The God-Level Scavenger: Infinite Evolution System

Meat on the Floor

The alley behind the warehouse smelled like burnt ozone and wet copper.

Kaelen’s fingers twitched against the pavement, his fingernails digging shallow grooves into the cracked asphalt. His mouth opened, but no sound came out—only a thin, dark froth that bubbled over his lower lip. The massive snake tattoo winding around his neck looked as though it were writhing, fading from deep crimson to a dull, bruised gray as his blood pressure plummeted.

Lucian didn't look at Kaelen’s face. His hand remained clamped around the man’s windpipe, his knuckles white under the dark weave of his gauntlet.

[Target: Kaelen (Rank A - Berserker).] [Extraction in progress... 12%... 34%...]

It wasn't a clean process. It never was when taking from the living.

Lucian could feel the man’s pulse through his palm—a frantic, irregular thudding that grew weaker with every passing second. With each tick of the internal counter, a cold, heavy sensation traveled up Lucian’s forearm, settling deep into his belly like a swallowed stone. It was Kaelen’s raw physical density—years of condensed muscle, reinforced bone marrow, and violent mana—being stripped down and forced through the System’s narrow funnel.

"Stop..." Director Han’s voice trembled behind him. The megaphone had been dropped to the ground, its speaker emitting a sharp, static whine.

Han didn't draw his weapon. Neither did Elena Vance.

They stood thirty feet away, frozen in the heavy, oppressive radius of the gravity field Lucian had planted with 'The Behemoth’s Spine.' Around them, a dozen Association officers were still groaning on all fours, their chest plates groaning under the artificial weight pressing down on their spines.

"Lucian, listen to me," Han said, taking a cautious, half-inch step forward. "He’s an A-Rank license holder. If you kill him here, in front of the cameras—"

"He came here to break my legs, Director," Lucian said. His voice didn't carry the theatrical boom of a villain; it was low, dry, and slightly raspy, like someone who hadn't drunk water all day. "He told you himself. You stood right beside him while he said it."

"That’s... that’s gang politics," Han stammered, his eyes darting to Kaelen’s legs, which were now visibly shriveling inside his leather trousers. "We can detain him! The Association can—"

"The Association couldn't even keep the Blue Falcon squad from leaving me to rot in a Rank-D pit," Lucian cut in. He didn't turn his head. His focus remained entirely on the black light swirling around his wrist.

[Extraction Complete!] [Gained: 12,000 Exp.] [Gained: Permanent Stat Boost: +25 Strength, +20 Stamina.] [Gained: Active Skill 'Blood Frenzy' (Rank A).]

A heavy thud echoed in the narrow space as Lucian opened his hand.

Kaelen’s body hit the dirt like a sack of damp grain. He wasn't dead, but his chest barely moved. The broad shoulders that had intimidation-tested half the guilds in Sector 1 were now sunken, his breathing shallow and hollow. He looked twenty years older, his skin paper-thin and dry.

Lucian wiped his palm against his leg, leaving a smear of dark residue on his dark trousers. He turned slowly to face Han and Elena.

The air between them felt thick, vibrating with the residual heat of the gravity field.

Elena Vance reached for the hilt of her spare sidearm, her knuckles pale. Her silver hair was plastered to her forehead with cold sweat. She had seen high-rank Hunters die before—sliced by boss monsters, dissolved by acid traps, crushed under cave-ins. But she had never seen a man turned into a husk in six seconds flat without a drop of blood being spilled.

"What are you?" she asked. Her voice lacked the sharp, arrogant edge it had possessed outside the Association building three hours ago. It was just a question from a tired, terrified person.

Lucian didn't answer. He walked over to 'The Behemoth’s Spine,' which was still embedded six inches deep in the asphalt. He wrapped his fingers around the grip, pulled it free with a dull crunch of stone, and rested the flat of the massive blade against his shoulder.

The gravity field dissolved instantly.

Around them, officers gasped for air, pulling themselves up against the hoods of their patrol cars, coughing violently as the weight lifted from their lungs.

"Director Han," Lucian said, stepping past Kaelen’s limp form toward the perimeter line.

The squad of C-Rank Hunters blocking the alleyway instinctively parted, scrambling over one another to get out of his path. Nobody raised a rifle. Nobody called for backup.

"You wanted to know what happened in the dungeon," Lucian continued, pausing at the edge of the street where the Association gunships hovered low, their searchlights blindingly white. "I’ll tell you. The monsters didn't change me. Your system did. You taught me that if you aren't holding the blade, you’re the meat on the floor."

He looked at Han, then at Elena.

"Keep Sector 7 locked down if you want," Lucian added, pulling the hood of his Scavenger’s Cloak over his head, casting his face into deep shadow once more. "It doesn't matter. You’ve already cleared out the easy stuff. I’ll take the rest when I’m hungry."

He stepped into the bright beam of the lead gunship’s searchlight.

Before the pilot could react, Lucian’s boots touched the ground, his body blurred, and he vanished into the dark mouth of an unlit storm drain at the side of the road.

[Ding! Active Threat Neutralized.] [Current Level: 46] [Unread Notifications: 1]

Lucian dropped six feet into the damp concrete culvert beneath Sector 4. The sound of sirens and panicked shouting above faded instantly, replaced by the steady, rhythmic trickling of dirty water beneath his boots.

He slid down against the curved wall, resting the heavy greatsword across his knees. He didn't celebrate. He didn't laugh. He simply pulled a crushed pack of stale cigarettes from his pocket—something he’d picked up off a dead Black Viper thug two hours ago—and lit one with a spark from his thumb.

He took a long, slow drag, his eyes staring into the pitch-black tunnel ahead.

He summoned the floating interface with a flick of his wrist.

[New Feature Available in 'Marketplace of the Abyss':] [Territory Claiming (Unlocks at Level 50).] [Next Target Area Suggested: The Central Core - Sector 0.]

Lucian exhaled a plume of gray smoke into the dark.

"Sector 0," he muttered to himself, watching the ember at the end of his cigarette glow faintly in the shadows. "Where the Guild Masters live."

He flicked the ash into the trickling water below, closed his eyes, and waited for his stamina to refill.