Debt-Collector of the Apocalypse

CHAPTER 4: Generating liquid Asset

The walk out of the Hanil Logistics complex felt like moving through a ghost town. The power outage had plunged the surrounding industrial estate into darkness, leaving only the orange hazard lights of idling trucks and the distant wail of police sirens to break the gloom.

Min-jae maintained a brisk pace, his boots striking the asphalt in a steady rhythm. Yoo Seo-ah jogged to keep up, clutching the straps of her oversized backpack with trembling hands.

"Min-jae, please tell me where we're going," she pleaded. "My phone isn't working. I tried calling my mom, but there's no signal. It just keeps saying, 'Connecting to Unregistered Network...'"

"The satellites are already being rerouted by the System," Min-jae replied without looking back. 

"By midnight, the internet will be permanently down. Cell towers will be converted into localized defensive beacons, but only if someone pays the subscription f*e in Karma Points. For now, your phone is nothing more than a plastic brick."

He pulled out his own smartphone. Its screen flickered violently as a pale blue geometric interface bled through his home screen, slowly rewriting the operating system.

[Global System Integration Countdown: 04 hours, 51 minutes, 12 seconds.]

"We need to get to the commercial district before the banks lock their digital vaults," Min-jae muttered, tapping his screen.

In his previous life, Min-jae had made the same mistake as countless other survivors. When the apocalypse began, he'd hoarded ramen, canned tuna, and bottled water. He'd even spent his entire life savings on medicine. 

But three days after the Integration, the System initiated the Global Currency Liquidation.

Every physical resource on Earth was retroactively assigned an item grade. Food hoarded by ordinary people spoiled at triple the normal rate unless stored in a System-certified inventory slot, while paper currency became worthless overnight.

Digital wealth was a different matter.

Anyone holding digital assets or qualifying physical commodities at the exact moment of midnight received a proportional payout in Karma Points (KP).

One million Korean won converted into roughly 10 KP.

The amount seemed insignificant until you considered what it could buy. Ten KP was enough for an F-Rank Basic Vitality Elixir in the system Shop, a consumable that could mean the difference between surviving an encounter and dying from a single wound.

For wealthy corporate dynasties and corrupt politicians who knew the rules in advance, midnight was a golden opportunity. They could convert their fortunes into Karma Points and purchase skills, stat enhancements, and other advantages before ordinary survivors even understood what was happening.

By the time the working class caught up, the gap between the rich and the poor would become a matter of life and death.

Min-jae wasn't going to let that happen again.

He pulled up his banking app, the numbers loading painfully slow through the dying cellular network.

Total Balance: 4,120,000 Won ($3,100 USD).

His entire net worth.

Six months of brutal warehouse shifts, skipped meals, and barely enough sleep had earned him that miserable sum. At midnight, it would convert into a measly 41 KP. Not enough for a decent weapon from the public market, let alone anything capable of unlocking the mid-tier slot in his personal vault.

"I need leverage," he muttered.

They were crossing a bridge toward the glittering skyline of downtown Incheon, where neon signs still burned above the streets.

"Leverage?" Seo-ah repeated, wiping sweat from her forehead. "Min-jae, you're talking like a crazy person. We should go to a police station! Or a hospital!"

"Look up, Seo-ah."

He stopped and pointed a finger toward the sky.

She followed his finger.

The clouds above Incheon were no longer dark gray. They had turned an unnatural shade of violet, swirling into a vast whirlpool directly above the city center. Jagged geometric lines stretched across the upper atmosphere, forming a crystalline web that glowed with an ominous crimson light.

Seo-ah stared, unable to speak.

"The police can't stop the sky from breaking," Min-jae said quietly. "Follow me, or stay here and take your chances with the next hound pack. I'm offering you this choice only once."

He turned before she could respond and entered the brightly lit lobby of a twenty-four-hour luxury pawnshop and private lending firm called Gold & Trust Capital.

The lobby smelled of expensive leather and recycled air. Behind a thick pane of bulletproof glass sat a man in a tailored gray suit, meticulously polishing his nails.

Manager Choi.

In Min-jae's previous timeline, Choi had become the infamous Loan Shark of the Incheon Refuge. He'd leased low-tier weapons to desperate refugees in exchange for eighty percent of their daily monster core earnings, trapping countless survivors in a cycle of debt they could never escape from.

