[Note:This whole idea came to my mind in the middle of the night when I was seeing absolute Batman comic and comparing them to Korean Hunter manhwas. I thought, what if I made a story that combined the two?the story is test or though for what happened if hunter korean world stories was in absolute universe]
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9:59 pm.....
In.... apartment 341...
Tik tik....
There was a clock hanging on the wall, its hands moving quietly, like the calm before the storm. The apartment was dark because the light was blocked by the curtains, but there was a very faint light.
Tik tik.....
There was a person sleeping on the bed. It was impossible to see their form because the covers enveloped their entire body.
Warning! Warning!
Suddenly, an alarm on the small table near his bed lit up, glowing red at 10:00.
"Just five more minutes," a boy's voice spoke as he turned off the alarm.
But after five minutes passed, it rang again.
Warning! Warning! Warning!
"Fine! Fine! I get up!"
"Jesus! Does the world not want me to rest? Why?" the boy spoke, sitting up and trying to open his eyes.
When the boy removed the covers, his appearance was revealed: a teenage boy. He had wolf ears and a tail. He looked like a werewolf from some folk tales, if you looked at it from a certain perspective. His hair was almost curly. When he woke up and got out of bed, he went to the bathroom to shower.
"Damn, it's Wednesday... I hate this day.... a sign of bad omen," the boy spoke as he left the bathroom and sat on the sofa in the living room.
"I think I should stay home today too.... I have no desire for a headache. At least he doesn't notice___"
Knock! Knock!
"...Speak of the devil...." He looked at the door and felt a sense of dread.
Knock knock knock!
He went and opened the door. Greeting him was an old man in his sixties, with pale white hair and wrinkles covering his face, but he stood straight. He had a cane and was wearing a black suit and a hat, standing 1.90m tall. He looked at the boy with a cold expression.
"Hello, Mr. Olson," the boy greeted him.
"You haven't paid since last month. In fact, you haven't even left your apartment. You owe rent for two months, Kuro," Olson replied.
"Give me some more time," Kuro replied, scratching his hand against his ears.
"Go out and get it," Olson said seriously.
"How exactly am I supposed to work?" Kuro spoke unjustly.
"You know how to make money, especially someone with your abilities," Olson spoke.
"You're basically asking me to die," Kuro said.
"We all face death here, Kuro. Have you forgotten where we are?"
"Fair point," Kuro replied indifferently.
"Good. I'm not asking you to pay me today, or to kill yourself. All I'm asking is for you to work and build your path," Olson spoke as he quietly left the apartment. "The past is gone, and you need to focus on what's ahead," he said while descending the stairs.
After he went down, Kuro looked down and scratched his head.
"(Sigh) I guess I have to go outside too."
Kuro closed his apartment door and also started going downstairs. Kuro looked to the right and saw the walls were old and dilapidated. As he walked down, there was red graffiti with words like, 'welcome to hell', 'no one well save us', 'get out'. And they weren't wrong about that when they talked about where this really was.....
When he stepped out onto the street, he could see the outside world again. The sky was gray, and the place seemed dark even though it was morning. The streets were almost colorless, and people walked with harsh expressions on their faces. There were groups of people carrying metal bats, and some had guns and wore masks of some kind.
These were actually gang members, dealing drugs and talking about the entertaining things they had done. They saw Kuro on the road as he passed by. They looked at him for a moment before one of them decided to pull out his gun and point it at Kuro's head. Just as he was about to pull the trigger, one of his companions grabbed his hand and shook his head to stop him. The person heeded his friend's words and lowered the gun.
Kuro walked through the town and saw some people focused on their phones, ignoring the dried blood on the sidewalk, disregarding the fact that someone had died there. Kuro looked at one of the stores where there were TV screens. There were two people on the screen.
[Today we are here with the expert hunter Jonathan.]
[Mr. Jon, how did you feel when you were elected mayor of New Hades town?]
[I feel proud, because I will restore its original name instead of this odious one.]
[As you know, tomorrow is the thirtieth anniversary of the Dark Day, and I wish to begin change in this city.]
[Yes, Mr. Jon, it remains a terrible memory for the people even to this day. Some say it was a punishment, or the work of some organizations.]
[There are many conspiracies, but it doesn't matter what the cause was. Rather–]
[Speaking of change–]
[Yes, I've heard about people's opinions regarding mutants these days. Do you have an opinion on this?]
[All I have to say is that I feel very sorry about this situation.]
[They were people like us, but when they got trapped inside a Gate, they became strangers to the people they once knew.]
[And there is no cure for their condition. Even with medical advances, there are still things science cannot explain, especially magic. Everyone must–]
[Listen carefully to the Mayor, citizens. You don't know where a Gate will appear. You must follow the Gate evacuation procedures properly, or you will become goobzi.]
