My Infinite Investment System

Chapter 22: Repossession I

Fourteen-day collection deadlines followed Seven-B into its morning drill, leaving Ryan to prepare two recruits for equipment claims their new guild could not yet afford to settle.

His three hundred Return Credits remained their only emergency protection.

Every improvement on the marked floor carried the risk of teaching him the wrong lesson before collectors arrived.

[Delayed Divine Hero Onboarding Packet Located]

[Original Delivery Estimate: 19 Days Ago]

[Current Delivery Status: Administratively Acceptable]

The packet appeared above the marked floor while Nia held center and the archer covered the rear.

The melee recruit stepped into Opening Position and failed in 8.6 seconds.

Yesterday’s result had lasted less time, so Ryan handed her water instead of asking for another attempt.

"You watched my rear foot," the recruit said, lowering her paired hooks, "I changed the shoulder twice."

"Your shoulders negotiated while the foot signed the contract," Ryan replied, resetting the marked lane, "change what commits your weight, then the performance above it matters."

The second attempt lasted 10.1 seconds because the recruit changed her weight before moving either hook.

Ryan surrendered half a step before snapping the black spear across her advance and recovering the line.

Nia recorded the improvement on their drill board while the archer read over her shoulder.

"Ten point one," the archer said, unimpressed, "the decimal makes it sound like failure with paperwork attached."

"That is what a decimal is for," Nia replied, writing it in anyway.

The complaint earned her the next position against Ryan on the marked floor.

His first feint worked against the recruit’s front shoulder.

The second entered through the same shoulder while the third stopped when Mika tapped the exposed ribs with an uncharged baton.

"Seven-B now offers immediate performance reviews," Mika said, returning to the timer, "complaints may be submitted after you stop leaving your organs outside formation."

"Noted," the archer said from the floor, still getting her breath back, "I would like to file one about the baton."

Mika opened the delayed packet before the private view could retract it.

Five emergency blankets sat inside with party rations labelled for human-compatible champions, plus a survey card whose explanation field allowed eleven characters.

{Was this onboarding useful?}

{Yes / No / Other}

{Explain: ___________}

Mika counted the spaces before handing the card back. "Does divine administration accept profanity as one word?" she asked, holding it beside Ryan’s spear.

"Eleven characters," the archer said, counting the spaces twice, "you cannot even complain properly in a review."

Ryan entered Fix routing, using the final character for punctuation until the card rejected punctuation as unsupported feedback.

[Response Received: Fix Routing]

[Administrator Note: Growth Variance Under Review]

[Please Avoid Additional Soul-Bond Deviations]

"That instruction arrived after the deviation formed a guild," Nia said, tightening the repaired shield straps, "should we send them the registration fee?"

"Invoice them for the blankets," Mika said, stacking the rations with the labels facing out, "if they want the variance reviewed, they can pay consulting rates like everyone else."

The packet vanished without paying anything to the guild.

Its physical supplies remained stacked beside a paid E-tier commission whose completion bonus could cover all three contested fee deadlines.

Two hours later, the team entered a municipal drainage dungeon.

Mika carried her single-Step limit while both recruits wore equipment claimed through the talent-development compact.

The first section held low E-tier crawler packs that attacked through culverts too narrow for broad formations.

Seven-B used the drill language under real pressure for the first time.

"Take the left position," Ryan called as the first crawler committed, letting the melee recruit catch its forelimb with one hook while the archer placed a bolt through the joint exposed by Nia’s shield.

[Opening Position: Shared]

[Accrued Return: 0 -> 12]

Three packs fell without a broken lane or wasted chase.

The melee recruit abandoned two unnecessary chases while the archer moved before Nia needed to request coverage.

At the final culvert, the archer’s string caught against the wall and removed her clean shot.

"String is caught, no shot," the archer called, keeping the bow down, "do not open the lane for me."

"Good," Nia said, holding the shield exactly where it was.

The melee recruit changed grip without receiving an order, pinned the crawler against the drainage lip, then held until Ryan’s spear finished the exposed core.

[Team Sequence Verified]

[Formation Errors: 3 -> 1]

[Projected Clear Time: 74 -> 61 Minutes]

Nobody celebrated the projection, though both recruits checked it twice before the private view withdrew from Ryan’s sight.

At the second junction, a sealed route opened behind them under an authorization frequency copied from the commission file.

