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

Chapter 7: Luna, the Ice-Hearted Auditor

The tip of the black stiletto stopped just an inch from Jihan's nose.

Jihan was still sprawled on his side on the marble floor. His cheek was pressed against the pool of his own black blood. He couldn't move his neck, only his eyes could roll upward, tracing a pair of long legs clad in black trousers, up to a dark gray blazer that was ironed without a single crease.

The woman crouched down slowly. The cold scent of musk and peppermint perfume instantly chased away the foul, sulfurous smell of Jihan's blood.

The woman's face was expressionless. Her skin was pale, her jaw was firm, and her straight black hair was tied back in a neat ponytail. There was no panic or disgust in her eyes as she looked at Jihan, who was covered in thick blood like a walking corpse. Her sharp eyes, behind thin-framed glasses, studied him as if he were an insect trapped on a dissection table.

"I am the Assistant Head of the Central Hunter Association's Audit Department, Luna," the woman said. Her voice was as low and cold as dry ice.

Luna reached into her blazer pocket and pulled out a thin, bulletproof-glass-coated tablet. Her slender fingers tapped the screen, then she turned it to face Jihan.

A mana fluctuation graph with neon red and blue lines was displayed on it.

"This blue line is the average mana capacity of an elite Hunter like Bagas," Luna explained, her index finger pointing to a stable, moving line. "And this red line, the one that spikes up and tears through the top of the screen... is yours. At exactly the forty-second minute after Sector B collapsed."

Jihan let out a small snort. He forced his lips into a twisted, lopsided smile that looked deformed because half his facial muscles were still stiff. "Cough… so… you came here for my autograph? Sorry… my hand's a little… cramped."

Luna was not baited. She lowered the tablet, staring straight into Jihan's pupils. "I don't care about the media circus outside. Those fools might believe that an F-class licensed porter suddenly had a double Awakening on the brink of death. But the Association operates on data, Han Jihan, and data never lies."

"So?" Jihan swallowed the metallic-tasting saliva in the back of his throat. "You're… going to say I cheated?"

"Humans do not possess the mana circuit capacity to spike from zero to S-Class in one second, then return to absolute zero five minutes later," Luna retorted sharply. She pointed the tip of her stylus at the pool of black blood beneath Jihan's chin. "Much less vomit abyssal blood residue with dead cells. This isn't the effect of physical exhaustion. This is the effect of a forced withdrawal."

Jihan's breath hitched. His eyes widened slightly.

"This woman… she knows? No, she doesn't know about the Death Bank. But her logic is sound. Damn it, she's different from those idiot reporters outside."

"You… cough… think you know everything," Jihan hissed, forcing a dismissive tone. "I killed the spider. The Core is proof. Why don't you… go interrogate that coward Bagas… instead of bothering a sick person?"

"Bagas is a matter for the Code of Ethics Department. His case has already been submitted to the committee," Luna cut him off without hesitation. "But you, Jihan, you are a dimensional security problem. A Hunter who fakes their rank can be tolerated. But a porter who ingests an illegal Berserker Pill from the Black Market, or worse… makes a blood contract with a demonic entity for temporary power… that is a national threat."

The words 'blood contract' hit Jihan in the gut. He hated how accurate her guess was.

Luna leaned her face in a little closer. "Tell me, who was the Broker from the Black Market who sold you that drug? Or which demon rented you its power? What did you trade for it? Your lifespan? Your soul?"

"I… don't know… what you're talking about, you crazy bitch," Jihan snarled. The veins on his neck bulged as he tried to summon the strength to move his right arm. He wanted to swat that know-it-all face away. But his nervous system was completely dead. His arm only twitched pathetically like a wooden twig.

Luna watched his pathetic trembling. "You can't even press the emergency button on the wall. The hospital's high-dose painkillers aren't working on you. Whatever you borrowed to kill that Shadow Weaver… you're paying the bill for it right now, aren't you?"

Jihan's pride was trampled. He, who just a few hours ago felt like a god of death, was now having his lies stripped bare by a woman in glasses who wasn't even holding a weapon.

"Listen here, you bitch auditor!" Jihan cursed, dropping all pretense of civility. His eyes blazed with a pure, burning rage. "I killed a monster that was about to rip my chest open. I was protecting my own life when your trash Association left me as bait! I don't care where the power came from… what matters is that now I have one and a half billion, and I'm going to get my sister out of this hell!"

