Dr. Spencer was helping Shane get to the portal, with Shane’s arms draped over his shoulders. Every step Shane took was accompanied by a rattling breath.

  Dr. Spencer couldn’t take it anymore. The guilt was eating him alive. He opened his mouth to ask if Shane was okay.

  “Hunter—“

  He barely got the first word out.

  Shane doubled over, coughing. The timing was so on point that Dr. Spencer thought, for a second, that Shane was pretending to cough to stop him from talking.

  But after Shane slapped a hand over his mouth to stifle the cough and pulled it away, Dr. Spencer saw it was smeared with bright blood.

  His voice was rough.

  “It’s Doctor,” rasped Shane. “Dr. Ray Spencer.”

  Dr. Spencer’s brain took a sluggish second to catch up.

  The System recording.

  They were still inside the dungeon. Who knew how much the Celestials could interfere with the System interface?

  So Shane was correcting him to maintain the cover. It was safer for Shane to keep up the act of being Dr. Spencer until the very end.

  Shane turned his head, his gaze landing on Henry who was hovering nearby with a face full of panic. He didn’t dare help Dr. Spencer carry Shane, though, in case other monsters attacked.

  “...It’s no big deal,” muttered Shane. “Just handle this quietly when we get out. I don’t want things getting messy with the press.”

  Keep his sacrifice buried.

  That’s what Dr. Spencer heard. Don’t make a fuss about the fact that Shane just offered himself to take a curse meant for someone else.

  Dr. Spencer’s face twisted into a knot of frustration. Until the very end, this guy was...! He wasn’t acting noble, more likely dismissive of his own life. And that fact somehow irked the doctor.

  In truth, from his blurry point of view, Shane was watching Dr. Spencer’s reaction out of the corner of his eye.

  Man, he looks pissed, Shane thought. For some reason.

  The perfect depiction of a man who’d just swallowed a bug.

  Shane had expected the doctor to feel a bit guilty, sure, but mostly just relieved. Relieved it wasn’t him coughing up blood and feeling like his insides were on fire.

  So what was he mad about?

  ...He wasn’t annoyed Shane got blood on his already muddy suit, was he?

  They stepped through the portal.

  The exit opened up right in Dr. Spencer’s penthous suite. Random dungeon portals sometimes opened up to different locations. It was a whimsy dungeon which Shane was ready to ask its creater why they had to make his life even harder.

  The room was tidy like no one had even occupied it. Looked like housekeeping had come by.

  Dr. Spencer, as an E-rank, was technically strong enough to manage Shane’s weight, but the height difference made him lurch with every step on the plush carpet.

  “I’ll take it from here,” said Henry.

  The tank moved in, ducking under Shane’s free arm and hoisting him up. Though he was also shorter than Shane, he had more experience in moving injured people. He crossed the living room fast, easing him down onto the king-sized bed in the master bedroom.

  Shane sat at the edge of the mattress and immediately exhaled, closing his eyes.

  Dr. Spencer needed to figure out what to do. Fast.

  “Hunter Stone, get the diagnostic kit from my briefcase. The silver one.”

  He looked straight at Shane.

  “Hunter Ashwell. What was it? What was the skill name? There must’ve been some sort of System message. Give me anything to work with.”

  Shane waved a hand dismissively. He looked pale, but strangely calm.

  “I’m fine.”

  Dr. Spencer scowled.

  “Fine? You call this fine? I already know that the White Wing put a curse on you.”

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  This was getting very awkward for Shane.

  He was only saying he was fine because it was the literal truth.

  His [Curse Immunity] had zapped the angel’s curse the nanosecond it made contact. Poof.

  The blood was just his [Mana Hypersensitivity] acting up.

  The dungeon clear bonus reward had dumped 5 points into his Mana stat at the same time he was hit with a high-ranked [Curse]. Usually, passive skills didn’t use much mana, but a direct one from a Wing was on a totally different level, it seemed.

  But there was no way to explain that without opening a whole other can of worms.

  And Shane didn’t really feel the need to explain his skills, either.

  Dr. Spencer was already fumbling for his phone, his fingers shaking so bad he almost dropped it. Probably because he was contacting both his Awakened researchers through the System and the non-Awakened through the phone at the same time.

  Shane was about to tell him to chill, that he had something else to ask, but Dr. Spencer beat him to it.

  “And what’s with the four EX-rank curses you’re carrying around?”

  The room went dead silent.

  Henry, who had been rushing over with the silver kit, froze in his tracks. He looked like he had no idea what they were talking about.

  And honestly, neither did Shane.

  Dr. Spencer must’ve thought the blank look on his face was an act, because he pinched the bridge of his nose, exhaling sharply.

  “My [Appraisal] skill,” he said. “Sometimes it... reads things I don’t mean to. And I picked up four distinct EX-rank curses from you. I didn’t even know those ranks even existed. So just be straight with me.”

