Ji-woo accepted the assistance request.
He told himself it was strategic thinking—helping another Reaper would give him experience with cooperative dungeons, which he'd need eventually. It would let him observe another player's skills and tactics. It might even result in a useful alliance.
But the truth was simpler: someone had asked for help, and he couldn't ignore it.
[ASSISTANCE REQUEST ACCEPTED][PARTY FORMED WITH REAPER #1847][DUNGEON ENTRANCE UNLOCKED][TIME LIMIT: 68 HOURS REMAINING]
The Seongdong Warehouse District was industrial Seoul at its grimmest—rusting metal structures, abandoned factories, and the smell of oil and decay. Ji-woo's Debt Sense guided him to a specific warehouse, its rolling door covered in graffiti and warning signs.
This was the dungeon entrance.
Before he could touch the door, his phone buzzed with a message from inside the dungeon.
[REAPER #1847]: thank god. thought no one would come.[REAPER #1847]: im trapped on second floor. boss is between me and exit.[REAPER #1847]: level 4 dungeon. my level 3 wasnt enough.
A level 4 dungeon, and the Reaper inside was only level 3. They'd bitten off more than they could chew and now needed rescue.
[REAPER #2847]: What's your name?[REAPER #1847]: han ji-su. warehouse worker. been a reaper for two weeks.[REAPER #2847]: Stay hidden. I'm coming in.
Ji-woo checked his equipment one last time. Corrupted Surgeon's Scalpel as his main weapon, Surgical Mask equipped for the INT bonus, five Medical Supplies in his quick-access inventory. His stats were solid for level 4, and he had the experience of two successful dungeon clears.
He could do this.
[ENTER DUNGEON: SEONGDONG WAREHOUSE DISTRICT?][PARTY SIZE: 2][YES/NO]
Ji-woo selected YES.
Reality tore, and he fell into darkness.
The dungeon version of the warehouse was wrong in subtle ways. The metal walls had a reddish tinge, like old blood. The air was thick and humid, smelling of rust and something organic that shouldn't be in an industrial space. Emergency lights flickered at irregular intervals, casting dancing shadows.
[DUNGEON ENTERED][OBJECTIVE: DEFEAT WAREHOUSE GUARDIAN][TIME LIMIT: 2 HOURS][PARTY MEMBER LOCATED: 2ND FLOOR, NORTHEAST CORNER]
A minimap appeared in the corner of Ji-woo's vision—another feature unlocked by forming a party. He could see his position as a blue dot and Ji-su's position as a green dot on the floor above. Between them, near the center of the warehouse, was a large red dot.
The boss.
Ji-woo moved quietly through the first floor, his improved Agility making his steps nearly silent. The warehouse was filled with shipping containers stacked in maze-like patterns. Perfect ambush spots.
Movement in the shadows. Ji-woo's Debt Sense pinged—not another Reaper, but something else. Something that owed a different kind of debt.
[ENEMY: RUST GHOUL - LEVEL 3][HP: 100/100]
The Rust Ghoul shambled out from between containers. It looked humanoid but was crusted entirely in rust and corrosion, metal shavings falling from its body with each movement. Its hands ended in jagged, tetanus-laden claws.
Ji-woo engaged cautiously. The Rust Ghoul was slow but its reach was long. He dodged its first swipe and countered with a slash across its torso. The scalpel's bleeding effect activated, black ichor seeping from the wound.
[DAMAGE: 31 + BLEEDING]
The Ghoul swung with both arms in a wide arc. Ji-woo ducked under and drove his blade up through the creature's chin into its skull. Critical hit.
[CRITICAL DAMAGE: 67][RUST GHOUL HP: 2/100]
One more quick slash finished it.
[EXPERIENCE +25]
More Rust Ghouls emerged from the container maze. Ji-woo fought through them methodically, learning their patterns. They were tough but predictable—slow overhead swings, lunging grabs, occasional charging attacks. His superior agility made them manageable.
[EXPERIENCE: 175/300]
He reached the stairs to the second floor. The minimap showed Ji-su's green dot hiding in the northeast corner, while the boss's red dot patrolled in a circuit around the warehouse's center.
[PARTY CHAT AVAILABLE]
[REAPER #2847]: I'm on the stairs. What's the boss like?[REAPER #1847]: huge. made of shipping containers and metal. throws cargo at you. one hit dropped me to 30% hp.[REAPER #1847]: ive been hiding for 40 minutes. it patrols but doesnt leave the center area.
A boss made of shipping containers. That implied it would be slow but hit like a truck. High defense, high damage, probably low speed. Ji-woo could work with that.
[REAPER #2847]: I'm going to pull it away from your position. When you see an opening, run for the exit.[REAPER #1847]: what about you?[REAPER #2847]: I'll handle it. Just get out.[REAPER #1847]: thank you. seriously. thank you.
