That night, you return to your cold, cramped home, full of hope. You check the housing prices. Even the cheapest costs hundreds of thousands of credits and nearly ten percent property tax every year. That's basically robbery.
"Master, your pulse is elevated. Suggest gentle exercise. Master, you've been staring at the screen too long. Suggest you rest."
That annoying voice again. You clench your fist tight, veins throbbing on your forehead. In a fit of pure rage, you mentally tear this broken system and its rotten class rules to shreds, over and over, a thousand times.
Calm down. This isn't the time to flip the table.
You close your eyes, take a deep breath, and whisper inwardly, in a voice only you can hear. Summon skill panel.
Instantly, an information panel unfolds in your mind.
Swimming, beginner. Echolocation, beginner. Dynamic vision, beginner.
Staring at this raw, real power, your mouth finally twists into a savage grin. One thought fills your mind. Time to test the new skills. What exactly is this echolocation skill that dropped yesterday?
Standing in your cramped little room, you take a breath and let out a sharp, piercing whistle.
In an instant, your mind explodes. The entire pitch-black room instantly reconstructs itself in your mind. Not an image seen with your eyes, but a perfectly precise black-and-white three-dimensional wireframe. You can even see through the walls, tracing the pipes hidden inside.
But after just three seconds, the image collapses. A wave of intense weakness drains your energy in an instant. You drop onto the bed, gasping for breath.
You stare at your trembling hands, far from afraid. You want to shout with excitement. Who cares about the energy cost? This is basically X-ray radar.
The next morning, Director Yu hands you a bottle of water. He looks at you the way you look at a perfect weapon. "Sleep well. Big job today."
You don't waste words. Just take the bottle and nod. "Thanks."
Director Yu watches your back, convinced you're a born brute. You couldn't care less what he thinks. All you care about is what prey awaits today.
"Woo." You walk up to the veteran.
Woo looks completely different today. Gone is yesterday's shabby uniform. Instead, he carries a heavy combination-locked case.
"Jin Han, today you're my assistant." Woo eyes you, a smirk tugging at his lips. "Did you really think I was just an F-rank reject who sweeps streets?"
Your brow furrows.
Woo taps his smart bracelet. "This thing's just a show for the Federation. Come on. Today I'll show you what real dirty work looks like."
You say nothing, but the energy inside you is already surging. Dirty work. You'd welcome it. You're long since done with being a rotten weed trampled underfoot. You're going to climb, even if it means blood on your hands.
You both climb back into that sealed windowless car. Hand over the bracelet. The car stops.
You arrive at a strange Taoist temple deep in the mountains. No surveillance, no AI. Shadows from dense bamboo groves surround you, carrying an oppressive chill that crawls up your spine.
Woo leads you to a moss-covered fish pond. Then, with a click, he opens the case.
Your eyes widen sharply. Inside is nothing like cleaning tools. It's an ancient bronze shield etched with eerie patterns and a short copper sword glinting with cold light.
Woo grips the shield in one hand, the sword in the other. His whole presence shifts. He drops a line that sends chills down your scalp.
"Jin Han, think about it. If humans can mutate, what makes you think other animals can't?"
You gasp sharply. So that's it. This was never high-end housekeeping. You're here to handle mutated monsters for the rich.
Woo moves toward the bamboo hut cautiously, sword in hand.
Just then, you suddenly hear Woo's voice coming from the side. "Jin Han, go clean up the fish pond."
You almost nod on instinct, but the moment you turn, a wave of wrongness slams into your head. Woo is clearly standing right in front of you. Yet that voice came drifting from the pond off to the side.
Every hair on your body stands on end. Without a moment's hesitation, you let out a sharp, low whistle. Echolocation. Activate.
A three-dimensional wireframe instantly forms in your mind. You see it clearly. Woo, standing right in front of you, never said a word. And inside that unremarkable thirty-square-foot pond, a massive pitch-black mass of energy lurks beneath the surface.
