Cracks of lightning rippled through the space within a dark alley for only a split second, seemingly warping the very fabric of space and time for a moment when suddenly—

*Thud!

"Ack..."

The sky suddenly got darker as the ashen sky was almost immediately covered in a thick layer of grey clouds and water continuously rained down on the city, drenching the nearly lifeless body that had suddenly appeared on the ground of a deserted alleyway in the back end of the city.

Even under such a heavy downpour, the body remained motionless, unnoticed by the passing pedestrians who hurried past the dark alleyway as they attempted to escape the heavy rain. Having forgotten their umbrellas and any form of water protection due to the unexpected and sudden nature of the downpour that completely went against the fairly accurate weather report they'd received only just this morning.

Life visibly drained from the motionless body until its faint heartbeat finally stopped for good.

—

In the next moment, a crack in the very fabric of space formed above the chest of the already lifeless body as a shriveled-up arm with long black nails tore through a tiny hole in space.

With darkened skin, and oozing off the very stench and aura of death itself, it held a faintly glowing object in its arm as it proceeded to shove its arm along with the barely visible oddly shaped sphere-like object— the size of a tennis ball— into the chest of the corpse on the ground.

An eerily, bone-chilling laugh, ghostly echoed in the alleyway through the spatial tear as the arm slowly pulled away until it disappeared back into the torn space that almost instantly repaired itself before the alleyway returned to its previous calm.

*Lup-dub, Lup-dub, Lup-dub...

With the sounds of the raindrops bouncing off the pavement, the sound of a subtle yet rhythmical heartbeat slowly reverberated across the alleyway when suddenly, the corpse jerked back to life.

*Humph, Humph, Humph...

Laying motionlessly on the wet ground, the previously dead body struggled to breathe, he felt the raindrops fill his mouth with water that for some reason, tasted better than anything else in the world right now, seemingly rejuvenating him back to life as he struggled to open his eyes.

Although his eyelid felt heavy, he still managed to open his eyes, his vision blurred by the water from the sky as he stared at the grey clouds, his tears mixing with the rain as they rolled off his face.

Feeling as though this must've been a dream, he shifted his gaze towards the end of the alley, watching the hazy figures walk by the alleyway with no one seeming to even notice his presence.

His arms felt as though they weighed a ton and he couldn't even feel his own body.

He was having trouble breathing, perhaps because he must've been bleeding internally and he could barely even keep his eyes open as he felt a sudden urge to sleep. It felt as though every single bone in his body was broken.

While his mind seems to be in a daze due to the lack of blood, he still knew he needed to ask for help else no one would notice him and what would all that bullshit have been for. No, he needed to survive and not just for himself.

He didn't know why, but he had a feeling as though death itself was creeping closer and closer to him. Closing his eyes now may very well be the death of him.

However, he could barely keep himself from blacking out let alone yell for help. How in the world did he let this happen to him? He should've seen this coming, he should've seen through their lies.

Staring blankly at the sky as water droplets fell on his eyes, he finally gathered enough energy to raise an arm in the air. He wasn't sure why, but this was all he could think to do.

Not noticing the ball of bright energy that had just shot out from his hands into the sky, exploding as though it were a firework.

Taking a look at his hand, even with his current blurred vision, he noticed there were scratches and bruises on his arm but none of that seemed to be relevant to his current condition.

After all, he could feel the rapid loss of blood from the sharp pain in his back.

Perhaps due to the same loss of blood but his memories were hazy and he could hardly remember what had happened to him to make him go through that hell, the emotions he had felt at the time were still strong within him and he knew he could never forget them even if he tried.

What he felt was anger, anguish, pain, confusion, and finally betrayal. These strong emotions were the only thing keeping him alive despite the sheer amount of blood he was losing by the hour.

Just as his mind was spiraling out of control, he heard footsteps approaching his location but unfortunately, he was unable to raise or even turn his head.

"—Over here!"

"—Holy shit, he's bleeding out a pool! Can someone call an ambulance!"

