The Double Dungeon was a massacre. Sung Jin-Woo was pinned to the altar, a sword through his chest, while the remaining hunters scrambled for their lives. Ren, however, stood in the corner, his body enveloped in a strange, flickering black smoke that seemed to swallow the light from the statues' eyes.
[Warning: An Unregistered Entity has accessed the System.] [The Architect is attempting to purge the 'Void'...] [Purge Failed. The Void is non-existent. It cannot be erased.]
Ren felt a cold, sharp power surging through his veins. He looked at the stone guard approaching him—a towering titan of rock. With a calm he didn't know he possessed, Ren raised his hand.
"Disappear," he whispered.
As his fingers touched the stone surface, there was no explosion. No sound of breaking rock. Instead, where Ren's hand made contact, the stone simply... vanished. A perfect, circular hole appeared in the statue's chest, as if that part of reality had been rubbed out by an eraser.
[Skill: 'Void Touch' has been activated.] [Target has been Nullified.]
The statue crumbled, not because it was broken, but because it could no longer support its own weight with a hole in its center.
Suddenly, a blinding blue light filled the room. The 'System' had chosen Jin-Woo, but it was struggling to categorize Ren. The world began to spin, and Ren felt his consciousness being pulled into a deep, dark abyss.
Three Days Later – Seoul City Hospital.
Ren's eyes snapped open. He wasn't in the dungeon. He was in a hospital bed, surrounded by the smell of antiseptic and the hum of monitors.
"You're awake," a voice said.
Ren turned his head to see two men in black suits standing by the window. One of them held a tablet—it was Woo Jin-Chul, the Chief of the Korean Hunters Association Surveillance Team.
"Ren-ssi," Jin-Chul said, his voice grave. "You are one of only six survivors from the Double Dungeon raid. And according to our mana-scanners... something is very wrong with you."
Ren sat up, feeling a strange void in his chest where his heart should be. "Wrong? I feel... fine."
"The scanners returned a 'Zero' reading," Jin-Chul narrowed his eyes behind his sunglasses. "Not Rank-E. Not Rank-F. Absolute Zero. It's as if the mana in the room disappears when it gets close to you."
Ren looked down at his hand. A small, black flickering pixel appeared on his fingertip for a split second before vanishing. He realized then that while Jin-Woo had become a 'Player' in the Architect's game, Ren had become a 'Glitch.'
[Daily Quest: The Void's Hunger] [Task: Consume 10 High-Grade Mana Crystals.] [Reward: Level Up / Skill Evolution.] [Penalty for Failure: Your body will begin to erase itself.]
Ren's heart chilled. This system wasn't like Jin-Woo's. It wasn't here to help him grow; it was here to consume. If he didn't feed the Void, he would disappear.
"I need to go," Ren said, swinging his legs over the bed.
"Wait, we haven't finished the re-evaluation—" Jin-Chul started, but Ren was already walking toward the door.
As Ren passed the room next to his, he saw Sung Jin-Woo sitting up, staring at a blue screen that only he could see. For a moment, their eyes met. Jin-Woo's eyes glowed with a faint blue light, while Ren's eyes were like bottomless black pits.
Two Monarchs had awakened in the same building. One was destined to lead an army. The other was destined to end the world.