Chapter 18

The two exchanged breaths.

And they were alone in a suite at a hotel known as the lovers’ sanctuary.

At this moment, what would happen between the two?

“Did you sleep well, Sonia?”

“Ugh…”

Amon, who had woken up early, asked Sonia as he came out after a shower.

Sonia rubbed her sleepy eyes and answered in a whiny tone.

Unlike Amon, who was used to going to bed early and waking up early for morning prayers, Sonia was weak in the mornings.

The morning sunlight shone down on her like a spotlight as she rubbed her sleepy eyes with messy hair.

The morning after the two became lovers.

The pajamas Sonia was wearing were cute animal pajamas.

Not a misunderstanding, they were literally animal pajamas.

Not naked, not lingerie or a swimsuit, not disheveled, and not the kind that’s hard to take off once worn—just comfortable and cozy pajamas with no special features.

Even though the two had become lovers and were alone in the room,

nothing historical happened between them.

The reasons were varied.

First, as devout believers, they valued premarital chastity.

But it wasn’t just for religious reasons.

If by any chance a child were to be born, they weren’t confident they could take good care of it.

They had no parents, no backing, no property or home.

An unplanned pregnancy could drastically derail their lives.

Moreover, both had memories of being abandoned and hurt by their parents.

As much as they had been hurt, they wanted to do better for their own child.

Therefore, they had no choice but to be cautious.

‘At least we need a safe home and a stable income.’

Until then, both had to endure.

But they didn’t feel too regretful.

They were still young, having only become adults a few months ago.

There was no need to rush.

– There’s more than one way to confirm love, right!

Sonia said as she pulled out the cute pajamas.

And so, they peacefully welcomed the morning.

However, the morning they welcomed was slightly different from usual.

For the two who had become lovers, everything was incredibly beautiful.

The morning sunlight on their second day at the resort,

the ordinary breakfast,

the pool scenery that was no different from yesterday.

Everything felt fresh and joyful.

Unlike yesterday, the two enjoyed themselves at the pool as real lovers.

A pink aura flowed between them.

The sight of the handsome man and beautiful woman looking genuinely happy drew people’s attention.

Before they knew it, they had become the main characters of the pool.

Influencers visiting the resort all captured the image of the handsome couple and shared it on SNS,

and that image was picked up by a major corporation’s image-searching AI.

***

[Target found.]

Hixen Group Headquarters office.

Inside, the businessman who had introduced himself as a manager at the orphanage received a report in his office.

With a cigar in one hand and massaging the buttocks of a woman in flashy clothes with the other,

he stopped massaging the woman and gestured for her to leave the office.

The humble demeanor he had shown when visiting the orphanage was nowhere to be seen; only an arrogant man remained.

The arrogant manager extinguished the cigar he was smoking and grumbled,

“Damn religious freaks. They hid well.”

He threw the half-smoked cigar into the trash and crossed his legs arrogantly, responding to the report in his head.

“Prepare the special task force.”

[But there’s the Holy Knight Order. The risk of a direct clash…]

“I’ll handle it, so get moving.”

[Yes!]

The communication ended.

As soon as the communication ended, the businessman called the prostitute he had sent out back inside.

Massaging the silicone-fat-latex triple-layered breasts designed to satisfy male lust, the businessman muttered.

“Soon, the secret garden…”

The prostitute pretended not to hear the businessman’s muttering.

She knew well that it was the way to survive in this world.

The darkness of the city was this deep.

***

The enjoyable time at the Blue Moon Resort ended after just two days.

For an unplanned, urgent trip, it was a very enjoyable experience.

Especially since it was a trip paid for by someone else’s money, the joy was doubled.

They had so much fun that as soon as they got into the car to return, they both passed out.

Sonia fell asleep leaning on Amon’s sturdy shoulder.

The height of her head resting on his shoulder was so perfect that she thought they were truly destined for each other.

Amon also fell into a deep sleep amidst the scent of Sonia’s lilac-scented hair.

In the pleasant sway of the car, Amon dreamed of his past life for the first time in a while.