[You mean from the movie 'The Last One 3'?]
[Haha, I didn't know–]
"Just the usual nonsense," Kuro spoke, turning away and walking forward.
After walking, Kuro reached a certain place. It was a subway tunnel leading to a train station. But the strange thing was, there were military defenses and a military fence around the subway tunnel. There were even tanks and RPG weapons around the tunnel.
Anyone would think there was a terrorist attack, or preparations for war. But the truth is, inside the tunnel, there is a Gate that leads to and from which monsters emerge. But that's not the real purpose of the soldiers here; it was for the outside.
"The hunters are the root of the trouble happening here!" The one who shouted was a person from a crowd of people carrying signs: 'No to Hunters', 'Get them out of here!'. He had a microphone.
"Hunters are supposed to protect us, but look at them now, sleeping in their luxurious apartments while we suffer!" the protest leader shouted angrily.
"Yeah!" the crowd shouted in unison.
"They are not content with just letting these mutants pollute our land, they also leave the Gates without finding a permanent solution!" he shouted.
"Remove the Gate!" the crowd leader shouted loudly through the microphone, raising his hand high towards the sky.
"Remove the Gate! Remove the Gate! Remove the Gate! Remove the Gate! Remove the Gate! Remove the Gate! Remove the Gate! Remove the Gate! Remove the Gate! "
One of the soldiers, who was aiming his weapon at them, looked at them. It was impossible to see the soldiers' expressions because they covered their faces, as they were special forces dealing with the Gates.
He stepped forward, emerged from the fence, raised his gun high, and fired.
Bang!
"Kyaaaaah"
"He has a gun!"
"He's shooting!"
"Aaaaaaaaahhhhh!"
The crowd suddenly panicked, scattering; some dropped to the ground or immediately moved away from the soldier, afraid he would shoot at them. Kuro watched everything happening in silence and without expression.
After the crowd dispersed and moved away, the soldier advanced further, raising his gun.
"One step, one bullet. This place is property of the H.U.N.T.E.R. organization. If you want to file a complaint, go to their headquarters. This place is a defensive line against the Gate in case of a breach. Move away."
"They never listen! All they care about is their influence. We are like dogs to them!" the crowd leader spoke.
"Yeaaaahhhh!" the scattered crowd shouted together.
"This place is the only line of defense against what's inside here. If you want to remove the Gate, then go ahead, go in and eliminate the monsters there."
When the soldier said that, everyone tensed up and looked at each other. Even the crowd leader had a dark expression and retreated slightly backward.
"You only know how to bark when it's not your problem. Get out of here. Now!" he shouted, firing a shot into the air, making them flee and immediately move away from the area.
"Dammit, this is the fourth time this month. If the situation continues like this, then we must.....?...?!?"
The soldier and the people in the crowd saw someone approaching the soldier. It was Kuro, approaching, indifferent to anything that had just happened. One of the crowd saw him and was alarmed.
"A mutant! There a mutant!" one from the crowd shouted, and most of them looked at Kuro with disgust and started recording on their phones.
The soldier saw him and looked at him silently for a second before speaking. "You, mutant, stay away from here." After he spoke, Kuro kept walking, unconcerned by what he had just said. This made the soldier raise his gun and point it closer to him.
"Didn't you hear me with your four ears, mutant? I said–"
Bang
When he fired, Kuro caught the bullet between his two fingers and kept walking as it was nothing. Everyone witness this was shocked.
This made the soldier flinch for a second. Then he narrowed his eyes behind his mask, lowered his gun, and looked at Kuro, lowering his gaze from his helmet to Kuro's face as he approached and stood before him. "Are you.... a hunter?"
"Yeah," Kuro replied with a cold expression, as if it were something normal or he was annoyed by it.
Some people from the crowd looked and whispered among themselves, with hateful eyes. Anger filled their faces because there was a mutant hunter.
"Do I go or not?" Kuro asked.
"Yes, you may enter. Wait in the breach room. I'll clear the way for you," the soldier spoke, making a gesture to remove the fence and make way for him. Kuro and the soldier faded from view as they descended downward.
.
.
.
.
.
.
"52672 Omega 83629 Alpha Zelta... I repeat 52672 Omega 83629 Alpha Zelta..."
Kuro was listening to what the soldier was saying through the transmitter in his helmet. He had no idea what he was talking about, and he didn't care. It was none of his business. He was here only for the money, nothing more.
He saw a light at the end of the tunnel and could make out the subway station, or what it used to be. The station had become filled with military madness, people carrying heavy screens, men with rocket launchers, and there were many sandbags around the place
All of them were focused in one direction, where there was something like a black void. It was impossible to see anything but a deep abyss when you stared into it.
This was the Gate.....