Chapter 12
The Hunter's Bureau was in disarray. The conference chamber, usually the most disciplined place in the nation, echoed with doubt and agitation.
For the first time in eleven years, an SSS-rank dungeon boss had appeared. Normally, the Bureau would need at least three SS-rank hunters working together to bring down such a calamity. Those monsters were to strong for a human each of them posing divine skills
Yet this time, no battle was recorded. No corpses of hunters were recovered. No body of the boss was left behind.
Instead, they found only one boy, unconscious, unharmed, lying at the center of the collapsing dungeon: Renji.
The reports made no sense, and that unsettled them more than anything.
Takeda Ryoichi, the Japanese SSS-rank who had gone personally to investigate the dungeon, sat at the table with his arms folded. His sharp gaze silenced the clamor.
"I saw it with my own eyes. The dungeon's mana signature was unlike anything in the last decade. But when I entered, the gate was crumbling… and there was nothing. No boss. No traces of battle. Just that boy, asleep."
The Bureau officials shifted uneasily. One muttered:
"Impossible. A dungeon boss can't just vanish. Someone had to defeat it."
Another snapped back: "Are you suggesting the boy did it? He's registered as a D-rank!"
But tang shi muttered no it can't be he doesn't have have any mana not even an awakening being
Takeda's jaw tightened. "That's what bothers me. If three SS-rankers are required to bring down such a monster, how is it that a mere Human survived and untouched? No scars no sign on blood but a wrecked and damaged dungeon with pulse of mana waves Something about Renji… isn't right."
The chairman leaned forward. "What do you propose?"
Takeda's eyes sharpened. "We investigate him. Quietly. Closely. Whatever happened in that dungeon he knows more than he lets on."
Meanwhile
Renji lay in a hospital bed, the sterile smell of medicine thick in the air. The white sheets covered his frail body, but inside he couldn't stop trembling.
Choji sat by his bedside, relief plastered on his face though his eyes still carried exhaustion.
"Renji… I'm just so glad you are okay I no we all thought we lost you in there."
Renji gave him a faint smile, though his hands trembled. "But I … don't really know what happened, Choji."
Choji leaned closer. "You must remember something. Anything."
Renji closed his eyes, trying to dig into the fragments of memory. At first, nothing but flashes of torment—pain, endless death, suffocating despair. Then, suddenly
"My… heart…"
The words left his mouth before he could stop them. He grabbed at his chest, panic surging. His mind replayed the moment the Dungeon Boss's hand tearing into his body, ripping his heart clean out. The sensation was still there, the cold emptiness, the fading of life.
But when he looked down… his chest was whole. His heart beat strongly beneath his palm. He was alive. Completely healed.
His breath came in short bursts.
What what... is going on? I lost my heart… I should be dead…
Shaking, he turned his head toward the window. The glass reflected his image back at him and his blood froze.
His once dark, unkempt hair now shimmered faintly, threads of white glowing under the light. His body, once thin and frail, had gained definition muscles taut where none had been before. He didn't just feel different. He was different.
Ehh my body?
Renji whispered, almost to himself, "How long… how long was I out? Two years? Four?"
Choji blinked in surprise. "What? No, Renji… you were only unconscious for a day ."
The words didn't register. They couldn't.
A day? Then how…?
Renji pressed his trembling hand harder against the glass reflection, staring at the stranger who looked back at him. His lips quivered.
"Then… who am I becoming?"
Choji smirked ..Well the good thing is you are alive you really made your sister worry
He lowered his gaze.. you even made me worry
But... but...
Renji looked back as he saw tears winding up in choji's eyes
Cho..ji?
But choji emotions wasn't going to be controlled
I'm glad.. I'm glad you didn't die I don't know what I would have done if I lost another family..