The hallucination burrowed into his mind suddenly.
It felt as if he had been tossed into an unfamiliar place without any time to prepare himself.
His heart was pierced by Kairus’s sword, and the space had flipped in an instant when he first arrived here.
But unlike then, this time the sensation was vivid yet hazy, as if wandering through a dream.
‘Huff, huff…’
Roy was panting within the illusion.
It felt like he was wandering through a dense forest, and all that came into view were rough branches and grass.
There was no artificial light anywhere.
The only thing helping him make out objects was the light of the moon hanging in the sky.
‘Ugh, mom…’
At first, he thought he was the one running away.
But not long after, Roy realized the voice he heard by his ear was much softer and thinner than his own.
Only then did he understand he was merely sharing someone else’s sight and senses.
“Where are you? You can’t have gotten far.”
“Hiiik…!”
At the voice coming from not far off, an unknown body let out a shrill scream.
Roy raised both hands to clamp his mouth shut, but his trembling body betrayed him.
Roy wasn’t normally easily scared.
Yet, influenced as if possessed by the person whose body he’d borrowed, he was tasting a level of fear unlike anything he had ever felt in his life.
Though he was afraid of ghosts, this was a different kind of terror altogether.
It was like being back in his powerless childhood.
Huff…
He felt utterly helpless, trembling uncontrollably with no way to protect his body.
Crunch, crunch.
The sound of leaves breaking underfoot grew closer and closer.
He tried to move, but his fingers wouldn’t obey, overcome by fear.
Click.
A pale hand landed on his shoulder, and a hot sensation welled up near his eyes.
Slowly, he turned his head and saw a figure wearing a black cloak pulled low over their head.
Beneath the cloak, lips tinged with a bluish hue curled up close to his ear.
“Found you.”
“Kyaaaaah…!”
That was the last thing he heard.
Roy wiped the cold sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand.
{Are those memories just now what the Hero saw in his dream?}
“Did you see it too?”
{Faintly, but to some extent, yes.}
“…What on earth is this?”
Even Earth’s voice sounded grave, as if acknowledging the seriousness of the matter.
“You said last time that those coming over from the Continent of As aren’t just one or two, right?”
{…Yes. Based on the current situation, it’s highly likely Joel wasn’t the first. The culprit who attacked the Hero’s fan seems connected to the Continent of As, and today’s kidnapping incident as well.}
“You still haven’t tracked them down either?”
Roy stroked each of the spirits gathered closely around him.
“Poruru…” (It’s faint like mist… feels like we could grasp something, yet it’s insubstantial.)
Arra wagged her tail despondently.
Even though Roy used a considerable amount of her mana, there was no significant result.
“Pii…” (We lost the trail. The last place we sensed it was here.)
Ris flapped the tiny wings on his shell and passed the information he’d found to Earth.
{It’s near Osan City, Gyeonggi Province.}
Earth, having identified the coordinates given by Ris, moved his mana.
{I’ll send Joel to search around Osan City.}
Lastly, Solum approached Roy’s hand and rubbed his head against his fingertips, sharing what he’d discovered.
“Umm—” (The land is terrified, Contracted One.)
Among those bonded to Earth, it was rare to find beings with intelligence surpassing humans like the Spirit Kings.
Still, beings that dwell in nature inevitably existed, much like the countless lesser spirits in the spirit realm.
“Uuuhm—” (Evil energy is spreading around the center of the kidnapping incident.)
“Por!” (I felt that too!)
“Pii—.” (Me as well, Contracted One.)
The spirits spoke in unison.
Only Berman tilted his head, feathers on his forehead shaking uncertainly.
“Pii?” (I didn’t feel it.)
“Poruru!” (That’s because you’re so dull and slow!)
“Piiit?” (Are you trying to pick a fight with me now?)
Berman, getting riled up, tried to rush at Aqua, but Roy quickly reached out and pulled him into his arms.
Despite the complicated emotions, his soothing touch remained calm.
“Earth, what should we do?”
{For now, the Hero needs to keep up with his schedule. The debut isn’t far off now. I think they’ll come looking for us.}
Strange phenomena were occurring around Roy.
His visions were no coincidence.
Once or twice could be chalked up to chance, but suspicious events had been happening in succession.
“I can’t let my teammates get hurt because of me.”
He didn’t mind if it was only himself getting hurt.
After all, Roy didn’t belong to this world, and without Earth’s help, he would have died the moment Kairus’s sword pierced his heart.
But the thought of his comrades or those close to him being harmed because of him was terrifying.