  Ah.

  Shane understood what was going on.

  Dr. Spencer had seen his [Quirks].

  Yes, they were EX-ranks, but they were just [Chain Smoker], [Bad Navigator], [Insomnia] and [Mana Hypersensitivy].

  These were his goddamn character Quirks.

  But because they were fundamental, unremovable parts of the System, Dr. Spencer’s skill must have misinterpreted them as the deadliest curses known to man.

  This was ridiculous. Nobody could survive walking around with an EX-rank curse, let alone four. And when Shane meant nobody, he meant nobody.

  At least not among humans.

  Shane eyed Henry slightly. He needed an excuse. Fast.

  He racked his brain to remember all his trainings as a soldier. His work had required adlibs quite a few times.

  Compared to that...

  “They’re... in balance,” Shane lied, trying to sound convincing. “Each set of two conflicts with the other. They cancel each other out, creating a deadlock. And that keeps all four of them stable.”

  Dr. Spencer just stared at him with his mouth slightly open.

  Hmm. Did he buy it?

  “What?”

  Dr. Spencer started pacing, running his hand through his already messy hair. He was tracking mud all over the floor.

  It seemed he’d bought the lie. Shane felt proud for pulling the stunt in such short notice.

  “The fact that they’re EX-rank, a rank I’ve never even heard of, is already a huge problem, but this...?” Dr. Spencer groaned, grabbing his head. “This makes it almost impossible to remove them...!”

  Shane knew where the doctor was coming from.

  It was a common theory in this world, which he’d found when he looked up everything he could after realizing this wasn’t a game anymore.

  If you put two opposite [Curses] on someone—like one that made them so lazy they waste away and another that forced them to work nonstop until they die from exhaustion—they could theoretically cancel each other out.

  Of course, it was just a theory.

  And the danger was that instead of neutralizing both [Curses], it was highly likely they would alternate with each other in short intervals.

  If a person stayed that way for a while, they would go mad. But if you tried to remove the [Curses] at the same time, just ruining the balance might be enough to trigger one of the curses and kill the victim.

  In this case, that victim was Shane.

  This was actually a unique point of view for him.

  Were his Quirks actually [Curses]?

  Then, if he leveled his [Curse Immunity] high enough, would he be able to get rid of all his Quirks?

  This’ll be worth testing out.

  But, meanwhile, the mood in the room had gotten suffocatingly tense.

  Shane blinked slowly, then decided to just keep his mouth shut.

  Besides, he was getting tired anyway. He’d rather this conversation ended fast. He could ask for his “favor” later when he was in a better condition after a nice nap.

  Dr. Spencer stopped pacing and turned to Shane with a look of absolute determination.

  “Okay. I’ll check your condition personally, then.”

  Dr. Spencer ruffled his hair before continuing with a long sigh.

  “I’ll make you whatever medicine you need. Painkillers, stabilizers, suppressants. Anything.”

  He pointed a finger at Shane.

  “The only catch is you have to come to my lab for regular check-ups. No arguments.”

  Shane could hardly believe his ears.

  All he had wanted was access to Dr. Spencer’s high-grade, custom-made drugs that worked for Awakened, but the doc was offering to be his personal pharmacist on a permanent basis.

  This was better than he could have ever planned.

  Before Shane opened his mouth to agree, Henry, bless his ignorant heart, had to fucking open his mouth.

  “Then, Captain, who put all these curses on you? What sort of monster did you face?”

  Again, the silence filled the room.

  He hadn’t expected that his [Quirks] would be mistaken for [Curses]. He couldn’t just pull out good answers from his pockets.

  God, he really didn’t have any brainspace left for all of this.

  To be fair, wasn’t it inhumane to expect him to construct a believable lie without even warning him?

  Shane was suddenly grateful for his [Insomnia] and [Mana Hypersensitivity].

  Because right now, he felt like he could faint any minute.

  A nice nap for a few hours.

  And an excuse to escape this tricky situation while buying time.

  Because he couldn’t just ignore these questions. Not when he needed Dr. Spencer to cook him up a batch of painkillers and strong sedatives in smokable forms.

  Awakened needed special drugs and for a Quirk this strong, Shane couldn’t even use normal drugs issued for hunters. Who would need something like this except him?

  And he didn’t have enough money to keep buying them.

  Which was why he decided to “save” Dr. Spencer.

  Killing three birds with one stone. The only Quirk he’d have to worry about would be [Bad Navigator] after this.

  He noticed that there were multiple achivement rewards notifications blinking in his peripheral vision, but he ignored it.

  Instead, he acted like he was about to say something.

  Then, he let go of all the strength in his body.

  His torso slumped forward, as his grip on the consciousness he was barely hanging onto slipped, and he let the darkness embrace him.