13 Mink Street

Order... Karon lowered his head and looked at the black abyss below. He had a premonition that a true secret was buried within this abyss, one very likely connected to the absence of the gods since the beginning of this epoch. The premonition was so intense that even Karon himself found it inconceivable.

At that moment, as Karon lay on the bed in his bedroom, the golden mark on the back of his hand began to surface. In the dream, he also sensed the burning heat on the back of his hand.

He knew very well that he was having this dream because he had seen the War Scythe, an intact top-tier divine artifact.

God was not to be looked upon directly. Once you beheld the scythe and formed some kind of connection with it, even if it had no intention of acting upon you, it would inevitably leave its mark. This was a phenomenon that surpassed the level of psychological suggestion. It was actually more fitting to describe it as an imprint.

Only, a problem had occurred with him. For others, such an imprint would amount to a series of nightmares in which they were killed by the War Scythe, yet because of the various special qualities of Karon’s body, new changes were being drawn out.

The simplest point was his body itself. Because it had been modified by Rhanedar, it had a connection with the gods, so naturally, he could see more.

Karon lifted his foot. He wanted to step into the black abyss before him and try to pursue the truth of this secret. This state of mind was like that of a gambler staring at the card about to be revealed. His mind had already lost all concept of winning or losing. All he wanted was release.

But just as this foot was about to land, it stopped.

Karon gritted his teeth. The cautious nature deep within his soul regained the upper hand at this moment. At the same time, cold sweat broke out all over him. Why would I have that thought? What does the truth of this secret have to do with the current me? What difference would knowing it in advance or not knowing it make?

Rational thought quickly filled in, dispelling that mysterious sensibility from some unknown source that had nearly dominated his mind earlier. Karon bent down, gasping heavily. When he looked at the abyss before him, there was fear and lingering dread in his eyes.

Was that bewitchment? Or... derangement? Just like when Captain Nio once faced the demonic voice of that Bloodfiend ancestor? It could stir up all sorts of thoughts in one’s heart to achieve some purpose of its own.

“Hah...” Karon let out a heavy breath and straightened himself again. If it had been the old him, he might already have stepped in. But the current him had completed his self-examination after the experience of the final selection, and there were no longer any flaws in his state of mind. Even so, he had still been affected. That was terrifying.

Glug... glug... glug... The abyss began spitting out black bubbles. The rupture of each bubble seemed to represent a terrifying scene, with countless people inside fighting, shouting, screaming, and wailing.

Karon immediately pressed a hand to his forehead. He did not dare look directly at those bubbles. He felt as if the soul he had always taken pride in would be burst by those images. However, even if he did not look, the sound of bubbles constantly popping filled his ears. Even when Karon covered his ears, he still could not block the sound out.

At this moment, he felt as if he had been placed on a vast and boundless battlefield. All around him, people with blood-red eyes were slaughtering each other at any cost.

What was terrifying was not the battlefield itself, but the way his soul’s field of vision kept being pulled upward, stretched upward, then stretched upward again. It was like going from seeing one’s own hand, to seeing your own head, to seeing yourself kneeling on the ground, to seeing the battlefield around you, then seeing an even larger, larger, larger battlefield.

On this almost boundless battlefield, you were nothing more than the smallest speck of dust. It induced a suffocating sense of despair.

Compared to this, those illusion demons at Ogureth Fortress were completely inadequate. This was no longer an attack that sought out the flaws in the target’s heart or lured someone into revealing an opening on their own. Instead, when one stood there, they were simply shown just how insignificant they were, making them begin to question even if their existence had any value at all.

The even sadder part was that the other party was not deliberately targeting anyone. This was merely the instinctive feeling produced as one approached.

Finally, the bubbles stopped. The War Scythe that had fallen earlier resurfaced. It drifted there, completely still.

Karon finally had a chance to breathe. He supported himself on the ground with both hands and had no thought of standing up again.

Buzz! A sound came. It was very faint, but slight ripples spread across the black liquid surface.

