The Tone-Deaf Healer Kills with a Song - Chapter 25

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Tone-Deaf Healer Kills with Song – Episode 025
“That’ll be 3,800 won. Do you have any discounts or points to apply?”
“No, thank you. You can just throw away the receipt. And I don’t need a bag either.”
“Of course. Have a good day.”
It wasn’t until I stepped out of the Convenience Store with my coffee and triangle kimbap that it occurred to me.
Right—I get a Hunter discount. I’d forgotten about it because I’d fallen into the habit of simply paying and leaving without ever asking.
With a line of people already waiting to check out, I didn’t have the nerve to go back in and ask them to reapply my points. So I quickened my pace and moved on.
“Good morning.”
“Good morning, Yeom Ye-ah.”
Now there were people at the Guild who actually acknowledged me. I’d assumed no one would greet me since I was always attached to the Guild Master.
Whenever I entered the Cafe or equipment storage inside the building, there was always someone there. And since the management team had permanent staff, I could run into them without difficulty.
They say a person’s generosity mirrors their financial comfort, and most of these people responded kindly even when I initiated conversation. Or perhaps they were just giving me special treatment because I was a Healer.
“Have you eaten?”
“Oh, this is just—”
“That’s not a meal. Come eat at the Guild Cafeteria. We ordered plenty of bread.”
These were the permanent staff of the Cafe and Guild Cafeteria. I’d heard they were a team that spent most of their time in external Dungeons, only coming in occasionally to grab food.
Perhaps because of that, whenever I passed by them, they seemed eager to feed me something, even if just a bite or two.
Sung Mi-ju, the Hunter who’d collapsed after hearing my song when I’d first started working here, belonged to this team.
“Good morning, Mi-ju.”
“Good morning, Yeom Ye-ah. Do you have anything scheduled today? I heard you went into a Dungeon with the Guild Master recently.”
“Oh, no. Today I’m just going to do some training—”
I remembered how desperately I’d apologized that day. Though she herself didn’t seem particularly bothered by it.
Sung Mi-ju adjusted her horn-rimmed glasses and shifted slightly in her seat. A tablet for meetings was sitting on the table—apparently they’d been having a meeting while eating.
“Are you going into a Dungeon?”
“Oh, no. This is strategy planning for the Ranking Tournament, not a Dungeon.”
“You plan strategy for the Ranking Tournament?”
“Exactly. You’re new to the Ranking Tournament, so you wouldn’t know yet.”
Though I hadn’t seen Sung Mi-ju in a few days, she clearly loved explaining things. The people around her wore wry smiles that said “here we go again.”
She pushed the tray in front of her aside and slid the tablet PC toward me, her voice brimming with excitement.
“You know that the Ranking Tournament has individual matches in addition to the basic stat rankings set by Baldur, right?”
“Yes, the lowest-tier matches are sometimes broadcast in real-time.”
I had no interest in all that blood and skill display, so I’d never really paid attention to it.
But during the week the Ranking Tournament was held, chicken delivery times always showed 120 minutes no matter when you ordered, so it remained vivid in my memory.
The battles of the absolute top-ranked Hunters weren’t broadcast due to skill confidentiality agreements, but the matches of those ranked slightly lower had become a spectacle that people around the world watched like a sporting event.
Sung Mi-ju nodded with satisfaction.
“It’s known that only some compete in the upper-tier matches, but usually the top-ranked Hunters all fight each other at least once. In the last Ranking Tournament, the Guild Master fought against everyone up to 17th place.”
“That’s more than I expected.”
“Since people from Hanttae could potentially face one-on-one matches, we’re drawing up a bracket to prepare for that. Basically, figuring out which opponents we might fight.”
The file was indeed filled with a long list of names. Some I’d heard of before, no matter how uninterested I was, and others I was meeting for the first time.
Their skills, main weapons, Guild affiliations, and even detailed records of what they were like when actually entering Dungeons together—all of it was meticulously documented.
Considering the Hunter world’s thorough concealment of information from one another, it was an information network worthy of admiration.
I swallowed dryly.
“By the way, when do we find out if someone enters a one-on-one match or who their opponent is?”
“Well, you’ll know you’re a one-on-one opponent within the next 12 hours. And you’ll find out who your opponent is the day before the ranking tournament.”
I heard a distant voice saying I should prepare myself too, Yeom Ye-ah.
“…But your stats could change over the course of a month. Isn’t that telling us too quickly?”
“That’s exactly why we tell you quickly. It’s silent pressure—if you don’t want to be matched in a one-on-one, go train yourself right now.”
As if responding to Mi-ju’s words, the person sitting beside her nodded.
