Twelve hours of sleep seemed to have only brought me back to the state of exhaustion I was used to. I took Rafe’s two thumbs out of the ziplock bag, placed them at the severed ends, and snapped my right fingers—his hands returned to their original form.

  I could sense that the three of us had countless questions, but none of us intended to speak them aloud. Rafe and Tuesday seemed to have their own understanding of my ability. They looked at me with complicated expressions, as if showing mercy to someone doomed.

  "Okay, you now qualify as a hunter. I’ve got a job here—issued by the Ainsworth clade. Interested?" Rafe didn’t give me the chance to decline. He handed over a file folder that looked worn and frayed, as if I’d be stuck in that posture forever if I didn’t take it. "It’s really simple for you."

  Tuesday, standing behind Rafe, nodded at me, made an “okay” gesture, then raised two fingers and drew them across his throat in a slashing motion.

  Maybe there really are people in this world who click instantly. I understood what Tuesday meant and took the folder without hesitation, anxiously flipping open the first page.

  I couldn’t understand a word.

  Rafe summed it up in a few sentences: a high-paying bounty issued by Ainsworth Energy Group through various channels—now renamed as an “outsourced project”—to extend the usage time of a Collection called [Furnace of Life].

  “Eternity’s in your hands, right? You just need to apply the remaining three months of Eternity’s usage time to the Furnace of Life. That counts as completing the project, and you’ll get seventy-five percent of the payout.” Rafe seemed confident, showing me a photo.

  It was a check for thirty million Australian dollars. I counted the zeroes twice just to be sure.

  It didn’t make sense. I’ve never believed in free lunches, and I certainly don’t think I’m lucky enough to just stumble into tens of millions.

  I picked up a glass of water, poured it toward the balcony, and when the water hit its highest point, I pointed at it with my left index finger.

  The droplets and the sheet of water froze in midair, glimmering brilliantly under the sunlight. I stared at this rare and wondrous scene, silently counting the seconds in my head. After twelve seconds, the water fell along its predetermined path, splashing across the balcony floor and leaving a large wet mark.

  “Sorry, I don’t want the job. I also don’t know how to give Eternity back to you.” I extended my left hand toward Rafe, fully prepared to dismantle him into a human 3D puzzle. “The director put the thing inside my body. If you can find a way to take the bones out, I’ll cooperate with you in Nowhere.”

  Rafe was unusually accommodating. “It’s alright. You keep it. I know you don’t trust me yet. Tell me what I can do to prove I’m sincere—anything.”

  Right now, Rafe feared me. He was treating me like a hand grenade with the pin already pulled. I hugged the warm, stinky little dog, just wanting to go back to sleep.

  "Don’t be like that. You must have things you want to know—maybe this guy even knows your father," Tuesday’s voice flowed past my ear like a Long Island iced tea. "Eternity isn’t Rafe’s Collection. He’s just looking for the hunter most suited to wield it. If you let this go unchecked, it could cause serious trouble."

  How much did Rafe actually know? And how much had he told others? Annoyed, I opened my photo album, dug into the hidden space, and pulled out two sets of family portraits from different periods. I decided that if I didn’t get anything useful from Rafe’s mouth, I’d dismantle another one of his body parts. "You don’t seriously know them, do you?"

  A vague gasp of recognition snapped me out of my thoughts. I lifted my head from my arms and looked at Rafe.

  "You’re Lu’s daughter? No, wait… You and Tree are—he’s your dad too?"

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  I burst out laughing. The more I thought about it, the funnier it got. Eventually, I curled up on the couch, rolling and laughing uncontrollably for several minutes before finally speaking.

  "The dead one’s my biological father. Lu is my stepfather—at least he’s still married to my mom. Is being a hunter some kind of inherited occupation? Or do hunters just tend to be drawn to each other?"

  Rafe’s gaze wandered between me and the enlarged photo. He opened his mouth twice but couldn’t get a word out.

  "People with hunter relatives do have an easier time opening the Path. All the second- and third-generation kids from those old clades—they’re practically all born hunters, like a hereditary disease, passed down one generation to the next." Tuesday poured the rest of her orange juice into my glass like she owned the place. "But Skills—those only come after entering Nowhere."

  That wasn’t right. My Skill existed even before Rafe opened the Path. The doubt didn’t linger long in my mind—my biggest threat now was the two people standing in my home. Maybe I should also include the original owner of “Eternity,” which was now fused with my left index finger.

  "Oh god, I should’ve seen it. You look exactly like Tree," Rafe said, waving the family photo featuring my biological father in front of me. "That explains a lot. Does Lu know you’re now…?"

  "No. Don’t tell him yet." A brilliant idea flashed through my foggy mind like lightning. "That Ains—"

  "Ainsworth clade. The Eternity assignment," Rafe filled in immediately.

  "I’ll try my best to help you complete that task. I don’t even need that much of the reward—I honestly can’t imagine what I’d do with that kind of money anyway." I inhaled the warm, stinky scent from the back of the little dog’s neck for inspiration. "After this mission, how about you, as my boyfriend who’s about to marry me, come with me to visit my parents?"

  Rafe looked like he had swallowed a spider mid-breath. His expression was absolutely priceless.

  "What the hell are you planning?"

  "You’re a headhunter who happened to notice that the victim in a hunter attack case looked strangely familiar—identical to that hunter Tree. You found a way to move into the victim’s house, and at her most vulnerable moment, a little temptation was all it took for her to fall hopelessly in love with you, insisting that you meet her parents no matter what." I kissed the dog’s snout with excitement, feeling like a genius. "You did all of this just to get close to Lu’s family! Doesn’t that sound perfectly reasonable?"

  Tuesday was laughing so hard she doubled over, giving me an enthusiastic thumbs-up.

  "Okay, it actually makes sense. But you think no one will notice you’ve opened the Path?" Rafe scoffed a little. "You’ll feel it soon enough—there’s a distinct difference between hunters and regular people."

  "I just need you to draw most of Uncle Lu’s attention and create a chance for me to be alone with him. I’ll figure out a way to look completely unrelated to Nowhere. You don’t have to worry about the rest."

  Rafe sighed and said half-jokingly, "You didn’t also install surveillance on his balcony, did you?"

  Tuesday leaned in next to me with great interest, staring seriously into my eyes. Her amber-glowing gaze, under her arched brows, almost made me forget what I was about to say.

  "Not the balcony. The bathroom—I embedded the camera inside the toilet seat." I let out a sigh. "The angle covers the sink and medicine cabinet. With luck, I can hear conversations. If I’m unlucky, I’ll see water splashing from someone’s shit. Wanna see?"

  Rafe’s mouth opened and closed like a constipated asshole trying its best to pass gas. I waited a long time and didn’t hear even a single shit of a word.

  I glanced toward Tuesday without realizing it, only to find that she had been watching me all along—with those beautiful, cat-like eyes.