"I'm beginning to have some doubts," said the man as he fiddled with his pulsars.

Mir winced. He wasn't quite sure how to respond, because the man had all the reasons to be doubtful.

Almost 30 minutes had passed since Mir had declared that he would pass out soon due to the side effects of using the diary.

Nothing of that sort happened. While Mir had carefully applied the medicine provided by the man to his injuries, including his mangled thigh, both of them waited for the predicted side effect to happen. According to Mir's calculation, he should have been deep asleep by now.

Increasingly puzzled, Mir sat up and began to wonder what could have caused such an exceptional result. Could it be...

"Hey, how did you learn about my stats?" he said to the man while his thoughts raced.

The man contemplated something for a long time before replying, "I suppose you'll get to know eventually. No harm in telling you ahead of time. The military has developed mini-kits to discern viral activity inside the human body. Major stats like the Extent of Infection, grade of mutation, and overall assessment scores can be determined anywhere as long as you have the appropriate kit for the stat. The tech's still in the beta phase of testing, though. It'll be a while before they release a furnished version to the general public."

Mir nodded slowly. That made sense. A rumor about these mini-kit projects had been circulating in the news networks for a couple of years now. Seems like the news had leaked from the military.

"So you used the kits on me?"

"Yeah. They're fairly easy to operate. Just point them at the target and click some buttons, release some electromagnetic waves, check the result on the screen and use a chart to compare the data. Not as accurate as the scanners in the data tower, but that's the best you can get out here."

The man pointed at the palm-wide screen tucked under his belt that had two tubes and an antenna attached to it.

"What are my stats now, exactly?" Mir said, curious.

"My kit can only discern the Extent of Viral Infection and the Overall Evolution Standard Score. Your stats are respectively 0.89% and 4.8%."

Mir took a second to digest the news despite expecting it. Both stats were so abnormally low that even some newborn babies in the city would have higher scores. The last time he had tested himself in a data tower, the stats had been 9% and 13%.

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Since then, he had used the diary multiple times. Every time, it had set him back on the path to reach the peak of the Evolution Scale.

No...Perhaps, this entire time, he was seeing it from the wrong perspective.

What if the diary didn't just have the function of expelling the virus from his body?

What if the diary...fed on the virus? Maybe it was using the viruses as fuel to operate on Mir's mind, just like how humans used the viruses as a catalyst to trigger their mutations.

If that was the case, a lot of odd details would actually line up under a logical explanation!

After each time he had used the diary, the length of the influence it had on his mind had gotten lesser and lesser.

The first time, he had been under its influence for seven hours, following which, his mind had collapsed, rendering him unconscious for that entire night.

The next evening, he had used it again, and that resulted in a mental boost lasting over three hours. The sleep that had followed was almost the same as the prior night.

The third time he had used the diary, he was inside the sacred ground, just having drunk the contaminated honey. That influence period was more than four hours long, but the sleeping period was quite low, only three hours. The increase in the timeframe of mental influence could be explained by the fact that he had consumed the contaminated honey which had increased the Extent of Viral Infection inside his body by supplying a massive number of active viruses. If the diary fed on the viruses to exert its power on him, then the increase in the number of viruses would indeed increase its influence on his mind!

And the decrease in the timeframe of knockout periods could be explained as the growth of his mental fortitude. He had just fought against the hallucinations caused by the contaminated honey at that time. His mind had definitely experienced a small growth in terms of being able to withstand such attacks.

The fourth time he had used the diary, he was under attack by the Witchweed. At that time, the influence of the diary had lasted for almost an hour. Then the knockout had lasted less than two hours.

The fifth time, as in during his mental battle against the Witchweed just now, all of his stats had reached so low that the mental influence hadn't even lasted half an hour. As for the knockout, it had simply not appeared.

Perhaps achieving the incredible feat of fighting off a neural network invasion had strengthened his mind to the point where the side effects of such a short period of mental influence were no longer able to affect him.

Mir's face must have displayed a hint of this surprising discovery, because the stranger sitting nearby noticed something.

"Got an explanation for me, do you?"

His tone was calm, but Mir sensed the storm brewing beneath it. Gulping, he nodded and began to explain.

"It seems that repeated usage of the artifact has made me somewhat immune to its side effects. That's a good news for you, I suppose. Whoever you want me to use it on, they'll not suffer any problematic long-term issues due to their own growing immunity to its powers."

The man stared at him for a very long time before nodding imperceptibly.

"Don't let me find out otherwise. The Church's cloak will not protect you if that happens."

"Has anyone ever explained to you that your threats need to be backed by a display of power? You can't just threaten the power of an Orthodox church on your lonesome. To make that threat effective, you need to tell me why I should fear the threat."

Two Pulsars were immediately pointed at his face. Mir shrugged, trying his best to appear unimpressed.

"You plan to fight the Church with two Pulsars? Good luck, man," he said blankly.

"You don't represent the Church," the man replied.

"No, but I do represent their interest in something. And if the orders you received through your voice transmitter did not make you realize it yet, please do understand that this interest is... significant. Significant enough to implicate Archbishop Cassius."

Mir saw no change, not even a ripple of hesitation showing in the man's outstretched hands that held the Pulsars. His steadiness was scary.

But he knew his words had affected him. The Archbishop was one of the most influential Transcenders of Nation-013. Not even the government agents with the highest authority and power would dare to earn his ire.

With a slight smile, he asked the question that would determine his next plan of action.

"So...should you not level the playing field here by informing me of exactly which power, which authority you represent?"