The morning after the penalty zone felt unreal.
When I opened my eyes, sunlight poured through the blinds like warm honey, soft and ordinary nothing like the frozen hell I'd just escaped. Yet the System window still floated above my bed, a quiet, glowing reminder that what happened hadn't been a dream.
[Daily Quest:
Do 100 Push-ups
Do 100 Sit-ups
Do 10 km Run
Stretch for 30 Minutes
Reward: Stat increase + 1 each
Penalty for Failure: 2-hour Penalty Zone]
Two hours of wolves.
That was all it took to convince me.
I sat upright, wincing at the tug of bandages around my ribs. The nurse had said my wounds should take weeks to heal, yet I could already move without crying. My muscles still burned, but the deep ache that used to clamp my chest was fading.
"All right," I whispered, glaring at the quest list. "Let's do this."
---
The first push-up nearly killed me.
The second made me curse every god I knew. By the fifth, I realized I'd underestimated how broken my body still was. Sweat rolled down my neck. My arms trembled so hard the IV line rattled.
"Come on, Rex… Just pretend you're Jinwoo but in your episode two…"
Somewhere between forty and fifty my arms gave out and I collapsed on the floor. The nurse rushed in, panicking, but I waved her off with a shaky smile.
"I'm just… doing rehab," I managed to say.
She frowned. "Rehab doesn't involve passing out on tile."
"Motivational rehab."
When she finally left, I groaned and stared at the ceiling. My entire body was on fire, but deep down I felt something else a pulse of energy, faint yet real, flowing through my limbs.
>>Progress:73%
The encouragement looked mocking, but I couldn't help smiling.
By the end of the day I'd done it. One hundred push-ups, one hundred sit-ups, stretching, and because running ten kilometers in a hospital was impossible I jogged in place until my legs shook. When I finally collapsed onto the bed, gasping, the System chimed.
>> Quest Completed
I felt the relief. My arms didn't feel like jelly anymore, my breath came easier.
Day Two;;
I started earlier, before the nurses arrived. The routine hurt less. Every muscle fiber screamed, yet underneath the pain was rhythm. The System kept count for me, numbers flashing in the air like a coach barking orders.
>>Sit-ups: 88/100.
I laughed mid-crunch, earning confused looks from a janitor mopping the hallway.
Each hour brought small changes. My body remembered how to move. My heartbeat steadied. My mind felt… sharper. I could recall details I'd forgotten like Yero's laugh, the scent of instant ramen, the exact animation frame where Jinwoo first used Stealth.
The System seemed satisfied.
>>Quest Completed
When I flexed my fingers, the veins along my arm pulsed faintly with a dark silver glow before fading.
Day Three;;
By the third sunrise, the nurses were gossiping about the "crazy patient in Room B-14." I could hear them through the door.
"He's doing push-ups again."
"Didn't the doctor say he had broken ribs?"
"Maybe he's one of those awakening types…"
That last comment made me pause mid-push-up. Awakening types ? Hunters really existed here. Which meant the System wasn't just a hallucination, it was another kind of awakening.
By evening, the System tone echoed again:
>> Quest Completed
A wave of warmth surged through me, like fire racing through my veins. The pain vanished. My skin prickled, then steadied. I tore off the bandages, stunned every cut, every bruise, gone.
I caught my reflection in the window. My eyes looked clearer, my muscles subtly defined. I actually looked alive. My hair was longer. I didn't look like the weak Rex back on Earth. I was an idol here.
My morning, I was drinking bland hospital tea, staring out the window at the city street below. Hunters in casual gear moved about, some with swords strapped to their backs, some laughing like ordinary people.
Then I saw him.
Short black hair. Running shoes. The same expression of quiet exhaustion I'd memorized from hundreds of anime scenes.
Sung Jinwoo.
He was jogging past the hospital gate, sweat glistening under the early sun, moving with that same awkward determination from his weak days as the pre-Shadow Monarch.
