The rain wouldn't stop.
It fell in sheets, cold and steady, soaking through Kael Veyne's threadbare jacket. The city was quiet tonight — as if even the storm had drowned its usual hum of life. Neon signs flickered dimly through the downpour, painting the wet pavement with sickly reds and greens.
Kael didn't move.
He stood motionless outside the hospital doors, hands buried in his pockets, breath fogging in the cold air. His eyes were locked on a single room on the fifth floor. The curtains were drawn, but he didn't need to see inside.
He already knew what was waiting there.
His sister. Layla.
Unconscious. Pale. Hooked to machines they could no longer afford.
Kael pulled a crumpled slip of paper from his pocket, rain blurring the print.
F-Rank Gate – Porter Needed
500 credits. No license required. No questions asked.
(No hazard compensation.)
He exhaled slowly, paper trembling in his hand. 500 credits. Just enough to cover another few days of Layla's medication. If he lived.
No one took unlicensed jobs unless they were desperate.
Kael had stopped being anything else a long time ago.
Gates had changed the world forever.
Seven years ago, the first one had torn open reality — a glowing rift in the sky that let monsters spill into the world. Cities burned. Armies failed. The old world nearly ended.
But then came the Wielders.
Humans touched by the Veil — an invisible energy that clung to the Gates like smoke. They awakened powers: flame, shadow, metal, lightning. Those who survived became hunters. Heroes.
The rest?
Porters. Bystanders. Corpses.
Kael was one of the powerless.
The Gate pulsed like an open wound in the warehouse floor — oily black, swirling, hungry.
Kael stood at the edge of it, surrounded by a half-dozen Wielders. They didn't look at him. They were too busy adjusting armor, bragging about kills, and laughing at their own jokes.
"Is that the porter?" one said, glancing over with a smirk.
"Looks like he can barely lift his own spine."
Kael didn't answer. He was used to it. He'd been laughed at, ignored, and stepped on more times than he could count.
They weren't wrong.
He wasn't a Wielder. He had no stats. No Veil core. No system.
Just desperation.
And a dying sister.
Inside the Gate, the air changed immediately. It was colder, heavier. The sky above twisted into dark purple clouds, and jagged stone towers loomed in the distance. Moss covered the ground. The scent of metal and rot filled Kael's nose.
The dungeon was labeled F-rank.
It should've been safe.
For ten minutes, everything went according to plan. The Wielders cleared weak beasts with ease — snapping vines, slimes, and bone gnashers. Kael followed silently, carrying gear and collecting cores.
Then, the ground shook.
Just once.
Then again.
And again.
A deep, rhythmic pounding echoed through the dungeon. The air grew still.
Kael felt it before he saw it.
The pressure. The weight of something too big, too wrong, approaching.
Then it appeared.
A beast stepped into the corridor — hulking, horned, plated in jagged bone like natural armor. It wasn't F-rank.
It wasn't even close.
"W–What the hell is that?!"
"That's not supposed to be here!"
"Run!"
Kael turned to flee—
Too late.
The monster roared.
Sound exploded like thunder. Wielders screamed as they were thrown aside like dolls. One was impaled. Another crushed beneath a single claw.
Kael scrambled backward, blood in his mouth, heart pounding so loud he couldn't hear anything else.
He tried to run.
But something slashed across his chest — fast, deep, vicious.
Pain. Real pain.
His knees buckled.
The world spun.
He collapsed against the cold dungeon wall, gasping.
"I can't die here..."
But he was dying. Fast.
The blood wouldn't stop.
Everything turned cold.
Then came the voice.
Not spoken. Not heard. Just there, in his mind.
"Do you wish to live?"
Kael's vision blurred.
A faint shimmer appeared above him — a glowing message written in symbols he didn't recognize, translating themselves in real time.
[UNAUTHORIZED SYSTEM DETECTED.]
[CONDITION: FATAL.]
[PROTOTYPE SYSTEM AVAILABLE: HOLLOW]
Do you wish to live?
➤ [YES] / [NO]
He couldn't speak.
But every thought, every instinct inside him screamed—
YES.
And then…
Darkness.
To Be Continued…
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