The first thing Leo felt was… warmth.
Not the stale, suffocating heat of his cramped bedroom, but something cleaner. Softer.
His eyelids twitched. Slowly, he opened them.
A sky stretched above him. Clear. Blue. Not a single cloud. The sunlight was almost too bright, forcing him to squint.
He sat up with a start.
Grass?
He was lying on the grass. Real, soft grass. Not the patchy dirt lot near his apartment — this was vibrant, fresh, alive.
For a second, he thought he was dreaming.
No pain in his ribs. No pounding headache. No aching bruises from the last beating. His body… felt light.
He glanced at his hands.
Not thin and bony anymore. His fingers were clean. His skin was healthy. The faint tremor in his hands — gone.
He slowly ran a hand over his face.
It was him. And yet… not. The shape was the same, but the skin felt smoother, firmer.
"This… isn't my room," he muttered.
He stood. His legs didn't wobble like they usually did.
The air was fresh, almost intoxicating. He took a deep breath and froze.
Voices.
"...The Association's already on their way."
"Gate readings say it's low-rank, but still—"
"Hey, get those civilians back!"
Leo turned.
Down the grassy slope, a group of people was gathered. Some wore jeans and hoodies. Others… didn't.
Leather armor. Chainmail. Blades at their hips. A tall man carried a spear casually over his shoulder.
Hunters.
His heart skipped.
He knew those outfits. Not from cosplay. Not from a movie.
No. He'd seen them in colored panels, flipping through pages late at night.
No way.
Then he saw it — floating just a few streets away.
A gate.
An oval-shaped rift in the air, shimmering like a mirage, pulsing faintly.
A cold sweat ran down his back.
This wasn't a dream.
It wasn't a joke.
He was in Solo Leveling.
But that realization came with another, one far worse.
If this were Solo Leveling… then he was in a world crawling with things that could kill him in seconds. Things that didn't care if he was a confused bystander.
And he wasn't a hunter.
No stats. No skills. No weapons.
Just Leo Hayashi, fresh off his second chance at life… and already standing near an active gate.
The street below was in motion now. Hunters are shouting orders. Association staff waving civilians back.
Leo thought about moving away, but his legs wouldn't. Not from fear. From shock.
He caught a snippet of conversation as two hunters passed by.
"...You hear about that E-rank? Sung something?"
"Yeah, Jin-Woo. Poor guy's famous for all the wrong reasons."
Leo's chest tightened. He knew exactly what part of the story this was.
Jin-Woo was still weak. Still the "World's Weakest Hunter."
Which meant… the double dungeon incident hadn't happened yet.
A voice snapped him out of his thoughts.
"Hey! Civilian! You need to get back!"
He turned to see a hunter waving him toward the barricade.
Leo nodded stiffly, taking a step back —
Whmm.
The gate pulsed.
Hard.
Every hunter nearby turned toward it instantly. A few cursed under their breath.
"That's… not normal," one muttered.
The air grew heavier.
The shimmering surface of the gate began to ripple violently, its glow deepening.
A hunter near the front swore loudly.
"Shit! It's destabilizing!"
Leo didn't understand every term, but he understood enough.
A gate going unstable meant one thing.
Trouble.
A low, vibrating hum began to fill the air. His instincts screamed at him to move.
And then—
CRACK.
The sound of shattering glass, but deeper. More primal. The gate's surface spiderwebbed with light.
The nearest hunter turned toward the barricade and shouted,
"Get everyone out—NOW!"
Panic exploded instantly. Civilians pushed against each other. Hunters moved to intercept.
Leo stumbled back — but the hum became a roar, the light searing his vision.
And then it happened.
The gate burst open.