Chapter 44 - The Debt Collectors Arrive
There wasn’t any special reason.
If he chose Easy difficulty, his abilities would have been practically useless.
If he dared to choose Hard difficulty, it would have been sothing he couldn’t possibly endure.
The only path that seed remotely doable was Normal difficulty.
To be honest, even in Normal difficulty, Hans had almost died.
He had thought to himself countless tis — that if he could go back, he would choose Easy without hesitation.
’Anyway... it’s enough that I survived and ca back, right?’
After that, Hans beca one of the core mbers at Eastport Station, continuing to survive day after day.
Because he had passed Normal difficulty, people relied on him even more heavily.
’The problem was that Eastport Station didn’t have a single high-level player.’
The real issue was that soone who had barely survived Normal difficulty was now the mainstay of the group.
The grim reality was that there were no high-level players.
Among the survivors at Eastport Station, there wasn’t even one who had received shutdown rewards from Exodia.
Naturally, the entire group was steadily shrinking, growing weaker by the day.
Several dungeons had devoured the once-bustling comrcial districts.
The more dungeon breaks occurred, the more the safe zones shrank, and the narrower the players’ range of activity beca.
The situation only worsened as food supplies dwindled.
Eventually, people began to starve.
«Kee-ee-... Back then... we shouldn’t... have accepted... those guys...»
That was when they appeared —
the mysterious rchants.
Pack-carrying traders who suddenly began appearing all around Eastport Station.
They were ard with food, mysterious items, and unusually friendly attitudes.
They moved like volunteers, offering hope to the survivor group at Eastport Station.
They provided food that could fill starving stomachs.
They handed out weapons that could fight monsters.
At first, everyone was grateful.
Because thanks to them, they hadn’t died imdiately.
«It was... a scam! It was a scam!!»
When they accepted goods from the rchants, Eastport’s survivors actually had nothing to offer in return.
In that brutal environnt, hunting monsters was almost impossible, and collecting items was out of the question.
So they ended up offering sothing else —
their very status as players.
The rchants spoke grandly about "investing for the future,"
and under those honeyed words, the survivors signed contracts without suspicion.
In the end, they had mortgaged their lives — and futures.
Grinding his sharp teeth, Hans recalled those days bitterly.
«It was... Kee-ee-! A hidden contract!!»
At the ti, they hadn’t realized it — but the food that the rchants had given out had been laced with drugs.
After eating it once, they would crave it endlessly — even if they were already full.
It took no ti at all for Eastport Station to collapse.
And that wasn’t all.
On the back of the contracts — written in tiny, almost invisible letters —
was a clause stating that if they failed to repay their debt, they would "offer their bodies" instead.
«Kee-eee!!»
The cries of the kobolds, filled with rage and sorrow, shook the waiting room.
In their desperate wails was the unbearable humiliation and helplessness they had suffered.
«They... they stole our bodies! Keee-eee !!»
When the rchants disappeared, what showed up next were the "debt collectors."
Debt collectors ca leading groups, carrying weapons.
And according to the contracts, they seized what was owed —
without rcy.
By the ti the survivors realized what was happening, it was far too late.
«We... we beca kobolds... Kee-ee-!!»
The players of Eastport Station had their souls forcibly trapped in kobold bodies.
Their real bodies — were taken away by the debt collectors, to so unknown place.
And that — was only the beginning of the nightmare.
«The debt collectors... Kee-ee-! Were ruthless!»
The debt collectors, who had taken their original bodies, started visiting once a week.
Each ti —they demanded "interest," exactly as specified in the hidden contracts.
They ca to take repaynt for the goods the survivors had once received.
But what could survivors — now reduced to weak kobolds — possibly do?
The dungeons around Eastport were savage.
There was no way players trapped in such weak forms could hunt and gather anything.
Thus, week after week, they had nothing to offer.
And the debt collectors started taking sothing else.
Their mories.
«M-mories!»
They began stealing the survivors’ mories.
No one knew what they were doing with them.
No one knew why.
But the debt collectors demanded mories as paynt.
Perhaps that was why —
most of the kobolds could no longer even speak.
«We... can’t... let them take anything more... Kee-ee-!»
That was the tragedy that had befallen the survivors of Eastport Station.
And that — was the real reason they had attacked Jhin’s group.
After hearing everything,
Jhin slowly swept his gaze across the group of kobolds.
And then — he spoke, voice low and sharp:
«I see.»
There was no admiration. No sympathy. No emotion.
Only a cold, cutting tone.
«Has anyone else passed through here?»
«Other... people?»
«Yes. From Stoneveil city Station. Did anyone co through this way? You didn’t harm them, did you?»
Hans hurriedly shook his head.
Maybe it was the frozen sharpness in Jhin’s every word —
The kobolds all looked tense and frightened.
«N-No... Kee-ee-! You are... the first ones we’ve t...!»
The other kobolds surrounding them also shook their heads frantically.
Jhin looked around at them, forcing himself to calm down.
Of course, his anger wasn’t directed at the kobolds.
He exhaled a long breath and focused his gaze on Hans.
There was still sothing left to ask.
«Were the debts... different for everyone?»
«N-No.»
«What about interest?»
Again, Hans shook his head firmly.
Biting down on his lip, Jhin asked the last question — almost spitting the words out:
«When... are those bastards — the debt collectors — coming again?»
It was then.
Tatatat!
The sound of small, hurried footsteps echoed through the hallway beyond.
A kobold ca rushing in, running desperately.
The little kobold ran straight to Hans and cried out:
«D-Debt collectors!!»
And then—
Following behind — heavy, deliberate footsteps began to fill the space.
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