The boss's firm attitude irritated Dusk a little, but he couldn't say it was unreasonable—after all, she was mafia.
Right now, he was in a disadvantageous position, so he had no intention of pushing his luck. Otherwise, he'd be the one to suffer.
"Calm down and let me explain," Dusk said. "Becoming a Heart Master and reaching Rank 1 isn't that hard, actually. A young person living in this era—if they can survive for forty or fifty more years—they'll get there eventually."
He paused abruptly.
The boss frowned. She didn't sense any signs of lying in his words, but she still felt like he wasn't telling the whole story.
"Don't try to play games with me. Do you think you don't have the guts to speak the truth? Fine—let me help you out." Her voice was cold.
Then she pulled out a handgun, loaded it, and aimed it straight at his forehead.
"Feeling more talkative now?"
'Damn it. A true warmonger. Give her an opening, and she pulls out a gun.'
Dusk cursed inwardly. He had just paused for a moment—was that really something to freak out over?
"Can't you calm down for a second? Why do you always have to draw a gun whenever things get tense?"
"Hmph. I can stay calm. I just don't like staying calm while someone schemes in front of me." She snorted, her gun still steady.
But Dusk noticed a subtle change in her attitude. From the killing intent radiating off her, he realized that if he said anything that sounded like bullshit, she wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger.
Originally, she didn't plan to kill him—but now that she had some information, her intentions were starting to shift.
"There is a faster way to break through," he said. "First, you can use Spirit Fruits. They're special fruits that absorb power from the earth itself. Of course, there are also knockoffs created by powerful people—but those usually come with a lot of side effects."
At that, the expression on the boss's face eased noticeably. Seeing that, Dusk was relieved—at least she wasn't going to shoot him in the head just yet.
"Tell me how to find a Spirit Fruit." She gave the gun a little shake, issuing a clear order.
Even in his past life, having lived for over three hundred years, Dusk had never met anyone who acted so high and mighty like his current superior. Who would've thought that not long after his rebirth, he'd run into one?
"Spirit Fruits can grow on pretty much any kind of plant. Basically, if you see a strange fruit with a faint glow around it, that's probably a Spirit Fruit. But they're extremely rare and hard to find—way rarer than even the most precious ginseng." Dusk explained patiently.
The boss fell into silent thought. Her organization wasn't weak, but they didn't have the manpower to scour the entire world.
And inspecting every single fruit on the planet? That was impossible—unless she used an AI system. But the cost of that was something she couldn't afford.
"So in the end, finding a Spirit Fruit really just comes down to luck." She sighed.
Seeing that she understood the situation—and wasn't about to order him to go spirit-fruit hunting—Dusk quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
'Even though I do know the locations of a few Spirit Fruits… they haven't formed yet. How the hell am I supposed to find them now?'
He thought to himself, feeling a bit lucky that she hadn't suddenly gone insane and forced him to do something impossible.
"Is there… a more practical method?" she asked. "Finding a Spirit Fruit sounds harder than winning the damn lottery."
The others in the room nodded in agreement. Just thinking about searching through every single fruit in existence was exhausting enough.
"I don't—"
Dusk didn't even get to finish his sentence before her sharp, ice-cold gaze locked onto him—sending a clear message: Say you don't know, and you're dead.
'Damn it, does she think I'm a walking encyclopedia or something? Everything I've said so far—no one in this era even knows! And she still wants more?'
Dusk cursed in his heart. But then, something puzzled him.
"Wait a sec… How the hell did you know I was still hiding something?"
His tone was full of suspicion.
Seeing his stunned expression, a hint of smug pride appeared on her face.
"Ha ha, of course—it's thanks to intuition." She smiled coolly.
"You… really trust your intuition that much?" Dusk asked, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly.
He had initially thought there might be something wrong with himself—but now it was clear that she was the real problem here.
He could sense that if he genuinely didn't know the answer, but her intuition said otherwise, she'd shoot him on the spot without hesitation.
But then again, Dusk wasn't all that different. After living over three hundred years, his own intuition had saved him more times than he could count. So in some strange way… he could kind of understand her.
"Well then, there's one more method—absorbing hearts. After reaching Heart Master rank 1, you no longer need to eat hearts anymore because there is a more convenient way to absorb them. But if you're still below rank 1, then there's really no other option."
Hearing this, the boss furrowed her brows. She didn't sense any lies from his words, but something still felt… vague.
"If what you say is true, then wouldn't those who eat animal hearts regularly already have broken through?" she asked skeptically. Naturally, she didn't believe it could be that easy to reach the next rank.
Dusk shook his head. He had intended to hide part of the truth, but clearly that wasn't going to work here.
Thinking about it, this wouldn't be a secret in the future, so he decided to say it all at once. Perhaps having strong allies would help him a lot.
"Of course not. From rank 1 onward, you can absorb both human hearts and demon hearts. But below rank 1, only human hearts work—because the lowest-ranking demons are already at rank 1. That's because you can only absorb hearts of equal rank to gain any benefit. Spirit Fruits don't have such limitations. In terms of raw potential, humans and demons have the most powerful hearts due to their innate talents."
At this, everyone in the room—except the boss—felt a chill run down their spines. Even though they were part of the mafia, they'd never gone as far as eating people's hearts.
The boss went silent for a moment, then finally lowered her gun. Her gaze toward Dusk shifted—now filled with curiosity instead of hostility, as if she'd just figured something out.
"You've already absorbed those people's hearts, haven't you? The victims found at the crime scenes… all missing their hearts. Why did you do it?"
Upon hearing the question, the other six members turned to stare at Dusk with a new level of fear. His actions were clearly far more terrifying than anything they had done.
But despite being cornered, Dusk didn't flinch at all. He had long since prepared an answer for this very moment.