[REWARD ACQUIRED: 500 System Points]
Ren stared at the glowing blue text hanging in the damp alleyway. Slowly, an eyebrow crept up his forehead, the adrenaline from the brief fight already completely gone.
"Achievements?" he muttered, his voice flat.
The system interface didn't respond, simply hovering there with its crisp, digital glow. Crossing his arms, his mind quickly broke down the information.
Five hundred points for a Grade 3 curse. It wasn't a bad payout for five seconds of work, but the exact phrasing caught his attention.
If the system was tracking the specific grade for the milestone, the math was pretty obvious. Tilting his head, he looked back at the dissolving ash on the pavement.
Would the reward have been bigger if he had aimed higher? If he had managed to somehow take down a Grade 2, or even a Grade 1 for his very first kill, would that five hundred have been a thousand? Five thousand? It made sense.
A system like this would naturally scale its payouts based on the actual threat level.
Letting out a short sigh, Ren ran a hand through his dark hair. There was no point stressing over missed points now. Taking on a Grade 1 right out of the gate with zero actual field experience would have been suicide anyway, even with the downloaded muscle memory.
A smaller notification window suddenly popped up directly beneath the main reward screen.
[SYSTEM NOTICE: Point Allocation]
Current System Points can be exchanged to upgrade the tier of equipped Cursed Tools.
Additional storefronts and point-exchange features will become available as the User unlocks higher levels.
Glancing down at the tantō resting easily in his grip, he ran his thumb over the hilt. The weapon was currently just a Grade 2 cursed tool.
Upgrading it into something that could actually do real damage against the heavy hitters was going to cost a hell of a lot more than five hundred points.
Which meant one very obvious thing.
A single garbage-tier curse wasn't going to cut it. He needed to farm.
Flicking his wrist, the glowing screens minimized and vanished, plunging the damp alleyway back into its normal shadows.
He carefully re-sheathed the dark blade and adjusted his flannel shirt to hide it against his lower back.
Preparing for the impending disaster meant putting in the work. Stepping out of the alley and back onto the dimly lit street, his eyes scanned the quiet city blocks for his next target.
The neon lights of a closed convenience store buzzed faintly overhead as Ren kept to the quieter backstreets.
As he scanned the dark gaps between buildings for any lingering traces of cursed energy, a practical question hit him.
"System," he murmured, keeping his voice low so it wouldn't carry in the crisp night air. "How much exactly to bump the Wraith's Fang up from a Grade 2 to a Grade 1 tool?"
The blue panel flickered effortlessly back into his field of vision.
[UPGRADE COST: Wraith's Fang (Grade 2) -> (Grade 1): 5,000 System Points]
Ren let out a long, slow exhale, a cloud of condensation pluming in front of his face. Five thousand. He glanced back at his current balance of 500.
"Wait," Ren frowned, catching a glaring flaw in his own logic. "System. That 500 I just got... that was a one-time payout for the 'First Kill' achievement, wasn't it? How much is a standard Grade 3 kill actually worth?"
The blue panel blinked. A new line of text quickly typed itself out under his balance.
[Standard Extermination Yield: Grade 3 Cursed Spirit = 5 System Points]
Ren stopped walking. He stared at the glowing blue five.
"Five," he said out loud, his voice flat.
He did the math in his head. A thousand Grade 3 curses. He would have to hunt down a thousand of these things just to upgrade one knife.
He swiped his hand through the air, dismissing the screen. He needed to make sure it wasn't a glitch. He spent the next forty minutes walking through the worst parts of the district, actively looking for trouble.
He found two more curses. One was a swarm of things that looked like giant, rotting centipedes clinging to a restaurant dumpster.
The other was a swollen, twitching mass wedged behind a broken vending machine.
He killed both of them. It wasn't even a fight. His body just knew what to do. Step in, slash, pivot, step back. The dark blade cut through them easily, leaving only dissolving ash on the concrete.
He wiped the blade on his jeans, sheathed it against his spine, and called up the system again.
[Current Balance: 510 System Points]
Ren let out a long, heavy sigh. He walked over to a concrete barrier near a closed gas station and sat down. The cold night air stung his face as he rested his elbows on his knees and dropped his head into his hands.
Farming was completely useless. He didn't have the time to roam Tokyo every night acting like a garbage collector for weak curses.
...
Ren pushed himself off the cold concrete barrier. The damp chill of the Tokyo night had finally seeped through his flannel shirt, settling deep into his bones.
Ren paused at the edge of a crosswalk, the flashing 'Don't Walk' sign casting a stark red glow over the empty street. He pulled his phone out, half-expecting it to be a notification from his new job.
He unlocked the screen.
[Line Message: Maki] Attachment: 1 Image
Ren froze. The red light of the crosswalk reflected off his dark eyes as his thumb hovered over the notification.
She actually did it.