Chapter 98 …
Something about the gazes was off.
Eyes filled with hostility and eyes full of disgust tangled together, stabbing into Dohyun.
In their eyes, Dohyun was already the enemy.
A natural reaction.
“…Only Sir Kaiser remains.”
Before they knew it, everyone had finished the measurement, and only Dohyun was left.
“See? Didn’t I say the outsider was suspicious?”
“But that’s strange. Does he really have that much holy power?”
“Apostles often have talents that don’t match their appearance. You can’t judge by looks.”
“Everyone stay alert. He could turn at any moment.”
Watching them slowly spread out as if to surround him, Dohyun clenched his fist tightly.
Now he couldn’t even run.
As he glanced forward, his eyes met Gildetti’s steady gaze.
Those indifferent eyes revealed nothing of what he was thinking.
Was Gildetti suspicious of him too?
“…You’re the only one left.”
Zerdik approached in the meantime.
With each step closer, countless emotions flashed through his eyes—anger, suspicion, doubt…
By the time he stopped in front of Dohyun, Zerdik’s gaze had turned cold.
“Raise your hand.”
Why did the phrase a rat in a jar come to mind?
They really named the quest well. There probably wasn’t a proverb more fitting than this one.
After a moment of thought, Dohyun spoke bluntly.
“Isn’t it enough to measure only the high priests? You said holy power was detected.”
“I heard outsiders are different from us. Even if they aren’t high priests, they can still use highly pure holy power.”
“……”
“It won’t hurt to prove it, so raise your hand. It’s not difficult, is it?”
“…Ha.”
He sighed as if annoyed, but inside he was burning up.
There was no room to argue.
If he stubbornly refused here, it would only make him more suspicious.
I don’t know.
In the end, Dohyun held out his hand.
There was no backing out now. At this point, he had no choice but to leave it to fate.
Ziiiing—
Clack. Clack.
As the detection orb absorbed mana, the high priests tensed and raised their staffs and books.
The moment black appeared, they intended to attack immediately.
Zerdik, too, kept his eyes fixed on Dohyun rather than the orb.
Mana flowed into the sphere—
Wooooong—
The detection orb glowed white and then returned to normal, letting out a deflated hum.
At the same time, gasps were heard from somewhere, and the murmuring grew louder.
They must have assumed Dohyun was the contractor and were startled by the unexpected result.
Some even rubbed their eyes in disbelief.
But only for a moment.
Soon, their arrows of suspicion turned toward Jihad.
“…Then is it him?”
If it wasn’t the priests—or Dohyun—then only Jihad remained.
Their eyes quickly narrowed.
“Covering his face is suspicious…”
“Please inspect him, Sir Zerdik.”
As if he had planned to anyway, Zerdik thrust the detection orb forward.
“…Master, what do I do?”
Jihad’s sidelong glance clearly said exactly that.
At this rate, he would be falsely accused.
If black mana appeared in this atmosphere?
He would instantly become a public enemy and be hunted without even time to explain.
Dohyun had to think. A way out of this situation.
…Damn it, like there is one.
Their escape route was blocked, and they were outmatched in force.
He had even scanned the surroundings earlier, hoping the Eye of Truth might activate—but nothing appeared.
Things had been going suspiciously smoothly since starting God Ose.
To run into such a sudden crisis…
Should he call it typical of Demrock’s next work, or just bad luck?
“…Are you refusing?”
The chilling voice came then.
When he raised his head, he met Zerdik’s moon-cold eyes.
Suppressing the tightness in his chest, Dohyun lightly nudged Jihad’s side.
“…Master?”
“Just do it. We push through head-on.”
Hostile relationship?
So what?
Dohyun wasn’t a divine apostle anyway.
The one opposed to the gods was the successor of humanity, Kashiyar.
Technically, they were fundamentally enemies to begin with.
As long as we don’t die.
The notification window had said the quest failed upon death.
If they just didn’t die, maybe they could clean things up afterward.
Maybe not—but nothing to lose.
For now, they had to break through no matter what.
“….”
After the brief exchange of glances, Jihad squeezed his eyes shut.
He had fully understood Dohyun’s intent.
Circulating mana and ready to summon undead at any moment, Jihad extended his hand.
Swoosh.
At the same time, Dohyun secretly gripped Cheonbyeon (Thousand Changes).
Over a hundred pairs of eyes focused on them, yet the air was deathly still.
In the suffocating tension, just as Jihad’s hand was about to touch the detection orb—
Ziiiiing—
Dohyun, who was about to activate Cheonbyeon, froze.
Something had reacted.
“…Huh?”
Not the detection orb.
Another orb.
The taut tension snapped uselessly.
A dazed atmosphere drifted through the crowd.
Looking at the communication orb ringing on the central table, Gildetti spoke.
