Night hadn't yet fallen over the city, but I could already feel it under my skin—thick, black, tense, like the muscles of a beast waiting just outside the edge of sight. Leaving the dorm, I didn't bother closing the door quietly. I slammed it behind me like someone who had no intention of returning in the same state he left.
The pavement under my boots was cold. The air sharp.The city half-asleep.
Perfect conditions for a hunt.
Predator System spoke the moment I stepped beyond the campus.
[MODE: PREPARATION ACTIVE][PRIORITY: INCREASE SURVIVAL CHANCES IN UPCOMING DUNGEON][OBJECTIVES: (1) OBTAIN ITEM. (2) MAINTAIN COVER. (3) ANALYZE TARGETS.]
The system's voice was like metal drawn across bone—dry, cold, indifferent.A mirror of me.
I moved down the lit paths of the academy, heading toward the side street. In my previous life, I knew this area all too well. The official test center was only a facade; the real hunter market woke after dark—bars, storerooms, underground corridors.
And if I wanted an edge, this was where the hunt began.
The moment I stepped into a dimmer alley, the system displayed a scan:
[AREA SCAN: LOW RISK][POTENTIAL HOSTILES: THREE LOW-TIER HUNTERS, RANK E–F][THREAT LEVEL: INSIGNIFICANT]
I didn't slow down.Didn't speed up.Just walked like someone who knew the night belonged to him.
Laughter echoed around the corner—mocking, sloppy. Three boys in cheap jackets with weak guild symbols. Too young, too loud, too sure of themselves. The kind of meat the Hunter world chews and spits out daily.
One stepped in front of me.
"Hey, buddy," he said, grabbing my shoulder. "What're you doing out here this late? Tests are over. Didn't look like luck hit you today, huh?"
His tone pretended to be playful, but his eyes were full of the same contempt the world had fed me for years.
System response:
[HOSTILITY DETECTED – LOW INTENSITY][SUGGESTION: DO NOT ENGAGE. PRESERVE ENERGY. COLLECT DATA.]
I turned my head slowly and looked into his eyes.Said nothing.
The silence shook him more than any words would have.
"Hey… I'm talking to you," he repeated, sharper this time.
I lowered my gaze to his hand on my shoulder.Didn't move.Didn't blink.
But somehow, he felt like he was touching a corpse.
He let go.
"Let's go," he muttered to the others. "This guy's weird."
They stepped aside.Not because I scared them.Instinct—weak hunters occasionally have it.
I walked on.
⸻
The bar called "The Chipped Blade" was three blocks away. For normal students, it was an ugly dive. For Hunters, it was one of the few places where you could buy gear no guild wanted traced.
Inside, the roar of voices, clinking glasses, and sweat-soaked laughter crashed together like a storm. Today's future heroes—yesterday's losers.
Behind the counter stood a woman with short hair and eyes like cracked glass.
I knew her in my previous cycle.Small, fast, dangerous. She dealt in gear that guilds rejected—too unstable, too experimental, too lethal for amateurs.
This time I had the advantage.
I approached the bar.
"I'm looking for something small," I said, setting my hand on the counter. "But sharp."
She scanned me up and down.
"You look like a first-year," she muttered. "Kids like you usually want something cheap and shiny."
System sliced through her profile instantly:
[TARGET ASSESSMENT: WEAK, BUT SHREWD][SUGGESTION: NO BLUFFING. STATE PURPOSE. SHE VALUES PRECISION.]
"I want an item that gives an advantage on the first strike," I said coldly. "I don't care if it's legal."
Her eyebrow twitched.Right key. Right door.
"Oh. That type of client." She smirked. "Fine. I'll show you something that shouldn't be on this market."
She slipped into the back room.I waited, ignoring the hunters eyeing me like vultures curious about a corpse that refused to rot.
She returned with something wrapped in black cloth.
"This is First-Edge Blade," she said, revealing a slim, narrow dagger. "It activates only at the start of a fight. If you land the first hit, your strength increases by forty percent for three seconds."
System answered instantly:
[ITEM IDENTIFIED: "FIRST-EDGE BLADE"][CATEGORY: UNSTABLE / SEMI-LEGAL][SYNERGY WITH PREDATOR SYSTEM: HIGH][RECOMMENDATION: ACQUIRE.]
"How much?" I asked.
"For you?" she said. "Twelve hundred credits."
"Too much."
She didn't blink.
"Then why are you here?"
I picked up the blade.Light—too light.Hungry.
"Because tomorrow I enter Broadwood Forest," I said. "And either I walk out first… or no one does."
Her expression shifted.Not fear.Recognition.
"Nine hundred," she said softly. "And I didn't see you."
I paid.
Pocketed the blade.
Walked to the door.
The system hummed like a predator satisfied with its first drop of blood.
[QUEST: "PREPARATION FOR FIRST BLOOD" — COMPLETE][NEW BONUS: OPENING STRIKE ADVANTAGE]
The night was only beginning.
⸻
Stepping out, the air felt heavier.Like the city exhaled with me.
I was halfway through a narrow turn when the system flared violently.
[ALERT: SUDDEN EMOTIONAL SHIFT IN ENVIRONMENT][SOURCE: UNKNOWN][RECOMMENDATION: STOP.]
I froze.
A breath behind me.Soft.Measured.Intentional.
"Eliasz."
A voice.Familiar.Too familiar.
I turned slowly.
At the end of the alley stood someone who shouldn't be here—someone I remembered only from a future that no longer existed. Someone who, in my previous life, climbed the ranks to become one of the country's strongest Hunters.
Rank S.A force no one challenged.
And now he was here.Looking at me like he remembered everything too.
System exploded:
[ALERT: TEMPORAL ANOMALY DETECTED][IDENTITY: UNKNOWN PREDATOR][RANK: CONCEALED][THREAT LEVEL: EXTREME][SUGGESTION: RUN.]
He smiled faintly.
"I see the system already warned you," he said. "Good."
My heart didn't accelerate.The world merely narrowed.
"Who are you?" I asked.
He stepped closer.
"Someone who knows you're not entering that dungeon alone tomorrow."
He stopped.Looked straight into me.
"Someone else is hunting you, Eliasz.And it's not just your team."
System flickered—violently.
[SHIELD BREACH ATTEMPT DETECTED][BREACH DETECTED][BREACH DETECTED]
He raised a hand.
"Don't panic. I'm not here to take you."
A pause.His shadow shifted.
"I'm here to warn you."
"About what?" I demanded.
His eyes sharpened.
"About the second Predator."
System froze.The world froze.
Then his voice, quiet but razor-sharp:
"And he's already in your team."
He stepped into the dark—and vanished.
Predator System displayed a single word:
[PANIC]
And for the first time since the cycle began…the system was right.