[Both none.]

A halfhearted text came from Gyeongjin, Night Rats’ slave number 2, the team leader overseeing all of Night Rats’ information. It was the weekly report Sa-yoon had requested starting last month after failing to find the disposition holders alone for a month.

It definitely wasn’t this short at first, but with no progress for 8 weeks, Gyeongjin’s reports became increasingly perfunctory. Next week, he seemed ready to just send a single ‘X.’

“Where did this damn system bury the disposition holders?”

Sa-yoon muttered after receiving another shoddy report. Three months had passed since awakening Eyes of Catastrophe, but all he gained from using the skill until fainting was that the number of guild members had slightly increased.

Except for luring all the ones worth using after checking their status window and bringing them to Night Rats, there was not a single comforting point.

Time was spent and pain was endured.

“This is driving me crazy.”

Thinking about it made his anger surge again. Feeling his body heat up, Sa-yoon placed the ice pack beside him on his eye. It was a small service for his overworked eyes without a single day of rest.

My ass about feeling slight pain when using the skill. Pain that couldn’t possibly be considered slight pierced his eyes, and if he used Eyes of Catastrophe skill beyond a certain number of times, blood finally flowed from his eyes. Abusing his eyes like that every day, even his vision had deteriorated.

Still, being S-rank, his eyesight was better than average people, but he couldn’t deny that it had taken a hit.

“Are these things really not in Korea?”

Just a few months ago, he had been singing about cuties, but in a mere three months, their nickname changed to ‘these things.’

Seeing them not show up despite searching this much, Sa-yoon grew anxious thinking they might really not be in Korea and jumped up from his seat.

Still, if the system guys had a conscience, they should have made them Korean. Otherwise, they weren’t gods but just thugs, Satan, devils.

They seemed to be such entities though.

Somehow, the more he cursed, the more credible it became. Feeling an ominous premonition, Sa-yoon, his heart urgent, grabbed the sunglasses tossed on the sofa and hastily called Jongsik.

Now was not the time to leisurely lie down.

“Boss! You called at the perfect time. It’s almost time for kindergarten volunteer work…”

“Right now, those brats aren’t important, Jongsik.”

He was burning with urgency, but the tactless Jongsik proposed volunteer work. He was in no mood to lower his infamy by volunteering and playing with kids.

He had to find either I Alone Am High or One Who Defies the Flow as soon as possible. With no progress in the search for three months, he had unknowingly slacked a bit in finding the disposition holders, but realizing those he sought might not be in Korea, a fire lit under his feet.

Before this fire burned him to death, Sa-yoon, determined to find one of the two cuties, pushed Jongsik’s back and urged him to drive.

Jongsik, pushed out without knowing why, clumsily got in the car. Sa-yoon, sitting in the back seat, called out Incheon Awakened Registration Center as the destination. From Gyeonggi-do to Seoul, he had searched everywhere and now it was Incheon.

He threatened the system, hoping he wouldn’t have to go all the way to Jeju Island. Yet in his mind, he thought, what if the disposition holder in Incheon until yesterday had gone up to Seoul in the meantime?

The car rolled amidst anxiety and impatience, and as soon as they arrived at the Incheon Awakened Registration Center, Sa-yoon got out of the car and stepped on the ground. Opening the door and getting out before the car had fully stopped, Jongsik screamed like a cry, “Boss!”

“I told you not to do that, not to do that!”

“Stop nagging and go park, Jongsik.”

Sending the one yapping painfully to the parking lot, Sa-yoon flipped the hood attached to his hoodie over his head. In that state, shoving his hands in his pockets, Sa-yoon sat on a bench in front of the center entrance and scanned the people coming and going.

He inhaled and used Eyes of Catastrophe skill. The sharp pain pierced his eyes, familiar yet still intense.

“Do you have to find that guy? You seem to be overdoing it. Don’t be hasty and just live as you have…”

“Jongsik-ah.”

“…I’m sorry.”

Live as he had until now?

What a ridiculous thing to say.

How could a life barely lived be described as living?

When Sa-yoon lightly pointed it out, Jongsik, who had watched Sa-yoon’s life most closely, readily apologized. He also seemed to be aware of his slip of the tongue, so Sa-yoon didn’t rebuke him further.

It’s not that he didn’t understand Jongsik’s heart.

Of course it would be worrying to see the person you serve coughing up blood and collapsing every day.

