I Was Just a Cleaner... Until I Got the Demon Extraction System Chapter 16: First Day at the Morning Shift

The paynt would increase dramatically because of the higher number of hours worked during the day. It ant more work—but more money too.

Damian paid soone to drive him to work. Troy wasn’t his driver anymore. That was better. Damian didn’t trust Troy anymore—he’d been acting strangely, even planting surveillance gear inside the apartnt.

When the driver stopped in front of the building, he asked, "Are you a hunter? This is a hunter company, right?"

Damian wasn’t considered a hunter.

"No, I’m not," he replied, "but I do work here."

"That’s nice. Thank you all for taking care of us civilians."

It wasn’t every day Damian heard kind words from a stranger. People weren’t that friendly anymore—especially with the world in chaos from all the demons and everything.

"We’ll keep doing our best to protect you," Damian said. "See ya. Thanks for the ride."

He stopped in front of the building. It was early in the morning, but the place was already buzzing with activity—far more than he’d seen during the night shifts.

Most of the people inside were hunters, but a few weren’t—just like Damian. The jobs that didn’t require strength or direct contact with demons didn’t require soone to be a hunter.

In fact, Damian was the only person with direct demon contact who wasn’t classified as a hunter. That was why he had one of the highest paynt rates among all the non-hunters working at the company.

Nataly approached the mont he stepped inside. As the person in charge, she needed to speak to him about his shift change.

"Hey, Damian," she said. "We need to talk. Co with ."

She led him to her office. Damian was alone with her now—for a private discussion.

Nataly sat behind her desk, elbows resting on the table. She was deep in thought, searching for the right words. Damian sat silently in front of her.

After a mont, she finally spoke.

"For so reason, soone from the higher-ups decided to move you to the morning shift," Nataly said. "Honestly, I don’t know exactly why."

Damian knew. It was the high-ranking demon he was connected with. But he acted surprised.

"I thought you were the one in charge of this place," Damian said.

"No—I’m not. All hunter companies operate under the strongest hunter company in the world. We handle most things independently, but sotis they step in. It’s rare—but for whatever reason, your shift change is one of those cases."

The demon Damian was speaking to clearly had a lot of power—and connections. He hadn’t imagined the demon would know soone inside the biggest and most powerful hunter company in the world.

He’d assud the demon only had contacts within the local branch where Damian worked.

"Anyway, you’ll now have more cri scenes to clean throughout the day," Nataly said. "Which ans your paynt will increase."

Damian was happy about that. Everyone needed money, and earning more was always a good thing.

But Nataly hadn’t called him in just to discuss money. There was sothing else.

"And Troy is no longer your driver," she added. "He’s on a mission for the company now, so you won’t be seeing him often. We’ve assigned a new driver to you."

Damian wasn’t an idiot. He knew the real reason Troy had distanced himself — he was investigating him. Or at the very least, Damian was sohow part of whatever he was looking into.

Of course, he hadn’t shown any of that in front of Nataly. He needed to look completely lost, and more than that, genuinely shaken by the loss of his friend.

"Seriously?" Damian said with a sigh. "We were finally getting along so well. He was a really good guy."

Nataly nodded. "Yeah, I know you two had beco pretty close. I’m sorry about that. It got out of my hands."

She stood up from behind her desk and added, "If you don’t mind, I can introduce you to your new driver. I’m sure you’ll like her too."

"Sure, no problem," Damian replied.

He didn’t actually need a driver to take him places. If that were the case, he could just grab one of the company’s cars and drive himself.

The driver was more of a bodyguard. Soone like Damian — who supposedly didn’t have any powers — needed a hunter to protect him while heading to cri scenes.

The two of them left the office and headed outside. In the parking lot, a woman was leaning against a black car, a cigarette between her fingers.

She was wearing formal clothes and looked like she’d been waiting.

Nataly walked up and introduced him. "This is Damian, the cleaner who’ll be working the morning shift."

The woman, who’d been staring at the ground, lifted her head and looked him over.

"This the guy who took my friend’s job?" she asked. "So now I have to babysit so random dude? What a load of crap."

With that, she got into the car.

Before Damian ca along, soone else had been the cleaner for both the morning and afternoon shifts. That cleaner had been a woman — one who’d apparently grown close to this driver. And now, without even knowing him, the woman already seed pissed.

Nataly tried to ease the tension.

"Despite how she’s acting, she’ll protect you and do her job," Nataly said. "But don’t expect friendly conversation anyti soon..."

"Yeah, I noticed," Damian muttered.

"Well, I’ll get back to work. You should get started too. She knows where to take you, so hop in. Good luck."

Nataly turned and went back inside, leaving Damian to step into the car. The atmosphere was icy. Yeah, this transition wasn’t going to be easy.

"And where exactly are we going?" Damian asked.

The woman didn’t answer.

He tried again.

This ti, clearly annoyed, she muttered, "We’re going to a cri scene. One involving a demon. Obvious, isn’t it?"

Nataly had been right. A friendly chat with this woman was going to take a while.

Damian didn’t even know her na — and figured it was better not to ask. Staying quiet felt safer.

They drove through the city, then out of it, taking the highway that led away from town.

For a brief mont, Damian tensed. It was the sa road he’d taken just the other day, when he’d gone into the forest to hunt demons and absorb them.

But luckily, she turned off before they reached that area, heading in the opposite direction.

"Good," he thought. "For a second, I really thought I was screwed again."

Everything seed quiet.

Too quiet.

Then sothing hit the car.

Hard.

The tires blew out, and the vehicle flipped, tumbling down a small hill. It finally ca to a stop only because it slamd into a tree.