Lee Hyun laughed bitterly.
Hayan must meet a really good guy.
With her current grades she would be able to easily get into ‘Korea’ university and get a good job after graduating from it. That, coupled with her good looks, would make it possible for his sister to come together with the best men.
But if on her wedding she will be led by her brother, who barely graduated from high school, that might embarrass her.
‘I’m so ashamed I’m uneducated…’
Lee Hyun started to worry that his poor education might become a disadvantage for his sister and interfere with her life.
Then he saw Great Society Rehabilitation Center!
He was just passing it on the way home. In addition to its stately appearance it was filled with state-of-the-art equipment.
‘I had been diagnosed there once. And if I manage to become a doctor there my sister would be proud.’
***
Last few days weren’t so easy for Dr. Cha Eunhee.
She used hundreds of various treatments, trying to return Jeong Seoyoon to normal state. And Royal Road was her last resort.
Virtual reality games are known to grant emotional stability. They relieve stress by allowing to satisfy unfulfilled in reality desires. Traveling between reality and virtuality helps to fade the painful feelings.
Cha Eunhee hoped that it will help to save Seoyoon from her mental obsession.
Every day since Seoyoon started playing, Cha Eunhee was watching her playing records to be able to examine her psychological state better, than any test could show, as in the game Seoyoon had to constantly make decisions by herself and interact with the environment.
All the Seoyoon’s actions in Royal Road were recorded in the capsule. That was private information, but as Seoyoon’s doctor Cha Eunhee had access to it.
First recordings of Seoyoon’s hunt were encouraging.
“This way she’ll recover in no time!”
The initial tendency was positive.
Even though she never laughed or talked to anybody and was very withdrawn overall. She started to hunt and the desire to hunt was a display of greed.
Cha Eunhee thought that her desire to become stronger and acquire better items will make her more lively. That such ‘human’ behavior would certainly make a positive impact on treatment.
But with time her expectations waned.
Seoyoon was just hunting. She was going to places where monsters gathered in large groups and fought them. Fought fiercely, to the death, like a berserker.
And she still wasn’t talking to anyone in Royal Road.
‘But wasn’t there a positive change?’
In Seraburg got acquainted with a fighting instructor. They weren’t very close, but it still was a huge breakthrough. They were eating together and she listened to him talking.
‘Just a little but she’s reacting…’
The monster hunt was a good sign as well. Closed people usually become secretive and suspicious. Sometimes they even start acting like a child with superiority complex. Thankfully Seoyoon’s state wasn’t at such level yet.
When people endure a great pain, they often start to feel sad or scared afterwards. To threat such residual state fighting was a great medicine.
“Huh, still a long way til she’s completely healed.”
Cha Eunhee sighed deeply.
After leaving Seraburg Jeong Seoyoon headed south where she continued her endless hunt.
‘How long will you remain locked in that state?’
Jeong Seoyoon wasn’t just a patient for her, but more of a little sister, as they knew each other since childhood. Their parents were friends so they were meeting often, little Seoyoon was always calling Cha Eunhee older sister and following her around.
But now she wasn’t neither laughing nor speaking any more. And Cha Eunhee was doing all she could to return her to normal, cheerful self.
Some parts in the recordings were surprising her.
“Why is there a statue of Seoyoon in Baran village?”
It seemed that Seoyoon didn’t notice it, but the statue of softly smiling guardian deity of the village was her splitting image!
The face of statue of Freya must have been based on Seoyoon.
The beauty of that smile was making Cha Eunhee dizzy.
***
Seoyoon was continuing to hunt and move deeper into the southern part of Rosenheim kingdom. All the more people were coming to southern part of Rosenheim kingdom, and in order to avoid them she had to move deeper little by little.
Hunting monsters such as Dark Ghouls and Blood Ravens.
However the once low, population of southern region was constantly growing. Players had yet to come to dungeons and hunting grounds used by Seoyoon, but it was already bothering her.
‘I can’t stay here any longer…'
Seoyoon decided to leave the south of the Rosenheim kingdom.
Originally she started playing at the center of the continent, slowly making her way south towards Rosenheim, however having come this far south she realized, that there are no free lands further ahead.
‘To the east… Where there’s no players…’
Seoyoon decided to go to Lands of Despair.
***