Buzz! The ripples continued to spread, and with them came what seemed to be a sound.

It felt like someone was knocking on a door. No, striking it. No, pounding on it.

This person had been sealed inside all along, and after hearing movement from someone passing by outside, he began pounding desperately on the enormous door, trying to draw the passerby’s attention while also calling out.

Buzz!

Buzz!

Buzz!

The ripples on the liquid surface became clearer and clearer. Karon sensed that the “dream” he was in was trembling right along with them. This was an absurd scene. A person sealed away in some unknown, immeasurably distant place was desperately pounding on a door, yet the movement was actually shaking another person’s dream.

Karon pursed his lips and peered into the abyss before him. He seemed able to sense how each ripple’s appearance had crossed an incomparably long obstruction. In between them was not only a door, but endless folds of space, and even... something that penetrated time’s restraints.

He could be considered someone who had already experienced a great deal, and who could even use secrets to mock Nio, yet Karon panicked at this moment. All his propriety and composure were like paper, torn apart the instant the rain struck.

He had no intention of going down, but the person below seemed very eager to come up.

Finally, along with multiple ripples, the voice once again formed a clear sound that was sent up from the depths of the endless abyss. This seemed to be a message the imprisoned being desperately wanted to send out. For this, he was almost frenzied, furious, and hysterical.

Karon heard the complete sentence. It said, “Order, how much longer must I wait?”

***

When this sentence entered Karon’s mind in full and with perfect clarity, he sensed everything around him rapidly shrinking. The abyss disappeared, the War Scythe disappeared, and the dream also disappeared.

Karon lay on his bed, eyes open. He had clearly already woken up, yet he had still not realized it.

Blood seeped from his eyes, nostrils, the corners of his mouth, and his ears. Hideous veins bulged out, all across his body. Next came an aching pain from deep in all the bones of his body as well as muscle spasms.

Yet he still sensed none of that, because his soul was enduring a rapid, continuous distortion. Compared to the pain suffered by his soul, the pain of his body could not provide any perceivable stimulation.

Finally, after the storm in his soul ended, Karon slightly turned his head. He then propped a hand against the bed and sat up. He sat there for quite a while before sensing his consciousness and perception gradually returning to his body.

Why is everything red? Karon was a little puzzled. He opened his hands and discovered that they were blood-red too. He then wiped his eyes with a hand, and the red began to leave his vision. When he looked back down, he discovered that his bedsheets were already stained red with his blood.

“Cough, cough... cough, cough... cough, cough...” A burst of coughing came. With every cough, he felt as if his organs were being tugged, bringing a wave of intense pain.

At this moment, Karon greatly desired to simply lie back down and fall asleep, because he knew that as long as he slept through this, his symptoms would ease, or even disappear entirely. Unfortunately, as soon as he was halfway down, he saw his filthy bedsheets, and then looked at his filthy self... In the end, he gritted his teeth, got out of bed, and dragged his depressingly weak and exhausted body to the washroom.

He turned on the faucet in the sink, cupping water in his hands to splash it onto his face again and again. The cold quickly cooled his mind.

After a long while, he looked at himself in the mirror. The person in the reflection looked so haggard.

He lowered his head and stared at the back of the hand that had received the mark. That exact area was actually scorched black, yet amid the charred flesh, the outline of the mark remained clearly visible. However, Karon also knew that in what he had experienced earlier, this mark had only served as a trigger.

As for what had truly played the key role, transforming what should have been the standard nightmare of being killed by the scythe into a nightmare of a cry for help, Karon did not know. After all, he had far too many things hanging off him.

After washing his face, Karon checked himself and found that he was no longer bleeding. He walked to the bedroom door, opened it, and knocked on the wall.

“Captain?” Vintral slept on the second floor, but had not closed his bedroom door. The moment he heard the knocking, he immediately responded and ran down.

When he saw Karon in this state, Vintral was startled. “Captain, what happened to you?”

