Anyway, as they all well knew by now, I was a man of singular focus when the situation demanded it. I simply decided to ignore every message related to Hilary and the Jumper's gossip. This was my personal business, my own private mess to untangle, and it certainly wasn't up for public debate in the group chat.
I fired off a high-priority directive to the entire team, hoping to pivot their focus back to the war at hand:
[Hye]: Just keep killing the dragon forces and claim their inventories. Do not leave a single scrap behind. Most importantly, bring back the corpses of every elite dragon you slay. As for the upcoming quests and the system punishment, leave those to me. I have it handled.
Predictably, my attempt at reassurance fell flat. The response was a frantic wave of incoming messages. They were pleading for mercy, practically begging me to rethink my offensive stance and go into hiding. They were terrified that my hubris would lead us all into a slaughterhouse.
