The cold rain did nothing to wash away the smell of the slums. It was a mix of rotting trash, rusted metal, and the heavy, metallic scent of the mana-exhaust pipes from the upper city. Ren adjusted the collar of his oversized, threadbare jacket. His fingers were numb, but they were still quick. He tucked the leather wallet he had just lifted into his waistband, feeling the slight weight of it against his hip. It wasn't much, but it was enough to keep the hunger at bay for a few more days.
'Just enough for some bread and maybe a can of soup,' Ren thought. He kept his head down, walking past the huddled groups of people warming their hands over burning trash cans.
He didn't look at them. In this part of the city, eye contact was an invitation for trouble. He remembered a time when he didn't have to steal. He remembered his father's laugh and the way his mother used to hum while she cooked. But that felt like a dream from another life. The monster outbreak ten years ago had taken care of that. A stray beast had broken through the perimeter, and in a matter of seconds, his house was gone, and his parents were buried under it. He had been five years away from the orphanage kicking him out then. Now, at seventeen, he was just another ghost in the streets.
As he turned the corner toward the hollowed-out apartment building he called home, a low, vibrating hum filled the air. It wasn't the usual sound of the city. It was deeper, vibrating in his very bones.
Then came the sirens.
"Not today," Ren whispered. "Please, not today."
A rift tore open in the sky above the district. It looked like a jagged wound in the atmosphere, bleeding purple and black light. From the center of it, a massive creature descended. It looked like a gargoyle carved from obsidian, its wingspan wide enough to cover an entire block.
"An A-rank!" someone screamed.
Panic erupted. Ren started to run, his boots splashing through oily puddles. He didn't look back. He knew what happened to people who stopped to look. High above, streaks of light cut through the clouds. The Hunters had arrived. They looked like gods in their enchanted armor, trailing fire and lightning as they engaged the beast.
The battle was a blur of sound and light. A massive shockwave hit the ground, shattering the windows of the buildings around Ren. He had stumbled, his ears ringing. He looked up just in time to see a Hunter, a man in silver plate, get swatted out of the air like a fly. The Hunter crashed into the side of an old tenement building directly above Ren.
The structural integrity of the old brick gave way instantly.
"Move!" Ren shouted to himself, but his legs felt like lead.
The world tilted. A massive slab of concrete, part of the building's facade, detached and fell. Ren tried to dive to the side, but he wasn't fast enough. The impact was a dull thud that vibrated through his entire body. He didn't feel pain at first, just a strange, crushing pressure that forced the air out of his lungs. He was pinned face-down against the asphalt, his legs and lower back buried under tons of rubble.
He tried to breathe, but all he got was a mouthful of dust. His vision started to flicker. The sounds of the battle—the roars of the monster and the explosions of mana—seemed to drift further and further away.
'I'm dying,' he realized. 'After all that, I'm dying in the dirt.'
He felt a strange heat in the back of his head. A mechanical chime, clear and piercing, rang out in the silence of his mind.
[System synchronizing.]
[Checking host compatibility.]
[Host found. Initializing life support.]
The first thing Ren smelled was bleach. It was overpowering, making his head throb. He tried to move his hand, but it felt heavy, tethered to something. He forced his eyes open, squinting against the harsh fluorescent lights of the ceiling.
"Where..." his voice was a raspy whisper.
He was in a hospital bed. An IV drip was connected to his arm. He looked down at his body, expecting to see his legs crushed or missing, but they were there, wrapped in clean bandages. He felt a dull ache, but he was definitely alive.
'How am I alive?' he wondered. 'That building fell right on me.'
A blue, translucent box flickered into existence right in front of his nose. Ren flinched, nearly falling out of the bed. He swiped at the air, thinking it was a bug or a hallucination caused by the meds.
"Get away," he muttered, but his hand passed straight through the light.
[Daily Quest: The Monarch's Foundation]
[Push-ups: 0/100]
[Sit-ups: 0/100]
[Squats: 0/100]
[Running: 0/60 Laps of the Ward]
[Penalty for failure: Hidden.]
