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Chapter 6 - CHAPTER 5 — THE WEAKEST HUNTER RETURNS

The city never slept. It just changed masks when the sun went down.

From the rooftop of a run-down clinic, Raven watched the streets blur beneath the rain. Neon lights bled through the drizzle, painting the puddles with colors too bright to be real. Holographic ads flickered over traffic, selling mana batteries and raid insurance like they were candy.

He'd been out of the hospital for a week now—if you could call that place a hospital.

Officially, the Association listed him as deceased.

Unofficially, he'd just walked out when the lights went dark. No paperwork. No witnesses. No body bag.

Only the System had come with him.

A faint blue window shimmered in front of his eyes, rain slicing through it in thin white lines.

> [Status Window — Raven Ahn]

———————————————

Level: 5

Rank: E

Health: 460 / 460

Mana: 210 / 210

Strength: 12

Agility: 18

Vitality: 15

Perception: 14

Intelligence: 11

Assimilation: 3%

Soul Fragments: 6

———————————————

Traits:

• Deathbound Link (Active) — Absorb essence upon harvest.

• Adaptive Growth (Passive) — Gain experience through assimilated souls.

———————————————

Quests:

• Daily Mission — Completed

• Reward — Claimed

The numbers floated like quiet ghosts in the dark.

E-rank on paper.

Something else entirely in truth.

He flexed his hand slowly. Every motion felt lighter, sharper. His reflexes were faster, his senses clearer. He could feel mana trails in the air—thin, translucent lines that shimmered when he focused.

It should've felt like victory. Instead, it felt like wearing someone else's skin.

He'd killed to live.

And six other people were still inside him because of it.

He looked up at the clouds, let the rain hit his face, and whispered,

"I can't live off corpses forever."

The System didn't answer. It never did unless it needed something.

Morning hit like a hangover.

The Association branch in Yeongdo was already alive by the time Raven walked in—walls buzzing with holographic ads, Hunters shouting over coffee, and the faint tang of mana in the recycled air.

He kept his hood low. The scanner at the entrance flashed once, green, and the whispers started immediately.

> "Is that—?"

"The guy from Sector Twelve?"

"Didn't he die?"

He ignored them. Let them talk.

At the front counter, a tired receptionist with hollow eyes glanced up from her terminal. Her nameplate read Han Yuna. She scanned his Hunter tag, then froze when the database loaded.

"Raven Ahn," she said slowly. "You're… supposed to be dead."

He shrugged. "I got better."

Her mouth twitched—somewhere between disbelief and a laugh she didn't want to risk. "You're reapplying for active status?"

"Yeah. Need work. Need money."

She typed something fast. "You'll have to retake your baseline mana test. After a death certificate, all ranks are reset."

"Fine."

She slid a small orb across the counter. It glowed faintly as he placed his palm against it. A soft hum filled the air.

Blue. Weak. E-rank.

No surprise there.

Yuna sighed, handing him a printed ID card. "You'll want to keep that low profile, Mr. Ahn. Hunters gossip worse than reporters."

Raven gave a faint, humorless smile. "Trust me. I'm good at being invisible."

The job hall smelled like sweat, oil, and cheap mana tonics. Rows of terminals displayed Gate contracts—most of them barely worth the risk.

He scrolled until one caught his eye:

> Mission: Clear remaining beasts from D-45 Residual Gate

Reward: ₩60,000 + salvage rights

Difficulty: D-Rank (cleanup)

"Perfect," he muttered.

A short while later, he met the assigned team—a group of freelancers who looked more like mercs than Hunters.

One, a tall bruiser with a broken jawguard, looked him over and grinned. "You're the E-rank cleanup boy?"

"Guess so."

"Stay behind me and don't do anything stupid."

Raven said nothing. Just adjusted his daggers and followed.

The Gate opened into a rotting forest.

The air was thick with mist and mana decay. Dead trees loomed over them like bones. Somewhere in the distance, something scraped against stone.

"Fan out," the leader barked. "We clear anything that moves."

Raven's eyes flicked left and right, every nerve on edge. The System fed him data in faint white text across his vision.

> [Lesser Chitin Fiend — D-rank Beast]

[HP: 680 / 680]

[Status: Aggressive]

He didn't even have time to shout before the monster lunged from the fog. Six legs. Bone armor. Jaws like a sawblade.

The others panicked. Spells went wide. One Hunter screamed as claws ripped through his shield.

Raven's body moved before his brain did. A flash of motion. A step, a pivot, a clean strike.

Steel met chitin. Sparks scattered.

> [Critical Hit: -142 HP]

The Fiend howled. Another slash, deeper this time. A third, cutting through its throat.

When the beast collapsed, the others were still catching their breath.

The bruiser spat on the corpse. "Lucky hit, rookie."

"Sure," Raven said quietly.

Inside, he could feel something shifting—tiny threads of energy crawling under his skin. Power, faint but real.

It terrified him more than the monster had.

By the time the Gate collapsed, two of the four-man team were injured, one unconscious.

Raven dragged them out, filed the report, and got nothing more than a curt nod for his trouble.

The Association didn't care. He was just another disposable body on the payroll.

That night, the city was quieter. Rain again—always rain.

Raven sat on the floor of his one-room apartment, peeling off his gloves. The glow of his interface lit the cracks in the wall.

> [System Notice: Daily Mission Complete]

[Cleanse 1 low-tier Gate — SUCCESS]

[Rewards Available — Claim?]

He hesitated, then tapped Yes.

> [Reward: Deathbound Key — Tier F]

[Description: A spatial key forged from residual souls. Unlocks a "Private Instance."]

[Note: Instanced Gates are detached from time flow. Survival not guaranteed.]

A small black shard materialized in his palm. It pulsed faintly—like a heartbeat.

> [Would you like to enter the Instance Dungeon now?]

[Y / N]

He stared at it for a long time.

"Not yet," he murmured. "Not until I know what you really are."

He pocketed the shard. The System's blue glow flickered for a moment—just a glitch, faint and harmless.

Or maybe a shiver.

Across the city, far above the lights, a pair of Hunters stood in front of a mana-tracking display.

One of the signals blinked irregularly, pulsing like a heartbeat.

Lira Vale folded her arms, eyes narrowing. "Sector Twelve again. You seeing this?"

Her partner grunted. "Same energy signature as the Gate collapse. Thought everyone there was dead."

Lira's expression darkened. "That's the problem."

The pulse flared once, bright enough to wash out half the screen—then faded.

"Whatever it is," she said quietly, "it's not supposed to exist."

In a small apartment across the city, Raven Ahn felt the same pulse under his skin.

The black shard in his pocket throbbed once, faint and hungry.

> [Collector, evolution awaits.]

He closed his eyes, letting the whisper sink into the silence.

"Then I better evolve fast."

The rain fell harder outside, drowning the neon.

The weakest Hunter had returned—

and this time, he wasn't planning to stay weak for long.

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