BOOM!
Chaos tore through the apartment blocks, turning what should've been a quiet afternoon into a war zone.
Damon was completely lost.
He was only there to drop off a delivery for the illegal outfit he worked for.
He didn't know what the package actually held. Maybe some elixirs for low-level Hunters. Right now, it didn't matter.
One thing mattered: if he didn't deliver, he didn't get paid.
Damon always cleared his quest, no matter how illegal it was.
Because it's not like an F-Rank Hunter had many ways to make money legit.
He touched his head and felt something hot.
When he pulled his hand back, it was drenched in blood.
A lot of blood.
Damon couldn't understand how he was still alive. The ringing in his ears was brutal.
Damn it. If my Vitality stat were any lower, I'd already be dead, he thought, trying to force his vision to focus.
He looked around and spotted someone else. A man dressed head to toe in black, sprawled on the ground in the rubble.
His suit seemed to swallow the light, but it was torn and smoking.
"Hey! Get up! Get up!"
Damon yelled, but the stranger didn't respond.
What the hell is going on? he wondered, even though deep down he already knew.
It was impossible, but it was happening right in front of him. A Rift had opened in the middle of the city.
He locked up. The Spiritual Pressure pouring out of it crushed his lungs.
He knew it. At his level, if a monster popped out right then, he was screwed.
Fear had him completely nerfed.
"Hey, get up! We have to get out of here!"
Suddenly, the man started to groan. Pure pain scraped out of his throat.
Damon didn't have a choice. He grabbed him by the shoulder and sprinted toward one of the businesses still standing in the back.
Damn it! I don't even know how to attack! I don't have a single active skill!
Damon spiraled as his lungs seized up.
He was useless.
Trash-tier.
A garbage F-Rank.
That was when the man in black got to his feet on his own.
He didn't say a word.
He just looked at Damon with yellow eyes that burned with an unnatural glow.
They didn't look human, more like two suns about to blow.
With a quick gesture, he signaled Damon to stay put.
Then he walked straight toward the monster that had just crawled out of the Rift.
It was massive, a zone boss over nineteen feet tall, leaking an absolutely vicious bloodlust.
Its skin looked like magma, and when it roared, every window on the block blew out.
Damon couldn't process how something like that showed up in a residential area. He scanned for neighbors, but there was nobody.
Had they vanished? Had they turned into loot drops from the blast?
The man in black raised one hand. Mana compressed so violently Damon felt static in his teeth.
Before Damon could process anything else, the world detonated again.
CRASH!
A blinding eruption of raw energy and a high-pitched whine erased his senses.
Something smacked into Damon's hand. Cold. Hard. It had been flung out of the explosion.
On instinct, he clenched his fist.
Damon lost sight of the man in black. All that was left was silence and smoke.
***
"AHHHH"
It came out as something like a scream, but his throat was bone-dry and it hurt too much.
He looked around, terrified, half convinced he was in a morgue and someone was about to harvest his organs. But no.
He was in a luxury suite. His whole body was wrapped in bandages, he couldn't move his arms, and his legs were fully casted.
Everything smelled like money. Serious money.
He tried to speak again, but his throat was still too dry.
BANG! The door slammed.
A nurse rushed in, eyes wide.
She looked horrified that Damon was awake. She dropped her stuff and started trembling.
She pressed her hands together like she was praying
"Lord Zero, please, don't use your aura. The captain is about to arrive. We beg you, have mercy!"
What?
What the hell is this woman talking about? Who's Zero? Who's the captain?
He didn't understand anything, but Damon couldn't talk. The pain was unbearable.
All he could do was watch the nurse scramble out in a panic, like she'd seen a ghost.
Zero... Zero... Zero...
That's when something clicked in Damon's head.
Right. Zero!
He knew exactly who she meant.
He'd heard the loot-goblin kids who bought rare items off his website talk about him with full-on devotion.
"He's the solo SSS-Rank Hunter!"
"The one with no guild, the one who solo-clears nightmare-level Rifts. The most OP guy on the planet!"
Damon already knew who they were talking about, but why had that nurse called him Zero?
What kind of screw-up could even lead to that?
All Damon remembered was the explosion, and that Hunter in the black suit.
On the nightstand beside him sat a broken chunk of mask, the same one that guy had been wearing.
It glowed faintly, like it was reacting to him.
That looks like a pricey item. How did it break like this? And why do I have it?
The door flew open again.
A beauty walked in, the kind Damon had only ever seen on TV. They literally ran ads to recruit people into her guild.
Captain Iris Valen of the Inquisitors. The woman who could freeze a building with a snap.
Damon went rigid.
I'm dead. They know I'm a fraud. They know I stole the mask.
But why were the captain's eyes teary?
She was known as the Ice Queen, cruel and ruthless, but right now she looked like someone else.
She was so shaken she looked like she might break down any second.
"Zero... I can't believe you're alive," she sobbed.
Damon hit total panic.
What? An S-Rank captain seriously thinks I'm Zero? His heart felt like it was about to burst. This is definitely worse than dying.
He couldn't even move as the captain stepped in and hugged him with insane strength.
He was trapped in the arms of the most dangerous woman in the city, and she truly believed he was the strongest hero in the world.
If he said one wrong word, she would kill him.
[UNKNOWN SYSTEM INITIATED] [Identity Assigned: Zero]