Ren stared at the screen. He blinked rapidly, but the text stayed. He looked around the room. There was another patient in the bed across from him, an old man snoring loudly, and a small TV mounted on the wall. Neither of them seemed to notice the glowing blue box.
"Is this a joke?" Ren asked the empty room. "Am I crazy?"
He tried to ignore it. He laid back down and closed his eyes, telling himself it was the trauma. But every time he opened them, the screen was there, the "Penalty" timer at the bottom counting down from twenty hours.
The boredom of the hospital started to set in after a few hours. There was nothing to do but stare at the wall and listen to the old man snore. His mind kept drifting back to the screen. He had heard stories about Hunters having "Awakenings," but they usually got powers like throwing fire or being super strong. They didn't get a list of chores.
After six hours of staring at the ceiling, the counting timer started to turn red. A sense of dread, cold and sharp, crawled up Ren's spine. He didn't know what the penalty was, and he didn't want to find out.
He groaned and slid out of bed. His legs felt shaky, but they held his weight. He looked at the door. The ward was a long, rectangular hallway.
'Sixty laps. That's insane,' he thought.
But he started. He walked at first, dragging his IV pole along with him. One lap. Two. By the fifth lap, he was breathing hard. By the tenth, a nurse stopped him.
"Sweetie, you should be resting," she said, looking at his chart.
"I just... I need to move," Ren said, his face flushed. "My legs feel cramped."
She sighed but let him continue, as long as he didn't overdo it. Ren didn't stop. He couldn't. Every time he thought about quitting, his eyes would dart to the floating screen that followed his gaze.
60 laps. It took him hours. He was sweating, his hospital gown sticking to his back, his muscles screaming in protest. By the time he finished the last lap and crawled back into his bed, his heart was drumming against his ribs like a trapped bird.
[Daily Quest Completed.]
[Rewards: Full Recovery, Status Point +1.]
A sudden wave of cool energy washed over him. The exhaustion vanished instantly. The soreness in his legs evaporated, replaced by a strange, buzzing strength.
"What the..." He sat up, his breath perfectly steady. He felt better than he had before the accident.
Over the next two weeks, the routine didn't change. Every day, the screen appeared. Every day, Ren did the push-ups under his bed, the sit-ups in the middle of the night, and the laps around the ward. He felt like a freak, but he couldn't deny the results.
The mirror in the small hospital bathroom showed a different person every morning. The hollowed-out look in his cheeks was gone. His skin, which had always been pale and sickly from the slums, now looked healthy. His shoulders had widened, and his posture was straight. Even his eyes seemed darker, more focused.
On the day he was set to be discharged, Ren was packing his few belongings into a plastic bag. He caught his reflection in the window. He looked... different. Not just healthy, but sharp.
A young nurse, one he hadn't seen much during his stay, walked into the room with his paperwork. She stepped toward him, then stopped, her eyes widening slightly as she looked him up and down. She fumbled with the clipboard.
"Um, Mr. Ren? You're all cleared to go," she said. She hesitated, biting her lip. "Since you don't have a permanent address on file... I was wondering if you had a phone number? You know, so the hospital can reach you for follow-up appointments. Or if you just... wanted to talk about the recovery process."
Ren looked at her, genuinely confused. "The address is the orphanage on 4th. They usually take messages for people from the slums. I don't have a phone. Is the bill going to be that expensive? I can't pay it yet."
The nurse's face turned bright red. "Oh. No, that's not... never mind. Just sign here."
Ren signed the paper and took his bag. He didn't understand why she looked so disappointed. 'Maybe the paperwork is a hassle for her,' he thought.
He walked through the sliding glass doors of the hospital and stepped onto the sidewalk. The sun was bright, and the air was still thick with the smell of the city, but everything felt different. He felt stronger, faster, and more awake than he ever had in his life.
He pulled the stolen wallet from his bag. It was empty now the hospital staff had probably logged it, but he didn't care. As he walked toward the slums, the blue screen flickered one last time before fading into the background.
[New Quest Available: Reach Level 5.]