“What the hell.”

The Second Apostle, facing Ryu Seo-ha’s unfocused eyes head-on, spat out a harsh sound.

“Last time it was your wrist, and now it’s your eyes…?”

Beside her, the Four Apostles, who had been standing with their mouth open for a while, expressed an emotion that was hard to tell if it was admiration or disgust in a dejected voice.

“Is there no other way besides using that pendant-like item?”

The voice that followed, asking the Second Apostle, was tinged with urgency.

“If brainwashing were that easy, I would have made all the men in this world say goodbye to life on their own by now.”

“Ha… To extract the Dimension Core without damaging it, our Mr. Sacrifice must move on his own…”

“Are you sure you put on the mana control device properly?”

“Of course! This time I even fastened it to his neck so he can’t cut it off using the system.”

After a brief exchange of clearly perplexed conversation, Ryu Seo-ha could feel a hand grasping his neck. The size of the large hand and the rough texture of its surface were damnably familiar. He was starting to feel an aversion to the shapeshifting ability itself.

“Look. There’s no problem with the control device.”

“Judging by his ragged breathing, his condition isn’t normal either…”

While the two apostles exchanged words to closely assess his hand, Ryu Seo-ha struggled to keep hold of his consciousness that kept fading in and out, and thought hard again.

The current state of blindness is just a temporary measure. He couldn’t just sit still, relying on the bluff that it would be exposed immediately if they just used a potion once, thinking he had nothing to lose. Then what should he do? What should he…

Cough. Cutting off his dizzy train of thought, bright red blood flowed back. A fishy taste wet the tip of his tongue. His already weak body slumped even more. He felt like sugar dissolving in warm water.

“Huh?”

The Four Apostles’ bewildered voice reached his ears, which had become even more sensitive due to his blindness.

“The expected probability of core damage after extraction suddenly skyrocketed… Is it because his body condition is unstable?”

It sounded like a doctor muttering while looking at a monitor showing CT or MRI results.

“It’s probably because he’s about to fall into a kind of altered state of consciousness.”

“What’s that? You mean our Mr. Sacrifice is about to faint?”

“The drowsy state is similar. If only he had fallen under hypnosis, I could control him right away.”

It took a long time for the distant buzzing noises to be analyzed into meaningful words and recognized by his brain. As soon as the content was input, Ryu Seo-ha called up his status window.

Do you want to use points on the Perception stat? Y / N

And he poured all the level-up points he had gained from hunting Giant Iron Trees, Limestone Vines, Doppelgangers, and others into a single stat. Hoping his judgment was right.

Perception 2

Perception 3

Perception 4

Perception 5

As the number rapidly increased, the mana in the air that had been faintly felt now overwhelmed his sensitized body as if choking him. He could no longer continue his thoughts and lost his grip on consciousness.

❖ ❖ ❖

Status: Remaining lifespan 96 days 1 hour 3 minutes

Ryu Seo-ha checked the passage of time as soon as he opened his eyes again. This time, quite a lot of time had passed. It was about the same amount of time as when he had fainted in the second popup dungeon and woke up on the night train.

His eyes still couldn’t perceive light, but his heightened senses vaguely conveyed information about his surroundings. The temperature of the air touching his skin felt different. Had they moved locations in the meantime?

The Black Wing forces’ mana that had been spread like fog inside the cathedral had noticeably faded. Surely they hadn’t given up on extracting the core, had they temporarily retreated? Whatever the case, it gave him a chance to catch his breath.

It was worth raising his Perception stat to expose himself more strongly to the dark mana. It was a gamble he had thrown without certainty after hearing that his body and consciousness state affected the damage rate of their target, the Dimension Core.

The dizziness that had seemed to shake his soul had completely subsided. The heat that had made even his breath hot and the chills that had cooled his spine were no longer felt. He felt quite refreshed.

It seemed like his head was finally starting to work properly. Ryu Seo-ha, without moving and with his eyes closed, first clearly distinguished between what he could and couldn’t do.

Escaping from the cult’s grasp on his own was close to impossible right now. It was a hopeless situation for a kidnap victim, still wearing the mana control device around his neck and tightly bound to a giant cross.

Making reckless attempts one after another would only increase variables. He decided to first find out where this place was and then look for a way to convey his current location to Choi Gang-hu. The moment he made up his mind,

“…!”

He couldn’t help but flinch at the soft sensation touching the nape of his neck. It was a subtly familiar yet completely different feeling, causing an unpleasant sensation to well up inside him. Damn Four Apostles bastard.

“Ah, are you awake?”

