Maria

After a brief moment of surprise, Dulin quickly recovered. He furrowed his brow and stared hard at Liao Ji with sharp eyes, trying to figure out the young man's purpose. In the end, he got nowhere.

It seemed the other man really did just want to run a test.

Dulin signaled to the young knight behind him. Tamik, who was already tense, immediately understood and hurried off under the pretext of preparing the test. In reality, within minutes, many Knights Order members who had been scattered around the scene moved closer, forming a ring around them. Several had already put their hands on their holsters.

The Church's Knights Order carried guns imported entirely from the Mechanical Alliance, and even their ammunition was specially made: the Silver Bullet series. These bullets could suppress Corrupt Calamity with tremendous force, making them effective not only against monsters but also against the Corrupted.

The tense atmosphere descended all at once. The situation at the scene had taken so many turns that Irin was completely bewildered. The people from the Haisha Bar were just as stunned. Everyone had the same question in mind.

What exactly was Liao Ji trying to do?

The young man at the center of it all felt utterly wronged.

Because

he really did just want to run a test.

"Mr. Liao Ji, all you need to do is place your hand on the device. After a short wait, the screen will show the level of Corrupt Calamity contamination in your body. Generally, a reading below 10 is within the normal range. A reading between 10 and 20 indicates varying degrees of Corrupt Calamity infection. If the number on the screen is above 20..."

The young knight did not finish explaining. Tamik took a deep breath, then asked the young man one last time:

"Are you sure you want to take the test?"

In response, Liao Ji simply placed his hand on the device.

Beep. Beep. Beep-beep.

As the test sounds rang out, the device did not blare an alarm as Dulin had imagined. Instead, the screen displayed the following:

[Test complete.]

[Current user's Corrupt Calamity fluctuation: normal value 0, peak value 0.]

[Congratulations! Your health is better than that of 99.9% of other users nationwide. Keep it up!]

"Move!"

Dulin roughly shoved the stunned young knight aside. Frowning, he stared at the device's results—and the congratulatory bonus message it had even triggered—then took a new device from a nearby Knights Order member.

Liao Ji didn't mind. He cooperated with a second test, but although they had changed the device, the result was still the same.

Tamik stared at the young man across from him in disbelief.

With a reading like that, he was nothing like the "Common Rank" or even "Danger Rank" Corrupted they had suspected him to be. He was more like one of the wealthy elites living in a big city, in a pristine world completely cut off from Corrupt Calamity.

Next, the Knights Order tested the remaining people from the Haisha Bar, as well as Irin.

One person did have an unusually high reading. Unfortunately, it wasn't Irin. It was a server at the bar, one of Brian's men, who had been standing too close to Grey Wolf at the time and inhaled too much of the red Corrupt Calamity mist.

His reading was 12, indicating mild contamination. He looked fine on the surface, but if left untreated, it could eventually develop into some kind of serious illness.

A nun accompanying the Knights Order immediately stepped forward to purify him. Holy light glimmered from the Silver Cross on her chest. After bathing in its light, the server took another test, and his reading had dropped sharply to 3, back within the normal range.

"Thanks for all your hard work, Captain Dulin. I'm glad we ran the tests, or we might have left a hidden danger behind," Liao Ji said with a hint of emotion when everything was over.

Dulin didn't reply. Ever since the test results came in, he had seemed unwilling to spend another second there.

"Mr. Liao Ji, our work is all done now. If there's nothing else, we'll pack up and leave."

The middle-aged captain turned to go, but Liao Ji called out to stop him.

"Please wait, Captain Dulin. We've met before, after all, and I think you're a very responsible and capable captain. So... could I have your business card?"

"Sorry, I don't have one," Dulin refused outright.

"Then your very justice-minded assistant will do," Liao Ji said, turning his gaze toward the young knight who had taken his statement earlier.

Suddenly singled out, Tamik couldn't help panicking, especially when Liao Ji smiled at him.