Ji-woo climbed to the second floor. The space opened up here—fewer containers, more open warehouse floor. And in the center, patrolling with ponderous steps, was the Warehouse Guardian.
[BOSS ENEMY: WAREHOUSE GUARDIAN - LEVEL 5][HP: 800/800]
It was exactly as Ji-su had described. The Guardian was twelve feet tall and composed of shipping containers welded together into a vaguely humanoid shape. Its arms were crane hooks, its legs were support beams, and its head was a rusted control cabin with a single glowing red eye.
Eight hundred health. The highest Ji-woo had faced.
The Guardian's patrol brought it near a stack of wooden pallets. Ji-woo grabbed a piece of debris and threw it at the boss's head.
The metal clang echoed through the warehouse.
The Guardian's red eye swiveled toward him.
[WAREHOUSE GUARDIAN AGGRO LOCKED]
"Come on, big guy," Ji-woo muttered, backing toward the opposite end of the warehouse from Ji-su's hiding spot.
The Guardian charged. For something made of metal containers, it moved with shocking speed. The floor shook with each step.
Ji-woo ran, leading it away. The minimap showed the green dot—Ji-su—beginning to move toward the stairs.
Good. Now he just had to survive.
The Guardian reached down and grabbed a metal barrel, then hurled it with frightening accuracy. Ji-woo dove aside, the barrel whistling past his head and exploding against the wall behind him.
[WAREHOUSE GUARDIAN USES: CARGO THROW]
Another barrel. Then a crate. Then an entire pallet of supplies. The Guardian was using the warehouse itself as ammunition, and each projectile was potentially lethal.
Ji-woo weaved between obstacles, his agility saving him repeatedly. But he was being pushed into a corner—the Guardian was herding him, cutting off escape routes with each throw.
He needed to close distance and attack.
Ji-woo waited for the next cargo throw, then instead of dodging laterally, he charged forward. The crate sailed over his head. He closed to melee range and slashed at the Guardian's leg—the support beam where metal met metal.
[DAMAGE: 28 + BLEEDING]
The scalpel bit deep, finding a weak point in the welding. But the Guardian's counter was immediate. Its crane hook arm swung down in a brutal arc.
Ji-woo rolled, feeling the impact crater the floor where he'd been standing. The shockwave alone knocked him off balance.
[HP: 145/160]
Just the shockwave had damaged him. A direct hit would be catastrophic.
The minimap showed Ji-su's green dot had reached the stairs and was descending. Almost out. Ji-woo just needed to buy a little more time.
He activated Desperate Strike and targeted the same weak point on the Guardian's leg. His empowered scalpel sheared through metal, the bleeding effect stacking.
[CRITICAL DAMAGE: 89 + BLEEDING x2][HP: 683/800]
The Guardian stumbled, its damaged leg buckling slightly. It grabbed another cargo container and swung it like a club.
Ji-woo couldn't dodge fast enough. The container caught him across the chest and sent him flying into a metal wall.
[HP: 87/160]
Pain exploded through his ribs. Almost half his health in one hit. Ji-woo fumbled for his inventory and used a Medical Supply.
[HP RESTORED: +50][HP: 137/160]
The Guardian advanced, limping on its damaged leg but still terrifyingly fast. It raised both crane hooks for a double smash that would definitely kill him.
[PARTY MEMBER HAS EXITED DUNGEON][BONUS OBJECTIVE COMPLETE: RESCUE PARTY MEMBER][ADDITIONAL REWARDS UNLOCKED]
Ji-su was safe. Which meant Ji-woo could focus entirely on survival.
He ran again, not away from the Guardian but toward it, sliding between its legs as the crane hooks crashed down behind him. He slashed at the other leg on his way through, adding another bleeding stack.
[DAMAGE: 32 + BLEEDING x3]
The Guardian was taking damage over time now—fifteen HP per second from three bleeding stacks. That was ninety damage over the next six seconds before the stacks expired.
Ji-woo kept moving, staying mobile, landing hits when he could but prioritizing survival. The Guardian's attacks were devastating, but they were also predictable. It had three patterns: cargo throw, crane hook smash, and container swing. Once Ji-woo learned the tells—the wind-up animations that preceded each attack—he could dodge with increasing reliability.
[HP: 589/800]
[HP: 523/800]
The bleeding was working. But Ji-woo's MP was almost empty—only enough for one more Desperate Strike. And his HP was still dangerously low despite the healing item.
The Guardian changed tactics. Instead of attacking, it grabbed one of the support pillars holding up the warehouse ceiling and pulled.
The building groaned.
[WAREHOUSE GUARDIAN USES: STRUCTURAL COLLAPSE][DODGE THE FALLING DEBRIS]
The ceiling began to cave in. Metal beams and concrete chunks rained down across the warehouse floor. Ji-woo ran, dodging falling debris by inches. A beam crashed down where he'd been standing a second before. A concrete slab shattered against the floor, sending fragments like shrapnel.
