For reasons even she couldn't fully explain, Kujou Hinano—ace detective, top of her precinct—had always considered herself a strict materialist.
But when Ren Kuroda spoke those calm, unsettling words, Hinano felt the temperature in the room plummet.
"Anyway," she muttered, trying to puff herself up, "monsters are impossible. No matter what tries to scare me, I'm not falling for it."
After retrieving his demon blade, Oni-Kage, Ren had Hinano take him to a small neighborhood hardware shop. There, to her utter confusion, he bought an entire bundle of thick hemp rope.
Then, with Hinano watching in growing disbelief, Ren sat down and wove the rope into a crude net—one with holes the size of footballs.
"You're planning to catch the culprit with that?" Hinano groaned. "Not to doubt your… skills, but if you want to make a trap, shouldn't you at least make one that's hidden? Anyone with half a brain would avoid a trap this obvious."
She felt completely cheated. Ren had insisted earlier—while asking her to pay for the rope—that it was "essential."
Now he was presenting… this?
By the time Ren finished weaving the giant, sloppy-looking net, the sky had already begun to darken. Originally, he'd intended to procure snakes. They were natural rat predators, and even a rat demon would instinctively fear them.
But apparently snakes weren't common cuisine in this country, and catching enough by himself would take too long. Even if they could find a black-market seller, Hinano definitely wouldn't be willing to buy snakes a second time.
"Well, this should do," Ren said, dusting his hands. "Call your captain. Time to prepare for the hunt."
Hinano dialed the number reluctantly, and not long after, several police cars rolled in, sirens slicing through the evening air. Clearly, Captain Yuzaburō had been on alert since receiving her message.
Night settled in fully. Ukiyo-chō, with its aging buildings and sparse population, looked like a ghost town after dark. The flickering streetlights cast long, trembling shadows. No pedestrians walked the streets—only the grating caws of crows perched along the power lines.
After several winding turns, the convoy realized they'd somehow circled back to the same back alley where they'd met Ren that morning.
The officers erupted in protest.
Even the least competent criminal wouldn't return to the original crime scene to strike again. One or two detectives even suspected Ren was messing with them.
But Captain Yuzaburō, watching Ren's eerily calm expression, quieted his team immediately. He turned to Ren with a mixture of seriousness and unease.
"Is… is it really just you assisting us tonight?"
He had originally assumed Ren belonged to some shrine or exorcist lineage, and that his elders or mentors would be joining the hunt.But Ren had shown up alone—just a teenager with a katana—and despite his composure, Yuzaburō couldn't suppress a deep sense of insecurity.
Some of the detectives bristled at how much faith their captain was placing in this boy, and they were about to voice their objections—when suddenly, one of the officers stiffened.
"Captain… something's wrong. There are strange sounds… everywhere."
The driver, glancing nervously out the window toward the mouth of the alley, went pale.
"What now?" Yuzaburō muttered, leaning forward irritably. But when he followed the officer's gaze—
He froze.
Dozens of glowing, scarlet eyes pierced the darkness, staring back at them like predators sizing up prey.
Before anyone could react, something slammed into the car—hard.
Then another impact. And another.
The blows were so violent they flipped two of the police cars from the opposite direction, screeching metal echoing through the alley.
Hinano screamed.Several other detectives trembled uncontrollably, all bravado evaporating in an instant.
Panic swallowed the group whole.
And to be fair… their terror was justified.
Because what emerged from the shadows defied human comprehension.
Rats—Rats fifty centimeters tall, each the size of a hunting dog.
If someone had described such a thing to Yuzaburō yesterday, he would have assumed they were drunk or deeply insane.
But here they were—Not one.Not two.But an entire swarming horde.
Those dozens of red eyes belonged to giant rats… and at this moment, the police were unmistakably their prey.
Ren had expected the rat demons to hunt again that night, but even he hadn't anticipated such frenzy.
Before they arrived, he had even briefly considered using Hinano as bait to draw the demons out.
But there was no need.
The creatures were completely unhinged—charging without caution or restraint.
Police cars were sturdier than ordinary vehicles, but the rats' serrated teeth tore into metal like it was clay. Under their rabid gnawing, doors bent inward, chassis warped, and several rats climbed onto the overturned vehicles, chewing at their undersides.
Ren's expression hardened.
The number of rat demons was far beyond what he'd estimated.He alone could handle them… but the civilians around him were a serious problem.
Ren mentally summoned the system window.
He knew the system had a lottery feature with four tiers: 100, 500, 1000, and 10,000 reputation points—each guaranteeing a random item.The more reputation points spent, the better the prize pool.
Aside from the lottery, reputation points could buy items directly—but currently, only two were available:
Inferior Demon Power Crystal — 10 reputation
Demon Aura Talisman — 100 reputation
Ren had already drawn the lottery twice: once costing 100 demon reputation, and once costing 500 human reputation.
He'd gotten:
a Demon Aura Talisman,
and several Inferior Demon Power Crystals.
The crystals came from the 100-point demon lottery;the talisman had come from the 500-point human lottery.
Demon Aura Talisman (C-Rank)Effect: A talisman made using special materials that can store a portion of your demon energy.When affixed to an object, it temporarily turns that object into a Demon Weapon.Multiple talismans can be arranged into formations; with enough quantity, their destructive power becomes tremendous.P.S.: With enough money, explosions are art!
When Ren first saw the description, he felt lucky—the effect sounded incredible. A single lottery draw producing something so powerful? He had felt like a chosen protagonist.
But then…
After completing a quest and unlocking the system shop, he discovered the Demon Aura Talisman was worth only 100 reputation points.
His face had gone completely blank.
A lottery draw costing 500 reputationhad spat out an itemworth 100.
That wasn't hitting the jackpot.
That was daylight robbery.