WHEN A BOOK BECOMES THE STRONGEST WEAPON

16. Mission prepare

“Tody’s wound is worse than the others. I don’t think he’s going to make it.”

Shaden glanced over at Tody, who was laid down at the edge of the field. The casualties were more than he had expected after the second wave of goblin attacks controlled by Dany. Although the goblins vanished the moment Dany fled, that didn’t mean the injured and the dead would magically return to how they were.

One of them was Tody, who had been bitten on the arm by a goblin. The wound had become infected, causing half of Tody’s arm to rot.

“We have to amputate his arm,” said Shaden.

His words shocked Will and the others before expressions of regret formed on their faces.

“I wasn’t very close to Tody, and right now, he’s not in any condition to make decisions for himself. So it’s your responsibility to decide what to do—let him suffer and die, or cut off his arm and stop the poison from spreading through his body.”

Will looked the most shaken after hearing what Shaden said. For a moment, everyone fell silent, seemingly deep in thought. Then Will finally said,

“Bring a healer who can stop the bleeding after I cut off Tody’s arm.”

Will’s subordinates were stunned by his decision, but it turned out they were thinking the same. None of them wanted to lose Tody, so they chose to save him—even if it meant cutting off his arm.

When the healer arrived, Shaden turned away. He was confident Tody would survive once the rotting arm was removed, so he headed back to the upper section of the stadium. After all, he was still human—he needed rest too.

“What happened to Dany? Did you kill him?” Leah asked as they climbed the stairs.

Regretfully, Shaden shook his head. “I’m sorry. I let my guard down, and he got away.”

Suddenly, Leah punched his shoulder hard enough to make him flinch.

“Don’t say that! You tried harder than anyone else, so if you start blaming yourself, we’ll feel even worse.”

Shaden offered a faint smile. When they reached the top, he sat down, leaning back and gazing at the clear sky above the stadium.

“Did you already know that Dany had changed?” he asked Leah.

Tery, who didn’t really understand their conversation, decided to close her eyes and rest.

“In a way, I sensed it too. He’s always been a coward—he would never provoke me, especially now that I might be stronger than him. I also saw you trying to take him down. If you did that, then something must be wrong with Dany, right?”

Shaden nodded. “I think something happened to him during the second mission. By the rules, he should’ve died after failing to complete it. But somehow, he survived and looked much stronger than the last time I saw him. And earlier, it was obvious he was controlling a large number of goblins—far more than there should’ve been.”

“What?!” Leah shouted in surprise, waking Tery with her voice.

“Is there another monster attack?” Tery asked.

Shaden smiled slightly and shook his head. “No, go back to sleep. There’s no problem.”

With a bit of grumbling, Tery eventually lay back down and fell asleep again.

“Like I said, something’s off about him. Either he sold his soul to a demon like the managers in the West did, or something else happened. That sub-mission should’ve been easy if we just destroyed the goblins beyond their regeneration point. But instead, they kept increasing, and Dany was the only one not even trying to fight back. I slashed him with my scythe, and his wound turned black. That’s a sign of demonic essence, because the scythe I use is a relic from a great angel.”

Leah blinked. “Angels... do they really exist?”

It was a question Shaden didn’t expect at a time like this, and it amused him. He smiled, then nodded.

“At least now they do—because demons exist, too.”

If someone had asked him that before the world became like this, Shaden would have said angels didn’t exist. No matter how hard things got, no one had ever come to save him.

“So… what do we do now? How do we find Dany?”

Shaden exhaled slowly. “I don’t know either. What I’m wondering now is whether he’s still human. If he is, then he should be following the mission like everyone else, or his life would be in danger. But he escaped the second mission, skipped the sub-mission, and even disrupted it. That means… we have to consider the possibility that he’s no longer human.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not completely sure. But there are unregistered sponsors out there who cheat by buying human souls. That doesn’t mean the person dies, but part of their soul gets possessed by a demon and is sometimes completely controlled. Judging from Dany’s actions, that’s the most likely case.”

Leah seemed to struggle to grasp what Shaden was saying, which was understandable. If it weren’t for the book, he wouldn’t have understood any of it either.

“You... know about sponsors too?”

Shaden’s body stiffened for a moment. “Because sponsors are souls of the dead who were powerful during their lives. Didn’t you choose one, too?”

Leah nodded with a small smile. “But at the beginning, I thought intelligence would be the most valuable thing in this kind of world. So I chose a figure known for their intellect.”

Hearing that, Shaden immediately guessed that Leah might have chosen Einstein, though there were many other brilliant minds in history.

“That—”

KWAAAKKK

Shaden flinched. A deafening cry pierced the air, loud enough to wake Tery once again.

He looked up and was shocked to see the white swan from the first mission soaring overhead.

“Isn’t that... the swan of disaster?” Leah asked, trembling.

Everyone was just as terrified. That swan had become a symbol of this world’s destruction.

Shaden waited, hoping for a new mission announcement due to the swan’s appearance. But minutes passed, and nothing happened. The swan vanished, leaving behind only a voice in Shaden’s head.

