Chapter 97

He kept rambling nonsense in a slurred voice, his speech mangled from bashing his head and regenerating over and over. I clamped my lips shut and pressed hard on the wound in my abdomen.

It was the exact same spot.

'Skill? No—the Status Window didn’t show one.'

Then it had to be an item. I pulled up the Status Window at once.

Reflective Sword (A)

Inflicts a wound on the same area of the enemy that attacked.

'That... son of a bitch.'

The instant I grasped what had happened, I grabbed his hair and slammed his head straight into the ground. Thunk! A crisp sound rang out as his skull hit something solid.

I pushed myself up a little and drove my knee hard into his abdomen. The Status Window flashed again and again to signal regeneration, but I was outpacing his healing with the damage I was dealing.

A sharp, brutal pain tore through my gut. Every time the blood surged out, it felt like scalding water soaked my abdomen—a searing heat like being branded by fire.

Maybe it was the blood loss in such a short time, but my head went cold and my consciousness kept slipping out of alignment.

I opened the comm right away.

- ......

“...Yehyun. Wake up.”

- ...Hyungnim?

I couldn’t raise my voice, so I wasn’t sure how to rouse him, but thankfully Do Yehyun answered promptly.

I issued orders at once.

“Yehyun, can you hear me?”

- Yeah, I hear you. Are you at the office?

“First, get up and go to my room right now.”

- What... what happened? Are you okay?

“Just go.”

The pain surged, dizzying. No—at this point it wasn’t even pain anymore. It was more accurate to call it crushing vertigo and nausea.

- Okay.

I exhaled as lightly as I could and clamped down hard on my abdomen. Even as I talked to Do Yehyun over comms, the bastard kept regenerating his body.

To buy time between cycles of regeneration, I stomped down hard and snapped his ribs.

“Aaagh!”

- ...Hyungnim?

“Yeah. Haa... In the room, the closet... look underneath, there’s a Space-Saving Box... okay?”

As time passed, things started deteriorating fast. I spoke in short, clipped breaths, forcing the explanation out.

- Found it.

“Good. Inside... there’s a Teleport Box.”

- A Teleport... Box?

“Find it.”

The one fortunate thing was that I’d used the item the first day we met, so I didn’t need to explain much more.

- I— I found it.

“Good. Ugh... From those, take the one right in front... the blue one.”

- Got it.

I glanced at the bastard writhing on the pavement, then pulled a Space-Saving Box from my coat. Ever since the last kidnapping incident, I kept getting that just in case itch...

'Found it.'

...and, yeah, I’d started carrying spares.

I located the pair to the Teleport Box Yehyun had taken out and activated it in a blink. I tossed it to one side of the alley to set the position, then spoke to Do Yehyun right away.

“Activate it and come here.”

With that, I cut the comm.

Right after, a flash of light burst where I’d thrown the paired Teleport Box, and a person appeared in an instant. Never thought I’d experience teleportation in real life.

“Hy—Hyungnim.”

Do Yehyun, just arrived, spotted me at once and called out, flustered.

'He made it properly'.

I’d worried he’d grab the wrong thing and either not teleport or end up somewhere stupid, but we were fine.

“Hyungnim, what the....”

“Yehyun.”

“Don’t talk!”

I hadn’t realized it, but not just my abdomen—my mouth was full of blood too. I never thought I’d see people coughing blood when they’re stabbed outside of media—no, not just see it, experience it.

Do Yehyun rushed in and fired off his skill at once.

'Blessing of the Moonlight (S) activates.'

Light wrapped the wound and slowly seeped inward. His execution was clearly sharper than the last time I’d seen him use it.

“What the hell, this is....”

Looked like the internal damage was worse than what showed on the surface. With shaking hands, Do Yehyun grabbed the hem of my T-shirt and pulled it up to my sternum.

With the skill applied directly to bare skin, a peculiar sensation flooded the wound. Not cool, not hot—some strange temperature. Or maybe both at once.

As I felt the wound knitting, I took another item from the Space-Saving Box.

Gargoyle’s Gaze (C)

A processed item made from “Gargoyle’s Eye.”

On activation, induces brief paralysis.

“Yehyun, close your eyes.”

Puzzled but obedient, Do Yehyun closed them, and I activated the item immediately.

The mana stone in the palm-sized glass flashed, and the bastard in front of me suddenly found his movements restricted. He’d been twisting and regenerating like mad, but then he went completely rigid.

“......!”

Yeah, go ahead and be shocked.

“Can I open my eyes now?”

“Yeah.”

