Mir felt his consciousness beginning to fade in and out gradually after almost half an hour of swimming. He couldn't tell if it was due to fatigue or whether the diary's influence on his mind was running out.

Stretching his neck up, he surveyed the path ahead of his raft. There were too many curves in this channel. If he didn't steer the raft to keep it in the middle of the stream, he would be taken to one of the banks eventually while passing a curve. Hopefully, it wouldn't be the Western bank, but hope was no reliable friend.

With the last bit of effort his body and mind could muster, he steered the raft into one of the numerous boulders sitting amidst the water. They had been a source of annoyance till now. But at this moment, they were his only hope of not getting caught after falling unconscious.

The two bastards tailing him were still visible on the western bank. They had been chasing after the raft for over two kilometers now. Both of them looked tired from all the running.

Seeing him stopping his raft, their eyes lit up. Mir knew that once they saw him fall unconscious, they would try to approach the raft, no longer afraid of his 'special spiritual attack'. He had to make sure that doesn't happen.

Watching them intently, he began to shout.

"Oi retards! Do you really think you can keep chasing after me all the way to wherever this stream takes me? Why don't we solve this right now? Both of you can try attacking me. Use your guns or companion creatures, whatever you like. I can only dish out one spiritual attack, so one of you has a good chance at defeating me if he sacrifices his other teammate!"

Both trackers looked at each other immediately. Neither of them wanted to be the sacrifice. They silently reached the tacit understanding that Mir was just trying to bait them.

"Come to the bank. We'll take you up on your offer. Otherwise, how can we fight?" One of them shouted back.

"You two have an advantage in number. Do you want an advantage in the terrain too? Haha!" Mir laughed derisively.

Not sides fell silent. After a while, Mir shouted again.

"This is getting too boring, guys. I'm gonna get some shut-eye. You better not try anything funny when I'm asleep!"

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Placing his backpack over his face, Mir laid his head down and let himself be taken by the unstoppable fatigue, both physical and mental. Within seconds, he began to snore lightly.

The two hunters watching him looked somewhat flabbergasted.

"...Lon, do you think he's really asleep?"

That question earned Zimu a second slap on the back of his head.

"It's just a childish method to make us think his guard is down. Obviously, he isn't a Transcender. This spiritual attack technique he can use has to be reliant on a sacred artifact. He doesn't need to prepare for an attack if we go near him. It can be as easy as clicking on a button. He's pretending to sleep so that one of us loses patience and tries to swim to that boulder," Lon explained in a hoarse voice.

Zimu scratched the back of his head and argued. "What if he shouted that he's gonna sleep because he wants us to think that he's laying a trap for us and not go near him like you said, and he's gonna use this opportunity to sleep?"

"...Idiot!" Lon slapped him again. "Why the fuck would he sleep? Why the fuck would anyone sleep in a situation like this? He doesn't even have to paddle the raft to float forward. He's been resting on it for half an hour now. It's 08:00 in the morning. Who even sleeps at this time?"

"...Oh! Makes sense," Zimu said, eyes watering from the pain. "Has the main team sent anyone over yet?"

Lon looked around surreptitiously and lowered his voice before answering the question.

"Miss Suko is on her way. But they've already delved so far inside the sacred ground that it's gonna take her a couple of hours to find her way back here."

Zimu's eyes widened. "A couple of hours? They've been chasing a kid who hasn't even reached the peak of the Evolution Standard scale! How far did he escape?"

"I have no idea. They're saying that the kid might have been hiding a companion creature or a powerful sacred artifact. He's way too fast for someone below the Transcendent tier."

"Could it be the treasure we're looking for? They did say it's a sacred artifact. Maybe that kid has it. He's just using his brother as a diversion tactic."

"That's the best outcome...for us, at least," Lon whispered.

"What do you mean?" Zimu was perplexed by the answer.

"That red diary, whatever it is, is valuable enough for a faction in the Circle of Commonwealth to go crazy for it. It must be hiding a huge secret, or an enormous source of power. If new recruits like us find it first, we might be silenced in order to keep things under wraps," Lon whispered cautiously.

Zimu's face paled. "Then it would be best if the other kid is holding on to that treasure. But this kid did say he has it. He even threatened us with that fact. If he wasn't lying, wouldn't it be risky for us even if we managed to retrieve it right now?"

"Exactly, idiot. Why do you think I didn't go all out with my companion creatures? The boy isn't that far away. I could've still taken him down if push came to shove. There's simply no need to increase the risks. Our job was to track him down. We did it. We don't need to do more than that. The contribution points are nothing compared to the value of our lives."

"So...do we just wait for Miss Suko to return?" Zimu said hesitantly. He could see their target lying completely still on the raft. It didn't seem like he was acting to be asleep. The temptation to attack him was difficult to ignore.

"If you want to drown when you're in the middle of that stream, be my guest," Lon growled and sat down on the bank, choosing to rest a while too.

"Maybe we can shoot at the raft till it sinks. He will be forced to swim to a bank then, wouldn't he? We've spent too much effort behind this kid and now Miss Suko will get all the credit for the job." Zimu said, unwilling to give up.

"...He can just sit on one of the rocks there if the raft sinks. Maybe if you had that idea ten minutes ago when the stream was narrower and had fewer rocks to sit on, the plan could've done something." Lon sighed in frustration. "And if the boy really does have the diary, then even Miss Suko might not be safe from the cleanup. The boss is sending her away because he thinks the other boy has the diary. Miss Suko can just catch this guy with us and earn some contribution points."

"Life's easy when you have a powerful Transcender like the boss trying to butter you up," Zimu said enviously.

The two men could only stare aggressively at the figure peacefully 'sleeping' there in the middle of the stream.