Blood ran down Ji-woo's leg, warm and sticky inside his torn pants. The rat's teeth had gone deep, but he couldn't afford to think about infection or pain. Not when forty-six more of those things were circling him like a pack of prehistoric predators.
[TIME REMAINING: 28:17]
[HP: 73/100]
HP? He had hit points now? Ji-woo risked a glance at his phone, somehow still clutched in his left hand while his right wielded the knife. A translucent interface had appeared over reality itself, showing his status in glowing numbers.
[KIM JI-WOO - LEVEL 1 DEBT REAPER][HP: 73/100][MP: 50/50][STRENGTH: 8][AGILITY: 7][VITALITY: 10][INTELLIGENCE: 12]
The rats didn't give him time to process. They came in waves, testing his defenses, probing for weakness. Ji-woo backed toward a support pillar, trying to limit the angles they could attack from.
His warehouse job had kept him somewhat fit, but this was different. Every movement had to count. Every swing had to connect. The rusty knife felt heavier with each passing second, his arms burning with lactic acid.
A rat leaped at his face. Ji-woo ducked, feeling the wind of its passage. He came up swinging, the blade cutting through fur and flesh. Black smoke. Another experience point.
[EXPERIENCE: 4/100]
One hundred experience to level up. Forty-seven rats total. The math was brutally simple—if he could kill them all, he'd level up. If.
Three rats coordinated an attack from different sides. Ji-woo took a calculated risk, ignoring the one on his left to focus on the two from the right. His blade caught the first rat mid-leap, dissolving it. The second one's claws raked across his shoulder.
[HP: 67/100]
Pain flared, but Ji-woo gritted his teeth and pivoted, bringing the knife down on the third rat as it lunged for his injured leg. The blade punched through its skull with a sickening crunch before it vanished into smoke.
[EXPERIENCE: 6/100]
His breathing came in ragged gasps. How long had it been? Two minutes? It felt like hours.
[TIME REMAINING: 26:43]
Twenty-six minutes left. He'd killed six rats and taken thirty-three points of damage. At this rate, he'd be dead long before the timer ran out.
Think, Ji-woo. Think!
The rats were coordinating, but they weren't random. They probed his left side more—they'd noticed his knife was in his right hand. They attacked low, going for his injured leg. They were testing him, learning him.
Which meant they had some kind of intelligence. Which meant they could make mistakes.
Ji-woo deliberately stumbled, favoring his wounded leg more than necessary. The rats' green eyes brightened with predatory interest. They sensed weakness. Five of them rushed forward at once, abandoning their careful coordination for the chance at an easy kill.
Exactly what he'd hoped for.
Ji-woo's "weak" leg planted firmly, and he exploded forward instead of back. The rats, committed to their leaps, couldn't adjust. His knife became a whirlwind. One, two, three rats dissolved into smoke before they even realized their mistake.
[EXPERIENCE: 9/100]
The other two crashed into him, claws and teeth finding purchase. Ji-woo screamed, more rage than pain, and grabbed one rat by the scruff of its neck. It writhed and bit, its teeth sinking into his forearm, but he held on and slammed it into the concrete pillar with bone-breaking force.
[HP: 54/100]
The rat went limp and dissolved. The last one attached to his back, clawing for his neck. Ji-woo reached back, grabbed it, and threw it down. His foot came down on its spine before it could recover.
[EXPERIENCE: 11/100]
[HP: 49/100]
He was below half health. His body was a map of pain—bites on his leg, arm, and shoulder, deep scratches across his back and chest. His convenience store uniform was shredded and soaked with blood.
But he was still standing.
And the rats had learned to fear him.
The remaining rats hung back now, their coordinated attacks replaced by cautious circling. They'd thought he was prey. Now they weren't sure.
[TIME REMAINING: 24:38]
Ji-woo used the momentary reprieve to assess his situation. Forty-one rats left. Less than half his health. Twenty-four minutes remaining. The math wasn't good.
His phone screen flickered with new information.
[SKILL AVAILABLE: DESPERATE STRIKE][COST: 20 MP][EFFECT: NEXT ATTACK DEALS 200% DAMAGE]
Skills? He had skills now? Ji-woo focused on the notification, and more information flooded his mind—not read, but known, like muscle memory uploaded directly to his brain.
Desperate Strike. A skill born from fighting with his back against the wall. It would cost him twenty MP—forty percent of his total—but it could turn the tide.
The rats were moving again, their fear overcome by hunger. They spread out wider this time, learning from their losses.
Ji-woo made a decision. If he was going to die here, he'd die fighting smart, not hard.
He ran.
Not away—toward. Ji-woo charged at the thinnest part of the encirclement, knife leading. The rats there scattered, surprised by the suicidal move. He broke through their line and kept running down the abandoned subway platform, his wounded leg screaming in protest.
[HP: 47/100]
The bleeding was getting worse.
The rats pursued, their claws clicking on tile. But now they were strung out, their coordination broken by the chase. Ji-woo reached a narrow maintenance doorway and spun around, knife raised.
The doorway was barely wide enough for one rat at a time.
