[Flashback]

A man stood atop of a tower, his short white hair fluttering in the wind, bandage covering his face.

Amid the chaos, everything was a blur—no one was paying attention. No one except Eryke.

He could see him!

The man's cold eyes watched the burning city, unmoving, indifferent.

Then his phone rang and he answered and after some time he waved his hand, water surged forward, sweeping across the city and smothering the flames in an instant.

Eryke turned his gaze to the devastation around him.

A little child sobbed beside the half-crushed body of his mother. A stroller sat nearby, the cries of an infant piercing the air, its parents' fate unknown. A silent father clutched his child tightly. A young girl wept over the lifeless body of her brother.

Countless Families shattered in an instant.

A chill ran down Eryke's spine. His eyes dimmed, their gleam fading into a distant, hollow stare. Even through the pain, only one thought consumed him:

Why?

If this Awakener had the power to save him and the others earlier, why had he waited? Why had it taken a phone call to act? Were the lives of these people worth nothing more than a single ring of a phone?

After the incident, it was as if nothing had happened. Life returned to normal. The tragedy was forgotten, buried beneath the praise for the heroic S-Rank Awakener. The truth, unknown.

Eryke remained silent.

His pupils had lost all colours, his spirit drained. Even when he was healed and discharged from the hospital.

Eryke felt lost and depressed, spending most of his time cooped up in his room. He became increasingly immersed in the virtual world, gradually losing his grip on reality. His dream of becoming an olympic winner was lost in time…

[Flashback end]

Roar!

Eryke's ears twitched as he was startled awake by a giant green arm protruding from the gate. Before he could react, the massive limb cast a looming shadow over him.

"Shit." He was startled and backed away in a hurried motion.

His eyes locked onto the giant green hand in terror.

Starlight gathered in his arms—he was ready to fight!

But the hand didn't move further; instead, it withdrew back into the gate, as if warning him not to come closer.

Eryke remained calm and collected, his eyes narrowing.

"What is this?"

He wanted to go closer to check it out. This monster didn't truly terrify him; the only reason he had backed away was that it had startled him out of his daze.

But just as he was about to move, he heard rustling in the bushes and quickly hid away, activating <Acceleration> before making a small hole to peek through.

There, he saw a group of people approaching, while the woman leading them stared at a map with a dumbfounded expression.

"It's actually true." She tossed the map aside and rushed toward the gate with excitement.

"Those bastard guilds have a monopoly on the gates. Now, we'll finally have one for ourselves to level up."

"No need to be so excited. This is just a gate. When I win the competition, I can give you guys as many gates as you want," Luna chuckled, a tinge of suppressed excitement in her voice.

"Sure, sure, milady."

"Hey, I said don't call me that."

"Haha."

The atmosphere was extremely heartwarming, as if they weren't entering a gate but instead casually strolling around.

Eryke picked up their voices, his brows twitching again. He watched as they entered the gate.

"Should I go inside?" He hesitated for only a moment before standing up and walking toward the gate.

He didn't sense any life-threatening danger from that monster, and he wanted to test his strength against it—as well as this world.

Without hesitation, he stepped inside.

Immediately, a stench assaulted his nose, making his face scrunch. Eryke found himself in a swamp filled with a putrid smell.

Before he could even take in his surroundings, he felt movement beneath the water—and then a stinging sensation in his leg.

When Eryke looked down, he ran away as fast as he could, breaking out in a cold sweat.

"Damn it." He could feel his blood coursing through his leg and a growing sense of numbness because…

A half-meter-long eel-like creature was sucking his blood. At the same time, a pack of twelve of these eel-like monsters was chasing him.

"Where is the land?" Eryke clenched his fist and struck the eel as hard as he could, but it didn't even budge.

He struck again and again, but the monster remained unmoved.

"Die already."

Starlight gathered around his arms, and Eryke swung his fist with brutal force.

Bang!

Green blood splattered into the muddy water as the monster was blasted to smithereens.

The wound quickly started to heal; however, Eryke had already lost a significant amount of blood and would need more time to recover.

Before he could even take a moment to feel relief, a deep, guttural roar echoed behind him.

He swallowed nervously as he caught sight of the giant jaws of a monster, just inches away, close enough to swallow him whole-