At some point, Jenny’s mind began to feel slightly hazy.

“Ugh…”

A moan escaped her lips without her realizing it.

“Are you feeling unwell?”

She sensed a sinister intent in Oscar’s sleazy smile as he asked. This is dangerous. An alarm rang in Jenny’s head. She instinctively realized something was wrong.

“No, I’m fine.”

She said that and pretended to check the time on her smartphone while trying to send a message to Sungshik. But the phone displayed a “no signal” icon.

‘Ah.’

At that moment, she remembered the egg Sungshik had given her. An item he had told her to use if she ever found herself in danger.

Fortunately, she hadn’t stored it in her inventory but had kept it in her pocket. As she slipped her smartphone into her pocket, she crushed the egg with all her might.

Crunch.

The sensation of the egg breaking vividly transmitted to her fingertips. She didn’t know if it worked, but she desperately hoped it had signaled Sungshik that she was in danger. That’s how dire the situation was.

‘This…’

It wasn’t just that her mind was spinning. She had just tried to circulate her mana gently, but it felt unbearably heavy. In this state, she felt like she couldn’t even use half of her full power.

“May I use the restroom for a moment?”

Jenny spoke calmly without revealing her fluster.

“Ah, the restroom? The restroom is right over there.”

Oscar grinned sleazily and pointed to one side of the wall. There, a small chamber pot-like item had been placed.

“…What?”

Jenny frowned slightly and questioned.

“You can just do your business there. You’re going to take off all your clothes soon anyway, so why not get comfortable now?”

“Kekeke. Yeah, let us have a look at that pretty body of yours too.”

“Hehehe, I never thought I’d live to see Jenny naked.”

The bastards no longer hid their sinister intent.

If Jenny had come with Sungshik, they wouldn’t have dared to attempt something like this. But she had come alone, and that gave them the chance to carry out their plan.

They still held fear that the Heavenly Sovereign who had come with her might learn of this later. But once Oscar used the ‘Soul Subjugation Contract’ to bind Jenny, even the Heavenly Sovereign wouldn’t be able to do anything. At that point, Jenny would appear to be acting of her own free will.

And if the Heavenly Sovereign became aggressive, they could simply command Jenny to fight him.

“Hehehe, then shall we start having some fun together now?”

At those words, the Red Cross clan members came pouring into the training hall.

“You… filthy bastards.”

At the same time, Jenny’s face filled with fury. Aside from the outrage, her mana wasn’t responding to her will. Ever since reaching 7-star and beginning to synchronize slightly with external energy, she had never experienced anything like this.

‘It must be this incense.’

Jenny tried holding her breath, but it was already too late.

Yes. The incense burning in this room. It was reacting with the poison that had been mixed into the food Jenny ate, causing her mana to become rigid.

This was the result of a compound made from the poison of a monster called the ‘Twin-Headed Komodo.’

The ‘Twin-Headed Komodo’ was a lizard-type monster corresponding to a 7-star boss monster, with two heads.

Each head had venomous fangs with different types of poison. Individually, the poisons were colorless, odorless, and harmless. But when the two met within the body, they produced effects similar to petrification poison.

If petrification poison scattered internal mana, this one caused it to harden. It was potent enough to stiffen even the mana of a 7-star Superhuman. It was an extremely rare poison, but they spared no effort in using it to capture Jenny.

A single drop had been mixed into the wine she drank during lunch. Another drop was in the incense stick now burning. The success lay in the fact that inhaling the incense carrying the poison allowed the two poisons to interact inside the body.

However, the effectiveness had weakened. That was why Jenny could still use some of her mana.

“Our lady is quite cooperative, isn’t she? Let’s not make this hard for each other and keep things nice and easy.”

Their masks of hypocrisy were now completely discarded, revealing their true selves. Jenny held back the urge to vomit as she looked at their faces.

Flicker, flicker.

She tried to draw upon her fire mana, but it didn’t respond as desired. Now she was struggling even to use half of her full power. Her mana was becoming increasingly stiff, like stone.

“Oh my, it seems our lady wants to play with fire.”

“Heh, playing with fire using your body—we’d like that too. What a coincidence, huh, lady?”