But for now, he was still merely a greedy lender looking for his next victim.

"Welcome to Gold & Trust," Choi greeted them, his voice dripping with professional insincerity. His eyes moved over Min-jae's dusty logistics uniform before settling on Seo-ah's anxious face. "Are we looking to liquidate some assets tonight, or do you need a quick short-term advance?"

Min-jae approached the counter.

He ignored Choi's face and looked straight through his chest with the Scavenger's Sightglass.

Deep within the man's ribcage, a golden spark pulsed with restless, avaricious energy.

The unawakened seed of a unique merchant class: The Usurious Overseer.

A high-yield asset, Min-jae thought, his heart rate unchanged. Perfect for liquidation.

"I want a personal loan for the maximum amount you can approve," he said, placing his ID card and warehouse employment contract on the marble counter. "Liquid cash. Transfer it to my digital account immediately. No collateral."

"Young man, without collateral, a warehouse cleaner's limit is barely two million won. And our interest rates are..." He paused, smiling thinly. "Quite aggressive."

"I don't care about the interest rate."

Min-jae leaned closer to the glass, meeting Choi's eyes with an unblinking stare. The older man's smile faltered.

"Give me fifty million won. Use my future earnings as the guarantee."

"Fifty million?" Choi snorted. "Are you insane? That's completely against corporate policy. I couldn't approve that even if I wanted to."

"You can," Min-jae whispered.

Siphon.

The violet lens of his monocle spun with a sharp metallic click.

A subtle ripple passed through the bulletproof glass.

Choi gasped and clutched his chest as a wave of freezing numbness spread through his body. The golden spark inside him stretched violently, releasing a stream of yellow mana that seeped through his skin and flowed toward Min-jae's outstretched palm.

Choi's eyes glazed over.

His thoughts slowed as the Siphon tore into his unawakened class potential, disrupting the dormant pathways that might one day have transformed him into something far more dangerous.

His greed remained. His desire to make money hadn't disappeared, but the sharp, calculating malice that would have made him a future tyrant was completely drained away.

[Siphon Successful.]

[You have extracted 60 Cosmic Units from an Unawakened Target.]

[Target Status: Target's latent class potential has been severely degraded to 'Common Trader'.]

[Total Energy: 85.0003 Units.]

Min-jae lowered his hand.

"Now," 

Min-jae commanded, his voice carrying a subtle, hypnotic weight under the residual influence of the cosmic siphon. "Approve the loan."

Manager Choi blinked heavily, his fingers moved automatically across his keyboard like a puppet on strings.

"Approving... fifty million won... emergency high-risk advance. Done."

BZZZ.

Min-jae's phone vibrated in his pocket.

A banking notification popped up on the screen.

[Hanil Bank Alert: Deposit Confirmed. 50,000,000 Won from Gold & Trust Capital.]

[Current Total Balance: 54,120,000 Won.]

"Pleasure doing business with you, Manager Choi."

Min-jae retrieved his ID card and turned away, leaving the dazed lender staring blankly at his computer.

Seo-ah hurried after him, her jaw hanging open.

"What... what did you just do to him?" she demanded. "Min-jae, that was illegal! You just stole fifty million won!"

"I didn't steal it. I took out a loan I have absolutely no intention of repaying."

He slipped his phone into his pocket.

"The bank's collection department will have bigger problems when the monsters arrive in four hours."

Seo-ah stared at him as if she no longer recognized the man she'd worked with. Although she was hesitant to follow him, and even suspicious of all his activities ever since the monster incident. But she chose to still stay with him for now as long as it makes her safe.

Min-jae paid her no attention. He was already calculating his next move.

Fifty-four million won.

 At midnight, the System would automatically liquidate this into 541 Karma Points.

It was a massive fortune for a starting survivor. With 541 KP, he could bypass the grueling, deadly F-rank survival phase entirely and secure an immediate tactical advantage the moment the global shop opened.

But Min-jae wasn't done yet. He looked down at his interface, his eyes locking onto a specific item preview in his locked vault.

Rank-D: [The Merchant's Counterfeit Ledger] — Requires 80 Cosmic Units to unlock.

Min-jae smiled, the neon lights of Incheon reflecting off his violet lens. 

"Now," Min-jae murmured, "let's see how much the System's conversion algorithm likes fraudulent data.”