The second that thought crossed Jack’s mind, his chest thrummed with restless, thrumming excitement.
One of the system’s advancement requirements had been straightforward: obtain a D-rank beast carcass.
If he could get his hands on the Gale Ape’s corpse? That was a C-rank carcass.
It wouldn’t just tick the system’s box—it would blow the requirement clean out of the water.
“X and Viktor definitely got the same system notification. No way either of those two would pass up a score like this…”
Jack’s mind raced, running quick calculations of risk versus reward, trying to map out how he could carve himself a slice of the pie. Hell, maybe even walk away as the biggest winner of the whole mess.
“This might be my shot at making it. Right here. Right now.”
His pulse picked up, thudding hard in his ears at the idea.
“Wait.”
Just as he was about to move, a nagging detail snagged in the back of his head. He pulled up the system alert again, scanning every word slowly, carefully.
As he turned the phrasing over and over in his head, a cold, suffocating chill crept down his spine, like he’d just been dumped headfirst into a frozen lake.
There was one easy-to-miss word buried in that announcement. One single, critical word.
Curse.
Everyone knew how the Eternal Law worked. The second you awakened your profession at 18, your level and class were locked in place. Hard, unbreakable limits. No loopholes, no workarounds.
In all of recorded history, only a tiny handful of heaven-blessed prodigies had ever managed to shatter those restrictions, push their level and profession past those ironclad boundaries.
And if breaking past your limits was next to impossible? Forcing a profession to degrade was practically unheard of.
Per the system alert, the Gale Ancient Ape had been hit with a curse. That was the only thing that had knocked it down to a regular Gale Ape.
A curse powerful enough to drop a B-rank monster all the way to C-rank. What kind of horrifying, unfathomable power did that take?
If a low-level professional so much as brushed up against a curse that strong? They’d drop dead on the spot, no questions asked.
“I’m not going anywhere near that thing. The farther away, the better.”
Jack made the call instantly, zero hesitation.
He’d let this opportunity slip through his fingers a hundred times over before he’d risk tangling with a curse like that.
“Let X and the rest of those idiots have it.”
Jack huffed a cold, dry laugh. He hefted the Crimson Wolf carcass onto his back and turned to head out of the Bramble Thicket.
That was exactly when he ran straight into X, Viktor, and their whole crews, all heading the opposite direction.
X and Viktor—those two who’d hated each other’s guts for years—had actually set aside their feud and teamed up. All for the Gale Ape.
Neither of them was stupid. They both knew going up against a C-rank Gale Ape alone was suicide. Working together was the only play that made sense.
“Boss!”
Dean, the guy who’d been tailing Jack this whole time, suddenly popped out of the underbrush and yelled to Viktor, loud enough for everyone to hear.
“I saw the whole thing. That deadweight Jack went into the Bramble Thicket and just hid in the bushes the entire time. Didn’t dare fight a single monster. The second that system alert popped up? He got so scared he booked it straight out.”
The truth was, Dean hadn’t dared go after Jack. He’d watched Jack take down that Crimson Wolf—fast, brutal, no wasted moves—and it had spooked him bad. He was terrified of what Jack could do.
But he wasn’t about to admit that to Viktor.
So he spun a lie to cover his own failure.
It was a cheap, smart play, too. Drag Jack in front of the whole crowd, paint him as a spineless coward for everyone to laugh at.
Sure enough, the second Viktor heard that, he burst out laughing so hard his shoulders shook.
His goons piled on right on cue, howling with laughter, some of them doubling over like it was the funniest thing they’d ever heard.
Even X cracked a small, cold smile. And Vera, standing right at his side, stared at Jack with eyes so full of contempt they could’ve curdled milk.
It was like she was saying it without opening her mouth: Look at the hero I used to worship. Nothing but a useless, cowardly loser.
But Jack didn’t get mad at Dean’s little jab. He didn’t even bother defending himself.
He just swept his gaze over the whole crowd, voice flat and even.