“Kukuku.”

They were excited and chatting noisily. They had been worried whether the poison would work on Jenny, but it had been successful beyond expectations.

At first, they had planned to put a drop in the wine and another poison in the water, but Jenny didn't drink the water, so they thought they had failed. However, fortunately, mixing it into the incense turned out to be a brilliant move.

‘That was Coby's idea.’

Oscar thought to himself that the MVP of this operation was Coby.

Now, the only thing left was to subdue this young princess who had foolishly walked into the tiger's den. Everything would flow smoothly after that. They would drug her to cloud her mind, and then use the ‘Contract of Soul Subjugation’ to mortgage her soul.

“Alright, let's not waste time and finish this quickly.”

With those words, they rushed at Jenny.

‘What?’

Oscar was startled. It was clear at a glance that Jenny was having serious trouble managing her mana. He thought they’d easily subdue her without resistance.

But she stood her ground with her back against the wall, enduring their combined assault. Even if they were holding back to avoid hurting her too badly, it still made no sense.

Bang!

“Gah!”

Another clan member was blown away by the flame storm that burst from Jenny’s hand.

“Damn it, they say even a rotting mackerel is still a mackerel... No wonder she's considered the strongest Superhuman.”

He felt uneasy. What if Jenny regained her strength at this rate?

“Huff, huff.”

Jenny was panting heavily. Her mana definitely wasn’t responding the way she wanted. But the fact that she could move even a small amount of mana was crucial.

She was a 7-star Superhuman. One couldn’t reach 7-stars by mana capacity alone. Even with limited mana, she could still take them down one by one. However, fifty opponents was just too many.

She couldn’t exert her full power because of the stiffening mana. The more she used her power, the quicker the mana solidified. She responded to each attack with minimal force, taking one down at a time.

“Everyone move. I’ll take her on.”

Oscar pushed aside the clan members surrounding Jenny and stepped forward. He was filled with irritation seeing his subordinates groaning in pain from being wounded by her. But seeing the exhaustion clearly written on Jenny’s face, his irritation vanished.

Just in case, he had sent in his men first. Now it was confirmed. She really couldn’t use her power properly.

It annoyed him that he had to step in himself when she was already so worn out, but the thought of soon possessing Jenny’s fresh body erased his irritation.

“You’ve reminded me again just how amazing a 7-star is. Lady, shall we play now?”

Oscar grinned, showing his yellow teeth.

Oscar was a 6-star+ Superhuman. Jenny bit her lip hard. He was qualitatively different from the low-rank Superhumans she had just faced.

In her current condition… she couldn’t win against Oscar. Her instincts were screaming at her. She couldn’t defeat him in her current state.

“Why is this happening……”

She stopped mid-sentence. It was entirely her own decision to rush in here alone to investigate their intentions.

She admitted her own rashness. Though she was a 7-star Superhuman with exceptional abilities, she was still only in her early twenties and lacked worldly experience. Aside from being a 7-star Superhuman, she was merely a young woman who had just come of age and hadn’t yet shed her girlhood.

Only now did Jenny reflect. Her arrogance in thinking she would never be in such danger. Her reckless belief that the world revolved around her.

Such thoughts had brought this disaster. She had never imagined that she would be in such danger even after reaching 7-star.

‘What’s going to happen to me now?’

For the first time, a deep fear rose in her eyes. They were going to violate her. She would become their plaything and never leave this place.

Terrible thoughts kept flooding her mind.

‘I... I’m scared.’

Tears welled up at the corners of her eyes. If no one came to save her, her life might truly end here.

“Aww, don’t cry now…”

Just as Oscar was about to speak, seeing tears in Jenny’s eyes—

Crash! Bang!

With a loud crash, the training hall doors were blown apart. A young man and a boy stormed in. One of them was someone Oscar knew well.

‘Heavenly Sovereign Heo Sungshik! How is he already here?’

It was right after lunch. Even if Jenny had informed Sungshik before coming here, there was no way he could arrive this quickly. The training hall had its electronic signals blocked, so even if Jenny was in danger, she had no way to contact Sungshik.

