was only level 70, claimed to have caught one of them, suspicion was inevitable.

“So what do I do? I don’t exactly have a solution either.”

Of course, Yor had thought about that problem as well.
But he didn’t have many people he could ask for help. Since he couldn’t reveal himself easily, there were few people he could trust with the task.

Even though he knew it was a tough ask, he didn’t have many options.
There were only about two people he could even think to ask, and Ha-neul was one of them.

“Unless… maybe you could say you and Chae-rin worked together to take him down? Hmm… but that might be hard too.”

Yor’s suggestion made Ha-neul turn her head slightly, feeling a bit guilty. Yor noticed her discomfort and asked directly.

“You haven’t told Chae-rin about this yet, have you?”

He was asking if she still hadn’t told Chae-rin about her friendship with Yor.
Her silence said it all.

Yor quickly drew his own conclusion.

“Yeah, you haven’t told her.”

He didn’t understand why she was hesitating. Yor worried that this might cause problems between them down the road.

‘Well, they’ll figure it out.’

For now, Yor decided to let it go.

Maybe the subject was awkward for her, as Ha-neul fumbled around for a way to change the topic and asked Yor another question.

“So, how did you end up killing him?”
“He tried to contact someone right in front of me, so I killed him.”
“Right in front of you?”
“Yep.”
“What the heck…”

Ha-neul looked at him with a mix of disbelief and frustration.

Yor, however, could understand why the assailant had acted that way.

If the guy had tried to escape, Yor would have pursued him. Being a manifestation bearer, Yor was sensitive about any information that could expose him.

The assailant knew that too, so he took the gamble of trying to call for help right in front of him.
Either that, or he was just really stupid.

As Yor thought about it, he turned to Ha-neul again and made his request, this time with a bit more sincerity.

“Anyway, please help me out. I’ll make sure to repay you generously. And while you’re at it, could you also look into some information for me…?”

It was at that moment that a quest window suddenly popped up in front of Ha-neul’s eyes.

[QUEST - Distorting Evidence]

Report the assailant Yor caught to the guild!
Don’t forget to pass along any useful information you’ve gathered!

Success reward - Goblin Shaman’s Orb, increased chance to prevent future disasters
Failure penalty - ???

“?”
“?”

Both Yor and Ha-neul tilted their heads in confusion at the same time.
A quest, out of nowhere, at this exact moment?

The timing felt a little too meaningful, but the message was clear.

‘There’s no way I can turn this down now…’

Ha-neul realized she had no choice but to accept the request.

After accepting the quest, Ha-neul left the cave shortly afterward.
The sun was starting to set, and while she could fly, the night was still a dangerous time.

Besides, to conserve her magic, she needed to walk near the surface layer.

‘I should’ve done this from the beginning.’

Last time, she flew from the surface layer and ran out of magic.
By changing her method, she used significantly less mana. And since the monsters in the surface layer weren’t too difficult for her—having learned some basic support magic—she could manage.

Once she left the Forbidden Forest, Ha-neul let out a small sigh of relief.
While it was good to have a quest, the strange sense of pressure weighed on her.

“Phew…”

The phrase "increased chance to prevent future disasters" in the reward description kept lingering in her mind. The future? That phrase clearly hinted at something significant.

‘Is this related to the main storyline?’

She had been waiting for a lead on the main storyline for so long, and now a clue had appeared.
It was both exciting and burdensome for an ordinary player like her.

Ha-neul thought about Yor for a moment.

‘Just who is he?’

The fact that he possessed demon blood was already significant.
But setting aside her questions for now, she decided to focus on completing the quest.

The task seemed simple: report the assailant to the guild and pass along any information about the culprit.
The only issue was that someone at her level wasn’t exactly the type of person who could casually report something like this.

So Ha-neul came up with a more roundabout way of handling it.

“Welcome. What brings you here today?”
“I’d like to request a favor.”

She was going to hire a proxy to deliver the information on her behalf.

The adventurers' guild had an interesting system for handling requests.
If a problem arose, a person could make a request to the guild, and adventurers would be dispatched to handle it.

As long as the request didn’t break any major laws, almost anything could be posted.
People could ask for help finding a lost dog or clearing out rats in the sewers—small tasks like that were common in the guild.

Arranging a meeting with capable adventurers wasn’t difficult either. A few coins to the receptionist usually did the trick without needing to explain the full situation.

Through this method, Ha-neul was able to meet with a well-seasoned A-rank party of three.
Since there weren’t any A-rank adventurers among the players yet, they were all NPCs.

This group would be more believable when reporting the capture of the escaped assailant.

Ha-neul handed over the corpse of the assailant and asked the party to report it to the guild in her place.
The reward for the request was 80% of the bounty on the assailant’s head. Since she hadn’t actually caught him herself, and her main goal was completing the quest, it was a fair offer.

The adventurer party seemed a bit skeptical at first, but since they had nothing to lose, they agreed.

With that, the A-rank party took the assailant’s body and reported it to the guild.
They claimed they had captured the fugitive.

“My goodness, did you really catch him? Where did you find him?”
“Yeah, we found this suspicious guy on our way to the Empire. We asked what he was up to, and he attacked us, so we brought him in.”
“Hmm... Did he say anything of note?”
“He did.”

Thankfully, the adventurers also remembered to pass along the crucial information to the receptionist: the mention of the group called Lemegeton and the demon-worshiping cult.
That information would be passed up the chain of command and eventually reach the ears of the Empire.

As Ha-neul watched the adventurers receive their bounty, she let out a small sigh of relief.

“Phew…”

It was done. The quest was likely completed.
As she gazed up at the darkening sky, Ha-neul couldn’t help but think about what the future might hold.

Another three weeks passed.

“Seriously, thanks a lot. You really saved me.”
“Oh, no… it’s nothing…”

I handed Ha-neul the Goblin Shaman’s Orb as a reward for completing the quest.
While it was a bit awkward for me to use, she, being a magician, could embed it in her wand and make good use of it.
You couldn’t just dismiss it as a mere goblin item. The Goblin Shaman was a high-level creature, after all.

Thanks to her successfully completing the quest, no more pursuers came looking for me in this forest.
Since they had already found the body, there was no need to continue the investigation.

Though, outside the forest, things were in chaos.
It seemed that nations were going all out to track down the cult known as Lemegeton.
A cult worshiping demons wasn’t something they could leave unchecked.

Apparently, some of their members even had the skills of A-rank adventurers or higher, so everyone was on high alert.

Hearing all of this, I felt a strange mix of emotions.
After all, it was my request that set off this whole chain of events.
Of course, the real cause of the chaos was the cult and the assailants themselves, but…

Ultimately, I was the one who triggered the quest.

I already knew what it meant to trigger a quest, thanks to Yu Chae-rin.
When a quest was of great importance to the world, or the person issuing it was significant, that’s when quests of this nature were triggered.

‘So what am I?’

It made me reflect on some philosophical questions I hadn’t considered in a while.
Who am I, and what is this world?
For the otherworlders, this place was just a game, but for me, this world was real.
I had never once thought my life here was fake.

But then the otherworlders showed up, and ever since, strange events had been happening, one after another.
It made me think more deeply than I usually did.

‘...I don’t know.’

After pondering for a bit, I simply shook my head and decided to focus on the task at hand.
Survival.

Questions about one's existence were always heavy.
And I wasn’t exactly the type to dwell on heavy topics. More accurately, I didn’t have the luxury to ponder such things.

So, I decided to just get back to what I needed to do: survival.
With that resolve, I moved on to gather food.

One thing was for sure—the world remained as chaotic as ever.