I feel… refreshed, Cross thought. It was the best way he could describe it. It was as if he had just had the best bath, the best sleep, and the best meal all at once. His body felt lighter, more energized. He rolled his shoulders, the tension that had built up from his earlier panic and battle had completely evaporated.
More importantly, he noticed a significant change in the burning sensation that had been plaguing his eyes after overusing his Heavenly Eyes. The strain had lessened, almost as if the chaos energy from the Fiend Core had healed some of the damage. His theory had been correct. The Fiend Cores—or at least the chaos energy they contained—could offset the damage his Heavenly Eyes inflicted on his body.
Cross grinned. “I knew it,” he muttered. He didn’t have some kind of system to quantify the exact amount of Fiend Cores he would need to permanently remove the side effects of his eyes, but he could feel it instinctively now. Like a well inside him, a mental counter that told him exactly how much chaos energy he had absorbed and how much more he would need to permanently nullify the blindness side-effect.
He closed his eyes, focusing on that internal sense. Right now, the well was barely filled. The single Fiend Core had done something, but it wasn’t enough. Not even close. He would need several more Cores—likely stronger ones—to truly break free of the risk his powers posed to him.
But the fact that it was even possible made him giddy.
Cross stood up, stretching his arms over his head as he walked around the bathroom, surveying the damage again. The floor tiles were cracked and warped, the walls stained with the remnants of black chaos energy. He winced at the thought of the repair costs. Even if he managed to patch things up enough for Mrs. Cho not to throw him out, there was no hiding the mess that had been left behind. The Source damage might even be permanent.
Still, that thought didn’t dampen his mood. The more he thought about it, the more excited he became. The Fiend Core had been a game-changer. It had confirmed that his strategy was viable. If he could absorb enough of them, he wouldn’t just be able to fix his Heavenly Eyes—he’d be able to take his power to the next level.
Of course, the process wasn’t without risks. Fiends weren’t exactly pushovers, and the chaotic energy inside their Cores wasn’t something to take lightly. If he absorbed too much too quickly, there was always a chance the chaos could backfire, corrupting him instead of strengthening him. But Cross wasn’t worried about that. He’d take the gamble. What choice did he have?
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He sat back down, letting his mind wander as he considered his next steps. First, he needed to figure out a way to deal with Mrs. Cho. He chuckled to himself, imagining her face when she saw the state of the bathroom. That was a problem for another day, though.
His real focus was now on finding more Fiends. More Cores.
More power.
Cross knew that if he wanted to climb the Towers and become a Ranker, he couldn’t afford to waste any more time. He had been given a second chance, and this world was teeming with opportunities. His Heavenly Eyes had given him a glimpse of the immense potential lying just beneath the surface, but the amount of Fiend Cores he’d need to cure it was also immense as well.
"1 million Fiend Cores..." Cross muttered under his breath, just saying the number made him want to curl into a ball and cry. It was such an absurd figure that he could barely comprehend it. Even if someone was strong enough to kill a million Fiends, where on earth would they even find that many Fiends? Fiends didn’t just pop up on the street corners like random mobs in a video game. No, they were rare, unpredictable, and dangerous.
He sighed and tapped his fingers on the desk, glaring at the screen of his half-broken laptop. He’d been scrolling through auction sites and Ranker markets for hours, trying to get an idea of the cost of a Fiend Core, and what he found wasn’t exactly promising. Even the cheapest, most pathetic Fiend Core was priced at $5,000. That was two months of his salary.
“Two months… for one Core,” he grumbled. “And I need a million. Yeah, this is totally fine. Nothing wrong here.”
Cross shut the laptop, the screen flickering as it powered down. There was no use in fantasizing about buying the Cores. If he couldn’t even afford to fix his leaky bathroom or pay three months’ worth of rent, there was no way he’d ever be able to afford even a small stash of Fiend Cores. Not unless he somehow stumbled across a secret treasure trove, which wasn’t likely to happen anytime soon.
The more he thought about it, the clearer it became: his immediate problem wasn’t even the Fiend Cores. The most pressing issue was money. He needed money to fix the damage to his apartment, pay his overdue rent, and somehow find enough spare cash to afford Fiend Cores—if only to keep his eyes from burning out.
Sure, theoretically, he could go hunting for Fiends himself, but that had its own set of challenges. First off, Fiends were unpredictable. He had no way of knowing when or where they would show up unless he kept his Heavenly Eyes active all the time, which wasn’t exactly sustainable. The amount of strain that would put on him would turn him blind in no time, and he wasn’t about to take that risk.
No, he needed a more stable solution. And after hours of thinking, it became obvious: Cross needed a job.
Not just any job though—he needed something that would allow him to kill Fiends and get paid for it. The answer was staring him right in the face the whole time.
He needed to become a Ranker.