“…My apologies. Please wait a moment.”
After politely bowing, he carefully connected the call.
He listened silently for a while.
Then his face turned cold.
“Are you certain? …Understood. I’ll hang up for now.”
A brief conversation.
But when he ended the call, Gildetti’s face was clearly different from before—extremely grave, even troubled.
Unable to hold back, the elders asked:
“What is it, High Priest Gildetti?”
“You look quite disturbed.”
Gildetti moved his lips but couldn’t answer immediately.
Then he let out a long sigh.
Anyone could see something had happened.
The crowd’s attention shifted from Jihad to Gildetti.
Dohyun was among them.
What is going on now?
They had been on the brink of crisis, and suddenly the mood changed.
Worse yet—it didn’t end there.
As everyone stood confused, Gildetti waved his hand.
“It seems further measurements are meaningless.”
“What do you mean?”
“…I find that hard to agree with. Could you explain what happened?”
For Dohyun, this was an excellent turn of events.
…An opportunity like this?
He had been ready for an all-out battle, and now they were stopping on their own?
There was absolutely no reason for Dohyun to refuse.
Still, one thing bothered him.
Why right at Jihad’s turn?
Could this really be coincidence?
The timing was too perfect…
Ding—
[You have safely completed the measurement.]
[Forced Linked Quest ‘Rat in a Jar’ has been cleared.]
At that moment, the message that appeared like confirmation made Dohyun nod.
Ah… so that’s it.
Now it made sense.
This wasn’t coincidence—it was a predetermined event.
The measurement quest was a hidden piece available only to the top graduate who satisfied hidden conditions.
From the start, it had been designed to measure even players progressing the quest alongside high-ranking priests.
Since the measurement was complete, the event triggered as scheduled.
Yeah. That makes sense.
Since the quest couldn’t originally be progressed by more than one person, it was only natural.
An event scene meant to advance the story had simply become more dynamic thanks to Jihad disguising himself as a human.
Normally, they wouldn’t have insisted on measuring the guardian too.
…What a letdown.
“Whew… I feel like I lost five kilograms, Master.”
“Lizaliza…”
Jihad slumped as the tension left him.
Eliza also sighed, clearly having been extremely anxious.
For once, Dohyun fully agreed with them.
That was seriously dangerous.
This had been the biggest crisis since starting God Ose.
He had known his luck wouldn’t last forever, but he hadn’t expected danger to strike like this.
Still, they had escaped safely.
Now all he had to do was step back and watch how things unfolded.
Of course, he couldn’t fully relax.
He still didn’t know what was about to happen.
“Then what about that man? How can we stop the measurement at a time like this?”
“I believe we require a detailed explanation, High Priest.”
Apparently the elders felt the same.
Not all of them spoke, but their silent stares showed they were thinking the same thing.
Under the pressure of over a hundred people, Gildetti finally spoke.
“Do you remember the traces those creatures showed earlier?”
“Of course. How could we fail to recognize such horrific traces?”
“…Just in case, after gathering you all, I instructed the forensics team to conduct a more detailed analysis. I told them to report anything else they found. Not even the slightest margin of error can be allowed.”
After a brief pause, he continued.
“And we just received word.”
“…What did they say?”
Why did a chilling feeling creep in?
The tense high priests swallowed hard and waited.
Several seconds passed.
Then Gildetti spoke.
“They say the comparison results are an exact match to the final trace discovered previously.”
“…What?”
“What do you mean…?”
A previous trace?
Confusion appeared only briefly.
Soon, those who understood turned pale with shock.
Driving the nail in, Gildetti continued:
“In the past thirty years, there have been three individuals in Brion who contracted with the Abyss. Two of them were executed.”
Gildetti’s expression was extremely grave.
No—beyond grave.
He looked tense.
And soon, everyone else’s expressions matched his.
“…You don’t mean—?”
“My heavens.”
“Could it be… him?”
From the anxious high priests, to the elders with mouths agape, to the archpriests who shot to their feet—
Their reactions differed, but their expressions were the same.
Zerdik and Taksinel were no different.
Their cold faces clearly showed fury.
…What’s gotten into them?
Only Dohyun didn’t understand the situation.
—Liza?
—What is going on…?
…More precisely, only Dohyun’s party didn’t.
They stared around in bewilderment at the shocked crowd.
Fortunately, the answer came soon.
“…Yes. What you’re thinking is correct.”
Gildetti’s cracked voice finally revealed the truth they had been bracing for.
“Geyman the Destroyer… it seems he has appeared again.”
[You have heard the name of the abyss contractor who broke the taboo, ‘Geyman the Destroyer.’]
[Forced Linked Quest ‘……’ has begun.]
The culprit behind the warning message before Dohyun—
And the key figure who would conclude this forced linked quest—
Geyman the Destroyer had appeared.
