Extra's Descent

11:27 PM.

A man with green hair and black eyes unbuttoned his vest. He was inside the changing room.

He was assigned for cleaning duty today. After finishing, he was tasked to close up shop.

Of course, not just him. There were several others as well.

"Good work today, Alan."

"You too, Matthew."

The man's name was Matthew. He was a waiter for the establishment.

"Good work everyone. See you tomorrow."

"Good work everybody!"

"Goodnight!"

That being said, the rest of the staff parted ways. Matthew walked ahead, taking in the sight of the city.

Just like everyone else, he too had lost a lot during the calamity. His girlfriend, his previous job, his home.

But his girlfriend… she had only left him.

Why?

Because he lost his job and was struggling.

That's it.

Reaching the pavements, he called for a taxi and got on. The ride wasn't long. Only ten minutes.

By the time he had arrived, Matthew was feeling drowsy. But pushing through, he entered his small apartment.

Slouching down on his bed—or rather—the couch he slept in, Matthew removed his tie.

"Haaa…."

Breathing out a heavy sigh, he retrieved his phone and unlocked it.

He looked at his bank account.

[11 Gold Coins.]

And so, he began to calculate his expenses for the month.

"Minus all the expenses, that leaves me with two gold coins. Fuck."

He stated.

Despite the fact that the apartment was discounted to him at fifty percent, the expenses were still too much for him.

It was due to the inflation that the living standards of the human domain shot up.

"Guess I should go back there, huh?"

With such thoughts, he tucked his hand inside his pocket.

His wallet.

Opening it, the familiar sight of a black card registered in his peripheral view. Grabbing it, he scanned the black card.

[Twilight]

It was his membership card for the blackmarket.

On it, engraved his membership status.

[Orange]]

Each member had different rankings to their status.

Starting from the bottom:

—Red

—Orange

—Yellow

—Silver

—White

—Twilight

For white ranked members they were considered as VIPs. While Twilight ranked members were considered SVIPS.

Then, he grabbed a device and stuck his card inside.

The screen flashed open.

[Credits: 8,000,000]

It was his credits for Twilight.

250,000 credits equated to 1 gold coin.

Inside the blackmarket, only credits were used.

It was for that reason why he had never withdrawn the credits. It couldn't be converted back to credits once it was converted into gold coins.

He was a waiter. But that was only on the surface.

In the blackmarket, he was a broker—well versed in tech. But was he popular?

Not at all.

The reason was because he didn't like taking illegal jobs. And so, he only did things legally.

Which he found ironic since he did his business on an illegal platform.

But what kind of legal jobs?

Fixing devices that were deemed unfixable by tech companies. That, and hacking into accounts that have been lost by the client, under confirmation that it was their own accounts.

All that lame stuff.

According to him anyway.

"Should I lower my prices?"

He began to question himself.

"Nah."

He shook his head. His prices were reasonable.

That was what he thought anyway.

He leaned his head back, resting his arm on his eyes, slowly dozing off.

Suddenly, a chilling voice reached his ears.

"Matthew."

"....!"

Alerted, Matthew flinched and looked around.

But there was nothing.

Was he just imagining things?

He had to be.

He was exhausted after all.

"Dominion."

A sudden chill ran down his spine.

"Haaa…."

His breathing grew heavy, and he felt his throat stuck.

Blinking, he traced the source of the voice. From a dark corner, emerged a man with mid-length pale–white hair that flowed down his chin.

Matthew couldn't see beneath the man's sunglasses

At that moment, all the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.

The whole experience was suffocating. And cold sweat started to trickle down.

"A Twilight Regular. Ranked Orange. Alias: Zero. Real name: Matthew Jaune."

"...."

Hearing the man's cold voice, Matthew couldn't help but shudder.

There, he could see a sword on the man's waist.

Matthew trembled.

"Please…. D-Don't kill me…."

He pleaded, his voice cracking.

"That'll depend on your answer."

"W-What do you want…?"

"Work for me."

"...."

What…?

Work for him?

