Kai Ren was supposed to die at 2:13 a.m.
He knew the exact time because the cracked face of his wristwatch was the last clear thing he saw before the butcher lifted its axe.
2:13.
A useless detail.
The kind a dying man noticed because his brain had already accepted the rest.
The blood on the floor.
The broken shield by the wall.
The half-eaten corpse of a mage he'd met less than an hour ago.
And the monster walking toward him.
Slowly.
Confidently.
Like it had all the time in the world.
Kai pushed himself up on one shaking arm and spat blood onto the stone.
The goblin butcher stood almost seven feet tall, its grey-green skin stretched tight over a body made for slaughter. One eye was gone, replaced by a black scar. The other gleamed like wet glass in the dungeon's dim light. In one hand it held a jagged cleaver the size of a car door. In the other, a chain hook dark with old blood.
Third-floor monster, the guild report had said.
Low danger.
Routine clear.
Kai almost laughed.
The sound that came out of him was smaller. Bitter. Wet.
"Routine," he muttered.
The dungeon air stank of iron and rot. Faint green mist clung to the ground, weaving around cracked flagstones and the boots of the dead. The emergency exit gate behind him was still sealed, its blue surface flickering weakly inside a circle of broken runes.
The raid had started with eleven hunters.
Now only one was left.
Kai.
Rank F.
Twenty-one years old.
Bad gear. Worse luck.
And one final monster between him and a pointless death.
The butcher rolled its neck with a series of grinding pops and took another step forward.
Kai tightened his grip on his sword.
Calling it a sword was generous. It was a secondhand iron blade with chips along the edge and a grip wrapped in fraying tape. He had bought it from a pawn stand outside the South Gate market for half a month's rent and two days of pride.
It was all he had.
That and the promise he'd made three nights ago in a hospital room that smelled like antiseptic and cheap instant noodles.
I'll be back before sunrise.
His little sister had been asleep when he said it. Pale. Too thin. One arm bruised from IV needles. She had not heard him, but he had said it anyway.
Because if he didn't come back with money this time, they would stop her treatment.
The butcher lunged.
Kai moved on instinct.
The hook screamed through the air where his throat had been a fraction of a second earlier. He twisted, boots skidding over blood, and drove his blade at the monster's ribs.
The sword struck.
Barely.
It scraped against thick hide and slid off with a shower of sparks.
The butcher grinned.
Then its knee slammed into Kai's stomach and launched him backward.
He hit a pillar hard enough to hear something crack. Pain exploded through his side. His sword slipped from his fingers and clattered across the stone.
For a second, the dungeon ceiling swam above him.
He couldn't breathe.
Couldn't move.
The butcher began walking again.
One step.
Two.
Kai's hand groped blindly beside him and found nothing but broken stone and someone else's blood.
His sword lay eight feet away.
Might as well have been a mile.
The butcher raised its cleaver.
Kai stared up at it through a haze of pain and thought, stupidly, that the thing looked disappointed.
Like it had expected more of him.
That pissed him off enough to move.
He threw himself sideways just as the cleaver came down.
Stone burst apart.
A crack split the floor where his head had been.
Kai rolled, fingers finally finding the hilt of his sword, and came up on one knee.
The butcher swung the hook.
Kai caught the chain on his blade.
For one miraculous second, he held.
Then the sword nearly flew out of his hands.
The strength difference was absurd. The chain hook ripped him forward, dragging him across the floor. The butcher opened its jaws in a guttural laugh and yanked harder.
Kai saw the cleaver coming.
He did the only thing he could.
He let go of the sword.
The sudden loss of resistance threw the monster's balance off just enough.
Kai crashed into its chest instead of its blade.
Bad option. Better than dead.
He drove his shoulder into the butcher's stomach, grabbed the loose chain with both hands, and wrapped it around the creature's thick arm. The butcher roared and smashed its forehead into his face.
Stars burst behind Kai's eyes.
His nose broke instantly.
Hot blood poured down his mouth.
Still, he held on.
Because if he let go, he died.
Because if he died, his sister died slower.
Because he was sick of being weak.
The butcher slammed him into the pillar once.
Twice.
The third impact made his right hand go numb.
Kai bared his teeth and bit the creature's wrist.
The butcher jerked in surprise.
That was all the opening he needed.
He kicked off the wall, snatched his fallen sword with his left hand, and rammed the chipped blade upward under the monster's jaw with everything he had left.
The point went in.
Not deep.
Deep enough.
The butcher froze.
Kai felt the blade grind through flesh, cartilage, something harder. The monster's eye widened. Thick black blood spilled over his hand.
Then, with a wet choking sound, the goblin butcher collapsed.
It fell on top of him like a collapsing shelf.
Kai screamed and shoved until he could drag himself out from under the corpse.
For several seconds he could only kneel there, coughing, covered in the monster's blood and his own.
Then the System chimed.
A clear, crystalline sound.
Impossible.
Kai slowly lifted his head.
A translucent blue window hovered in front of him.
Enemy Defeated: Goblin Butcher
EXP +47
Loot Drop Confirmed
He frowned.
Loot drop?
No.
That was wrong.
Very wrong.
Most low-rank monsters didn't drop anything. That was the whole scam. Guilds sent desperate hunters into weak dungeons, paid them garbage, and pocketed the real rewards whenever an actual item appeared—which was rare enough to be worth celebrating.
Kai had killed dozens of monsters in his life.
He had never seen a drop.
The butcher's corpse began to dissolve into black ash.
Something metallic clinked onto the floor.
A ring.
Kai stared at it.
