The Trash Collector Of The End World

He wasn't strong.

Not by this world's standards.

Ash Valeender didn't have the muscle to lift cars, didn't have some flashy abilities, didn't even have a proper combat skill he could boast about.

His class was "Trash Collector," his weapon looked like a rejected janitor's tool, and his stats had barely budged in the last year.

Other crawlers laughed when they saw him in rift reports.

But there was something greater than raw strength.

His intelligence.

Born into the Valeender clan, one of the oldest tactical bloodlines from the remnants of Seoul, Ash had grown up studying formation warfare, psychological pressure, and resource manipulation.

He had never been trained to be a fighter. He had been raised to be a commander.

While others threw themselves at monsters, Ash directed entire combat groups using voice comms, and traps made from scrap metal and salvaged bombs.

Against aliens, mutants, and dungeon beasts, his plans had led to victories that people said were impossible.

He had fought wars. He had won battles that were never meant to be winnable.

And then, one day, he lost.

A single miscalculation.

And both his parents — the last remaining generals of the clan — were gone before he could even understand what had happened.

Ash had been demoted.

It didn't matter anymore.

Because now, he was going to end the manipulator behind all of this.

He adjusted the dials on the side of his vacuum and triggered the hidden mode.

A dense white smoke burst from the exhaust ports, flooding the hallway in seconds.

Just as he had planned it.

Kara wouldn't see where he went.

He ducked through a shattered office door, slammed it behind him, and dragged a limp body across the floor.

It was Maris.

She was still breathing.

Her body was cut in several places.

She had likely passed out from blood loss earlier.

But what stood out the most to Ash was what hadn't happened — Kara had spared her. That massive beast had crushed Maris into a bloody smear without hesitation. But now, she's still alive.

Why didn't she let her die? She had every chance.

He didn't have answers yet. But that didn't stop his mind from working.

He pulled his coat over Maris's chest, then placed a small adhesive disc onto her shoulder — a sensor, designed to signal movement and pulse.

He linked it to his interface silently.

He stood up, turned toward the door, and exhaled sharply.

"I don't know why you kept her alive," he muttered under his breath, "but I swear if you think I'm just going to let you play your little horror show... you picked the wrong janitor."

Then, Maris twitched.

Ash froze for a half-second, eyes snapping toward the movement.

Then, her eyes cracked open and her lips parted in a quiet gasp.

She's waking up too soon.

Without wasting a moment, Ash crouched and yanked open a compartment in his vacuum.

From a hidden slot, he pulled out a small, blue capsule. He placed it in her mouth and pressed gently on her jaw.

"Swallow it. Don't question it. It's safe."

Her eyes met his.

"I said swallow it. You need to stay down. I'll handle her."

Maris tried to speak, but he stood already.

He turned his back and bolted toward the hallway without hesitation. Smoke coiled around his coat like ghosts trying to cling to a soul.

His boots slammed onto the ground.

Then he launched forward.

Kara was there, standing in front of the beast like a conductor before a living symphony of flesh.

Her arms twitched unnaturally.

Ash didn't say anything.

He just ran.

And slammed into her at full force.

She didn't even flinch.

The impact made her step back half a foot, but the moment her eyes locked onto his, her expression twisted—not with surprise, not with fear—but with pity.

"You should've stayed hidden, Ash."

Then the monster moved.

Faster than a creature that size should have. Its limbs swung like wrecking balls, smashing walls and tearing up floor tiles as it lunged toward him.

Ash rolled beneath a swiping claw and slid between the beast's legs. The vacuum spun in his grip, and he pulled a trigger.

A pulse of sonic vibration blasted from the nozzle, slamming into Kara's ribs with a dull thud. She staggered, coughing.

Ash ducked another swing, then leapt up a staircase rail.

He tossed a flash charge mid-air—white phosphorus ignited with a shriek—and used the distraction to launch a smoke pod directly under Kara's feet.

She vanished inside the cloud.

But the monster didn't need eyes.

It roared, blind and furious, and swung its arm.

Ash didn't dodge fast enough.

The impact caught him across the ribs and threw him into a wall like a ragdoll. His back shattered a concrete beam. Something cracked in his chest.

He collapsed in a heap.

Blood dripped from his lips as he tried to push himself up.

"Dammit... I still haven't... figured out her control radius..."

Kara stepped out from behind the hulking monster. The creature's breath rumbled behind her like an engine idling in a storm.

"You defeated me..." Ash said. Dust clung to his coat, and one side of his jaw was bruised and cracked.

Kara laughed softly, crossing her arms as if this was already over.

"Obviously. Because you're just a normal F Rank Dungeon Crawler," she said. "You shouldn't have made it this far, and you were never supposed to reach me."

Ash kept his hands low, steadying his breathing. His eyes didn't leave her. He had been buying time—just long enough.

"You talk too much," he muttered.

Kara raised a brow, but before she could reply, there was a harsh metallic snap under her boots.