As he twisted his shoulder, which was hard to move due to being tied up, to shake off what he presumed to be the other’s lips, a voice that seemed to brighten up was heard. Choi Gang-hu’s distinctive deep, resonant voice. As he had guessed, it was the Four Apostles.

“Are you thirsty? Should I give you milk? Oh, do you want water?”

Without answering the rapid-fire questions, Ryu Seo-ha slightly stuck out his tongue to lightly lick his parched lips and tried to move his stiff arm. As expected, it didn’t seem like it would be easy to escape this place on his own.

“Why did you do that earlier? I was so shocked.”

A faint scent of tears was carried on the light breeze. Even the crocodile tears he had only heard of seemed like they would feel more genuine than those of the Four Apostles.

He rolled his eyes around, wondering if the intensity of light might look different. Since he couldn’t perceive even a slight difference, it seemed like his optic nerves were completely damaged.

“Why aren’t you talking again? Did you get tired of talking to me? Are you scared because you can’t see? If you promise not to do that again, I’ll heal your eyes.”

Ryu Seo-ha, who had been ignoring the Four Apostles’ words all along, hesitated in his slow head movement from side to side. Healing his eyes was out of the question. The Second Apostle would immediately use hypnosis if that happened.

You are exposed to the effects of the item ‘Healing Potion (S-grade)’.

Before he could reply, a lukewarm liquid was poured between his dry lips. Didn’t you say you’d heal me after I promised first, you idiot who doesn’t even know the order of things! An inwardly vulgar curse sprang up.

He quickly turned his head and tried to block the potion’s effect by closing his throat, but even the small amount of potion he had unknowingly swallowed was enough to make the world beyond his thin eyelids start to brighten.

“The Second Apostle isn’t here right now, so it’s okay to open your eyes.”

He couldn’t believe what the bastard was telling him at face value. They might just be not making any sound, possibly lurking right in front waiting for the moment Ryu Seo-ha opens his eyes.

“We’ve postponed extracting the core you’re carrying. Preparations to welcome the Messiah who’s been visiting and annihilating our branches one by one have become more urgent.”

“…”

“You just need to cooperate a little with extracting mana. That’s what we originally kidnapped you for… Oh, we won’t extract it all to the point of death like with other healers.”

The Four Apostles, who had spilled out unsolicited information, suddenly put his forehead on Ryu Seo-ha’s shoulder and rubbed it as if nuzzling. It was like the behavior of a large dog showing affection to its owner.

“More importantly, can’t you open your eyes and look at me for now? I carried you all the way here on my back.”

“…Where is this place?”

Ryu Seo-ha, who had been silent all along, quietly asked back to the whining voice. His eyes were still tightly closed.

“Oh! Are you talking to me again?”

Honestly, he doubted the mental state of the bastard who responded with an immediately excited tone. It was just baffling how he acted as if they had been in long-term exchange, when all that had happened was repeated use and rejection.

“It’s a cathedral in Armenia.”

It was stupidly ridiculous how he hastily offered information when Ryu Seo-ha remained silent. Did he have confidence that he absolutely couldn’t escape from here? It wasn’t a bad attitude for Ryu Seo-ha.

“I guess Choi Gang-hu blew up the place where you were originally staying.”

“We escaped quickly before that. But why do you keep your eyes…”

“Where is he now?”

Cutting off the whining words again, Ryu Seo-ha only said what he wanted to say, as the Four Apostles often did.

“Hmm, you keep looking for the Messiah, I’m starting to feel hurt. You won’t even make eye contact with me.”

The reaction that came out as a result was a complaint tinged with disappointment. He had thought from the first impression that he wasn’t normal, but the more they conversed, the more that impression was reinforced.

“Did you perhaps get a taste for stealing living expenses from the Messiah? Is that why you keep looking for that monster?”

“Living expenses…?”

Ryu Seo-ha, who had been focusing solely on extracting information while ignoring whatever the bastard said, lost his pace at this unexpected remark.

“Ah, should I say lifespan?”

And at the words that followed, he couldn’t help but open his eyes wide without realizing it. It was because he had a bad feeling.

“You two are each carrying Dimension Cores from different forces, right?”

Choi Gang-hu accidentally swallowed a Dimension Core while first confirming the existence of the Black Wing forces in the process of returning to Earth. A dimensional power that originally should have been unbearable for weak human flesh and spirit.

The cult’s purpose was to recover the leaked Dimension Core. It was the reason they had revered Choi Gang-hu as a nominal Messiah and had been steadily gathering healers’ mana as material to crucify him.

“If you just activate the catalyst, the lifespan from one side will transfer to the other. Didn’t you know?”

As Ryu Seo-ha was going over the situations one by one, a thunderbolt-like sound crashed into his ears.