"Really...?"
Suzuki sat perfectly still in the plush leather chair of the accounting office, staring at his glowing Status Plate in a complete, breathless trance.
He knew perfectly well that his [Absolute Contract] was an incredibly powerful tool. But he had fundamentally underestimated just how devastatingly broken it actually was.
It wasn't just a magical piece of paper. It was a soul-devouring trap drafted with airtight, inescapable precision. When someone breached the terms, the punishment wasn't a simple fine or a slap on the wrist. The system legally authorized the absolute forfeiture of the violator's entire existence. It violently ripped away their wealth, their hard-earned skills, their societal status, and their very memories.
To put it simply for a teenager to understand: breaking his contract was like triggering an automatic, unstoppable auto-loot system.
"This guy was incredibly wealthy..." Suzuki murmured, his lips curving into a dark, deeply satisfied smile.
Without Suzuki having to lift a single finger, the entire hidden fortune of the kingdom's top assassin had been instantly digitized and deposited directly into his [Absolute Storage]. It was the ultimate, high-yield passive income. He didn't have to risk his life hunting down bounties or collecting debts in dark alleys. The magic simply transferred the assets to him automatically.
But why did the penalty trigger on the assassin, a man who had never actually signed the parchment?
It was a brilliantly cruel legal loophole. Buried deep within the microscopic fine print of the Minister's contract was an "umbrella clause." It explicitly stated that any subordinate, mercenary, or third party acting on the Minister's orders to harm the Creditor (Suzuki) would be legally bound to the exact same soul-crushing penalties.
Yes, the contract was aggressively unfair. But whose fault was that?
It was the Minister's fault for eagerly signing a legally binding document without reading the fine print. People in this world were entirely too lazy. Because legal contracts were usually long, boring, and written in tiny fonts, they just skimmed them. And because of that laziness, they were brutally taken advantage of.
Suzuki felt absolutely zero guilt. He wasn't going to show mercy to a group of corrupt politicians who viewed him as a disposable weapon. In this savage fantasy world, it was eat or be eaten.
The Kingdom constantly preached about how "evil" the demons were. But if the demons didn't fight back, wouldn't humanity just slaughter them all? Did they not have a right to survive?
Suzuki didn't care about the moral high ground of humans versus demons. His goal was singular and deeply personal: he was going to take over this entire Kingdom. He was going to legally bleed it dry, orchestrate a hostile takeover, and plunge the arrogant royals who summoned him into absolute despair.
He didn't want to kill them. The ultimate revenge is never death.
Death is a quick, painless mercy. If he killed the King and the Pope, their suffering would end instantly, and history might even remember them as tragic martyrs.
No, true, agonizing revenge was stripping them of their titles and forcing them to work grueling, manual labor in his factories. He would pay them absolute minimum wage, ensuring they lived in squalid poverty, drowning in insurmountable debt that would take 99 years of back-breaking sweat to pay off. They would beg for the sweet release of death, but they wouldn't be allowed to die. They had a contract to fulfill.
Was he really that cruel of a person?
No, not inherently. If someone approached him in good faith, paid in cash, and engaged in a fair, win-win business transaction, Suzuki would treat them with the utmost courtesy and respect.
But this Kingdom and the Holy Church had crossed a massive line.
They operated under the sickeningly arrogant assumption that a group of high school students should feel honored to be violently kidnapped from their homes to fight a bloody war. There was no hazard pay. There was no life insurance. There wasn't even a basic guarantee that they could ever return to Earth!
They were literally being treated as disposable, unpaid child soldiers. If they all got slaughtered by demons tomorrow, the Pope would just shrug and magically summon another batch of naive teenagers to replace them.
When Suzuki thought about his life back in Japan—how he had sacrificed his fleeting youth, sleeping only two hours a night, grinding through grueling studies and brutal athletic training just to secure a wealthy, stable future—only to have it entirely stolen away by a smug old man in a robe...
He felt a violent, blinding urge to rip the Pope's head clean off his shoulders.
"FUCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!"
Suzuki slammed his fist against the heavy oak desk, the sudden, raw explosion of pure rage vibrating through the quiet office.
"...Calm down," he whispered to himself, taking a slow, deep breath.
He aggressively rubbed his face, forcing the boiling emotion back down into the dark corners of his mind. A CEO could not afford to let his temper dictate his strategy. He smoothly poured himself a cup of hot Darjeeling tea, the delicate, floral aroma helping to center his focus.
He walked over to the grand, arched window of the office and looked down at the sun-baked training courtyard below.
He took a slow sip of his tea, a feeling of deep, intoxicating comfort washing over him. Down in the dirt, his classmates were covered in sweat and grime. The girls' uniforms clung to their exhausted bodies, and the boys were panting, bruised, and pushed to their absolute limits. Meanwhile, Suzuki stood perfectly clean in a climate-controlled office, drinking premium tea while casually orchestrating the financial ruin of the entire continent.
The seductive contrast of his absolute comfort versus their desperate struggle was incredibly satisfying.
"Nagumo..."
Suzuki's dark eyes locked onto the struggling otaku down in the yard. Nagumo was the classic, textbook protagonist. If this world followed the standard narrative tropes, Nagumo was destined to fall into the deepest, darkest abyss of the dungeon, only to crawl back out as a ruthless, overpowered monster.
Suzuki understood the psychology behind the "edgelord" persona perfectly. When a kind person is brutally betrayed and thrown into hell, threatening to kill everyone is just a traumatic coping mechanism. It's easier to become a monster and strike first than to ever risk being vulnerable again.
So, what should Suzuki do?
Should he just sit back, let the plot play out, and let Nagumo suffer the abyss? Suzuki could easily play the role of the shadow venture capitalist, secretly investing in Nagumo's growth from the sidelines until the boy slaughtered the gods and found a way back to Earth.
Or... should Suzuki seize that absolute power for himself?
"Hmm..."
Suzuki hesitated. Entering the abyss and conquering a lethal dungeon was mathematically suicidal for a Merchant. His baseline combat stats were pathetic compared to the frontline fighters. Even with the Manager optimizing his bodily functions, a Merchant's physical power scaling was strictly capped.
At the end of the day, a Merchant was meant to hold a pen, not a sword.
However...
Suzuki slowly lowered his teacup. He opened his Status Plate again, his eyes locking onto the impossible anomaly glowing on his screen.
Secondary Class Acquired: [Assassin]
When the Minister's lapdog broke the contract, Suzuki hadn't just absorbed the man's gold and memories. The Absolute Contract had violently ripped the man's very Job from his soul and grafted it onto Suzuki.
His expression shifted into a subtle, terrifyingly dangerous smirk.
He could fight now. He possessed the lethal, high-burst damage skills of a master Assassin, perfectly complementing the tactical brilliance of a Merchant. If he were dropped into the abyss now, his chances of clearing the dungeon and absorbing its ancient magic had just skyrocketed.
Still, Suzuki thought, lightly tapping his finger against the windowpane. I wonder if there is a legal loophole I can exploit to acquire the [Synergist] class too.
---
What jobs do you think are good for him to acquire?