Monster Contract: My Pets Will Bring the Apocalypse

Unreadable

The crater was still smoking when the cleanup crews rolled in. Trucks with the city's containment seal painted on their doors pulled up along the barrier line, and workers in heavy suits fanned out to start cordoning off the wreckage with fresh tape and glowing marker stakes. Baek Woon was already giving orders before the dust had fully settled, his voice low but carrying easily over the noise.

"Full sweep of the crater radius. Anything still pulsing with residual energy gets bagged and logged, nothing gets left for scavengers. I want a structural team checking those pylons before anyone else gets near them."

One of the site supervisors jogged over, clipboard in hand, already nodding along before Baek Woon had finished. "Understood. We'll have the perimeter locked down in ten."

"Make it five."

The supervisor didn't argue. He just turned and started barking the same orders at his own people, and within a minute the whole site had shifted from chaos into something almost orderly, workers moving with the practiced efficiency of people who had done this more times than they could count. Seojin watched it happen from where he stood beside the crater's edge, still catching his breath, Fenrir pacing low and tense at his side.

Juno pulled a small brass whistle from his jacket pocket, turning it once between his fingers before pressing it to his lips. The sound that came out wasn't loud, more of a sharp trilling note that carried strangely far for something so small, rising up past the barriers and the smoke and disappearing into the gray clouds above.

For a moment nothing happened. Then the clouds themselves seemed to shift, parting just enough for a shape to drop through them, wings unfolding as it fell, sleek and plated like a manta ray but with eagle talons and long iron horns curled backward. It was massive, wingspan stretching the length of a department store, and it landed without a sound despite its size, four eyes pulsing once in red before dimming to a low glow.

"Skygraver," Orbit Seo Rami said, already walking toward it. "Class A carrier beast. Don't touch the tail, it's sensitive."

Fenrir growled low in his throat, every hair on his small wolf frame bristling at the sight of something that size obeying a whistle from someone in a suit. "This world truly does love its leashes."

"Later," Seojin muttered under his breath.

Juno clapped his hands once and waved them both toward the platform bolted to the beast's back. "All aboard, mystery kid. You and the puppy ride with us."

"Do not call me a-" Fenrir started, but Seojin scooped him up fast and muttered something under his breath about picking his battles as they climbed the platform stairs. The beast beneath them didn't move once, breathing slow and steady, so still it felt less like a living thing and more like a piece of the sky that had been trained to hold still until it was needed.

The deck had straps and rails worn smooth with use, and the Five settled into their spots like it was routine, which Seojin supposed it was for them. Yiha leaned against the rail with her arms crossed, sunglasses hiding her eyes even under the gray sky. Rami was already tapping through a floating interface that had bloomed to life in front of him. Juno adjusted his headphones and hummed something under his breath. Baek Woon stood near the front, watching the crater shrink below them, and hadn't said more than a handful of words since they'd landed.

Seojin sat cross-legged near the center of the deck, holding Fenrir against his chest like a nervous intern gripping something that might go off.

"You good?" Juno asked, glancing over.

"Fine," Seojin said, then after a beat, "I think."

The platform lurched once, a deep resonant hum vibrating up through the floor, and then they lifted off, the whistle Juno had used still hanging from a cord around his neck as the Skygraver beat its wings and carried them up and away from the crater.

The city shrank beneath them as they climbed, and from this high up Seoul stopped looking like streets and towers and started looking like scar tissue. Circular craters had been paved over and built on top of, cracked bridges reinforced with silver steel, towers built like shields with glowing nodes at their peaks pulsing faintly every few seconds. Along the rooftops of the oldest districts Seojin could see the shapes of creatures lounging or patrolling, some even sleeping in the weak afternoon light. Giant owls perched on comm towers. Broad-backed tiger beasts carried workers across scaffolds strung between buildings. Birds made of woven light drifted between glass towers like they were following invisible roads.

It was beautiful and it was terrifying, both at once, and Seojin couldn't quite decide which feeling was winning.

"This world," Fenrir muttered, curling tighter against him, "they use them like tools."

"They bond with them," Seojin said silently, the words forming in his head rather than his mouth.

"They shackle them with different chains. A bond, you say, that sounds like a pretty lie."

Seojin didn't answer because he wasn't entirely sure Fenrir was wrong.

