Chapter 96

I ran, leaving the guy behind, and worked my sluggish brain as hard as I could.

'My name doesn’t even have “Kim” in it, so what the hell does he “know”? He’s just some cult freak, isn’t he?'

Come to think of it, I didn’t even have any certainty that Jin Haedo ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) had really told him to bring me. How was I supposed to trust a lunatic like that and just go along?

And going to see Jin Haedo in the first place was not something I’d ever do alone. I’m not out of my mind—why would I walk into a cult’s den by myself, knowing something could happen?

Even though I was running pretty fast, he was gaining on me quickly. It didn’t make sense to chalk it up to a C-rank’s physical ability alone, and judging by the way his feet moved, he’d used an item.

'An alley.'

I cut sideways into an alley. My soles slammed the pavement—thunk, thunk.

“Faithful one!”

The chase continued down a still-dark, empty street.

I took three turns through alleys, trying to shake him, but he stuck to me like glue. In the end, I came up short at a dead end.

'Fine. Subdue him.'

If I couldn’t shake him anyway, it’d be better to take him down and drag him somewhere to interrogate him. I steadied my breathing and stared him down.

“Faithful... Kim...”

He sounded winded, like the run had tired him out. I quickly scanned his build.

Honestly, on the surface he looked a lot smaller than me, like one good punch might finish him.

But rank-wise alone, he was a C-rank—two tiers above me. Even without attack skills in his Status Window, a body fortified to match that rank meant if we fought straight-up, I could be screwed.

'Fuck it—forget hunters and ranks. Maybe I should just settle this cleanly with force.'

Before engaging, I started spouting bullshit to feel him out.

“I’ll set a private appointment with Lord Haedo, so how about you drop it and head back?”

But he answered in a slightly heated voice.

“No, no! Faithful Kim. Lord Haedo has called you to ‘that place.’”

“That place?”

“The place Lord Haedo calls you to. If you go now, you can receive a blessing. Otherwise... no, who can say.”

“What the hell are you even saying?”

If you’re going to babble nonsense, at least make it comprehensible. If Jin Haedo deliberately sent a moron like this, then he never intended to meet me in the first place.

Even after hearing his crap, I answered with saintly patience.

“Tell me where it is and I’ll go on my own.”

“That won’t do! We must go together...!”

“Go together where? I don’t even know you, and Jin Haedo doesn’t know you either.”

At some point he’d closed the gap. Not that I was trying to keep distance—I was thinking of grabbing him anyway.

He looked me dead in the eye and fished something out of his jacket. Curious whether Jin Haedo had told him to show me something, I let him do it.

“Faithful Kim...”

“......”

He started as he drew it out, then continued quietly,

“If you don’t come with me, something unfortunate will happen.”

“Unfortunate?”

Divine punishment? Something like that?

He said “yes,” and at the same time yanked out whatever he’d been fumbling for and thrust it close.

“......”

The “unfortunate thing” he warned me about was... a knife.

What is this idiot?

So divine punishment from cultists is self-administered now? Say “something unfortunate” will happen and then wave a knife—this is just garden-variety threatening.

'Not a cult problem—he’s just a psycho.'

While attempting his out-of-nowhere dawn assassination, he repeated his request.

“So please come quietly, Faithful Kim...”

“What bullshit... The ‘unfortunate thing’ will happen if I go with you. What are you on about?”

I didn’t want to provoke a knife-wielding lunatic if I could help it, but every word out of his mouth was pure nonsense, and it was hard not to clap back.

Separately, at close quarters nothing’s more dangerous than a knife. If he’d attacked with a skill, I could dig through my items and try to block it. Jamming a blade in my face put me in an awkward spot.

I made a quick decision and grabbed his wrist, twisting hard.

“Aagh!”

Even with a reinforced body, raw leverage still mattered; the knife popped out of his hand.

Clang!

Metal rang bright as the blade hit pavement.

I yanked his twisted arm downward to break his balance, then slammed him to the ground.

“Gah!”

“Shut up.”

Great. Went out at dawn to buy breakfast and wound up wrestling a psycho.

To pin him, I drove my knee into his solar plexus, seized both arms, and twisted them together.

“Hh—! Uh—k—”

He wheezed, scrambling for breath after the hit. I pressed my palm over the lower half of his mask to block his airway, then quit that and snatched the knife off the ground.

He thrashed, but didn’t really try to throw me off completely.

'He’s freakishly strong.'

He must’ve noticed the knife in my hand; his eyes went wide and he flailed harder, anxious.

“N-no! A-are you going to stab me? Rip skin with the blade and, a-and wound the muscle?”

'Is he listing his own fetishes?'

If these freaks are the standard for Cheonmyeonggyo, I can see how they’re still standing after clashing with three S-ranks. Any sane person would be exhausted after dealing with just one of these assholes.

Even pinned to the ground, he strained to pull his arm free of my grip. I’d deliberately locked it at a nasty angle, but he jerked and writhed like pain meant nothing.

Meanwhile, that mouth—spouting nonstop—was the most deranged thing about him.

Crunch.

With a sound like bones twisting out of socket, he tore his arm free of my grip.

“Gh—k, ah, it hurts!”

He let out a noise somewhere between a scream and a groan, body trembling—then suddenly grabbed for the hand holding my knife.

“Stay—fucking—still, you little—”

Was he trying to take it? I gripped the knife tighter, braced in case he managed to rip it away, and shifted my weight back.

But in that moment, instead of stealing the knife, he yanked it hard into his own abdomen.

I’d focused on my grip and didn’t have time to pull back—the blade plunged into his belly in an instant.

“Kh—k! Ngh...”

Psycho.

I loosened my grip at the last moment, but the blade was already sunk deep.

“You... fucking bastard—trying to make me a murderer, huh.”

If you love your god that much and can’t wait to meet him, stab yourself without involving me. Why are you trying to buy a fast pass to the afterlife on my tab?

I pulled the blade out of his gut, flung it far away, and started stemming the bleeding. Blood welled up through the torn fabric in heavy surges.

“It hurts! It hurts...!”

“Shut it.”

Is he just an idiot? You shove a knife in your stomach—of course it hurts. Did he think it’d feel refreshing?

Then the Status Window flashed before my eyes.

Regeneration (C) is activating.

At the same time, the torn wound sealed over in an instant.

'You little...'

So he’d had Regeneration all along. Not a suicide scam—he’d planned to test me while healing on the fly?

'Doesn’t matter.'

None of that mattered now.

I gave up on talking, and before he could pull any more crap, I smashed my fist into his skull.

Crack!

A clean hit. His head bounced off the paving stones with a satisfying noise.

“A—aaaah! Faithful Kim!”

A head that heals anyway doesn’t need mercy. I didn’t hesitate and slammed it down again.

Regeneration (C) is activating.

“It hurts!”

“Yeah? Keep regenerating. I’ll keep beating you.”

How many times would it take to crack it on the curb? I pounded his head over and over; he kept regenerating and struggling to get free.

That’s when it hit—sudden pain in my abdomen.

“Ugh...”

What the...?

He hadn’t been able to attack me—so why the hell did it hurt? Reflexively I touched my belly, and wetness seeped into my palm.

'No... not water.'

It was still dark before dawn, but I could tell even in the gloom what was leaking out of me.

It was blood.

“Hahaha... Faithful Kim... I told you something unfortunate would happen...”

“......”

“Hee-hee... You tried to attack, so you’re being punished!”