Captain Dulin hadn't even had time to speak before the young knight instinctively pulled out his business card and handed it to the young man in a daze.

"Tamik, is it? I'll remember your name. If I ever run into trouble in Black Cave, could I ask you for help?"

"Of-of course!"

"As members of The Church, the Knights Order's purpose is to lend a hand to anyone in need! It's an honorable duty bestowed upon us by the Saintess!"

Tamik straightened up and gave Liao Ji a proper knight's salute.

Captain Dulin, standing beside him, sighed and rubbed the corner of his eye.

Once they sprinkled the church's specially made Holy Water over Grey Wolf's monster corpse, it quickly melted away like snow beneath the blazing sun.

After cleaning up the source of the contamination, the Knights Order left as quickly as they had arrived. They boarded their vehicles one after another and drove away from the Haisha Bar, heading back to The Church.

Inside the vehicle.

"C-Captain Dulin, so Mr. Liao Ji and his female companion really are just ordinary people? Does that mean our deductions were wrong?" The young knight in the passenger seat finally couldn't hold back the question.

But Dulin seemed angry. He sat there with a dark expression and said nothing for a while before answering impatiently:

"Does it matter? More importantly, you idiot, who told you to give him your business card? All that shit I taught you—did you feed it to the fucking dogs?"

"Ah? But the Saintess taught us that we should..."

The young knight's aggrieved reply was cut short by Dulin, who was driving.

"The Saintess... heh, the Saintess. If the Saintess were still watching over us, how could she let that animal—"

Dulin's voice abruptly stopped. The young knight beside him shrank back and didn't dare point out his captain's disrespect toward the Saintess, much less ask what he'd been about to say.

Tamik couldn't help recalling the rumors within the Knights Order. They said that ever since Captain Dulin had first made a name for himself, he had crushed the gangs' arrogance time and again. Back then, public safety in the Black Cave Settlement had improved significantly. Some people had even hoped the Knights Order would wipe out the gangs under Captain Dulin's leadership.

Yet one day, Dulin's temperament had changed completely, and he had become listless. Not only did he slack off at work, but he had also grown disrespectful toward the faith of The Church. Many Knights Order members had signed a petition to have Dulin dismissed, but the priest rejected it every time. And what was more...

After Dulin started slacking off and giving up, he was promoted even faster than he had been when he was diligent and hardworking. He rose through the ranks until he became captain of the entire Knights Order.

Half an hour later.

After parking the vehicle, Dulin did what he usually did with reports about this kind of incident: he left them to Tamik. But this time, he wrote the report himself in the vehicle before opening the door and heading into The Church.

As a junior knight, Tamik wasn't qualified to deliver a report to the priest, so he parted ways with Dulin and prepared to drive home. By the time they finished dealing with the incident at the Haisha Bar, it was already six in the evening.

But—

Bang!

Just as the young knight moved into the driver's seat and was about to close the door, a large hand held it in place.

"Captain Dulin?"

"Remember, if that young man calls you, don't answer."

"B-but, Captain Dulin, I don't even know Mr. Liao Ji's number. How will I know it's him calling? Besides, as a member of the Knights Order, I think I should treat every call seriously and—"

"Fucking hell! Having a dumbass like you under me is the worst luck I've ever had!" Dulin's profanity cut Tamik off. The middle-aged captain was clearly furious.

After a few seconds of silence, Dulin spoke again, his voice serious.

"Then remember: after you answer that young man's call, no matter what he says, don't move. Call me immediately. Got that, you little brat?"

This time, Tamik answered quickly. "Understood, Captain Dulin!"

"Now get lost!"

"Yes, sir!"

Watching the younger man drive away, Dulin stood there as if lost in thought for a while. Then the captain finally stepped through the doors of The Church. On the way, he inevitably passed the chapel, but he didn't even glance at the conspicuous statue of the Saintess Stia in the center.

