## Chapter 11: Global Hunters Association
The silence after the chains vanished was profound, broken only by Kelvin's ragged breathing and the frantic drumming of his own heart against his ribs. Sweat plastered his shirt to his back, cold and clammy now that the adrenaline surge was receding. He stayed on his knees for a long moment, forehead pressed against the cool, slightly scuffed wood of the floor, focusing on the simple sensation to anchor himself against the lingering tremors.
*Control. Absolute control.* The mantra echoed, but it felt different now. Cooler. Sharper. The newly acquired **[Chain Mastery (Level 1)]** was like a layer of oil poured over the raging inferno of the chains' nature. The Bloodlust still simmered, a deep, unsettling thrum in his bones, but the desperate, clawing edge that threatened to shred his sanity moments ago was dampened. It was manageable. Barely.
He pushed himself up, wincing as the muscles in his arms and shoulders screamed in protest. The scratch on his forearm, where the chain had nicked him during a violent recoil, stung sharply. A thin line of crimson beaded along its length. *Evidence.* His gaze swept the room, cataloging the subtle carnage.
The gouge on the coffee table leg was the most obvious. Deep enough to expose pale wood beneath the dark stain. He ran a finger over it, feeling the splintered edges. *Structural damage prohibited.* The System's warning echoed mockingly. He'd come close. Too close. He snatched a discarded throw pillow, its floral pattern now marred by a ragged tear where the barbed chain had speared and held it pinned. Another casualty.
He moved with stiff efficiency, the mundane task a jarring counterpoint to the lethal dance of moments before. He found a damp cloth in the kitchen sink and scrubbed furiously at the scratch on the table leg, trying to blend the exposed wood with the surrounding stain. It wasn't perfect, but hopefully, Elara wouldn't scrutinize the furniture. The torn pillow was stuffed unceremoniously into the overflowing laundry hamper in the bedroom, buried beneath clothes. He rearranged the remaining pillows on the armchair, covering the faint puncture marks. A quick pass with the vacuum cleaner over the rug erased the worst of the scuff marks from his boots and the chains' passage.
Satisfied the immediate evidence was hidden or minimized, Kelvin slumped onto the repaired armchair. The exhaustion was bone-deep, but his mind buzzed with the aftermath of the quest – the 500 EXP pushing him solidly towards Level 7, the tangible increase in speed and awareness from the Agility and Perception boosts, and the profound relief of **[Chain Mastery]**. He pulled up his Status Screen.
---
**<< STATUS >>**
* **Name:** Kelvin Vance
* **Level:** 6 (42%)
* **Class:** Forsaken Architect (Unique)
* **HP:** 140/140
* **MP:** 25/180 *(Regen: 5/min)*
* **STR:** 8
* **AGI:** 15 **(+2)**
* **VIT:** 10
* **INT:** 15
* **PER:** 13 **(+1)**
...
The sight of **Chain Mastery** was a balm. A 10% MP reduction wasn't trivial, especially with the chains' voracious appetite. And the resistance to Bloodlust… that was worth its weight in gold. He closed the Status screen, the faint, satisfied thrum of the dormant chains beneath his skin a constant, unsettling reminder.
His phone lay on the coffee table, next to the subtly scarred leg. He picked it up, the screen lighting up to reveal the time – Elara wouldn't be back for at least another hour. Perfect. He navigated past mundane apps and opened the one marked with the stylized, crossed sword and shield icon: **Global Hunter Association Network.
Logging in with his lowly F-rank credentials felt like stepping into a different world through a service entrance. The interface was functional but lacked the polish and exclusive features reserved for higher ranks. News feeds, basic job boards (mostly D and E-rank gate maintenance or perimeter patrols), and public forums were accessible. The higher-tier discussion boards, real-time Gate monitoring, and elite job listings were greyed out, tantalizingly out of reach.
He bypassed the generic feeds, heading straight for the **Public Forums > Current Events & Gate Anomalies**. The top thread was pinned, blazing red:
**[URGENT] BALTIC ANOMALY - THETA-7 SPIKE CONFIRMED! S-RANK DEPLOYMENT!**
Kelvin clicked on it. The thread exploded with activity, hundreds of posts flooding in within minutes. He filtered by 'Most Relevant'.
* **Posted by 'GateWatcher_Beta' (Verified C-Rank Analyst):** *Confirmed. Theta-7 readings just hit Category 5 instability. Association scrambling. S-Rank team 'Azure Lance' confirmed inbound via supersonic transport. ETA 45 mins. Local containment squads (B & C rank) report increased ambient mana turbulence extending 50km from epicenter. Minor dungeon breaches (Goblinoid variants) reported in rural sectors. Civilians advised to shelter in place within 100km radius.*
* **Reply by 'ScaredLocal':** *Shelter in place?! We're 80km out! What if something BIG comes through? We don't have Hunters here!*
* **Reply by 'GateWatcher_Beta':** *Containment is priority. Breaches are currently minor and localized. Follow Association advisories. Reinforcements en route.*
* **Posted by 'ManaPulse' (Unverified - Claims A-Rank Researcher):** *This isn't isolated. Correlating data from Gate Lambda-12 (Pacific) and Gamma-4 (Sahara) show unusual resonance patterns. Theory: interconnected instability event. Root cause unknown. Could be natural flux, dimensional stress fracture, or... deliberate action. Association not commenting.*
* **Reply by 'SkepticalScribe':*
*Deliberate? Who could possibly destabilize a World Gate? That's apocalypse-level stuff. More likely just another unpredictable surge.*
* **Reply by 'OldGuard_Hunter':** *Seen stranger things in my time. Don't dismiss anything when Gates are involved. Remember Jakarta?*
* **Posted by 'CogInTheMachine' (D-Rank Logistics):** *Logistics hubs near Theta-7 are swamped. Emergency resupply for containment teams. High-demand for mana batteries, barrier crystals, and medical kits. Prices on GHAN Marketplace for portable barriers just tripled. Greedy bastards.*
* **Reply by 'FieldMedic_Eva':** *Tell me about it. Trying to requisition basic coagulant nanites for our C-rank squad on perimeter duty. Red tape nightmare. Hope Azure Lance stabilizes it fast.*
Kelvin scrolled, absorbing the raw panic, the clinical analysis, the bureaucratic frustrations. The scale was staggering. S-Ranks deployed. Category 5 instability. The mention of "deliberate action" sent a chill down his spine that had nothing to do with his exhaustion. Was this the Architect's doing? Or something else entirely? The Architect had spoken of "unmaking the old order." Did that include destabilizing the very foundations of reality?
He switched tabs, searching the forums for any mention of Vincent Croft or Evelyn Reed. Nothing recent or substantial.
Then, buried in a less active sub-forum discussing unusual low-rank occurrences (mostly dismissed as tall tales or sensor glitches), he found it. A thread titled: **"Weird Shutdown @ Ironwood Garage - Glitch or Something Else?"
He closed the hunters app, the glow of the phone screen the only light in the dimming room. Outside, the city lights began to flicker on, oblivious to the instability near the Baltic or the nascent power trembling in the hands of a betrayed F-rank. Kelvin leaned back, the faint, satisfied pulse of the Blood War Chains echoing the frantic beat of his own heart. The dance was over for today. But the whispers – of Gates, of chains, of an Architect stepping out of the shadows – were only growing louder. And soon, everyone would hear.