‘I guess he came out because he noticed I was watching him. There must be CCTV around me that I haven’t discovered.’
To be honest, he couldn’t understand it. The middle-aged man installed his base only after confirming that the area around posed no threats.
But he had to put his doubts aside. He’d set up his base among dense bushes. They were camouflaged, and so was the middle-aged. A person who was two kilometers away couldn’t have possibly spotted him.
How could Agnus make eye contact from that far away...?
The only explanation was that there was CCTV nearby. The man regained his senses and picked up the binoculars he had dropped.
He installed illegal facilities and monitored the garden of someone else’s residence. No matter his intention, he would get called a criminal if he got found out.
‘My employer only asked me to make sure that Agnus is okay.’
Now that he confirmed that Agnus was safe, his job was done. The middle-aged man immediately left his base. There was nothing else he needed to do before leaving. He had long abandoned the habit of leaving any traces behind.
“......”
He ran quickly along a trail that hadn’t been maintained for a long time. A sharp conifer grazed his skin, but he ignored the pain and quickened his pace. His vehicle was parked nearby. He ran for five more minutes.
“......!”
The middle-aged man’s eyes widened as he arrived in front of his car. A green-haired man was leaning against the bonnet of the car. He couldn’t believe that Agnus, who had been two kilometers away just minutes before, managed to get here before him.
The middle-agreed man was so surprised that he forgot to breathe the moment those icy, golden eyes looked at him.
“How the heck...?” he barely managed to ask.
Agnus looked him up and down. “Who sent you?” he asked. “I know you have no animosity toward me. If you tell the truth then I won’t hurt you.”
“......”
The middle-aged man regained his senses. He’d been tasked to find out if Agnus was alright. He had no intention of harming the man. On the contrary, he wanted to make sure that Agnus was safe and sound. He might’ve illegally installed CCTV and other devices around Agnus’ castle to monitor him, but...
If he got out of here safely, this incident could be easily shrugged off. There was no reason to be intimidated by a pale and skinny man who hadn’t seen the sun in years.
“I’m glad you understand that I have no bad intentions. I’m here because someone tasked me with finding out if you are safe. I will contact my employer soon to tell him the news. You will quickly discover who that is.”
The dark circles under Agnus’ eyes wrinkled. “Why don’t you just answer my question? Don’t be annoying.”
Looking closely, Agnus’ eyes were bloodshot. He looked exhausted. Agnus was known for his radical personality, but now, he looked very vulnerable.
“I can’t tell you anything else. Not revealing my employer’s personal information helps me maintain my reputation and my salary. As I said before, you will soon find out who my employer is...”
The middle-aged man was a special forces professional. He’d become strong by practicing various martial arts and undergoing tactical training. He was confident that he could easily deal with a civilian who locked himself in a room and only played games if things took a wrong turn.
The middle-aged man shuffled closer to the car. He would have to subdue Agnus if he got in his way. He didn’t dwell too much on the fact that Agnus had arrived here earlier than he did. Surely Agnus rode a specially designed motorcycle or some other vehicle on the way here.
Agnus snorted as he understood what the middle-aged man was thinking. “It’s easy to resort to violence.”
For a moment, the middle-aged man frowned.
“......!”
Then, he felt pain in his ankle. He looked down and checked. He saw something like thin, white awls stabbing his ankle.
‘Bones?’
These looked like bone fragments of small wild animals. How did they suddenly jump out of the ground and stab him?
The man couldn’t understand what was going on. Agnus punched him viciously before grabbing him by the neck with unblemished hands. Agnus kept punching him mercilessly. The man couldn’t move as he was paralyzed with fear.
Agnus asked him again, “Who sent you?”
His golden eyes flashed threateningly. There was no emotion behind them.
The middle-aged man decided to speak up, because he remembered that Agnus had a record of killing someone before.
“L-Lauel...”
“...Lauel?”
Agnus let go of the man.
“So that’s why you weren’t hostile toward me. You really were just trying to see what I was up to.”
“T-That’s right. Lauel has been looking for you ever since you went missing. He failed to find you, so I got tasked with observing your castle.”
“You guys have no reason to meddle in my personal life.”
Agnus tutted, but he didn’t seem to be in a bad mood. His sunken eyes relaxed.
The middle-aged man tried to make conversation. “What have you been doing for the past month without consuming any electricity? You were alone in that dark and enormous place... I’m glad you are safe, but...”
Despite Agnus’ extremely skinny body, he was still insanely strong. Perhaps this was why he’d made it here so fast? He just ran two kilometers in such a short amount of time?
