"I thought it would be obvious by now," the man said in a monotone. "I belong to one of the National special forces under the military."

Mir snorted. "That's about as specific as saying you're one of the 1.65-meter-tall men in the city. What the fuck am I supposed to glean from 'military'? That's way too broad."

"...You won't recognize the name of our force even if I told you. All you need to know is that we handle parts of the field research for the military."

"Research..." Mir muttered thoughtfully. The man was probably not being entirely truthful. His armored jacket, high-end medicine packs, and expensive gadgets were enough of an indication that he wasn't from a mere research facility belonging to the military. Fundings for such projects would not provide so much for the personal safety of the researchers, especially in a place so ordinary as a Code-Green Sacred Ground. There were hundreds of Code-Green sacred grounds all over their nation's territory. The government was resorting to Deficit Funding each year to hold the economy together. The ranking of their nation in the empire had already fallen out of the top 10 for the first time in a decade. Why would a simple research team under the military receive so much luxury?

"So you were here for the grade- 3 Glutton Boa? You did say that we ruined something by intruding into that valley," he said, trying to test the waters.

"Sort of." The man sounded annoyed as Mir kept pestering him. "Look, kid. Not everything can be explained to you; you realize that, right? You needed to know which power is backing me. Now you do. For your own good, stop being a nosy little prick. Someone else in my shoes would've vaporized you by now."

Mir had expected the refusal to reveal anything. So he quickly sidestepped the heated reply and said, "So what do you plan on doing now? I mean, it doesn't seem like I'm going to fall asleep anymore due to the side effects of the artifact. I have my own business here to attend to, as do you. Do we part ways...or-"

The man held up a hand to stop his tentative musing.

"There's one last question you need to answer."

"Oh? Ask away," Mir replied.

"Why did your presence in the valley upset the Grade- 3 Boa? Were you carrying something that could shock a grade- 3 mutant out of its hibernation?"

Mir hadn't expected that question. He opened his mouth wide in surprise and felt a jolt of pain running through the facial nerves.

"I have no idea, to be honest. I told you my brother led me there to hunt some grade-1 boas to eat. We had no idea that something so monstrous would be hiding there. You saw us enter, but you never saw us running for our lives when we saw that nightmare of a beast?"

"Could your brother have been carrying something like that, then?"

Mir shook his head. "Everything we own right now is in that luggage, except some medicine bottles and a packet of biscuits that he took with him while leaving. You've already gone through the contents of the bag."

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The man didn't appear to have been convinced.

"Maybe it was the sacred artifact," Mir said, pointing at the diary. This is a sacred ground touched by Sunbreaker's divinity, after all. Maybe the snake sensed his presence in that artifact and got agitated."

The man finally bobbed his head up and down, very slowly.

"Sounds reasonable. I'll have to report that, hence the urgency. Now, give me your identification code. I'll keep it saved. When I get to leave the sacred ground, I'll contact you. You better have the artifact with you at that time. It's the only reason I haven't put you into a coma and taken you to the base for further interrogation. The influence of your Church is just enough to spare your life and belongings. It wouldn't have spared you from some very... persuasive methods of integration. I'm sure you understand."

Mir heard the cold humor in the man's tone at the end and didn't waste a single second in complying with the order. Once the man scanned his identification code, he let out a surprised yelp.

"A National college student? Why the fuck would your lot be desperate enough to make shady deals with a Church! Seems like you've taken quite a few wrong decisions in your short life, boy."

Mir didn't feel like explaining anything. The man wasn't too curious about his circumstances either.

"Well, then, goodbye, I guess."

"Mm, goodbye for now. And a word of advice- finish whatever mission the church has delegated to you and get out of this place as fast as you can. Don't loiter around to hunt. As you've clearly seen, the grade-3 Glutton Boa might evolve soon into a new class of life. Other than transcenders, no one in the sacred ground would be safe at that time."

The man began to jog away, down the thorny slope. Feeling like an opportunity was slipping out of his grasp, Mir shouted suddenly.

"Hey! Can I have a pulsar to defend myself? The Church didn't give me anything except the diary. I'm basically a bait, which you should have realized by now."

"I did. But these weapons are regularly checked at the base. It would be troublesome to explain where my set went to."

Mir groaned and laid back on the mattress.

*Clink*

Something hit the ground right behind him. He cranked his neck around and found a strange-looking black tube lying a few feet away. The man had thrown this at him, it seemed.

It was about the size of a pen, with a button in the middle. Mir took a picture of the device and searched for matches on a shopping site.

"A taser?"

It turned out to be a weapon used on perverts, mostly. It wasn't deadly, but could render a human unconscious at its highest setting.

"Something's better than nothing, I suppose."

Mir pocketed the Taser and checked his messages. It had been over ninety minutes since his last conversation with Murray. He should have reached the destination by now, right?

Mir sent a message to him and waited for a minute. But no reply came.

Worried, he sent a message to Reno. That guy had neither messaged, nor responded since their conversation four hours ago. At that time, he had told Mir that he had found an underground cave to hide in below the waterfall.

He continued to wait, feeling his body recover slowly from the injuries. Occasionally, he checked his Hybrid Image, which had remained unchanged after the mental battle. The only difference now to it was that its eyes were closed, expression serene, unlike when it had been controlled by the Witchweed.

The medication the man had provided him after their deal had been struck was pretty fantastic. For a while, Mir couldn't help but entertain the idea of joining the military in one of these high-end research labs. The benefits seemed above average compared to most of the regular careers available.

Once the gash in his thigh became less painful, Mir began to move.

Making sure not to produce too much smoke, he cooked one of the boas from the bag Murray had left him. The abandoned tent did well to hide the little smoke wafting out of his tiny campfire.

There were no condiments available, sadly. He could only turn off the picky part of his brain and chomp down on the charred meat.

It tasted like a mixture of ash and semi-cooked chicken. Barely halfway through his savage meal, Mir felt slightly disoriented. Instantly, he filled out a template on the second page of the diary.

Much like his first go at consuming contaminated food, this new 'wish' dealt with hallucinations.

He was worried that the diary's influence might not last long due to the lack of active virus inside his body. So he kept his eyes open and continued to stuff his mouth with more and more snake meat despite knowing that the hallucination had perhaps been triggered already.

Suddenly, he saw the screen of his communicator showing a notification for an incoming message.

Was this a part of the hallucination too?

He opened the application and realized that the message was from Murray. However, the content of the message stunned him.

"We have your brother. If you do not appear in front of us with the diary within half an hour, he will die."

Below the message, a photo of the map of the nearby regions was attached. The sender had marked an area as their meeting spot.

"This was indeed a fear of mine. But..."

Mir couldn't tell what to do.