Deliverance

When the old priest came looking for him, Lin Rui was sending messages home on his phone.

After falling out with the study-abroad agency, he had told his parents back in China that he would live independently in New York. Naturally, his parents were consumed with worry, afraid that their son would meet with disaster all alone abroad.

For nearly half a month, Lin Rui had sent messages constantly every day, describing his current circumstances in detail, before his parents felt a little more reassured.

In her messages, his mother chatted about trivial matters at home.

Things like, "Your second aunt had a falling-out with Grandma," "Your uncle's kid isn't getting good grades and plans to study art," and "Business at the shop has been all right lately. Don't be reluctant to spend money in New York. Don't make things too hard on yourself."

Holding his phone, Lin Rui knew his parents had already reached the end of the road, with mountains and rivers blocking every way forward. To send him abroad to study, his family had lived in severe financial hardship for many years afterward.

Quite a few relatives had also grown resentful because the Lin family still could not repay their loans and even wanted to borrow more-borrowing money really was the fastest way to destroy family ties and friendships.

"Mom, I've found a way to make money in New York. I'll be earning money soon. I should be able to pay back a good chunk of the debt next month."

Lin Rui was quite confident about this.

Everyone on the food truck team was desperately short of money. Apart from setting aside basic operating funds, they immediately divided up the rest of each day's earnings.

As the driving force behind the food truck business, Lin Rui received seven or eight hundred dollars a day. He decided to keep only the bare minimum for living expenses and send everything else to his parents through Western Union.

He wanted their relatives to see that the Lin family's son had made something of himself, earning good money less than a month after going abroad-not only would this ease his parents' financial pressure, it would also let them hold their heads high and bring them pride.

His parents did not particularly care whether their son could make money right away. They just kept reminding him, "Don't do anything illegal. Stay away from prostitution, gambling, and drugs. You're still young. Don't be too eager for quick success and easy gains."

After putting down his phone and persuading the old priest, who had hurried over to "admonish a lost lamb," to go to bed, Lin Rui lay down himself. At midnight, he entered the bone-chilling Nightmare Space...

The lantern sat on the table, with the longsword and leather armor within reach. This time, however, he heard no urgent knocking.

Carrying the lantern and taking his equipment, Lin Rui slowly pushed open the door and walked into the dilapidated church's main hall. There, he saw the old priest clutching his staff, slumped feebly before the sacred statue.

Seriously? The old man had been in pretty good shape before bed. How had he ended up like this? Had reading those little stories about Heavenly King Hong shaken his faith?

"Mr. Borg, what happened to you?" Lin Rui reached out to help the old priest up and discovered that his chest was covered in blood.

The old priest weakly raised his head and said in a thread of a voice, "Demon hunter, thank goodness you came.

"A few days ago, a powerful evil spirit wreaked havoc around the shelter. I tried to drive him away, but he grievously wounded me. The forces of darkness have grown stronger."

Lin Rui found this baffling. He vaguely realized that the real world and the Nightmare Space were connected.

Just as when he had delivered a homeless man beyond saving in the Nightmare Space, the corresponding homeless man in reality had also been released.

Now the reverse had happened. Something must have occurred in the real world to implicate the old priest in the Nightmare Space.

"A powerful evil spirit? What exactly did he look like?"

Lin Rui felt he needed to ask for details. After all, he had to enter the Nightmare Space every day. If there really was some monster he could not withstand, he had better flee sooner rather than later.

"The evil spirit was very dark and powerfully built. First, he caught me off guard and stole the lamp oil I used to light the streetlamps around the shelter. Later, still unsatisfied, he brought several fallen ones to rob us.

"What's even more frightening is that the shelter has been collecting less lamp oil lately, and its quality has declined. I fear this pure land amid the darkness may not be able to hold on."

As the old priest spoke, he spat out several mouthfuls of fresh blood.

Listening, Lin Rui suddenly understood-could that supposedly "very dark and powerfully built" evil spirit be Toby, who had "come to steal and rob"?

