"Finally, it's all done..."
Gazing at the blue sky surrounded by tall buildings, Damon muttered to himself as he stretched, taking a deep yawn.
Walking on the nearly empty streets, Damon finally left the center where he was assigned to awaken after successfully registering his so-called talent.
Extreme Regeneration, a Grade B talent that boosts his physical regeneration capabilities to extreme levels. This was the gist of what he mentioned to the registrar.
He could have gotten himself labeled as a Grade A awakened, or even higher, but he didn't want to be in any kind of spotlight just yet.
He hated protagonists who, like cowards, hide their talents and abilities for idiotic face-slapping events, finding them super annoying. Similarly, he didn't want to hide his capabilities like that, but for now, he had no other choice. Even if he hated that trope, he still understood the importance of lying low and growing in silence, especially during the early days of his adventures.
This was why he lied, claiming to be a B-grade talent awakened—strong enough to be respected while remaining inconspicuous.
"He said I would get my Hunter's Card after a week..."
Damon recalled the words of the registrar, who was amazed by his half-true talent. The man registered the talent and updated his information in the Association's database.
"Still, it's kind of concerning how laid-back the system of registration is..."
Yeah, just having a person appointed by the association witness your talent and rely on your words regarding its grade and all... it's concerning how lax the registration process truly is.
"But I don't think there is any other option, I guess..."
There was no device or artifact to check talents. Even if there was, it would be difficult to install such systems worldwide just for awakenings.
With no stricter method in place, the system relied on the honesty of the awakeners. If they were caught lying, they would face serious penalties.
Slowly, Damon's memories of reality began to clear as the disorientation caused by the recoil and his supposedly fake life started to fade away.
"It's scary how similar our pasts are."
Thinking of the protagonist, Damon frowned. The past was the same, the figures appearing in the novel were real, just as described, but still, the behavior of the protagonist was completely opposite to his own.
"Maybe it's another reality or something?"
His first conclusion was that he was in the world of a novel, but after pondering for a bit and noticing the differences, he finally concluded that he was seeing the future of a different reality than his own. This seemed more reasonable than the idea of being inside a novel.
This hypothesis not only made Damon feel more at ease but also heightened his awareness that the new reality he was in was not a novel and had an uncertain future. This raised his guard while preparing him for any possible deviations from the plot.
"Anyway, I do hope I still have some plot armor." Chuckling, he thought as he made his way toward his home.
After registering with the association, they would issue a Hunter's Card—an important and basic document for a hunter in this world.
The document served as identification for a hunter and also granted the privilege of three free chances to raid the lowest-tier, F-grade Gates.
"Yeah, those gates too... I need to raid them to grow stronger."
Though still slightly disoriented from the recoil, Damon knew his priorities very well, and the most important one was to grow stronger.
The fissures that had spawned all over the world, spewing out monsters, were called Gates. Inside the gates, there were territories of limited size filled with monsters.
Hunters ventured into these gates to hunt monsters and gather more information about them.
Regular monster hunting was necessary because if left unchecked, the restrictions placed on the gates would disappear, allowing the monsters to invade the real world and wreak havoc.
As a result, gates were highly guarded and controlled by various organizations.
The gates were divided into multiple grades depending on their size and danger level. The weakest were F-grade gates, which were the most common worldwide.
Gates were owned by both private and public organizations due to their immense value. To enter a gate, one had to be a registered hunter and volunteer to raid the gates, often paying a hefty fee.
To ease this for newly awakened hunters and those from less wealthy backgrounds, the association granted free access to publicly owned F-tier gates to help new hunters gain experience.
"The weeb in me really wants to go and kick some monster ass... but sigh, I need to wait a week to enter one."
Damon was eager to witness the strength of the monsters he had heard tales about since childhood, but to be eligible for gate entry, he needed his Hunter's Card, which would take a week to be issued.
"A week, huh... well, that much time is good in a way." Looking down at his weak and thin body, lacking an ounce of muscle and clad in old clothes, Damon sighed at his condition.
"I need to do something about this, too." Even with his skill, entering a dungeon in this state, even an F-ranked one, would be a nightmare.
"Well, it's time to train, I guess."
'Not to mention I still have an overpowered talent to mess with'