The church in the Black Cave Settlement was practically the size of a city church. It had a fully staffed Knights Order and over a hundred nuns, along with a library, a grand hall, a Confession Room, and an underground detention center specifically for housing various criminals and the Corrupted.

However, thanks to Black Cave's special status as a "settlement," the highest-ranking leader of the church was still, by regulation, a "priest."

The priest's office was on the top floor of The Church. When he reached the door bearing a silver-white cross, Dulin gave it a few perfunctory knocks, then prepared to toss the report into the bag hanging outside as he always did.

But this time—

He had barely knocked when a voice came from inside the room.

"Come in."

Dulin froze. Frowning, he glanced at his watch. The hands pointed to 6:30 p.m. In all the years he had "worked" with the priest, Dulin had never once seen him still in his office at that hour.

Once Dulin pushed open the door, the strange feeling only grew stronger.

The priest sat upright at his desk. An open file lay on the desktop. As Dulin approached, he caught a glimpse of it from the corner of his eye. It was an obsolete report that had been dealt with two weeks ago.

"There was a Corrupted rampage at the Haisha Bar in the Beirang district. The situation has been dealt with. The report contains the details."

"All right, I understand. Captain of the Knights Order Dulin, thanks for your hard work. It's getting late, so go home and rest."

The priest smiled and placed his clasped hands on top of the file.

Dulin didn't say much. He nodded and left the room. The whole visit had taken less than a minute.

After leaving The Church, Dulin lit a cigarette he'd taken from the vehicle and watched its tip slowly burn to ash.

The premonition in his heart grew stronger by the moment.

Something big was probably about to happen in the Black Cave Settlement.

The Church, the priest's office.

The priest, who had been sitting upright at his desk moments earlier, had now stood up. Looking thoroughly apprehensive, he kept his head lowered and only dared look from the corner of his eye at the other person in the room.

She was a nun.

A nun should, by rights, rank below a priest. But judging by their attitudes, the priest was clearly under immense pressure. He hardly dared breathe.

The reason was simple.

The other woman's habit wasn't ordinary. She was a battle nun, one of The Church's three armed forces, alongside the Knights Order and the Crusader Army visible to the public. The third force operated in secret.

The Light Bearers.

Every one of them was a powerful Corrupted secretly trained by The Church. They normally stayed in the detention center to counteract Corrupt Calamity contamination and maintain their sanity. They were only deployed in extremely rare, serious situations.

If the priest, Gelong, had a clear conscience, he might have been all right. Unfortunately, he had a guilty one—and a very big secret.

That was why Gelong was trembling like this, walking on eggshells.

Fortunately—

"Lady Maria, you said you came to Black Cave to... find someone?" Gelong asked the nun across from him tentatively.

"Yes."

The priest's heart eased. At least she hadn't come to investigate him. Gelong immediately played along. "Understood, Lady Maria. We'll do everything we can to help you. It's just..."

"Could you give us any information about the person you're looking for? Their name, identity, or appearance, for example?"

Nun Maria didn't answer. Instead, she looked at the report Dulin had just brought over.

The priest's heart, which had just begun to settle, leapt back into his throat.

He'd heard about the Corrupted rampage from other sources. That was exactly why Gelong was cursing Kalleva in his heart. Of all the times for the gang to cause trouble, why had it happened now?

"The most distinctive thing about the person I'm looking for is..."

"He likes to cause trouble wherever he goes."

Wh-what did she mean?

Gelong was stunned. He had never expected Maria to describe someone that way. It was nothing like something a cold Light Bearer would say. He could hardly believe his eyes: he thought he saw a hint of affection on the nun's face as she spoke.

While the priest was still at a loss, Maria appeared before him in the blink of an eye.

The sudden increase in pressure made it hard for Gelong to breathe. It was as if the oppression came from a higher level of existence.

Maria's expression returned to the emotionless look she'd had at first.

Her cold eyes fixed on the priest. Then she said, enunciating every word:

"Hand that report over to me."