The sky over Gangnam had turned a bruised purple, illuminated by the flickering fires of a thousand burning cars. The screams had settled into a low, rhythmic guttural chanting—the sound of the Rift "breathing."
Inside the black walls of The Abyss, Kang-Jin was a whirlwind of movement. He wasn't swinging a sword or chanting incantations. He was drawing.
With his [Master's Blueprint] skill active, his fingers left trails of glowing blue light in the air. He was designing a structure that defied modern physics, a geometric trap meant to turn a monster's greatest strength into its killing blow.
"Min-Ho! The copper wiring from the Director's briefcase, now!" Kang-Jin barked.
The delivery boy scrambled, stripping the high-end electronics they had salvaged. Director Song was sweating profusely, tasked with grinding low-grade mana crystals into a fine powder using a piece of reinforced rebar.
"This is madness," Song muttered, his expensive shirt ruined. "We should be running for the military checkpoints!"
"The military is currently being slaughtered by ghosts in the subway tunnels," Kang-Jin said without looking up. "The only ground that matters is the ground you can control. Now, pour the dust into the conduit."
[Ding! Construction Commenced: 'Gorgon's Mirror' (Rank: D-Custom)]
[Estimated Completion: 22 Minutes]
[Warning: The 'Stone-Gaze Basilisk' has detected high mana-concentration in your area!]
A heavy, wet thump echoed from the street. Then another.
Something massive was dragging its body across the asphalt. The sound of stone grinding against stone filled the air. The survivors huddled in the corner of the lot whimpered as a shadow, thirty feet long, loomed over the top of the black walls.
A giant, reptilian head rose into view. Its scales were the color of stagnant moss, and where its eyes should have been, two orbs of sickly, pulsing yellow light glowed.
[The Stone-Gaze Basilisk (Class-D Boss) has arrived!]
The moment the beast's gaze hit the black stone of the wall, the material didn't just break—it turned to grey, brittle salt. The "Petrification Breath" was a passive aura.
"Master! Structural integrity dropping! 80%... 65%..." Unit-01 buzzed frantically.
"Keep pouring!" Kang-Jin shouted. He slammed the Alpha's Heart-Core into the center of the copper-wired pillar he had built.
The pillar wasn't a pillar anymore. It was a jagged, multi-faceted spire of glass and mana-steel, shaped like a blooming lotus. Each "petal" was a polished mirror surface angled with mathematical precision.
[Ding! Construction Complete!]
[Weapon: 'Gorgon's Mirror' is Online.]
The Basilisk roared, its massive jaws opening to spray a concentrated cloud of petrifying gas. The mist rolled over the walls like a tidal wave of death. Anything it touched—a stray shoe, a piece of debris, the very air itself—froze into heavy stone and shattered.
"Close your eyes!" Kang-Jin commanded his "tenants."
He stood at the base of the spire, his hand on the core. He wasn't closing his eyes. Through his [Structural Analysis], he saw the world as vectors of energy.
"Refract," he whispered.
As the petrifying beam hit the spire, it didn't destroy it. The Alpha Core absorbed the impact, and the angled mirrors caught the yellow light, bouncing it, amplifying it, and focusing it into a single, needle-thin point of radiance.
ZING.
A beam of pure, concentrated petrification shot back out from the spire, hitting the Basilisk directly in its left eye.
The monster's roar turned into a choked gurgle. The grey tint of stone began to spread—not from the outside in, but from its own eye socket backward into its brain.
"Again," Kang-Jin shifted the spire's alignment.
The mirror caught the beast's own aura and flung it back. It was a perfect feedback loop. The Basilisk was being turned to stone by its own existence.
With a final, deafening crack, the thirty-foot monster solidified completely. It stood there in the middle of the street, a grotesque, mossy statue frozen in a pose of agony.
[Ding! Class-D Boss 'Stone-Gaze Basilisk' Defeated!]
[You have gained 12,000 Experience!]
[Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! ... Level 12 reached!]
[World First: Solo Boss Kill (Architect Class) - Reward: 'Blueprint of the Hidden Workshop' acquired!]
The silence that followed was heavy. The survivors slowly opened their eyes. They looked at the giant stone corpse, then at the young man standing calmly next to a glowing glass spire.
Kang-Jin felt the surge of power—the raw stats flooding his body. His "Authority" was now high enough that he could feel the heartbeat of the land he stood on.
He turned to the petrified Director and the trembling delivery boy.
"The boss is dead," Kang-Jin said, his voice cold. "Which means the Rift is now 'Stable Territory.' And since I'm the one who stabilized it..."
He gestured to the surrounding four blocks of prime Gangnam real estate.
[System Notice: Detecting 'Sovereign's Claim'.]
[Do you wish to expand 'The Abyss' to the surrounding ruins?]
"Expand," Kang-Jin said.
Black stone began to ripple outward from his feet like a drop of ink in water. It flowed over the street, swallowed the stone Basilisk, and began to encase the ruined skyscrapers.
"Min-Ho," Kang-Jin said.
"Y-yes, Boss?"
"You're promoted. You're now the Head of Housekeeping. Go find more survivors. Tell them the first night is free, but tomorrow... they start building my palace."
Kang-Jin looked up at the sky. Other Rifts were opening across the horizon, blue and red tears in the fabric of reality. The world was ending, but as he looked at the blueprint of his expanding empire, Kang-Jin had never felt more alive.
"The era of Heroes is over," he whispered. "Welcome to the age of the Landlord."