"Are you planning to lie there until morning?" Hiroshi's mocking voice echoed in Ulu's mind, snapping him out of his euphoric daze over his revenge. "Or do you want everyone to come and admire your handiwork?"

Only then did Ulu snap back to reality, realizing he hadn't cleaned up the scene yet.

Killing wasn't new to him, but this time was different. Lugi had been a legitimate priest of the Rhyo Church. If the higher-ups found out, Ulu knew he would be executed by hanging.

The joy that had filled Ulu's heart quickly dissipated as he looked down at Lugi's lifeless body, a shiver of fear running through him.

"It... it should be fine," he muttered, as much to reassure himself as to appease Hiroshi. "There are only two priests in this church, me and Lugi. And he's old, frail—no one would be too surprised if he suddenly died."

Hiroshi's light chuckle filled Ulu's mind, dripping with disdain.

Ulu caught the undertone, but he didn't dare show the slightest hint of discontent—not after what he'd seen Hiroshi was capable of.

He quickly got up and started cleaning the scene.

As he worked, he couldn't help but ask, "That spell earlier, how did you do that?"

"It wasn't a spell," Hiroshi replied flatly. "Just a little trick."

Just a trick?

Ulu's heart pounded. He knew the spell Lugi had used earlier was his most powerful defensive magic, and yet Hiroshi had undone it with a simple snap of his fingers. And Hiroshi called it a small trick.

So this is the power of Visah'Su?

Terrifying.

What Ulu didn't know was that the technique Hiroshi used was actually the most powerful move he could currently muster.

It was called "Silence"—a power that could disrupt any spell casting and cancel all ongoing spells, though it had no offensive capabilities.

Hiroshi, or rather Visah'Su, had possessed many abilities, but when he was killed, his body was split into fragments by the gods, each containing a part of his powers. In the game, players had to gather these body parts to unlock new abilities. And "Silence" was considered one of the most powerful abilities throughout the game.

After all, it could interrupt spells regardless of level—even divine magic.

That's why Visah'Su's powers were called "rules."

However, using these rules wasn't without cost. Only Visah'Su himself could wield them without consequence.

For mortals, bearing the backlash of these powers was nearly impossible. In the game, every time the protagonist snapped his fingers, he would lose at least a quarter of his health, which couldn't be restored during the battle. The stronger the opponent, the greater the health cost—sometimes up to half or even three-quarters. Against the gods, a single snap would nearly drain the protagonist's entire health.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Now that the game had become reality, the cost of using "Silence" wasn't as simple as losing health, but there was still a price to be paid.

And it wasn't Hiroshi who would pay that price.

"Cough, cough, cough!"

Ulu suddenly doubled over, coughing violently for half a minute.

"Damn it," he muttered, glaring at Lugi's corpse with hatred. "That old bastard—even dead, his blood stinks."

Hiroshi remained silent, offering no comment.

Perhaps driven by lingering resentment, Ulu kicked Lugi's corpse before continuing to clean the room.

This wasn't Ulu's first time killing someone. He dragged Lugi's body outside, dug a shallow grave, and buried him. Then he cleaned the bloodstains in the room. It took less than an hour—he was quite practiced at it by now.

Of course, it helped that their location was so remote. Lugi and Ulu were like two men stranded on a boat in the middle of the sea; if one of them fell overboard, no one else would know or care.

At least, that's what Ulu thought, until he found an unfinished letter among Lugi's belongings, his whole body trembling as he read it.

"This... this bastard was already in contact with Bishop Corry!" Ulu's voice shook. "This is... a reply to the bishop!"

Hiroshi didn't need to see it to understand. He knew the story.

Bishop Corry was their direct superior, the one who distributed the relief funds. Ulu and Lugi had been skimming off those funds, and Corry was aware—he was part of the scheme.

Twenty years ago, it was Lugi who communicated with Corry. Twenty years later, it should have been Ulu's turn, but Lugi had gotten ahead of him, re-establishing contact with Corry. He even had Corry's reply and was about to send a second letter back.

In other words, Ulu's supposedly isolated little boat was already tethered to the outside world.

"What do I do? What do I do?" Ulu panicked. "If Bishop Corry doesn't get Lugi's reply, then, then..."

Halfway through his sentence, Ulu paused, looking down at the letter again.

It was almost complete, lacking only the date and signature.

A plan began to form in his mind.

"If I just finish it here, imitate Lugi's handwriting for the date and signature, then Bishop Corry wouldn't notice... probably," Ulu reasoned. Still, he decided to ask Hiroshi. "Lord Visah'Su, what do you think..."

But Hiroshi remained silent, as if he had fallen asleep.

Ulu didn't dare bother him over something so "trivial." After a moment of hesitation, he decided to go through with the plan.

If he asked Hiroshi for everything, Hiroshi would surely look down on him.

With that thought, Ulu sat at the desk and completed the letter.

His handwriting was already about seventy or eighty percent similar to Lugi's. Since he only had to finish it, he was confident Bishop Corry wouldn't notice the difference.

Once he was done, Ulu wrapped the letter and decided to send it first thing in the morning—better not to delay.

With everything settled, exhaustion and drowsiness hit Ulu like a wave. He put the letter in his pocket, returned to his room, and collapsed onto his bed, falling asleep almost instantly.

After Ulu was fully asleep, his left middle finger—more accurately, Visah'Su's middle finger—moved.

Hiroshi "looked" at Ulu, confirming he was dead to the world, before leisurely "summoning" the index finger.

As mentioned before, when Ulu used Hiroshi's power, his soul was slowly consumed by Hiroshi's.

Now, Ulu had already lost his index finger, though he hadn't noticed.

If Hiroshi wished, he could take control of that finger at any time—just like now.

The index and middle fingers stood upright on the bed, supporting the entire hand, like a tiny figure standing tall.

With just two fingers, there wasn't much Hiroshi could do, but it wasn't nothing.

Hiroshi controlled the little "hand figure," reaching into Ulu's pocket and pulling out the letter.

He carefully unwrapped it, dipped the index finger into the bloodstain on Lugi's clothes, and marked the letter—right over the words "To Bishop Corry"—with a bright, conspicuous smear.

Satisfied, Hiroshi put the letter back into Ulu's pocket, then returned the hand to its original position, lying down as if nothing had happened.

As for why he did this...

Hiroshi knew exactly what kind of person Bishop Corry was.

His full name was Corry Anderson.

But that wasn't important. What mattered was that he secretly possessed something called the "Eye of Truth," said to reveal all secrets of the world.

...Yes, that so-called "Eye of Truth" was known in the game as:

[Visah'Su's Left Eye].