You don't scream. You don't step back. A flash of desperate, savage resolve crosses your eyes.
You grip the shovel tight in both hands. One step, two steps, closing in on the pond. Then you swing your arm in a full circle, snapping power from your waist, swinging the shovel like a battle axe. You slam it down onto that dark mass with all your strength.
Boom. Water explodes outward.
A grotesque black fish, its head over a foot and a half wide, no belly at all, bursts straight out of the water. It opens its massive jaws toward your face and blasts out a terrifying jet of high-pressure water.
You were already braced for this. The instant you swung the shovel down, your whole body used the momentum to roll backward wildly. Scrambling, rolling, you dash straight out the courtyard gate.
The instant you escape death, a thunderclap roars in your mind.
Camouflage skill plus four.
You collapse behind a boulder outside the courtyard wall, gasping for air, your heart slamming against your ribs, but your mouth curls into a wild grin. Jackpot. Four stat points. Just like that.
"Jin Han, get back in here." Woo's breathless shout echoes from the courtyard.
You peek out and see the copper sword in Woo's hand already buried deep in the monster fish's skull. Golden fluid spills across the ground.
Cautiously, you grill Woo. "What did you eat for lunch yesterday?"
Only after confirming he isn't a hallucination do you walk back in, legs still shaking.
Woo stuffs the monster fish's remains into a special bag. His eyes on you have completely changed. If your shovel hadn't flushed out the monster just now, he'd probably have been ambushed.
"Jin Han, leak even half a word of what I'm about to say and you'll vanish from this world." Woo's voice drops low, ice cold. "This thing is called a phantom echo fish. D-rank mutated creature. It can create illusions and camouflage." Woo lifts the bag of remains, looking at you. "It's a core ingredient for high-grade gene serums."
You freeze. Gene serums.
Woo, speaking the truth of this world with brutal honesty. "You really thought those lofty gene warriors just awakened on their own? They're all built on serums refined from monster essence. And you, Jin Han?" Woo jabs a finger at your chest. "You think you're a failed injection reject? Let me tell you, gene injection technology has been one hundred percent perfected for centuries. You're not a failure. You're a disposable test subject for the pharma elites. This body's original soul was tortured to death like a lab rat by their hands. Once they no longer needed him, they tossed him into the bottom slums like garbage."
These words detonate in your mind like a nuclear bomb. The original soul didn't die of natural causes. He was used like a lab rat, then discarded.
Your hands clench so hard your nails nearly dig into your own flesh. The rage in your chest turns into solid, burning bloodlust. You stare at the monster's blood pooled on the ground, feeling the new camouflage skill plus four settle into your mind.
Good. Very good. These self-righteous politicians had better wash their own necks clean, because Jin Han doesn't just want to survive in this man-eating world. He's going to climb this food chain and chew them all to pieces, one bite at a time.
You take a deep breath, carving every word Woo just said permanently into your memory.
Woo brushes the dust off his hands, sneering. "You didn't actually believe the rich's nonsense about biochips being for everyone's safety, did you?"
You stay silent. "Woo, you're C-rank. Why still wear the bracelet?"
"Because I have to play the fool." Woo points at the bracelet on your wrist. "Remember this. Ninety percent of the big shots you see online don't even have chips implanted. The remaining ten percent are all puppets on strings. The chip is just a shackle. Every move you make, every word you mutter in your sleep gets sent straight to whoever's watching you."
Now you understand why the original soul died so mysteriously.
Woo watches you, laying out his terms. "Three pieces of advice. First, buy your own place. Total privacy. Second, no matter what, unless you're literally dying, never get checked by an official facility. Third, smash that wretched bracelet on your wrist. If you're short on cash, I can lend you some, as long as you work obediently for me from now on."
"I'll think about it."
You don't agree right away. You need money. You need to escape surveillance, but you will never sell your life to anyone so easily.