Nila left for work with a smile Raden hadn't seen in a long time. His wife worked as a washer and ironer in an elite housing complex nearby. Although the work was hard, today Nila's steps felt light. The one million rupiah shopping money Raden left under her pillow last night gave her a much-needed sigh of relief.
After Nila left, Raden didn't go to the Jatinegara flea market.
The flea market was too small. The chance of finding an heirloom there was like looking for a needle in a haystack. If he wanted to pay off his mother-in-law's 200 million debt and silence Haji Somad, he needed a big catch.
He needed a place where thousands of objects ended up with tragic stories.
Raden pedalled his neighbour's battered bicycle, which he rented for ten thousand rupiah, heading towards East Jakarta, specifically to the Cakung area.
His destination: "Bang Togar's Scrap Metal Yard".
This wasn't an ordinary stall. It was a mass grave for vehicles. Hectares of land filled with carcasses of burnt Transjakarta buses, taxis destroyed in accidents, and massive trucks that had become scrap metal.
The air here was hot, dusty, and smelled of oil and burnt rubber. To ordinary people, this was hell. To Raden, with his Appraisal Eye, this was an all-you-can-eat buffet.
"Oi! What are you looking around for?"
A muscular guard with a dragon tattoo on his arm blocked him at the gate. Behind him, a German Shepherd barked ferociously.
"Looking for cannibal spare parts, Bang. For an old bike," Raden replied casually. He slipped a pack of cigarettes into the guard's shirt pocket.
The guard glanced at the cigarettes, then nodded lazily. "Go in. Don't try anything funny. If anything goes missing, I'll turn you into scrap metal."
Raden stepped into the labyrinth of rusting iron.
As soon as he passed the gate, his eyes were bombarded with system notifications. Blue text popped up everywhere, overlapping until it made him dizzy.
[Object: Taxi Bumper. Echo: Driver's Anxiety (Very Low).]
[Object: Bus Steering Wheel. Echo: Chronic Fatigue (Low).]
[Object: Truck Rim. Echo: Traces of North Coast Journey (Low).]
"Too much junk," Raden muttered. He massaged his temples. "System, filter Echoes. Only show Medium Grade and above."
DING.
His vision cleared. Thousands of junk texts vanished. Now, there were only a few points of light shining in the distance.
One bright orange point of light—not blue—caught his attention. The light came from the most remote corner of the area, under a pile of rusty zinc sheets.
Raden approached, jumping over the carcass of an orange bajaj.
There, half-buried by soil and wild grass, lay the frame of a motorcycle. It wasn't an ordinary moped. It was the frame of a legendary 2-stroke sportbike: the Yamaha RX-King. Its condition was totally wrecked. The handlebars were bent 90 degrees, the tank flattened like a stepped-on soda can.
But its aura... was hot.
[Object Detected: Carcass of "The King of Streets" (RX-King Cobra 1995).]
[History: The last vehicle of the 'Ghost of Kemayoran', a legendary illegal racer who was undefeated until a fatal accident in 2005.]
[Echo: "Obsession with Limitless Speed".]
[Grade: MEDIUM - HIGH.]
[Side Effect: Excessive adrenaline, impulsive desire to take risks.]
"The Ghost of Kemayoran..." Raden had heard that story from base ojek drivers. An illegal racer said to be able to pass through narrow gaps between two speeding trucks.
Raden touched the dented gas tank.
VROOOOM!
No vision of blood this time. There was only the deafening roar of an engine and the feeling of wind slapping his face at 140 km/h.
Raden's heart raced. He felt ecstasy. A feeling of freedom. The feeling that death was just a friend sitting on the back seat.
[Absorbing Echo...]
[Warning: This Echo is kinetic. User's body will experience physical strain.]
Raden's leg muscles tensed, as if holding back the vibration of a motorcycle. His eyes watered from the imaginary "wind".
[Absorption Complete.]
[Skill Acquired: Lightning Reflex (Level 1).]
[Skill Acquired: Acceleration Eye (Level 1) - World appears slowed when moving at high speeds.]
[Attributes Increased: Dexterity +10, Perception +5.]
Raden released his hand, panting. He felt... fast. Very fast. A fly buzzed near his ear. Without looking, Raden's hand snatched the air.
He opened his grip. The fly was there, caught alive.
"Incredible," he whispered. With these reflexes, he wasn't just good at fighting; he could do many things.
However, his joy didn't last long.
As he was about to turn to leave, he sensed something else. Not from his system, but from his new instincts. The hair on the back of his neck stood up.
The atmosphere in the car graveyard suddenly became dead silent. The German Shepherd at the guard post that barked earlier was now whining in fear.
Raden looked towards the pile of bus carcasses to his left.
There, amidst the shadows of scrap iron, something was moving. Not a human.
It was like a clump of pitch-black smoke shaped like a large dog, but its eyes were just two empty holes sucking in light. The creature was gnawing on the residual Echo energy from a wrecked minivan.
The Echo System beeped loudly, its voice flashing red in Raden's vision.
[DANGER WARNING!]
[Entity Detected: Echo Scavenger Beast.]
[Status: Parasitic creature that feeds on residual spiritual energy. Aggressive.]
[Advice: RUN.]
The creature stopped eating. It lifted its head and "stared" at Raden. It smelled the pure Echo Raden had just absorbed. To that creature, Raden now looked like a delicious wagyu steak.
"Dammit," Raden cursed. "Why didn't the tutorial say there were monsters?!"
The smoke creature howled—a sound that sounded like scraping rusty metal—and leaped towards Raden with incredible speed.
Raden didn't have time to think. His new skill took over.
[Lightning Reflex: Active.]
Time slowed. Raden saw the creature's smoke claws aiming for his neck. Raden threw himself backward, rolling over the hood of a dented car, and landed smoothly three meters behind it.
The creature crashed into the car hood where Raden had stood. The car's metal didn't dent, but... rusted instantly. Within seconds, the car hood became brittle and crumbled into brown dust.
Raden swallowed hard. If he got hit by those claws, he'd be bone dust.
"Okay, running isn't an option. It's faster than me," Raden's brain spun fast. He reached into his sling bag. The Carubuk Keris!
He unsheathed the rusty dagger.
"Come here, you ugly dog!" shouted Raden, baiting it.
The creature lunged again. This time Raden didn't dodge. He used Silent Step to shift sideways at the last second, and thrust the keris towards the smoke creature's "flank".
SHLUCK!
Not the sound of pierced flesh, but a sound like water sizzling on hot iron.
The creature screamed. The Carubuk Keris glowed blood red. The dagger didn't hurt physically, but it sucked the creature's energy. The dagger was a cursed weapon thirsty for blood, and to it, this energy creature was food.
The creature struggled, trying to break free, but the Carubuk Keris stuck fast like a leech.
Raden felt a flow of cold, filthy energy flowing from the creature, into the keris, then filtered by the Whetstone in his pocket, before entering his body.
[Absorbing Pure Void Energy...]
[Cultivation Increased: Body Formation Early Stage (10/100).]
The creature shrank, getting smaller, until finally, it vanished into thin black vapor blown by the wind.
Raden fell to his knees, out of breath. The keris in his hand now looked a little cleaner. The rust had reduced again.
Raden stared at his trembling hands. He had just killed a supernatural monster. In a dump in Cakung.
"So this is..." Raden grinned wildly, a mix of fear and excitement. "So this is the fast way."
Absorbing antiques gave him Skills.
But killing Echo monsters... that gave him Levels.
He stood up, dusting off his pants. Today he learned two things: He could be very fast, and he was a predator to other predators.
Haji Somad? He had no idea who he was about to face.