Chapter 97: Rover?!

“Ow…” Jonathan slowly came to, clutching his severed arm. Even though the bleeding had stopped, the pain still stabbed at his brain.

He sat up. There was no one around, yet not only his missing arm, but his head and his entire body ached as if they’d been shattered into countless pieces.

He gritted his teeth and looked around, realizing this was a wooden church that seemed to have been abandoned for a long time. Dust had formed a thick layer that covered the entire place.

Yet there were no signs of plants creeping in, no rot, no small animals like insects or rats, not even a single ant.

The silence was terrifying, so quiet he could clearly hear his own breathing and his heart pounding violently, as if warning him that something horrific was about to arrive.

The only light came from thread-like lightbulbs distributed evenly across the church ceiling, but the glow they gave off was a bizarre red.

Jonathan frowned, scanning the room, and realized he was lying on the pulpit. Beside him sat an old piano. Behind him was a statue of a woman with angel wings, both arms reaching toward him as if to embrace him, her face filled with a mother’s loving tenderness.

In front of him was a shelf, and on it a large plate, though he had no idea what it was for.

Below were rows of empty pews. Even though this place had likely been abandoned for a long time, they were still neat and orderly, with no sign of decay or rot.

Jonathan muttered, “What kind of hellhole is this?”

He looked around and tried to stand, but then…

Clink-clank! Clink-clank!

“What the hell? Chains?!” Jonathan frowned.

That’s right. At this moment, his leg was tightly bound by a chain, and the other end was fastened to the statue behind him.

Jonathan panicked a little, forcing himself to recall what had happened.

But his memory stopped at the moment he’d been behind Rover, stepping through the door to the fourth floor, when he suddenly saw a figure appear. Then, when he woke up, he found himself here.

Jonathan panted, yanking at the chain.

Clink-clank! Clink-clank!

The repeated rattle shattered the oppressive silence of this space.

“Damn it!”

Jonathan roared in anger. His physique had never been great to begin with, and now that he’d lost an arm, he was even weaker. Escaping this chain was basically impossible.

He couldn’t understand it. Why hadn’t he been killed, but instead imprisoned here?

Could it be that he was the chosen one meant to complete this mission?

Jonathan stopped panicking and began searching for clues around him.

But he was wrong. The chain was too short. He couldn’t even reach the piano in the corner, or the shelf with the large porcelain plate on it.

In the end, he moved as close as he could to the goddess statue, staring straight at it.

The statue’s face was gentle, like sunlight piercing through a bleak, cold night, warming the world.

Suddenly, the statue’s eyes opened.

“Heh?!” Jonathan jolted, but the instant he blinked, the statue’s face returned to normal.

“Strange… am I seeing things because I’m too tense?” Jonathan muttered with a frown.

But he didn’t dare ignore it. In this world, everything was strange. Everything carried some degree of threat to him.

The painting from the living room earlier had been a wraith. If Nanoe hadn’t been there, he would’ve died a long time ago.

Thinking of that, Jonathan’s heart filled with resentment and rage. Why? Why wasn’t he that lucky? Why wasn’t he the one Nanoe chose?

Jonathan made up his mind. After completing this mission, he would find a way to take Nanoe for himself.

He believed Nanoe’s love for Rover existed only because of the System’s bond between an [Owner] and a [Tenant].

If he offered a high enough price, Rover would definitely let her go.

Love might exist in this world, but no matter how great it was, it could never compare to absolute benefit.

Jonathan suddenly noticed something on the statue. He frowned, borrowing the dim light to look more closely.

“Nails?” he muttered, frowning.

That’s right. If you looked carefully, the statue seemed to have been pieced together from many fragments. The seams were faint, but still visible if you paid attention.

In a few places, nails had even been used to secure it, as if without them it would shatter again.

Jonathan drew a deep breath. He felt like he’d just realized something.

His hand slowly reached toward the statue, his fingertips trembling slightly as they touched it.

Cold… so cold.

But also oddly soft.

It felt like he was touching a corpse. That texture, he couldn’t be mistaken.

Jonathan’s eyes widened as he slowly lifted his head.

