[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-damn-necromancer":3,"chapter-damn-necromancer-damn-necromancer-chapter-356":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Damn Necromancer",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":20,"prevChapterSlug":21,"totalChapters":22,"novelImage":23},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":16,"volume":17,"translator":18,"content_hash":19},1212364,1580,"Chapter 357","damn-necromancer-chapter-356",356,"\u003Cp>Chapter 357: Capitalistic Fanaticism\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leo, from the slums of New York, USA.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although 'Swordsman' was proudly stamped on his Awakened Registration Card, the reality was that he was stuck at the bottom as a perennial F-rank.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Whenever he turned on the TV, scenes of Hunters from the USA's 1st rank Dragon Guild enjoying parties while popping champagne in flashy penthouses poured out every day.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The people of the world thought that simply awakening would put you on a cushion of money and make you a hero.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, that was a 10% paradise allowed only to a tiny minority of top-tier rankers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The reality for the bottom 90% of Awakened was the gutter itself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The day of his first awakening, having luckily fulfilled the awakening conditions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leo chose Swordsman with swollen dreams.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, the first skill given to him was entirely just a trash-like passive that increased swordsmanship damage very slightly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A swordsman entirely lacking proper swordsmanship skills.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That was Leo's limit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To survive, he entered F-rank gates to hunt slimes or goblins.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, even if he sold the by-products obtained by risking his life, ruthless special taxes on gate by-products were deducted ignorantly, and after splitting it N ways with his party members, all that remained in his hands was barely enough money to buy a cheap hamburger meal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Literally a desperate, rock-bottom life of living hand-to-mouth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Forcing himself into an E-rank gate, one level higher, to make money?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For an F-rank with neither skills nor equipment, it was no different from a suicidal act of going in to become a monster's meal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To escape this hellish cycle, he needed a lump sum of money to somehow buy a decent active skill book.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Therefore, Leo had knocked on the bank's door holding onto hope.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, what returned was only thorough contempt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Hmm. Customer Leo. I have checked your Awakened Registration Card, but…… your first skill rank is F-rank? Furthermore, it's a passive, not even an active…….”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The bank teller, tapping on the monitor, glanced at Leo over his glasses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a thoroughly calculating and cold gaze, as if looking at a cockroach.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even for the same F-rank skill, an active one was better.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because that at least greatly increased the damage of a single hit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, Leo's skill was merely a lowest-tier swordsmanship mastery skill that only compensated his swordsmanship damage by a little over 5%.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just because an ordinary person's damage increases a little when swinging a sword doesn't mean their hunting efficiency becomes exceptionally good, so……\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The bank teller, revealing a gaze typical of looking at an unprofitable customer, spoke coldly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I apologize, but with your conditions, it is difficult to approve a loan exclusive to Awakened.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“But I'm an Awakened in name! Is even a little bit impossible? If I can just buy one active skill book, I can quickly rise up too!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Despite Leo's desperate plea, the bank teller let out a hollow laugh.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Customer, a bank is a place that lends money looking at future value. An F-rank close-combat Hunter without a single active skill? Honestly, from our perspective, there is no difference between you and an ordinary person. Since you roll around in gates every day, you're a high-risk group whose mortality rate alone is much more dangerous than an ordinary person's.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…….”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If you are in an urgent hurry, we can accommodate you with a general micro-loan up to a limit of 2,000 dollars (about 2.5 million won). Instead, a mortality risk collateral is attached, so an annual interest rate of 39.9% will be applied. Shall we proceed?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A suffocatingly high interest rate with a rat-poop-sized limit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With 2,000 dollars, he couldn't even buy the front cover of the cheapest skill book.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The dream of an Awakened?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hope?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A glamorous life?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There was no such thing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This world was a cruel pyramid where only the top 10% were happy, running on thorough capitalism and talent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leo, who was barely scraping by day by day like that.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, the Shadow Cult's ark incident that covered Manhattan broke out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Right before his eyes, the scythe-like front leg of a spider demonic beast the size of a building lunged toward Leo like a thunderbolt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There was nowhere to dodge.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the first place, it was an overwhelming speed that didn't even allow the thought of dodging.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To Leo's kinetic vision, which was merely F-rank, the front leg cutting through the empty air merely looked like a black afterimage making a metallic sound.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As someone who had wandered F-rank gates all his life, seeing only goblins, slimes, and the like, a monster this fast and vicious was a first in his life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>‘Something like that…… is a monster only the Awakened I used to see on TV would be able to match…….’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Why did it have to appear before my eyes of all things.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The gutter-like everyday life of being ignored while earning pennies, treated like a bug by the bank teller, and filling his hungry stomach with cheap hamburgers flashed before his eyes like a kaleidoscope.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He struggled to somehow rise up, but in the end, he was dying a dog's death like this without having achieved anything.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>‘Hah…… my damn life, it ends up like this in the end.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A terrible regret and resignation heavily crushed his entire body.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leo couldn't even think of running away, let alone pulling out the rusty iron sword at his waist.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He merely stared blankly up with empty eyes at the massive scythe of death pouring down to cut him in two.