The alarm screamed at four in the morning, dragging me from restless dreams of my parents fighting monsters I couldn't see. I silenced it quickly, holding my breath as I listened for any movement from Yuki and Kenji's room. Nothing. Good. They didn't need to know what I was planning.
I moved through the dark apartment like a ghost, gathering supplies. My father's sword, wrapped in an old towel. A flashlight with dying batteries. A bottle of water and two energy bars I'd been saving. A first-aid kit from under the bathroom sink, barely stocked with bandages and antiseptic. Not exactly elite Hunter preparation, but it was all I had.
I left a note on the kitchen table: "Early shift. Breakfast money in the jar. Love you both. - Stefan"
The lie tasted worse than usual. But if something went wrong, if I didn't come back... no. I couldn't think like that. I'd be careful. E-Rank dungeons were safe, practically daycare for new Hunters. I'd get in, kill some low-level monsters, grab the mana stones, and get out. Simple.
The pre-dawn streets of Seoul were eerily quiet as I made my way to District Seven. A few delivery trucks rumbled past. A homeless man slept in a doorway, covered in newspapers. Street lights flickered, casting everything in shades of orange and shadow. The city felt different at this hour, like it was holding its breath before the chaos of day began.
District Seven was the industrial zone, full of abandoned warehouses and factories that had closed when the dungeon gates first appeared twenty years ago. The whole area had a desolate feeling, like the world had moved on and left these buildings to rot. Graffiti covered most walls. Broken windows stared down like empty eye sockets.
I found the location Chen Wei had mentioned near an old textile factory. And there it was a dungeon gate, shimmering in the air like a vertical pool of mercury. About eight feet tall, maybe six feet wide, pulsing with a faint blue light. E-Rank gates were always smaller than the high-ranked ones. I'd seen pictures of S-Rank gates that stretched fifty feet high, looking like tears in reality itself.
This one was almost modest by comparison. Unimpressive. Forgotten.
Just like me.
A small electronic monitor stood beside the gate, the kind the Hunter Association installed to track dungeon status. I checked the screen: "E-Rank Gate. Status: Unstable. Recommended Party Size: 3-4 F-Rank Hunters. Estimated Clear Time: 2-3 hours. Danger Level: Minimal."
Minimal danger. I repeated that to myself like a mantra as I stared at the swirling portal. Hunters went into these things every day. Kids barely older than me cleared E-Rank dungeons as training exercises. I could do this. I had to do this.
My hand trembled as I unwrapped my father's sword. The blade caught the pre-dawn light, and for a moment, I could almost feel his presence. He'd been so strong, so confident. He'd made fighting look easy, like dancing. I remembered watching videos of him in action the way his Aura blazed around him like golden fire, how his sword moved faster than the eye could follow, how monsters fell before him like wheat before a scythe.
I had none of that. Just a sword I barely knew how to hold and desperation sharp enough to cut.
"This is insane," I whispered to myself. But insanity was all I had left. I checked my phone one last time four forty-seven AM. In a few hours, Yuki and Kenji would wake up, eat breakfast, go to school. Their normal life, maintained by my sacrifice.
I could turn back. Go to my convenience store shift, earn my hourly wage, continue surviving in slow motion. Safe and pathetic.
Or I could step through that gate.
I stepped through.
The sensation was like diving into ice water. My whole body went cold, then numb, then everything inverted up became down, left became right, my stomach lurched into my throat. It lasted only a second but felt like falling through eternity. Then my feet hit solid ground and I stumbled forward, gasping.
The dungeon spread out before me like a nightmare made real. I stood in a massive cavern, the ceiling lost in darkness somewhere overhead. Bioluminescent moss covered the walls, casting everything in sickly green light. The air was thick and damp, smelling of earth and something else something rotten and organic that made my skin crawl.
Behind me, the gate shimmered on a stone archway. My exit. My lifeline. I made sure to memorize exactly where it was before moving forward.
