After receiving orders from the Arbiter, Vance wandered through the Divine Treasury without any clear direction, following only the faint traces he could sense and eventually, he arrived at the location where the Mind Harvester had last been detected.

He had expected to observe the monster from a safe distance but instead, he was met with ruins.

The vast chamber that should have been dominated by the Mind Harvester’s grotesque body was in shambles as thick, severed tentacles twitched weakly across the ground and the air still carried remnants of distorted mana while the monster’s main body was gone without a trace.

“What… happened here?” Vance muttered, staring at the devastation.

From what he remembered of the game, the Mind Harvester was an entity most players avoided at all costs as anyone who entered its domain was immediately killed, forced to restart the entire Divine Treasury sequence.

Even veteran players steered clear of it and yet… someone had killed it.

Vance knew this world was no longer just a game but even so, he couldn’t wrap his head around it.

Who in this treasury could have pulled this off, especially when everyone was being suppressed to D-Rank?

He stepped into the chamber to investigate further. He didn’t worry about danger as he was sure if things truly went south, the Arbiter would pull him out instantly.

The massive room could have housed dozens of football stadiums, yet it was eerily empty. He scanned the surroundings calmly, then climbed atop one of the enormous severed tentacles but still found no sign of anyone.

“I guess, I should inform the Arbiter about this.”

He muttered, preparing to go back but just then, he sensed something behind him.

Vance spun around immediately and froze.

A figure was sprinting toward him like a madman, kicking up a cloud of dust. The aura he emitted was clearly D-Rank but something about him immediately set off alarms in Vance’s head.

The man was completely naked except for a pair of underwear and a masquerade mask covered half of his face. His body was cracked in multiple places and yet he was charging straight at Vance with frightening determination.

Vance didn’t hesitate as he turned and started running.

Sure, the Arbiter would intervene if a fatal attack was imminent but if this lunatic caught him, Vance had a strong feeling there wouldn’t be anything fatal involved as the man felt… wrong.

Who ran around naked in a place like this, wearing a masquerade mask, no less? If he wasn’t a pervert, then Vance didn’t know what else was even real.

So, to preserve both his life and his dignity, Vance sprinted like his life depended on it.

Behind him, the masked man wasn’t slowing down either.

“STOP!!! I just need something from you, that’s all!” The man shouted.

But that only made Vance run faster.

“I DON’T SWING THAT WAY!” Vance yelled back in sheer panic, running toward the exit of the room.

But before he could escape the room, a card flew past him. Green flames engulfed it midair and the man stepped out of the fire itself.

A wide grin was stretched across his face.

“I said stop, didn’t I?”

Vance’s heart nearly jumped straight out of his chest as he jumped back instantly, narrowly avoiding the man’s reach.

“Keep your disgusting hands off me!” Vance shouted. “I like tall women with big boobs! I seriously don’t like men, stay away from me!”

His voice cracked as he spoke but even as he pleaded, his instincts kicked in. Mana surged through his body as he braced himself, ready to fight despite the sheer absurdity of the situation.

“Who wants y—”

The man tried to say something but before a single word could leave his mouth, Vance hurled a water spear straight at his face.

“DIE!! You disgusting pervert!” Vance shouted, panic bleeding into his voice.

The man bent backward in midair at an unnatural angle, the water spear slicing past him harmlessly.

Vance didn’t hesitate as ten more water spears materialized around him in an instant, firing simultaneously from different angles.

Yet even with the barrage rushing toward him, the man didn’t lose his smile.

Five golden cards appeared around his body. They grew slightly larger, then began spinning at terrifying speed, shredding the spears one after another while the man calmly let the harmless water wash over him like a shower as the spears lost their form long before they could ever reach him.

Once all the spears were over and Vance was stupefied by such casual dominance, one of the cards shot toward Vance but he dodged it by sheer instinct as the card flew behind him.

Just as Vance prepared his next spell, a hand suddenly touched his neck.

The man had already teleported behind him. Vance turned slowly, only to meet a pair of green eyes staring straight at him as the man calmly swiped a hand through his wet white hair.

“If you don’t stop right now…” His cold voice dropped even lower. “…I won’t mind taking what I need from your dead body.”

A chill ran straight down Vance’s spine.

The voice alone was bad enough but the content was worse.

This pervert… he is into necrophilia too?

That was the only conclusion Vance could come to, given how casually the man talked about taking what he wanted from a corpse.

“You can… kill me if you want,” Vance said, voice trembling but stubborn. “but I won’t let you take it as long as I am alive.”

Vance was a spineless bastard, sure, but even he had principles.

He was a virgin and he absolutely refused to lose that to some random pervert instead of a beautiful woman with big boobs.

The man stared at him for a long moment.

“…Are you dumb or what?” He muttered flatly. “Haven’t you ever heard that you don’t judge a book by its cover?”

He gestured at himself. “Do you seriously think a handsome guy like me would be after you? And for the record, I don’t swing that way either.”

Hope immediately bloomed on Vance’s face.

“S-so… you won’t do anything weird, right?” Vance asked cautiously.

“No.” The man replied without hesitation.

Vance let out a long sigh of relief and finally looked at the man properly instead of seeing him as a walking crime report.

“Then… what did you need?”

The man, none other than Rael, smiled, his expression calm and utterly shameless.

“Nothing much,” He said casually like a gangster who agreed not to kill you only to sell your organs instead. “Just hand over your storage ring… and everything inside it.”

Vance’s smile stiffened immediately as he realized he still wasn’t out of trouble but at least this trouble was far more manageable than losing his dignity.

He straightened slightly and looked at the man again.

“Sure, senior, I don’t mind.” He muttered, instantly slipping back into his well-practiced bootlicker persona now that the threat to his dignity was gone. “But would you mind telling me who defeated the Mind Harvester… and what your name might be?”

—

Meanwhile, Rael’s eyes sharpened for just a fraction of a second as he caught something in Vance’s words. His smile widened into the same dangerous, knowing grin that always appeared right before he scammed someone.

He slowly opened his mouth to speak.

“The one who defeated the Mind Harvester was—”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep