2-in-1 Chapter

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Evan could be sure that Ron had seen what had just happened. On top of that, his injuries had been treated by Ron. That meant Ron more or less understood the whole story of what he had done.

As a fellow delver, their social circles were bound to overlap, and in that case, there was a real possibility that what he had done would be exposed by Ron.

That was something Evan could not accept; in his old circle, he would no longer be able to go on living.

A trace of killing intent flashed in Evan’s eyes. Ron’s brows lifted slightly. As a top professional assassin, he was extremely sensitive to killing intent, and the instant it appeared on Evan, he had already noticed it.

“Commendable courage,” was all Ron said.

Evan did not strike immediately; he waited for an opportunity. Ron closed his eyes, pretending to have fallen asleep. Only then did Evan start to move toward him, shuffling forward step by step until he was very close. Ron did not open his eyes, but what Evan did not know was that Ron had remained fully awake from beginning to end.

Evan held a sharp blade in his hand. He raised it, first measuring the position, confirming that with one blow he could hit Ron’s vital point and kill him, then held his hand poised in midair. He looked at Ron, a vicious glint in his eyes.

“Die!”

But just as the blade in his hand came down, Ron’s figure suddenly vanished.

Evan’s strike hit nothing but air. He stumbled forward, almost pitching over the edge, and only managed with difficulty to keep his balance.

“Looking for me?” Ron’s voice sounded behind him.

Evan’s pupils contracted. He whipped around at once, and at the same time slashed backward with the blade in his hand, but Ron only stepped lightly back and easily avoided the attack.

A sharp wave of pain spread from Evan’s chest, accompanied by a hollow, empty sensation. He lowered his head, his eyes suddenly widening.

“Looking for this?” Ron held a heart that no longer beat, pinched between two fingers.

Evan’s face changed drastically. “What?” The scene before him was completely beyond his expectations. He could not understand how Ron had sensed his sneak attack, how Ron’s speed could be so fast that he disappeared in an instant, or how he had so easily avoided Evan’s follow-up strike.

But Evan understood one thing clearly: he was about to die. His heart had been taken out by Ron, removed without anyone noticing.

“Just what are you?” he forced out.

Ron did not answer Evan’s question. He simply loosened his fingers.

Plop.

Evan’s heart hit the ground with a wet thud. For an instant he just stared, stunned and disbelieving, before instinct forced him to crawl toward it.

His fingers scraped against the stone floor, leaving faint streaks of blood where his nails tore, but he dragged himself forward anyway. Each movement was weaker than the last; his body trembled violently, his breath broken and shallow.

The gaping hole in his chest pulsed once, then again, leaking blood in uneven spurts as if his body still refused to accept that the organ was missing.

He reached out. His fingertips brushed the edge of the heart—but he lacked the strength to grasp it. His arm buckled, and he collapsed onto his side, cheek pressed to the cold floor, staring at the trembling piece of flesh he could no longer claim.

Ron lowered his gaze and let out a soft breath that almost resembled a laugh. “You wanted it back?” he asked, his tone calm and almost bored, as if watching an insect struggle.

Evan tried again, dragging his body forward by pushing his elbow against the ground. His chest cavity opened wider with the motion, and blood spilled out in a thin stream.

He coughed, and red foam leaked from the corner of his mouth. Still, he inched closer, until he was only a few centimeters away and could nearly touch the heart again.

Ron raised his foot and nudged the heart lightly.

It rolled once.

Evan clawed at the floor, leaving bloody smears, and forced his body onward. His vision blurred, then cleared, then blurred again. He reached out desperately.

Ron kicked the heart farther.

Evan’s breath hitched, turning into a choking rasp. He dragged himself forward, ribs shifting visibly beneath torn flesh, but his strength was fading rapidly.

“You really don’t know when to give up,” Ron said.

Evan’s outstretched hand trembled violently as he attempted one last time to seize the heart. Ron gave it a firmer kick this time, sending it skidding toward the very edge of the platform. Evan’s eyes widened; he clawed ahead with everything he had left, but his arms gave out beneath him, and he collapsed face‑first onto the ground.

Ron rested his foot on Evan’s back for a moment, pressing just enough to keep him from rising. Not that Evan could rise anymore.

“You don’t need it where you’re going.”

With that, Ron flicked the heart over the edge with a light tap of his toes. It dropped into the abyss, descending into darkness, swallowed by the depths below.

Evan’s gaze followed it until his vision dimmed. His life drained away completely, and the last thing he saw was his own heart disappearing into the void.

Thud.

His body fell still and became a corpse.

…….

Ron stood over the corpse in silence.

He didn’t speak. He didn’t move. He simply looked down, deep in thought.

He could have ended it cleanly. Instead, he let Evan crawl, let him hope, then crushed it.

That wasn’t his method. He didn’t enjoy cruelty. He never had

But in that moment, something in him had shifted. It felt foreign, like a pressure pressing in from outside. And what disturbed him most wasn’t that he acted that way… it was that part of him had enjoyed it.

And the moment he felt that flicker of satisfaction, he recognized it for what it was.

It wasn’t his.

It was not who he was.

So that left the only option being the effect of the abbys. Maybe it was because he had come this deep, this fast. Or maybe, as someone who didn’t belong to this world, the changes reached him quicker than they did the natives.

However, what he was certain of was that he needed to do something about it.

Ron walked a short distance away from the body and sat cross-legged at the edge of the platform, where the stone gave way to a sheer drop into shadow. He closed his eyes, drew a slow breath, and released it through parted lips.

His aura stabilised, flowing evenly through his limbs as he began to meditate—pulling himself back to the center.

……………

…….

.

The next day, dawn broke. Ron slightly increased his pace and expanded his En, trying not to miss any corner.

He did not have much information about the Ascension Relic. This was also his first time entering the Inner World, and he had no experience, so he could only adopt a relatively clumsy approach—clumsy, but effective.

Moreover, after talking with Nasubi, Ron had realized that other people had almost no concept of the Inner World. Even some S-rank Nen users might not know that it existed.

Compared with them, Ron already possessed a considerable advantage.

A faintly sharp sound rang out. Ron turned his head and saw a huge spider approaching him at a decent speed, its entire body blue, with white strands of web trailing from its abdomen.

“Poison Needle Web Spider,” Ron said.

He gathered aura in his eyes and used Gyo to observe it.

In this world there was no structured Nen-user system, but when facing these beast-like creatures, he could still use Gyo to assist his judgment.

Beyond revealing aura, Gyo could also show the strength of a creature’s life force, and the stronger a being’s life force, the stronger its actual power would inevitably be.

From what he saw, this one’s life force was weak.

“This Poison Needle Web Spider is far inferior to the Bloodmaw Strangle Serpent,” Ron evaluated. “Even a Nen user who has just learned Nen could fight it and win. However, the quality of this web looks quite good.”

As the Poison Needle Web Spider rushed in, treating him as prey, Ron raised one finger.

“Nen Bullet.”

In an instant, the shot pierced through the spider’s head.

Bang!

The spider’s corpse dropped. Its web came down with it, dragged along by the threads connected to its body.

When he saw what was caught in the web, Ron’s expression suddenly darkened.

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