[ Option two confirmed. Executing Karmic Restitution Law. ] [ Active Skill: Light Strike has been confiscated from Entity: Caion Silver. ] [ The skill is now entirely at your disposal until the blood debt is settled. ] [ System Note: The indebted entity is unaware of the creditor's identity. The skill confiscation will appear as a malfunction in his awakening system until you decide to inform him.]
I read the words glowing in crimson red as I walked away from the Awakening Courtyard with calm, measured steps. I did not look back, but I did not need to in order to know what was happening.
Suddenly, a sharp, panicked scream pierced the quiet of the courtyard that had just been watching me leave. It was Caion Silver's scream.
My light! Where is my light?! The skill vanished from my panel! the noble boy screamed, his voice trembling with absolute terror, as if someone had just ripped his heart out of his chest. Proctor! Director! There is a mistake! The System robbed me of my skill!
The students' footsteps halted, and murmurs of shock and confusion rose in the air. I heard the heavy footsteps of the Director running toward Caion, followed by the voices of the proctors who began speaking in incomprehensible terms about synchronization errors and the need for a re-examination. To them, what had just happened was utterly impossible. The System does not make mistakes, and it certainly does not take back a gift it just bestowed.
To me, it was the fairest thing the System had done since its descent upon our planet fifteen years ago.
I placed my uninjured hand over my chest. Beneath my worn cotton shirt, I could feel a strange, comforting heat pulsing through my veins. Pure, warm, and holy energy flowing into a body that had known nothing but hunger and cold. This was the mana of Light I had just stolen. It belonged to Caion, but now, it was mine.
I continued my way out of the high, ornate gates of Vanguard Academy, leaving the bright world of the elite behind, to dive into the gloomy streets of the Lower District.
Here, there were no clean sidewalks or towering buildings kissing the clouds. Here, there were narrow alleys reeking of sewage, and dilapidated buildings leaning against each other like drunks exhausted by the night. The sky always looked gray over the Lower District, as if even the planet's clouds refused to rain honestly on these forgotten people.
On my left shoulder, Coin shifted. His black metallic coins made a faint clinking sound, and he wiped his golden beak against his metallic feathers before speaking in his hoarse voice.
An excellent choice for a beginner, Master, the crow said, looking at the filthy alleys with a ruby eye that gleamed in the dark. Confiscating the core skill of a swordsman who relies entirely on his first strike is akin to cutting off his arms. But, let me clarify a small detail regarding the nature of our business.
I did not stop walking, but I whispered softly so as not to draw the attention of passing vagrants. Go ahead, explain. I am listening.
Coin spoke with the tone of an old accountant instructing a new trainee. The Light Strike skill is now in your possession, and you can use it. However, your body is still trash. Your stats are locked at a strength of 2. If you try to use this skill while swinging a heavy sword, the recoil force generated by the light explosion will dislocate your shoulder and tear the tendons in your hand. We are debt collectors, not frontline warriors. You must use your brain before your muscles, because your muscles basically do not exist.
I understood his point immediately. The System gave me a terrifying power, but it restricted it with a glass body. It was the usual irony of fate. I could not be a hero waving a sword in the middle of the battlefield. I had to be the shadow manipulating everyone from behind.
And what about the debt? I asked as I bypassed a group of drunks fighting over an empty wine bottle. How can Caion get his skill back?
Coin let out a sound like a choppy metallic laugh. Do not worry about that. He does not know you are the creditor. He will keep looking for a solution for years, and he will waste his family's fortune on healers and System priests, thinking it is a curse. The debt will remain registered in my ledger. To recover his skill, he must pay the blood debt he inflicted upon you. Either by offering a physical sacrifice equal to the pain he caused you multiplied, or by offering something of extremely high system value as a token of fulfillment. And until that happens... the skill is yours.
I smiled in the dark. This System was sick, but it was genius.
I finally reached the crumbling residential building I called home. The walls were covered in damp moss, and the wooden stairs groaned under the weight of my light footsteps. I climbed to the third floor, where my cramped room lay at the end of a dark hallway.
But I was not alone.
In front of my door stood three men. They wore rough leather jackets and carried wooden clubs reinforced with iron spikes. In the middle of them stood Kyle. He was a massive, bald man, his face bearing an ugly scar stretching from his ear to his chin. Kyle was a low-level awakened, a Level 4 Fighter, but in this Lower District, he was considered a gang boss who terrorized the weak and collected extortion money.
I stopped in my tracks, my eyes fixed on the club in his hand.
Oh, look who is back from the Academy ceremony, Kyle said in a gruff voice carrying every shade of mockery and threat, tapping his club against his open palm. Little Arien. Tell me, boy, have you become a great hero now? Will you fly in the sky and save the world from monsters? Or did the System realize you are just another street rat?
I did not respond to his mockery. I looked at him calmly and said, The rent is not due until the end of the week, Kyle. What are you doing here?
Kyle spat on the wooden floor and crossed the distance between us with two heavy steps. Interest rates change, Arien. I heard you went to the Awakening today. Anyone who awakens a magical class is obligated to pay double the protection tax to the guild. We decided to collect it in advance. You either pay fifty copper coins right now, or we will take the equivalent from your flesh and bones, then throw you out into the street.
Fifty copper coins? That amount was enough to feed an entire family for a month. He knew perfectly well I did not have even a single coin. This was just an excuse to beat me up and seize my room to rent it to someone else.
I took a step back, but one of his lackeys moved quickly and blocked the path back to the stairs. I was trapped.
