The Abyssal Death Knight was a creature born from the deep nightmares of the dungeon. It stood over ten feet tall, a walking catastrophe of rusted iron and swirling black miasma. Just a few minutes ago, this S-Rank anomaly had scared away an A-Rank Tank like a fly. It had brought Ryuichi, the so-called Golden Boy, to his knees in terror. But right now… The monster was trembling.
Ren Hanshin stood in the center of the shattered boss room, bathed in a crimson light. The heavy, unpleasant air of the dungeon had been overwritten by a divine pressure. In his right hand, the Mythic tier scythe, Severance of Destiny, thumping with a rhythmic heartbeat. The blade was made of crystallized, crimson blood. It felt ponderous in his grip, yet it emitted a power so precise that the space around the curved edge seemed to warp and obscure.
A transparent crimson screen hovered at the edge of his vision. The text scrolled fastly, ignoring all standard system formatting.
[God of Fate]: It dared to stand above you.
[God of Fate]: It dared to make you bleed. That silver haired pest did the cutting, but this filthy shadow tried to finish the job.
[God of Fate]: I hate it. I hate it so much. Kill it for me, Ren. Rip it to pieces.
Ren stared at the chat log. The words sent a crawling cold shiver down his spine, but they also ignited a thrill in his chest. For three years, he had been nothing but scrap under the boots of the elite. He had been told to look down, to stay quiet, to know his place.
Now, an Obsessive Goddess was begging him to slaughter his enemies.
"You want to see it die?" Ren whispered, his voice echoing in the silence of the cavern. He tightened his grip on the scythe. "Watch closely."
SCREEECHHH!!
The Abyssal Death Knight let out an unnatural screech. Filled with the dungeon's core instinct to destroy threats, the monster lunged forward. It slashed its massive, miasma coated greatsword in a horizontal arc, intending to cut Ren in half. The attack was so fast. A normal F-Rank Awakened wouldn't have even seen the blade move.
But Ren saw everything, his newly awakened mana channels rushed power through his body. Time seemed to slow down to a crawl. He saw a faint, gray thread connecting the Death Knight's weapon to its arm.
'Severance of Destiny,' Ren realized. 'The scythe didn't just cut matter. It cut the threads of probability and existence.'
Ren didn't dodge. He simply stepped forward and lashed the crimson scythe upward. There was no sound of metal clashing or shockwave. The crimson blade passed through the enormous black greatsword as smoothly as a hot knife cut through butter. The scythe carved an elegant, blood spilling arc through the air, cutting diagonally through the Death Knight's torso, from its armored hip all the way up to its opposite shoulder.
Ren followed through with the swing, swinging gracefully before coming to a halt, his back turned to the monster.
For three seconds, nothing happened. Then, a jagged, shimmering red line appeared across the Death Knight's rusted armor. The monster dropped its severed greatsword. It looked down at its own chest. A brutal sound echoed through the chamber as the top half of the S-Rank catastrophe slowly slid off its bottom half and crashed to the stone floor.
The black miasma holding the creature together frantically tried to reconnect the two halves, but it was useless. The wound inflicted by a Mythic weapon couldn't be healed by dungeon magic. The crimson energy ate away the shadows like acid.
GROANN!! SCREEE!!
The Death Knight let out one agonizing shriek before its form shattered into a million pieces of black ash.
Ren stood calm, letting out a long, slow breath.
'I... I did that?' he thought, staring at his hands. Just ten minutes ago, he couldn't even lift an A-Rank sword. Now, he had one-shotted a boss that required a raid team of S-Rank Hunters to defeat.
The crimson system screen burst out with notifications.
[Target Eliminated: S-Rank Abyssal Death Knight.]
[Calculating Experience...]
[Error. The level gap is too large. Adjusting parameters...]
[You have Leveled Up!]
[You have Leveled Up!]
[You have Leveled Up!]
...
[You have Leveled Up!]
[You have reached Level 45!]
[All stats increased exponentially. Mana Core upgraded from F-Rank to A-Rank.]
[You have obtained the Title: 'Sovereign's Executioner'.]
Before Ren could even process the power surging through his veins, another wave of notifications appeared in his vision. This time, they weren't the standard blue. They were the obsessive, burning red of his only viewer.
[The God of Fate is shivering with pleasure.]
[The God of Fate has donated 5,000,000 Karma Points!]
[The God of Fate has donated 5,000,000 Karma Points!]
[God of Fate]: Beautiful. Perfect. You are a masterpiece.
[God of Fate]: The way you moved... no one else is allowed to see that. Only me. If you ever swing that scythe for the entertainment of another god, I will pick their eyes out from their skulls.
[God of Fate]: Pick up your reward, my love. It is time to leave this filthy cave.
Ren swallowed hard. Ten million Karma Points. Most A-Rank Hunters streamed for months, risking their lives in dozens of dungeons, just to earn a hundred thousand points to buy a decent health potion from the system shop. Ren had just become a multi millionaire in sixty seconds. He walked over to the pile of black ash left behind by the boss. Resting in the center, there was a shining, pitch black gemstone of the size of his fist.
An S-Rank Monster Core.
In the real world, this single stone was worth enough credits to buy a luxury skyscraper in the center of the city. More importantly, it was enough to pay off his sister's hospital bills ten times over. Ren picked it up, the smooth surface cold against his skin. He tossed it into his inventory, a spatial storage feature he had just unlocked by reaching Level 10.
He asked the Severance of Destiny to vanish. The crimson scythe disappeared into red mist, sinking into the palm of his right hand, leaving behind a faint, tattoo-like mark of a severed thread. Ren turned and began the long walk back toward the dungeon entrance. The journey was eerily quiet. Usually, an A-Rank Gate was swarming with leftover monsters that the vanguard party had missed. But the terrifying aura of the God of Fate had destroyed the cavern. The lower-level monsters like goblins, shadow wolves, and cave trolls were either hiding in the corners or they had died of fear from the divine pressure.
