The blistering sun cast harsh rays on the crumbling rooftops of Tondo, Manila. It was a place where dreams seemed to rot along with the garbage piles that lined the narrow alleys. Among the bustle of hawkers shouting for spare change and children playing with makeshift toys, there was Joshua "Josh" Villanueva—a boy whose presence blended with the shadows.
At seventeen, Josh's frame was wiry, his skin stretched thin over his bones, a testament to years of malnourishment and hardship. His once lively brown eyes had dimmed, though they still held an ember of hope that refused to be snuffed out. Each day was a battle to survive, to scrape together enough coins for a bowl of rice or the medicines his sister desperately needed.
His home, if it could even be called that, was a small, ramshackle shanty perched precariously on stilts above the polluted waters of Manila Bay. The scent of saltwater mixed with decay was suffocating, but Josh never complained. Complaining wouldn't bring food to their table or save his little sister, Maria, whose frail body lay on a bamboo cot inside their shack.
Maria was the reason Josh refused to give up. She was his light, his anchor. For years, he had tried to climb the Hunter ranks, even as one failure after another crushed his spirit. Below E Rank, they called him—"The Failure." Other scavengers mocked his lack of talent, how he always returned from dungeons empty-handed, bruised, and battered. They laughed, saying he'd be better off joining the beggars on the streets.
But Josh couldn't afford to quit. Every monster core he failed to retrieve was another night of hunger for Maria. Every step he failed to take toward his dreams made him feel like he was losing her. His greatest dream wasn't fame, fortune, or glory—it was simple: to give Maria the life she deserved, to find the resources that could heal her.
As he crouched by the side of the busy market street, sharpening his rusty dagger, he overheard whispers about a dungeon break on Corregidor Island. The air was thick with fear—E Rank Hunters weren't enough for this kind of mission. Still, a bold plan began forming in Josh's mind. If he could sneak in before the official Hunters arrived and snatch even a fragment of a monster core, it might be worth enough to pay Maria's medical bills for months.
The odds were stacked against him; he knew that. He was below E Rank, after all. But Josh wasn't just chasing survival. He was chasing hope, even if it meant risking his life.