"Hello."
"This is Great Abyss's [Silla Medicine] Press."
"Yes... there's a Strange Incident?"
"It's near Silla... mm, you've already reported it to the Epidemic Prevention Center?"
"Alright, alright. Could you leave your phone number? Mm, I'm writing it down... Someone will contact you soon, they will... Oh, payment? We don't have that arrangement anymore, yes... Sorry, but there's nothing we can do about it."
"Yes, we're an authoritative medical journal..."
The woman put down the phone and shook out her slightly sore fingers. "Honestly, these people have gone mad trying to make money."
"They called our communications line over an ordinary Strange Incident... Was this service we started this year a little too... We're an authoritative journal, at least."
The men and women around her heard the woman's complaints and joined in.
"Exactly. Ten years ago, our Silla Medicine could rival authoritative journals like [Nature Medicine], [Named Blades], and [Ultimate Bliss Medicine]. Now our impact factor keeps dropping—it's fallen all the way down."
"The editor-in-chief, that genius, even came up with opening a new section to record bizarre Strange Incidents—are we a journal or some ordinary press office?"
Someone grumbled, "Sister Meiqi, isn't that right?"
Meiqi was the receptionist from earlier. She raised her brows, but ultimately lowered her head. "Honestly, I can understand the editor-in-chief's decision."
"Times are getting harder and harder. It's not like a few years ago. Prices in the capital keep rising, Strange Incidents keep increasing, and jobs are even harder to find. Even Plague Exterminators like us are practically useless now. You could say this is an era where plague extermination knowledge has depreciated."
Why didn't they leave the capital?
Meiqi did not even need to provide an answer.
In the era of Pestilence Revival, no matter how much Great Abyss's Azure Light Prefectural Court