One of the transport guards stepped up to them with a metal rod shaped like a baton, expression flat and practiced. "Beast containment required before HQ landing," he said.

Seojin blinked. "What does that mean?"

"Store him."

Fenrir bared his teeth. "I will not be shoved into some damp hole."

"It's not a hole," Seojin whispered, trying to keep his voice down. "It's the system's storage. In my Core."

"Worse."

The guard just stared, waiting, and Seojin sighed. "Can't argue with the logic," he told Fenrir under his breath, "but if you don't, they're not gonna let us land. Might just drop us from here instead."

"You think I cannot land on my feet?"

"I know I can't."

That finally earned a low growling huff from the wolf, and with obvious reluctance Fenrir's body began to shimmer, particles of light scattering upward as he dissolved into a faint ring that sank into Seojin's chest. The air around Seojin felt colder for a moment, and then Fenrir's voice rang faintly in his mind.

"This place is cramped. It smells like your fear."

"You're lucky I don't have mental mute," Seojin muttered.

The guard nodded, satisfied, and stepped back, while Yiha's mouth curved into something like a smirk that she didn't bother hiding.

Headquarters came into view a few minutes later, and it wasn't just a tower, it was anchored, the base embedded into a crater of black stone with walls that rippled faintly like heat rising off summer pavement. Dozens of beasts circled the structure on patrol, some looking like gargoyles with molten eyes, others lean and panther like, perched along the ridges of the outer walls with an alertness that made it clear they weren't decoration.

The Skygraver banked once and set them down on a mid level platform crowded with foot traffic. Hunters in matching gray and silver uniforms moved between checkpoints, some in full combat gear, others carrying tablets and clipboards, all of it running with the kind of practiced motion that only came from a place that processed hundreds of people a day. The Five disembarked without ceremony, and Seojin followed close behind, trying not to gawk too obviously at everything around him.

As they passed the first security checkpoint, Seojin saw something that made him stop mid-stride. Juno's gauntlets shimmered, the metal curling inward and folding like paper, glowing red hot before peeling back into the shape of a large canine, broad-shouldered and muscular, with coals for eyes. The beast looked up at Juno briefly and nudged his hand.

"I know, I know," Juno murmured, smiling faintly. "You hate staying in combat form too long. Go rest up for the day."

The wolf beast growled, almost affectionately, and Juno placed a hand on its head and said something too quiet for Seojin to catch. The creature dissolved into his Core like smoke slipping through cracks in a wall.

Seojin stared. "You can turn your pet into a weapon?"

"Some of us can," Rami said, not looking up from his interface. "Not many do. Most beasts hate it."

He'd never allow that, Seojin thought, glancing down at Fenrir.

Juno just chuckled and waved them all forward through the checkpoint, where a woman behind a raised desk scanned each of their badges in turn, her eyes flicking to Seojin last with obvious confusion at the lack of one on him.

"Guest clearance," Baek Woon said simply, and she nodded and printed him a temporary visitor pass without further comment, the kind of exchange that told Seojin this wasn't the first time Baek Woon had walked someone through these doors without paperwork ready.

The lobby beyond the checkpoint opened into something closer to a small city than a building. Notice boards lined one wall, plastered with bounty postings for rogue beasts and unregistered rift sightings. A cluster of junior hunters argued over a floating map near the elevators, tracing routes with their fingers while an instructor corrected them. Somewhere off to the side, a beast the size of a delivery van was being led on a leash of woven light toward what looked like a veterinary wing, its handler chatting easily with the guards as they passed.

"This is the processing floor," Rami explained, noticing Seojin's expression. "Registration, licensing, contract disputes, all of it runs through here before anything goes up to command. You'll see a lot of new hunters coming through on their first sanctioned clear, mostly relieved they didn't die."

"And the ones who look terrified?" Seojin asked, nodding toward a small group huddled near a bench.

"Those are the ones who did lose someone," Yiha said flatly, not slowing her pace. "It happens. This isn't a video game."

The comment landed heavier than she probably meant it to, and nobody filled the silence that followed until they reached a bank of elevators marked for authorized personnel only. Baek Woon scanned his badge and the doors slid open immediately, and the six of them stepped inside, the elevator descending rather than climbing, deeper into the anchor structure below the crater.