Even though it was a dream of his past life, it was just a dream of coming home from work, turning on the computer, and playing games.

‘Today, I’ll play Punk City 3,’

In the dream, it was the day he played the third installment.

Why?

He didn’t know.

It was just the day he played the third installment.

He clicked on the icon of Punk City 3, located on the far right of the three icons lined up on the desktop.

The familiar company logo passed by,

<This work is fictional...>

Various warning messages to avoid legal responsibility also passed.

When the familiar main screen appeared, Amon clicked continue.

‘Where did I leave off last time?’

Amon often forgot where he had left off because he played multiple characters and series as he pleased.

As soon as the loading ended, urgent music started playing.

Along with it, the scenery quickly passed by.

Amon’s character was in a car.

‘A car?’

There was only one scene in Punk City where a car speeds away urgently.

Amon instinctively turned to the right.

A one-eyed man covered in assassination cyberware and magic tattoos was riding a motorcycle, glaring at Amon with red LED eyes.

‘As expected.’

It was a chase scene.

Early in the third game, the scene where the protagonist runs away with a valuable item from a corporation.

If Amon’s memory was correct, the next scene would be the ninja’s left arm opening with a whirring sound and firing armor-piercing bullets.

And as expected, the one-eyed man on the screen aimed his left arm at Amon, and the lid of his arm opened…

‘Huh?’

A sonic gun came out.

“Bow your head!!!”

Immediately after the priest’s shout, Amon reflexively bowed his head.

He didn’t forget to protect Sonia’s head.

As soon as he bowed his head, the car window shattered with a crash.

Feeling the glass shards falling on his head, Amon realized this wasn’t a game or a dream.

“What, why are ninjas suddenly appearing!”

Instead of Amon’s complaint, a scream woke Sonia up.

Seeing the shattered car window and the ninjas running alongside the car, no explanation of the situation seemed necessary.

She immediately regained her composure and looked for her gun.

“Ah, right. The trunk…”

The problem was that her gun was in the trunk.

This was the same for Amon, so both were unarmed.

Amon, with his head bowed, shouted at the priest.

“Father, do something!”

In response to Amon’s shout, the priest urgently replied.

“I’m an exorcist! I can handle ghosts, but not people!!”

“Then what’s that left arm for!”

“This will cause big trouble if used here!”

Probably something like sealing a demon or something.

In such a life-threatening situation, if it was something not to be used, there must be a reason, so Amon stopped questioning the left arm.

But that didn’t mean he gave up hope on the priest.

“What about the Holy Knights!”

“They’re the reason there are so few pursuers!”

“Then what, can’t you take off those glasses or open your eyes wide!”

“Are you mocking my small eyes in this situation??”

So it seems.

The narrow-eyed priest just had small eyes.

With that exchange, Amon gave up hope on the narrow-eyed priest.

In the end, it was time for Amon to take some risks.

Before taking action, Amon asked the priest.

“Father! Whose car is this!”

“Mine, but why-”

Before the priest could finish, Amon kicked the door open and shouted.

“File a workers’ compensation claim with the Vatican!!”

Due to the suddenly opened car door, the ninja trying to overtake the car was thrown off his motorcycle.

In return, the priest’s car door was torn off.

Watching the receding door through the rearview mirror, the priest wailed.

“No! The installments aren’t finished yet!!”

Leaving the priest’s wails behind, Amon wrapped the seatbelt around one hand.

Before leaning out of the car, he shouted at the priest.

“Open the trunk!”

Putting aside mourning for the rear door, the priest opened the trunk.

Amon pulled the seatbelt tight to secure himself and leaned out dangerously far.

While the seatbelt wrapped around his right arm held him, Amon opened the trunk of the moving car.

And with the strength of his left arm alone, he pulled out a case.

Dragging the case slightly on the road, Amon returned to the back seat.

He took out Sonia’s weapon and his own from the trunk.

Sonia had a semi-automatic rifle, and Amon had a three-fold folding knife.

Even though they were weapons, both were second-hand and not of great quality.

