"Let him go!"
Joey's eyes burned with fury. He was about to strike, only to discover that he could not move. Wayne wore a mocking smirk.
As expected, he was powerless against someone of a higher Sequence. Fear, dread, and anxiety flooded through him all at once.
After his initial panic, Joey forced himself to calm down. Instead of attacking immediately, the man had approached him under the guise of the Survey Corps.
That meant he had another objective. If he wanted something, there was still room to negotiate.
Joey looked at him solemnly, then spoke in a calm voice. At a time like this, he could not afford to give anything away.
"What do you want? I think we can talk this through."
"Good. You know what's best for you." Wayne casually released his grip on Tony's throat and nodded approvingly.
"Mr. Wayne, you must know I have no chance of escaping you." Joey looked him straight in the eyes, making a show of his weakness.
Once he found he could move again, he quickly checked Tony's injuries. Only after confirming that they were not serious did he breathe a sigh of relief and turn to Wayne with a bitter smile.
"I'm a nobody. I can't imagine what would bring a Sequence 8 Transcendent to my door."
Wayne smiled without answering. His gaze wandered around the little house before he drawled leisurely:
"Actually, you should thank Katrin. She's the reason we found you."
Joey's face remained expressionless, showing neither joy nor sorrow, but inwardly, he seethed with hatred.
I never should have saved her!
"All right, Mr. Keliwei. Now tell me where Keen is."
Sure enough, not everyone was as busty and brainless as Katrin. Countless ideas flashed through Joey's mind.
In the end, he rejected them one by one. The man before him was no government official. These people had no scruples. If he failed to give the man the answer he wanted, the consequences would probably be dire.
Keen was only a Sequence 9 Barrier Master. Was he really that important to their organization?
No. Maybe what mattered wasn't Keen, but the sacrificial offering-the Agate Bug King.
The entire Carson Mine had collapsed. These people had no way of knowing what had happened inside, much less whether Keen was alive or dead. They probably assumed he had escaped.
As one of only two survivors of the incident, Joey might never have been found if Katrin had not sold him out. Even if they could track him down, who knew how long it would have taken? In short, Katrin deserved to die.
I can't tell him what really happened to Keen!
At that thought, Joey suddenly clenched his right fist, placed it against the left side of his chest, and bent at the waist in a ninety-degree bow.
"May glory shine upon the earth. May sorrow vanish from the world. Our Lord Amen."
"You're a member of our faith?" Wayne looked at Joey in surprise.
"Yes. Otherwise, how could an ordinary man like me have escaped His Excellency Keen?"
Joey thought his act was flawless.
To his surprise, Wayne merely sneered mockingly.
"A splendid performance."
Without hesitation, Joey swore to the words of the prayer, then answered earnestly, "Your Excellency Wayne, I'm not lying."
To further prove his loyalty, Joey recounted almost every detail of Keen's sacrifice. He concealed the unexpected events that followed, saying only that something seemed to have gone wrong with Keen's body after the ritual was completed.
In Joey's telling, he had been on Keen's side all along. He even embellished the story a little.
For example, Keen had spared Katrin so Joey could pose as her rescuer and win her trust.
Wayne listened quietly to the end, pursed his lips in a faint smile, and spoke slowly:
"None of that matters."
As he spoke, he clapped his hands, stood up, and took a glass bottle from inside his coat. It contained a spider with a scarlet body.
"What matters is that I have to answer to my superiors. This little darling is called a Nightmare Spider. It can extract the memories from your mind-the genuine ones."
He laughed sinisterly, his expression strange, as though he were suppressing some kind of madness.
"Mr. Keliwei, our Lord will protect you. Don't resist, and don't make things difficult for me. Understood?"
"Do I have a choice?" Joey asked.
I'd choose to kill your whole family, you damned curly-haired baboon.
This really isn't my day, is it?
Wait. Alisa-what is she doing?
Through his daze, he caught sight of Alisa furtively hiding behind a cabinet, a kitchen knife in her hand. She seemed to be preparing a sneak attack.
Come on, woman! What are you doing? Ambushing a Transcendent? You've got to be kidding!
Honestly, Joey had considered the same thing earlier. But once the man's inexplicable power had immobilized him, he had known he was probably done for.
Now, all he could hope was that at least one of them would escape.
Without hesitation, he nodded and said earnestly:
"All right. Go ahead."
Extract my memories? Keep dreaming.
Joey had already thought of a way to deal with it: the unspeakable name of a True God, the Unseeable God.
If you want my memories, I'll let you see your fill.
Wayne nodded and patted Joey's shoulder approvingly, then moved to place the spider on his head.
"Ah!"
The spider was small but hideous, its head covered in countless crimson eyeballs.
Joey stumbled back several steps and happened to crash into a nearby cupboard. It tipped backward, conveniently hiding Alisa behind it.
He deliberately screamed loudly to drown out any noise Alisa made.
Wayne seemed to enjoy seeing people frightened and roared with laughter beside him.
Taking advantage of that moment, Joey whispered, "Alisa, stay hidden."
"Phew!" Joey clutched his chest and smiled awkwardly. "Sorry, Your Excellency Wayne. I've been afraid of spiders since I was a child."
As though he had discovered a delightful new toy, Wayne strolled up to Joey and waved the spider in front of his face.
"Such a cute little thing, isn't it?"
"Yes, sir!" Joey replied woodenly.
Once the spider was placed on his head, the pain he had imagined never came. Instead, he felt a soothing coolness.
Gradually, his awareness grew hazy and his eyelids grew heavier. Slowly, Joey realized that his consciousness had left his body.
When he came to his senses, he stood amid endless darkness. Above him loomed an enormous spider, its eight legs like eight towering pillars.
It opened its mouth, revealing countless fangs. The innumerable eyeballs on its head swiveled, then all turned to stare at Joey.
Standing before the spider, he was like a tiny ant that could be blown apart with a single breath.
Countless strands of silk wrapped him into a tightly bound bundle. Needle-sharp pain struck him, and he felt as though something was being drawn out of his mind.
"You want to extract my memories, do you?"
"Then I'll let you see your fill!"
Joey stopped resisting and opened his mind completely. At once, the roar of surging waves thundered out, followed immediately by countless frenzied whispers.
In mere moments, the giant spider that had been so overbearing froze in place. Then its entire body began to tremble.
With his goal achieved, Joey quickly severed his connection to the gray fog.
The silk binding his consciousness slowly loosened. Now the giant spider stood motionless like an obedient kitten.
Joey was pleased with the result. After a moment's thought, he began fabricating a memory and sent it over.
His consciousness returned to reality, and he wore a bewildered expression.
Smiling, Wayne removed the spider and put it back into the glass bottle.
Just as Joey breathed a deep sigh of relief, a gunshot suddenly rang out.
Wayne's sinister voice followed. "Good night, Mr. Keliwei!"