Six months had passed since Billy Traider walked into the next country with nothing but grief in his chest.
The boy he once was no longer existed.
Billy had become quiet. Cold. His emotions were buried deep, sealed away where they couldn't slow him down. He spoke only when necessary, his eyes sharp and distant, as if the world around him were something to be endured rather than lived in.
He registered as an adventurer shortly after arriving.
It didn't take long for him to realize the truth.
He had Element X.
When his power finally surfaced, it wasn't subtle. It wasn't elegant. It was overwhelming strength—raw, crushing force that threatened to tear his own body apart if he wasn't careful. Walls cracked when he lost control. The ground trembled beneath his feet.
So Billy trained.
For six months, every day was pain. Discipline. Control. He pushed his body until it failed, then forced it to rise again. He learned restraint just as much as power—how to hold back, how not to destroy everything he touched.
By the end of it, he was strong. Far stronger than he ever imagined he could be.
And still, he felt nothing.
One evening, Billy sat alone in a small apartment, the glow of the television lighting the room. The news played quietly in the background.
"Due to the rapid increase in registered adventurers," the anchor said, "the average adventurer salary is expected to decrease. Guild officials cite oversaturation as the primary cause."
Billy didn't react.
Money had never mattered to him anymore.
But elsewhere, that same news sparked something far darker.
In a private room high above the city, two S-rank adventurers sat across from each other.
Sun Lo leaned back in his chair, blonde hair catching the light, blue eyes sharp with irritation. "Too many of them," he said. "Weaklings flooding the guilds."
Mi Sang smiled calmly, his green eyes glinting beneath brown hair. "Naturally, the value drops when supply rises."
Sun Lo scoffed. "So what do we do?"
Mi Sang's smile widened. "Reduce the supply."
Silence hung in the air for a moment.
Then Sun Lo laughed.
"There's no better place to start," Mi Sang continued, voice smooth and deliberate, "than the bottom."
Sun Lo's laughter grew louder. "E-ranks," he said. "Pathetic. Nobody will miss them."
The two men shared a look.
And then they laughed together.
Far away, Billy Traider stared at the blank screen of his television, unaware that a storm was forming—one that would soon drag him back into blood, power, and the truth of what the world of adventurers really was.
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