I do not have that amount, and you know it, I said, maintaining my composure.
Kyle smiled with rotting yellow teeth. I know. That is why I brought my club.
He did not give me time to think. He raised his massive hand and delivered a powerful, direct punch to my stomach. I did not have the agility to dodge it, nor the endurance to block it.
His hard fist collided with my abdomen with a force that knocked the air out of my lungs all at once. I doubled over from the sheer agonizing pain, falling to my knees while coughing violently. I felt the warm, metallic taste of blood fill my mouth, and I spat it onto the filthy wooden floor.
The pain was real and harsh. This was the death trap of my class. I am not immune to strikes. Every injury I take destroys my frail body. If Kyle had used his spiked club on my head, I would be a lifeless corpse right now before I could activate anything. I have to endure the pain to win.
The gang members laughed as they looked at me shivering on the floor.
Is that all? Kyle mocked, grabbing my shirt collar and lifting me slightly. The hero of Vanguard Academy falls with one punch?
Despite the pain tearing at my insides and the dizziness swirling in my head, I smiled. It was a bloodstained smile, but a genuine, cold one.
I raised my eyes to look into his surprised eyes, and I heard the ringing of coins on my shoulder, followed by the flash of the red screen I had been waiting for.
[ Critical System Alert ] [ You have taken intentional physical damage from Entity: Kyle - Level 4 Fighter ] [ 15 Health points deducted. Blood has been spilled. ] [ A Blood Karma Debt has been registered. Law of Restitution is available. ] [ Available options to settle the debt: ] [ 1. Confiscate 50 percent of the aggressor's physical stats for one hour. ] [ 2. Confiscate his passive skill (Thick Skin) temporarily. ] [ 3. Reflect the physical damage multiplied directly to his liver. ]
I did not hesitate for a moment. In a world that respects brute force, stripping away power is the ultimate humiliation.
Option one, I whispered in a rough, hoarse voice.
[ Option one confirmed. Withdrawing stats. ]
In that very instant, Kyle froze in place. His eyes widened in pure shock, and his grip on my collar loosened until he dropped me completely. He took a step back, looking at his trembling hands as if they did not belong to him.
What... what is happening? Kyle shouted in a shaky voice, every ounce of arrogance vanishing from it. My strength... my body... I feel like I am carrying a mountain on my back! Why do I feel so weak?!
His lackeys exchanged confused and panicked glances. They did not understand what had befallen their boss, who just a second ago was brimming with energy.
I stood up slowly, leaning against the damp wall to regain my balance. I wiped the blood from my chin with the back of my hand. Kyle had lost half of his strength, agility, and endurance. He was now at the level of a sick or elderly person.
But I was not done. I needed to send a definitive message to this scum, and to myself as well, that my old life as a victim had ended tonight.
I looked around the narrow hallway. Next to my door lay a rusty iron pipe on the floor, remnants of repairs that were never completed in this miserable building. I bent down and picked it up. It was a bit heavy for my strength stat of 2, but I did not intend to use muscle power to hit him.
I pointed the pipe at Kyle, who was still trembling and trying to comprehend what was happening to his body.
I said perfectly calmly, You are right, Kyle. Interest rates really do change.
I closed my eyes for a second, searching inside myself for that holy heat I had stolen from the Academy courtyard. I channeled the mana into my right hand, and from there into the rusty iron pipe.
[ Activating Active Skill: Light Strike ]
A blindingly bright white light erupted from the rusty iron pipe. It illuminated the dark, filthy hallway with the power of a miniature sun. The smell of rot vanished for a few moments before the purity of this holy magic. The contrast was both hilarious and terrifying; the magic of noble, chosen heroes shining from a rusty pipe in the depths of the Lower City, wielded by a bleeding debt collector.
I swung the glowing pipe and struck Kyle in his side.
It was not a physically strong blow, but the force of the magical light explosion attached to it was devastating. The massive Kyle flew through the air as if a speeding truck had hit him, crashing into the opposite wall with a force that shattered the damp wood and knocked him unconscious instantly, white smoke rising from his burnt leather jacket.
The two lackeys screamed in absolute terror. They did not even think of helping their boss. They turned and ran like madmen toward the stairs, tripping and stumbling in the dark to escape this impossible sight.
I stood alone in the hallway, illuminated by the light of a stolen skill. The pipe dropped from my hand after its glow faded, and I panted heavily, clutching my shoulder which ached fiercely from the skill's recoil, exactly as Coin had warned me.
Coin flew down to my shoulder and cawed cheerfully, his coins dancing happily.
A wonderful theatrical performance, Master. Using noble skills to beat street trash carries a beautiful poetic touch. But remember, you cannot keep stolen skills forever without spending continuous karmic energy. To maintain your assets, increase your own stats, and upgrade your class, we need larger investments. We need real debts, valuable assets, and desperate souls.
I looked at Kyle's body lying on the floor, then raised my gaze to the cracked ceiling, imagining the gray sky above it, remembering that cosmic child who smiled at us fifteen years ago and wished us good luck.
I whispered, feeling the throb of pain turn into pure motivation. If this entire world is just a brutal testing ground built by that System, so be it. I will not hide, and I will not play the noble hero. I will make this System, and these Awakened, owe me their lives.
I smiled, wiping more blood from my face. I will make this entire planet declare bankruptcy.
[ First debt collection successfully completed. ] [ Opening the Secret Karma Shop. Please stand by].