Still, in the world, there are things you can concede and things you can never back down from no matter what, so Sa-yoon persisted and stood his ground. Every time he rolled his eyes, a throbbing pain accompanied it.

After about 30 minutes, dizziness surged.

After an hour, blood flowed from his eyes, but he had worn black sunglasses and a mask expecting it, so it wasn’t noticeable. Previously, he had come without a mask and when people saw the blood flowing, they screamed, causing quite a predicament.

After two hours, blood pooled enough to soak the inside of the mask. Sa-yoon, who had opened his mouth once and ended up drinking that blood, frowned.

“Boss…”

Jongsik, noticing Sa-yoon’s fingertips trembling, let out a worried voice. Sa-yoon, squeezing his eyes shut for a long time then opening them, inhaled deeply.

Enduring 30 more minutes, his condition was no longer fit to sit upright, his upper body swaying. Jongsik, who had been standing at a distance, noticed Sa-yoon’s state, ran over, and supported his body.

The inside of his eyes felt hot as if someone had lit a fire. There was a time he thought it was a pain he could never adapt to, but after experiencing it hundreds of times, it became somewhat bearable.

Just one more.

Just one more.

The determination to catch him this time pushed Sa-yoon to his limit.

The feeling that he might find him this time also played a part in that overexertion.

It was a flimsy feeling, pathetic like the premonition of success at a gambling table, but Sa-yoon couldn’t miss even that small ‘maybe.’

If there happened to be a disposition holder here and he missed them. If that holder even went abroad, the difficulty of finding them would be extreme.

Chanting ‘just one more’ like a mantra, he leaned on Jongsik and struggled to hold onto his hazy consciousness. For a moment, his eyes rolled back then returned to the front.

“Tsk.”

Even as an S-rank, it seemed he couldn’t endure bleeding for over two hours. Thinking his body was hopelessly weak, Sa-yoon clenched his fist. Jongsik said it looked painful even to him and told Sa-yoon to dig his nails into Jongsik’s arm instead, but he couldn’t do that.

He had to disperse the pain even a little to stay conscious.

Just one more for the last time.

Sa-yoon knew well it was overexertion. Having fainted more than once or twice, he could sense he would lose consciousness at the next attempt, so he gritted his teeth and scanned the people with eyes hidden behind sunglasses.

The person he had the strongest feeling about.

He had to catch that guy.

Until now, he had used the skill on every person he saw, but since it was the last time, he carefully made his choice. He passed over a pot-bellied man and a woman who had been glancing this way. He also passed the passersby whispering and sneaking glances, finding it strange that he and Jongsik were sticking together.

No, to be precise, he tried to pass them.

If only he hadn’t seen that one man who turned his body at the exact timing Sa-yoon turned his head.

He seemed suspicious.

Sa-yoon used the skill on the man who moved as if startled by Sa-yoon’s action of looking at him then turning away, avoiding his gaze.

With a ding, an unbearably familiar blue window popped up. Checking the window with a prudent face, Sa-yoon examined the disposition section first, and his eyes widened.

“That guy…!”

Cough.

With a momentary excitement, he jumped up from his seat and vomited blood. Sa-yoon, forcefully straightening his collapsing body, grabbed Jongsik’s arm.

“Boss!”

Jongsik fretted anxiously, confirming Sa-yoon’s condition was unusual.

Sa-yoon, letting out a groan, bit his lip hard to maintain consciousness.

His vision was blurry. His eyes rolled back on their own, then turned left, so he even bit his tongue to control them. Sa-yoon gazed at the man he discovered with a chilling look and opened his mouth with difficulty.

“K-, …Jongsik.”

“Boss! Are you alright? As expected, let’s stop…”

“…That ba-, Cough! That bastard…”

“Yes?”

“…Bring that bastard.”

Know that you won’t eat if you let him go.

Pointing at his counterpart with a trembling fingertip, Sa-yoon rolled his eyes back at those words. His body, shaking like an aspen tree, collapsed limply.

As his body fell downward, the blood pooled under the mask dripped. Right then, a passerby walking by Sa-yoon saw the scene and screamed.

“Kyaaaaaah!”

A sharp scream that could slap the cheeks of a supporting character in a horror movie three times resounded in front of the Awakened Registration Center. Jongsik called out to Sa-yoon like a wail, as if witnessing his last moments, “Boss!”

So damn noisy.

That was Sa-yoon’s last thought before losing consciousness.