The alleyway was a dead end, boxed in by the towering concrete walls of the residential block and a rusted chain-link fence. To anyone else, it was a trap. To Lin, it was a kill box.
He stood near the mouth of the alley, the rusted rebar heavy in his hand. His chest heaved, not from exhaustion, but from the adrenaline of his first kill.
Scritch. Scratch.
The sound of claws on concrete grew louder. The smell of the dead rat at his feet—a mix of copper blood and sewage—seemed to act as a beacon.
Three more pairs of red eyes emerged from the darkness behind the overflowing dumpsters.
[ Monster Identified: Sewer Rat (Lv. 0) ]
[ Monster Identified: Sewer Rat (Lv. 0) ]
[ Monster Identified: Sewer Rat (Lv. 0) ]
They were slightly smaller than the first one, but they were pack hunters. They moved with a jerky, twitchy aggression, sensing the blood.
Lin didn't retreat. He checked his health bar. 121 / 121 HP.
"Come on," he whispered.
The first rat leaped.
Lin swung the rebar like a baseball bat. He had no technique, no martial arts training. He just had the desperate, clumsy swing of a teenager who refused to die.
CRACK.
The metal bar connected with the rat mid-air, smashing it against the brick wall. It fell with a wet thud, twitching once before going still.
[ Target Eliminated. ]
[ Max HP +1 ]
The warmth returned. It rippled through his veins, subtle but undeniable. It felt like taking a deep breath of pure oxygen after breathing through a straw for eighteen years.
The other two rats hesitated, then charged together.
One bit his ankle. The other latched onto his shin.
[ HP -4 ]
[ HP -5 ]
Pain shot up his leg, sharp and nasty. Lin gritted his teeth, stomping his heel down on the rat biting his ankle. He heard the crunch of bone. He swung the rebar down on the second one.
Smash. Smash.
[ Target Eliminated. ]
[ Max HP +1 ]
[ Target Eliminated. ]
[ Max HP +1 ]
[ Current HP: 115 / 124 ]
Lin leaned against the wall, sliding down to catch his breath. His leg was bleeding, the fabric of his trousers torn.
"124 Max HP," he muttered, staring at the blue screen.
Ten minutes ago, his cap was 120. He had gained 4 points of permanent health in less than sixty seconds.
For a normal person to gain 4 points of Constitution (which equaled 40 HP), they would need to level up at least twice. That could take weeks of grinding in a safe zone dungeon.
Lin looked at his bloody leg. The wounds were stinging, but the bleeding was already slowing down. With higher Vitality came higher regeneration.
He looked deeper into the alley. The shadows were teeming with movement. The smell of fresh blood was driving the nest into a frenzy.
A sane person would leave. He was injured, armed with a piece of scrap metal, and outnumbered.
Lin gripped the rebar until his knuckles turned white. He thought about the recruiter's laughing face. He thought about the expensive medicine he couldn't afford. He thought about the cold, grey gravestone waiting for him.
"I'm not done," Lin said.
He stood up and walked deeper into the dark.
Two Hours Later.
The alleyway looked like a slaughterhouse.
The ground was slick with green and black ichor. Rat corpses were piled in the corners, some crushed, some stomped flat.
Lin sat on an overturned crate, wiping sweat and blood from his forehead. He looked like a wreck. His school uniform was in tatters. His arms and legs were covered in bite marks and scratches.
But his eyes were burning with a terrifying intensity.
He wasn't tired. That was the most shocking part. Usually, walking up a flight of stairs would leave him winded. Now, after swinging a metal bar for two hours, his muscles felt sore, but his lungs were clear. His heart beat with a strong, steady rhythm.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
He pulled up his status screen.
[ Status Update ]
Name: Lin
Level: 1 (45/100 EXP)
HP: 135 / 168
He had killed 47 rats.
His Maximum Health had increased by 47 points.
To put that in perspective, an F-Rank Warrior usually started with 150 HP. Lin, the sickly "trash" Archer, now had more health than a healthy combat-class starter.
"It works," Lin laughed, a dry, raspy sound. "It actually works."
The glitch wasn't a one-time thing. It was consistent. It was infinite.
Suddenly, a low growl vibrated through the air.
The trash pile at the very end of the alley shifted. The garbage bags toppled over as something massive pushed its way out.
It was a rat, but it was the size of a wolf. Its fur was spiked and hardened like quills. Its tail was long and hairless, whipping the air like a lash. Its eyes burned with a smarter, more malicious intelligence than the others.
