Kaizen sat squeezed into the corner seat of the mana-bus, looking less like a prestigious academy student and more like a tortoise that had decided to pack its entire house for a weekend vacation.
He had spent the last hour raiding the general store with his newfound wealth, buying thermal underwear, climbing rope, rations, and a winter coat thick enough to survive an ice age.
The problem wasn't the cost; the problem was the physics.
His backpack was swollen to the point of bursting, towering over his head and pressing him against the window like a sardine in a tin can.
"My back," Kaizen groaned, shifting his weight and feeling a sharp pop in his lumbar region. "I need a chiropractor. Or a new spine."
He looked around the bus, trying to ignore the stares of the other passengers. They weren't looking at him because he was handsome, and they certainly weren't looking at him because he was famous.
They were looking at the pan.
Strapped to the side of his pristine, expensive academy backpack was a circular object that looked like it had been dredged out of a sewer system from the Dark Ages.
It was brown. It was flaky. It was wrapped in a grease-stained rag that smelled faintly of despair and ancient bacon.
"Disgusting," a noble lady whispered to her husband, covering her nose with a silk handkerchief. "Is that even a weapon??"
"Don't look at it, dear," the husband muttered. "You might catch poverty."
Kaizen ignored them, though he mentally added 'Buy a Spatial Ring' to the top of his to-do list in bold, red letters.
Two million crowns. That was the price of dignity. That was the price of not looking like a homeless hoarder on public transport.
"Soon," he whispered to himself. "Once I loot the temple, I'm buying that ring. I don't care if I have to sell my kidney."
He reached out and touched the cold, rough surface of the pan.
Despite its appearance, despite the smell, Kaizen knew something the noble lady didn't. He knew that this piece of junk was buzzing against his palm with a strange, rhythmic energy.
"Alright," Kaizen murmured, focusing his gaze. "Let's see what you really are."
He activated his [ Nonstandard Weapon Authority (NWA) ] skill.
The air shimmered around the metal. A blue holographic window popped up over the rusted cookware.
[ Item Identification Complete ]
[ Name: Rusty Pan of Doom ]
[ Rank: D (Upgradable) ]
[ Durability: low ]
[ Attack Power: 50 ~ ??? ]
[ Attribute: Impact Multiplier (Low) ]
Kaizen blinked. He rubbed his eyes and looked again.
"D-Rank?" he hissed, causing the lady next to him to scoot away in fear.
This wasn't just a pan. In the world of Demon Hunter Chronicles, D-Rank weapons were the standard issue for Elite Knights. Leo's starting sword, the Lionheart, was D-Rank.
And this piece of tetanus-covered scrap metal was in the same tier?
"How?" Kaizen whispered, staring at the stats. "It looks like it would shatter if I hit a marshmallow. But the system says it's D-Rank?"
And then there was the Attribute.
[ Attribute: Impact Multiplier (Low) ]
"Multiplier?"
Kaizen frowned, his NPC brain spinning into overdrive. Attributes were rare. Usually, a weapon had "Fire Damage" or "Sharpness." But "Multiplier" was vague. It was dangerous.
Did it multiply damage? Did it multiply the force of the swing? Or did it multiply the rust it inflicted on the enemy?
He looked at the description text below.
[ Description: A pan that has seen a thousand kitchens and a million meals. It has absorbed the kinetic energy of countless angry chefs. It hits harder than it should. Much harder. ]
"Kinetic energy of angry chefs," Kaizen muttered, suppressing a laugh. "So it's a Rage Pan."
He gripped the handle tighter.
If this attribute meant what he thought it meant, then his strength stat of [ 3 ] didn't matter as much anymore. If the pan multiplied the force of impact, he could theoretically hit like a truck—provided he swung hard enough.
He looked out the window as the bus began to climb the winding roads toward the Savage Fringe.
"I went out to buy hiking boots," Kaizen smiled, a dangerous glint in his eyes. "And I came back with a D-Rank weapon of mass destruction."