“It’s fine now.” After seeing Vintral come down, Karon walked back into the washroom, took a shower, and changed into a bathrobe. When he staggered out, he saw that his sheets, comforter, and everything else on his bed had all been changed for clean ones. Vintral had probably brought things down from his own bed and swapped them out.

“Captain, do you need me to call a doctor?”

“No need.” Karon sat down at the edge of the bed.

“Captain, the way you looked just now was the same as when my corruption acted up when I was little. Were you also...”

“I won’t be...” Karon stopped. His body feared corruption least of all, but if the existence pounding on the door in that abyss did not fall under most, and was instead War...

Was it possible that the reaction of his body and soul had been his own rejection of corruption? If he were an ordinary person, would he already have been completely corrupted?

No, if he were an ordinary person, he might never have had the chance to be corrupted in this way at all.

Karon held his forehead with a hand. It was starting to ache.

“Captain, get some rest.”

“Mhmm.” Karon maintained that posture and fell asleep while still leaning against the headboard. He woke several times after that, and each time, found Vintral sitting beside him. Karon asked him the time, discovering that his sleep was essentially broken, with him waking every twenty to thirty minutes. The final time he fell asleep, however, he finally slept deeply.

By the time Karon woke up, it was already afternoon. Vintral was still sitting on the floor, holding a cup of milk and a piece of bread.

Karon got out of bed, stretched, and checked his physical condition. Although he was still a bit tired, his body and soul were no longer in any serious trouble.

“Captain, how are you?”

“I’m fine. Today’s class?”

“Oh, here’s what happened. Murray’s squad didn’t finish until noon, so the class that had been scheduled for today is now postponed for tomorrow.”

“Mm, I understand.”

“Captain, should I prepare something for you to eat? Oh, and the others don’t know what happened to you last night. They all went to the training base’s grounds to familiarize themselves with the armaments. Do you need me to call them back now?”

Karon turned and looked at the clock on the bedside table. It was past four in the afternoon. “Forget it. We’ll eat dinner together after they finish training. I have something to say as well. As for what happened to me last night, it’s enough that you know.”

“Yes, Captain. I understand.” Vintral was about to turn and leave when he seemed to remember something and turned back. “Captain, one more thing. One of the logistics supervisors from the training base hotel came by today dressed as a waiter, knocked on the door, and handed me a business card.”

“Hmm, what is it?”

“He probably saw that we’ve been asking for the full allotment of tobacco and alcohol each day the last few days, so he said that he can simply buy them back from us at eighty-five percent of the price in the credits store. What do you think?”

Generally speaking, things sold on the black market would also be discounted. If they were not cheap enough, who would go to the black market to buy anything? Of course, some specially controlled goods were an exception, but tobacco and alcohol obviously did not count.

“Then call him and have him come over tonight to collect the goods first.”

“All right, Captain.”

***

There was a dining hall within the training base, which was where Murray’s squad typically ate. Karon’s squad still preferred gathering in their captain’s room for meals.

Once everyone was present, Karon walked out from his bedroom. He had changed into priest’s robes and looked no different from yesterday.

Ashley and Blanche had both just showered. St. Andis was a tropical coastal city, so the two girls were dressed rather lightly at the moment. Mars was wearing short sleeves, while Bart wore a tank top. His bronze skin was exposed, making him look like someone scraping out a living carrying sacks at the docks.

After Karon sat down on the sofa, he asked, “How was your training this afternoon?”

Ashley peeled a shrimp and put it into her mouth as she said, “Captain, there really wasn’t enough time. I think I need more time.”

Mars agreed, “Yes, Captain. There wasn’t enough time to familiarize ourselves.”

Bart, on the other hand, did not mind. “It’s fine. No one knows whether we’ll use these armaments when we enter the Reincarnation Gate. Our squad will basically join under Captain’s Whip squad anyway. We’ll have plenty of time to train and coordinate ourselves in the future.”

