The molten gold circulating through Min-jae’s veins gradually settled, leaving behind a sensation of absolute, unyielding density. He looked down at his forearms. On the surface, his skin looked exactly the same as before— pale, ordinary, and unathletic.

But when he clenched his fist, he felt a weight behind his knuckles that could crush concrete.

Min-jae summoned his status screen with a thought.

[Status Status]

* Name: Kang Min-jae

* Level: 1 (0/100 EXP)

* Class: None (Unawakened)

* Talent: Eternal Vajra Deity Body (Rank SSS)

* Attributes: Strength: 10, Agility: 10, Vitality: 10, Intelligence: 10

* Passive Effect: Absolute immunity to all physical attacks below the Divine Realm. Reflects 50% of all incoming damage back to the attacker as True Damage.

A cold smile touched Min-jae’s lips. Absolute physical immunity. In the first three years of the Global Descent, 95% of the monsters that spawned were strictly physical attackers— goblins, orcs, mutated beasts, and undead zombies. He was effectively invincible against the entire first stage of the apocalypse.

Boom!

The heavy wooden door of his studio apartment shuddered under a violent kick. The cheap deadbolt snapped completely, and the door flew open, banging against the wall.

Three men stepped into the cramped room.

Leading them was Park Jin-chul, a heavy-set thug with a tribal tattoo snaking up his neck. He was a local loan shark’s enforcer who ran a protection racket in this neighborhood. In Min-jae’s past life, during the first hour of the chaos, Jin-chul had formed a gang, raided the building’s apartments for food, and forced Min-jae to act as human bait for the stray monsters outside.

"Hey, brat," Jin-chul grunted, tossing a heavy crowbar from hand to hand. His eyes were wide with a mixture of panic and manic excitement. "You see the red sky outside? The phones are down. The cops aren’t coming. Hand over all your food and cash. Right now."

The two lackeys behind him brandished kitchen knives, stepping forward to corner Min-jae against his desk.

In his past life, Min-jae would have begged for mercy. He would have handed over his meager savings just to avoid a beating.

Now, Min-jae didn’t even stand up. He calmly leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms. "Get out of my room before I lose my patience."

Jin-chul blinked, completely taken aback by the lack of fear. Then, his face twisted into an ugly, arrogant sneer. "You think because the world is ending, you grew a spine? I’m going to break both your legs and leave you for whatever is making those screaming noises outside."

Jin-chul took a massive step forward, raising the heavy iron crowbar high above his head. With a vicious grunt, he brought it down toward Min-jae’s collarbone with enough force to shatter bone.

"Die, brat!"

Crack!!

The iron crowbar struck Min-jae’s shoulder at full force.

But the sound that followed wasn’t the sickening crunch of human bone breaking. It was the sharp, metallic snap of iron fracturing.

The solid iron crowbar snapped cleanly in half. Min-jae didn’t even flinch. His t-shirt wasn’t even torn.

"What the—" Jin-chul’s voice choked up. His hands were vibrating violently from the impact, the skin on his palms splitting open from the sheer shockwave of hitting Min-jae’s body.

Before Jin-chul could process what was happening, the Rank-SSS talent activated.

[Ding! Received 120 points of physical damage. ’Eternal Vajra Deity Body’ triggered. Damage negated.]

[Reflecting 60 points of True Damage to the attacker.]

Jin-chul suddenly gasped. A violent, invisible force slammed into his own right shoulder, perfectly mimicking the exact trajectory of the crowbar strike. The sound of his collarbone shattering into dozens of fragments echoed in the small room.

"Arghhhh!" Jin-chul screamed, dropping the broken piece of iron as he collapsed to his knees, clutching his ruined shoulder. Blood began to seep through his jacket. True Damage completely ignored his natural physical toughness.

The two lackeys behind him froze, their eyes wide with sheer horror. They hadn’t even seen Min-jae move a finger, yet their boss was on the floor with a shattered shoulder.

"W-What did you do?!" one of the lackeys stammered, his hand shaking so hard he dropped his kitchen knife. "Are you an Awakened? An S-Rank?"

"I told you to get out," Min-jae said, his voice entirely flat as he stood up from his chair.

The sheer aura radiating from him made the two lackeys trip over their own feet as they scrambled backward out of the broken doorway, dragging their screaming boss along the floor. They ran down the hallway like terrified dogs.

Min-jae didn’t bother chasing them. In the apocalypse, trash like Jin-chul would die within days anyway. They weren’t worth his time.

Suddenly, a massive, glass-shattering roar echoed from the street below his apartment building.

Roar!!!

Min-jae stepped over the broken door and walked out onto the small concrete balcony. Down on the asphalt, the true nightmare had begun. The ground had cracked open, and several grey-skinned, monstrous humanoids with razor-sharp teeth were tearing through abandoned cars.

Rank-F Monster: Grey Goblins.

A massive grin broke across Min-jae’s face. To the rest of the world, this was hell. To him, it was a goldmine of experience points.

"Time to level up," Min-jae muttered, jumping cleanly over the third-floor balcony railing and dropping straight toward the chaotic streets below.