As for the dwindling quantity and declining quality of the "lamp oil," that was Lin Rui's own handiwork-he had taken all the donated relief supplies and sold them for money.

"Mr. Borg, don't worry, don't worry. These are just a few minor difficulties. They'll surely pass." Lin Rui hurriedly offered a few words of reassurance.

"I have some good news for you. While wandering through the darkness, I met a respectable lady who was also holding fast to the light.

"Her name is Sophia Kaman. She's a wizard who lives in a magic tower not far from you. After learning of your deeds, she was delighted and insisted that I act as an intermediary to get in touch with you."

Sure enough, the news lifted the old priest's spirits. A healthy flush immediately appeared on his haggard face, and the bloodstains on his chest vanished with it.

He caught Lin Rui's hand instead and asked joyfully, "Really? There really are others holding fast, just like me?"

As Lin Rui nodded, a notification sounded in his mind: "Demon hunter, the 'Same-City Vigil' quest is complete.

"You have established contact between two kind people who hold fast to the light, bolstering their morale. You have gained one attribute point."

Lin Rui once again added the point to "Constitution." The attribute description finally changed from "Rather unhealthy, poor cardiopulmonary function..." to "Generally healthy, cardiopulmonary function requires further improvement."

Encouraged, the old priest stood up, his voice once again ringing with strength. He said to Lin Rui, "The streetlamps around the shelter require maintenance every day. We cannot slack off in the slightest.

"Demon hunter, are you willing to join me on an armed patrol?"

Was there a quest and a reward?

Lin Rui waited for ages and found that the "armed patrol" quest was probably a one-time affair that could not be accepted endlessly. Not wanting to make the old priest lose face, he went along anyway.

The darkness outside the shelter had indeed grown thicker. The mutated fallen ones had become even more terrifying, gathering around the shelter and letting out disturbing, bizarre cries.

Lin Rui drew his longsword and moved close to the old priest. "Mr. Borg, could you enchant it for me again?"

The old priest pointed his staff, and flames enveloped the longsword, also increasing Lin Rui's "Strength," "Constitution," and "Agility" by two points each and greatly boosting his combat power.

Recently, quite a few highly dangerous homeless men had appeared near the little church.

To scrape together some money for drugs, those muddleheaded men had gone so far as to rob passersby at knifepoint in broad daylight and break into homes at night.

Even the old priest himself had complained in private that he had been robbed three times in two days. Fortunately, handing over twenty dollars was enough, and he had been unharmed.

The police left these homeless men unchecked, and the neighborhood's residents had grown numb to the situation.

But Lin Rui planned to take the initiative and solve this problem. After all, he lived in the little church too, and did not want to have the bad luck of getting stabbed on the street someday.

The lantern's light drove back the darkness and illuminated the fallen ones' faces, revealing those with the most severe mutations.

Some fallen ones, for instance, resembled skeletons and stood in bizarre postures, folded at the waist. This was a typical sign of homeless people whose brains had been ruined by drugs; they were utterly beyond saving.

"I'm sorry. Although I don't know what happened to bring you to this point, being in this state is painful for both you and others."

Lin Rui bowed slightly to a fallen one, then swung his flaming longsword. Its sharp gleam struck the vital area of the fallen one's head and neck.

"Be free. You no longer have to suffer the hardships of this world."

The moment the longsword swung out, the old priest glanced back at Lin Rui and the fallen one collapsing to the ground. He said nothing, only letting out a long sigh.

Those fallen ones had once been innocent children; vibrant youths; loving parents; confident, fearless pillars of society.

Cutting them down with a sword was truly a heartless thing to do. Yet their lives held nothing but endless suffering, and they would also nourish the true evil spirits.

Some things had to be done by demon hunters; some responsibilities, too, could only be shouldered by demon hunters.

When Lin Rui had freed all of the most severely mutated fallen ones, the darkness around the shelter receded a little, and the lamplight shone a little brighter.