“Yes, there’s no hurry. We’ll have plenty of time later.” While echoing him, Blanche removed the vein from a peeled shrimp and placed it onto the plate in front of Karon.

When Ashley saw this, she immediately peeled one too and sent it over. Mars also picked up a shrimp, but Bart bumped him with his arm and said, “All right, all right. You don’t need to peel one.”

Seeing everyone’s reactions, Karon felt very satisfied. “There is something I need to tell all of you, though you all heard it yesterday as well. When the time comes, these armaments will be delivered to us inside the Reincarnation Gate by way of teleportation scrolls, but after we come out of the Reincarnation Gate, the armaments will remain inside.

“So those lovely big toys you familiarized yourselves with this afternoon will leave you from the moment you come out of the Reincarnation Gate.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the room fell silent. It was like a group of youths who had finally gotten their hands on grown-ups’ cars, liquor, and cigarettes, and had started to believe they were grown-ups themselves. Then one slap brought them back to reality: they were still children.

“Then my repeater crossbow...”

“My Array Curtain...”

“My Cage of Imprisonment...”

“Well, I’d like to ask, can any of your families support you in buying an armament at your own expense?”

Everyone looked at one another. Vintral lowered his head and ate his flatbread. No one else spoke either.

Armaments were expensive. Extremely expensive. One major reason they were expensive was that they were controlled goods. Although they were placed in the credit stores of various regions and marked with prices in order to stabilize the value of Order credits, in reality, the higher-ups did not want them widely circulated, so their prices were very astronomical.

The actual manufacturing cost of armaments assigned to the Knight Regiment might only be one-tenth of the store price outside. Of course, cost could not be calculated that way. There were also the talent costs involved in research and development, forging, engraving, arrays, and every other stage.

However, the price was still definitely inflated. After all, the Church of Order would not want some Light vermin to one day appear with a magic crystal cannon and wreak havoc.

Moreover, there was another point they could not avoid. Even if someone present had a family that could secure a discount, or even buy armaments from a Knight Regiment that were intact but had been labeled as scrap, it still would not work.

Because they were not buying them to collect, but were buying them to use.

Once their Whip of Order squad was established, as the benchmark for reform, it would definitely receive a tremendous amount of attention. When they carried out missions and used armaments, it would definitely be noticed, as such things could not be hidden. The source of such tools would need to be explained clearly.

The Church of Order was not like the Church of Reincarnation, where the royal family and other powerful families could wield unchecked influence within the Church. The main purpose of this reform was to divide and suppress the power of the church’s families and factions. At a time like this, no family would be stupid enough to hand the Central Church a knife.

Seeing that the blow had been delivered, Karon said, “It’s fine. Once we establish our Whip of Order squad, we can accept missions faster and earn more credits. I believe it won’t take long for us to buy those big toys you familiarized yourselves with today from the credit shop. We may even be able to buy better ones.

“That feeling of management and accumulation is actually more interesting, isn’t it?”

“Captain is right!”

“Captain is right!”

At this moment, the doorbell rang. Vintral got up and walked to open the door, and a pale, plump waiter walked in. Seeing so many people in the room, he immediately bowed to them all.

Vintral opened two suitcases and allowed the man to take inventory. Karon noticed that Vintral had probably also requested Murray’s squad’s share of tobacco and alcohol for the day. There was no other way for there to be so much. This kid really learns fast in these matters.

After these goods were taken away, they could continue appearing in the base hotel’s warehouse, while sold at the standard price.

After everything was packed, the man handed a large stack of Order credits to Vintral. He was preparing to turn and leave when Karon requested, “Please wait a moment.”

“Hmm? May I ask if you have any further instructions?” This man showed a very respectful attitude.

Karon pointed at the sumptuous food on the dining cart and asked, “Is this the top-tier meal?”

“Yes. It is the highest standard, and is included in your care package.”

“Then starting tomorrow, just send us simple meals. Convert the difference into credits for us.”