It was already past ten when Max finally returned home.
He lived on the fourth floor of an old residential block not too far from the Academy. The place wasn’t particularly impressive, but since it was within easy travelling distance of both the Academy and his former laboratory, it had been convenient enough for him.
Besides, Max hadn’t exactly been spoiled for choice.
The government had provided for most of his basic needs while he was still under their care, but that arrangement ended when he turned eighteen.
Fortunately, he’d already secured his research position by then, so moving into a small apartment of his own hadn’t been much of a problem.
He had been living there for several months now.
Although, judging by the state of the place, ’living’ might have been a generous word.
Max pushed open the door and stepped over a pile of clothes lying near the entrance.
Research papers were spread across half of the small dining table. Several monster anatomy books were stacked beside his bed, empty food containers occupied places they definitely shouldn’t have, and a mug he’d been looking for several weeks ago was sitting underneath his desk.
Max quietly looked around.
"...I’ll clean tomorrow."
Just as he shut the door behind him, something scraped against the floor.
Max looked down.
There was an envelope near his foot.
"Hm?"
He picked it up and immediately recognized the residential management seal printed on the front.
That wasn’t a good sign...
Max tore it open.
[RESIDENTIAL PAYMENT NOTICE]
[Rent Due: 300 Credits]
[Payment Deadline: Tomorrow, 18:00]
His eyes remained on the number for a while.
Then, almost reluctantly, Max pulled out his phone and checked his account.
[Available Balance: 45 Credits]
"...Right."
He had completely forgotten about rent.
Under normal circumstances, three hundred Credits wouldn’t have been disastrous. His research salary had covered the apartment comfortably enough, along with food, transportation and the occasional expense his experiments required.
The problem was that he wasn’t exactly a researcher anymore.
The laboratory had been destroyed, his project had effectively ended, and after everything that happened with the Goreboar, Max highly doubted anyone was preparing his usual end-of-month payment.
’So I’m unemployed too.’
For someone who had awakened yesterday, his life was already improving wonderfully.
Max walked over to the refrigerator and pulled it open. Well, it was empty... as expected. He didn’t really leave anything there.
He closed the refrigerator again.
"Thank goodness I went to Odessa’s place."
At least dinner had been handled, so tomorrow was another matter.
Max dropped the rent notice onto the table before collapsing onto his bed. He had intended to think through his finances, the gauntlet, and perhaps even look through some Gate information on his phone.
But his body had other plans.
Within minutes, he was asleep.
***
The next morning, music played loudly from Max’s phone while he cleaned the apartment.
It had been a long time since he’d done it properly.
For the past few months, most of his attention had gone into the monster-meat project, and whenever Max returned from the laboratory, eating and sleeping had usually taken priority over making sure his clothes weren’t living independently on the floor.
Now, however, he had energy to spare.
His body felt completely refreshed.
There was no lingering exhaustion from the Goreboar attack, no pain in his formerly shattered legs, and even after moving furniture, carrying bags of rubbish downstairs and scrubbing half the apartment, Max barely felt tired.
By the time he finished, sunlight had filled the room and the apartment finally looked like someone actually lived there.
Max sat at the cleared table and placed the black gauntlet in front of him.
Now that he had enough light and time to properly examine it, the thing became even more confusing.
It looked as pristine as ever. Even the individual plates had been joined together through a method Max couldn’t identify.
He picked it up and weighed it in his palm.
’Far too light...’
If it was ordinary metal, the gauntlet should have weighed considerably more.
Max tapped one of the plates with his fingernail, examined the edges, then looked at the dark-red lines running between them.
Nothing about it gave him an answer.
He eventually slid his hand inside.
The gauntlet adjusted itself almost immediately like before.
[Unknown Gauntlet]
[Current Rank: E]
[Status: LOCKED]
[Available Function: Claws]
[Unlock Requirement: Slay 50 opponents while equipped.]
Max rested his chin against his free hand.
The most interesting part still wasn’t the claws... It was the wording.
’Current Rank.’
If the item was simply E-rank, there would have been no reason for the System to phrase it that way.
Which meant its rank could probably change.
As for how high it could go...
Max had absolutely no idea.
Even more frustratingly, the gauntlet currently possessed no special ability he could detect!
Besides protecting his hand and forearm, its only useful feature was the set of claws extending from his fingers.
Whatever else it could do was apparently waiting behind that locked status.
"Fifty kills..."
Max flexed his hand.
Then he opened a notebook. He wrote several things down.
<Rent.>
<Food.>
<Equipment.>
<Test [Devour].>
<Unlock gauntlet.>
Max stared at the list for a few moments.
Then his eyes narrowed.
’Actually...’
There was one place where he could work on almost everything at once. A Gate.
Monster cores could be sold.
Monster corpses could be used to test Devour.
The gauntlet required kills.
And if things went well, whatever he earned could solve the considerably less exciting problem of his landlord wanting three hundred Credits.
Max checked his account once more. It was still the same Forty-five Credits.
Growl!
His stomach chose that moment to growl, causing him to glance toward the refrigerator.
After some consideration, Max stood up without opening it.
"I’ll eat later."
Forty-five Credits was already dangerously little.
Until he knew exactly what entering a Gate would cost him, wasting part of it on breakfast didn’t seem wise.
***
Max had spent a large portion of his life inside the Academy Central Library.
However, there was one entire section he had rarely needed.
[Player Resources.]
Most of his research had focused on monsters themselves. Their anatomy, mana systems, evolution patterns, toxicity and, most importantly, whether there was some method of turning them into edible food.
How Players entered Gates and made money from them had never been particularly important.
Until now.
"Max?"
He turned toward the front desk.
The librarian sitting there was someone he’d spoken to dozens of times in the past. She lowered the tablet in her hands and stared at him for a second before her expression brightened.
"I heard about the laboratory incident. You awakened?"
"Yup, yesterday."
"And you really killed that Goreboar yourself?"
Max smiled slightly. "That’s what everyone keeps saying."
She laughed.
"Congratulations. I suppose spending all those years reading about monsters finally became useful."
"Hehe, thanks Maryann."
After a little more small talk with Maryann, Max scanned his Academy identification and entered.