Her body jolted forward as steel strings pulled taut, tightening like a vice. Thin wires, barely visible against the ruined gray of the stair railings, shot upward and wrapped around her legs, waist, and arms.

"What—?"

Ash stood tall now, holding the end of a makeshift spool tied together with scrap wire, duct tape, and fragments of dismantled defense turrets.

He had rigged it earlier, using the railings as support. It wasn't pretty, but it worked.

"You never noticed. I threaded them in while fighting with that monster. It was loosened, so all I had to do was pull."

Kara gritted her teeth as she struggled. Her limbs jerked, but the wires only bit in deeper.

"You think this will stop me?" she snarled. "Do you think you can save yourself with this? You can't! I can still control this monster!"

"Sure, sure..." Ash muttered under his breath, not bothering to look back.

All he had to do was buy time. That was it.

He darted through the broken hallway, slipped down a half-collapsed staircase, kicked open a jammed door, and kept running.

Every few seconds, he reached behind him and yanked on the wires connected to Kara's restraints.

Each tug made him feel the tension shift slightly—sometimes tightening, sometimes twitching, sometimes going slack. He hoped that last time had knocked her out cold.

The monster was still chasing him. Its claws slammed into walls, ripping apart doors and pulverizing concrete with every swing.

Its growl echoed through the stairwell like a siren rising and falling.

But Ash didn't slow down. Ten minutes had passed since he first set the trap.

Ten full minutes of yanking the strings and dodging claws, of dragging Kara's weight one wire at a time across the building's skeleton.

He slammed his shoulder into the last door, and it gave way with a screech of rusted hinges.

"We're safe," he said, panting.

Maris was on the ground, leaning against the wall. She was clutching her legs and arms tightly.

"You were hurt in your legs and arms? I thought it was your torso," Ash said, blinking as he stared at her injuries.

"I did..." she muttered. Her voice was thin.

Ash crouched beside her and pulled the vacuum off his shoulder. He didn't say anything for a moment. Then he grinned wide.

"Let's go. I did it!"

"It's not over yet..."

Ash didn't stop. He kept walking through the cracked hallway, wiping grime from his face as if brushing aside the weight of what he'd just gone through.

"Sure, sure… but it's over though," he said, waving his hand lazily, not even bothering to turn around.

Maris's voice sharpened. "No, you don't get it! I'm telling you the truth! I was the manipulator this entire time! Kara was just another puppet. I could control people, Ash! I controlled her—"

Before she could finish, the wall behind them cracked open like a rotten shell.

The monster crashed through the stone and steel, dragging its massive limbs along the floor. Its head swiveled unnaturally toward Ash.

Ash, calmly, pulled a thin, frayed cord from inside his coat and gave it a slow, deliberate tug.

"Don't worry," he said, still not facing her, "I already knew it."

There was a pause. He could hear her stop breathing.

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

Ash finally turned, his eyes tired but sharp, like someone who had run out of patience but still had enough brains to finish the game properly.

"You didn't die earlier," he said. "Plus you were injured in the torso, right? But when I found you now, you were holding your arms and legs like those were the parts that hurt. That didn't make sense—unless you were Kara. When she got caught in my string trap, it bound her limbs and arms."

Maris stepped back. "That doesn't prove anything!"

"No, it doesn't," Ash said, shrugging. "But the monster stopped moving when you woke up passed out. Then it came back when I attacked Kara. I've been testing it the whole time."

He took a step forward, and now Maris backed into the hallway wall.

"I'm smarter than I look. People keep forgetting that."

"I can still control the monster!" she shouted, raising one trembling hand.

Ash turned away. "Alright," he said, stretching his back like someone finishing a long shift. "I'm leaving."

"What?"

That single word came out panicked, strangled.

Then it began.

Her arms twitched. Her skin bubbled under the surface, rippling like worms crawling underneath.

Her veins blackened. Her hands twisted, bones popping with a sickening crack as her fingers elongated.

"What's happening to me?"

Ash didn't look back, but he did pause.

"That pill I gave you..." he said. "I picked it up from a dumpster. I'm not sure what it was. I found it near a melted corpse next to some trash. It was probably infested with some bacteria. But I figured earlier, you'd be too desperate to say no when I gave you the pill since I acted like a weak person helping you."

Her knees buckled.

"YOU..."

Her screams became wet and animalistic. Claws tore from her fingertips as her spine bent backward in an unnatural arch.

"YOU... BASTARD!"

Ash let out a breath.

"I'm a janitor for a reason."

"I clean up things people waste. I work with garbage because sometimes the truth is buried in it. And you're not the first trash I've had to burn."

Her body swelled grotesquely.

Then, with a gut-wrenching splatter, she exploded—flesh and bone raining across the corridor in a rain of gore.

The monster she had been controlling let out one final mechanical groan before dropping to the ground like dead weight.

Ash walked forward, coat flapping behind him as smoke drifted from the ruined hallway.

He didn't stop.

Ash didn't turn around.

"Yeah," he muttered, "and I didn't even clean her body."