The city of Daechang always felt cold, even in spring.
Glass towers loomed over gray streets soaked in rainwater and exhaust fumes. LED signs buzzed with the faces of A-rank Hunters, endorsing protein shakes and armor brands. Beyond them, in every alley and subway platform, the forgotten hunched their backs and counted coins for heat.
Yoon Taesung stood on the edge of a Rift zone cleanup site, wearing a cheap synthetic uniform two sizes too large. A dented respirator covered the lower half of his face, and his gloves were stained with a week's worth of monster blood. His back ached from hauling core fragments since dawn, and his mana-resistant boots had no mana left in them. The enchantment wore out a year ago.
He checked his cracked watch. Still three hours left.
A small convoy of Silver Lions guild members walked past the site barrier. They didn't even glance at him. Gleaming armor, enchanted blades, laughing amongst themselves. Real Hunters. Not a failed one like him. Not a Rift janitor who never awakened.
Someone once told him he had potential. That was four years ago. He failed the Hunter Academy's Awakening trials three times and was discharged from the military support unit after being deemed "System-rejected." Not everyone awakened. Only those the System chose. Everyone else just… broke.
A siren echoed across the zone perimeter—sharp and distant.
Taesung froze.
The foreman shouted something from the comm line, his voice distorted by static. A red light flashed above the checkpoint gates. The sky shimmered.
"Pulse warning! Pulse warning! All units evacuate to the perimeter shelter—Rift instability detected!"
He looked up. The air near the dormant Rift—a massive tear in reality hovering above a demolished shopping district—was pulsing, like a heartbeat. Blue veins of light cracked across its surface. Static buzzed through the air. Trash lifted slightly from the ground, caught in invisible currents.
It was going to happen. A Rift Pulse Event.
The world held its breath.
A Rift Pulse wasn't a dungeon break. It was worse. A violent feedback surge from the Rift itself—spitting out mutated mana, sometimes even creatures, before collapsing or stabilizing. It happened randomly. It killed fast.
Taesung turned, sprinting with the rest of the cleanup crew. But halfway through the lot, something slammed the ground in front of them with a screeching roar. Concrete exploded upward. Two men died instantly. The rest scattered.
A creature rose from the crater. A horned beast with exposed ribs and flickering flame within its chest. Not large—but fast. A F-rank monster corrupted by raw Rift energy, unstable and unpredictable.
Taesung dived behind a truck as the creature bolted forward, tearing through a screaming worker. Blood sprayed the fence.
He couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. This wasn't a job anymore. This was death.
The team had no Hunters. No one awakened. They were laborers. Scavengers.
He crawled toward a cargo case where discarded weapons were locked, fingers trembling. One of the boxes had been shattered by the Pulse—inside, a dull, chipped mana blade blinked with a dying core. He grabbed it.
The beast turned toward him.
For a moment, everything slowed.
He'd seen death before. Once, when a gate collapsed during his time in the military. But this—this was different. He was alone. No cover fire. No team. No support.
He held the blade in a reverse grip. It crackled weakly. His hands were shaking. The monster's eyes glowed orange. Steam rose from its body.
It charged.
He rolled. The blade nicked its side. It screeched in pain. Not much damage, but enough to make it cautious. It circled. He stepped back, blood dripping from a cut on his shoulder.
"Move," he whispered to himself.
The second charge came faster. He ducked low, letting it overshoot. Spun, drove the blade into its flank. It howled and twisted, claws slashing toward him. One raked across his ribs. Pain exploded through his side.
He fell back, coughing blood, vision blurring. The monster limped slightly now, but it wasn't enough. He'd die here.
No one was coming. No S-rank rescue. No guild intervention. Just him and the System that never chose him.
But something was different.
As he lay there, staring at the sky split by lightning-blue cracks, something inside him shifted. A pressure behind his eyes. A pulse in his chest.
The world tilted. He blinked.
And then—he heard it.
A soundless voice, like it echoed from the bones of the world.
[Awakening conditions met.]
His breath caught.
[Analyzing survival potential… complete.]
[System synchronization: 100%]
[Class assigned.]
[You have Awakened.]
Light surged through his veins—not blinding, but cold, like winter wind slicing through heat.
His pain vanished.
His vision sharpened. He could see the individual cracks in the air around the creature. The way its weight shifted before a strike. Time didn't slow—but he understood more. Moved faster. Thought clearer.
He stood.
The mana blade in his hand flickered again—brighter this time.
The creature shrieked and lunged. He stepped to the side, almost on instinct, and it missed entirely. In the same motion, he vanished—no, he blinked—appearing just behind it.
He didn't think. He just moved.
The blade slid through the back of its skull.
The monster convulsed, then dropped. Dead.
He exhaled, trembling. A single breath in the silence.
Then came the sound.
Ding.
A soft, mechanical chime in his ears.
And before him, floating midair in translucent blue, appeared the thing he'd dreamed of for years.
A System Window
[Status Window]
Name: Yoon Taesung
Age: 24
Class: Arcane Strider
Rank: C
Level: 1
Health: 240
Mana: 310
Strength: 18
Agility: 24
Endurance: 19
Perception: 26
Intelligence: 21
Willpower: 22
Stat Points: 0
Skills: Shadow Blink (C), Ether Blade (C)
───────
[Welcome, Hunter.]
───────
He stared at it.
No mist. No dream.
A real System.
He was an Awakened now.
And not just any class—Arcane Strider. He didn't know what it meant yet, but the words rang with weight. The skills shimmered faintly: Shadow Blink, Ether Blade.
His hands were steady. His heart was calm. For the first time in years, the world felt... clear.
Behind him, more sirens howled. Drones scanned the site perimeter. A silhouette dropped from the sky—landing in a crouch with a flash of light armor and a blue cape trailing behind.
A real Hunter. Silver Lions guild insignia on the shoulder.
But Taesung wasn't afraid anymore.
He was finally standing on the other side of the line