Chapter 353

I washed up, cleaning off the grime from the fight, and changed into comfortable clothes. I was roughly towel-drying my wet hair and had just stepped out of the bathroom.

“Damn, you scared me.”

A shadow suddenly surged up behind my back. Even though I knew it was Cha Sahyeon’s skill, it had the kind of effect that could rival a horror movie, and my body trembled on reflex.

“Are you okay, hyung?”

Cha Sahyeon, who’d widened his eyes even more than I had, hurriedly pulled the shadow back. Feeling awkward for no reason, I shook my head and asked,

“You’re later than I thought.”

“Yeah.”

Cha Sahyeon looked around the room. After confirming I was alone, he narrowed his eyes.

“Where’s that guy?”

“Guildmaster? He went to rest too. I told him I was going to shower and sent him out.”

“He was supposed to stay and guard you, hyung.”

A snort slipped out at the way Cha Sahyeon openly showed his dissatisfaction.

“Waiting outside the door ‘to guard me’ while I’m showering is way creepier, okay? I sent him out because I was uncomfortable. Anyway, nothing happened.”

I couldn’t say it outright, so I subtly defended Kwon Taehyuk while pretending I wasn’t. Cha Sahyeon puffed out his lips, then nodded.

‘Thank God.’

When he accepted it without a fuss, a sigh of relief escaped me on its own.

In this whole Spiderweb incident, the fact that Cha Sahyeon’s seed progress number had gone up was, in a way, the biggest problem.

With no other way to hold the seed progress back right now, I had to do everything I could to keep it from rising any further. To do that, I needed to cut off any possible triggers in advance.

‘If this guy finds out I kissed Kwon Taehyuk...’

Wow. Cold sweat poured down just from imagining it.

‘It’s scary as hell and horrible.’

And it wasn’t even something I could excuse as “for a buff.” It was, truly, “pure skinship.” Even I still didn’t feel like it was real, so if Cha Sahyeon ever found out...

‘That could be the Catastrophe descending on the spot.’

Right now, Cha Sahyeon’s disaster percentage was 70%. That meant there was only 30% left.

Honestly, if I got more realistic about it, even 90% was insanely dangerous.

At the point where there was only 10% left until the Catastrophe awakened, I had no way of knowing how strong Cha Sahyeon would be, whether his mind would still be intact, nothing.

‘And the synchronization part worries me too.’

Based on Cha Sahyeon’s explanation, it seemed connected to his memories, but it was staying at an even higher value than the seed percentage, which made me uneasy.

‘The more forgotten memories he recovers, will it really benefit us? Maybe the “Cha Sahyeon” I know will disappear.’

I slowly turned to look at Cha Sahyeon. A man blinking at me with a gentle expression as he watched me.

A body that had grown bigger after swallowing the energy that flowed out of Eun Woojeong’s ring. His face had looked like he’d just barely become an adult, but now he looked like he was in his mid-twenties.

‘The higher the seed percentage gets, the more his appearance will keep changing. And then, in the end...’

The Catastrophe’s appearance from my previous life flashed through my mind.

A sky dyed bright red by the setting sun. And in the middle of it, standing there with long hair whipping in the wind...

‘No. Stop.’

Forcibly cutting off the thought, I asked Cha Sahyeon,

“So? Did you find J’s location?”

Cha Sahyeon shook his head with a hardened expression.

“I couldn’t find him. I think I need more time. If not...”

Cha Sahyeon blinked once, then continued.

“It’s kind of risky, but... we could search the places I suspect.”

“Places you suspect?”

“There are a few places my shadow skill can’t find. That ring the white-haired guy used. Places with items installed that have an effect similar to that.”

A bad feeling crept over me. I spoke in a slightly lowered voice.

“Places those cult fuckers made?”

“Yeah. Places where they do important research, or... places where someone lives whose movements have to be hidden completely.”

I sucked in a short breath.

Someone whose movements had to be hidden. Among those cult bastards, if there was someone getting treated that carefully, there was only one.

‘The Cult Leader.’

That disgusting bastard who toyed with people using mental-type skills.

“Did J get dragged to one of those places?”

“He probably got dragged to a research facility. It’s not a good situation.”

Cha Sahyeon briefly checked my expression, then continued explaining.

“There’s nothing left to research on me and J anymore. Even so, if he got dragged there... it means there’s another purpose besides research. Punishment, or the Cult Leader called for him.”

“...They wouldn’t just grab him out of nowhere and punish him. That means something got exposed.”