[ Warning: Elite Monster Detected ]
[ Species: Sewer Broodmother (Rat Matriarch) ]
[ Rank: F (Elite) ]
[ Level: 2 ]
Lin stiffened.
Elite monsters were dangerous. In the low-level dungeons, a party of three F-Rankers was usually recommended to take down an Elite. They hit harder, moved faster, and had higher defense.
The Broodmother hissed, revealing teeth that looked capable of snapping the rebar in half. It smelled the genocide of its children on Lin.
It charged.
It was fast—much faster than the small ones.
Lin's Agility was still only 9. He tried to dodge to the left, but his body couldn't keep up with his mind. The Broodmother slammed into him, knocking him into the brick wall.
[ HP -35 ]
The impact knocked the wind out of him. The claws raked across his chest, shredding what was left of his shirt.
Lin gasped. That hit would have taken a quarter of a normal person's life.
If this was yesterday, Lin would be dead. The shock alone would have stopped his weak heart.
But today?
[ Current HP: 100 / 168 ]
He still had over a hundred health left.
The Broodmother landed and turned for a second strike, expecting its prey to be incapacitated. instead, it found Lin standing up, spitting a mouthful of bloody saliva onto the ground.
"Is that it?" Lin snarled.
He didn't try to run. He didn't try to dodge. He realized in that moment that he wasn't a Ranger yet. He didn't have a bow. He couldn't kite.
He had to fight like a brute.
The Broodmother lunged for his throat.
Lin opened his arms. He stepped into the attack.
He took the bite.
The beast's jaws clamped onto his left forearm. The teeth sank deep, hitting bone.
[ HP -28 ]
Pain exploded in his arm, blinding white hot. But Lin didn't scream. He used the leverage. Since the monster was attached to his arm, it couldn't move.
"Got you," Lin whispered.
He raised the rebar with his free right hand and brought it down with every ounce of strength he possessed.
SMASH.
He aimed directly for the spine, just behind the skull.
The Broodmother shrieked, thrashing wildly. It tore at his arm, dealing more damage.
[ HP -15 ]
[ HP -12 ]
Lin's health was dropping rapidly. 80... 65... 50...
But he didn't stop. He turned off the part of his brain that feared pain. He became a machine.
Smash. Smash. Smash.
"Die!" Lin roared, bringing the metal bar down one final time. There was a wet crunch, sickening and final. The Broodmother went limp, its heavy body dragging Lin's arm down.
Lin kicked the corpse away, clutching his mangled left arm. He fell to his knees, breathing hard.
[ Target Eliminated: Sewer Broodmother (Lv. 2) ]
[ Experience Gained: 50 ]
[ Achievement Unlocked: First Elite Kill ]
Then, the golden text he was waiting for.
[ Trait Triggered: Infinite Growth ]
[ Target Classification: Elite ]
[ Reward: Max HP +10 ]
A surge of energy, far more potent than before, flooded his system. It felt like a shot of adrenaline mixed with morphine.
[ Max HP: 168 -> 178 ]
And then, something else happened.
[ Level Up! ]
[ You are now Level 2. ]
[ You have received +51 Attribute Points. ]
Lin froze. He blinked sweat out of his eyes to read the notification again.
+51 Points.
A standard F-Ranker got 1 point. An S-Ranker got 10.
He got fifty-one.
He looked at his mangled arm. The bleeding had already stopped. The flesh was knitting together at a visible rate. With his health pool expanding, his natural regeneration was accelerating.
He looked at the dead Broodmother. A faint white glow hovered over the corpse.
Loot.
He reached out and touched the light. A small, jagged dagger materialized in his hand.
[ Item: Rat's Fang (Common) ]
[ Damage: 5-8 ]
[ Durability: 10/10 ]
It was a trash weapon. But it was sharp. Sharper than his rebar.
Lin stood up. His left arm hung uselessly by his side for now, but in an hour, it would be healed. He felt strong. He felt dangerous.
He looked at the sky. It was fully dark now. The city lights of the safe zone reflected off the low clouds.
"178 HP," Lin whispered. "Plus 51 stat points."
He didn't assign the points yet. He needed to think. He needed a plan.
And most importantly, he needed a bow.
He dropped the bent, bloody rebar and sheathed the bone dagger in his belt. He walked out of the alleyway, leaving a graveyard of rats behind him.
The grind had just begun.