Shadow is a washed-out, apathetic shop kid in the town of Oakhaven—a pathetic F-Rank Summoner whose only inheritance is the crippling debt left by his dead, disgraced father and the failing shop, The Rusted Compact. To the world, he's a failure. In reality, he’s a transmigrated master strategist with a secret divine blessing: the Void Seal and its computational interface, the Void Ledger.
Shadow’s mask of boredom shatters when a B-Rank Mountain Drake attacks the town, threatening to destroy his home and hasten the Guild’s debt seizure. Acting purely on cold, hard data from his system, Shadow uses a hair-thin window of opportunity to perform an impossibly audacious move: he tames the dying B-Rank Drake and imprisons it in his Void Nexus Crystal, concealing his world-breaking power beneath the illusion of an inherited, useless F-Rank relic.
Now, Shadow has a secret dragon, but the dragon has a terrifying cost: it consumes massive amounts of Aether daily just for maintenance, threatening to drain Shadow's life force and expose his secret. To survive, Shadow must weaponize his strategic intellect, turning his debt-ridden shop into a legitimate cover for his high-risk Cultivation Grind.

Shadow stumbled back, completely drained. He felt the terrifying, absolute loyalty of a B-Rank beast in his mind—and the comforting weight of a smooth, obsidian orb in his hand. The Void Nexus Crystal. The Drake was now curled inside, regenerating its Aether.


The Mountain Drake reappeared momentarily, roaring a sound of absolute loyalty, scattering the remaining Razorbacks, and then, under Shadow's command, vanished back into the crystal.


Shadow quickly slipped the Void Nexus Crystal into his pocket. He then activated his cover persona, rubbing his eyes and yawning dramatically.


"You... you did it, kid," Borin stammered, staring at the empty space. "Where did it go? Did you dispel it?"


"Oh, that?" Shadow drawled, leaning heavily on the counter. "It's just my inherited summon, the one my dad passed down. It always disappears when I run out of breath. An F-Rank Compact failure, only lasts ten seconds." He patted the dull, floating Void Relic, Rell, which had quietly floated back to his side. "Good job, Borin, you saved the day."


Shadow knew he had bought himself time. But he had also acquired a B-Rank burden that required vast resources to feed, and a secret that needed immediate protection. The answer, as always, was money, and the key to money was his failing shop.


The Rusted Compact was about to become the world's most dangerous asset.


Chapter 4 - IV. The Rusted Pact