“That’s likely. He would never go there for a trivial reason.”

I clicked my tongue.

Seeing that Cha Sahyeon couldn’t find him right away, I’d braced myself to some degree, but hearing it out loud made it feel even more dangerous and complicated than I’d expected.

‘But it’s worth aiming for.’

I didn’t know if J was alive, but if they went to the trouble of dragging him into a place like that, they wouldn’t kill him easily.

Places those cult bastards had kept tightly hidden while carrying out important research. The possibility of even running into the Cult Leader.

If we found it and flipped it upside down, what we could gain would be enormous.

After finishing the calculation, I asked immediately.

“Where is it? How many places are there?”

“That’s the problem.”

Cha Sahyeon spoke with a rarely seen apologetic expression.

“My memory isn’t complete, so there’s only one place where I remember the exact location. For the rest, I only have fragmentary information.”

“Even that information is fine. If I ask the Guildmaster, he’ll find a way to track it down. And Hyun Dowoon is good too, so he’ll figure it out fast... ah.”

As I answered, I groaned and pressed my forehead.

Right. I have to find that bastard Hyun Dowoon.

Maybe he’d had the same thought, because Cha Sahyeon nodded and continued.

“I was going to tell you anyway. You told me to find that human named Hyun Dowoon too. I found him.”

“What? Where?”

“But the situation is weird.”

I blinked in confusion, then at the next words, I opened my mouth in disbelief.

“The location is the Circle Guildmaster’s Office. There’s an unidentified rift open in there. It looks like a few people, including the human named Hyun Dowoon you’re looking for, got sucked into the rift. So if we want to find them, we’ll probably have to go there and enter the rift ourselves.”

What the hell is this?

So much information I’d never even imagined hit me at once, and my head went blank for a moment.

I stared at Cha Sahyeon dumbly, then finally snapped back to my senses and stammered out a question.

“...A rift in the middle of an office? Wait. That unidentified rift—same as the one we dealt with? That’s something those cult fuckers made.”

“Yeah. This time it formed in Circle Guild. It was probably intentional. I don’t know why, though.”

Even Cha Sahyeon seemed like he didn’t know why the rift’s location was specifically the Circle Guildmaster’s Office.

“Man....”

A long, hollow breath spilled out.

I pressed my throbbing forehead. For now, one thing was certain.

‘There’s no time to rest. This is insane.’

I immediately pulled out my phone and summoned the other S-ranks who were resting.

***

In less than ten minutes, the S-ranks gathered in my room. I organized what I’d heard from Cha Sahyeon and relayed it to them.

“Is that really true?”

Kwon Taehyuk had a reaction similar to mine.

“Man, our Dowoon hyung. His luck really is garbage. He’s not already dead, is he?”

Kwon Seoyul lazily muttered while crunching on a lollipop from who-knew-where.

The most intense reaction was, of course, from Yoon Jeha.

“That kid... right now...”

Muttering with a face drained white, Yoon Jeha’s red eyes soon flared coldly.

“That place—there’s really no way to go there right away? Tell me even the information you remember. I’ll find it somehow and...”

“Realistically, even if you handed over all the information, wouldn’t it be difficult to identify the location perfectly within a few days? Do you happen to know any specialist hunters related to that side?”

At my question, Yoon Jeha couldn’t answer and just bit her lip.

I knew it. Letting out a short sigh, I spoke.

“Calm down. I get that you’re desperate, and I want to save J no matter what too. If they dragged him that far, they won’t kill him easily. That means we should prepare properly before we go in.”

Yoon Jeha, chewing down on her lip with an anxious expression, spoke to me in a slightly sharp voice.

“So? What are you trying to say? If you want to know those places, this time you’re telling me to go save that Hyun Dowoon or whatever too?”

“No.”

I answered firmly, then signaled to Cha Sahyeon with my eyes. Cha Sahyeon tossed Yoon Jeha the note he’d prepared in advance.

“My younger brother said he only remembers one place exactly, right? That’s the address. Yoon Jeha, go confirm that location.”

“...!”

“And I’m warning you in advance. Even if it’s the right place, do not enter alone. Send us a message. We’ll head there the moment the rift shows up.”

I turned my gaze away from Yoon Jeha and spoke to Kwon Taehyuk and Kwon Seoyul.

“We’re going to Circle Guild. We’ll enter the rift and rescue the people who got sucked in as fast as possible. After that, we’ll put the information together and find the other places.”