Chapter 243. Variable
Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.
As Ryu Min stepped out of the arrivals area, a woman of unparalleled beauty came into view.
It was Christine.
She waved enthusiastically, then greeted him with a bright smile.
“Ryu Min. Welcome to our country. Did you have any trouble on your way here?”
“I came comfortably in first class.”
“Well, I guess that makes sense since you became a billionaire by selling stocks……. Ah, please don’t misunderstand. I’m absolutely not being sarcastic.”
That Ma Kyung-rok’s company had collapsed was something she, as his fiancée, naturally knew.
In the process, Ryu Min had sold off all the stock he held, but that didn’t mean Christine viewed the Prophet negatively.
Because he wasn’t a normal fiancé—he was a fiancé who had tried to kill her.
“Shall we go before the mood gets gloomy? I found a good restaurant. How about foie gras?”
“Goose liver is a bit…….”
“Haha, I’m kidding!”
After finishing a meal at a nearby steakhouse, the place Christine led him to was a cocktail bar.
“How is it here? It’s spacious, and pretty nice, right?”
“Yes. It’s a little loud, but that actually makes it easier to talk.”
There were a lot of people, and the music was loud too.
It was loud enough to drown out their voices, but maybe because of that, it was good for having secretive conversations.
The only inconvenience was that they had to lean their faces close to each other to talk.
“Do you want a cocktail? Or beer?”
“Let’s go with a cocktail.”
After choosing from the menu and ordering, the bartender brought their drinks.
“Do you drink often?”
“No. I quit. That doesn’t mean I won’t drink at all, though.”
“You talk like someone who’s had quite a bit.”
‘Try regressing ninety-nine times. See if you stay sane.’
When people died, and he even lost his only family—his younger brother—he had suffered mentally.
He had lived with alcohol in his hand, but each time he regressed, he was able to break free from the addiction.
Now, he had quit completely.
“I never thought I’d be drinking like this with Prophet-nim.”
“Neither did I.”
“I guess you can’t see something like this in the future?”
“It’s not that I can’t see it—it just didn’t appear. The future shows itself however it wants.”
“Th-then maybe…….”
‘Huh? Is she already drunk?’
With a flushed face, Christine hesitated and fumbled, then worked up her courage.
“D-didn’t you see what my relationship with Black Scythe-nim would become?”
“Relationship?”
“I-I mean…… something specific, like whether the two of us become closer in the future…….”
‘So this was the goal.’
He had wondered why she insisted on bringing him to a cocktail bar when they could’ve talked in a quiet church hall…….
‘She wanted to ask this. Because it’s hard to ask when you’re sober.’
Maybe she’d borrowed the 힘 of alcohol to gain courage, but Ryu Min had no answer to give her.
Because he truly didn’t know what the future would be.
“I don’t know that either. I can’t see that far into the future.”
“But before Round 7, you saw a future where Black Scythe-nim would save me. That was the future of Round 11…….”
“If it’s a future four months away, it can show up sometimes. But like I said, what I see is completely arbitrary.”
“So you couldn’t see what happens to us?”
“Yes. And even if I did see it, I couldn’t tell you. The moment I say it, the future might change.”
Christine, looking disappointed, took a sip of her cocktail.
‘What was she expecting?’
Ryu Min clicked his tongue inwardly at the sight, but he couldn’t show any displeasure.
Because this Round, she had to play an important role.
“Anyway, I’ll tell you about Round 15.”
“Yes…….”
As he explained the Round 15 quest and strategy, Ryu Min emphasized it.
There was no Round more important than this one.
“There will be countless deaths. It’s a Round where surviving is as hard as a camel fitting through the eye of a needle.”
“Then what do we do?”
“First, take this.”
Ryu Min pulled a potion bottle out of his inventory.
[Highest-Grade Invisibility Potion]
-Category: Consumable
-Grade: Unique
-Effect: Invisibility for 30 minutes
-Use Restriction: Expert grade or higher
-Description: You can conceal your form. However, it automatically ends if you attack or are attacked.