But both were confident.

As she pulled the bolt, Sonia asked Amon.

“Right, left?”

“From the direction I’m looking, left.”

“Then I’ll take the right.”

As the priest had mentioned earlier, thanks to the Holy Knights who came as escorts, there were only three pursuers.

One of them had been sent flying by Amon along with the door, so two remained.

As the two prepared for battle, the priest stopped them.

“It’s dangerous, they’re ninjas from a corporation! Not mere mercenaries!”

“I can tell. They must be from the Hixen Group.”

At Amon’s answer, the priest was about to ask how he knew but stopped.

Honestly, in this context, there was no one else but the Hixen Group who would send ninjas.

It was such an obvious fact that it was embarrassing to even call it deduction.

With that answer, Amon leaned out of the car again.

He held the knife between his fingers and analyzed the current situation.

Right now, Amon was being chased by the Hixen Group.

Their goal was abduction.

If the goal was assassination, the attack from the open left arm wouldn’t have been a sonic wave but something like a grenade or rocket.

‘Lucky.’

Under these conditions, it’s possible.

Of course, no matter how talented Amon and Sonia were, defeating the Hixen Group’s ninjas, clad in the latest corporate weapons and money, was impossible.

But escaping from them wasn’t impossible.

Amon stretched his knife-holding arm back long.

And like skipping a stone, he threw the knife horizontally.

Whoosh!

With a sound unbelievable for a knife, the ninja’s bike exploded.

Of course, even if the bike exploded, the ninja was fine.

The corporate capital’s masterpiece, wrapped in special alloy instead of protein, didn’t even get a scratch from the bike explosion.

But no matter how excellent the ninja was, chasing a car at full speed on foot was impossible.

If it were possible, they wouldn’t have appeared on bikes in the first place.

Left stranded in the middle of the highway, the ninja could only stare blankly at the priest’s car moving away.

When Amon returned to the back seat, Sonia, who had been leaning out the window, also came back inside.

The bike of the ninja she was supposed to handle had also had its tire blown and could no longer continue the chase.

“Good job, Sonia.”

Since Sonia’s door hadn’t been torn off, her chest was deformed as she squeezed back into the car through the narrow window.

Amon quickly imprinted the scene in his mind and praised her.

“You’re always amazing.”

It was a compliment in both shooting and size.

However, for Sonia, it was a compliment that sounded good either way, so she smiled in response.

Having shaken off the ninjas’ pursuit and left the remaining ninjas to the Holy Knights, they continued on their way.

With one door torn off, all windows shattered, and scratches and knife marks everywhere, the car still ran well.

But the priest driving the car was deeply troubled.

“My installments…”

Although exorcists earn a good amount, it wasn’t enough to turn a car bought on installments into scrap metal after just one month.

Driving a car that was almost certain to be scrapped, the priest seriously considered whether to request insurance processing from the Vatican when,

from the back seat, Amon and Sonia’s conversation was heard.

Sonia, putting her gun back into the case, looked at Amon’s empty case with sad eyes.

“Don’t you feel regretful?”

It was a second-hand knife, but still quite expensive.

Enough to spend several years’ worth of Amon’s allowance.

But Amon didn’t care at all.

“Is money important? Life is more important.”

He genuinely thought so.

‘There’s no save feature.’

If the knife he brought was a graduation gift from his swordsmanship instructor, Amon might have hesitated.

But the one he brought this time was just a portable folding knife, easy to carry around, so he could throw it without hesitation.

There was another reason.

“And you’re more important.”

“Amon…!”

Now that they were lovers, Amon didn’t hesitate to say such things, making Sonia blush, and the priest’s eyebrows twitched.

With Amon’s line, the back seat was filled with a pink aura.

The priest, already upset about the car being in tatters, found the two even more annoying.

Then, Sonia spoke to the priest.

“Um, Father. If it’s okay, could you buy Amon a new knife?”

That statement finally snapped the priest’s already thin patience.

“Miss Sonia.”

“Yes?”

“Do you have no conscience?”

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