For the first time, Luna's expression changed. It wasn't intimidation. It was a look of cold, detached pity.

"Your sister. Dian," Luna said slowly.

Jihan's pupils constricted. If there was a nuclear button inside his head, Luna had just pressed it. "Don't you… dare… bring her name into this."

"A seventeen-year-old girl, in a coma due to complications from mana crystallization syndrome. Cared for on the third floor, east wing, with two weeks of overdue ICU fees," Luna recited as if she were reading a grocery list. "Did you think I didn't check your background before entering this room?"

"SHUT YOUR MOUTH!" Jihan roared with the last bit of air in his lungs.

His body convulsed violently, trying to rebel against the paralysis. His fingernails reflexively clawed at the marble floor until they bled, but the rest of his body remained frozen.

Luna stood up straight, looking down on the helpless, flailing Jihan. She smoothed out a crease in her blazer.

"I came here expecting to find a master criminal in disguise. But all I found was a foolish young man digging his own grave." Luna shook her head slowly. She pulled a piece of paper with a bright red official stamp from a folder she was carrying, then let it drop.

The paper fluttered down, landing right next to Jihan's face.

"That is a Temporary License Suspension Order," Luna stated, her voice absolute. "All of your Hunter activities are frozen. But more importantly… in accordance with high-level anomaly security protocols, all financial access affiliated with the Association, including the billion-rupiah prize money from your Core auction, is officially frozen by my authority as of this minute until the investigation is complete."

Jihan was stunned. The air was stuck in his throat.

It wasn't the freeze that shocked him. Luna was freezing assets that no longer existed. The one and a half billion had been completely siphoned by the Death Bank ten minutes ago. Jihan now had no money, no license, and was under strict legal scrutiny.

"You have until tomorrow morning to turn yourself in and confess where that power came from, Han Jihan," Luna continued, turning to walk toward the door. "If you don't confess, the Association will not protect you. And I will make sure your sister is returned to a state-run social home."

Click. Clack. Click.

The sound of her stilettos faded away.

"Wait…" Jihan whispered hoarsely, his eyes starting to burn. "Don't… that money… my sister…"

BLAM.

The oak door shut firmly, isolating Jihan once again in a suffocating silence.

Jihan was left alone. On the cold floor, sticky with his own demonic blood. The red-stamped paper from Luna lay there, mocking him. In the real world, he was a suspect. In the dimensional world, he was a loan shark's slave. He was trapped from both sides with no room to breathe.

Suddenly, a soft buzzing sound broke the absolute silence in the room.

BZZT… BZZT…

Jihan's phone, its screen peeled and shattered from being thrown, lit up dimly with its last ten percent of battery. It was lying less than a hand's breadth from his left eye.

The damn mobile banking app was gone. In its place, a pop-up notification from the hospital's automated system appeared on his lock screen.

[HUNTER CENTRAL HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATION NOTICE]

[Dear Mr. Han Jihan (Guardian of Patient: Dian Han)]

[The auto-debit payment for today's extension of ICU and ventilator rental has FAILED. Your Balance: Rp. 0]

[As per procedure, the patient's medical treatment will be terminated in the next 12 Hours if the outstanding balance of Rp. 20,000,000 is not paid.]

[Thank you.]

Jihan read the notification word for word. Twenty million.

Yesterday, before he entered that cursed dungeon, twenty million was his goal. Thirty minutes ago, he had laughed at the idea of twenty million because he thought he had billions. Now? Twenty million was a steel wall that was about to kill his sister.

"No…" Jihan's voice broke into a pathetic sob.

He tried to lift his hand to grab the phone. He wanted to call someone, anyone, to borrow money. But his hand only twitched on the floor. The paralysis from the system's penalty chained his body like cast iron. He truly couldn't move.

Jihan bit his lower lip so hard the skin tore and fresh blood flowed into his mouth. He didn't feel the pain from the bite, only the pain in his chest, which felt like it was being squeezed and ripped apart.

"Fucking system… Damn Association… give me back my money…"

Jihan's tears fell completely. There was no arrogant laughter. No gaze of an S-Class killer. In that magnificent VVIP room, all that was left was a crippled porter, sobbing on the floor in a pool of his own filthy blood, mourning for his sister's life, which was now on a countdown to death.