According to the plan, Jenny would go silent today, and they expected Sungshik to arrive late at night or the next morning. By then, Jenny would already have been bound by the ‘Contract of Soul Subjugation’.

“Damn it, stop them!”

Oscar shouted to his men as he rushed at Jenny. He had to take her hostage first. If he could then subdue Sungshik too…

This might turn into a blessing in disguise.

Bzzzzt!

“What’s with this brat—gahhh!”

With a loud crackle, screams erupted from behind as the boy unleashed terrifying lightning and swept through Oscar’s men in an instant.

‘What the…?’

Oscar, in mid-charge toward Jenny, turned around and gaped. The kid who came with Sungshik was emitting overwhelming lightning, wiping out the subordinates.

‘Damn, I need to… fast…’

He had to make Jenny his hostage now. But he had overlooked two things.

First: When he turned around just now, Sungshik wasn’t in his field of vision.

Second: Even though he was charging at Jenny, she wasn’t looking at him. She was looking past him.

Thud.

“Kuh!”

Oscar’s eyes bulged in disbelief as he looked down at the sword piercing through his abdomen.

“Kuh, kuh.”

He tried to speak, but only blood spurted from his mouth in waves from the searing pain.

Wham!

Sungshik shattered Oscar’s dantian with the Heaven-Splitting Divine Sword and kicked him aside. Oscar rolled off to the side and collapsed.

“Sungshik! Waaahh!”

Jenny burst into tears and threw herself into Sungshik’s arms. Surprised at first, Sungshik soon patted her back gently.

Pat pat.

“You were really scared, huh? It’s okay now. It’s all over.”

Jenny cried in Sungshik’s embrace for a long while. At that moment, she looked like nothing more than a delicate young woman who had just become an adult. Jenny remained in Sungshik’s arms until Fletcher finished cleaning up the Red Cross clan members and approached.

“Noona, are you okay?”

Hearing Fletcher’s worried voice, Jenny stepped away from Sungshik, a little embarrassed.

“Y-yeah. I’m okay.”

Her tears had stopped, and she seemed to have stabilized. She had composed herself in a short time. No matter what, a 7-star Superhuman had strong mental fortitude.

Seeing that Jenny had calmed down, Sungshik approached Oscar.

When he pierced Oscar’s dantian with the Heaven-Splitting Divine Sword, a system message had popped up.

—‘Trait Devourer’ has activated! You can absorb the opponent’s trait.

At LV 1, Trait Devourer only had a 10–30% activation chance. Sungshik hadn’t struck expecting it to activate, but it had.

‘Not that it matters…’

He thought there’d be nothing worth taking from a lowlife Superhuman. At least, that’s what he believed before checking the system message.

‘Huh?’

When Sungshik read the system message, his eyes widened in shock. An unexpected trait had appeared.

—This Superhuman possesses two traits. Please select one to absorb using ‘Trait Devourer’.

1. [S Rank] Energy Manipulation
2. [EX Rank] Master of the Divine Beast

‘[EX Rank]?’

His eyes lit up. As far as Sungshik knew, only the Sword Emperor and Martial Emperor Sevrant possessed [EX Rank] traits. Including himself, that made just three in the world. That had been true in the past and likely would be in the future.

Yet here was another [EX Rank] trait appearing from a completely unexpected source.

‘This is…’

He swallowed hard.

‘Insight.’

Name: Oscar

Rank: 6-star+ (★★★★★★☆)

Traits: [S Rank] Energy Manipulation / [EX Rank] Master of the Divine Beast (Sealed)

After using Insight on Oscar, Sungshik understood why.

‘Ah.’

Indeed. This man had a sealed [EX Rank] trait within him. He was like Choi Moonguk, unaware of the potential he harbored.

Oscar would have eventually perished, without ever awakening his trait, either during the Gate Break era or in the Nights of Trial.

‘Even sealed traits can be absorbed.’

It was truly divine luck. The fact that Trait Devourer had activated on this man. A [EX Rank] trait, which could have vanished from the world, was now Sungshik’s.

—Absorbing ‘[EX Rank] Master of the Divine Beast’.