Seven years later...
"And so, we thank these heroes who rose to the occasion Seven years ago and gave humanity a glimmer of hope." The newscaster broadcast the news on the TV with a hearty smile, and Alice twisted her lips.
Alice, once the young girl who became an orphan at the beginning of the monster apocalypse, stood in front of a television store and watched the news.
It had been Seven years since that happened
"And now, we invite S-class awakened-"
Alice blocked her ear with her airpods and walked away, her hands tucked in her sweater.
It was the same thing every day. It was always speaking about the 'awakened' like they were gods. If they were so big of a deal, why were they still letting monsters roam around?
Yes, even when they went on 'raids' regularly, they still couldn't stop monsters from spewing out of gates, which spawned out of nowhere.
It was as if, the more monsters they took care of, the more monsters were created. Twice the size and twice the amount, to take care of the opposing and stubborn humans.
But now, it wasn't just the monsters who were 'monsters', humanity, which was supposed to be saved by these awakened was being destroyed by the same awakeneds, becoming 'monsters' of their own kind.
The kind of monsters that preyed on and devoured the weak and defenseless.
Who has it all, got it all and the rest who weren't so privileged, could just suck their toes underneath them.
That... Was the order of the day.
She stopped in front of a restricted area where a blue 'gate' that had spawned out of nowhere was being monitored by the awakened agency.
She observed for a while, staring at the gate as it glowed beautifully.
It was such an irony that such beautiful gates brought forth deadly monsters.
One could assume that the gate was that bright and beautiful to attract prey to their deaths.
The more beautiful and colorful a gate was, the more dangerous it was.
It was also sent out that once a gate was seen, one was obligated to call the awakened agency, and depending on the grade, the caller would be rewarded.
'Sure hope to stumble on a gate one of these days. I could use the award money to maybe get myself a bucket of chicken.' she thought and then, her phone rang.
She turned away from the gate, taking out her airpod from her ears to answer the call properly.
She took out her phone from her pocket to check the caller's ID and discovered it was 'Big Stach henchman 1' So she answered, but kept her phone away from her ear a bit, knowing he would yell.
"You bitch! Where the hell did you run off to so early in the morning?" The male voice 'cussing at her from the other side of the phone, yelled, and Alice rolled her eyes.
'To get food, of course. Is that so hard to guess?' she thought but did not dare speak the words out loud.
"Get your ass back here if you don't want to sleep upside down tonight." The voice yelled over the phone and she answered,
"I get it. Quit yelling. I'm on my way."
She cut the call before he could say anymore and kept her phone back in her pocket. She sighed.
"Guess I'll be sleeping upside down tonight." She thought out loud.
Alice was tired of the life she was living but she didn't want to give it up either.
Living like a dog wasn't exactly an ideal life but what could she do? She had to be a bog to have a master that could protect her. Even if it was a shitty master who could harm her for his own satisfaction, she couldn't do anything about it.
In this world where a gate could spawn out of nowhere and monsters could attack, the awakeners had all the advantages and if you wanted to survive, you had to stick to an awakened, even if it meant being a dog.
"It's a dog-eat-dog world." She muttered.
Deciding to take a shortcut, Alice sprinted through a dark alley.
Usually, at the end of that dark alley was an open space that people often used as an exchange point.
It was mostly empty at that time of the day. It was morning, after all, and no one did illegal deals when it was bright out, but when she got there, she found three capsized cargo trucks and no one in sight.
"This is strange." She thought out loud and approached.
Then, her eyes caught sight of the red gate in front. Her eyes widened and she instinctively ducked behind one of the cargo.
Red gates were ranked SSS and only a raid team of S-class awakeneds could deal with it. Nothing less.
'Dammit! Where did a red gate spawn out from? And in the middle of the exchange point? This is bad.' She took out her phone, thinking of calling someone for help but then paused. 'Wait, will I be rewarded if I reveal the location of a red gate?'
She just wished she could stumble on a gate and like magic, she stumbled on one. And one of the highest grades at that.
This could be her chance to finally break free from her shitty life.
'But... It's very dangerous. The agency will reward me, right? They weren't all talk and no show, right?'
The corners of her lips quivered in excitement. This was an opportunity she could not miss out on.
If she called the awakened agency, they would pay her handsomely for discovering a red gate before it harmed civilians.
Her hand quivered at the thought of that much money falling from the sky with no strings attached.
Ah, she would be finally free from Big stash's hold.
Thinking about it made her so excited that she took a while to dial the awakened agency's number.
But then, she started hearing growling coming from above her. Saliva dropped on her cheek, and she gulped, slowly raising her head to see a three-eyed red wolf gnashing its teeth as it got ready to pounce on her.
As soon as she saw it, she dashed out of there and the wolf got down, growling.
It wasn't that big. It was the size of a regular dog, but it was fierce, and its three glowing red eyes screamed hunger.
'You've gotta be kidding me.'