Hush Now, Saintess!

Where did I hear those names again?

At that moment.

Ding!

As a cheerful bell sound rang out, there was no time to continue thinking about it.

I stared at the notification window with a bit of irritation.

‘You’re really testing me today, huh.’

How many times did it pop up today?

But whether or not I thought this, the system window vigorously made itself known.

Yeah, yeah. I have no choice anyway.

If I was annoyed by myself, wouldn’t it just be my loss?

Feeling resigned, I checked the mission that appeared in the window and soon read it.

‘This is… a mission?’

I couldn’t hide my surprise.

‘This is barely a mission though?’

〈 A new Hidden Mission has arrived!

– Remove the dust!

There is some dust on your savior’s shoulder. Let’s brush it off!

– Reward: Reputation +1 / ??? 〉

It was such a simple thing that the ‘hidden’ aspect of it was overshadowed.

It was so much easier than any other mission I got before.

I couldn’t understand why I’m being given this mission now.

‘Does this system abide by Confucianism or something? There’s dust on my savior’s shoulder, so it’s saying that I should have enough gratitude to shake off that dust?’

That’s not going to hurt anyone at all.

“Hey, wait a minute.”

“Yes?”

I cheerfully called out to Deon.

Then, without any hesitation, I reached for his shoulder.

Seeing Deon flinching, I smiled awkwardly and made an excuse.

“There’s some dust over here.”

Indeed, there was a patch of black dust on that place just as the mission said.

So, I gently patted it off.

‘……?’

But something was off.

It didn’t feel like dust. It…

‘It feels like it’s crumbling.’

When I brushed it off, the dust crumbled and disappeared.

It felt distinctly different from how dust usually was.

‘Why is it like this…?’

At the unknown thing, I couldn’t help but feel a bit anxious.

However, right then.

Ding!

〈 Hidden Mission, Complete!

: Remove the dust!

– After successfully completing the mission, your reward shall be automatically distributed.

– Reward: Reputation +1

– Reward: Attained the qualification to use the skill, ‘Bug-seeing eye’! 〉

Relieved to see that the mission was completed already, I retracted my hand from him.

‘I guess I was just overreacting.’

Yeah, dust could get crumbly, too.

This world’s dust might just be a little unusual, that’s all.

However, my moment of relief didn’t even last long.

‘What’s that? Bug-seeing eye…?’

Under the reward for ‘Reputation +1’, I found a strange reward.

That wasn’t in the hidden mission’s listed rewards earlier.

The peculiar anxiety I barely managed to dismiss earlier reared its head once again.

I hurriedly checked the mission window from a while ago.

Once again, I read the mission window carefully, but I could only lament to myself.

‘How far is this system’s bullying gonna go?’

It was right there.

A reward other than the single reputation point.

The problem was that it was so difficult to see because it was written in a very light gray font color.

– Reward: Reputation +1 / ??? 〉

Dumbfounded, I gaped at it openly. However, something more ridiculous began to happen.

Ding!

〈 Condition met— Skill activated.

– Condition: Bug recognition (Done)

[ Remove the dust! (Done) ] 〉

Ding!

〈 Skill: Bug-seeing eye

– Direct contact with a bug shall activate the bug-seeing eye 〉

Ding!

〈 Condition met— Mission Open!

– Condition: Opening the bug-seeing eye (Done) 〉

Ding!

〈 Mission: Bug extermination!

– Do you know about the ‘bugs’ that are disrupting the world?

A bug is a ‘parasite’ that feeds off of a human being’s negative emotions.

They can be categorized as such: ‘dust’, ‘misfortune’, ‘catastrophe’ and ‘destruction’.

When dust builds, it becomes misfortune. When misfortune accumulates, it becomes a catastrophe.

And when a catastrophe grows, [Destruction] occurs.

Right now, there are many bugs in the world!

Let’s get rid of these bugs and raise our reputation!

Reward upon mission success: Bug extermination shall correspond to reputation increase.

Penalty in case of failure: Bug evolution. Your reputation shall plummet. 〉

Ding, ding, ding, ding!

Alarms bleared deafeningly in my head.

More system windows appeared every moment.

I was so dizzy from all the pop-ups that I might really faint.

‘I think I’m going to hurl… But, what? Bugs? Misfortune and dust?’

What the hell were those?

However, there was something more important than that.

It was the first system window that popped up earlier.