NOVEL NEXT Chapter 2: 2
The world around him seemed strangely alike and yet different. In the evening sky, bright signs flashed over Seoul, which was still very busy. But the news posters running on a nearby billboard caught his attention.
"A-Class Gate Appears in Busan—Hunters Dispatched Immediately!"
His stomach turned. This world had gates, tunnels, and hunts, just like the one he knew from Solo-Leveling. However, there were some differences in the language and the way power worked that stood out. New ranks and group names were shown, but the Shadow Monarch and Sung Jin-Woo were not mentioned at all. He knew this world, but he doesn't know if it's really Solo-leveling.
It meant two things. To begin, he couldn't depend on knowing what would happen. Second, he didn't know which players were the best.
That's why Yon-Woo had to be smart. He didn't want to be caught by something as easy as an answer that wasn't like him.
The first thing he had to do was figure out his place in the world. He looked all over his phone, reading through emails, texts, and social media accounts. While his name was the same, everything else was different: new family members, people he didn't know, and an image as an average student.
It said that both of his parents worked abroad, so he had to live alone in a small room. Oh, that's good. Not having any close family meant there were fewer chances of messing up. The grades he got in school were fine, but nothing special. His small group of friends was mostly made up of peers who texted each other occasionally.
He looked for bad guys. There are no threats or complaints; just a normal life.
At least on the outside.
Hunters were the backbone of society and the line between good and evil. Monsters that normal people couldn't hope to fight came out of gates that opened all over the world. Hunters, ranked from E to S, could only be stopped by people awoken with magic. Their power in this world depends on how strong they are.
Yon-Woo sat in the back of his classroom and watched as the screen showed the latest news about an S-Class hunter. Many of the students were thinking about something else while the teacher talked about history. They were talking about the newest dungeon raids and the huge groups that ran the country behind the scenes.
Mana ran through awakened hunters like an internal current, making them stronger, giving them special skills, and letting them fight monsters that humans couldn't handle. The markets for artifacts, medicines, and underground supplies were completely different. Status was based on how strong you were—whether you lived a normal life or rose to the top.
Yon-Woo wasn't in the system, though. His power didn't follow the rules of magic. No one was known to have the ability to kill anything upon to touch or absorbed physical strength through death. He was not like other people. And everyone would be afraid of him if they knew.
Yon-Woo lay in bed that night and looked up at the sky. He could do something.
He could live in peace and quiet, out of sight, never drawing attention to himself. But how long could he hide his power in a world where hunters were in charge? He was already being seen. Someone would push too hard at some point, and he might have to do something.
He could learn more, though, if he went into the Hunter world. He could try his limits and find out if there were other people like him that he couldn't do alone. But that meant being seen. That meant he put himself in the sights of people who wouldn't think twice about getting rid of an unknown variable.
He slowly let out a breath, and the power in his fingers was just right.
He had to make a plan either way. A way to live in this world without becoming the next target.