I flicked a glance at the paralyzed bastard, then scooted my body back a little and sat with my back to the wall. Do Yehyun trailed me on his knees and kept casting steadily.

“Haa....”

Head tilted back, I exhaled slowly. There was a bit of blood in my lungs—I coughed a few times—but at this level, I could actually live.

The feeling of pain, which had been ruling my mind, thinning out all at once was almost euphoric.

I clenched and unclenched my fist, feeling sensation return to my fingertips.

'I’m dizzy, but I can manage.'

By the time the light that felt like it /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ was warming my body faded, the pain in my abdomen was completely gone.

“...The bleeding was worse than I thought.”

He’d run out the door the second I called, still in thin pajamas, and he’d even brought potions like a good kid. Handing me one, Do Yehyun spoke firmly.

“Drink.”

I nodded and chugged it. With the potion down, my condition snapped back fast. The dizziness and fever from heavy blood loss stopped, and I felt much lighter.

Watching my color return, Do Yehyun asked in a serious tone.

“Please explain what happened.”

An explanation... Right. I should. But I couldn’t do it right now.

I held out a hand for him to help me up. As expected, he lifted me smoothly, then stared, eyes trembling, at the cultist bastard sprawled on the ground.

“What... is this?”

“It exists. A cult bastard.”

I slung the fallen cultist over my shoulder and pushed my sweat-soaked hair back. Honestly, the darkness was a blessing. If anyone else saw this scene, I’d have been reported at least once.

“G—give him to me. I’ll carry him.”

“It’s faster if I just carry him and we head back.”

And my body was in pretty decent shape now. I picked up the phone I’d dropped during the scuffle and pulled up the map.

“I’ll explain at home.”

At that, Do Yehyun—clearly holding back a lot to say—still nodded.

***

Because I’d run so far earlier, the walk home took a long while again.

'I’m getting déjà vu.'

I could’ve sworn I also walked a stupid amount back when I was kidnapped. What, is God being considerate so life stays entertaining?

I don’t know if God’s material or immaterial, but I hoped it was something I could grab. Something with enough form to punch.

After a long slog, we reached the house, and before I could open it, the door flew open.

“Hey, what the hell is—!”

“Oh, automatic door.”

“...You—what are you?”

Joo Seowon must’ve felt the morning commotion; he stood there ready to rip into me the second the door opened.

He looked between me and the cultist on my back, then asked, flustered.

“...What is this? What happened? What’s with your face?”

“This bastard’s a cultist.”

“Cultist...? Cultist? What are you—Cheonmyeonggyo?”

I jerked my chin to tell him to move. Even if I was healed, I wasn’t going to stand here holding this guy forever. Looking thoroughly baffled, Joo Seowon stepped aside.

“What is this...?”

I dumped the guy onto the living room floor, then headed to the kitchen and downed a glass of water. My throat burned raw for several reasons.

“Why is this guy like this?”

Staring at the Cheonmyeonggyo bastard frozen in paralysis, Joo Seowon asked, perplexed. I set the cup down and answered.

“Remember that dungeon the three of us entered with Song Hwayoung?”

“Huh? Yeah. I remember.”

“This is an item made by processing a dungeon reward from there. When you use it, it paralyzes the body for a short time.”

“...A short time? From the looks of it, he’s been paralyzed for a while.”

“Whenever it was about to wear off, I paralyzed him again.”

God... the things you live to see. Definitely not something I want to go through twice—an impression I’ll never forget.

Then the quiet Do Yehyun fixed his eyes on me and asked.

“Please tell us exactly what happened.”

“Hm....”

An explanation... Where do I even start? I didn’t have the full picture yet either, so it wasn’t easy to lay out.

In the end, I decided to start with the most basic.

I looked between Joo Seowon and Do Yehyun and spoke.

“Not long ago, when I went down to Busan on that business trip, I visited a Cheonmyeonggyo chapel.”

“What? Why the hell would you go to a Cheonmyeonggyo chapel?”

“I told you I was looking into Cheonmyeonggyo.”

At my answer, Joo Seowon clamped his mouth shut for a second, then started protesting with a confused face.

“No, no. What—what kind of bullshit is that?!”

“Ugh, I’m tired. Shut up. Let me explain.”

“Hey! Who says ‘I’m looking into Cheonmyeonggyo’ and then just barges right in like that? You had me dig up the location and then you—what—go there barehanded—”

While Joo Seowon was, as always, noisily spouting crap, Do Yehyun—commendably—stared at me with a very calm face.

“Hyungnim... you’re insane.”

Correction. Do Yehyun was staring at me absolutely pissed.