“Human! Don’t fixate on one clue. Human! You changed it. You disrupted it.”

“Have you ever imagined this whole stadium turning into a farm?”

Shaden’s question made Tery and Leah—who were eating sausages from their supplies—frown.

“A farm? You mean like with crops?” Tery asked.

Shaden shrugged. “Maybe more like plants from a zombie game?”

Leah clicked her tongue and glared. “Why are you answering a question with a question? I know you know something, but you always talk in circles. It’s annoying!”

Shaden chuckled. He said no more, focusing on cleaning his weapon and the three face masks he had just bought using coins from Leah and Tery.

He still couldn’t forget the voice he’d heard after the swan vanished. Shaden had asked both Tery and Leah, but only he had heard it. That meant the message was aimed at him—because of the book that held the secrets of this world. The system might have realized Shaden knew too much. But what puzzled him was why they hadn’t done anything. If he was considered a bug, it wouldn’t be hard to eliminate someone like him.

“Hey! So you’re eating, huh?”

Shaden looked up at the voice of a man. It was Tody. Instinctively, Shaden glanced at the man’s severed left arm.

“I wanted to thank you personally—for everything you’ve done. I heard it was your suggestion to cut off my arm to save my life. I might look like a thug, but I’m terrified of dying. So your advice to Will and the others meant a lot to me. Thank you so much.”

Shaden watched him, seeing how hard Tody was trying to survive. His pale face said it all. The pain from a goblin’s bite wasn’t something one could just endure. Even with a healer’s help, the agony of losing an arm had to be unbearable.

“I didn’t do anything special. I did what anyone else could’ve done, so there’s no need to thank me. Will and the others wouldn’t have let you die either—they’d have chosen to cut your arm to save you. It wasn’t a big deal. What matters more is whether you’re okay now. It’ll be harder for you to fight from now on.”

“Shad! Why would you say something like that to someone who’s fighting so hard to survive?!” Tery scolded.

But Tody laughed, scratching the back of his neck.

“No, Shaden’s right. I actually see it as a sign that he cares. So it’s fine.”

Shaden turned his face away. “I didn’t say that to move you. You’re just reading too much into it.”

“Ah, so this is how Shaden shows he cares? I didn’t know that!” Leah chimed in.

Embarrassed, Shaden clicked his tongue and stood up.

“Enough! I told you not to thank me. Just focus on surviving from now on. And tell Will not to bother fixing the field—it looks like the fourth mission is about to begin.”

Tody nodded. “Okay. I’ll let him know.”

After Tody went back down to inform Will of Shaden’s message, Shaden handed out the face masks to Leah and Tery.

“The next mission might seem easy at first, but it’ll also be extremely difficult.”

Leah and Tery exchanged nervous glances. “What’s going to happen?”

Shaden was silent for a moment. He had intended to memorize the stadium’s layout, but he knew it would be pointless.

“Remember this—you need to get used to fighting with your eyes closed. We have about two hours before the fourth mission starts. If you want, you can head down and start training now. You need to sharpen your instincts and other senses to fight in limited visibility.”

Looking horrified, Tery asked, “Is the stadium going to go completely dark?”

“Hmm… I’m not sure. But probably something like that.”

Tery immediately stood up and grabbed Leah’s hand.

“Let’s train now! We have to use every minute if we want to survive. In this world, only Shaden knows what’s coming,” she said to Leah.

Leah nodded. “You’re right. And he always gives us half the information. I don’t want to die just because I couldn’t figure out what he meant.”

Shaden laughed at their antics, shaking his head in amazement as they ran off to the field to practice.

Left alone, he watched as everyone else also prepared for the fourth mission.

But his smile vanished when his eyes spotted someone—someone who had escaped him.

He immediately dashed toward the east side of the stadium, chasing after Dany, who hadn’t noticed him yet. The crowd on the field made it hard for Shaden to reach him.

“Damn it!” Shaden cursed, frustrated that things weren’t going as planned.

Even when Leah and Tery called after him, he ignored them this time.

He nearly reached Dany, who seemed to be doing something. But at the last moment, he stopped.

[Prepare! The fourth mission will begin in five minutes! Please clear the farm area! Please clear the farm area!]

“What? Why is the mission starting so soon?” Shaden asked in confusion.

And he wasn’t the only one. Everyone else was confused, especially since no one knew what “farm area” meant.

“Shad! You said we had two hours before the mission started?!” Tery called out, running up to him with Leah.

Shaden’s eyes were still locked on the spot where Dany had just been—now empty once again.

“I don’t know. But we don’t have time now. We need to get to the top before the field turns into a farm!” he shouted.

Without wasting another second, Shaden and his two companions raced upward, shouting for everyone else to get to safety. But few listened, and many were thrown aside when massive plants with powerful roots burst from the ground.

[Mission Four Begins! Survive the poisonous fog sprayed by the Peashotter plants. Find an exit within one hour.

Reward: 1000 coins and one random item.

Failure penalty: Death.]

**