Christine murmured as she read the details.
“An invisibility potion?”
“Use it the moment the first mission starts. Then you’ll be able to clear it easily without getting hurt.”
“You’re even giving me something like this…… thank you.”
“For the second mission, you can clear it the way I explained earlier. But in the third mission, Christine—your role is important. You have to cast wide-area heal so there are as few deaths as possible.”
“Can we really save people with that alone?”
“It’s enough. You can maintain it for thirty minutes, right?”
“If I just focus mentally, I can maintain wide-area heal as long as I want. The problem is…… wide-area heal doesn’t work on me.”
Christine’s expression turned worried.
“What do we do? If the pain is that severe, I feel like I’ll break first and die before I can save anyone…….”
“Don’t worry about that part. Black Scythe will protect you.”
“Black Scythe-nim?”
The eyes that had been gloomy just moments ago sparkled like a child’s.
“He’ll protect me?”
“Yes. I already told him the strategy—and that Christine absolutely must be protected. So he will protect you, no matter what.”
“Ahh, you told him.”
It bothered her that he wasn’t protecting her of his own accord, but Christine’s face still brightened.
Either way, being helped by Black Scythe was something that made her feel good.
“Drink as much as you want! I’ll pay for the alcohol.”
Even a Player who can break walls with bare hands is still human in the end.
Meaning, if you drink like crazy, you’ll get drunk—completely drunk.
Christine, here, was exactly like that.
“How did you end up drinking this much…….”
Ryu Min muttered as he carried Christine on his back.
Cocktails are still alcohol.
If you keep downing them because they taste good, you’re bound to crash like this.
“I should’ve known the moment you started drinking high-proof cocktails…… haaa.”
He sighed openly, but Christine, slumped on his back, slept like she didn’t know the world.
‘I should at least get her back to the church hall. It feels wrong to wake her.’
It was about a twenty-minute walk to the church hall.
It wasn’t far, so she must’ve felt safe enough to drink.
But maybe she felt too safe.
“Wheee— Hey, Chinese guy.”
And it even drew trash like this.
“Stop while I’m asking nicely.”
Ryu Min stopped walking.
Three men strolled up from behind him, relaxed and full of confidence.
They were white punks who had been tailing them the whole time from the bar.
‘I can’t let those assholes follow us all the way to the church hall.’
That was why Ryu Min stopped without resisting.
They thought he’d stopped because he was scared, of course.
“Looks like the bastard understands some English, huh?”
“But he’s Chinese, right? Or is he Japanese?”
“Who cares? As long as there’s a woman.”
“Hey, Asian monkey. Not bad. Where’d you pick up a woman like that?”
“Looks like you’re hunting for a motel late at night. Want us to help you out?”
The punks smirked, and they didn’t even bother trying to surround him.
They just pulled guns from their pockets.
“If you don’t want holes in your lungs, put the woman down and disappear quietly.”
“We’ll take good care of her, then send her home safe, so don’t worry.”
Judging by the way they pointed guns, they were ordinary civilians.
‘Yeah. If they were Players, they wouldn’t be carrying guns around.’
Even after hearing the threat, Ryu Min had no intention of putting her down.
He simply turned his head slightly toward his back and read Christine’s thoughts.
‘If I can’t read any thoughts, she’s totally knocked out.’
Good.
Because it would be troublesome if Christine learned what was about to happen.
“Why isn’t this bastard answering?”
“We told him to stop and he stopped, so I thought he understood English—guess not?”
“Hey, wait. That guy looks pretty young, doesn’t he? What if he’s a Player?”
“So what if he is? You think those bastards’ bodies are made of steel?”
“No human can beat a gun anyway.”
The men couldn’t help but feel confident.
There were three of them aiming guns, and because of the woman on his back, he couldn’t even use his hands.
