[ Countdown: 159 hours 30 minutes before dimensional convergence is complete ]
2:30 p.m. Behind Mae Wilit's Curry-and-Rice Shop
The afternoon heat in Khon Kaen was intense enough to nearly melt the asphalt, but more irritating than the temperature was the grease trap behind the shop, which had suddenly started reeking far worse than usual. It didn't just smell like rotting food scraps. It smelled like a corpse had been fermenting inside.
"Bing! The grease trap's clogged again, isn't it? How many times do I have to tell you not to dump all the spicy curry scraps in at once? Go get the caustic soda and unclog it right now!" Mae Wilit yelled while counting twenty-baht bills from the morning's sales.
Bing let out a long sigh and went to fetch a bag of caustic soda, waterproof goggles, and rubber gloves. (He secretly wore the Spectral Monitor Glove underneath them.) When he opened the grease trap's access cover, what waited inside wasn't just a clump of congealed grease.
Thick, viscous black slime was gathering into a lump. It swelled outward like a living thing. Three cloudy yellow eyes surfaced from the pile of pork fat. It hissed and tried to extend tendrils covered in bits of curry paste around Bing's wrist.
[ Ding! ] [ Tiny threat detected: 'Rotten Grease Slime (Rank G monster)' ] [ Mission: Use the power of light to purify this filth! ]
"What the hell do you mean, the power of light...?" Bing's face remained utterly blank. His INT 10 brain began to work. The world slowed around him. Bing saw through the slime's structure and calculated the chemical reaction in a fraction of a second. "Its core is fatty acid mixed with a little demonic energy... So it needs to meet a strong base."
Instead of drawing his knife and performing some stupid sword dance that would make his mother yell about him fooling around, Bing tore open the bag of caustic soda—sodium hydroxide—and dumped the whole half-kilogram into the grease trap in one go. Then he followed it with scalding water from the hot-water dispenser.
Fwoooosh!! Hissss!
"Gyaaah!!"
The Rotten Grease Slime's scream rang out as white smoke billowed upward. The heat of the reaction and the extreme alkalinity dissolved the Rank G demon's structure, reducing it to foul-smelling soap bubbles in less than ten seconds.
[ Ding! ] [ You have successfully slain Rotten Grease Slime! Received 10 EXP. ] [ System confusion: Combat skill usage not detected... but result accepted. ]
"Remember this, you damn System..." Bing slammed the access cover shut. "High school chemistry is a hell of a lot more useful than your light magic. And a thirty-baht bag of caustic soda saves mana, too."
Bing finished cleaning the back washing area and successfully protected the shop's plumbing system. He realized immediately that if they really let things reach the day Hell broke loose, Mae Wilit's Curry-and-Rice Shop would definitely be smashed to pieces by monsters.
When you're a working person struggling just to put food on the table, you solve problems by getting your hands dirty... So tonight, he'd have to accept some mandatory overtime and go uproot the low-rank demons around Bueng Kaen Nakhon to farm stat points and protect the shop.
[ Countdown: 150 hours 15 minutes before dimensional convergence is complete ]
11:45 p.m. Along the shore of Bueng Kaen Nakhon
The late-night breeze carried a faint smell of blood from the surface of the water. Bueng Kaen Nakhon was silent and deserted at this hour, its streetlights flickering on and off like a scene from a low-budget horror movie.
Bing stood at the water's edge in a dark jacket. He wore the Spectral Monitor Glove on his right hand and held an old fishing rod borrowed from Grandpa Phoeng in his left... But the bait hooked to the end wasn't a worm or a piece of bread. It was a braised-pork skeleton stuffed with the acid venom gland he had gotten as a drop from last night's Abyssal Slave Rat.
"According to ecological theory... the monsters in the water must eat animal carcasses to accumulate energy," Bing muttered. His brain processed the water's surface density and the direction of the wind. Then he flicked the rod and cast the poisonous bait into the middle of the lake with a plop.
Less than five minutes later, the glowing bobber suddenly plunged beneath the water!
Whoosh! Clack!
The line pulled taut with a sharp twang. The fishing rod bent nearly to the breaking point, and the immense force from below yanked so hard that Bing had to crouch low to keep his balance.
Splash!
The water's surface burst apart, and a strange creature shot out. It had the shape of a human child mixed with a fish. Its skin was slick and pale gray, while pitch-black scales covered its joints. Its mouth split wide, revealing rows of overlapping razor-sharp teeth like a piranha's.
[ Ding! ] [ Rank F demon minion detected: 'Black-Nacre Water Wraith' ] [ Mission: Descend into the water and face the evil demon with honor! ]
"Honor my ass. Are you insane? You want me to get in the water at midnight? I can't swim for shit!"
Bing cursed out the System without wasting a second. He braced his feet against a rock. The Black-Nacre Water Wraith opened its mouth and swallowed the chicken skeleton bait in one bite... and that was the stupidest mistake it could have made.
The instant its teeth crushed the pork bones, the acid venom gland hidden inside burst! The death acid, corrosive enough to eat through cement, poured straight into the water wraith's esophagus and gills.
"Gaaaaah!!"
It let out a horrifying shriek as froth bubbled from its mouth. Its thrashing made its pulling power plummet. Bing took advantage of the moment when the world slowed, calculated the momentum, and yanked the rod with all his strength, dragging the water wraith, choking on acid, up onto the concrete shore!
Thump! Its slimy body landed almost at the young man's feet. Once the freshwater creature had been dragged onto land—and with the acid destroying its internal organs—its combat stats had dropped to practically zero.
The water wraith scrabbled desperately, trying to lunge forward and bite Bing's leg.
Bing didn't dodge. He simply reached to his waist and drew the rust-covered enchanted ritual knife Grandpa Phoeng had given him.
The moment his fingers touched the knife's inscribed Khmer-script wooden handle, his exceptionally high Intelligence stat reacted with the ancient magic inside the blade. Some of the rust flaked away, revealing blood-red inscriptions that suddenly blazed in the darkness.
Bing clearly saw its weak point: a glowing red crosshair at the base of the water wraith's neck.
Slash!
The young man flicked the short blade once. There was no elegant technique, only the speed, precision, and minimal exertion of a curry-and-rice vendor. The enchanted blade cut through the creature's iron-hard neck scales as easily as slicing tofu. The water wraith's head went flying from its shoulders.
[ Ding! ] [ Congratulations! You have successfully slain Black-Nacre Water Wraith for the first time! ] [ First Kill Bonus unlocked: Intelligence (INT) +3, Agility (AGI) +2 ] [ Drop item received: 'Spell-Reflecting Black-Nacre Scale' 1 ] [ Level up! You have reached Level 2! Received +5 free stat points. ]
Bing let out a long sigh and flicked the black blood off the ritual knife before sheathing it.
"A level, a drop, and I didn't even have to work hard for it..." Bing picked up the water wraith's glossy black scale and slipped it into his jacket pocket, while scanning Bueng Kaen Nakhon, where countless more black shadows still lurked.
A faint smile appeared at the corner of the miser's mouth. If the Heavenly System was going to be so damn greedy, then he would use his brain and this fishing rod to squeeze every last stat point out of it before the world broke apart. Just watch him.