Father Barry cleared his throat, corrected his attitude, and gratefully said, "Thank you very much for your trust in us. I just hope my companions can live up to that trust."
Hanjun replied, "I believe they will."
Father Barry gave a small bow to Hanjun, calmed his emotions, and left.
Hanjun watched him walk away, and once he was out of sight, subtly wiped his face.
Hanjun didn't mention it and gave Father Barry enough space to process his feelings.
Of course, after Father Barry had left, Hanjun also stepped out of the church.
He stood at the entrance, silently gazing into the distance.
Some players nearby noticed him but had no idea what he was looking at.
Seeing his serious demeanor, they didn't dare ask any questions and quietly passed by.
In reality, Hanjun had only been standing there for a short while when a voice from far away suddenly echoed in his ears.
Although it came from a great distance, it sounded as if it was right next to him, and he heard it clearly.
"You're wavering."
Hanjun answered without hesitation, "I am not."
The voice said, "If you weren't wavering, you wouldn't have responded the way you just did."
Hanjun knew exactly who the voice belonged to.
The person speaking was still lying deep within the Abyss, unwilling to stir.
For some reason, perhaps something unexpected, he had suddenly reached out for a heart-to-heart conversation with him.
Hanjun had no desire to continue the conversation, so he chose to remain silent.
But the other wasn't about to give him that opportunity. "I'm going to win. In the bet we made, you're going to lose."
Without changing his expression, Hanjun replied, "Are you so sure of the outcome already, even though nothing has been decided yet?"
"Stop struggling. Even your own followers understand that humans aren't fully trustworthy. There's no need for you to waste time and effort helping them."
Hanjun admitted to himself that there was truth in what was said, but he countered, "If they can't be trusted, does that mean they should all be wiped out? Why is the destruction of the world your only answer?"
After his attempt failed, the God of Darkness withdrew again.
This encounter, however, sparked Hanjun's thoughts on how to deal with the God of Darkness.
Yet, given the God of Darkness's stubbornness and Hanjun's reluctance to truly harm him, he found himself at a loss for what to do.
Still, Hanjun believed that perhaps among the players, there might be someone who could come up with the perfect solution.
Before that could happen, though, he needed to guide the players toward the truth of what had happened in the past.
This way, they could start thinking of strategies on their own.
On second thought, giving this task to too many players wouldn't be ideal.
It would be better to make it a hidden quest and assign it to just one player.
The best chance of finding an answer might lie in the old records of the Church of Light.
There could be some clues hidden in those texts.
Hanjun didn't want Father Barry to know about this.
He had planned to hand the quest over to a player instead.
As for which player, Hanjun already had someone in mind.
Opening his favorability list, Hanjun selected the player with the highest favorability rating, and a nickname appeared in front of him.
Seeing the name, Hanjun raised an eyebrow.
It was Master PungPong.
This player had earned a lot of favorability points early on and had continued to complete many mainline quests, steadily raising his favorability.
By now, his standing was far above that of other players.
Hanjun also knew that Master PungPong had a teammate skilled in analysis.
With that in mind, even if he entrusted the quest to Master PungPong, his friend would likely help him uncover some useful clues.
Once Hanjun had made up his mind, he was ready to act.
He randomly grabbed someone nearby to ask them to summon Master PungPong.
What Hanjun hadn't anticipated was that the person he pulled aside turned out to be a player in the middle of completing their daily quest.