Six hunters entered wearing gray recovery armour with body cameras turned inward.

Their leader carried a reinforced collection staff beside a tablet already displaying the recruits’ equipment serials.

"Field recovery under the talent-development compact," he announced, transmitting the order to every active camera, "the listed assets remain leased property, and continued use after notice increases replacement liability."

Nia kept her shield toward the uncleared tunnel through the new closure. "Who authorised a repossession inside an active dungeon?" she asked.

"The same parties that own the equipment," the repo leader replied, turning the tablet toward her.

His squad sealed the route behind them and marked the closure as a safety measure.

The closure spread across Seven-B’s retreat line around the marked exit.

Ryan read the authorisations while crawler movement continued beyond the next bend.

Three guild crests appeared on the pages beside one recovery vendor and language allowing immediate retrieval whenever collateral entered a high-risk environment.

The dungeon itself had been written into the trap before anyone accepted the commission.

Each guild transferred enforcement rights to the same recovery vendor six hours after Seven-B registered.

The municipal commission appeared on the recruits’ public calendars one hour later.

The authorisation treated armour as separate from the person wearing it, a distinction that allowed collectors to call removal property management even when fitted plates kept a hunter alive inside an active dungeon with evacuation routes sealed behind them.

It never described how a collector could remove fitted plates without exposing the hunter underneath.

That omission carried more intent than the stamped safety declaration, especially once the squad sealed the only route ordinary evacuation could use.

"Your notice creates the danger it claims to manage," Ryan said, keeping the spear across the center lane, "unseal the route, remain behind our formation, then submit the equipment claim after extraction."

"Possession now prevents further depreciation," the repo leader answered, signalling two hunters toward the melee recruit, "remove the leased armour voluntarily or removal costs join the balance."

The recruit backed toward Nia without turning, with one hook raised.

"They are not going to stop, are they," she said, quiet, watching the cable rather than the man holding it.

"No," Nia said, closing the gap behind her, "so stay inside my shield while they keep talking."

One collector hooked a release cable beneath her shoulder plate while crawler claws scraped around the bend.

"Do not detach load-bearing armour during contact," Ryan warned with Opening Position between the staff and release line, "every camera has received notice that removal risks bodily injury."

The leader crossed anyway, driving D-rank reinforcement through the collection staff before Ryan’s valuation finished mapping it.

[Threat Valuation]

[Impact Class: D]

[Protected Target: Qualified Guild Member]

[Current Survival Margin: Insufficient]

Three hundred Return Credits waited beside the only skill priced to keep the recruit inside her armour.

[Risk Transfer]

[Cost: 300 Return Credits]

[Function: Convert Immediate Damage to Deferred Liability]

[Warning: Injury Delayed, Never Erased]

Ryan read the warning twice while holding the lane, then purchased the debt.

[Purchase Confirmed]

[Return Credit Balance: 300 -> 0]

[Risk Transfer Equipped]

The staff changed direction toward the recruit’s exposed ribs before she could turn.

Ryan stepped inside the swing and took the reinforced head across his own side.

Pain reached him as pressure rather than failure, folding his jacket against the impact while the expected fracture disappeared beyond the present moment.

[Risk Transfer: Active]

[Immediate Trauma Deferred: 46 Units]

[Deferred Liability: 46]

He remained upright after taking a blow meant to fold an E-rank.

Ryan caught the staff beneath his spear, then forced the D-rank leader backward across Opening Position before the man’s confidence adjusted.

Every collector stopped for the same half-second after the impact registered.

That pause let the melee recruit reseat her release cable while Nia closed the formation around her.

"You priced the hit for an E-rank body," Ryan said while turning the reinforced staff away from his recruit, "your recovery model failed to include what happens when I remain standing."

A deeper pulse answered from the sealed chamber ahead before the corridor collapsed.

Two formations, seven active cores, plus the repo squad’s reinforcement equipment had triggered an early boss release.

Stone split across the junction while a plated head pushed through the opening behind the collectors.

[Boss Chamber: Premature Release]

[Accrued Return: 12 -> 31]

[Risk Transfer: Active]

[Deferred Liability: Accruing]

[Repayment Window Begins on Exit]

The creature entered behind the repo squad, leaving Ryan with enemies on both sides and forty-six units of injury waiting beyond the dungeon door.