"W-Why?"

Matthew asked.

Before the man answered, he grabbed one of the wooden chairs in Matthew's room. Settling it down, the man sat, leaning his arms on the rail, and resting his chin on his arms.

Matthew scanned his features. He looked eerily familiar. He just couldn't quite put a finger on it.

Then, he opened his mouth. Matthew listened attentively.

"I need your skills. If you work for me, I'll pay you handsomely."

"Why me?"

He was confused. Truth be told, he was a nobody. He knew he had the skills, but he never put it to work. Only taking simple jobs.

It was for that reason, that he had only managed to save up 8,000,000 credits, and only managed the orange rank, despite joining the Twilight blackmarket platform before most of the other brokers did.

But hearing the tone in the man's words, it seemed like his decision was set in stone.

His decision to recruit Matthew seemed to be serious.

However, seeing the sword on his waist, Matthew couldn't help but reject his offer in his head.

He had to ask.

"W-What if I refuse….? What's gonna happen to me….?"

"Nothing."

"...."

Nothing?

What in the….

"But. I'll have to destroy your card."

"...."

Card.

So the man knew his connection to the blackmarket.

"Why would you—"

"You want to work legally, don't you?"

"...."

The man seemed to have noticed the change in his eyes, as he said.

"I'm just helping you out."

Suddenly, the man approached him, unsheathing the sword on his waist.

SHIIING—

Cold sweat beaded down Matthew's cheek and his body trembled.

"W-Wait, don't kill m—"

Paying no heed to his words, the man forcefully grabbed the card from his device and set it on the table. The sharp tip of the blade pointed at the card.

The man opened his mouth, and Matthew's eyes widened.

"One last chance."

Matthew knew that he couldn't lose the card. If he loses his job at the restaurant, the black market would be his only source of income.

It was his contingency plan.

The card.

"Wait."

As much as he liked, he couldn't lose out on the blackmarket's benefits.

"Okay. I'll work for you."

He had no choice.

After he survived this encounter, he planned on laying low for a while. Maybe for two months inside the blackmarket.

"Then sign a contract with me."

"C-Contract…?"

Why?

How would he even get such a thing notarized…?

This encounter had told Matthew all he needed to know about the man. Just like the psychopaths that took killing jobs in the blackmarket, he was as much of a psycho as them.

"Just say these exact words."

"....?"

A voice recording then?

"I, Matthe Jaune. Agree to get into an agreement with Moriarty. If I abandon, betray, or leak any of our exchanges, then I shall offer my life."

"Huh?"

"Say it."

Whatever.

He was sure the man had a voice recorder somewhere. But with the technology of today, those things were easily fabricated.

No matter what, he couldn't use it in court.

If he would even be put on trial if he breaks this agreement.

With such thoughts, Matthew opened his mouth.

"I, Matthe Jaune. Agree to get into an agreement with Moriarty. If I abandon, betray, or leak any of our exchanges, then I shall offer my life."

"Conditions met."

"....?" This-is-a-NovelFire-special

——!

All of a sudden, Matthew felt his chest tighten.

Something….

Ba… Thump! Ba… Thump!

Something seemed to be wrapping in his heart. He could hear the quickening of his heartbeat, and what seemed to be the sound of chains rattling.

He felt it.

There were chains wrapped around his heart.

Ba… Thump!

Then, the man's cold voice reached his ears.

"If you violate the agreement, the blade at the end of the chain will pierce your heart."

"...."

It was a warning.

And hearing the seriousness in his tone, he wasn't joking.

This man.

'Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. What did I get myself into?!'

He began to panic.

"Don't worry. The chains will disappear in a month."

"...."

"If you want to stop working for me by then, I won't stop you."

"...."

Now, Matthew found himself confused.

The man seemed to have set his sights on him. And the way he spoke, as if he was confident Matthew would continue working for him.

However, Matthew was quick to push down his thoughts.

He could never do anything illegal on his own volition.

He just had to suck it up for the entire month.

The man extended his hand for a handshake.

"Good to have you."