The cavern branched into three tunnels ahead. Classic dungeon layout, according to the Hunter training manuals I'd read online. Pick a path, clear the monsters, find the boss room, defeat the boss, collect the mana stone core. In E-Rank dungeons, the "boss" was usually just a slightly bigger goblin or a slime king. Nothing dangerous to anyone with actual training.
But I wasn't anyone with actual training.
I chose the middle path because it looked widest and my hands were already shaking too much to overthink it. The tunnel stretched ahead, carved through solid rock by whatever magical force created these dungeons. My footsteps echoed in the silence. Every shadow looked like a monster. Every drip of water sounded like approaching enemies.
Get it together, Stefan. You're not a child. You've seen worse things than dark tunnels.
That was a lie, but I told it anyway.
The tunnel opened into a smaller chamber, and that's when I saw my first monster. A goblin, maybe three feet tall, with green-gray skin and yellow eyes that reflected the dim light like a cat's. It wore crude leather armor and carried a rusted dagger. Textbook E-Rank mob, the kind that Hunter trainees killed by the dozen.
It spotted me immediately, letting out a shriek that echoed through the chamber. The sound hit me like a physical force, and suddenly my legs wouldn't move. This was real. Not a video, not a story, not a news report. A real monster, ten feet away, raising its weapon.
Move. MOVE.
The goblin charged, surprisingly fast for something so small. Its dagger aimed straight for my stomach. Instinct took over I raised my father's sword in a clumsy block. Metal rang against metal, the impact jarring my arms so hard I nearly dropped my weapon. The goblin was strong, way stronger than it looked.
It slashed again. I stumbled backward, barely parrying. No technique, no skill, just desperate survival. The goblin pressed its advantage, driving me toward the cavern wall. Its movements were wild but effective, and I realized with growing horror that I was completely outmatched.
By an E-Rank goblin. The weakest monster type in existence.
Tae-Jun's words echoed in my head: "You're done."
Maybe he was right. Maybe this was where my story ended killed by the lowest-ranked monster in a forgotten dungeon, leaving my siblings alone with nothing but my father's sword and my broken promises.
The goblin lunged. I tried to dodge but my foot caught on loose rocks. I went down hard, the sword flying from my grip and clattering across the stone floor. The goblin stood over me, raising its dagger for a killing strike, its yellow eyes gleaming with alien hunger.
Time seemed to slow. I could see every detail the nicks in its blade, the scars on its green skin, the way its lips pulled back to reveal pointed teeth. This creature had probably killed before. It knew what it was doing.
And I was just a dropout with no power, no training, no chance.
I'm sorry, Yuki. I'm sorry, Kenji. I tried.
The dagger came down.
I grabbed the first thing my hand touched a sharp rock and swung it with everything I had. The stone connected with the goblin's temple with a wet crunch. The creature stumbled sideways, shrieking. I scrambled for my father's sword, fingers closing around the worn handle, and drove it forward with all my strength and terror.
The blade pierced the goblin's chest. Black blood sprayed across my hands, hot and sticky. The monster convulsed once, twice, then went still. Its yellow eyes dimmed like lights going out.
I'd killed it. My first monster. I'd actually killed it.
I pulled the sword free and collapsed against the wall, heart hammering so hard I thought it might explode. My hands were covered in goblin blood. My entire body shook with adrenaline. The corpse lay at my feet, already starting to dissolve into particles of light the way dungeon monsters did when they died, leaving behind only a small mana stone.
That's when it happened.
A sound rang in my ears, clear as a bell despite the empty chamber. A voice that came from everywhere and nowhere, mechanical yet somehow alive:
[DING!]
[Congratulations! You have killed your first monster!]
[Level Up!! Level Up!! System Activated!]
[Welcome, Player Stefan Hirogi!]
Blue screens materialized in the air before me, glowing with information that shouldn't exist. My breath caught in my throat. My vision blurred. Because floating in front of my eyes, visible and real and impossible, was a game interface.
A system. I'd awakened a system. And everything, everything was about to change.
To be continued...