Judul: "DEATH MORTGAGE: The Hunter's Liquidation"

Chapter 3: The Devil's Clause Disguised as Salvation

A single drop of blood, flung from Jihan's mouth, stopped mid-air. The thick red droplet hung there, no more than a hand's breadth from the tip of his nose, frozen like a glass marble floating without gravity.

The pain that had just torn through Jihan's chest, the sensation of his broken ribs piercing his lung, suddenly vanished. It was replaced by an empty numbness. The sound of the Shadow Weaver's jaw grinding as it prepared to chew his head disappeared without a trace. The chill of the cave floor seeping into his pores evaporated.

Everything faded to a dull gray.

Jihan couldn't move his neck, let alone lift his hand. He was pinned to the stone floor with the monster's giant leg still impaling his right chest. But his brain was still working. His eyes could still dart around wildly, taking in the surreal scene before him.

"A hallucination? Is my brain already dying from oxygen deprivation?" Jihan thought.

In the middle of the deafening silence, the neon blue light flickered in front of his face. Lines of binary code wove themselves together, forming a sleek virtual panel. The design was clean, minimalist, and gave off no mystical or wondrous aura like a typical dungeon artifact. Instead, the screen reminded Jihan of a high-end ATM interface in the lobby of an elite corporate building.

The screen was silent, but lines of text appeared with precise speed, accompanied by the sound of a mechanical keyboard clicking inside Jihan's head.

[AUTOMATED DETECTION SYSTEM: CLIENT'S PHYSICAL CONDITION HAS REACHED THE LIQUIDATION POINT (DEATH).]

[Estimated Time of Survival: 0.4 Seconds.]

Jihan stared at the letters. Pure panic began to crawl through what was left of his sanity. No. I can't die now. Dian…

As if responding to his surge of despair, the text on the blue screen scrolled again. This time, the language changed drastically. It was no longer just an emergency system notification. It was a formal greeting from an entity that seemed to be sitting with its legs crossed behind a lavish mahogany desk, looking down at the dying Jihan on the floor.

[The Death Bank greets you, Prospective Client Han Jihan.]

[We have detected a critical vitality deficit in your biological assets. In 0.4 seconds, your existence will be permanently deleted from this dimension. Do you require an emergency capital injection of 'Absolute Power' to avoid bankruptcy in the form of life-loss?]

Jihan wanted to laugh, but his lung was punctured. "Death Bank? Client? Bankruptcy? Life-loss? What kind of sick joke is this? The grim reaper now wears a tie and offers loans?"

Jihan had heard rumors among the porters about 'Systems' that sometimes chose Hunters at random, giving them cheats to become gods. But those rumors always spoke of angelic voices, holy light, or the chosen destiny of a hero. The screen in front of him had none of that majesty. This was purely transactional. Cold and predatory.

[Given your time constraints, we have prepared a special offer tailored to your risk profile.]

A new window popped up in the center of the screen.

[CREDIT OFFER: FREE TRIAL PACKAGE]

[Product: 'Knight of Light' Class (S-Tier)]

[Loan Duration: 5 Minutes 00 Seconds.]

[Access Limit: Super Speed, Pseudo-Regeneration, Steel-Shattering Physical Strength.]

[Terms & Conditions Apply. Please read the contract document below.]

Beneath the text, a scrollable text box appeared. Jihan glanced at the scroll bar on the right side of the box. The bar was incredibly thin, almost invisible, indicating that there were thousands of pages of legal clauses and agreements hidden within.

Jihan's eyes scanned the first few visible lines on the screen.

...Article 4, Section 2: The Borrower agrees to the full surrender of rights to physical pain, cellular aging fluctuations, memories, or the seizure of vital organs as absolute collateral in the event of default...

...Article 7, Section 1: The duration of use is calculated from the first second of power disbursement. Loan interest will be automatically withdrawn from the Borrower's assets, whether in the form of cash, Monster Essence, or biological age...

...Article 12: All forms of complaint, regret, or post-loan mental suffering are not recognized by the Dimensional Authority of the Death Bank...

Jihan felt his stomach turn, more nauseous than when he had smeared his face with Hobgoblin intestines just minutes ago. His street instincts screamed at him. This wasn't a miracle. This wasn't help from a merciful god. This was a cosmic loan shark that happened to be passing by and saw a dying man as a lucrative business opportunity.

"If I take this… I'll be their slave. They're not asking for my life now, but they'll slowly bleed me dry," Jihan's mind rebelled. "I know exactly how this kind of loan shark trap works. You borrow once for a meal, and you end up paying with your blood for the rest of your life."

At the very bottom of the screen, a dialog box flashed red with an intensity that hurt his eyes.

[Do you wish to sign the Loan Contract? Accept? Y/N]

Jihan was silent. The world around him was still frozen. He stared at the drop of acid from the giant spider's jaw hanging right above his eye. He felt the massive spike piercing his chest, destroying his future.

