After Felix finally convinced me to attend the Awakening Ceremony, I decided it was best not to go home.
For one, my boss had probably already called my parents, which meant I’d be greeted with nothing but curses and another beating the moment I walked through the door.
For another, I needed a clear head before tomorrow.
Haa... Huu...
As I jogged through the quiet streets surrounding the park near the convenience store where I used to work, my thoughts drifted to both my past life and this one.
From the day the Third World War erupted on Earth, to being drafted into the military, fighting on countless battlefields, and eventually becoming the captain of a ragtag squad of kids no different from myself.
Somehow, we survived the worst years of the war... only to be killed by our own people.
The memory alone made my body tremble ever so slightly.
Honestly, I didn’t suffer from much PTSD after coming to this world.
Maybe it was because I’d been greeted with a slap across the face the moment I transmigrated. Or maybe it was because my new parents were so unbelievably awful that my past trauma and their abuse were practically competing to see which one could give me PTSD first.
Lost in those thoughts, I eventually came to a stop in front of the park’s main playground. My gaze drifted to the left, where a stretch of greenery, towering trees, and dense bushes blocked the view beyond.
From where I stood, I could hear the bushes rustling, as though someone, or perhaps several people, were moving through them.
Not that it was any of my business.
"If I do awaken, I just pray I don’t end up as weird as the hunters running around these days," I muttered, shaking my head.
I turned my attention away from whatever was happening behind the bushes and lowered myself onto a wooden swing, sitting cross-legged as it swayed gently back and forth.
Pulling out my tiny phone, barely half the size of my palm, though my hands were admittedly larger than most, I opened my messaging app.
Just as I’d expected, it was flooded with messages from my father and mother, each one filled with curses and demands that I come home.
It took everything I had not to curse.
I still remembered the last time I’d told him to come suck my dick if he dared before running off. The bastard had calmly activated the sigil he’d branded onto me, teleported me straight back to his house, beat the living shit out of me, and nearly cut off my dick in the process.
Considering it was one of the few things I was genuinely proud of, alongside my height, face, and body, I wasn’t eager to tempt fate a second time.
Swiping out of their chat, I scrolled down to the messages from a contact saved as [Little Sister]. Beside her name sat the number [4], showing the messages she’d sent me.
A small smile formed on my face as I opened the message thread.
[Good evening, big bro!]
[Hope, those two bastards aren’t hurting you?]
[Hehehe, I got an A in maths today, a freaking A! So now can you agree to my request please?]
[If you don’t agree, I swear I will become a nun, you understand right?!]
I let out a long sigh, tilting my head back to stare at the sky as my hands fell to my sides. ’At least she’s okay.’
Anna was one of the few people I truly cared about in this life. She was my mother’s daughter, born to a man whose identity even my mother never knew.
She was only seven when she came to live with us, shortly after I transmigrated into this world.
From that moment on, I swore to protect the bright, innocent smile that had become one of the few lights in my life.
Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that, years later, she would confess her feelings to me, just before I sent her abroad to study, hoping to keep her out of my father’s reach.
I typed a simple goodnight to her, sent her half of the $100 I had in savings, and switched from the app to my research app.
Once the app finished loading, I spent the next few hours digging through the internet, learning everything I could about the Awakened.
Although I already had a basic understanding of this world after living here for ten years and attending a pre-Hunter middle school, there was still a lot I needed to learn before the Awakening Ceremony.
Hunter rankings. Guild leaderboards. News about dungeons and rifts. Equipment on the market. Hunter licenses. The countless organizations, regulations, and systems that had somehow turned superpowers and humanity’s endless war for survival into an actual profession instead of complete chaos.
"Looks like the Hunter world is a lot bigger than I thought."
Just in City G, where I lived, there were over two thousand registered Hunters. Across the entire dome, that number exceeded a million. And those were only the registered Awakened, not the countless unregistered criminals and villains hiding in the shadows.
Curious, I scrolled farther down the official Hunter Association page until I came across the profile of one of the world’s top Hunters: Miss Charma.
Before I could think twice, I clicked on it.
A breathtakingly beautiful middle-aged woman appeared on the screen.
The photo showed her kneeling gracefully on the floor, the thin lavender silk of her gown, if it could even be called one, slipping from her shoulders to barely conceal her ample chest.
Her silver-purple hair spilled loosely around her flushed face, while her half-lidded eyes carried a teasing glimmer that seemed to linger on anyone who looked her way.
"Damn, is this for an endorsement or some shit? ’Cause that pose is crazy."
I shook my head, then scrolled down to her main profile.
...
Hunter: Miss Charma
Age: 38
Hunter ID: #ED-9941-AZ
Affiliation: Vance Financial Group / City F Hero Academy (Alumna)
Hunter License Status: Active // Tier-1 S+
Class: Mage Class (Blue)
Main Trait: Charma Field
Trait Rank: SS-Rank
Number of skills: 3
Current Combat Rating: Threat Level - High (Country)
Rifts Cleared: 17
Party Role: Primary Ranged DPS
Sponsorships: Aether Armoury Corp, Potion-Tech International.
...
I swallowed hard, silently taking back everything I’d thought earlier. ’She’s strong... ridiculously strong.’
’I wouldn’t expect anything less from someone only six ranks away from the very top, but still...’
The fact that she stood closer to Z-Rank than a G-Rank could ever dream of getting to her own rank was enough to earn my respect.
Still, when I clicked over to her Insta-Tok account, I couldn’t help but shake my head. Most of her posts featured teasing provocative poses, playful winks, and captions like "Come to Mommy."
"I guess heroes need to pay the bills too."
I clicked back to the Hunter Association’s official page and opened a section explaining what one needed to know before going through the Awakening Ceremony.
There, I found details like the color of the awakening stone, usually white. The site also covered the seven different classes: support (teal), mage (blue), assassin/stealth (red), fighter (yellow), special (golden), tank (purple), and enchanter/marksman (green).
Even the trait ranks, which usually also acted as a growth limit, going from G, F, E, D, C, B, A, S, S+, SS, SS+, SSS, SSS+, EX, and Z, were all listed on the website, along with how the association checked what rank each person held.
The site also showed the usefulness of each class in a fight, ranking mage, tank, and fighter at the top, followed by special and marksman, then assassin and support.
Just as I was about to switch to another site and read more about the Awakening, I felt a soft hand rest on my shoulder.
Turning my head, I found myself staring into the eyes of a beautiful young woman who looked to be in her early twenties.
"Hey, handsome. I noticed you’re here all by yourself. Waiting for someone?" She flashed me a charming smile before pointing toward two other girls standing a short distance away. "If not, why don’t you come spend some time with me and my friends?"
She gave me a dazzling smile, her hand trailing from my shoulder to my chest.
"Don’t worry. Big sis will make it worth your while." She winked. "How about two hundred bucks? Sounds good, right?"
I offered her an apologetic smile, gently taking her hand off my chest before rising to my feet.
"Sorry. I’m waiting for someone. You’re welcome to stay if you want, but I’ll be on my way."
With that, I left the park, quickening my pace with every step.
’No distractions,’ I told myself, giving my cheek a sharp slap. ’It’s now or never. Either I change my fate... or accept it forever.’
As I walked down the street, my gaze settled on a small stall selling grilled squid and festival masks, a slow smile spreading across my lips.
’Yeah, even if it’s only a 1% chance, I would take the risk.’
Even if it was less than that, I would cling to it until the final moment.