{Of course! That’s why I wanted to put the Hero in this program. Your comrades are stronger than you think.}
If they were ordinary humans, getting caught in an accident might result in serious injury or death.
But all those debuting with Roy were above level 300.
Thanks to Earth’s special arrangements, they also each obtained rare weapons suited to their respective classes.
{The Hero needs to trust his comrades! Now, Kim Chan and Lee Doha even know the Hero’s secret.}
Over Earth’s voice, Heis’s voice overlapped, angrily asking why the captain always tried to handle everything alone.
“Alright, I get it. But has none of my comrades come over? If more than one crossed, surely at least one close ally would have come, not just enemies.”
Roy suddenly thought that it was unfair if only those threatening his life had crossed over.
The world wasn’t fair, but still, there should have been at least one of his comrades who made it through.
{I think so too. Hero, who do you wish would have crossed first?}
At Earth’s question, countless faces flashed before Roy’s eyes.
“Honestly, I want to see Heis and Alyssa the most… but thinking about their personalities, I’m worried too.”
Both of them were anything but ordinary lively types.
Especially Alyssa, who sometimes looked after Roy as if she were his older sister, since he was her only remaining family.
She knew better than anyone how naive Roy was beneath his exterior.
“But no matter who, I want to see them all.”
He could already picture the future torment ahead, but despite everything, he wanted to confirm that they were alive and moving.
“Aaagh!”
A man bigger than an average person by a head clasped his forehead and curled up.
“Am I sick? Why does it hurt so much!”
He rubbed his swelling, reddening forehead desperately.
The more he rubbed, the more the skin darkened to a painful hue, but he was desperate to ease the pain.
“…Where am I now?”
As the pain lessened, the man blinked rapidly.
He was definitely trapped in a prison with no ray of light entering.
“Now that I think about it…!”
The iron chains that had pierced through his chest were gone.
The dantian he’d been unable to use his Ohr through was shattered, and the magic stone seal was nowhere to be seen.
“All of it.”
“Limbs are intact, dantian is back to normal.”
He examined his smooth, unblemished body in disbelief.
Originally, not only his dantian but his wrists and ankles had been pierced by chains.
They’d severed his tendons, making it impossible to even feel safe, reducing him to a mere breathing carcass.
“Assuming this isn’t a dream, that means I can use my strength again… So, how do I take down that bastard Kairus?”
He didn’t know what miracle had freed him from the solitary confinement and restored his body, but this was a chance from the heavens.
A pebble crushed into dust under the grip of his hand.
“Seeing as you gave me this chance, you must admit that bastard was a real son of a bitch, huh?”
He looked up at the sky turning crimson with the sunset, joking half-heartedly.
Some might have been offended by the blasphemy, but after losing the most precious person so senselessly, the man believed God was already dead.
“But exactly where is this? The flow of mana in the air feels strange.”
He stood and shook his disheveled hair.
His body, unwashed for a long time, smelled pungently musty.
The only thing he wore was tattered cloth that barely qualified as clothing.
Even that was torn around the chest, leaving much of his upper body exposed.
“The sound of water is coming from that direction…”
Surrounding him were only thick bushes and towering trees far taller than he was, making it clear he was deep in a forest.
A sudden craving for clean clothes rose within him, but he was practically being hunted by the entire continent.
He had no memory of how he’d escaped, or whether he truly had escaped on his own, considering he hadn’t been able to move an arm.
But he decided to simply call it a ‘miracle.’
His gentle nature, mocked by his comrades as simple-minded, had finally shone through.
“There.”
Tuning his hearing, he caught a faint sound of flowing water.
He moved toward it, leaving only a faint afterimage behind.
“It’s been so long since I’ve seen water like this.”
His face was so grimy that his features were almost obscured.
It was a small waterfall cascading down a valley.
***
Without hesitation, the man shed the ragged cloth covering his body and plunged into the water.
“Ugh, cold.”
It was early autumn.
Even in midsummer, valley water was always cold.
Since the sun wasn’t high in the sky, the water was like an ice slab.
He shivered briefly before circulating mana through his body.
What had felt bone-chillingly cold moments before now seemed moderately lukewarm.
“This is unfamiliar terrain. Where the hell did I fall?”
While diligently drying himself, the man kept his eyes alert to the surrounding environment.
The sun had long set and night had fallen, but he had no trouble identifying objects thanks to his free use of mana.
Crack.
The man’s humming abruptly stopped.
His eyes, previously soft with a faint smile, chilled as they stared toward the source of a sound.
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