If he refused, this screen would disappear. Time would resume. In 0.4 seconds, the monster's jaw would crush his skull. He would die in this dark, filthy corridor, forgotten by the world, betrayed by a garbage Hunter named Bagas.

But that wasn't what made him hesitate. His own death was something he had already accepted the moment Bagas broke his leg.

What shattered his defenses was what would happen after he died.

His memory replayed a cruel, uncensored recording. If he didn't return by tomorrow morning, the hospital would show no more tolerance. The doctor on duty would walk into the ICU with a flat expression. A nurse would turn off the ventilator. His sister Dian, only seventeen, who always forced a smile behind her oxygen mask, who dreamed of seeing the ocean, would slowly choke, gasping for air. No one would hold her hand. No one would whisper that everything would be okay. His sister would die alone in the darkness, discarded by the hospital system, just as Jihan was being discarded by the dungeon system.

Jihan felt his eyes burn. The tears he had been holding back finally escaped, rolling down past the bloodstains on his temples.

"To hell with it!"

"To hell with my pride. To hell with my humanity. To hell with my soul, as long as I can get back to the surface and pay for Dian's treatment!"

Jihan gathered all the remaining willpower from his broken body. He couldn't move his arm. His muscles were torn and his bones were crushed. But the pure adrenaline of desperation triggered his motor nerves for one final movement. With a silent groan that ripped his vocal cords from the inside, Jihan raised his right hand, which was caked in Hobgoblin blood.

His violently trembling finger reached toward the neon blue screen.

The screen seemed to know that its prey had surrendered. The box with the letter 'Y' enlarged, shifting slightly closer to Jihan's fingertip, ensuring their client wouldn't press the wrong button in his final moments.

The tip of Jihan's blood-covered index finger touched the virtual screen.

Ting.

The notification sound was as light as a chiming bell, but to Jihan, it was the sound of a judge's gavel sentencing him to life in prison.

The blue screen immediately turned a blinding, brilliant gold. New text appeared with insane speed.

[Blood biometric signature accepted.]

[Client Validation: Successful.]

[Life Collateral Clause: Active.]

[Disbursing 'Knight of Light' Loan Facility into Borrower's bloodstream…]

[Please enjoy our services, Client Han Jihan. We expect your payments to be on time.]

The screen shattered into thousands of golden pixels that shot into Jihan's pores.

In a millisecond, the gray world around him shattered like glass struck by a sledgehammer. The roar of the giant spider's breath, the foul stench of blood, and the bone-chilling cold slammed into Jihan's senses all at once.

Time resumed.

"GHKK—!"

The drop of acid from the monster's jaw fell. But just before it touched Jihan's skin, the deadly liquid evaporated in mid-air, blocked by a layer of pure golden aura that suddenly erupted from his body.

The Shadow Weaver shrieked in shock. It tried to press its leg deeper to tear Jihan's chest in two. The monster put tons of weight onto the tip of its leg.

But the giant leg, as sharp as obsidian steel, stopped moving.

It wasn't because it hit the stone floor. It wasn't because it was caught on a bone.

Jihan's right hand, the thin, weak hand that couldn't even bear the weight of a logistics backpack, was now gripping the giant monster's ankle tightly.

Jihan opened his eyes. There was no more desperation in them. His eyes now shone with a blinding golden light, his pupils constricted against a surge of alien and brutal energy. The muscle fibers in his right arm expanded abnormally, tearing the sleeve of his cargo shirt. His veins bulged thick like ship cables flowing with hot magma.

The gaping wound in his chest stopped bleeding. Its mangled flesh was forcibly stitched together by threads of golden light. His protruding shin bone in his right leg was violently yanked back into place with a sickening crack, fused by the system in a matter of milliseconds. This wasn't healing. It was forced cellular manipulation to make the client's body usable for combat.

The S-Class spider monster tried to pull its leg back. But Jihan's grip didn't budge a single millimeter. The strength of the human beneath it now rivaled that of a hydraulic concrete crusher.

"You think… I'd die under your foot!"

Jihan's voice was no longer hoarse. It echoed, overlapping with a resonance of energy that cracked the cave floor around him.

With a single, brutal yank to the side, Jihan slammed the giant leg down. The force of his pull was so absurd that it threw the multi-ton Shadow Weaver off balance. The monster slipped, its massive body crashing into the corridor wall, bringing down a cascade of rocks on top of it.

In the corner of Jihan's eye, a red digital number glowed, counting down without mercy.

[04:59]

Jihan slowly rose to his feet. The pool of blood beneath his soles evaporated from the heat radiating from his body. In his right hand, particles of light gathered, solidified, and elongated, forming a massive Sword of Light that was six feet long.

The dark underworld was now illuminated by the figure of a crippled porter who had borrowed the power of a god. Jihan rolled his neck until it cracked, staring at the monster struggling to get up at the end of the corridor. What was left of his desperate smile twisted into a cold-blooded killer's smirk.

"Four minutes and fifty-nine seconds," Jihan hissed, gripping the hilt of his sword until his knuckles turned white. "Plenty of time to send you to hell… and then go after the bastard who locked that gate.”