“So. All of you are going after the Gale Ape?”
“Duh.”
X nodded, a faint, arrogant tilt to his chin.
“The Gale Ape’s already badly injured. This is the perfect shot to take it down.”
“Big rewards only go to people with the balls to take ’
em
!”
Viktor hefted his twin iron hammers, clanging them together for emphasis.
“Good luck to all of you, then.”
Jack nodded once, turned on his heel, and walked away without so much as a backward glance.
“Coward!”
“Fucking spineless loser!”
Scornful shouts rose up from the crowd behind him, sharp and jeering.
Nearly every single person who’d signed up for this Wasteland expedition had answered the call. They were all banding together to take down the Gale Ape, high on that rush of glory, that once-in-a-lifetime shot at a big score. And Jack? He didn’t care at all.
It only proved how pathetic and cowardly he really was, as far as they were concerned.
Watching Jack walk off alone, every single person there felt a sharp, smug surge of superiority.
Look at that useless chump. Now look at us. We’re the warriors here.
But Jack couldn’t have cared less what any of those idiots thought.
Right now, he only had one thing on his mind: use this window to grind as many low-level monsters as he could, get stronger.
As for that D-rank beast carcass? He’d figure that out another day. No rush.
Once he was clear of the Bramble Thicket, Jack headed straight for another area packed full of low-tier monsters: the Southern Marshland.
The Southern Marshland was crawling with amphibious creatures, most of them weak as hell. Perfect for Jack to sharpen his skills and grind some quick levels.
He reached the marsh and immediately started sweeping the area for monster signs.
He searched for ages. Nothing. Not a single creature in sight.
“What the actual hell.”
Jack cursed under his breath. His luck was starting to feel like it was actually cursed itself.
The Southern Marshland was famous for being overrun with low-level monsters. How the hell was there not a single one around right now?
Frustrated, he kept looking, scanning closer this time. And soon enough, he spotted it.
A long, dark trail of blood stretched across the mud, the clear, messy mark of a monster carcass being dragged away.
Jack thought for a second, then decided to follow the trail.
He walked for what felt like half an hour, maybe more, until the trail cut off right at the mouth of a dark cave.
“Blood stops right here.”
Jack stared into the pitch-black opening, and made up his mind to go check it out.
He’d just unlocked a new skill—Rapid Surge. Even if he ran into trouble, odds were he could use the speed boost to book it out of there fast enough.
And if he ran into something so strong even Rapid Surge couldn’t get him away? Well, that was just bad luck. He’d take the L.
Everyone knew there were no high-level monsters in the Southern Marshland, anyway. It was common knowledge, a fact everyone took for granted.
If the one-in-a-million exception decided to pick him as its victim? So be it.
He stepped up to the cave entrance, drew a slow, deep breath, and was about to step inside.
That was when he heard it.
A woman’s voice. Cold, sharp, edged with a clear threat.
“Stop.”
“Someone’s in there?”
Jack flinched back, heart slamming hard against his ribs. He called out quickly, hands raised to show he meant no harm.
“I just stumbled on this place by accident. No trouble intended.”
Silence swallowed the cave mouth. The quiet stretched on so long Jack started to get genuinely antsy.
Then the woman’s voice came again, from deeper inside.
“Your voice… you’re that garbage-collector kid from the edge of town?”
“Garbage-collector kid?”
The label threw Jack for a total loop. Then, a beat later, it clicked. He replied fast:
“Are you the woman from the abandoned auto yard?”
The second the words left his mouth, a tall figure stepped out of the cave’s darkness, limping heavily with every step.
This time, Jack got a clear look at her face.
She was still wearing that form-fitting leather jacket and pants, but the dark sunglasses were gone. What he saw underneath were sharp, striking features, stunningly pretty.
Except right now her face was gaunt and drawn with exhaustion, and fresh blood was seeping through half a dozen tears in her leather gear, staining the material dark and sticky.
She was badly hurt.