Hell’s Handbook

r each attack, allowing it to make multiple attacks in a short period of time, which made it seem as though there were a few hundred Rumors attacking simultaneously.

After being attacked so intensely, the man couldn’t move anymore.
But he continued to look at Su Jin and muttered, “What an amazing weapon to have! I’m so envious! I want it!”

“That golden armor looks really good too! If only it were mine!”

“That knife looks amazing too! I’m sure it’s really sharp! I really want that too! Why isn’t it mine?”

His repeated ramblings made it clear to Su Jin that this man was definitely possessed by Jealousy.
Only Jealousy would keep wanting everything that others had and believe that these things were better than his own.

Su Jin didn’t want to waste any more time and chopped his opponent’s head off in one fell swoop.
If he tried to drive the Original Sin out, it would revert to its original form and attack him, which might be even harder to deal with.
So, he decided that it was easier to chop off the man’s head with his Boning Knife and scare Jealousy away.

“I’m really sorry I have to do this to you, but I think it will actually be more of a relief to you,” said Su Jin with a sigh.

Once he was done dealing with Jealousy, he ran after Ning Meng again.
When he stood in her way, she pulled Black Fire out and started shooting at him.

Su Jin started running immediately.
The last thing he expected was for Ning Meng to use the weapon he had lent her to attack him in return.
What was going on?!

“Ning Meng, it’s me! Su Jin!” yelled Su Jin as he kept moving.
If he stopped for even just one moment, bullets would start raining on him again.

“You’re lying! I won’t be fooled by you!” yelled Ning Meng nervously.

Su Jin noticed that there was something very wrong with Ning Meng.
Besides the wounds on her body, he noticed that her eyes were shut tightly and blood was flowing from her eye sockets.

“You’re hurt?” Su Jin decided to use his psychokinesis to overwhelm Ning Meng’s consciousness, making her feel dizzy without hurting her.

Ning Meng felt her head spin before realizing that someone had caught hold of her hands.
She was terrified and tried to push Su Jin away, to find that she simply couldn’t find the strength to do so.

“It’s okay, Ning Meng, it’s okay, it’s really me.
I’ve already dealt with Jealousy and it’s gone.
Look, if I were really possessed by that Original Sin, I would kill you right now instead of taking time to talk to you and convince you otherwise.”

“B-boss? Is it really you?” Ning Meng realized that Su Jin made sense and she immediately calmed back down.

“It is me.
Now, tell me what happened to your eyes,” said Su Jin.

Ning Meng shook her head sadly and tried to stay strong as she explained, “I was ambushed and my eyeballs were both destroyed, so I can’t see anything now.
But it’s alright, I exchanged my points for something in a previous Challenge that can help me to move about based on just my sense of hearing and smell.”

Su Jin nodded in response.
This ability might have been pretty useless anywhere else, but it was perfect for this Challenge.
Besides, there was nothing else but sand here, so she didn’t have to worry about running into anything2.
She just had to duck and hide if someone was running after her.
But even so, Su Jin was really impressed that Ning Meng had made it this far by relying on just her sense of hearing and smell.

“Boss, did you run into anybody else? You’ve got to be careful! Anybody could be possessed by one of the Original Sins!” said Ning Meng.

Su Jin nodded and he said in a quiet and dejected voice, “Ning Meng, Yang Mo…Yang Mo’s dead.”

Ning Meng started trembling and she flailed about in shock.
Su Jin held onto her hands firmly and said, “Don’t be afraid! I’ll protect you and I’ll make sure that nothing happens to you!”

His words were very comforting to Ning Meng, so she nodded and calmed down again as she said sadly, “Yang Mo…was a really nice person.”

“I agree, he definitely was.
But unfortunately, whether you’re nice or not doesn’t have any effect on your chances of surviving a Challenge,” said Su Jin with a sad sigh.
He turned and said to her, “Let me carry you on my back? It will take you a long time to move about in your current state.”

Ning Meng agreed and knew that Su Jin wouldn’t have any trouble carrying her since he was so strong, so she climbed onto his back obediently.

“Oh, but Boss! What if an Original Sin decides to possess one of us?!” asked Ning Meng frantically when she realized that this might happen.

Su Jin consoled her, “Don’t worry, I think I’ve found a pattern to the way the Original Sins choose who to possess, so both of us will be just fine.”

Ning Meng didn’t ask any other questions since Su Jin was confident that her worries were unfounded.
All the members of Team Boning Knife trusted Su Jin wholeheartedly, even Ning Meng, despite being the newest to join the group.

As Su Jin walked with Ning Meng on his back, he continued trying to pick up any signals from his other team members.
Ning Meng was working hard to – she was still thinking about the introduction to the Challenge that was taken from Dante’s Divine Comedy.

“Oh! I remember now! I remember the back half of the poem!” Ning Meng suddenly sat up and patted Su Jin’s shoulders excitedly.

“Oh? Tell me what it says!” Su Jin was very interested to hear about this poem, since the Handbook only used half of it.
The other half could very well be the key to whether they could survive this Challenge or not.

This sounds creepy but I guess there’s…nothing else?↩ Only what about that Pride shrine that refused to go away huh??↩