As Ren walked, he passed the spot where the raid had initially gone wrong. He saw the crushed shield belonging to Daiki, the A-Rank Tank. A pool of blood stained the floor.
Ren felt no pity. Daiki had laughed every time Ryuichi kicked Ren. They had all treated him like a disposable waste.
"Ryuichi and Mei..." Ren muttered to himself, his eyes narrowing. "They used a return crystal. They think I'm dead. They're probably outside right now, crying fake tears to the Association reporters, talking about how the heroic F-Rank porter sacrificed himself so they could escape."
The thought made his blood boil.
[God of Fate]: Do not be angry. Your anger ruins your pretty face.
[God of Fate]: I know where they are. I can see their strings of fate. Do you want me to snap them? I can give them both a heart attack right now. Just say the word.
Ren stopped walking, staring at the red text hovering in the air. The casual way she offered to murder two high ranking people in the real world was chilling.
"No," Ren said out, his voice cold. "Don't touch them."
[The God of Fate is confused.]
[God of Fate]: Why? Are you showing mercy? You belong to me, Ren. You cannot be soft.
"It's not mercy," Ren replied, stepping into the blue circle of the dungeon exit portal. "If they die quietly from a heart attack, they die as heroes who survived a tragedy. They keep their honor. They keep their wealth."
A dark smile crept onto Ren's face. "I don't just want them dead. I want them ruined. I want to take everything from them, just like they tried to take my life. Let them sleep peacefully tonight. I'll handle them myself."
[The God of Fate is staring at your smile.]
[The God of Fate is breathing harshly.]
[The God of Fate has donated 1,000,000 Karma Points!]
[God of Fate]: Yes. Ruin them. Show no mercy. I will watch every second of it.
Ren stepped through the portal. Outside the A-Rank Gate, Central Tokyo District. In the area surrounding the whirling blue portal, there was a scene of chaos. Police barricades had been erected, holding back a crowd of anxious civilians and hungry journalists. Floodlights illuminated the night sky.
Inside the security perimeter, a medical tent had been set up.
Ryuichi, the Azure Dragon Guild's Golden Boy, sat on a supply crate, a thermal blanket wrapped around his shoulders. He was putting on the performance of a lifetime. He stared blankly at the ground, his face pale, hands trembling.
A few feet away, Mei was sobbing into the shoulder of an Association Guild Manager.
"It... it happened so fast," Ryuichi said to the reporter holding a microphone in front of his face. "The intel was flawed. It was an S-Rank anomaly. An Abyssal Death Knight. Daiki... Daiki fell instantly."
Ryuichi choked out a fake sob, wiping a fake tear from his eye. "But Ren... our porter. The kid was only an F-Rank, but he had the heart of a lion. When the monster charged us, he threw himself in front of the blade. He yelled at us to run. He bought us the ten seconds we needed to activate the crystal."
The reporter looked moved. "A tragic, beautiful sacrifice. The Azure Dragon Guild truly inspires loyalty, even in its lowest ranking members."
"We will be establishing a memorial fund in Ren Hanshin's name," Ryuichi said solemnly, looking into the camera. "He died a hero's death."
"Is that right?" The voice was calm, but it cut through the noise of the crowd like a razor blade.
Ryuichi froze. The blood drained from his face. Mei stopped crying mid sob. She turned her head toward the blue portal of the dungeon gate. The entire camp fell into silence. Reporters, medics, and armed association guards all turned their heads.
Stepping out of the blue light, there was a young man. He wasn't wearing the cheap, tattered cargo pants of an F-Rank porter. He was wearing a sleek, black coat that seemed to absorb the surrounding light. He looked healthy, and his right leg, which Ryuichi had personally severed, was flawless.
Ren Hanshin casually brushed some dust off his shoulder and looked around the camp.
"Funny," Ren said, his crimson eyes darting towards Ryuichi's terrified face. "I don't remember yelling at you to run. I remember you slicing my leg open from behind and kicking me into the boss room like a dog."
The crowd gasped. The reporters shoved their microphones forward, sensing the scandal of the century.
Ryuichi scrambled backward, tripping over the supply crate and falling into the mud. "You... how... you can't be alive! It was an S-Rank! Your leg is gone!"
Mei screamed, pointing a trembling finger at Ren. "M-Monster! He's possessed! He died there, the dungeon took his body!"
Association guards immediately raised their assault rifles, aiming them at Ren's chest. "Halt! Do not take another step! Identify yourself!" a captain shouted.
Ren didn't raise his hands. He just stood there, relaxed, bathed in the lights of the cameras. He opened his system interface and tossed an item onto the wet ground.
THUD!!
A shiny black gemstone rolled across the dirt and stopped at the boots of the Association Captain.
The Captain looked down. His jaw dropped open. "Is... is that..."
"An S-Rank Abyssal core," Ren said simply, looking back at Ryuichi, who was currently breathing heavily in the mud, staring at the gemstone as if it were a ghost.
Ren smiled. It was a cold, cruel smile that promised nothing but suffering.
"I cleared the dungeon, Ryuichi, and now, I'm clocking out. You can keep my ten thousand credit porter fee." Ren turned his back to the terrified Ryuichi, looking at the camera. "Because you're going to need it for your funeral."
Lingering silently in the air, invisible to the rest of the world, the crimson chat box scrolled open beside Ren's head.
[The God of Fate is cheering.]
[The God of Fate wants you to step on his throat.]
[The God of Fate has donated 2,000,000 Karma Points!]