Not just me, but Hanttae’s other healer and buffer. Sung Ji-wook, Sung Mi-ju’s younger brother. Unlike his sister, he seemed to have a somewhat blunt personality.
No matter how cheerfully I greeted him, he would only nod appropriately and move on, which had become a lingering regret that settled in my heart.
“If you have stats so outstanding that you’re excluded from the match pool, a separate exclusion alert appears. But there are so many Hunters, and while opponents change, it seems like there hasn’t really been a case of someone dropping out of the one-on-one matches.”
“Of course. Actually, I’d bet there’s no one in the top 1,000 who hasn’t done a one-on-one match at least once. We don’t need to worry about those outside that. But who’s cutting off what your sister was saying?”
“I wasn’t cutting anything off.”
I craned my neck between the two of them as they began bickering and skimmed through the file. Looking more carefully, it contained information about Hanttae members including Mi-ju and Ji-wook.
The only blank space was next to my name.
‘So I’m going to fight in the ranking tournament too.’
I’m just a talking potato.
They readily transmitted the file, saying information was free among Hanttae members. I curled up in the Break Room of the Guild Building.
Even if I looked at the file there, no one would reproach me. I’m simply taking this posture because it’s comfortable.
‘Liri.’
No response.
“Liri…?”
It was unlikely, but I spoke aloud just in case she could hear my voice, yet Liri’s chat message never appeared.
This punishment seems to last longer than expected. It’s my own fault for expecting it to be lifted within 24 hours.
Yet it feels unfair that adjusting a few status windows displayed would keep us separated for this long.
Especially with the ranking tournament right around the corner….
Fuming inwardly, I examined the copied files one or two at a time. They could be sorted by primary skills, abilities, or class.
‘Sort by healer.’
I’d heard that fights between the same class happened most frequently.
In Baldur’s case, they match opponents without much consideration for awakening period. In other words, I could be matched against someone who awakened years ago.
Whether you call it unbiased to consider only stats and not proficiency, or unfair—it’s debatable.
Certainly, healers were extremely rare in number. Among the candidates up to a thousand, there were only about seven.
[Kim Kyung-hoon]
[Rosalind Brown]
[Cedric]
[Yeom Ye-ah]
[Joke]
[Harp]
[Hwa-jon]
Joke is Sung Ji-wook’s Hunter name. Something about how if you flip “wook” you get “joke,” or so he said. Excluding him and me, there were five total.
Next to Cedric and Harp, there was a mark indicating they were “not eligible.” I’d heard that these were people who’d made it into the rankings last time.
I tapped on each of their annotations.
Cedric: Previous rank 871st. Since no one within the Hanttae Guild ranks outside the 800th position, the probability of being selected as a match opponent is low.
Harp: After the previous handler was consumed last year, afflicted with a mana usage disable debuff. (Though it’s uncertain whether it’s truly a debuff, they’re effectively refusing Dungeon entry.) Currently employed at a research facility in the United States following retirement as a Hunter.
So there are debuffs that take effect after a handler is consumed. Why is the human body so defenseless against debuffs?
Though they said he was excluded, looking at the 871st rank next to him, isn’t my probability of fighting someone named Cedric actually the highest?
By rank, the order was Rosalind Brown, Sung Ji-wook, Kim Kyung-hoon, and Hwa-jon.
Hwa-jon: The handler is presumed to enjoy martial arts. Under the condition of being a pacifist, they forfeit every ranking match, so they’re ranked lower than their actual ability. According to guild members who’ve entered Dungeon raids with them, their wide-area healing range is apparently broader than Sung Ji-wook’s.
Rosalind Brown: A person of concern due to attack skills that can’t distinguish between allies and enemies. Because of her bizarre skill usage—attacking in all directions while only healing allies—it’s somewhat difficult to form parties and enter Dungeons with her. She left an indelible scar on Sung Ji-wook during the ranking match, so the two don’t get along.
It seemed likely that Rosalind Brown would face Ji-wook again this time, as there were many other annotations that appeared to be written by him.
Mostly details about which skills she uses, densely packed throughout. Overall, these two seem to be the most dangerous among healers.
Below that, the miscellaneous section contained quite brief information.
Sung Ji-wook: Has shown no maturity in 23 years.
This was unmistakably written by Sung Mi-ju. Do people from the same guild not face each other in ranking matches?
Well, if you encounter someone from the same company in a ranking match, it would be difficult to resolve. If such a terrible situation happened to me, I’d have to forfeit.
And finally, the last person: Kim Kyung-hoon.
Kim Kyung-hoon: No manners
What is this.
Did they really write this down as information?

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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