Chapter 1: The Rent is Due, and the World is Over
Pillow sat at his makeshift desk, the glowing red of a "Late Rent" notice reflecting in his tired eyes. He was a dropout, a guy who couldn't find a basic retail job, and currently, he was down to his last bag of instant noodles. He had spent his youth studying the biology of legendary beasts in books, hoping to become a Monster Researcher or a worker at a beast-processing plant. But without a degree, that knowledge was useless. He was just another face in the crowd of the unemployed.
"Maybe I should just head back to the village," he muttered, leaning his head against the cool glass of his window.
BOOM.
The explosion didn't just rattle the windows; it shattered them. Pillow was thrown backward as a shockwave of violet energy swept through the room. He scrambled up, his hands bleeding from glass shards, and looked outside. The sky had been replaced by a swirling, bruised vortex. From the clouds, obsidian-skinned horrors descended like rain.
On the street below, he saw a soldier fire a mounted machine gun at a creature that looked like a six-legged lizard. The heavy-caliber bullets—designed to rip through steel—simply bounced off the monster's hide like pebbles. Earthly weapons were obsolete. The laws of nature had been replaced by the laws of the Abyss.
"It's not possible..." Pillow gasped, his monster-worker instincts kicking in. "Their hides... they aren't made of matter. They're made of condensed mana."
A deafening crash came from his kitchen. The wall exploded inward, and a Rank-G Scavenger lunged through the dust. It was ten feet of rotting leather and needle-teeth, its eyes glowing with a sickly yellow hunger. It pinned Pillow against the floor, its weight crushing the air from his lungs.
In a panic, Pillow grabbed a heavy iron wrench from his toolbox and slammed it into the monster's soft underbelly—a spot he knew was a weakness in every lizard-type creature.
SNAP.
The iron wrench broke like a twig. The monster didn't even flinch. It opened its maw, the stench of decay filling Pillow's nose, and raised a jagged claw to rip him piece by piece.
I spent my whole life learning about them, and I'm going to die without ever seeing one for real? Pillow's fear suddenly turned into a cold, sharp fury. I refuse! If the world is ending, I'm going to be the one who ends it!
Suddenly, a cold, mechanical voice resonated in his mind, and a translucent screen flickered into life right before the monster's claw struck his heart.
[System Calibration: 100% Complete] [Soul Host: Pillow] [Specialty Detected: Monster Knowledge (Max)]
[Emergency Skill Activation: Sovereign Siphon] Description: To kill a monster, you must become their King. Earthly weapons fail, but your touch will drain their very essence.
The monster's claw stopped inches from his chest as a blinding black-and-gold light erupted from Pillow's heart. He felt a magnetic pulse in his fingertips.
"Target identified. Begin Siphoning?"
"Drain it dry," Pillow snarled.
As his hand touched the monster's chest, the creature let out a horrific screech. Its obsidian skin began to turn to grey ash, and a stream of pure, raw energy flowed directly into Pillow's veins. His muscles expanded, his broken skin healed instantly, and his vision sharpened until he could see the flow of mana in the air.
[Essence Absorbed: +10 Strength, +10 Agility] [First Kill Recorded: Level 1 -> Level 2] [New Skill Unlocked: Beast-Sense (Passive)]
Pillow stood up among the ruins of his apartment. He looked at his hands, which were now pulsing with faint gold energy. The rent was no longer his biggest problem.
To be continued...