"Testing wing," Juno said, catching Seojin's questioning look. "Standard procedure any time an unregistered bond shows up. Nothing personal, they'll poke and prod for an hour, ask you a bunch of questions you won't understand, and then either clear you or flag you for follow up."

"And if they flag me?"

"Then we have a longer conversation," Baek Woon said, and something in his tone made it clear that was the end of that particular subject.

The elevator opened onto a corridor lined with glass walled labs, technicians visible through each one working over consoles and floating displays. Seojin was led into a chamber near the end of the hall, a room with a metal floor and a domed ceiling packed with sensors, all of it humming faintly even before anyone touched a control.

A technician guided him to the center of the room and waved for him to stand still. "System scan initiated," a voice announced over the intercom, and a blue grid spread across the floor beneath his feet while data flickered through the dome above him. Dozens of panels along the walls lit up in sequence as scientists and analysts leaned in toward their screens, murmuring to each other in a language of numbers and readings Seojin couldn't follow.

"Do I do anything?" he asked, glancing up.

"Just don't sneeze," someone muttered from behind a console.

Ten seconds passed, then thirty, and the murmurs in the room started getting quieter instead of louder, which felt like a bad sign even to someone who didn't understand what was being read.

"What is this?"

"Try rerunning through Echo Layer."

"No good."

"Name field's null. Core signature fluctuating. Partner profile corrupted."

"Try relinking-"

"It's not unlinked. The bond is there. The system just refuses to identify it."

One of the lead researchers stepped up to a side console, an older man with glasses that sat slightly crooked on his nose and a pen he kept clicking against his palm without seeming to notice he was doing it. He studied the results for a long moment before looking over at Seojin directly.

"Did you feel anything when you bonded with it?"

"Ughhh," Seojin said. "Nothing of note really."

"Hm." The man scratched at his jaw, eyes drifting back to the readout. "There's no entry for the creature in any registry. No scan signature at all. It's not just invisible; it's unreadable. Either your Core is corrupted, or you've bonded with something that simply doesn't belong here."

He tapped the console and the scan restarted, more lights sweeping across the dome, more flickering data pouring down the side panels, and then more silence once it finished.

Baek Woon appeared behind the observation glass at some point during the second scan, arms crossed, watching without a word. When the scientist finally straightened up and exhaled, he looked towards Seojinn with a concerned expression. 

"It's official. You're a ghost. The system recognizes that you exist, but it refuses to share what you're bonded to. I've seen anomalies before, but I haven't seen one like this."

"Anomalies," Seojin repeated slowly. "How many others like me are there?"

The scientist glanced toward the glass, and Baek Woon gave a single nod through it, barely more than a tilt of his chin.

"That's not your concern," the man said, turning back to his console.

They handed Seojin a plain black visitor badge afterward, along with a folder thick with warnings printed in blunt official language. Unauthorized system use, a criminal charge. Unsanctioned rift entrance, a criminal charge. The use of a bonded entity in public zones without registry, a criminal charge. He read through it twice while Yiha waited with her arms crossed by the door.

"You're lucky we're not charging you right now," she said once he looked up. "But the moment you try something reckless like that again, we will haul you in, and it won't matter how many dungeons you clear along the way."

"Thanks," Seojin muttered.

"You want to go legit, join a guild, get trained, get licensed. Until then, no flashy stunts."

He nodded, quiet, something heavy settling into his chest that hadn't been there before. He was halfway to the exit doors when Juno came jogging up from a side hallway, waving to catch his attention.

"Hey, kid."

Seojin turned around.

Juno held up a folded slip of paper, and Seojin took it without quite understanding what it was at first. "A check?"

"Standard sweep team payout for rift clearance. Since we didn't do jack out there, figured it should go to the guy who actually did."

Seojin blinked at the paper in his hand. "I don't know what to say."

"Say thank you and go home. We'll be watching."

Juno gave him a wink, then turned and disappeared back down the corridor he'd come from, footsteps echoing off the polished floor until they faded into the general hum of the building.

Seojin looked down at the check, then up at the massive doors leading back outside. Free. Sort of.

In his chest, Fenrir's voice rumbled low, half amused and half bitter.

"My curiosity has been satisfied; we will not become their tools. Now let us go. I need rest."

Seojin exhaled slowly, then stepped forward toward whatever came next.