It was simple at first glance. Matte black. No gem. No decoration. Just a narrow band of metal resting in a small pile of ash.
Another window appeared.
Unique Passive Skill Awakened
Absolute Drop Rate
Effect: Every enemy defeated by the user will drop at least one item.
Warning: All dropped items are cursed.
This effect cannot be disabled.
For a moment, Kai forgot to breathe.
Then he laughed.
A broken, unbelieving sound.
"Of course," he whispered.
Of course it came with a catch.
Good things didn't happen to Kai Ren.
Not cleanly.
Not kindly.
Never without teeth.
Still…
Every enemy drops an item?
That was absurd. Not a rare skill. Not a strong skill.
A world-breaking one.
His eyes dropped back to the ring.
Cursed.
The word settled uneasily in his stomach.
He had heard stories. Every hunter had. Weapons that whispered at night. Armor that healed wounds by stealing lifespan. Accessories that doubled strength and hollowed out sanity. Most cursed items were destroyed on sight if discovered.
Most.
The poor sold them. The desperate used them. The dead regretted them.
Kai reached toward the ring and stopped.
He should leave it.
He should wait for appraisal.
He should report this skill to absolutely no one and pretend he never saw the drop.
He should do a lot of smart things.
Then he thought of the hospital bill folded in his pocket.
He thought of the doctor's careful voice.
If treatment is delayed again, it will get harder to manage.
He thought of all the times he had nearly died for scraps while richer hunters climbed higher with inherited gear, guild backing, and families that could afford mistakes.
Kai picked up the ring.
The moment his skin touched it, the dungeon temperature dropped.
A pulse moved through the metal.
Not mana.
Something colder.
Something aware.
A new window opened.
Item Appraisal Complete
Ring of the Hollow Feast
Rank: Unknown
Type: Accessory
Effect 1: Absorbs residual mana from recently defeated enemies.
Effect 2: Slightly increases perception during combat.
Curse: The ring grows stronger by feeding on the user's hunger.
Curse Effect Details: Incomplete
Warning: Removing the ring after bonding may be impossible.
Would you like to equip this item?
[YES] / [NO]
Kai stared at the window.
His right hand trembled.
Slightly increases perception.
Absorbs residual mana.
Unknown rank.
Impossible to remove.
The smart answer was obvious.
No.
He should press no, leave the ring in his bag, and crawl to the exit the moment the gate reopened.
He moved his finger toward NO.
The ring pulsed in his palm.
A whisper brushed against the inside of his skull.
Not sound.
Meaning.
Too weak.
Kai went still.
The whisper came again, softer now.
You almost died to a floor-three butcher.
His jaw tightened.
Hallucination, he told himself.
Curse effect. First contact.
Then the whisper changed.
Your sister won't survive another month like this.
Kai's blood turned to ice.
"No," he whispered aloud.
No cursed item should know that.
No System message should know that.
The ring lay silent in his palm.
The blue windows did not change.
But the pressure in the dungeon shifted.
From the corner of his eye, he saw movement.
He spun.
Nothing.
Only cracked pillars. Old bones. The sealed exit gate beginning to flicker brighter as the dungeon recognized the boss clear.
Kai looked back at the ring.
His finger hovered over NO.
Again, that almost-voice touched him.
You can stay weak. You can stay honest. You can stay poor. And then you can bury her.
Something ugly twisted in Kai's chest.
Fear.
Rage.
Helplessness sharpened over years into something mean enough to live.
He pressed YES.
The ring leapt onto his finger.
Kai screamed.
It wasn't like putting on metal.
It was like being bitten.
The black band tightened instantly, sinking into place with a violent pulse. A line of freezing pain shot from his finger up his arm and into his heart. His vision flashed white, then black, then filled with hundreds of floating blue symbols that made no sense.
He hit the floor hard.
Mana surged through him—not his own, but the leftover residue from every dead thing in the room. The butcher. The goblins from earlier floors. Even traces from hunters who had died here before.
The ring drank it all.
And for one terrible second, Kai saw through the dungeon's eyes.
He saw the sealed gate. He saw the tunnels beyond the chamber. He saw things moving in the walls.
Watching.
Waiting.
Hungry.
Then the vision snapped.
Kai lay on the cold stone, gasping, his whole body shaking.
A final window appeared.
Item Bond Complete
Ring of the Hollow Feast equipped
Perception +3
Residual Mana Absorption: Active
Curse Synchronization: 2%
Notice: User hunger has been registered.
Additional functions will unlock as the ring feeds.
Kai slowly pushed himself upright.
Everything looked different.
Sharper.
The green mist near the floor was not just mist now. It was mana runoff.
The broken gate was not simply flickering. It was destabilizing around one specific rune near the lower-left arc.
Even the silence had texture. Layers.
He could hear water dripping somewhere two corridors away.
He could hear something scratching behind the wall to his right.
He turned.
The scratching stopped.
Kai's grip tightened on his sword.
The exit gate gave a low hum and began to open.
Relief hit him so hard his knees nearly gave out.
He was alive.
He had a new skill.
He had a cursed item.
He had a chance.
Then the corpse of the dead mage near the pillar twitched.
Kai froze.
The body twitched again.
Slowly, awkwardly, the mage's head rolled toward him with a crack of bone.
Its eyes opened.
Not human anymore.
Black.
Completely black.
A System alert flashed across Kai's vision in violent red.
Emergency Condition Triggered
Curse resonance detected
The ring has awakened the dungeon's dead
Survive for 10 minutes
The mage's jaw unhinged.
From the corridor beyond the opening gate, more scraping sounds began to answer.
And then the first corpse stood up.