EVS Chapter 107

The “slight pain” the system spoke of had never been merely mild discomfort. As the notification appeared, pain that felt like every joint in his body was being bent backwards and broken washed over him. Trying to move his body forcibly during the rank downgrade only amplified the agony.

His ankle twisted and he lost balance. The phone that had flown from his hand smashed into the ground, losing power, and Sa-yoon’s body tilted as if about to crash into the concrete. Barely avoiding falling headfirst by planting his knee on the ground, Sa-yoon grimaced and pushed his fingers into his trembling mouth.

Whoosh. Enduring the pain, he whistled, and a crow that had been flying nearby landed in front of Sa-yoon’s feet. Raising his fallen body, Sa-yoon reached out with a shaking hand and grasped the crow.

His entire body felt like it was convulsing. His hand slipped several times before finally making contact, and gritting his teeth, he pulled the crow close to his face.

<Caution! Due to rank downgrade, all skills and stats will decrease by one rank!>

When he tried to use a skill, the system helpfully displayed a notification. Nothing was going right.

Since all skills were dropping a rank, the effectiveness of Communication and Sharing would also be less than before. However, it was better to receive some shared information than to run around blindly, so Sa-yoon made eye contact with the crow and used his Communication skill. The crow’s eyes took on a different hue. A light flashed momentarily in Sa-yoon’s black eyes as the skill connected.

“Go and get the memories of the guy sticking to Han Geon-joo.”

Caw, caw!

The bird responded and flapped its wings widely. Sa-yoon shared his senses so that it could know his real-time location, and finally, as if all the processes necessary for the rank downgrade were complete, the pain subsided. He looked over his body. The change in physique wasn’t significant. Knowing that checking the numbers would be most accurate, he opened his status window and saw that indeed, all skills and ranks had decreased by one level.

‘A+’.

The rating written in the rank field felt unfamiliar. Though it was just a difference of one rank, he had lost a lot. As evidence, his body already felt heavy as if laden with lead. Cursing under his breath, Sa-yoon placed a hand on his waist. As he caught his breath and pondered what to do next, the system window that had been quiet for a moment reappeared, as if unwilling to give him time to think.

<Warning! Your current rank is insufficient to proceed with the main quest! Raise your lowered physical abilities back up! (b ᵔ▽ᵔ)b>

+++

[Special Quest – Rank Up for the True Evil of Humanity!]

‘Restore your lowered rank within the time limit.’

Reward: Rank increase A+ → S

Failure: ???

Time Limit: 10 days

+++

By the time he finished scanning it with his eyes, the time limit had changed to 9 days, 23 hours, and 59 minutes. Suspecting that the system administrator had become fixated on something strange given how often time limits were being imposed lately, Sa-yoon massaged his stiff neck and let out a sigh.

In the end, the worst-case scenario he had anticipated had arrived.

His rank had been lowered, and now the system, after lowering it itself, was arrogantly threatening penalties if he didn’t recover within the time limit.

‘Failure: ???’.

The fact that even the penalty wasn’t properly specified was extremely irritating. He knew all too well from past experiences that penalties of this sort tended to be the most severe. With absolutely no time to rest, he clenched his fists and thought of Han Geon-joo. Ever since he ran away. No, ever since he had brought him in, nothing had gone as planned.

Maybe it would have been better to ignore it all.

He swallowed his complicated feelings, thinking that if he had ignored everything, be it the Resister or whatever else, he might have had no hope, but at least it would have been less exhausting. As irritation accumulated and stress remained unresolved, the urge to just let everything go washed over him. As the desire to give up arose, his mind, which had been full of excitement and confusion, calmed down.

First, he needed to contact Gyeongjin before the crow returned. Needing to borrow his information network, Sa-yoon picked up the fallen phone, clicked his tongue at the broken screen rendering it unusable, and took out the burner phone he carried for emergencies to dial Gyeongjin’s number.

After two rings, the call abruptly ended. Hearing an absurd automated message saying the person couldn’t take the call right now, Sa-yoon tried connecting again. After Gyeongjin didn’t answer three consecutive calls, Sa-yoon changed tactics.

[It’s me, pick up the phone, you bastard.]

This wasn’t a situation for polite words. Han Geon-joo alone was enough to make his blood boil, and now Gyeongjin was being difficult too. After sending the irritably typed message, a call from Gyeongjin’s number arrived shortly after.

“Was it you, hyung?”

“Listen, kid, I told you to answer after two calls even if it’s from an unknown number, didn’t I?”

“There’ve been a lot of annoying calls lately, so I thought it was one of those. So, what’s up?”

Gyeongjin responded nonchalantly and smoothly changed the subject. Narrowing his eyes at Gyeongjin’s attempt to avoid being scolded, Sa-yoon, given the situation, didn’t bother to dwell on it and got straight to the point.

“Han Geon-joo has run away, so track his location.”

“He ran away?”