The middle-aged man kept making up scenarios in his head. He was shaking, though he didn’t realize he was doing that. The knowledge and experience he had gained as a professional no longer mattered. He was confused because it made no sense that Agnus had made it to his car way before him. He also could not explain the bones jutting out from the ground.
“It’s done, so leave now.”
Agnus let the middle-aged man go. He felt that there was no point in interrogating a guy who had never intended to do him harm. Agnus had no intention of hurting people.
Surprisingly, he was back in the real world.
“...Certainly, this is reality.”
Agnus watched the middle-aged man drive away in his car. He inhaled slowly. There was hot energy condensed in his dantian. It was a familiar sensation, the sensation of mana that he felt in Satisfy, not in reality.
“...Status window,” he muttered while recalling the skill he had just used.
[Name: Agnus
Species: Human
Cla.s.s: Contractor Freed From Baal’s Curse
Level: 1
Strength: 25 Agility: 30
Mana: 2,127/2,221]
A familiar interface came into view.
Many of the stats, including HP and Intelligence, were gone. But in any case, they had no place in reality.
“Am I going crazy again?”
Agnus’ last memory was of complete death. He’d found a way to save Betty and sacrificed himself for her. The system informed him that he had reached the complete ending and his vision went dark after that.
When he opened his eyes, he was back in reality. After waking up from the capsule, he walked outside for no reason whatsoever. The pa.s.sive skill called Baal’s Senses worked arbitrarily, and he spotted the middle-aged man. Agnus mistook the middle-aged man for a spy, possibly sent by the United States, China, or Russia.
People who had already gone through this change appeared around the world. Agnus suspected that the powerful countries who found out about this change surely realized he was also different now and sent people over to capture him.
Fortunately, that wasn’t the case...
‘...Should I have killed him?’
Agnus suddenly felt burdened by the fact that he had spared the middle-aged man and gathered magic power at his fingertips. He looked at the list of available skills before giving up.
He had worked with the Overgeared members for a short time and got to know them. He considered that this man, who had been hired by Lauel, wouldn’t just share information haphazardly.
Above all, Agnus had no intention of harming anyone. He was reluctant to repeat something he had already regretted many times, both in real life and in the game.
Growl...
Only now did he realize just how hungry he was...
‘A month...’
Was he asleep in the capsule for an entire month? He needed time to collect his thoughts.
Agnus took his eyes off the moving vehicle and returned to the castle.
***
“It seems that he has woken up.”
Back at the S.A. Group building, the thirty-three scientists identified a signal and started a meeting. Chairman Lim Cheolho was also there.
Those who had reached the complete ending in Satisfy and had proven their worthiness remained trapped in the capsule for as little as ten days or as long as a month. The capsule activated a hidden function that even Chairman Lim Cheolho had been unaware of. The scientists described this function as an evolutionary device.
This was one of the reasons Chairman Lim Cheolho decided to cooperate with the scientists. He had witnessed the loss of certain players’ data and confirmed that they were trapped in a capsule that didn’t allow anyone from the outside to meddle with it.
However, a signal just pointed out that one of the five capsules had just opened.
“There are a lot of talented individuals on this planet. We didn’t expect that there would be five gemstones this big besides Grid.”
“What will happen to them?”
“Without Grid, they would’ve been the last bastion. If we did everything right, we might’ve prevented the third wave of erosion. But thanks to Grid, we made a decision and we updated Satisfy at the expense of our future. Now we have the possibility of cultivating a lot of beings like them... They should be called the forerunners, not the last bastion.”
“So since they can use abilities in real life, their role would be to guide other players in the future? Can they really do that? Use in-game abilities in real life?”
The skinny old man nodded and looked at the files related to Agnus. “The nanomachines I implanted in the capsules were designed to activate this ability, so they certainly will be able to do that.”
Morpheus chimed in.
-Agnus is an emotionally unstable human.He is required to be under constant surveillance, and he also needs professional personnel to take care of his mental problems.
Did they perform some type of magic? The old man finished reading the thick file containing someone’s life and gaming history before standing up and shaking his head.
“I told you that they are already qualified. Those who have met the complete ending in Satisfy have proven that they already have the sense to distinguish between right and wrong. Stop worrying and just watch.”
The old man spoke very kindly to Morpheus, as if the supercomputer was the old man’s only flesh and blood in the world, or a treasure of his. And of course he’d treat Morpheus this way.
Morpheus was the 95th ranked Insurmountable Treasure.
Outside the window, the sky was darkening. It was exceptionally dark because, recently, the moonlight had become dimmer.