“Huk!” He sucked in a sharp breath, his breathing stuttering, his heartbeat skipping a beat.

The statue’s benevolent face was gone, replaced by a crazed smile.

The small mouth from before was now grinning, the corners stretched nearly to its ears. Inside was a tight row of fangs, like a shark’s jaw packed full.

Jonathan was so frightened his legs trembled, but he immediately gritted his teeth and tried to calm down.

But… his effort was meaningless.

The statue stared at him, full of greed, like a starving wolf eyeing prey, yet wearing a smile so insane it was terrifying.

The statue’s shadow on the wall behind suddenly stretched and grew larger, as if it were about to become darkness enough to swallow this entire place.

“W-what… what do you want?” Jonathan forced out.

He thought that if it wanted to kill him, it would’ve done so long ago. There was no need to drag him here.

Besides, this was a puzzle-type mission. If he could find the clue or the answer, he would definitely find a chance to survive.

The statue kept staring. Its hands twitched slightly, dust cascading off its body and raining down onto Jonathan.

Then, from the statue’s shadow, countless tentacles stretched out, slithering toward Jonathan’s shadow and wrapping tightly around it.

“Agh!!!” Jonathan screamed in agony.

Even though those black tentacles were binding his shadow, he felt as if countless tentacles were truly tying him up, slowly tightening.

Jonathan struggled desperately. He turned his head, trying to run, but the chain still locked around his leg, refusing to let him leave.

When he looked toward the rows of seats below, he jolted, realizing that at some point without him noticing, countless dark silhouettes were sitting in those pews.

He couldn’t see their faces clearly, but Jonathan could tell those fading, hazy shadows were staring straight at him.

“Damn it!” Jonathan hissed. “Let me go! You bastards!”

“Let me go!”

“GYAA!!”

He howled in despair. The tentacles kept tightening, so tight he was on the verge of being unable to breathe.

His eyes bulged until only white showed, bloodshot veins standing out as if about to burst.

His face twisted, turning red, then slowly shifting into purple.

Now he couldn’t scream anymore. All he could do was tremble violently as his memories played in slow motion, flashing through his mind.

He was furious. He was unwilling.

Why? Why did he have to die? When he had a high-Rank Class, massive potential, he had even thought he was the chosen one.

“Ack! Agh!” Choked sounds spilled from his throat, as if he were trying to scream about how unfair this world was.

In his final breaths, he opened his mouth wide, wanting to say something, but the words wouldn’t come.

’I… I don’t want to die…’

BAM!

Suddenly, the church doors were kicked open with brutal force, the impact ripping apart the silence.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

The tentacles instantly retracted. Jonathan crashed to the floor, panting hard, cold sweat soaking his entire body.

He braced both hands on the ground, feeling as if one foot had stepped through the gates of hell, only to be yanked back to the mortal world.

“Ha… ha… ha…” He breathed like a madman.

Ting! Ting! Ting!

All of a sudden, the piano sounded. The old piano began playing a church symphony on its own.

There was nothing holy or solemn about it. Instead, it brought an oppressive, horrifying chill, the chaotic notes punching straight into a human eardrum.

On the plate sitting on the shelf near Jonathan, at some point a human head had appeared.

Jonathan recognized him. He was one of the people Jonathan had invited to join this mission. Jonathan couldn’t even remember his name anymore.

But the young man’s head still wore absolute terror, twisted into something grotesque.

With each note from the piano, the head suddenly began to tremble violently. Its eyes slowly rolled upward until only lifeless white remained.

The head opened its mouth so wide that a normal human jaw shouldn’t have been able to stretch that far.

A stream of blood sprayed out of its mouth like a large-scale fountain.

Blood… so much blood, rising like a tide, spreading across the church floor.

Jonathan’s face went deathly pale. His body shook as instinctive fear steadily seized his mind.

Trembling, he stared toward the entrance.

The light spilling in from outside made it impossible to see who had come in. He only saw a dark silhouette standing tall, stepping down the aisle between the pews, slowly approaching him.

“Y-you… you’re… Rover?!”

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