“Jongsik knew about it, what were you doing?”

“Cut down on my workload before saying things like that. Do you know I’ve been working without sleep all this time because of who?”

Come to think of it, it was the early hours of the morning. Quickly moving away from a topic that would only disadvantage him if prolonged, Sa-yoon requested that guild members be deployed to track Han Geon-joo’s location and gather related information. Gyeongjin groaned, and the sound of him hitting his head came through the phone.

“I’m already dying from too much work, and now he runs away and increases it? I told you to go easy on him. Jongsik said so too, didn’t he?”

“I did go easy.”

“Hyung, normal people don’t consider driving someone to the brink of death as ‘going easy’.”

Gyeongjin clicked his tongue in a tone of exasperation.

“I’ve told you many times. Normal people don’t think like you, you know? Try to think and act with a normal person’s mindset. Just looking at the information team, at least three people a day are submitting resignations, saying dying would be better. I’m going to report this to the Labor Office.”

His complaints continued at length, as if he was determined to air out all the grievances he had accumulated until now. As the grumbling that started with the workload eventually shifted to discussing Sa-yoon’s personality, Sa-yoon frowned and hung up the call. Gyeongjin was good in many ways, but his biggest problem was his inability to control his mouth once he started talking.

Sa-yoon sent a message telling him to stop chattering and submit a report, to which he received the usual single-letter reply ‘K’. His thoughts organized during the phone call, Sa-yoon moved to where he had parked. Getting into the car, he started the engine and waited for the crow to return. After about 30 minutes, he started to get anxious. If Han Geon-joo entered a gate and disappeared for even a day, it would all be over.

Unable to do anything properly and with the quest about to be frozen, Sa-yoon kept tapping his foot nervously. After an hour had passed, the crow flew back and pecked at Sa-yoon’s car window. Caw, caw. The bird cried out from beyond the glass. Sa-yoon hurriedly lowered the window and received the returning crow.

He immediately used his skill to share the memories that the crow had received and relayed from other crows. They were scenes witnessed by the snake that Sa-yoon had attached to Geon-joo before leaving for Pohang.

Due to his lowered rank, the memories weren’t transmitted completely. They came in fragments, ending with a view of Geon-joo standing on a bridge. From the snake’s perspective, it was hard to guess which bridge it was, but not impossible to find.

He couldn’t have run too far, so checking all the overpasses and bridges near the guild building should suffice.

Having found an alternative, Sa-yoon immediately started the car and sent a message to Jongsik. The car moved roughly, cutting across the road. It was while driving on a road next to a valley that Sa-yoon witnessed an unexpected sight.

“…Han Geon-joo?”

Someone who shouldn’t be here, who couldn’t be here, was on the bridge over the valley. Thinking he might be hallucinating, Sa-yoon blinked and looked again, but it was undoubtedly Han Geon-joo. Although the distance made him appear small, Sa-yoon, who had been with him 24/7 for over a month, couldn’t mistake or fail to recognize his appearance.

Why here?

As he was engulfed in questions, the man turned his head towards Sa-yoon. Sa-yoon hurriedly stopped the car. He had the illusion that their eyes met.

In his haste, he got out before the car had fully stopped and rolled once on the ground. With no time to feel pain, he immediately got up and ran. Perhaps sensing the commotion, Geon-joo’s head turned precisely towards him.

This time, their eyes truly met.

“…!”

The man flinched, showing a surprised expression, then immediately turned his back and dashed away.

It was undoubtedly Han Geon-joo.

Fully convinced by the sight of him running away, Sa-yoon cursed and increased his running speed. Due to his lowered rank, his space compression wasn’t as efficient as before, but it was enough to chase after Han Geon-joo, who had become A-rank.

The distance closed rapidly. Sa-yoon fixed his gaze on Geon-joo’s back as he fled without looking back, his eyes narrowing.

If he had just apologized, if he had stopped and cried, Sa-yoon would have been willing to forgive him.

Because everyone can lose their way once.

If it was Han Geon-joo, he had been willing to overlook a mistake or two. But if he ran away so desperately, that changed things.

How could his heart remain gentle when faced with such desperate flight?

Letting out a hollow laugh, Sa-yoon threw a dagger aimed at Geon-joo’s leg. The blade tip that cut through the air narrowly missed his foot and embedded itself in the ground. The dagger, having gained momentum from the long distance, made a rather harsh sound as it dug into the concrete. Geon-joo, who had unconsciously looked back, was terrified at the sight of the blade stuck in the ground.

As Geon-joo’s face turned pale, Sa-yoon increased his speed. Geon-joo’s wavering gaze turned towards Sa-yoon, seemingly bewildered. Thinking it was quite like Han Geon-joo to only look back after being attacked, Sa-yoon pulled out a second dagger and spoke.

“Run as if you’ll die if caught, pretty boy.”

The second dagger, imbued with killing intent, hurtled towards its target.