Debt-Collector of the Apocalypse

CHAPTER 3: Abyssal Scout

The hound’s jaws snapped closed on empty air where Min-jae was seconds ago.

Min-jae didn't drop or dodge backward like an amateur. Using his years of experience, he threw his upper body to the left, letting the beast's hairless, muscle-bound flank brush past his uniform shirt. The stench of rotting meat and vinegar rolled off the creature, thick enough to make a lesser man gag.

Before the hound could plant its hind legs on the concrete to pivot, Min-jae uncoiled and used the equipment that was with him.

He didn't swing a sword instead he threw the heavy spool of newly acquired Iron-Biter's Wire-Trap he retrieved from his system vault straight under the beast’s descending belly, while holding one end of the wire anchored around his own forearm. As the hound landed, its heavy momentum pulled the spool with it, unrolling the jagged, blue-runed wire across the floor like a tripwire.

Skrrrrt!!

The hound slipped across the floor while its claws tore uselessly at the polished concret. Sensing a trap, the beast tried to leap away, but the barbed wire caught its thick hind legs instantly hindering it movement. 

The moment the barbs touched its skin, it instantly pierced through its gray flesh, while the blue runes across the wire flared to life.

[Item Active: Iron-Biter's Wire-Trap (Rank-E).]

[Effect: Heavy Restriction applied. Target's agility reduced by 40% for 60 seconds.]

The wire tightened automatically, coiling around the hound’s legs like a net, sinking deep into its tendons. 

The creature let out a choked, wet screech, thrashing violently. The steel shelving units on either side of the aisle rattled as its heavy tail slammed into the steel shelving on either side of the aisle, rattling the frames and sending cardboard boxes tumbling into the darkness.

“Min-jae! It's... it's going to break free!" 

Seo-ah cried from the far wall, her eyes wide as she watched the monstrous dog drag itself toward him. Its eyeless head snapped from side to side, following his movements.

"It is," Min-jae replied calmly.

He wasn’t a warrior. His strength was still no greater than that of an ordinary, sleep-deprived warehouse worker, and the Rank-E trap couldn’t hold a demonic scout for long. But according to his calculations, he had perhaps twenty seconds before the wire gave way under the creature’s brute force.

Min-jae sprinted toward the machinery charging station at the end of the aisle.

Mounted on the wall was a thick yellow industrial power cable, the 440-volt line used to charge the warehouse’s electric forklifts. He seized the insulated handle and yanked it from its mount. The heavy cable strained under the sudden pull.

Dragging it behind him, he raced back toward the thrashing hound.

The Abyssal hound had already snapped two loops of the runic wire. Acidic black blood pooled beneath its torn legs, eating away at the concrete with a loud, aggressive sizzle.

Acidic blood, Min-jae thought, a cold smile touching his lips. 

High mineral content. Potentially conductive.

""Hey!"

The hound swung its eyeless snout toward his voice. Its jaws unhinged, revealing three rows of needle-sharp teeth, before it unleashed a deafening roar and lunged at him.

The remaining wire strands snapped with a sharp ping.

Min-jae didn't hesitate. He drove the exposed metal prongs of the heavy 440-volt charging cable straight into the pooling puddle of black, acidic blood beneath the beast's chest.

ZAP!

A blinding blue flash lit the entire corridor. The warehouse lights flickered once before dying completely, plunging the aisle into darkness. Only the violent electrical arcs dancing across the hound’s body remained visible.

The monster barely had time to react. The surge coursed through the conductive blood coating its body, sending its muscles into violent spasms. Smoke poured from its open jaws and nostrils as the electricity ravaged its insides.

Three seconds later, the circuit breaker at the back of the facility tripped with a heavy thud allowing the electrical arcs to vanish completely.

Silence settled over the warehouse, broken only by Yoo Seo-ah’s shallow, frantic breathing and the heavy thump of the hound’s charred carcass collapsing onto the concrete.

Min-jae finally let go of the cable. His hands trembled slightly from the residual shock, but his expression remained composed.

A golden prompt appeared through the lingering smoke.

[Target Neutralized: Abyssal Scout (Rank-F).]

[First Kill Bonus Achieved before Global Integration!]

[You have earned 15 Cosmic Units.]

[You have earned 500 Karma Points.]

[Total Energy: 25.0003 Units.]

Min-jae stared as the prompt in satisfaction.

From the charred chest of the hound, a small, pebble-sized crystal emitting a dim green light floated slowly into the air. 

It was an F-Rank Mana Core, the lowest mana core Min-jae could think of, but it was still enough to make an unawakener have night mares.

Min-jae instantly reached out and caught the pebble-sized crystal cleanly in his palm, and tossed it into his pocket.

"Get up, Seo-ah," Min-jae said, turning back toward the trembling intern sitting helplessly at one side of the floor.

"W-What was that thing?" she whispered, tears cutting clean lines through the dust on her face. "Is Team Leader Park dead? Are we going to die?"

“No, Park is alive.”

Min-jae adjusted his violet monocle and looked toward the ceiling. 

Through the concrete roof, he could make out the sky beyond it. The deep red fractures weren’t confined to the warehouse anymore. They were spreading across Incheon’s entire city grid, branching outward like cracks in shattered glass.

"And we aren't dying tonight," he continued, extending his cold steady hand to pull her up.

Seo-ah stared at him, still struggling to process what she had just witnessed. First was the hound but the way Min-jae had killed them was way scarier to her than anything she might have seen all through her life.

"But that was only a scout," Min-jae said. "The rest of the pack arrives in five hours, and the doors to this city are already locking."

His gaze hardened as he stared back toward the beast carcass.

"We need to Move, Now!” He commanded as he pulled her up using all his might.