He patted the rusted metal affectionately.
"Welcome to the team, Doom Pan. We have a mountain to conquer."
An hour later, the bus hissed to a halt at the very edge of civilization.
[ Stop: Savage Fringe Outpost ]
Kaizen wrestled his oversized backpack through the doors, tumbling onto the gravel path like a turtle that had lost its balance. He stood up and adjusted his coat, shivering slightly as the biting wind of the wilderness slapped his face.
Before him stood the Savage Fringe.
It wasn't a park; it was a sprawling, untamed forest that encircled the base of the majestic Mount Solara.
Most students would head straight for the trail. They would try to climb the mountain, get lost in the "Mist of Confusion," fight three badgers, cry, and go home.
"Amateurs," Kaizen scoffed, checking his watch. "You can't just walk into a high-level zone without the Key Item."
In Demon Hunter Chronicles, Mount Solara was a locked dungeon. The door wasn't a gate; it was an atmospheric barrier. To enter, you needed a specific pass.
Kaizen turned his back on the mountain trail.
He walked toward a dense patch of overgrown bushes near the public restrooms.
To the casual observer, it looked like a place where raccoons went to die. To Kaizen, it was the entrance to the Basilica of Dawn.
He pushed through the thorns.
"Ow. Ow. Texture clipping. Ow."
He stumbled into a clearing.
There it was.
A small, ruined stone chapel. It was half-buried in moss and dirt. The roof had collapsed centuries ago, and the stained glass windows were just jagged teeth of color.
"The Basilica of Dawn," Kaizen whispered. "Or as the forums called it, 'That One Place Everyone Misses Because It Looks Like A Toilet'."
He walked inside. The air was still. Dust motes danced in the shafts of morning light piercing through the broken roof.
In the center of the room stood a statue of the Sun God. It was headless.
"Okay," Kaizen muttered, dropping his bag. "Puzzle time."
The quest was simple but annoying.
You had to wait for the Spring Equinox. At exactly 6:00 AM, the sun would hit a specific mirror shard on the floor, refract three times, and hit the statue's neck, creating a magical teardrop.
"I don't have time to wait for the Equinox," Kaizen said, cracking his knuckles. "And I definitely don't have time for astronomy."
He walked over to the first mirror shard embedded in the wall.
It was rusted. Stuck.
"Move," Kaizen grunted, pushing it.
It didn't budge. It was a 'Static Mesh' for normal players.
But Kaizen wasn't a normal player. He was a Glitch.
He grabbed the mirror with both hands. He activated [ Nonstandard Weapon Authority (NWA) ] logic—not to make it a weapon, but to tell the universe, 'I am an NPC. I am moving the furniture.'
Creaaaaak.
The stone groaned. The mirror shifted.
"Physics is a suggestion," Kaizen grinned.
He manually tilted the mirror. He caught a beam of sunlight.
Flash.
The beam hit the second mirror.
He ran to the second mirror. He kicked it.
Clang.
The beam hit the third mirror.
He ran to the third mirror. He spat on it and rubbed the grime off with his sleeve.
ZING.
The beam of light shot across the room and hit the headless statue directly in the throat.
The stone sizzled.
A single, golden drop of liquid formed on the stone. It didn't drip. It hardened instantly into a crystal.
[ Item Acquired: Sun Tear Pendant ]
[ Rank: Quest Item ]
[ Effect: Negates 'Mist of Confusion' ]
Kaizen snatched the glowing crystal from the air. It was warm.
"Speedrun strat," Kaizen whispered, sliding the pendant into his pocket. "World Record pace."
[ SYSTEM ALERT ]
[ Hidden Quest Activated: The Weeping Saint ]
[ Objective: Climb Mount Solara. ]
A golden arrow appeared in his vision, pointing straight up the mountain.
"Easy," Kaizen said, picking up his bag. "Now, I just have to hike ten kilometers uphill with the lung capacity of a hamster."