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Before the Abyss

✰"When the first Gate opened, we thought it was a miracle."

"Turns out, it was a countdown."

Fifty years ago, the world split open.

Gates — colossal rifts in reality — began to appear across the planet. From them spilled monsters we came to call Bīst (ビースト): nightmare creatures born from forgotten realms. Cities burned. Nations fell. And humanity was forced to evolve — or be erased.

From the ashes, Yōhei (傭兵) — the Hunters — were born. Ordinary humans chosen by mysterious System Marks, granting them abilities beyond imagination. But not all Marks were equal. Not all awakenings were kind.

And not all survived.

🌒✰ THE RANKING SYSTEM

Every Hunter is classified into ranks based on their combat potential:

❖E-Rank (最下級 – Saikakyū): Barely stronger than a civilian. Most die within a year.

❖D-Rank (下級 – Kakyū): Can handle small Gates alone, but struggle in teams.

❖C-Rank (中級 – Chūkyū): First rank with crowd control ability. Often Guild squad leaders.

❖B-Rank (上級 – Jōkyū): Enhanced speed, elemental attacks, and defensive skills.

❖A-Rank (特級 – Tokukyū): Can take on mid-tier Gates solo. Usually sponsored, televised, feared.

❖S-Rank (超級 – Chōkyū): The elite. Their battles alter landscapes. Known across nations.

❖SS & "Ω" Ranks (禁級 – Kinkyū): Unclassified. Hidden. Forbidden. Rumors say only the dead become this powerful.

The stronger the Hunter, the deadlier the Bīst they face — because Gates scale too. A Rank-B Gate may hold a lightning wolf. A Rank-S Gate? A Leviathan that erases cities.

But then came the Unranked Dungeons.

The ones not in the logs. The ones that breathe. That whisper.

The ones that choose.

🩸✰ THE BOY WITH NO POWER

Kurosawa Arata (黒澤・新) was born broken.

Orphaned by a Gate collapse. No known bloodline. Marked by the System at age 14 — but unlike others, his Mark… did nothing.

No skill tree. No weapon summon. No stat screen.

Nothing.

And so, he was labeled:

> "Zero Percent" — the Hunter with no odds.

A walking corpse. A cautionary tale.

But Arata didn't quit.

He kept entering Gates. Kept coming back bruised, bleeding — until one day, he didn't.

He entered a Rank-D Gate.

It wasn't Rank-D.

It wasn't ranked at all.

⚔️ ✰THE CURSE AND THE CONTRACT

In the heart of that Gate, Arata found a throne made of bone and horn — and a voice that was not alive, not dead.

It offered him a choice:

> "You have failed to live. Let us try something else."

"Become not the predator. Not the prey. Become the Curse."

That day, Arata died.

And something far older than a Hunter woke in his place.

👁️✰ THE WORLD WATCHES

The Guild still believes he's dead. His signature vanished. His name already scrubbed from missions.

But beneath the Floating City of Tenshū (天衆), the Rulers stir — beings said to govern the Gate system itself.

They've sensed the reactivation of an Abyss Contract — a relic from the first war.

A seal that should not exist.

And they know:

> The Abyssborn has risen.

🕷️✰HUNTERS, BĪST, AND BEYOND

This world belongs not to gods, nor kings — but to those willing to bleed.

The Hunters walk between dimensions.

The Bīst crave chaos.

The Rulers fear what's coming.

And a boy once mocked as nothing...

has returned as everything they were afraid of.

╰‿╯Welcome to the Hunt.

亗 Welcome to the Abyss.

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