The Morning After
The slums woke to screaming, not monster attacks, dozens of human voices, maybe hundreds.
Jae-sung jolted awake, instinctively reaching for his hammer, and found it but then froze.
His hand had crushed the wooden shaft, he did not grip hard, still it was crushed
"What the... "
He looked down at himself, his body felt different, denser, stronger, energy coursed through his veins like liquid lightning.
Gold-high rank.
The knowledge came instinctively, he was Silver 27 yesterday, now he was Gold 37, ten ranks in one night.
"It's really not a dream."
Beside him, Yoo stirred in his makeshift crib. Jae-sung turned
The baby still lay down
He looked like a healthy six-month-old, chubby cheeks, defined limbs, his eyes tracking movement with frightening awareness.
"hmm"
Yoo's mouth opened,
"Da... Da..."
"Hun... gry..."
"Okay I'll get you something to eat" Jae sung said, but he was interrupted by more screaming outside, Jae-sung forced himself to focus.
"Okay, we'll deal with you later, right now, people need help."
He picked up Yoo, and strapped him to his chest using a makeshift carrier, grabbed a new weapon from his supply cache, and stepped outside
The Dead
Bodies everywhere, an old woman, collapsed against a tent wall, her face peaceful but blood leaked from her eyes and ears, a failed awakening her body couldn't handle Bronze-rank power.
A teenage boy, convulsing on the ground, skin glowing from within, still alive but burning, no one could touch him without scorching their hands.
A young mother, holding her infant daughter, both dead, the mother awakened, the baby hadn't, and in her death throes, the mother's uncontrolled power had...
Jae-sung looked away.
Thirty percent casualty rate, in a slum population of maybe two thousand, that meant about six hundred dead.
Six hundred people who went to sleep normal and woke up as corpses,
"HELP! SOMEONE HELP!"
Jae-sung ran toward the voice, he found a man pinned under collapsed tent poles the metal had warped during the Surge, structure failed.
"I've got you." Jae-sung grabbed the pole, and lifted it.
It weighed maybe three hundred pounds, it should've been impossible before
He lifted it one-handed.
Gold-high strength, This is insane, Jae-sung flexed his muscles a bit
The man scrambled free, gasping thanks.
More cries for help, Jae-sung moved through the chaos, pulling survivors from the rubble, carrying the wounded to makeshift medical stations.
Inside Yoo's Mind
"Core Surge aftermath: catastrophic," Akasha reported. "Global casualties: estimated 987 million dead. Survival rate among latent hunters: 67.3%. Host survival: 100%. Host adaptation: unprecedented."
My body aged 6 months overnight.
"Affirmative. Core Surge energy density: extreme. Host body absorbed at 847% normal rate. Accelerated development triggered. Physical age: 8 months. Chronological age: 2 months. Discrepancy: problematic."
How do I explain this?
"Options limited. Recommend: attribute to Core Surge anomaly. Many hunters experienced unusual effects. Host's rapid growth, while extreme, falls within plausible range of 'highly unusual but not impossible.'"
And the speaking?
"More problematic. Six-month infants do not typically speak. Recommendation: limit verbal communication. Use only single words. Appear to struggle with pronunciation. This maintains facade of advanced development rather than adult consciousness."
"Makes sense, I have already slipped by speaking"
He was exhausted and starving at the moment, but he couldn't afford more mistakes.
Status on other abilities?
"Energy reserves: 89% recovered. Extras World: stable. New capabilities detected."
New capabilities?
"Analyzing... Host's passive energy absorption has manifested active skill. Designation: Energy Sense. Host can now perceive ambient energy signatures. Range: approximately 50 meters. Precision: moderate."
Yoo focused, Immediately felt it, the shape of energy around him, his father's power signature blazing like a bonfire, other survivors glowing with varying intensities, the dead radiating nothing.
And something else, something moving at the slums' perimeter.
Monsters.
"Confirmed. Multiple signatures. Classification: Fledgling to Awakened tier. Approximate count: 23. Status: approaching. Estimated time to breach: 47 minutes."
They're coming because they felt the Surge. All this new energy... it's attracting them.
"Correct. Recommend: alert host father."
Yoo tried to speak, found his infant vocal cords uncooperative for complex sentences.
He settled for: "Da, mon... ster."
Jae-sung, pulling another survivor from debris, froze.
"What did you say?"
"Mon... ster, come."
"How do you... " Jae-sung stopped himself. "Can you sense them? Like can you sense them?"
Yoo nodded, a clear, deliberate gesture.
Jae-sung cursed. "We need to evacuate. Now."
The Warning
Jae-sung found the slum's unofficial leader, a scarred woman named Han-sol. Silver -rank before the Surge, Gold-rank now, she was coordinating rescue efforts.
"We have incoming," Jae-sung said. "A horde of monsters is possibly twenty minutes away"
Han-sol's eyes widened. "How do you know?"
"Uh... he can sense them."
She looked at the baby strapped to Jae-sung's chest, at the too-aware eyes and the visible development.
"Nah, that can't be right, your son is 2 months old."
"And he can sense monsters, does it matter how?"
Han-sol thought about it, Then: "No, If you're right, we need defenses, ow many?"
"Twenty-plus, Fledgling to Awakened tier."
"Shit, we've got maybe thirty functional hunters after the Surge, most are disoriented, can't control their new power." She raised her voice. "EVERYONE WHO CAN FIGHT! PERIMETER! NOW!"
Hunters stumbled forward, some glowing with uncontrolled energy, others barely standing, all terrified.
This was going to be a massacre.
The Breach
The monsters hit the eastern perimeter nineteen minutes later.
First wave: eight Wolf-like Fledgling beasts, crashed into the barricade, sheet metal, wooden stakes. The barrier held for three seconds.
Then shattered.
Han-sol met the first beast head-on. Her new Gold-rank strength let her bisect it with one sword strike.
The second beast tore through her guard, claws raked down her shoulder. She screamed, spun and drove her blade through its skull.
More came through.
Jae-sung fought with his new power, Gold rank level he could kill Fledgling-tier monsters far easier than before, but there were so many.
And the defenders were collapsing, new hunters who didn't know how to channel Gi properly, they swung weapons with superhuman strength but no technique.
Three died in the first minute brutally torn apart.
Yoo watched from his carrier, pressed against his father's chest, every impact, every death was real.
I can't do anything. I'm too weak.
But he could see, his Energy Sense tracked the battle, identified weak points, predicted movements.
If only he could communicate it.
He tried: "Da! Left!"
Jae-sung reacted instinctively, dove left, a Fledgling beast sailed past where he'd been standing.
"You can see them? Even behind me?"
"Yes!"
"Then keep warning me!"
They moved as unit, Yoo calling directions in single words, Jae-sung executing with Gold combat prowess.
"Right!"
Pivot, hammer swing, crushed skull.
"Up!"
Duck, beast overhead, counter-strike.
"Three! Front!"
Three Fledgling beasts charged simultaneously, Jae-sung channeled Gi into his weapon, a single swing generated shockwave that obliterated all three.
Other hunters noticed, and started listening to the baby's warnings.
When Yoo shouted "Back!", they retreated.
When he yelled "Push!", they advanced.
He was coordinating the defense, and fortunately enough it was working.
The Awakened
The Fledgling beasts died, fifteen down, eight remaining.
Right in that moment, the Awakened-tier Arrived.