The punch was fast. Devis, fueled by humiliated rage, threw his entire weight into the wild, angry hook.
But to Dev, it was slow.
The world didn't actually slow down. He just saw it better. His 2% of AGI: 5 wasn't just about movement; it was about processing. He saw the shift of Devis's weight, the bunching of his shoulder muscles, the blurring arc of his fist.
The old Dev would have frozen, a deer in the headlights, and taken the full, bone-breaking impact.
The new Dev moved.
It wasn't a trained dodge. It was a raw, instinctive tilt of his head.
Devis's knuckles, aimed for his jaw, grazed past his ear. The force of the wind from the miss made his hair fly.
The stairwell went dead silent.
Devis's two thuggish friends, who had been laughing, froze. Devis himself was left overextended, his arm trembling, his face a mask of pure disbelief.
He missed. From point-blank range.
"You... you little fucker..." Devis stammered, his rage turning to a new, confused fury.
From the landing above, Mina's calculating gaze sharpened. Her eyes widened, just slightly.
Dev didn't celebrate. He didn't sneer. He just stood there, his cold, sharp eyes locked on Devis.
"HOLD THE BASTARD!" Devis roared, his composure shattering.
The two friends, snapping out of their shock, lunged. Dev, still clumsy, still weak, tried to back away, but they were on him. One grabbed his left arm, the other his right, and they slammed his back against the concrete wall. He was pinned.
"You think you're fast, you piece of shit?" Devis spat, his face red and ugly. He stepped in, his confidence restored now that the target was stationary. "Let's see you dodge this!"
He drew back his fist and drove it, hard, into Dev's stomach.
WHUMP.
The air exploded from Dev's lungs. The pain was real. It was sharp, sickening, and it dropped him to his knees, only to be held up by the two goons.
"Not so tough now, are you?" Devis sneered. He hit him again. And again.
The beatdown. The re-establishment of the food chain.
But something was wrong.
Dev was taking the hits. His body was aching, his vision was blurring, but he wasn't screaming. He wasn't crying. He wasn't begging.
His 2% of CON: 5 didn't make him invincible. It didn't stop the pain. It just... contained it. It kept him from breaking. He hung there, his head bowed, his breath coming in ragged, painful gasps.
"Why aren't you screaming, you bastard?" Devis yelled, his voice echoing in the stairwell. He grabbed Dev by the hair, yanking his head up.
He met Dev's eyes.
And that's when his blood ran cold.
Dev's eyes, despite the pain, were still cold. They were still sharp. They were full of a bottomless, silent contempt. He was looking at Devis not as his attacker, but as a minor, annoying obstacle.
This silent endurance was more terrifying than any scream. It was a complete and total rejection of Devis's power.
"You..." Devis was breathing hard, his face pale. He was scared. This thing wasn't human.
"WHAT'S GOING ON DOWN THERE?"
A teacher's voice, loud and angry, boomed from the floor below.
Devis and his crew cursed. "Shit!"
They dropped Dev. He slumped against the wall, a heap of bruised limbs.
"This ain't over, you freak," Devis spat, his voice trembling. "I'll kill you. I swear to god, I'll kill you."
Then they were gone, their heavy footsteps pounding down the stairs.
Dev stayed there, his entire torso one giant, throbbing bruise. He had "won" nothing. He had just... endured.
He heard a single, light footstep from above.
Mina walked down the stairs, her expression unreadable. She wasn't one of the girls who giggled at the fights. She wasn't one of the ones who ran for a teacher. She just... watched.
She stopped a few feet in front of him. She looked him over, from his split lip to his bruised ribs.
"You took those hits," she said. Her voice wasn't kind. It was analytical. "You're either dumber than you look... or you're something else entirely."
She reached into her blazer pocket and pulled out a small, clean, white handkerchief.
"You're bleeding."
Dev hadn't even noticed. He touched his mouth. His fingers came back red. His lip was split.
He just stared at the handkerchief, then at her. He didn't understand.
Mina let out a small, impatient sigh. "Take it. It's not a good look."
He snatched it from her hand, his movements stiff. He pressed the soft cloth to his mouth.
She watched him for a second longer. "You've changed, Dev," she said, her voice a quiet murmur. "You used to be just... scared. Now... now you're interesting."
She turned and walked away, leaving him alone in the stairwell, his body aching, his mind clear.
He had survived. The 2% had saved him from the hospital, but it hadn't made him strong. It hadn't stopped the pain.
He needed more.
That night, he didn't wait to be exhausted. He ate dinner, ignored his grandfather's worried questions, and went to his room at 10 PM. He locked the door.
He laid on his bed. 'I need more power. Now.'
He closed his eyes.
The snap was instant. The Lobby. He was alone. He didn't wait for a prompt. He willed the entrance to the Weeping Woods, and the world dissolved.
The coppery smell, the blood-red moon. It felt like home.
He summoned his [Rusted Iron Sword], its weight familiar. As he did, a new prompt appeared.
[Level 2 Achieved. New Sub-Stats Unlocked]
[SPI Stat (8) has unlocked new perceptive abilities]
[New Sub-Stat: Vision Range (Base: 10m)]
[New Sub-Stat: Spatial Awareness (Basic)]
The world changed.
It wasn't just a screen. He felt it. The gloom of the woods wasn't so oppressive. He could see further. The gnarled roots 10 meters away were as clear as the ones at his feet.
And the skittering... he didn't just hear it. He could feel it. A faint vibration in his mind, coming from his left.
'Spatial Awareness...'
He turned. A Blood-Sapper was there, just as he'd "felt" it, about 15 meters out. He smiled. A cold, thin smile.
This was no longer a hunt. This was a cull.
He moved through the woods, a Level 2 predator among Level 0 prey. His AGI: 5 and STR: 5 (with the sword) were an executioner's tools. He was a reaper.
[+1 Essence].
[+1 Essence].
[+1 Essence].
It was too easy. It was too slow. He needed a real challenge. He needed a Gloom Stalker.
He used his new [Vision Range] to scan the darkness. He pushed deeper, his [Spatial Awareness] on high alert. He felt a new vibration. It was heavier. More... solid.
He crouched behind a log, his sword ready.
There. A Level 1 Gloom Stalker. It was sniffing the air, hunting.
'My turn.'
He was about to lunge, to test his new strength against his old foe.
But then... his [Spatial Awareness] screamed.
It wasn't a vibration. It was a pulse. A wave of cold and dread that washed over him from his right, from deeper in the woods.
A new, red prompt flashed in his vision.
[WARNING: Hostile entity has entered your Spatial Awareness!]
[Vision Range: 20m]
[Target: Level 3 'Weeping Shadow']
He froze.
Twenty meters away, a new creature was standing. It was tall, impossibly thin, and looked like a man-shaped figure made of pure, dripping black shadow. It had no face, just a single, glowing, blood-red eye.
And it wasn't looking at him. It was looking at the Gloom Stalker.
He had just moved from hunter... right back to prey.