Dungeon Corpse Stacker: I Absorb Everything to Become Ominous Monarch
Chapter 39: THE CALAMITY’S BOUNTY

Chapter 39: Chapter 39: THE CALAMITY’S BOUNTY

The sirens blaring across Sector 1 sounded like the death knell of an entire era.

Within less than an hour of Guild Apex’s catastrophic collapse, the National Hunter Association issued an unprecedented Class-S Domestic Calamity Emergency across every media network, emergency broadcast channel, and encrypted regional Hunter frequency. Billions of credits in bounties were placed on Renan’s head, backed by the full, unrestricted financial reserve of the central government. His face—cold, shadowed beneath a deep hood, with twin golden eyes that seemed to burn straight through the digital glass—was plastered over every digital billboard, public broadcast monitor, and smartphone screen across the nation.

[NATIONAL EMERGENCY BROADCAST: LEVEL RED]

Target Entity: Renan (Formerly Non-Rank Scavenger)

Classification: Threat Level — National Calamity / Sovereign Entity

Bounty: 50,000,000,000 Gold Credits (Dead or Alive)

Directive: Immediate Execution on Sight. Do Not Engage Without Regional Guild Master Level Support.

Notice: Martial Law Declared in Sectors 1, 2, and 3.

Inside a subterranean safehouse hidden deep beneath the labyrinthine, steam-filled alleys of Sector 4, the atmosphere was thick with suffocating tension. Weak sunlight flickered through rusted iron air vents near the ceiling, illuminating a heavy oak table piled high with encrypted data tablets, stolen Association radio frequency scanners, and detailed regional map blueprints.

Boss Victor stood leaning heavily against a moisture-beaded concrete pillar, taking a long, agonizingly slow drag from his signature cigar. His hands, usually as steady as a veteran surgeon’s despite decades of underworld gang wars, held a subtle, uncontrollable tremor. He stared intently at the glowing broadcast tablet resting on the table, where live television footage showed the smoking, hollowed-out, fifty-story husk of the once-proud Apex Headquarters building.

"Fifty billion credits..." Victor murmured, tapping the accumulated gray ash off his cigar onto the dusty floor. "That’s enough money to purchase a private militarized fleet, bribe half the National Assembly, or buy an entire autonomous district outright, Renan. You’ve officially surpassed the bounty of any Class-S Rift Boss in recorded human history."

Renan sat quietly on a weathered wooden crate in the center of the dimly lit room. He was stripped to the waist, methodically wiping down his muscular arms and torso with a cloth damp with clean water, removing the dried blood and concrete dust from his recent campaign.

His physical frame had evolved once again following the extraction of Guild Master Richard. His muscle fibers were noticeably denser, woven like high-grade steel cables beneath smooth, unblemished skin. A faint, ethereal violet circuitry hummed softly beneath his collarbone, pulsating rhythmically in harmony with his mana core.

[Absolute Extraction System: Post-Battle Summary]

Target Executed: Guild Master Richard (S-Rank Vanguard)

Target Executed: Vice Guild Master Vance (A-Rank Executive)

Guild Apex Infrastructure & Financial Assets: 100% Seized / Annihilated

Current Status: Peak Monarch Threshold

Total Active Shadow Army: 561 Units

Unused Reserve Mana: 18,400 Points

Renan didn’t even bother to glance at the tablet’s glowing red bounty text. He tossed the stained cloth aside onto a metal tray and pulled a crisp, fresh black shirt over his head, adjusting his dark coat over his shoulders.

"A bounty only carries weight if there is someone alive capable of collecting it, Victor," Renan replied, his tone calm, flat, and entirely unbothered by the price placed on his life. "Tell me about the refugees from Sector 2 and Sector 3. Are they secure?"

"Fully relocated," Victor said, his hardened expression softening slightly as he exhaled a cloud of gray smoke. "My scouts moved three thousand scavengers, black-market merchants, and unregistered civilians into the deep, forgotten military vaults beneath Sector 4 before the Association blockades went up. They’re safe. And more importantly... they look at you like an absolute savior, Renan. You didn’t just smash Apex’s front door; you incinerated the predatory debt contracts that kept their families enslaved for three generations."

"Good," Renan said, standing up to his full height. The shadows clinging to the dark corners of the safehouse stretched inward toward his boots, shifting and humming in silent, fanatical recognition of his posture. "Keep them supplied with rations and medical gear. Sector 4 will serve as our primary staging ground for the next phase."

"Staging ground for what?" Victor asked, his brow furrowing as he took another deep drag from his cigar. "You just wiped out the largest, most powerful Guild in the country in broad daylight. The Association is panicking, yes, but they aren’t completely helpless. President James of the National Association isn’t a greedy fool like Harold or a hot-headed tyrant like Richard. He’s a cold, calculating veteran of the First Great Rift Invasion. He won’t send isolated tactical teams or regional squads to get harvested anymore."

CRACKLE!

Before Renan could respond, the encrypted Association radio scanner resting on the oak table burst into a chaotic frenzy of high-frequency military chatter.

"—Attention all regional command hubs! This is Central Command at Association Headquarters! Regional Emergency Directive 09 has been officially authorized by President James! Repeat, Directive 09!"

"—The Regional Coalition has officially formed! Guild Masters from the Northern, Eastern, Western, and Central Districts have signed the joint mobilization treaty!"

"—A total force of three thousand high-tier Hunters and five S-Rank Guild Masters are currently assembling at the Northern Sector Gate perimeter! Heavy mana artillery divisions, anti-entity barrier units, and tactical strike squads are deploying! Operation ’Purge Calamity’ is officially underway!"

Victor’s face drained of what little color it had left. He slammed his heavy fist onto the table, rattling the data tablets. "Three thousand elite Hunters... Five Regional S-Rank Guild Masters... They’re building a massive regional blockade to seal off Sector 4 completely and starve us out! They intend to carpet-bomb the entire district with heavy mana artillery to ensure you can’t escape into the outer wild lands!"

Renan walked slowly toward the reinforced exit of the subterranean safehouse, his tattered coat fluttering slightly as an oppressive, dark miasma flared outward from his body, cracking the concrete floor tiles beneath his tread.

Beside him, the ambient air distorted violently. The massive, eight-foot-tall silhouette of Shadow General ’Ignis’—the newly extracted, dark-armored soul of Richard—materialized directly from the floorboards. The Shadow General held its massive broadsword of abyssal steel in a formal, two-handed guard, bowing its helmeted head toward Renan.

"Three thousand Hunters..." Renan whispered into the quiet gloom of the tunnel, his golden eyes glowing with a terrifying, predator-like hunger as a cold, razor-sharp smirk curved on his lips.

[System Directive: Regional Coalition War]

New Target Identified: 3,000 Regional Hunters & 5 S-Rank Guild Masters.

Current Shadow Army Capacity: UNLIMITED.

Objective: Mass Harvest & Total Regional Dominance.

Renan paused at the doorway and looked back at Victor over his shoulder. His voice carried the resonant, layered weight of an absolute Monarch that rattled the dust from the ceiling beams.

"They believe three thousand men form an invincible army brought to hunt a monster," Renan said softly, as dark storm clouds gathered in the skies far above Sector 4. "They don’t realize... they are simply delivering three thousand new soldiers straight to my legion."