He heard several voices scream out for help and people finally stopped to notice him as they tried to help him out. This was what he had hoped for yet for some reason, he couldn't feel relieved.

He felt like the moment he let himself relax would be the moment he died. Did he struggle all this time just to die at the very end? That would be hilarious, wouldn't it?

'Hmmm... I wonder if that joke is only for those with a darker sense of humor. I wonder if I have any sense of humor, I don't find this shit funny at all. Hehe… I'm sure they'll find that funny too, how unfortunate.'

He didn't know why but a faint smile appeared on his face as the sounds around him slowly began to fade into the background and he was beginning to lose grip on his consciousness.

What a joke his life turned out to be. Who would've guessed that the people he loved so much and had to sacrifice everything for would be the ones responsible for his doom?

'Is this… supposed… to be… irony? Ridiculous.'

He was about to die with so much regret and hatred but he didn't want it to show on his cold dead face. Unfortunately, this would be the last thing his younger siblings would see on his face after so many weeks.

He didn't want them to see such an ugly expression at such a young age. If he had known, he would've only strived to protect his family and no one else. The rest of the world could burn for all he cared. Well, this shit world was already going down the gutter anyway.

If he had a second chance, he would never make the same mistake again. No matter how, what, or who is affected, he would rather be selfish than allow anyone else to take advantage of him.

'Ah... what a fool I have been, living like that, sounds a lot better than this.'

A strange smile blossomed on his somber face as he soon lost what little grip he had over his fading consciousness.

»System activation in progress. Host desires have been registered. Configuring the system to better accomplish the host assigned mission.«

Those semi-robotic words failed to reach his consciousness as he steadily drifted into the darkness.

➖➖➖♦️➖➖➖

—Before this, let's start from the beginning, an undisclosed time prior.

Located on the 3rd floor of a small apartment building in District D.

Ryan's brain was suddenly jolted awake as he felt a sharp pain in his head, startling him from his sleep as he clumsily fell out of bed and slammed his already aching head into the ground.

"Ow ow ow…. That hurts."

He complained bitterly while massaging the back of his head as he groggily got off the ground. Even as a rank E Rifter, being a full two ranks higher than the lowest Rank G, the pain he felt was minuscule but he still went through the motions as though the action had been etched into his nerves.

"Damn, why is this always my morning routine recently. It's a good thing I just advanced from F rank then, or else I might've died one of these days. Death by falling out of bed, how uninspiring."

His bed was small but he hadn't fallen off it since he was a kid yet recently, this had been happening every day that it had become a routine.

He had no idea why he was always getting a sudden jolt of pain every morning but he had originally assumed it was from the fall. However, that was becoming unlikely with each passing day.

'I should probably get checked out but that's so expensive these days since those mutated monsters outside the city have been becoming more and more aggressive lately. All the free medical resources are being focused on the exploration units. Not that I can blame them.'

Besides the sudden pain in the mornings, he always felt as though he was having a bad dream right before waking up but could never remember what it was to save his life, so he always got over it quickly in order to start his day.

'Well, whatever.'

After getting off the ground, Ryan walked to his window whose blinders had been shut, and opened it.

The sky was still dark and it was clearly still in the middle of the night. The crescent moon slightly illuminated the interior of his room so it seemed he had woken up far earlier than usual.

"Huh, that's strange. I usually only get the pain when it's almost morning. I've pretty much been using it as an alarm for a while now so why's today different? Is this something like a bad omen?"

Ryan scratched his head in confusion as the thought passed his mind. He had always wondered what it meant but today seems to be a different case.

'How unsettling.'

Just as that thought crossed his mind as he was beginning to wonder, another problem suddenly occurred to him and he was visibly shaken.

'Ah, crap. I don't think I'll be able to go back to sleep anymore. *sigh… This shit's fucked up man.'

Scratching the back of his head slightly irritated, Ryan thought about his various options but soon gave up as he sighed in resignation.

"Very well then, let's get ready for work. It's about time for a Hunt."