The Cleanup

"It worked..." Min-Soo murmured, more to himself than to me. "It really worked. It's even more effective than I thought."

The first rat's shriek had alerted the others.

Dozens of pairs of red eyes lit up in the nests all around us. A chorus of high-pitched, electric cries filled the basement.

In seconds, a wave of floating black silhouettes surged toward us from all directions.

"Ji-Hoon!" Min-Soo shouted, his flashlight trembling and casting dancing shadows on the walls.

I didn't panic. It was strange. Facing this tide of monsters, I felt calmer than when I faced three bullies in my room.

The dagger in my hand seemed to vibrate with a slight impatience.

I got into a stance, my knees slightly bent.

The first rats arrived.

I struck. A sweeping blow. The blade passed through three rats at once. They evaporated.

Another one tried to attack me from the side. I spun and plunged the dagger right into its spectral form. Gone.

It was almost easy. Too easy.

I wasn't fighting. I was erasing.

I moved in the dark, guided by the red glints of their eyes. My dagger was an extension of my arm, a black paintbrush erasing the monsters from the canvas of darkness.

Each kill made my interface flash.

[Specter Rat eliminated. +1 point]

[Specter Rat eliminated. +1 point]

[Specter Rat eliminated. +1 point]

The notifications scrolled by so fast that I barely paid attention to them.

Min-Soo had stayed back, pressed against a wall, his flashlight fixed on me. He wasn't saying anything anymore. He was just watching, his eyes wide behind his glasses.

In less than a minute, the chaos stopped. The last black silhouette evaporated on contact with my blade. Silence fell back into the basement. All that was left was the sound of my own breathing, a little fast.

Min-Soo's flashlight beam swept the room. It was empty. All the rats that had attacked us were gone.

"That was... the whole first wave," Min-Soo said, his voice a little hoarse. "There must have been about thirty of them."

He pointed the light at the first nest, where the first rat had come from. "Now for the nests. That's the main objective."

I walked to the nest. It was a repulsive mass of cables and that black, shiny substance that seemed to pulse with a faint energy.

I raised my dagger. I didn't know if it would work the same way.

I plunged the blade into the center of the nest.

The reaction was instantaneous. The black substance was sucked into the dagger, like water down a drain. In seconds, the entire nest disintegrated, leaving only clean cables and a bit of dust.

My interface glowed with a brighter light.

[Specter Rat Nest destroyed. 1/5]

[Mission Points obtained: +100]

I turned to Min-Soo. He nodded, the smile of a true genius on his face.

"Perfect," he said. "This is even better than expected. By the time the others finish their first theory class, we'll already have enough points to buy our way into the C-rank combat classes."

I looked at my dagger. It seemed unchanged, still just as black, still just as empty. But I knew it had just proven its worth.

And this was only the beginning.

We continued like that. Min-Soo guided me through the labyrinth of pipes and machinery, his flashlight sweeping the darkness. He was mapping the basement in his head, finding the nests with surprising efficiency.

"To the right, behind that old boiler," he would say.

And I would follow. Each nest was guarded by a wave of rats. Each time, it was the same. They attacked, I erased them, then I destroyed the nest.

The work was repetitive, almost mechanical. But with each destroyed nest, I felt something growing inside me. Not strength. Confidence.

The dagger had become a part of me. I no longer needed to think to use it. My movements were fluid, precise.

After the fourth nest, Min-Soo stopped.

"Be careful," he said, his voice lower. "The last nest is the biggest. That's where the 'Rat Queen' is, if you can call her that. She'll be tougher."

We arrived in a larger room. In the center, hanging from the ceiling amidst a tangle of ducts, was the last nest. It was huge, at least five times bigger than the others. It pulsed with a more intense black light.

Hundreds of red eyes stared at us from within.

"Prepare yourself," Min-Soo whispered.

A figure emerged from the nest. It was different from the others. Larger, almost the size of a man. Its form was more defined, with energy claws and a kind of crown of spectral thorns on its head.

The Rat Queen.

She let out a cry. Not a small, high-pitched shriek. An electric roar that made the air vibrate and Min-Soo's flashlight crackle.

And all the rats in the nest swarmed out at once. It was a true tsunami of darkness.

Facing that wave, even I felt a flicker of hesitation. It was a wall of enemies.

"Ji-Hoon, the queen! Ignore the small ones! If you kill her, the others will disappear!" Min-Soo shouted, his voice tense.

He was right. I couldn't erase them all one by one. I had to aim for the source.

I summoned my dagger. The first rats were already on me.

I didn't try to fight them. I dodged, I ducked, I jumped over them. Their energy claws passed inches from me, but none of them touched me.

My gaze was fixed on the queen. She was floating near the ceiling, directing her army.

I had to reach her.

I saw a series of large pipes running up the wall. It was my only chance.

I ran toward the wall, ignoring the rats brushing past me. I jumped onto the first pipe, then the second. I climbed, using the valves and joints as handholds.

The queen seemed to notice me. She let out another roar and shot toward me, her large claws out.

I was in mid-air, jumping from one pipe to another. She was faster than me. She was going to intercept me before I reached the nest.

I did something I had never done before. I let go of the dagger.

And instead of letting it fall, I gave it a mental command. "Go."

The dagger shot out like a bullet. Straight for the queen.

She tried to dodge, but the dagger was too fast. It hit her right in the middle of her spectral body.

A howl of pure agony rang out. Not a physical sound, but a mental scream that echoed directly in my head.

The queen froze, the black dagger embedded in her. Then, her body began to dissipate, much more slowly than the others, as if she were fighting it.

And below, the entire wave of small rats stopped in its tracks, their bodies flickering.

The queen was still struggling, her body wavering like a flame in the wind. But the dagger continued its work, sucking out her energy.

With a final, silent scream that shook my mind, her massive form evaporated completely.

At the same time, down below, the entire army of small rats dissolved into a cloud of black dust. The basement fell silent again.

My dagger hung in the air for a moment, where the queen had been, before falling. I caught it in mid-air as I climbed back down the pipes.

When I touched the floor, Min-Soo approached, his flashlight steady now.

"Incredible," he said, looking genuinely impressed. "Throwing the dagger... I hadn't calculated that possibility."

I looked at the huge nest on the ceiling. It had lost its glow. It looked dead.

I didn't even have to climb. I threw the dagger again. It embedded itself in the center of the nest and did its job. In a few seconds, nothing was left of it.

The next moment, a series of notifications flooded my interface, with a fanfare of triumphant sounds.

[Specter Rat Queen eliminated. +50 points]

[Specter Rat Nest destroyed. 5/5]

[Mission Points obtained: +100]

[Quest Objective complete!]

[Final Reward granted: 500 points, 10 Contribution Points]

My point balance skyrocketed. I now had over 1000 points.

[Time Elapsed: 00:27:14]

We had finished in under half an hour.

"Mission accomplished," Min-Soo said with a satisfied smile. "Now, let's get out of here. This musty smell is starting to get to me."