The first rat through died before it realized the trap. The second one tried to retreat but the press of bodies behind it pushed it forward onto Ji-woo's blade.
[EXPERIENCE: 13/100]
It became a slaughter. The rats couldn't use their numbers in the confined space. They came one by one, or two abreast at most, and Ji-woo's knife rose and fell like a piston. His arms burned. His vision swam from blood loss. But he didn't stop.
[EXPERIENCE: 25/100]
[HP: 41/100]
A rat got through his guard, its teeth finding his thigh. Ji-woo roared and activated his skill for the first time.
[DESPERATE STRIKE ACTIVATED]
Power flooded through his arm, unnatural and electric. The knife came down with twice its normal force, shearing through the rat and the one behind it in a single strike. Both dissolved into smoke.
[MP: 30/50]
[EXPERIENCE: 27/100]
The skill's power faded, leaving him gasping. But it had worked. Twenty MP for two guaranteed kills? In this situation, that was a bargain.
The rats pushed harder now, desperate to break through. But Ji-woo had found his rhythm. Stab, slash, step back. Stab, slash, step back. When three came at once, he used Desperate Strike again, the enhanced blow cutting through multiple targets.
[MP: 10/50]
[EXPERIENCE: 42/100]
His phone buzzed with a new notification, but Ji-woo ignored it. Kill or be killed. That was the only truth that mattered.
[HP: 33/100]
[TIME REMAINING: 18:22]
The rats were thinning now. Twenty? Fifteen? Ji-woo had lost count. His world had narrowed to the doorway, the knife, and the next target. Everything else was background noise.
A particularly large rat forced its way through, nearly twice the size of the others.
[ENEMY: TUNNEL RAT ALPHA - LEVEL 2]
[HP: 150/150]
The alpha's eyes burned brighter green, intelligent and hateful. It didn't rush like the others. It stalked forward, forcing Ji-woo to back up. Behind it, the remaining rats gathered, waiting for their leader to finish him.
Ji-woo's hands trembled with exhaustion. He had ten MP left—not enough for Desperate Strike. His HP was in the red. His body was failing.
But his debt was ₩847,000,000, and the system had promised ₩10,000,000 for surviving.
He couldn't afford to die here.
The alpha lunged with frightening speed. Ji-woo barely dodged, the rat's claws tearing through his already shredded shirt. He countered with a slash that caught only fur—the alpha was fast.
[HP: 28/100]
They circled each other in the tight space. The alpha feinted left, then struck right. Ji-woo's knife blocked the attack, but the impact jarred his arm, nearly making him drop the weapon.
[TIME REMAINING: 16:54]
The alpha pressed its advantage, attacking in a frenzy. Ji-woo gave ground, his back hitting the wall. No more room to retreat.
The rat came in for the kill, jaws wide.
Ji-woo did the only thing he could—he fell forward.
The move surprised both of them. The alpha's bite closed on empty air as Ji-woo crashed into it, his weight bearing them both down. They hit the ground in a tangle of limbs and fur, Ji-woo's knife trapped between their bodies.
The alpha thrashed, powerful and panicked. Its claws opened new wounds across Ji-woo's chest and arms.
[HP: 19/100]
But Ji-woo held on with desperate strength. Held on and pushed, driving the knife deeper into the rat's body. The alpha shrieked, a sound of pure rage and agony.
[HP: 15/100]
Ji-woo pushed harder. The knife sank to the hilt.
The alpha dissolved into smoke.
[LEVEL UP!]
[EXPERIENCE: 0/150]
[FULL HEAL APPLIED]
Power flooded Ji-woo's body like liquid fire. His wounds closed, the bleeding stopped, the pain evaporated. He gasped as his HP shot back to maximum, as energy filled limbs that had been leaden with exhaustion seconds before.
[HP: 100/100]
[MP: 50/50]
[LEVEL 2 DEBT REAPER]
[STAT POINTS AVAILABLE: 5]
Ji-woo rose to his feet, feeling stronger than he'd ever felt in his life. The remaining rats—maybe a dozen—backed away from the doorway, their coordination completely broken with their alpha dead.
They'd lost their nerve.
Ji-woo advanced on them, knife raised, and this time they ran. They scattered into the darkness of the abandoned subway tunnels, squeaking in terror.
[TIME REMAINING: 15:02]
Fifteen minutes left. He could hunt down the stragglers, but Ji-woo's survival instinct warned against it. He'd cleared the immediate threat. The objective was to survive thirty minutes, not to kill every enemy.
He slumped against the wall, letting the adrenaline drain away. His uniform was still torn and blood-soaked, but underneath, his skin was unbroken. The level-up had healed him completely.
This is real, he thought, the truth finally sinking in. This is actually real.
He could die here. But he could also win. And winning meant erasing his debt, piece by piece.
Ji-woo opened his status screen and looked at the five stat points waiting to be allocated. This was just the beginning.
The Debt Reaper had been born.
[TIME REMAINING: 00:00]
[DUNGEON CLEARED!]
[CALCULATING REWARDS...]
[END CHAPTER OF 2]