The Morning After
The slums woke to screaming.
Not monster attacks. Human voices. Dozens of them. Maybe hundreds.
Jae-sung jolted awake, instinctively reaching for his hammer. Found it—then froze.
His hand had crushed the wooden shaft.
Not gripped hard. Crushed. Like the wood was paper.
"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'd been Gold 37 yesterday. Now he was Gold 42. Five ranks in one night.
The Surge. It's real.
Beside him, Yoo stirred in his makeshift crib. Jae-sung turned—
And his heart stopped.
The baby was bigger.
Not slightly bigger. Dramatically bigger. Yesterday he'd been small, premature, fragile. Now he looked like a healthy six-month-old. Chubby cheeks. Defined limbs. Eyes that tracked movement with frightening awareness.
"No. No no no—"
Yoo's mouth opened. Formed words with infant vocal cords that shouldn't be capable:
"Da... Da..."
"You're talking. You're six months developed. You were ten weeks old yesterday."
"Hun... gry..."
Jae-sung's mind raced. The Core Surge accelerated growth in everyone. But this was impossible. Even with supernatural energy, babies didn't age two years overnight.
Unless they weren't normal.
Which he's not. Has never been.
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—heavier, much heavier—and strapped him to his chest using a makeshift carrier. Grabbed a new weapon from his supply cache. Stepped outside.
The slums were chaos.
The Dead
Bodies everywhere.
An old woman, collapsed against a tent wall. Face peaceful, but blood leaked from her eyes and ears. 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 had 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 six hundred dead.
Six hundred people who'd gone to sleep normal and woken up corpses.
"HELP! SOMEONE HELP!"
Jae-sung ran toward the voice. 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. Lifted.
It weighed maybe three hundred pounds. Should've been impossible.
He lifted it one-handed.
Gold-high strength. This is insane.
The man scrambled free, gasping thanks.
More cries for help. Jae-sung moved through the chaos, pulling survivors from rubble, carrying the wounded to makeshift medical stations.
And through it all, Yoo watched.
Silent. Aware. Absorbing everything.
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 two years overnight.
"Affirmative. Core Surge energy density: extreme. Host body absorbed at 847% normal rate. Accelerated development triggered. Physical age: 6 months. Chronological age: 10 weeks. 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."
Made sense. Yoo had already slipped by speaking at all. He'd been exhausted, starving, desperate.
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 Energy Sense?"
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. "Monsters. Multiple. Maybe twenty minutes out."
Han-sol's eyes widened. "How do you know?"
"My son can sense them."
She looked at the baby strapped to Jae-sung's chest. At the too-aware eyes. At the impossible development.
"Your son is ten weeks old."
"And he can sense monsters. Does it matter how?"
Han-sol processed this for exactly two seconds. Then: "No. If you're right, we need defenses. How 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 Fledgling beasts. Wolf-like, shadow-formed, fast.
They crashed into the makeshift barricade—sheet metal, wooden stakes, desperation. 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 her shoulder. She screamed, pivoted, drove her blade through its skull.
More came.
Jae-sung fought with his new power. Gold-high rank meant he could kill Fledgling-tier monsters casually. But there were so many.
And the defenders were collapsing. New hunters who didn't know how to channel Gi properly. Who swung weapons with superhuman strength but no technique.
Three died in the first minute. Torn apart.
Yoo watched from his carrier, pressed against his father's chest. Felt every impact. Every death.
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-high combat prowess.
"Right!"
Pivot. Hammer swing. Crushed skull.
"Up!"
Duck. Beast overhead. Counter-strike.
"Three! Front!"
Three Fledgling beasts charging simultaneously. Jae-sung channeled Gi into his weapon. Single swing generated shockwave that obliterated all three.
Other hunters noticed. Started listening to the baby's warnings.
When Yoo shouted "Back!"—they retreated.
When he yelled "Push!"—they advanced.
An infant was coordinating the defense.
And it was working.
The Awakened
The Fledgling beasts died. Fifteen down. Eight remaining.
Then the Awakened-tier arrived.