Of course, that was only the delusion of civilians who had never truly faced a Player.
“You should consider yourselves lucky.”
“What?”
“Dying without pain is a lucky thing.”
“What kind of bullsh—”
Before the words even finished leaving his mouth, the three men’s heads dropped to the ground.
Thump— thump— thump—
Daggers of darkness flew out almost simultaneously and severed the punks’ necks.
He deliberately aimed for the necks so there wouldn’t be gunshots that might wake Christine.
Flop— flop— flop—
Before the blood flowing from their fallen bodies could even form a puddle, he erased the murder scene with Trace Erasure.
‘Good—she didn’t wake up.’
After confirming that Christine’s thoughts were still unreadable, Ryu Min relaxed and started walking again.
On the quiet nighttime street, the scent of blood riding the wind tickled Christine’s nose.
After laying Christine down in the sanctuary, Ryu Min walked out of the church hall and made a call.
“Recruit the Church of Despair believers immediately. I’m going to check whether there’s a variable.”
-But if we recruit them, what do we tell them?
“What you tell them is…….”
Ryu Min explained in detail, down to the exact words John needed to say in front of the believers.
-I will do as you command.
After that, Ryu Min spread his wings and flew toward Florida, the Church of Despair’s secret meeting place.
A distance of over 1,500 kilometers.
‘Running will be faster than flying.’
He folded his wings and stepped on empty air.
Using Thanatos’s Boots, which allowed him to walk on darkness, he ran as if it were ground.
BOOOOM—!
As he ran at full speed, a sonic boom erupted like a fighter jet blasting past.
It was impossible not to be a nuisance in the dead of night, but in exchange, he arrived in Florida in less than thirty minutes.
‘They’re gathering, right on time.’
Seeing people entering a warehouse, Ryu Min descended into an alley and put on Hermes’ Feathered Helm.
‘Invisibility.’
His appearance and presence vanished completely.
Thanks to the Rune of Stealth, he wouldn’t be caught even by presence detection, making it perfect for surveillance.
When he slipped through the open warehouse door, he saw the gathered Church of Despair believers.
‘Twenty-two including John Delgado. Looks like everyone’s here.’
As instructed in advance, John was speaking to the believers, delivering his view.
“The Reaper Church has come even into another country and is intercepting Players. This is a clear overreach. Starting today, we designate the Reaper Church as our enemy, and we will target Black Scythe, the spiritual pillar behind them. However, since we currently have no concrete operation, do not pose any threat whatsoever until Round 15 ends.”
“Wait, Cult Leader.”
The cardinal, Berber, immediately raised an objection.
“No operation? Didn’t I say at the executive meeting that we should kidnap the Saintess?”
“That operation will be put on hold. It’s too dangerous.”
“Too dangerous? There isn’t a better method than this to suppress Black Scythe.”
“Do you think Black Scythe is an idiot who wouldn’t realize that? The Saintess probably has hundreds of guards around her. With our twenty-two, we’re not enough.”
“Then what are we supposed to do?”
“It’s more realistic to wait until Round 15 ends and then target them. By then, the Reaper Church’s numbers will be cut down to less than half.”
“No, but we’ll lose numbers too, so what—”
“Have you forgotten who the final decision-maker is? This is already decided, so don’t argue.”
“…….”
While John Delgado gave his speech, Ryu Min pierced through the believers’ inner thoughts one by one.
‘Most of them are loyal to John. Loyal enough to die if he tells them to. But…….’
One of them harbored hostility toward the cult leader.
None other than Berber.
-F*cking bastard. I stroked his ego a little from the side, and now he thinks he’s the real cult leader or something? Because of that bastard, the Church of Despair might collapse. I should kill that bastard and take the next cult leader position myself. That’s the fastest way to save the Church of Despair.
Watching Berber harbor betrayal, invisible Ryu Min pulled one corner of his mouth up in a slow grin.
‘Found it. The variable.’