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That moment of despair.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ureureureureung―!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The massive divine dragon that descended tearing through the sky, and the overwhelming power fired by the Korean Necromancer riding on it, burned the Manhattan night sky.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That single hand gesture reduced tens of thousands of demonic beasts to ashes and saved Leo's life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After that day, Leo's world was completely turned upside down.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>‘Death Cult.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A religion that reveres a living human as a god.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When he saw the news on an internet community in the past that the bizarre cult was spreading madly in East Asian regions including Korea, Leo had snorted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>‘No matter if he's a world ranker, to call a living fellow human a god and pray? Stupid fools. They've gone collectively crazy over a cult.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As someone born and raised in the USA, the heart of capitalism, he merely thought of it as a barbaric collective madness he couldn't comprehend at all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, that was a completely wrong thought.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the middle of the hell where the ark incident broke out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The invisible god in the sky he had habitually believed in all his life did not save the New York citizens who had fallen into despair.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even the nation and the heroes of the Dragon Guild he believed would protect him died wetting themselves beneath the monsters' feet.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Instead, the man in the black coat who descended tearing through the sky riding a massive bone dragon wiped out that terrible disaster with overwhelming military power in just 5 minutes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The true light of salvation. A majesty truly like a real god.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The moment he clearly witnessed that absurd sight before his eyes, the petty values embedded in Leo's head shattered into pieces.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>‘Fuck…… at that level, isn't he worth believing in?’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That brief instant when he saw the spider demonic beast that was about to tear him apart evaporate without a trace with a single hand gesture from the Necromancer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leo, without realizing it, was madly offering prayers of gratitude toward Kim Minwoo in the empty air, with his forehead smashed into the ground.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just like the stupid fanatics he had mocked so much.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And after the ark incident, along with President Robert's full support, the state religion of the USA practically changed to the Death Cult.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>An official application announcing the locations and benefits of the Death Cult branches all over the USA was activated.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As soon as the notification rang, Leo checked the smartphone map with trembling hands.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Death Cult New York Headquarters and Ilsung Premium Store]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Location: Center of Manhattan, 5th Avenue]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a place only a few blocks away from the slum where he was despised while carrying luggage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I have to go. I have to go no matter what!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leo, who stood up as if possessed, started running toward Manhattan 5th Avenue without hesitation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Death Cult New York Headquarters and Ilsung Premium Store built massively in the center of Manhattan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When he first put his hand on the Faith Orb placed there, Leo didn't have the slightest bit of the aversion or shallow religious standards other Awakened harbored.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>‘He's the one who saved my life. Of course I should be grateful.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pure gratitude without lies.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The moment the sincere prayer toward the savior who saved his life touched the orb, a faint light shone and he was immediately judged as a [C-rank believer].\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Uung―!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the Faith Orb spewed dense light, a priest of the Death Cult who was wiping the offering box nearby came approaching, startled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Oh my! To reach C-rank with just a single sincere prayer! You are truly a brother of devout faith!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ah, yes…….”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Brother, would you perhaps like to take out a loan?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“……A l-loan?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The priest nodded his head while putting on a fully benevolent smile.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes! The great Kim Minwoo does not spare investments for devout believers. We will smoothly draw you a cult-exclusive loan with no guarantor and not even interest, so how about getting a skill book with that money?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Skill book.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At that word, Leo's heart sank with a thump.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The cold and inorganic gaze the bank teller had shot at him after awakening came to mind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, the priest of the Death Cult was different.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The smile was kind, the contract was polite, and even the amount and interest rate were at a crazy level.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“70,000 dollars (about 100 million won). A 10-year maturity…… with n-no interest?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leo's voice cracked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He rubbed his eyes hard wondering if he was reading the numbers wrong, but the words ‘Interest Rate: 0%’ stamped on the contract were shining clearly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I'm a perennial F-rank Awakened though?! I'm not particularly good at fighting either…….”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Oh, Brother! What does that matter at all!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The believer grabbed Leo's hand tightly and shouted benevolently.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Your pure and blind faith, Brother, which made the orb shine as C-rank with just a single prayer! The great Kim Minwoo does not burden a devout lamb with petty burdens like interest!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Oh my god…….”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a perfect and physical miracle itself that even the God of the cross he had believed in for decades had never shown him even once!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leo signed the loan contract without hesitation with trembling hands.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Afterwards, the result of receiving the Death Cult application.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[C-rank believer benefits are applied!]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Below that, text with endless benefits was seen.\u003C\u002Fp>",1814,"2026-06-03T14:21:21.388Z","2026-06-03T14:21:27.249Z",1,"novelbin.me","39b37ab43265f30a06cc7a4e31b90c7a91615fc9f7b93304e86fc79efc4257a1","damn-necromancer-chapter-357","damn-necromancer-chapter-355",362,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fdamn-necromancer-cover.jpg"]