Unholy Player

After returning home and enjoying a peaceful dinner with his family, Adyr spent the night in calm company. The next morning, after a shared breakfast, he left the house and made his way back to the player headquarters.

Normally, he treated his time with family as sacred, free from outside distractions—but this time, Eren’s words lingered in his mind. The possibility of a Spark, like Mindrake, kept looping in his thoughts, and he was eager to return to the other world and begin searching for it.

During his visit to the marketplace the day before, he hadn’t come across any Spark matching that description. But that didn’t mean it hadn’t been there. Adyr had focused primarily on Nether-aligned Sparks and had skipped over most shops selling Sparks of other paths. This time, however, he knew exactly what he was looking for. That would make things much easier.

After arriving at headquarters and changing into his usual gear, Adyr was about to head to the playroom when two researchers approached him at his door.

Both were elderly and clearly carried an air of authority. It wasn’t hard to guess why they had come.

"Mr. Adyr, good morning. We’re here on behalf of Henry Bates regarding a matter he mentioned. Would you have a moment?" One of them asked, adjusting his glasses.

"Ah, I’ve been expecting you, but I don’t have much time," Adyr replied with a light smile. Without wasting words, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a palm-sized stone—Grave Bloom, the Spark he had extracted from the Cannibal. "You’re here for this, right? We had a deal. Name your price, and it’s yours."

Both researchers’ eyes lit up the moment they saw the stone. They exchanged a quick glance before one of them spoke.

"May I hold it for a moment?"