Using the stolen smartphone, Mark researched the Hunter World. Soon enough, he had an understanding of it, and he couldn't help but smile wryly.
***
Around a decade ago, Teleportation Portals, termed Gates, began to appear all over the world, linking the human world to the Demon World. It was on a random day, but the appearance of these Gates began the doom of the world.
From inside it, Dungeon Demons came out and created their Dungeons in human settlements within just 30 seconds of the Gate's appearance. These Dungeons would expand in size on a daily basis and in just days, entire cities were lost to these Demons.
Humans, for the first time, knew the fear of being preyed upon by a species above them in the food chain. Within mere months, entire states were in jeopardy.
Knowing the danger of letting the Dungeons expand at the crazy speed they were expanding, some bold humans entered the gateway to the Dungeons with cold determination and hot weapons.
Most of them failed to achieve what they desired—put an end to the Dungeon. The Demons had demonic tricks—magical powers—and hot weapons mostly didn't work against demons. Demons were resistant to physical attacks of that level.
And the demons had far higher numbers than humans.
Even nuclear bombs would get neutralized by some demonic tricks, and they were rarely ever useful. An omnipotent will—Demon World Will—would neutralize any hot weapons beyond a certain level after they enter any Dungeon.
One after the other, more and more Dungeon Demons moved into the world and began creating more Dungeons. Demons ran rampant, and the world seemed to have no hope of survival. But it was then that they appeared.
Hunters.
Some Humans Awakened unique abilities on a random day. And they changed the world.
They were not as versatile as the Demons and didn't have multiple abilities. Every Hunter only had one ability.
Once they awakened their ability, they would receive a rank, and their strength would be forever limited to that level, too.
C-Rank, B-Rank, and A-Rank Hunters—A-Rank being the strongest. Apparently, an A-Rank Hunter was equal to a Tier 2 Demon, and a C-Rank was equal to a Tier 0 Demon.
Hunters couldn't grow stronger like Demons but there were always new Hunters appearing all over the World.
And there were some Hunters who were just as strong as the strongest Demons currently in this World and they began to purge the Dungeons in the world one by one.
They entered the gateways of the Dungeons, found the Dungeon Demon manning it, fought it, and conquered the Dungeon Core, then killed it immediately. One by one, Humans began to take the front seat.
The world was renamed the World of Hunters.
Through years of effort, all of the Dungeons around the world had been cleansed except for the gigantic Dungeon that spanned the entirety of Country Q.
That Dungeon supposedly had an even stronger Demon hiding inside it than the strongest Hunters could handle.
Thankfully, Demons also had a humongous weakness. They could not leave their Dungeons. The moment a demon leaves, the world itself would descend on it, and within a mere second, they would be burned to a crisp.
Demons and Humans were currently in a strange sense of balance where both could do nothing but watch each other. Of course, the gigantic Dungeon was growing in size every day and sooner or later, it will conquer the whole world.
In the current period, the world was in an even more of an upheaval. The end of their civilization was on the line, after all.
And recently, even weirder Demons had started appearing.
Demons who could survive outside Dungeons. Unique Demons like Dungeon Demons who didn't have to build a Dungeon to escape from the burning influence of the Will of the Hunter World.
Dream Demons, Heart Demons.
Mark himself had also just appeared as one of these Unique Demons above the rooftop of a school. And now, he was the whole world's attention.
As Mark sifted through the internet, the mentions of his appearance were all over the place.
"Damn…" Mark muttered.
Hunters, Demons, and in the middle of all of it, he had popped up as one of the rare few Demons who could leave the Dungeon and not be killed by the World Will of this world.
Of course, technically, Dona was his Dungeon, and he was under 5 meters from her. As he was thinking, Mark suddenly paused.
He had just died two days ago on Earth, then reincarnated as a demon, and now, having escaped LITERAL giants, he was in another world.
His life was such a mess.
"…"
And understanding this much, Mark could also guess more things.
The 'Gates' that appear around the World must be the Will of the Demon World, sending demons into this world through the Portals it created.
It was giving the Demons a mission to conquer the world, and even though the demons were most probably non-sentient, they must be following their instinct to do so.
And Mark also had another epiphany.
This world had no hope of survival. The Demon World had too many demons, and the humans here were bound to lose. Especially if something beyond Tier 2 was to appear here.
"I should at least earn as much as I can from this world before it gets destroyed…"
This world was still safer than the Demon World.
Mark's eyes flashed.
Those three students he saw at the school compound—Shiden, Maki, and Fulan. They, too, were Hunters, and they did have powers, but now, with his new knowledge, Mark knew those powers hadn't been Awakened.
Knowing what he knew now, he could guess they were just weak students at this point. They were Unawakened Hunters.
If he used his moves well, he might be able to steal Shiden's ability before the youth could become a threat. That would make it so much easier.
If Shiden awakened to his powers, he would be one of the strongest Hunters. Even though, with stats alone, the guy would probably only be a B-Rank Hunter.
Contemplative, Mark looked towards the masses.
Even with the death sickle hanging above them that was the Mega Dungeon in Country Q, the people were all busy with their mundane lives and official duties. Indeed, to these people, their lives were limited to that.
For Mark, though, Country Q was a good choice. It was a Dungeon where he could take shelter if it came to it. And since it was of such a huge size, he wouldn't have to interact with the Dungeon Boss.
"What should my next step in this world be?" he wondered.
After a while, Mark opened Me Tube and started searching for videos of Hunters in fights. He knew that these A Rank Hunters should be about equal to Tier 2 Demons. But he himself didn't know how strong these Tier 2 Demons were in comparison to himself.
He must understand everything before he dived in.