My heart froze.
"No way…"
I pressed my forehead against the glass. The System responded with a soft ping, as if recognizing something.
He jogged out of view, turning a corner, and I stood there trembling.
"He's real," I whispered. "He's actually real."
The nurse walked in and almost dropped her clipboard when she saw me standing.
"Sir, you shouldn't be—"
"I'm discharged," I said, yanking the IV out.
"You can't just decide that..."
But I already knew I was leaving. The System hummed behind my thoughts, quiet but firm, as if approving the choice.
---
Outside, the city smelled of concrete, rain, and mana. The streets buzzed with screens advertising dungeon clear rates and Hunter rankings. Posters of S-rankers flashed on corners like celebrities.
This Tokyo wasn't the Tokyo I knew.
People carried weapons openly. Shops sold potions beside snacks. A billboard announced: "C-Rank Gate Opens Near Shibuya — Volunteer Hunters Needed."
I pulled the thin hospital jacket tighter around me and started walking. My reflection in a store window made me pause.
"Rex Luie," I muttered. "Where do you live?"
Silence.
Nothing. Not even a flicker of memory. The System remained mute, offering no answer.
I sighed. "Guess I'm a homeless anime addict in another universe. Great start."
[ New Quest: Adapt to this World
Objective: Acquire currency / Form Hunter Connection
Reward: Information Access Unlocked]
"Acquire currency… so money," I said. "And Hunter Connection means find someone who won't kill me in a dungeon."
I looked around. Hunters gathered near a small café advertising "Freelancer Jobs — No Guild Required."
Perfect. I knew where to start for that.
---
The café buzzed with chatter and clinking armor. I stepped inside, inhaling the smell of roasted beans and steel polish. Holographic screens displayed bounty lists and gate alerts.
Behind the counter stood a man in a brown coat, mid-thirties, rugged but calm the kind of guy who'd seen too many raids and lived through all of them.
"You look lost, kid," he said, eyeing my hospital clothes.
"Just discharged," I replied. "Heard you take freelancers."
He raised an eyebrow. "You a Hunter?"
I hesitated, then nodded. "Sort of. New awakening. Still figuring out my rank."
He studied me for a long second, then chuckled. "Everyone starts somewhere. Name's Kaito. I run solo teams for D- and E-rank raids. Low pay, high survival rate. Interested?"
My heart thumped. "Yeah."
[Quest Completed; Reward Obtained.]
>> Information Access Unlocked
A map unfolded in my vision, marking nearby dungeons, Hunter Associations, and something called the International Gate Registry.
Kaito tossed me a black hunter badge. "Register that ID at the guild corner. Tomorrow we raid a D-rank gate in Minato. Bring your own gear."
Tomorrow.
My first raid.
I nodded, gripping the badge as if it were life itself.
---
Night fell early. I found a cheap capsule hotel near the station. The clerk didn't question my lack of ID apparently, awakened Hunters got a lot of leniency.
Inside the capsule, I stared at the ceiling until the glow of the System pulsed again.
[Daily Quest Issued]
I smiled faintly. "All right, death coach. Let's get to work."
The cramped space made push-ups awkward, but I managed. Each repetition came easier than the last.
Halfway through the sit-ups, memories flickered, the snow, the wolves, Jinwoo's running figure. For the first time, I didn't feel like a loser binge-watching anime. I felt like someone training for something real.
When the last notification flashed.
>> Path of Death Monarch Initiated
I collapsed onto the pillow, grinning. I wondered what that meant but it had to do with Death Monarch. Well all I knew was that I was gonna level up just like Sung Jinwoo.
Tomorrow, I'd step into a dungeon for the first time. And somewhere in this world, Sung Jinwoo was doing the same thing, starting his rise.
"Just wait, Shadow Monarch," I whispered. "I'm coming too."
I closed my eyes, a smile lingering.
For the first time since dying, I felt alive.