The screaming stopped.
Kang Min-ho pressed his spine against the fractured dungeon wall, stone teeth gnawing through his shredded leather vest. Blood pooled beneath his boots—not his own, not yet. The metallic stench coiled with something fouler, something that twisted his empty stomach into knots. Three minutes ago, Team Leader Park had barked orders, his voice ricocheting off stone with practiced authority. Two minutes ago, Jung-soo had spat curses at the shadow wolves, his hammer spitting electric fury. One minute ago, hope had still flickered in their desperate eyes.
Now only silence remained, broken by the wet sounds of feeding.
*Breathe. Just breathe.* Min-ho's fingers convulsed around his practice sword's grip, the blade scarred from a week of E-rank gates that barely earned him ramen money. The weapon trembled in his slick palm—a child's toy against monsters that had shredded C-rank hunters like wet paper. Through gaps in the rubble, he glimpsed sleek forms prowling between corpses. The shadow wolves flowed like spilled ink, crimson eyes hunting survivors with surgical patience.
"Should've stayed home," he breathed, words lost beneath his thundering pulse. "Should've listened to Mom."
But rent devoured pride, and E-rank hunters couldn't afford either. When Team Leader Park had dangled a C-rank gate spot, promising triple earnings, Min-ho hadn't questioned the nervous glances between veterans. He'd been too grateful, too starved to ask why they needed cannon fodder. Desperate hunters didn't ask smart questions—they just died messier.
The pack leader lifted its muzzle, gore streaming in dark ribbons. Min-ho's breath crystallized in his throat. Those crimson orbs swept his hiding spot, seeming to pierce stone and shadow alike. For one eternal heartbeat, predator and prey locked gazes across the slaughter.
Then the wolf smiled.
Monsters didn't smile—they killed, fed, obeyed instinct. But the shadow wolf's lips peeled back, revealing rows of gleaming fangs arranged in something that spoke of intelligence, of malice that transcended mere hunger. The creature padded forward with deliberate leisure, savoring the hunt like aged wine. Its packmates ghosted to the flanks, severing escape routes that existed only in Min-ho's crumbling imagination.
"No, no, no..." Min-ho scrambled backward, his blade chattering against stone in sharp, panicked percussion. The sound rang through the chamber like a dinner bell. All three wolves swiveled toward him, their forms rippling with dark energy that made the air itself thicken, pressing against his lungs like wet concrete.
The alpha struck with liquid grace.
Min-ho hurled himself sideways, feeling claws rake his ribs like molten razors. Fire bloomed along his flank as he crashed into rubble, jagged stones shredding his vest. His sword spun into darkness with a final, mocking ring. The wolf landed in perfect balance, already pivoting for the kill, each movement economical as a surgeon's cut. Blood painted Min-ho's side, mixing with the dungeon's perpetual dampness.
*This is it.* The thought arrived with crystalline clarity, slicing through pain and terror. *This is how I die.*
He'd wondered about his final moments. Would his life flash past like cheap cinema? Would he think of his mother, grinding through double shifts at the convenience store, counting coins for his hunter fees? Would he mourn all the chances untaken, words unspoken?
Instead, he burned with rage.
Rage at the system that sorted hunters like livestock, filing them into neat categories of worth. Rage at Team Leader Park's lies about gate difficulty, at being used as disposable bait. Rage at his own weakness, his pathetic inadequacy in a world that measured value in kill counts and clearance times. The fury blazed hotter than his wounds, hotter than the fear that had frozen him moments before.
The shadow wolf lunged again, death incarnate in flowing darkness. This time, Min-ho didn't dodge. He rolled forward, under the creature's arc, and drove his shoulder into its belly with every scrap of desperate strength. They collapsed together in a tangle of limbs and fury, human determination colliding with monster instinct. Claws carved burning trenches across his back. Fangs snapped inches from his throat, hot breath washing over his face. But Min-ho clung on, arms locked around the wolf's torso like a drowning man embracing driftwood.
"If I'm dying," he snarled through bloody teeth, crimson spattering his lips, "you're coming with me."
The packmates circled warily, seeking openings that wouldn't endanger their alpha. Min-ho felt his strength hemorrhaging with each heartbeat, blood loss blurring his vision into swimming fragments. But he squeezed tighter, channeling every ounce of his worthless E-rank power into his grip. The shadow wolf thrashed wildly, its form destabilizing under the unexpected assault. Darkness leaked from its wounds like smoke, dissipating into stale air.
Then agony erupted through his chest like a supernova. He looked down to find claws buried between his ribs, piercing lung and heart with surgical precision. The wolf's crimson eyes blazed triumph as it twisted its talons, shredding everything vital. Blood flooded his mouth—copper and salt and the taste of endings.
The world grayed at its edges, sounds becoming distant echoes. Min-ho's grip slackened involuntarily. The shadow wolf withdrew slowly, savoring victory, preparing the final stroke.
That's when the system awakened.
**[CRITICAL CONDITION DETECTED]**
**[MONARCH CONTRACTOR SYSTEM INITIALIZING]**
**[EMERGENCY PROTOCOLS ACTIVATED]**
The words blazed across his fading vision in silver fire, impossible and undeniable. Power flooded through him—not healing, but something else entirely. Something vast and ravenous that recognized the dying shadow wolf pressed against his chest. The creature's eyes widened in what might have been terror, or recognition.
**[SHADOW WOLF ALPHA - RANK C DETECTED]**
**[CONTRACT AVAILABLE]**
**[ACCEPT? Y/N]**
Min-ho couldn't comprehend the impossible interface floating before his dying eyes. He only knew death was reaching for him with eager fingers, and this strange system offered salvation. His mental voice emerged as a bloody whisper.
*Yes.*
The shadow wolf shrieked as invisible chains wrapped its form, binding it with forces beyond comprehension. Dark energy poured from creature to contractor, not healing his wounds but transforming them into something new. The pain shifted, became connection, binding, ownership. The remaining packmates fled in terror, their forms dissolving as they retreated into the dungeon's depths.
**[CONTRACT ESTABLISHED]**
**[SHADOW WOLF ALPHA BOUND TO CONTRACTOR]**
**
**[PRICE EXTRACTED]**
Min-ho tried to ask what price, what payment, but consciousness slipped away like water through his fingers. The last thing he saw was the shadow wolf dissolving into motes of darkness that sank into his skin like living tattoos. Power thrummed through his veins, alien and intoxicating.
When he finally closed his eyes, Min-ho was smiling.
He never noticed that his reflection in the pooled blood showed no smile at all.