One week later.

  The sun rising from the east roused Ernest from his meditative state. He opened his eyes. Through the translucent window glass, sunlight penetrated into the room he was currently in.

  In the Netherworld, there was no such thing as blue sky or warm sunlight. Outside the window glass, the view of the modern city was clearly observed since the room was on the top floor.

  He rose to his feet and flexed the muscles in his body.

  A week ago, the muscles in his body still felt very stiff, but after a week of flexing, there was no longer any abnormality in the movement of his muscles.

  When he stood by the window pane, the image of his face was clearer than when he looked in the refrigerator where the corpses were.

  Only two years had passed, but his face had many changes. The once short hair had become very long and messy. The mustache that he never had before had also grown faintly.

  “Am I really this old?”

  He wanted to cry when he saw his disgusting appearance, just like children who did not want to grow up. But that did not last long. His mind, which had matured, managed to keep him calm. He was more concerned with the progress of his cultivation during this week.

  Although he had been meditating for a week, he had not awakened; however, the side effects of the curse on his body, in the form of pain all over his body, had greatly diminished.

  Regardless of his physical state, he felt that there was a thick wall blocking his path to awakening.

  [Progress Rate: 50%.]

  Ernest’s cultivation progress rate to reach the first stage of the Divine Harmony cultivation technique was stagnant at 50%.

  ‘Is it because of the curse on my body that I can’t awaken and break through the first level of the Divine Harmony cultivation technique?’

  He felt that he needed an external factor in order to further improve his cultivation progress rate. The external factor Ernest thought of was medicine, not modern medicines used for common human ailments, but rather medicines made from mana-containing materials.

  Since the Great Catastrophe, apart from affecting humans, the mana particles in the air have also affected animals and plants. So, he was sure that there would be some medicines that could help his progress out there.

  However, in order to purchase those various medicines, which he himself did not know what they were, he needed a lot of information and money. On the other hand, he didn’t even have a penny or any acquaintances he could ask.

  ‘Looks like I’ll have to find a job.’

  ‘The question is, will my body be able to do various common jobs out there?’

  In order to answer that question, he decided to start exercising and test how strong his body was in strenuous physical activities.

  A few minutes later.

  Knock-knock!

  The door to the room where he was being treated suddenly rang. As if the knock was just a standard operating procedure, the door suddenly opened without waiting for Ernest to answer.

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  It turned out to be Olivia, but Olivia did not immediately step in. She stood still without daring to move her body at all.

  A few seconds later, Olivia’s face turned pink.

  “I seem to have entered at an inopportune moment.”

  Olivia’s face would not turn pink if she saw Ernest under normal circumstances.

  It was just that Ernest was topless and doing push-ups on the floor. He had thrown his patient’s shirt on the floor because of the heavy sweat pouring from his pores. One drop after another of sweat began to soak the floor, creating an unsightly scene, especially for a shy woman like Olivia.

  Olivia spontaneously covered her face with one hand and pretended to cough.

  Nevertheless, she occasionally glanced at Ernest’s body.

  Unfortunately, Olivia’s expectation of a man’s muscular body when doing sports was destroyed. Automatically, the pink blush on Olivia’s face slowly faded as she lowered the hand that had been covering her face.

  Ernest’s body looks very thin. However, when you look closely, there are faintly visible traces of toned muscle mass. Not only that, there were also many scars on Ernest’s white and smooth skin, as if behind Ernest’s thin body, there was a hidden story.

  When Ernest realized Olivia’s existence, he got up quickly and immediately covered his chest with both hands. He pretended to be embarrassed and realized that his body was nothing to be proud of.

  Fortunately, the bright smile that Ernest flashed destroyed his lie as if telling everyone that he wasn’t embarrassed at all.

  “S-stop reacting as if you’re a victim of harassment. W-who told you to misbehave in the hospital.”

  “May I ask if you’re shy or brave? Even though you know I’m topless and sweaty, you still dare to glance?”

  After responding to Olivia’s grumbling, Ernest stopped caring about Olivia’s arrival and stopped pretending to be shy. What he was more concerned about was the result of the experiment he had conducted.

  ‘I guess this is the limit of my body’s ability right now.’

  His body was already sweating profusely. The signs of his consciousness wanting to run away were already there. Without any order from his brain, his body staggered slightly until his hand unconsciously rested on the bed.

  The good news was that he did not faint immediately despite the long exercise.

  “You seem to be in good health, considering you still had time to exercise!?!”

  Olivia, who had switched to professional doctor mode, came and helped Ernest to sit on the bed, took Ernest’s clothes, and told Ernest to put them on.

  “It’s not good if you push yourself right away....”

  “Why are you here?”

  Before Olivia finished lecturing Ernest about exercise procedures for patients who had just woken up from a vegetative state, Ernest asked first.

  “...Come to my consulting room immediately. We have to talk.”

  Olivia originally planned to talk inside Ernest’s wardroom, but due to the smell of sweat in the air, Olivia canceled her intention. While covering her nose, Olivia hurriedly went out.

  Only a confused Ernest was left.

  ‘You haven’t told me where your consulting room is.’

  ***

  Although, in the end, Ernest managed to find Olivia’s consultation room, due to the size of the hospital, Ernest was confused about looking for it even after asking several nurses who had passed by.

  “Please have a seat.”

  While inviting Ernest to sit down, Olivia took off the white robe from her body and hung the robe on the robe hanger.

  As she sat down on her office chair, Olivia massaged her shoulders from left to right as if she was exhausted.

  Ernest’s butler soul thrashed as if he wanted to give Olivia a massage immediately. Back in the Netherworld, he often massaged Lilu as a leisure activity—to let the other demons see that Ernest was actually busy.

  “Should I massage your shoulders?”

  “...Wh-what are you talking about? Are you crazy?”

  “It seems like you have a very heavy burden.”

  Seeing Ernest talking while looking at her boobs, Olivia instantly understood what the burden Ernest mentioned meant. Feeling harassed, she wanted to warn Ernest, but before Olivia could scold Ernest, an uninvited guest stormed into the room.

  “Oh, do you have a guest?”

  Hearing a familiar voice, Ernest immediately turned his face to the entrance, where the voice had come from. When he saw who was coming, he immediately realized that it was the doctor who had previously taken him to the morgue, the person who was likely looking to sell his internal organs illegally.