[HP: 124/160]
A small piece caught his shoulder, but he kept running. The Guardian stood at the center of the chaos, apparently immune to its own attack, waiting for the debris to do its work.
But the collapsing ceiling gave Ji-woo an idea.
He ran toward a stack of shipping containers near one of the damaged support pillars. The Guardian tracked him, preparing another cargo throw. Instead of dodging, Ji-woo climbed the containers, using his agility to scramble up three levels in seconds.
From this height, he could see the weakness in the Guardian's design. Its head—the control cabin—was lightly armored compared to the rest of its body. That red eye was probably a critical hit point.
The Guardian threw a barrel. Ji-woo jumped, letting gravity and momentum carry him down toward the boss's head. He held his scalpel point-down, activating Desperate Strike mid-air.
[DESPERATE STRIKE ACTIVATED][AERIAL ATTACK BONUS]
He crashed into the Guardian's head like a meteor, scalpel punching through the rusted metal of the control cabin and into whatever passed for the boss's brain. The red eye flickered.
[CRITICAL DAMAGE: 124][DIRECT CORE HIT][MASSIVE DAMAGE BONUS]
The Guardian froze. Sparks erupted from its joints. Its crane hooks fell limp.
Ji-woo held on as the boss toppled backward, riding it down. They hit the warehouse floor with a tremendous crash that shook dust from what remained of the ceiling.
The Guardian dissolved into black smoke.
[BOSS DEFEATED!]
[BONUS OBJECTIVE COMPLETED!]
[EXPERIENCE: +300]
[LEVEL UP!]
[DUNGEON CLEARED!]
Ji-woo lay on the warehouse floor, gasping for breath. Every part of his body ached despite the level-up's healing. That fight had been his hardest yet—not because the Guardian was faster or smarter than the Corrupted Surgeon, but because of its sheer durability and damage output.
The reward notifications appeared:
[DEBT REDUCTION: ₩20,000,000][SPLIT WITH PARTY MEMBER: ₩10,000,000 EACH][BONUS FOR RESCUE: +₩5,000,000][TOTAL DEBT REDUCTION: ₩15,000,000][CURRENT DEBT: ₩802,000,000]
[LEVEL 5 REACHED][STAT POINTS AVAILABLE: 5][MILESTONE REACHED: SHOP ACCESS UNLOCKED]
[ITEMS ACQUIRED:]
WAREHOUSE GUARDIAN'S HOOK (RARE)REINFORCED CARGO VESTINDUSTRIAL STRENGTH POTION x3
The world pulled him back to reality. Ji-woo found himself standing outside the warehouse in Seongdong, late morning sun warming his face.
A young man stood a few meters away, looking at him with a mixture of gratitude and awe. Early twenties, thin and pale, with the tired eyes of someone who worked night shifts. Han Ji-su.
"You actually did it," Ji-su said, his voice shaking. "You killed that thing solo."
"Are you okay?" Ji-woo asked.
"Yeah, thanks to you. I... I thought I was dead. I got cocky, thought I could handle a level 4 dungeon at level 3, and it almost got me killed." Ji-su bowed deeply, the formal Korean bow of profound gratitude. "I owe you my life."
"Just be more careful next time. Don't enter dungeons above your level alone."
"I won't. I swear." Ji-su straightened. "The debt reduction we got—I know it was split, but you did all the work. If you want, I can transfer some of my share to you somehow."
"Keep it. You need it as much as I do."
Ji-su nodded, relief evident on his face. He probably couldn't afford to give up any debt reduction. "If you ever need help, or information, or anything—I work at the CU convenience store in Gangnam. Just ask for me."
They exchanged phone numbers, and Ji-su hurried away, probably late for work.
Ji-woo checked his phone. The shop was finally unlocked. He'd cleared five dungeons in less than a week—an aggressive pace that had put him on every guild's radar.
But he'd also dropped his debt from ₩847,000,000 to ₩802,000,000. Forty-five million won erased in six days. At this rate, he could be debt-free in... he did the math. A long time still, but for the first time, it felt achievable.
His phone buzzed with multiple messages.
From Yoon: heard you helped someone. risky but good. builds reputation.
From an unknown number: Your time is up. Crimson Blades needs an answer. Call within 6 hours or we'll consider your silence a refusal. - Tae-yang
From another unknown number: Silver Dawn information session tonight, 7 PM. Hope to see you there. - Ha-yoon
And from Hwang at Iron Chains: Impressive dungeon clear. Offer stands if you want true independence.
Everyone wanted a piece of him. But now Ji-woo had something they didn't know about—shop access. He could gear up, become stronger, and then make his choice from a position of power rather than desperation.
He opened the Debt Reaper Shop for the first time, and his eyes widened at the possibilities.
[END OF CHAPTER 7]